Harvested Soul Fragments - details on when they drop from Soul Reaper events

allochthons · June 21

Harvested Soul Fragments only drop from the named bosses at these events.

fizl101 wrote: »

If there are 3 npcs at the beginning it has a named boss, if there are 2 there isnt a named boss. If they are already dead if you get a shackled titan you will get a named boss

I took careful notes today, and my data agrees. Somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 of the already dead NPC events end in a boss, in my experience.
Thanks for the information, fizl101.

The UESP map has spawn sites noted on their maps, labeled "Dark Fissure."

Original post:

Is there a cooldown on Harvested Soul Fragments? I'm not getting them from all soul reapers. Tough to tell, since soul reapers are still new and hard to find (farmed out) on console.
Has anyone else noticed this?

ganzaeso · June 21

I always assume 1 per day on these kinds of collections.

It is a method ZOS has used to artificially prolong game time engagement for many years.

Ishtarknows · June 21

If there's a cool down it's like 5 minutes or something. When I farmed them a month or so ago I could get 2 in a row from consequent reaper encounters when they were spawning along the road towards Deshaan in southern Stonefalls. They are very rare though, I completed the encounter achievement with only 7 fragments.
There are 2 types of encounter though, the one with 2 NPC's doesn't give a mini boss fight, the one with 3 does and only the named bosses drop the fragments.

allochthons · June 21

Ishtarknows wrote: »

There are 2 types of encounter though, the one with 2 NPC's doesn't give a mini boss fight, the one with 3 does and only the named bosses drop the fragments.

Grrr. That is not clear at all. Thanks for the info. One of the ones that didn't drop for me was definitely an NPC one.

allochthons · June 21

Okay, data.

TLDR: There is no cooldown on Harvested Soul Fragment drops.
In order to get a Harvested Soul Fragment, the encounter has to end with a named boss. (There are at least two named bosses, maybe more).
There doesn't seem to be a correlation between pre-spawn NPCs and if there is a named boss with a Harvested Soul Fragment to loot. So AFAICT, there is no way to tell prior to the final spawn if a named boss will spawn with a fragment, and thus if the encounter is worth engaging. I'd love to hear different.

Details:

There seems to be 3 groups of pre-spawn NPCs. One with a Fighter's Guild defender, one with a Mage's Guide defender, and 1 with just civilians. I've gotten fragments from all three, and have not gotten fragments from all three of these types.

There are also soul reaper events with no pre-spawn NPCs. I've both gotten a named boss / fragment, and not gotten a named boss / fragment from these.

Old info:

It seems there does need to be a named boss, but I had a named boss when the encounter had green NPCs at the site prior to spawn, and got a fragment. I got a named boss when there were no NPCs, and got a fragment, so I think just the named boss is the key, not the presence or absence of green NPCs.

aleksandr_ESO · June 22

all cooldowns that people talk about in the community are made up by players who don't understand RNG, statistics, large numbers

fizl101 · June 22

If there are 3 npcs at the beginning it has a named boss, if there are 2 there isnt a named boss. If they are already dead if you get a shackled titan you will get a named boss

virtus753 · June 22

aleksandr_ESO wrote: »

all cooldowns that people talk about in the community are made up by players who don't understand RNG, statistics, large numbers

Even ones confirmed by ZOS?

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/639581/zenithar-box-drops-bugged-edit-hidden-cooldown-proven-by-kevin/p1

allochthons · June 22

15 Reapers killed today, with careful data keeping, and nothing I've seen contradicts @fizl101. Thanks for the clarification!

Djennku · June 22

Can confirm all this. If a mages/fighters/stirk npc and civilian are spawned (2 npcs) itll spawn the adds (ogrim, twilight and grevious twlight). If three civilian npcs spawn in the beginning, or just 3 npcs total, you'll see a spider daedra and shackled titan indicating a boss spawning and fragment drop.

This has been 100% accurate for every time I have run into these, and an easy way to tell early if it's going to get a drop.

These fragments are also tradable, and can be bought in guild traders or from friends as well.