I'm pretty sure this question has been asked before, and since I don't see it as an option in the Settings, I was wondering if there's a Hide Helm or 'invisible helmet' skin that already exists and hopefully won't be implemented as a purchase from the encroaching Store.
- Started the timer at capturing a fresh buttontail (it was a yellow one)
- Waited in the southern spawn point and occasionally traveled to the northern spawn point
- Checked around for buttontail roaming on the local layer, did not layer-hop. Was advised to layer-hop many times, respectfully declined as it would defeat the problem that layer-hopping being the only solution to hunting down a single critter.
- Verified with a freshly-layered player that he couldn't see any buttontails
- Started going insane and started singing Blue Swede with adlibbed lyrics in Farever-fashion in the chat about an hour in; some laughed, some sighed.
- Finally cut the stopwatch at the timestamp and packed it up; didn't see a buttontail after the fact either. It's quite possible you'll have to wait longer.
I'll come back to farm this darn thing and commit more time to Farever when more patches polish it up. EA is certainly a work in progress, so hopefully fixes are coming and this will be one of those issues addressed. This isn't a declaration or a dismissal of the developers' efforts but rather evidence of my findings so far on the Buttontail critter. I'm irritated but certainly not angry; they've shown clarity on previous issues and hopefully they'll continue to perform the best they can.
Best of luck to your hunting, because I'm not going to see that Sparkling Buttontail for a very long time I imagine! ♥ Going to take a break from it. Twenty-seven hours is a bit overmuch even for me to hunt down a single sub-skin of a critter.
Disclaimer: These are the mewlings of a collector and not a berate or assault on the developers. Before I talk about the buttontail, I'd like to express that I'm aware the game is in EA and my understanding on the capture-system and critter-respawn aspect that I have discovered using critters that are exclusively native to Prime Valley (to condense it to a group for simplicity). I'd also like to express that collection-difficulty comes with a manner of patience and that completion is not mandatory and that I have the full, free will not to engage in such pleasantries. They are means to add extra padding to the game, and I encourage it. So with this foundation laid out, I shall begin. This won't take long to read, though if you aren't a critter-collector then do not burden yourself by reading this.
I don't know the intended critter-respawn system, whether it's the rumored 10-15 minutes on a single layer or if it's intended to recycle through the sub-skins of a particular critter if you hearth back to an obelisk in the same zone so long as you haven't captured it. This is the case with the Saladmander, the Grassflopper, and the Leggybug; if you teleport back to Naveril and make the climb, you can cycle through the sub-skins in barely any time at all. VERY convenient and exciting to complete these entries (barring the special Yellow leggybug and the demonic Night sub-skins). This pleases me greatly since I'm well aware that the "sparky" sub-skin for each one has a significantly-reduced chance of appearing even with the obelisk-recycle method and the 10-15 minute respawn time (that knowledge I got from another player who was pursuing a turtle critter. I have not explored beyond Prime Valley or the Honeywoods due to being hung up on the buttontail's collection, being that it's only native to the Honeywoods' Green Grove). With some dedication you can get them all in a day if you choose to. Neither of these aforementioned occurrences happen with the buttontail.
I have long-believed as I have hunted these critters that the fraction of a particular sub-skin appearing is not equal across the board. There are 7 total variants of Buttontail that can appear in those woods with two spawn locations, so supposedly the chances of a sparkie appearing should be 14% (but this is not the case; you can still reach 100% if you inflate the chances of other skins showing up versus that single 14%, dropping the probability of that coin-flip by shaving off its own value and inflating the value of the other skins. I believe that's what happens here, which again isn't an issue if you have a high turnaround time of the critter showing up at all). This is not what occurs with the buttontail whereas its counterparts such as the grassflopper does have a high turnaround time, given the interesting nature of its 'recycle' obelisk feature. I don't know if that's intentional or if the respawn timer of 10 minutes is the actual intended one. We're still in early access.
I am fully aware I am obsessed and addicted to critter-capturing. This is a personal vice and burden. That being said, there is a striking contrast between critters where I have sat for about three hours on one layer to see if any new buttontails would appear and not seeing any despite running back and forth to both locations (and I've gotten quite good at seeing them from a distance). So far the current 'solution' for fellow collectors and I is to layer-hop, but this produces a significant problem since it leaves virtually no buttontails on the layers for effectively hours (if my findings are correct). The discrepancy between this critter and others is huge and it makes me wonder if the buttontail's respawn is the intended one, in which case completing that collection will be equal-parts impossible or excessively-hard and unnecessary for a game with a chief goal of 'grinding' and running dungeons repeatedly on higher difficulties for a chance at a collector's item or gear. Again, I'm not sure and my findings are inconclusive. What I do know is that I'm fighting the odds and have submitted my suggestions in-game to the development team. What any collector is facing with completing the buttontail sub-skins is (a) Finding a layer with buttontails on it (b) fighting other collectors for two possible buttontail spawns that don't respawn for an egregious amount of time and (c) fighting those nodes and for the chance at a sparkie to spawn with diminished odds of spawning compared to its shared sub-skins. And this frustration is coming from someone who patiently farmed Invincible off and on for ten years or so.
I've sufficiently summarized what my thoughts are and my issues with the buttontail critter collection at this time; I've seen the frustration from other collectors in-game, so while I'm not alone, I know very well this could be a design error or a bug affecting the respawn time of the buttontail critter in particular. I do not believe that layer-hopping is an effective method of hunting this, but it's the only effective means of hunting it barring waiting for hours to wait on a possible respawn (and I have information from fellow collectors that they were standing and awaiting a respawn on another critter and it appeared before them without obelisk-warping or moving in and out to despawn the mobs). Yes this is a reddit post so it's bound to receive pushback and all manner of negative feedback. I think I've been more than fair and collected, given my experience with hunting rare and elusive collector's items. I even used to shiny-breed Pokemon back in the day and would spend endless hours hatching eggs just to a friend could have a shiny Bulbasaur with perfect IVs, a hidden ability, and a rare set of moves. I understand patience for an obtainable goal. I am simply saying how it operates right now is excessive and may merit a look, considering it is very difficult and draining compared to the rest of the collector's critters. Thank you for your time to read this and many blessings to your hunting.