Game Design Lootruns are too luck based

Lootruns missions are way too luck based as of now. Basically gambling beast and equilibrium are super rare and pretty much shit on the other missions. It’s impossible to get a good effective pull count without gambling beast, and equilibrium allows for yellow beacon running to be good or speeds up runs by a ton. There are 2 solutions I have in mind with this:
1. More mission options: this is pretty simple
2. Allow choosing to use sacrifices: instead of sacrifices going to the next run, you can choose to use them (this would be to lessen the pressure of getting all the good mission in 1 run and make it possible to sacrifice and wait for only gambling beast)
Also just a small qol idea: grandmaster rank removes the lootruns chest animation

 

I agree that missions should be changed, but I think that instead of just adding more options, the missions should be separated between beacons instead of all in the grey beacon. For example, a Grey beacon could have player-buffing missions like Equilibrium and Orphion's Grace, while a Dark Grey beacon might have lootrun-buffing missions like Materialism and Cleansing Ritual.

I like the idea of choosing when to use sacrifices.

I definitely do not like removing the chest animation as a rank perk. If it is to be changed, there should just be an option to skip it, by maybe holding shift. But it's not supposed to get in your way or be annoying, that's not the point of the animation. It's to build suspense, like, "will I get a mythic?"
It's kind of like having clones not disappear when switching weapons as a new Major ID. That's just something that should be in the game already, not a special feature IMO

 

Binding of Isaac is way too luck based as of now. Basically Polyphemus and Death Certificate are super rare and pretty much shit on the other Q4s.

It's kind of part of the game that there is going to be some level of luck, as there is in all roguelikes and roguelites

 

I'd say the root cause of this problem is the fact that all the good stuff is in the ends rewards chest: there is only one way to make the most of lootrunning, and that is getting as many effective pulls as possible.

I was excited for the yellow beacon change because I thought it would shift how many players approach lootrunning and make them focus more on the rewards that they get while lootrunning instead of after lootrunning. However Loot Bonus is soft-capped like crazy and is pretty much a scam, not to mention LB/LQ boons being way too accessible with equilibrium anyway, pretty much making yellow beacon still an "accessory beacon" that's just there to get rid of your curses.

I'd say buff LB/LQ, but make them more exclusive. Remove them from boons and add new missions that would grant you LB/LQ, kinda like what happened to reward rerolls. This way, lootrunning for the sake of, well, running for loot, becomes a new feasible way of getting the most out of lootrunning.

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As much as there's a lot of luck involved in these kinda games, there's still a lot of playstyles that can be developed from the random choices you get.

Right now there's one lootrunning "playstyle" and that is getting as many pulls as possible. I've done yellow beacon disco runs and they are not rewarding at all, especially compared to stacking pulls or rerolls.

One can also separate the "plastyles" of stacking pulls and stacking rerolls if the missions involved with them lack synergy, or even counteracts with each other. A good example is Gambling Beast which prevents you from getting any more pulls by cutting your run short. This way, choosing your missions would be impactful in a way where it would pretty much define how you'll be getting your mythic.

This would be way more fun with more missions. Like, imagine a mission that makes curses not give pulls anymore, but would grant you a reroll for every N curses you get.

 

Another playstyle one can develop is making use of boons and green beacons; both makes lootruns very easy. I think getting to 100 challenges should only be easy or even possible if you go with this kind of lootrun "playstyle." Add more missions!!!! Turn lootruning to Hades basically

 

Well first, gambling beast doesn't cut your run short. I got gambling beast on the first mission and still got to 108 challenges with 13 rerolls.
Also, it's fine if some mission combinations are better than others, but as of now it's just not worth continuing runs without gambling beast or equilibrium, and maybe even cleansing ritual. I see a lot of new lootrunners on discord showing off their 3 hour 500 effective pull run whereas I'm getting around 3500 with less time (obviously there could be a build difference but 7x the pulls is too much). It's just frustrating that salted said orange beacons were "deciding the viability of an entire run by itself" and just put that same weight, but even rarer, onto grey beacons.

 

Agreed, that’s why I think that some missions should be spread between grey and dark grey

So like you could have self-buffing missions like equilibrium, plus some new missions, in normal greys. And then have lootrun-buffing missions like materialism and cleansing ritual in dark grey, along with new missions

 

I've only recently tried Gambling Beast and learned how it actually works. I thought it just ends your run if you don't got enough time to pay for it.

 

uhhh idk bout you but i got two mythics with two runs with 100 pulls 3 rerolls each naybe im just lucky

 

with gambling beast and equilibrium you'd probably get 20

 

mythics or rerolls lol?

 

mythics, assuming thats your rate (although i'd expect the actual mythic chance to be much lower)

 

apparently this is what happens now so the only way to get a good amount of effective pulls is sacrificing on one run and then gambling beast on the next

 

I think the idea is that you can't get a perfect run every time. If you were able to get the perfect setup and maximize pulls and get a mythic every time, they'd definitely nerf it. I'd rather have a somewhat chance based system that allows people with reasonable skill to get consistently decent runs and occasionally have amazing runs when they get lucky. I can consistently get a decent number of pulls each run, without ever taking gambling beast, so I don't think that taking it is the only viable strategy. Better? Maybe. But certainly not the only strategy. ~100 pulls seems to be around the point where you have a decent chance of getting a mythic (50% of the rolls/rerolls I've done since the update, but that was with a pretty small sample size), which seems pretty reasonable to me.