Destiny players have been attempting to find the most efficient usage of the Three of Coins since Bungie first introduced the consumable item with The Taken King . The community of PlayStation and Xbox owners have come together to find what appears to be the ideal way to obtain Exotic Engrams from using the special consumable.
The Three of Coins consumable is meant to increase the likelihood of an Exotic Engram dropping from Ultra level bosses in Destiny activities. The behind-the-scenes numbers and other workings of how much the chance is increased are largely unknown.
While explaining that the Three of Coins was added in a way that could be exploited, Creative Director Luke Smith said Destiny players still were not using the Three of Coins correctly in the latest issue of Edge magazine published at the end of October.
“We understood when it went out the door that it was going to lead to some over-generosity in the exotic game, and I take responsibility for that,” Smith said in the Edge interview via Games Radar . “But the spirit of the Three Of Coins is really awesome. We wanted the game to be, and feel, more generous – and the ideal application of how these things should be used post-hotfix is yet to be discovered. I’m happy there’s a story about Destiny being overly rewarding! Look at where we are now versus a year ago.”
Reddit user Hobosteeze may have just found the “ideal application” in a now mysteriously deleted post(Update: Reposted here) that follows Bungie’s fascination with all things related to the number three. Hobosteeze outlines the following steps to increase the chance of an Exotic Engram drop.
- Make sure that the Three of Coins buff is not active.
- Start the Vanguard or Heroic Strikes playlist.
- Complete two Strikes without the Three of Coins buff active.
- Activate a Three of Coins when spawning into the third Strike.*
- Kill an Ultra during the Strike.
The asterisk at the end of step four is due to the presence of the Dust Palace Strike. The three Mind Flayer bosses at the end do not count as an Ultra boss fight. If the third strike you load just happens to be the Dust Palace, do not activate the Three of Coins, complete the Strike, and then activate it on the fourth Strike. That’s assuming it is not Dust Palace again, of course.
There is another caveat in the formula, as well, and one that will likely frustrate Destiny players eager to get an Exotic Engram drop. The Ultras must be killed while in a full fireteam of three players. Perhaps if this information becomes more widely available, then players will stop dropping from Strikes? One can hope, at least.
Destinyplayers naturally tore into this news and began trying it out. The results were mixed, with some confirming Hobosteeze’s results, while others claimed to not being able to replicate the Engram drops. It’s all highly unscientific at this point, but Destiny News did point out the following tips provided by a Reddit user named jomiran.
- Full Fireteam
- Leave a two boss gap between Coins
- No need to go to Orbit
- Mix up Heroic and Legacy playlists
So why are Destiny players going through all this effort to obtain Exotic Engrams? Once players hit Light level 300, the only way to get a higher light level is to get loot drops from the Normal and Hard mode versions of the King’s Fall Raid or get an Exotic Engram drop. Once players are at Light level 300 and higher, Exotic Engrams begin to decrypt at Light level 310. Aside from filling in missing armor and weapon gaps, they become extremely valuable to infuse favorite gear that doesn’t make the Light level cut to higher levels.
Meanwhile, Three of Coins are only available for sale from Xur at a cost of seven Strange Coins for a pack of three when the mysterious vendor appears in the Tower every weekend. Three of Coins can quickly be burned, through, wasting Strange Coins. So, the more efficiently they can be used, the better.
Have you tried this method? What were your results? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Bungie]