RNGerk madness

Random Number Generators. Most games have them now. Most games now bind at least some part of their core gameplay to them, and they can be temperamental beasts. Many have taken to calling them "Random Number God," or "RNGesus." I have just recently concluded an epic battle of wills with what I've come to call "RNGerk," one I'd like to share with you.

You see, a month ago, I started playing Warframe. Fun game. Kind of thing I could just relax with and enjoy for a few minutes everyday, and that was my intention - until I blindly stumbled upon three out of four pieces of a highly desirable item. This, unfortunately, set off my perfectionist lizard brain. I hate leaving anything 75% done, so I went into full berserk mode and embarked on a mad quest to find the last piece.

Now, imagine a loot box, but with a twist; instead of having you open it blindly and then rewarding you from a pool of hundreds of items, each of these "Relics," as they're called in Warframe, tells you up front that it's going to drop one of six possible items. It also tells you up front the odds of dropping these items, which are split into three rarities, with the rarest item, such as the very one I was after, having the base odds of 2%. But here's another twist: you can improve these odds by "refining" these Relics with a special resource, earned by playing a special type of mission called "Void Fissures," which are also where you open these Relics as well. Each Void Fissure drops 5 to 30 units of this resource, and refining a Relic with 100 of this resource improves the odds to 10%. Sounds simple enough, right?

Yeah, as you'll see later, this game has a funny definition of "10%."

So, I opened my initial batch of 6 refined Relics. No luck. No matter, I thought, I'll just get more. I looked for the easiest and least stressful place to do so, and settled on a Defense mission at Stephano, Uranus. Only Warframe players will understand this part, but basically, I just paired a Rhino with a souped-up Vectis and some Ammo Restores just in case, picked a decent spot at each of the four defense points, casted Iron Skin, and then dared any motherf***er that shows up to come and knock me off my sniping spots - at which point a Scorpion catches me during my invincibility period and goes; "'kay." *Yoink!* I mean, how does that even work, devs? When I'm invincible, she can yoink me, but when I'm not, she can't?

Anyway, I digress. The Relic I wanted was part of a reward pool that included 6 other Relics - and 3 complete and utter useless junk - each with supposedly the same 10% chance to drop. I started my runs. 10 runs later, nothing. Okay, that's fine. 20 runs. I'll get one at any moment now, right? 30 runs. I felt like half of my drops were the useless junk. 40 runs. My arms are dead, my fingers are in agony, and I could eat a bus. Whole.

All in all, it took me 43 runs just to get the Relic I wanted. Then immediately after that, it made me suffer through another 26-run drought. For something that's supposed to have 10% chance to drop. 10% my arse.

After that, I decided to record the drop rate on a spreadsheet. I had no idea what I was going to do with the data, but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being paranoid. Coincidentally or not, the thing started dropping more regularly, but still with substantial gaps between them. Enough to be annoying. As you'll see later, this was the first of several "coincidentally or not."

All in all, it took me some 150-160 runs, plus many Void Fissures, just to get a set of 10 refined Relics. The drop rate at that point was about 7%. I cracked them open. Nothing. All that hard work. Nothing.

I was enraged, but also demoralised. I was tempted to call it quits and just spend some Platinums buying it from someone the RNGerk hasn't screwed. I decided instead to have one last crack at it, this time with a kitchen sink in hand. I would spend the next couple of weeks running Stephano in multiple sets of five everyday, to get a set of at least 24 Relics to shove up the RNG's arse and see if it coughs up what I want. Even then, I contemplated high possiblity of total failure.

The gaps between drops got more and more annoying, at which point I started to record them as well. Also coincidentally or not, the moment I started doing so, the thing started to drop with much more satisfactory regularity, bringing the drop rate up to 11%. What? I started recording all the bullshit you're putting me through, and all of sudden you decide to behave yourself? F*** you.

Some 200 runs later, I finally got my set of 24. But I didn't trust the damn thing, so I kept running for more at a much more relaxed daily set of ten while I refine the ones I already had. It still dropped at a satisfactory rate - until seemingly out of nowhere, it put me through another 35-run drought. Again, coincidentally or not, it was right after I had openly called it "RNGerk" in chat with someone. What? I called you "RNGerk" one time and you get pissy and decide to punish me? F*** you. I don't care if you don't like it, after that 42-run nightmare drought, you deserve to be called worse. One of the runs in that streak was especially notable: I had just finished the last wave and went to pick up a piece of junk dropped by one of the enemies, only for the game to give me a duplicate of the exact same useless junk as "mission reward" immediately afterwards. Ha. Ha. Very funny. F*** you.

All in all, I had put together a set of 28 Relics, all refined and ready to go. Hundreds of Stephano runs, maybe just as many or more Void Fissures, and it all came down to this moment. And throughout it all, I had one question in the back of my mind: what would royally piss me off more; if I was to go through all of that hard work and aggravation only to still get nothing, or if I was to go through all of that hard work and aggravation only to get it on the first go? No matter, I thought, this was the moment of truth. I cracked one open.

Guess what happened.

I still don't have an answer to my question, I just know I still have no idea whether to be ecstatic or pissed off. I also still have no idea what I'm going to do with the remaining 27 refined Relics.

Anyway, got any RNG sagas of your own to tell? Please say yes. Please tell me I'm not alone in having to put up with this kind of madness.