What is the deal with Elerium cores?

[JaegerBane]

Is anyone else finding these to be ridiculously rare? I've (luckily) managed to scrounge enough to get a pair of both Wraith and WAR suits for my active team but I'm in.... November(?) in the game and I've gone four missions (including a Supply Raid) without seeing a single damn one. When I tot up how many, I must've had less than ten in the entire game. They're so rare that I can't build any upgraded Heavy Weapons and stuck with using Shredder guns and Rocket launchers.

Back in XCOM:EU/EW we had an absurd situation where research needed so many weapon fragments, a recovered plasma weapon was worth less than a destroyed one, but at least they turned up on every mission. This is a whole new kind of frustration.

Is there a trick to this? Do they turn up on the black market or anywhere else?

[Cahos Rahne Veloza]

This mod...

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=624294299

... gives you a new custom "Proving Grounds" project allowing you to manufacture Elerium Cores of your own using several supplies, Elerium Crystals and Alien Alloys :)

[JaegerBane]

I was really wanting to finish this playthrough without mods, but thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the next run.

[Nu-men von Kryt !!XD]

Originally posted by JaegerBane:

I was really wanting to finish this playthrough without mods, but thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the next run.

I knew about the mod but never used it since i always try not to spend all the cores on experimental stuff and suits. The most reliable way to get them is having vulture perk bought in GTS since it gives an additional item when the loot drops. On raid mission etc. you must prey that aliens wont destroy anything in the fight since the game will punish you for it. I am currently doing another run on commander after beating the game on veteran and i am right not at June and i only got 2 exo suits and 1 spider suit in the works the rest of the cores i spend on upgrading my current inventory.

[Eggy]

Get vulture early.
If youve not had a drop yet in a mission then take advantage of the opportunities to force more enemies such as an end level reinforcements drop, or force a drop by hacking a tower.
Also play the odds on killng blows. Dont use a nade if a shot will get the kill.

[BHunterSEAL]

Go for Vulture as early as you can, but also keep your eyes peeled for lootable containers in missions--not the objectives, but additional drops that you need to find in order to collect. They look like standard decorative Advent crates and have yellow lights or trim on top, plus an action icon appears when a soldier gets close (including diagonally, apparently).

Don't spend cores just because you have them--grenades are a safe bet, since every outcome has useful applications in-game. On the other hand, as amazing as AP Rounds are, most of the other ammo results can be achieved with weapon mods without blowing a precious core. Unless I've been doing things consistently out of order, I've found both Heavy Armor weapon tracks largely irrelevent because in spite of the huge investment required to field them, a veteran grenadier w/advanced launcher and special grenades is usually the better option. MECs these are not. The vest projects are a winning bet 2/3rds of the time, and Hazmats get a nice black market price so aren't a complete waste.

I thought I read in a mod description somewhere that your chances of getting cores in loot decrease based on how many you've found up to that point, but that sounds a bit dubious and I can't find the reference anywhere.

[Dire Wombat]

I wonder if you've been getting a lot of grenade kills, so your loot has been getting destroyed? I've never really had a problem with core shortages.

May I ask what difficulty you're on? It's possible that this is a Legend vs other difficulties thing. Because everything takes much longer on Legend, it takes longer to spend Elerium cores but you still obtain them at least as fast because the mission pace doesn't slow down. So maybe this is one area where lower difficulties actually end up going harder on you than Legend does?

[Cap'n Darwin]

I have a similar issue in my current play through and it is self inflicted by nading bad guys and destroying the loot.

[JaegerBane]

I'm on Veteran at the moment. I did 'destroy' loot twice (at least I got the message on a kill) but that's out of a playthrough that has currently logged over 60 hours. Unless both loot drops were half a dozen cores each, that's still a tiny amount overall.

Proving Ground 'Research' projects aside (i.e. advanced explosives, bluescreen protocol etc), I have only spent them on suits, one ammo, two heavy weapons and one vest. I reckon my overall haul this game has been around 12 cores.

I really would like to get my hands on some Blaster launchers. Do cores turn up in 'Assorted Loot' scans?

[Toenails10]

i blame the last update, haven't got any since 'anarchy kids' came out, my whole construction process is at a complete halt, and i do have 'Vulture'.

[JaegerBane]

Well I managed to get two in the last 3 missions(!) meaning I at least get to do the final endgame chain with a Blaster Launcher and Shredstorm cannon. I have a pair of Blacksites left before I hit the chain so here's hoping I can nab a few more, but at least I got everything I wanted beforehand.

Am definitely going to be using that mod in future playthoughs, though - I literally have more resources than I know what to do with, but zero cores.

[Cap'n Darwin]

You also get cores from downed UFOs as long as you don't blow them up in the ship. Done that too before learning to use non-explosive damage nades.

[Empiro]

The "Loot destroyed" message doesn't always show up.

Basically on every mission, you should be getting exactly one loot drop. So if you've been picking them up most missions, and you're still short on cores, that's just bad luck.

I had a similar situation on my second playthrough.

[gerzald]

Get the mod, why bash your head aganst the wall? Loot x2 Supplys x2 8 man sqd I'm not proud. Do have the monsters x 2 mod going.

[Nu-men von Kryt !!XD]

Originally posted by Empiro:

The "Loot destroyed" message doesn't always show up.

Basically on every mission, you should be getting exactly one loot drop. So if you've been picking them up most missions, and you're still short on cores, that's just bad luck.

I had a similar situation on my second playthrough.

Sometimes there is animation of loot dropping but the color is not gold/yellow which probably is the indication if it was destroyed(on kill cams its visible but barely). Also grenades not always destroy loot i fired acid grenade at advent troops and still it dropped.

[JaegerBane]

Originally posted by Empiro:

The "Loot destroyed" message doesn't always show up.

Basically on every mission, you should be getting exactly one loot drop. So if you've been picking them up most missions, and you're still short on cores, that's just bad luck.

I had a similar situation on my second playthrough.

So I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of missions I haven't seen a single drop, so it definitely appears to be just RNGesus hating me.

Originally posted by gerzald:

Get the mod, why bash your head aganst the wall? Loot x2 Supplys x2 8 man sqd I'm not proud. Do have the monsters x 2 mod going.

Because I'm two missions from the end and I already have everything I wanted to use for it. I generally also like to do a mod-free run of any game on my initial playthrough.