Initial Biome Exploration

**Initial Biome Exploration** is the initial or first time visit you make to a location and is different in many ways to the following visits you make to the same location. Most of the various chests found and many of the areas within the location will contain items which once looted will not spawn again. Some examples are the contents of the Supply Drop Chest found in the Land Base and Nova Base locations. The chests themselves will remain and can be used if wanted to store items but the original contents once removed will not spawn again. This is explained in the Supply Drop Chest guide. The Jade deposit found while exploring Kitsune's Den for the first time is also a unique (Hand Placed) spawn that once mined does not reappear. In fact there are a number of locations, the Starting Facility, Arpashi, Kitsune's Den and Sliceland where the chance of shards of any type spawning are extremely low at best unless it is a unique Hand Placed item..

As you explore the various locations and become more familiar with them you will notice differences. For instance the Vise you picked up from a window sill is no longer there, the Steel Ingots found by the steps are absent or the Chisel found on a shelf is gone, these are examples of the differences between your first visit to a location and the following visits you take there. Another example is if you have already explored for instance Kitsune's Den a few times, this time however while exploring you discover a chest you have never opened before. Well this chest and it's contents will be considered an initial or first time situation even though you have visited the location numerous times. It is the discovery of the object be it a chest, an item on a shelf, a tool on a window sill, a certain location, etc. that matters. The first time discovering an area within a location, for instance in a ruins or a cave guarded by enemies may be richly rewarding as you loot the area. Your next visit though may be disappointing as much if not all that loot is no longer there.

There are certain ways to describe the spawning of the items found in a location. We will use the terms FIXED, HAND PLACED, STATIC and DYNAMIC to describe them.

FIXED items are the buildings, stone/rock formations, water, shrubs and live trees to name a few found in each location. These are never able to be harvested or picked up and help define and enhance our playing area within a location.

HAND PLACED items are items placed within the game by the Developers. These items only appear until picked up by you and in most cases can be considered Unique items and include special weapons found such as Zweihander and Sliceandkill and items such as the Jewelry Box. Normally HAND PLACED items have a "unique" name especially the weapons however items such as the Jewelry Box share a common name.

STATIC items are those items that always spawn in the same location every time you visit a location. Examples of these are the Supply Drop Chest outside the village and the Straw bales in the upper loft of the shed in Corpse Harbor. Other examples are the bricks, garbage or certain crates, sacks and boxes of items in Cultsberg. These items spawn at the same locations every time we visit those locations.

One example of both a HAND PLACED and STATIC item is the Chest found at Human Enemy sites. The Chest (the Weapons Crate) itself is a Static item. The contents are Hand Placed. Once we remove the original item from the chest (normally a weapon) it will never spawn again. However items we place in the chest will continue to be there during the current play thru until we remove them as the chest itself is Static.

DYNAMIC items are the random spawns within a location. We may find a dead tree right next to the balloon site one visit and the next visit there is a stone there or a plant or nothing at all. Many of the items we search for are DYNAMIC items, these have a random spawn location and are RNG controlled. RNG is the games way of giving us diversity in what we find and where we find it within a location. This DYNAMIC RNG is further controlled by the location type itself referred to as biomes. Some are biased towards ores and minerals, others are more plant oriented, some have a balance between all resource spawn generations. Some locations are limited in allowing certain types of items to be spawned like rare items while others are quite generous. Some of these rare items we covet are Shards, Essences, Turquoise and Jade.

We will use Shards as our example but the same applies to other "rare" items also.

Shard spawns are based on the dreaded RNG and considered in most cases DYNAMIC items. First step is does a shard spawn at all. Second step is where will it spawn and the final step is what color will it be. There is really no certainty that a shard will even spawn in that location. You may leave the balloon and find three Red Shards within arrow range right off the bat, or you could search the location for 4 hours and never find any shard at all. Welcome to RNG. The same is basically true for the various Essence types, Jade and Turquoise spawns; but these are even more rare than the shards. Is it possible to go what seems like forever and never find a Green Shard yet you have numerous shards of the other colors? Sure is and often happens. Many hours of game play can be spent searching for that last Blue Shard to complete upgrading a tool or weapon. RNG is not your friend it seems so far. But never fear for RNG is fickle and is apt to change if for no other reason than to disappoint you again later.

Ogrewiki