Loot scale

[Tom Cormie]

I see that loot does not follow adaptive scaling. I have a level 5 team. 8 mercenaries and 2 bears are my warriors. I just did an average assassin mission. A level 6 opponent with 11 fighters. They were strong, it was a good 15 minute battle. In the meantime, I was looking at how good equipment they had. I was happy in advance how good stuff was going to drop.

The loot: 4 cloth, 1 hairbrush trinket, 39 Krowns, 1 Goon's spaulder. -5 raw materials. After that I regretted this 15 minutes...

[Ninth Hour]

Yes, loot is totally random and quite stingy overall. But I think the number of enemies you face does affect the number of items that drop, so by law of averages, you will eventually get something worthwhile.

I am also on Adaptive mode. My deployable army size is now up to 20 and I notice that battles against 25+ enemies now drop 2 to 4 weapons or suits of armor, whereas earlier in the game, at 12 enemies or below, I was getting 1 and at most 2 weapons or suits of armor and a bunch of vendor trash.

Having to fight 20+ enemies just for a few pieces of gear is a dismal drop rate. However, there is a Resolution (Banner-related skill), "Respect the Enemy" that you can activate with Influence, which increases the amount of combat loot significantly. You just have to time it to coincide with a string of battles you plan to fight.