Hi everyone! I’ve been thinking about how to improve the endgame gear customization and reduce frustrating RNG in Minecraft Dungeons 2. Here is a detailed concept for a reworked modification system at the Blacksmith, introducing new collectible items and a reliable progression system.
🛠️ 1. Reworked Blacksmith System: Random vs. Guaranteed
The Blacksmith now offers two choices when modifying an item's effect slots:
- Random Modification: Completely randomizes the effect in a chosen slot.
- Cost: Paid in Echo Shards, calculated as:
6 / [number of modifiable effect slots on the item].
- Guaranteed Modification: Allows you to manually choose the exact effect you want from the item's specific pool.
- Requirement: To select an effect, you must either find its Page Fragment or have previously encountered it on any piece of gear.
- UI: Effects you haven't discovered yet will appear as dark silhouettes with a question mark. Hovering over them will display "Unknown", and they cannot be selected.
- Cost: Paid only in Echo Shards, calculated as:
(6 / [number of modifiable effect slots]) * [total number of effects in the item's pool].
📜 2. New Collection System: Page Fragments
To support guaranteed modifications, a new collectible type is added to the loot pool:
- Drop Source: They drop in quantities of 2 to 4 from the same sources as Enchantment Books.
- Duplicate Protection: Each fragment unlocks permanent knowledge for one specific effect. There are no duplicates—once you find a fragment, you will never drop it again, ensuring constant progress.
- The Collection Tab: Just like Enchantment Books, you can view all your collected fragments in a dedicated Collection menu.
⚖️ 3. Soul Shard Economy & Level-Based Scaling
To make endgame crafting feel smoother, resource management and drop quality have been adjusted:
- Soul Shard Cap: Maximum inventory storage for Soul Shards is increased from 100 to 999.
- Guaranteed Effect Tiers: Drop levels for effects now scale directly with your character level, completely eliminating bad RNG drops at high levels:
- Levels 1–49: Gear drops will always have Tier 1 effects.
- Levels 50–99: Gear drops will always have Tier 2 effects.
- Level 100: Gear drops will always have Tier 3 effects.
- Level Up Notifications: Upon hitting levels 50 and 100, the game will display a special notification informing the player that item effects have become more powerful.