These results came from the full item worth of each and every item drop from all these monsters; that means NO LEAVING GARBAGE CAN LIDS AND GOLF CLUBS LYING ON THE GROUND. Bear in mind, this is an ideal scenario where you're literally the only guy fighting these mobs. Realistically, the only way to get an item's full value is to stuff every item into the bargain bin and sell them off for literally 1 less coin than their full worth, but really, the only way new money gets added into the game is to sell stuff at stores, so good luck getting that done.
At the lowest, you can sell items at a store for 30% resale, which is done by selling items without mugging people with a gun. On average, you would need this many kills to get the same key items from before:
We're looking at ELEVEN THOUSAND STEEL BLOCKS on average in order to buy a single Forsaken Helmet. That's, again, if you do NOT ignore the Garbage Can Lids that you refuse to pick up because you don't want that extra money you could've been getting out of 'em. Eleven thousand. With a 55-second spawn rate, you're looking at 168 hours on literally just one spawner, which has only ever been the case with Agents, Razor Ice, P-Sicles, and Waffle Cones. At worst (which is also as pure as you can get with Steel Blocks), you'd be stuck with the two Steel Blocks at the beginning of the area they're introduced in, which means it'd take you 84 hours in their worst-case scenario.
But let's say it does take you 168 hours like I said. This is how much time gets shaved off if, instead, you're an archer and you have maxed-out Loot Thief.:
168/1.35=124.44444444
You would shave off 43.55555555555555 hours of grinding. That's 26% less grinding time.
Now, for a little exercise. Let's say you want item drops and coin drops to be split 50/50. While people tend to cheat the system by swapping guns out for the extra resale value, the 30% resale value for everyone who isn't a gunman was the intended way for things to go. As such, I'll stay with 30% resale. Let's work the math out here.:
1/0.3=3.3333333333333333333333
For a monster to provide an even 50/50 split in coin and loot value, a monster's loot value would have to be 3.333x its coin value. A monster's loot value is the sum total of all items' full worth divided by their drop rates. For instance, a Cleric's Cross with a drop rate of 1% would have a loot value of 56.
That being said, for a Steel Block (which provides 221 XP/Coins) to provide 50% coins and 50% loot money, the Steel Block's loot value must be 736.666666666666. That would reduce the amount of Steel Blocks that need to be killed to get a Forsaken Helmet from over 11000 to a more comforting 7818 on average. That, of course, amounts to a 29% time reduction. That, of course, would surely shave off a few hours and allow players to more easily progress through the game. The trek would be easier if players are given more (and cheaper) gear options like, say, an accessory between the Igneous Rock and the Blue Reptile Shell or an armor set between the Forsaken and Cybo set, but I ain't having much luck convincing anyone that.
How much should drop rates increase? It really largely depends on the monster. Assuming the Steel Block has a loot value of 305, for instance, its drop rate would have to be multiplied by 2.42x for it to provide coin and loot money at a rate of 50/50. I have no idea how monster loot values are currently; Robby hasn't gotten back to me on that, so I'm left with old information.
Now one can argue that spawn rates and spawner counts should be accounted for... But really the only monsters that are seriously held up in that regard are Petunias, Dome Shrooms specifically in the area they're first encountered in, Razor Ice, P-Sicles, and Waffle Cones. For the three ice monsters listed here, I think having their value split 25/75 between coins and items would be ideal. In this case, assuming 30% resale value, we're looking at $250 in loot value for every $25 in coins. Certainly a chore, but it's gonna be done somehow.
To bolster my point further, I decided to kill exactly 1000 Auroch Bettles, counting each kill I've made by hand, and picking up literally every single drop I had. The run nearly took four hours; bear in mind that a streamer would normally go up to three hours. Here is my entire drop tally:
2 Beetle Helmets
1 Beetle Whip
5 Moonlight Sickles
1 Wood Buckler
9 Stop Signs
5 Pitchforks
10 Survival Knives
10 Epees
8 Burgers
7 Shepherd's Crooks
1 Stage 2 Hardening Stone
With junk drops alone, I got this:
Moonlight Sickle: 5832*5/1000=29.16
Wood Buckler: 4517*1/1000=4.517
Stop Sign: 2540*9/1000=22.86
Pitchfork: 1920*5/1000=9.6
Survival Knife: 1331*10/1000=13.31
Epee: 343*10/1000=3.43
Burger: 270*8/1000=2.16
Shepherd's Crook: 151*7/1000=1.057
Total Loot Value (1000 Beetles): 86.094
Adding the Beetle gear, I got...
Beetle Whip: 98425*1/1000=98.425
Beetle Helmet: 126736*2/1000=253.472
So through all that, I got an average item worth of 437.991 over my 1000-beetle run. 20% of the loot value came ENTIRELY from junk items. So basically by habitually leaving out junk items for Auroch Beetles alone, we're missing out on 20% of all the drop money we could be making. That was when I knew that in Eliatopia, every drop counts.
So yeah, that's about my take on drop rates. Yep.
