Antiquities Leads Not Dropping

Kiahnia · October 2020

My buddy was after the music box and having a real issue trying to get the last lead he needed, yet I was on my third music box and already had another of the piece he was unable to get. Thing is, he plays almost exclusively in the Daggerfall region whereas I play almost exclusively in the Aldmeri region. I know that it says the lead can drop from any safebox, but I suggested that since all the pieces were located in Aldmeri areas, the drop rate might be higher.

Needless to say, he got his final lead that night after farming around the Dominion.

madman65 · October 2020

I`ve work throughout the whole event to get the third piece for the Aldmeri Symphonia. I have probably opened 1500+ safeboxes and still no drop. It is probably bugged but I need to know did anyone find it? A bunch of players were working for it as well because it was hard to find safeboxes. Thanks.

katanagirl1 · October 2020

Kiahnia wrote: »

My buddy was after the music box and having a real issue trying to get the last lead he needed, yet I was on my third music box and already had another of the piece he was unable to get. Thing is, he plays almost exclusively in the Daggerfall region whereas I play almost exclusively in the Aldmeri region. I know that it says the lead can drop from any safebox, but I suggested that since all the pieces were located in Aldmeri areas, the drop rate might be higher.

Needless to say, he got his final lead that night after farming around the Dominion.

Getting the last lead, no matter whether it’s the gold one or the blue one, takes such a long time I honestly believe there is some sort of cooldown in effect so you don’t get too many music boxes. I have gotten the gold lead four times now and I don’t spend time in AD areas much at all. (I do a lot of stealing, lol!)

I also wonder if those leads might somehow cause a conflict with other leads from safeboxes especially.

Leads from chests also take a long time to get. I estimate I just spent around 10 hours farming Khenarthi’s Roost for the purple furnishing lead. I did get 3 gold furnishing leads during that time for some unknown reason. This was my third purple one.

Console players don’t have add-on maps to direct us to chests and safeboxes in game so we only know of the ones we find and remember. I think ZOS should take this into account for our drop rate of leads.

newtinmpls · October 2020

Minyassa wrote: »

Not only is the RNG capricious but I am convinced it is self-aware, ominscient, and very sadistic.

Always remember to pray over your chests .....

madman65 · October 2020

Found my third piece today, found in Deshaan in an advanced safebox. Like I said in the previous comment, 1500+ safeboxes but I used the link: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Safebox to help speed up the hunt. There some DLC areas not mentioned but there is safeboxes in those areas, be sure to check the mage/fighter guilds. I started working on Advanced/Master safeboxes only so keep on and you will find it, Good Luck.

Aurrynthea_Drake · October 2020

knudjmb14_ESO wrote: »

Shadowproject wrote: »

I'm at 600+ safeboxes in several zones for the Preserved Music Box Mechanism lead and nothing.

This is some seriously stupid RNG, and starting to become not worth the effort.

Edit: 5 minutes after coming to the forums to moan about RNG, it dropped lol.

Sorry to say but I have two music boxes. They do drop.

I have 6 of those bloody music boxes but no sign of the font of auri el 🤦🏻‍♀️

Lrsamways · March 2021

Has anyone had issues with any antiquities since update 29?

I was grinding out the Golden Idol of Morihaus before the update and got two of them, since the update i have killed Luminarous (think thats the spelling?) some ridiculous amount of times in addition to killing minotaurs in the gold coast and the new dungeon plus some other locations but have yet to see it drop for the third codex.

Also having issues with the second and third Yokudan Skystone Scabbard. Picked safeboxes, killed delve and worlds bosses, mobs treasure chests and nothing. For a purple lead its like hens teeth.

Would appreciate any confirmation of these dropping since update 29.

tim99 · April 2021

i havent drop the sun-feather in sommersend while farming it for days now.

it was dropping from gryphons in the beginning, but the addon now says "geysirs and portals". I'm doing all 3 of them now, but no lead. i also start to wonde if its bugged or has weird cooldowns or bugged constellations (cause i was doing the green and blue ones before, and now it seems to drop nothing any more)

tmbrinks · April 2021

tim99 wrote: »

i havent drop the sun-feather in sommersend while farming it for days now.

it was dropping from gryphons in the beginning, but the addon now says "geysirs and portals". I'm doing all 3 of them now, but no lead. i also start to wonde if its bugged or has weird cooldowns or bugged constellations (cause i was doing the green and blue ones before, and now it seems to drop nothing any more)

Still dropping from Gryphons, have gotten 2 of them this patch to finish my codex... got those 2 within 20 kills of one another, after killing probably close to 1000 Gryphons between getting #1 and #2

tim99 · April 2021

tmbrinks wrote: »

tim99 wrote: »

i havent drop the sun-feather in sommersend while farming it for days now.

it was dropping from gryphons in the beginning, but the addon now says "geysirs and portals". I'm doing all 3 of them now, but no lead. i also start to wonde if its bugged or has weird cooldowns or bugged constellations (cause i was doing the green and blue ones before, and now it seems to drop nothing any more)

Still dropping from Gryphons, have gotten 2 of them this patch to finish my codex... got those 2 within 20 kills of one another, after killing probably close to 1000 Gryphons between getting #1 and #2

/playdead
oh boy.. i'm between #1 and #2 now... maybe killed 100 or 200 today.... not a good future looks at me

but at least no bug... just manipulated RNG at least (get first soon, wait 100 years for the second, propably real rng at 3rd) ...

i really hate so much, that they dont talk about droprates and hidden cooldown.

once i was running 15 hours moongrave vet in a random queue always for the style page, just to find out a few days later, that it had a hidden cooldown of 24 hours. -.-

Rykoth · April 2021

I've had tusks of the orc father drop in old orsinium every day multiple times over. But I haven't had the anvil of old orsinium drop. Been ages since it's dropped. Is it bugged again?

jle30303 · March 2023

Things that I found once, but just can't find a second time, but need three of, and have made serious attempts at farming:

Prismatic Sunbird Feather (Gryphons)
Golden Idol of Morihaus (Minotaurs)
Warcaller's Painted Drum (Betnikh)
Tri-Angled Truth Altar (Bal Foyen)
Cat's Eye Prism (Khenarthi's Roost)
Moons-Blessed Ceremonial Pool (Southern Elsweyr)
Anvil of Old Orsinium (Old Orsinium)
Beacon of Tower Zero (Stormhaven)
Branch of Falinesti (Greenshade)

I begin to wonder if there is some mechanism that makes it much rarer to get antiquities *in general* a second time, after the first.

And also:

Font of Auri-El (Western Skyrim, Blackreach Greymoor) - I found this lead fairly early on after starting the game in Greymoor. Before I had any characters with a high enough level in Antiquities to excavate it. At the time, some leads seemed to stay forever and never expire (I noticed this seemed to be particularly true of the *first* lead for any item) so I assumed I could keep it till I was high enough level. However, it disappeared during a revamp, and I still hadn't levelled Scrying and Excavation high enough to have got it. It has since taken me two entire years (and playing 3 characters through 100% completion of Western Skyrim and Blackreach, PLUS seven more through completing every Delve, World Boss and Harrowstorm in both zones) to find a second lead for it, and actually acquire it for the first time, which I did last month.

**************************************************************

Also can't find even one of:
Dov-Rha Sabaton Toe Cap (Psijic portals, Southern Elsweyr) - Psijic portals are very rare.
Bloodshot Oculus (Watchers) - have killed tons of these, but no lead. Finally got the lead from Watchlings, but not the one from Watchers.
Lurker-skin Sheath (Chests, The Vile Manse, Reaper's March) - Chests in a public dungeon are a lottery at the best of times.

Known to be bugged:

Pale Order's Golden Band (Nighthollow Keep document). In this case I have 3 of them but cannot get the 4th - sometimes the document appears on the table, sometimes it does not, but even when it is there, it is not readable for me on any character?

BixenteN7Akantor · March 2023

I'm a huge antiquity farmer myself and I got some of those 3 times and I must say : "The Leads drop chance is way too low..."
It takes hours even when knowing the best farming method. Right now I'm farming Toothmaul Gully Group Boss for it's Stormweaver's Cavort lead, it has been 3 hours already...
I noticed too the 1st lead always drops way faster than the 2nd, 3rd, etc...
"Dov-Rha Sabaton Toe Cap" is a pain in the ###. I spent the whole Elsweyr event farming my 2nd one, and I only got it 4 days AFTER the event ended, so like 20 days of Runestones farming...
Pls devs do something

fall0athboy · July 2023

I have to wonder if the Yokuda Skystone Scabbard lead is bugged. It's been taking forever to get the third one.