Carve vs Capture - The numbers

[brunolm]

Tl;dr;

Capture is always better.

Bad game design.

[The Vagrant Knight]

I wonder how capturing, with its shorter hunt duration, would perform when you take into account the bonus rewards or guaranteed gems.

[Zerixar]

also carve pool is displaying tail carves separately it looks like, but you still break and carve the tail even if you capture it so that bit's not quite representative. at a macro level though, the only part you won't be drowning in regardless of if you kill or cap is the gem, and the 2% diff when you can just do a guaranteed gem mission is basically irrelevant imo.

[brunolm]

I ignored the 7% chance on the carve math 200m vs 233.31m doesn't take into account the tail

[BigCoqSurprise]

got 1 bolt gem and it was when i captured the monster XD

[brunolm]

Originally posted by BigCoqSurprise:

got 1 bolt gem and it was when i captured the monster XD

I remember getting 4 (3 from carves) one time.

[Caramel_Clown]

And yet, I keep getting 3 tails from almost every ark I kill

[SvegetaX]

Not a clue. I just see the monster pool between sectors. I see the items they offer and kill it.
Rarely capture.

With the drops, cuts, quests items, and using the vendors as they rotate items I've never felt I was doing without on anything. Other than not noticing there was another page full of newer gear WAY later on. heh
(Ah I could of avoided trying to perfect those 1 shot 7*T Gore fights just by hitting R1 on Gemma.. Time for a break.)

Still good data on the pooling system. Even feels like the Temper ones have another with Blue tears and rips vs Red.

Originally posted by brunolm:

Originally posted by BigCoqSurprise:

got 1 bolt gem and it was when i captured the monster XD

I remember getting 4 (3 from carves) one time.

Same. Gems quite often from carving after the fight. With it also hitting the drop pool from completion screen on the same mob.

[Hanzo]

Let's be frank. If I need gem, I'll find investigation that will have 100% drop of it. So gems should be out of picture

[Jethro]

In the end it's 50/50

You either get it or not.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by brunolm:

Loot is divided in 4 pools:
- Target: what you get when the mission ends
- Broken parts: what you get if you break parts
- Wound destroy: what you get when you destroy a wound
- Carves: what you get when carving

Capture: There's no loot pool for "Capture", capturing a monster immediately rewards you with 3 Target Rewards, which means you will draw from a pool with other items and lower chances for a gem.

Carving: draws from a smaller pool of potential monster materials, eliminating certain types of common Target Rewards like certificates and elemental sacs

Meals:
- Carver Meal Skill: up to 4 items from Carve pool
- Capture Pro Meal: up to 4 items from Target pool

Is it better to capture because it's faster?
Depends on what items you want and for how long you're going to play for. In a Rey Dau simulation where you're aiming for gems, I calculated that you'd need +5 captures to break even (if you hunt 10 monsters you have to capture ~15 in the same amount time).

---

Target pool:

Rey Dau Tail [11%]
Rey Dau Carapace [22%]
Rey Dau Plate [7%]
Rey Dau Scale+ [22%]
Rey Dau Bolthorn [11%]
Rey Dau Boltgem [3%]
Rey Dau Certificate S [8%]
Rey Dau Fulgurtalon [16%]

Carve pool:

Rey Dau Tail [11% (Body), 93% (Tail)]
Rey Dau Carapace [23% (Body)]
Rey Dau Scale+ [30% (Body)]
Rey Dau Bolthorn [13% (Body)]
Rey Dau Boltgem [5% (Body), 7% (Tail)]
Rey Dau Fulgurtalon [18% (Body)]

AI Math for getting a gem assuming hunt: 10 minutes; capture 7 minutes; no tail

Got it! Let's recalculate without considering the tail chance.

### Target Method:
- Drop rate: 3%
- Expected number of attempts: \( \frac{1}{0.03} \approx 33.33 \)
- Time per attempt: 7 minutes
- Total expected time: \( 33.33 \times 7 \approx 233.31 \) minutes

### Carve Method (Body only):
- Drop rate from body: 5%
- Expected number of attempts: \( \frac{1}{0.05} \approx 20 \)
- Time per attempt: 10 minutes
- Total expected time: \( 20 \times 10 = 200 \) minutes

So, even ignoring the tail chance, the Carve Method (200 minutes) is still faster than the Target Method (233.31 minutes) for obtaining a Rey Dau Boltgem.

When we talk about efficient, you can just farm investi's for gems.... lol

Not sure what you want to do? Guaranteed 3 gems in 15~ minutes.

[Scooter]

Honestly just been playin with 0 regards of whether the things are capped or killed.... Still end up with enough mats to make what I want.

That and Investigations tend to give out guaranteed rares so cap or kill really doesn't matter.

[SandrocK]

maybe it mattered to me when i needed some of the materials for the armor, but once it was only for armor sphere or the rock for artians, capture kinda outweighs the reward/time for me.

sure the gem may give me the bigger points, but in the end of the day for me, more time I play more time I get my rewards.

[brunolm]

Not sure what you want to do?

If you're not sure it's good to look at the loot table, if you want Rey Dau Plate you'd capture instead.

Honestly just been playin with 0 regards of whether the things are capped or killed.... Still end up with enough mats to make what I want.

if you play a lot and you're not in a rush this works, eventually you'll get everything

[Scipo0419]

Well, TIL that capture gives "Target Rewards" and since I'm crafting every weapon I'll need a ton of the "sac" items. This will help immensely.

[~°MØTG°~ GЯINDS€T [Fndr]]

Capture if you can

Kill if you can't capture it

that is all