Beaker Hunt

Lax

Lax

Survivor
Other than checking with Trader Jen, looting Pills, hospitals, clinics or Med Facilities, anyone know of any other way of boosting your odds of finding one? Been searching mainly in the Snow Biome, around Day 41. Loot Stage is like 196.

RNG is not being kind at all this playthrough. Even got Lucky Looter maxed and still no love. Do points in Intellect or medical perks increase your odds at all?
 
Lax said:
Other than checking with Trader Jen, looting Pills, hospitals, clinics or Med Facilities, anyone know of any other way of boosting your odds of finding one? Been searching mainly in the Snow Biome, around Day 41. Loot Stage is like 196.

RNG is not being kind at all this playthrough. Even got Lucky Looter maxed and still no love. Do points in Intellect or medical perks increase your odds at all?
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beaker just could be added in to trader offers like cooking grill or cooking pot
 
It *can* be in a trader's inventory, but it isn't a guarantee. You can also get it from one of the quest tier rewards, though I don't know if it's a guaranteed choice for that tier or random and therefore not always a choice. At least I'm pretty sure it is a quest tier reward... it might be a challenge reward.

I am not aware of anything that improves your chances of finding a beaker. I can't think of any time I haven't found one before I've needed one and I don't go out of my way to try to get better loot by going to higher biomes early or anything like that. But it is definitely RNG, so it is possible to never find one. Since I don't ever actually look for a beaker, I don't know what the best places are to find them. I could guess, but that isn't really going to help you.
 
Ok, how about the Bartering perks. I've never tried them. They're supposed to cause the traders to have "better" items.

By better does that mean you'll get a quality 4 AK instead of a quality 2 AK? Or instead of a quality 2 AK you could get say a quality 2 Assault Rifle? Wondering if it could work with Jen having better medical supplies.
 
Lax said:
Ok, how about the Bartering perks. I've never tried them. They're supposed to cause the traders to have "better" items.
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I don't think that will work for a beaker; the group it is in doesn't seem scaled in any way.

The scaling, from memory; mostly applies to weapons and armors. All armors are equal to one another, the improvement is just in the "quality range". Weapons follow the tier system, at first you'll see pipe pistols, then pistols, then magnums .. etc. The range affects quality and tier, so good quality pipe pistols can appear next to poor quality pistols.

The progress is basically player level; completing quest tiers grants 5% extra, for a 30% max increase. The skill DaringAdventurer gives "10-50" what I'd assume to be straight up levels added on.

So, level 10, quest tier 2 (10% more), one skill point for 10 more = level 21 stuff at trader. Could spawn Q1 iron tools, workbenches etc.
 
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I wonder if Daring Adventurer, which opens up "better" items at the trader would have an effect on whether a beaker would be available for purchase or in quest rewards?
 
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Professor-Pip said:
I wonder if Daring Adventurer, which opens up "better" items at the trader would have an effect on whether a beaker would be available for purchase or in quest rewards?
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It isn't likely that Daring Adventurer would have any impact. It gives you an additional reward choice when maxed and increases the dukes you get from rewards and increases quality of items. It is the Better Barter that lets you see additional items unless I'm mistaken. Since a beaker doesn't have quality levels, if any perk increases the odds of seeing it at the trader, it would be Better Barter instead of Daring Adventurer. The question is whether or not the chances for the beaker are increased or not by improving Better Barter. It probably depends on whether or not it has any limitation to when it can appear at the trader, and I'm not sure if it does or not.
 
Riamus said:
It is the Better Barter that lets you see additional items unless I'm mistaken.
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From what I'm seeing in the xml, DA improves trader stock, BB only changes the price.

progress.xml (3050):
<perk name="perkBetterBarter" parent="skillIntellectInfluence" name_key="perkBetterBarterName" desc_key="perkBetterBarterDesc" icon="ui_game_symbol_barter">
<level_requirements level="1"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="1" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel01"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="2"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="3" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel03"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="3"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="5" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel05"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="4"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="7" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel07"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="5"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="10" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel10"/></level_requirements>

<effect_group>
<passive_effect name="BarteringBuying" operation="base_add" level="1,2,3,4,5" value=".05,.1,.15,.2,.25"/>
<passive_effect name="BarteringSelling" operation="base_add" level="1,2,3,4,5" value=".05,.1,.15,.2,.25"/>

<effect_description level="1" desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank1Desc" long_desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank1LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="2" desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank2Desc" long_desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank2LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="3" desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank3Desc" long_desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank3LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="4" desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank4Desc" long_desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank4LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="5" desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank5Desc" long_desc_key="perkBetterBarterRank5LongDesc"/>
</effect_group>
</perk>

<!-- *** DARING_ADVENTURER -->
<perk name="perkDaringAdventurer" parent="skillIntellectInfluence" name_key="perkDaringAdventurerName" desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerDesc" icon="ui_game_symbol_adventure">
<level_requirements level="1"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="1" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel01"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="2"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="3" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel03"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="3"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="5" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel05"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="4"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="7" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel07"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="5"><requirement name="ProgressionLevel" progression_name="attIntellect" operation="GTE" value="10" desc_key="reqIntellectLevel10"/></level_requirements>

<effect_group>
<passive_effect name="TraderStage" operation="base_add" level="1,5" value="10,50"/>
<passive_effect name="QuestBonusItemReward" operation="perc_add" level="1,5" value=".05,.25"/> <!-- Bonus Dukes -->
<passive_effect name="QuestRewardChoiceCount" operation="base_add" level="5" value="1"/>

<effect_description level="1" desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank1Desc" long_desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank1LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="2" desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank2Desc" long_desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank2LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="3" desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank3Desc" long_desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank3LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="4" desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank4Desc" long_desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank4LongDesc"/>
<effect_description level="5" desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank5Desc" long_desc_key="perkDaringAdventurerRank5LongDesc"/>
</effect_group>
</perk>
 
Funny thing is not only does Jen not have any beakers in stock this playthrough, but also no chemistry stations which I was willing to buy to bypass the beaker altogether. Are the chem stations pretty rare too? Sure wish I could wrench the one's out in the wild.
 
Lax said:
Funny thing is not only does Jen not have any beakers in stock this playthrough, but also no chemistry stations which I was willing to buy to bypass the beaker altogether. Are the chem stations pretty rare too? Sure wish I could wrench the one's out in the wild.
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All workstations are pretty rare at the traders. I see them on occasion, but probably only a couple times per game for each on average, with my normal games lasting to about the 5th horde night, even when I'm checking multiple traders for things on a regular basis. And since it's random, there's no guarantee that those couple of times will happen in a given game. I certainly wouldn't count on buying workstations instead of crafting them. You'll have better luck focusing on the forge ahead magazines than worrying about trying to find one to buy.

If you really struggle with magazines, you may want to consider putting points into Intellect Mastery. If you go up to the third level in the perk, you'll sometimes get an extra magazine or book when looting and sometimes get double when reading a magazine. That can make it far easier to improve your magazine counts if you feel it's too hard to get the magazines quickly enough. If you are already putting points into Intellect for some other reason, it's cheap to get those points in Intellect Mastery. If you aren't putting points into Intellect, then it is somewhat expensive and maybe not worth it, but it's at least worth considering if you struggle with magazines.
 
Trying an experiment. I noticed in my list of challenges that I had not crafted any Pipe Bombs, had not crafted and placed a Cement Mixer and had not crafted any Concrete Mix, all that precede the challenge to place a chemistry station.

I completed all of them, started tracking the challenge to place a chem station, which displayed a list of all ingredients needed for the chem station. I then equipped all the ingredients in my inventory with only the beaker being the sole ingredient I don't have.

Trying to force the RNG to notice I need that beaker to complete the challenge! 😉
 
After doing this I drove to Hugh and guess what he had in stock? A complete chem station.

I then immediately drove to Jen's and what does she have in stock? Yup, a beaker. Hmmm, now I'm curious. Completely random and coincidental or did those actions actually help steer RNG?
 
Lax said:
After doing this I drove to Hugh and guess what he had in stock? A complete chem station.

I then immediately drove to Jen's and what does she have in stock? Yup, a beaker. Hmmm, now I'm curious. Completely random and coincidental or did those actions actually help steer RNG?
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Rekt's laughing at you now. ;)
 
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