Are illustrious items unique?

[Yogi]

In other words: Do I need to sell the Level 2 Automated Collector (scvanging tool mod) before I have a chance to find it's Level 10 equivalent?

[Protectron]

They are unique. You get only one of each on a run.

[lecoqaveugle]

Originally posted by obaboss:

In other words: Do I need to sell the Level 2 Automated Collector (scvanging tool mod) before I have a chance to find it's Level 10 equivalent?

They are unique. You can and should sell them, as you will certainly find better items even of common quality (Even if they are equal level).

What I am not sure is if using illustrious items for crafting gives better chances at bonuses or not, compared with the common ones.

[baoluo84]

I tried using one for crafting, but didn't notice much difference

[lecoqaveugle]

Originally posted by baoluo84:

I tried using one for crafting, but didn't notice much difference

Oh, well. This would be neat if the illustrious items would give all their unique bonuses upon using them in crafting. Would be that extra +1 to keep them for later.

[Protectron]

Some effects are unique. Like for instance the shield mod that triggers DR each time an effect tries to restore shields, the shield that reduces damage over a certain treshold, the discard-draw effect of the Scavenger tool mod, the drain initiative effect of the Light Ranged weapon, among others.

Selling these may be a bad idea regardless of which level they are when you get them. Even the Evasion bonus of the other Scavenger tool mod is higher than can ever be achieved by other items.

The Spread Ranged illustrious weapon is poor, as it only stuns the main target (and Stun is almost useless beyond the 6th derelict anyways). The "take another turn" effect of the Precision Ranged weapon is also largely unimpressive, and grenades are generally not worth it so both those Illustrious mods are nice to sell. Some Illustrious items can be awesome depending on level and which random cards you get on them. The Heavy Melee weapon's DR-ignoring effect can actually be awesome if you get it late enough. Some enemies in the endgame have ridiculous DR rates, so that weapon may actually deal more damage in some battles even if the Base damage is lower.

So, TL;DR: some Illustrious items are awesome no matter when you get them, others are useless no matter when you get them, while others again are only excellent if you get them late enough.

[Asmosis]

It may well be coincidence, but each time i've found an illustrious item it has been the same base level, regardless of which derelict i found it on. I.E. i've found the same L3 variant in a L2 derelict and a L9 derelict.

It leads me to think they have set levels, so it's not worth selling in the hopes of finding a higher level variant.

Could be wrong, my sample size is a max of 5 for a single unique.

[RodHull]

Most of them are underwhelming tbh, the two hand melee weapon is good just cause it hits everything and the shield, also the mental mod is good cause its stat bonus is worth it. But beyond that most of the weapons gimmicks are completely overshadowed later by normal items.

[Protectron]

Originally posted by RodHull:

Most of them are underwhelming tbh, the two hand melee weapon is good just cause it hits everything and the shield, also the mental mod is good cause its stat bonus is worth it. But beyond that most of the weapons gimmicks are completely overshadowed later by normal items.

The shield mod is quite frankly the strongest item in the game, since you can easily get 100+ DR with it and a regular Active Shield. It is also easier than ever to just add a shield regen Tech mod to your Universal tool.

The same with the Scavenger tool mod that lets you draw a card whenever an enemy discards a card. Extremely powerful with staggering effects, and many enemies discard cards as part of playing some cards, so cards are drawn all the time even without Stagger.

The skill stats are almost irrelevant, making that part of any item the least relevant one.

Btw, you get each Illustrious item once every game, and the levels are random - usually the same level of the derelict you find it on. It is possible that they are not assigned from 1-10, but 3-10 or 1-6 or something, but definitely not fixed.

Since you know you get all of them every run, you can build characters around the certainty of getting the piece you need.

[Asmosis]

Boom box i think its called is BIS for a grenade build. doesn't even matter what its stats or cards are.

The illustrious weapons do fall off later in the game since most of them are lower level, but if you get them early they are vastly superior to everything else available, and usually for a couple more tiers of items.

The mods are generally the best possible items you can get, if the class is appropriate.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by Asmosis:

Boom box i think its called is BIS for a grenade build. doesn't even matter what its stats or cards are.

The illustrious weapons do fall off later in the game since most of them are lower level, but if you get them early they are vastly superior to everything else available, and usually for a couple more tiers of items.

The mods are generally the best possible items you can get, if the class is appropriate.

One or two were bad imo, the shotgun one is not great and assault rifle as well I didn't like

[lecoqaveugle]

Originally posted by RodHull:

Most of them are underwhelming tbh, the two hand melee weapon is good just cause it hits everything and the shield, also the mental mod is good cause its stat bonus is worth it. But beyond that most of the weapons gimmicks are completely overshadowed later by normal items.

I found the Mental Mod really usefull, the one that let's you "Animate Dead" and basically summon one of the three zombies variants. It's a decent card, that let's you have one more body on the field which has more HP than the bots and sometimes is quite usefull with an OK damage.

The other illustrious mental mod I love is the one that let's you see the enemies cards. That way you can predict what the enemies will do and react accordingly, e.g if enemies have attack cards -> disable them with a chemist Medic.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by SULLEN COFFEE:

The other illustrious mental mod I love is the one that let's you see the enemies cards. That way you can predict what the enemies will do and react accordingly, e.g if enemies have attack cards -> disable them with a chemist Medic.

I said that one is good earlier

[Asmosis]

I am curious if anyone has ever found an illustrious item twice, at different item levels. My experience is they are fixed levels, but would love to be wrong.

[Yogi]

I never found any illustrious item a second time in a run.

The level corresponded, as far as I remember, always with the character level. My group was lvl 10 bei derelict lvl 7, so all the illustious items I found near the end of the run were lvl 10.