u/UrukMakto

I want to give feedback about Prototype Gear and Escalation, because after spending a lot of time with the system, I honestly feel like the grind has too many RNG layers stacked on top of each other.

The idea of Prototype Gear is interesting. Having augments that can change how a build plays is a nice concept. But in practice, the amount of RNG and time investment required makes the system feel extremely punishing.

To build one proper Prototype setup, you need to go through all of this:

1. Wait for the right Escalation targeted loot rotation For example, if you want Striker Prototype pieces, you need Striker to appear as targeted loot in Escalation. There is no clear predictable schedule, so you might wait weeks without knowing when the set will come back.
2. Farm high tiers, usually T8-T10 The best rewards are tied to higher tiers, but those tiers are also where enemy damage and scaling feel the most punishing. Sometimes even basic red NPCs can delete you extremely fast, which makes the farming process frustrating rather than challenging.
3. Hope the right set piece drops Even when Striker is targeted loot, you still need the correct slot to drop.
4. Hope the stats are usable A lot of drops are rainbow rolls or have bad attributes. Getting the correct brand/set piece is not enough. The piece still needs good stats, otherwise it is not worth investing into.
5. Hope the augment is the right one Even after finally getting the right piece with decent stats, you still need the correct augment. If not, you have to reroll.
6. Spend Prototype Cores on rerolls Rerolling augments costs cores, and those are not cheap considering how much you need them for everything else.
7. Level the augment Even after getting the correct augment, you still need a huge amount of XP to level it up to 10. This takes a very long time.
8. Risk discovering later that the augment is underwhelming, unclear, or possibly bugged This is probably the most frustrating part. Some augments sound great on paper, but in practice they are hard to notice or do not seem to work as expected.

Examples:

Quantum sounds amazing because it gives a chance to become immune to damage. But after using several maxed Quantum pieces for a long time, the effect is very hard to notice in normal combat. It seems much more visible on fall damage, hazard/status damage, or area damage than against normal NPC gunfire. With only 3 pieces, it feels unreliable, and even with more pieces it is still RNG-based. If enemies can burst you down instantly, Quantum does not feel like a dependable survival tool.

Paradox is also confusing. The tooltip can suggest that it refills the magazine by 100, but in practice it seems to only return one or two bullets when it procs. If that is intended, the tooltip is misleading. If it is not intended, then the augment is bugged. Either way, it makes it very hard to know whether the investment is worth it.

This is the core problem: the system asks for a massive time investment, but the effects are not always clear, reliable, or well explained.

By the time you finally get:

• the right targeted loot rotation,
• the right gear set,
• the right slot,
• the right stats,
• the right augment,
• enough cores,
• enough XP to level it,

you are already extremely invested. So if the augment ends up being disappointing, bugged, stealth nerfed, or simply not working as expected, it feels terrible.

The system needs fewer layers of RNG or better ways to target what we actually want.

Some possible improvements:

• Let players select targeted loot for Escalation, like Summit or Countdown.
• Add a visible schedule for Escalation targeted loot rotations.
• Let players choose or craft a specific augment after enough investment.
• Reduce the XP needed to level augments.
• Improve augment tooltips so they accurately describe what the effect really does.
• Add clear buff icons or combat log feedback for augments like Quantum and Paradox.
• Make rerolling less punishing once a piece has already been heavily invested in.
• Give players a way to transfer an augment level from one Prototype piece to another, even with a cost.

Prototype Gear could be a great system, but right now it feels like RNG on top of RNG on top of RNG.

The grind would be more acceptable if the final result felt reliable and clearly explained. But when the augment itself is uncertain or hard to verify, the whole system becomes frustrating.

I do not mind farming. I do not mind long-term progression. But the current Prototype system feels too punishing for the amount of uncertainty involved.