JONEITHEVIUS'S PROFILE

author=suplexedatrain
Feedback on difficulties:

See, difficulty level in game can be freely adjusted, and it multiplies the encountered monster's stats (and thus, the time taken to finish the encounter) in exchange for giving a small boost to gold, exp and item drop rates. I'll give my opinion on difficulty modes boosting them.


Item Drop rate: Loot Mode (250% Item Drop+, Gold haled, Exp nullified) is practically worthless. All the time I used it, the common drops multiplied but the ones I wanted never dropped. Since even Loot Mode is worthless, the paltry 20% Item Drop boost with Hardcore difficulty is meaningless as well.

EXP gain: None of the difficulties boost EXP gains, but a monster dropping EXP+ accessories is pretty easy to find (Slime Soldier) and a dungeon containing only that monster appears pretty quickly (that ice dungeon with Oni Boss). Loot mode being worthless, I could only get Slime Candy (boost XP 5%) twice after grinding nearly an hour, but even the other dropped accessory (Slime Ball, XP boost 1%) was good since I could stack it.

Gold Gain: 20% Gold gain in Hardcore is decent in early game, but at that time, it makes the game unnecessarily hard due to low-tier equips and skills. Mid game after entering Chronos, an item that boosts Gold gain (to 200%/ double) is easily found in the item shop, making 20% gold gain meaningless.

In comparison to the increased difficulty, the boosts to gold, exp and item drop rates are pretty small. After equipping certain items, it would be better to run around in Casual difficulty, as the time taken to finish encounters is really lowered, allowing you to grind gold, exp and item drops quicker than adding high difficulties.

I have to disagree about Loot Hunt Mode (and drop rate boosts in general); I suspect you were simply impatient. Rare drops are exactly that; rare! A 250% rate doesn't mean the enemies are suddenly going to be pelting you with item drops every other battle, simply that the rates are much faster. So you still have to do a little grinding before they drop, but they'll drop sooner, I've definitely noticed the difference.

The issue is that some drops are very rare, such as Ghost Essence, which has a whopping 1 in 1000 rate. The 250% boost reduces it to a 1 in 400 rate. You have a much higher chance of getting it, but it'll still take some time!

Also, there's an accessory you can get from the desert temple that adds an additional 200% drop rate (Ghost Essence is now about 1 in 220!), which definitely helps a lot.