Getting Better Rewards

[Emerald Unicorn]

So how is it determined how good the stats/level ups you get on rewarded items are? E.g. Pets for survival, weapons for challenges or for certain maps.I play with a friend and we are trying to figure out why one of us will sometimes get a much superior reward than the other... and its not always him or always me that gets it, it varies, so...

is there a technique to yeild better rewards on average?

[FLOORSCRAPS]

No. It's RNG. The entire loot system is RNG. Hardcore Mode and Nightmare Difficulty gives you the highest probability rate of the a good reward.

[Emerald Unicorn]

So it is just the difficulty we choose to do that affects the RNG? Nothing like deaths, score, kills...?

[Bucegi Power]

Well in some cases of Lab Assault i found to get worse gear if I die. But that is a feeling and nothing I am certain of.

[XGrimorgX]

If you talk about a reward for completing a map, that;s just luck. If you refer to item quality in general, some maps give far better rewards than others. Don't expect to ever find high end armor on the deeper wells. In general, the newer/harder the map the better the rewards.
Nightmare obviously rewards better gear than lower diff (although some, but not all, pets can be equally good from insane). Hardcore increases item quality and so soes mixmode on survival. Avoid pure strategy for drops.

[Road]

if your talking about challeneges its pure random cant effect them much except by checking hardcore thats about it. i've done many tests on lab assult to see any changes at all based on score (ran around ganked all ogers had 62k score at end for 15 games) got the same crap. tried minimal score (killed only crystals and nessecary mobs) finished with 10k score got the same crap. speed runs/slow runs it never changed it was still the same assortment of stuff each test. except when hardcore was taken off. i'd get 2-4 trans gear in 15 games regularly. soon as hardcore was off 1-3.

for survival imagine every check box adds 5% to the items that do drop. has nothing to do with chances to drop just simply how strong the items that do drop are. so hc and mm +10% power to the drops that do drop. in kings game i might find 2 amazing peices (could be mythical, trans, sup, ulti) but usually 2 all the way to wave 30. id find a myth peice with 2 stats almost 300 and 305 ups or i'd find a trans with full tower stats 230-300 with 250 ups but almost all other drops will have some annoying make or break stat on it. supreme peices with 370 ups and -15 all resists dps peice (hate that)

[Emerald Unicorn]

Thank you all for your input. This is the general conclusion my friend and I came to, but we figured I should ask just to make sure there wasn't anything else we could do. And now it's out there for others I guess... we had been searching online for more definite answers but nothing had been as absolute as we liked.

[Im.Sm1DG3]

it even be nice for trading cards in this game.