challenge question - reward amount keeps dropping for same stars

[mistress_minx]

I'm not sure if anyone is still awake, but here goes : I'm doing the challenges in C. Specifically the kobold island one. I'm just going for 1 star each time, as I'm alone. Each time though, my reward goes down. I got 300 and something my 1st run, then 300, then 256, then 100 this last run. Is that normal ?

[mistress_minx]

Just ran it again. Got 3 stars this time, and only received 184 talismans. What gives ?

[cru121]

score usually depends on the amount of collected resources
stars are not relevant

[mistress_minx]

Since I'm getting the hang of it more each time, I've collected more parts and shards each and every run. It's a +30% bonus challenge reward weekend. 100 doesn't seem like the right reward amount

[PsychoBlonde]

Since I'm getting the hang of it more each time, I've collected more parts and shards each and every run. It's a +30% bonus challenge reward weekend. 100 doesn't seem like the right reward amount

There are two numbers that matter when determining how many ingredients you get from challenges.

The first one is your score. That's the number NEXT to the star display at the top of your screen. The level you select for doing the challenge when you first enter also matters. For best reward, run it at 5 levels over your level, as you'll get a +50% boost to your score.

It's best to run the Kobold Island challenges with a group, as this enormously increases the amount that you can get done in the time frame. The difference between just turning on the small extractors and getting a Large or two online is phenomenal. I've done runs where we six-starred the challenge and we got over a thousand ingredients each because our score was like 5k.

[AbyssalMage]

I'm not sure if anyone is still awake, but here goes : I'm doing the challenges in C. Specifically the kobold island one. I'm just going for 1 star each time, as I'm alone. Each time though, my reward goes down. I got 300 and something my 1st run, then 300, then 256, then 100 this last run. Is that normal ?
If you are running on the same difficulty (+5 over each time) and collecting approximately the same number of Shards...
It's probably related to the last patch and the penalty to optional XP. I know this was a concern from a poster but because it is rarely ran I doubt the concern was given much, if any, attention. The best I can suggest is document everything an hope Lynnabel see's this.

Exact Challenge-
Level of character and Challenge Level -
Star's Obtained -
Number of Shards Collected -
Total Ingredients Rewarded -

* - I don't believe Mechanical Parts are part of the reward formula; just the number of NPC's/Kobalds defeated.

Now keep track of each run. Post each run individually (and hope)

[mistress_minx]

Ahhhh. Thank you both ! The optional xp actually makes sense

[erethizon]

Ahhhh. Thank you both ! The optional xp actually makes sense

I could be that, but I definitely wouldn't jump to that conclusion until you have tested your score. As far as I know, stars only relate to experience. Your score is the only thing that determines how many materials are rewarded at the end. That means if you turn on a Large Extractor at the end it actually lowers your score and thus the number of materials you receive. If what you care about is materials make sure you do everything possible to end the quest with as high a score as possible (which means killing things in most quests and having as many saved up dragonshards as possible on the kobold island ones). Upgrading an extractor with 30 seconds left on the clock does nothing but lower how many materials you are awarded.

[mistress_minx]

From what I know, more stars = more mats rewarded. Lvl also determines. I run Buying Time all the time 1 lvl above me for the wings for pots. I usually get 2 stars, and receive over 300 wings. I just ran it 1 lvl above me and got 4 stars. I also killed 5 red names. I received 236 wings. So without the bonus, I'd have gotten 165 (is that right ?). I've messaged support to ask them abt this

[Fivetigers33]

From what I know, more stars = more mats rewarded.

This isn't correct at all. More Stars = More XP and Favor. Higher Score = more mats rewarded.

Sometimes the two overlap, like in the mansion challenges where killing all the bosses is both a Star and lots of points for your score.

Also for the biggest rewards, you need to run 5 levels over. So if you are level 10, you run them at quest level 15 and will get +50% rewards. The opposite is also true, if you are level 15 and run them at quest level 10 you will receive -50% rewards.

[droid327]

Yeah score has absolutely nothing to do with xp - pots don't boost your mat rewards, so ransack shouldn't lower it. Definite bug if it does, but should be easy to test - should get 0 mats after a few runs if it's ransacking, which is otherwise impossible if you complete the minimum.

Some of those stars require a lot of time not tending to collectors though, so I suspect you may just not be scoring as high on some of your runs despite it feeling like you "got it" more

[erethizon]

From what I know, more stars = more mats rewarded. Lvl also determines. I run Buying Time all the time 1 lvl above me for the wings for pots. I usually get 2 stars, and receive over 300 wings. I just ran it 1 lvl above me and got 4 stars. I also killed 5 red names. I received 236 wings. So without the bonus, I'd have gotten 165 (is that right ?). I've messaged support to ask them abt this

Stars only give more mats if they increase your score (which is easily tested by looking at your score just before getting a star and again right after). Killing things usually increases your score (so killing a named boss will likely result in a small increase in your score, but not because it gave you a star). Getting crystals increases your score, but getting a star for getting a certain number of crystals does not, I believe, increase your score any more than if you had acquired the same number of crystals without getting a star.

I ran Buying Time for mats until I got well over 200 Tokens of the Twelve (back when epic quests were capped at 20 and it was too hard to run them on a weak character so challenges were the only option for tokens). The only thing that matters is getting as many crystals as possible (assuming all you care about it materials). You likely got only 236 wings when getting 4 stars because you acquired less crystals than is normal for you because you were too busy doing the other objectives to manage your kobolds as well as you usually do.

I highly recommend running Buying Time as you usually do, but posting a group while you do it (keep the level capped at your level so that you don't get people higher in level than you causing a material reward penalty). The more people you get the more people you have to kill things and do other objectives while you focus on torching. Also, set the difficulty to 5 levels above the highest person in the party (or the max level available for the challenge). If you can't handle max level by yourself, that is yet another reason you will benefit from posting an LFM and seeing if you can get people to join.