An interesting topic in Entropia Universe has always been around perception skill gains. Some people insanely believe in it, others become slightly intrigued, and some just ignore it when it happens. I’m in the camp of you got my attention but we have been down this road before.

The theory behind perception gains is when you get one something “interesting” could be nearby. Now, what that “something” is can mean such a wide range of things you have to be careful to not overdo it.

I had my reasons for being back on Calypso and a trend I was noticing that I thought I would give Hogglo a try. Those reasons however don’t matter to the topic at hand here. Other than the fact over many hunts, I was getting tons of perception gains. Which fueled a different theory I was going off that ended up not panning out for me. At least something come out of this total disaster.

So what could that something interesting end up meaning? As a long-time miner, I can tell you when you are out mining and you get one there more than likely another miner next by just off the radar. It is something interesting and funny when both miners get a perception check and start mining like crazy thinking a massive tower find is within their range. More times than not it was just another miner close by or had nothing to do with mining whatsoever.

However, loot was quite bad that night and the following day at last for me. There was nothing like someone else getting a global on the land I was on to give me that insight that it was just another player I was always just missing out on finding. I had to go on other content clues I was finding.

There is also the belief that it can be nothing at all when a perception gain happens. Some believe around 10% of the time when you get a perception gain there was nothing of interest nearby. You got a red herring and where the belief system you have regarding perception gains sends you on a wild goose chase.

While I think that is possible I also think there are just too many factors at play. Granted I have been hunting unwater in the past when I’ve gotten a perception check and there was nothing within sight that I could find. However, it could have just been a player just off the radar that I never found hunting the same creature I was.

Why was getting a perception check important underwater? You can’t mine resources underwater. The funny thing about perception gains is they don’t have to be related to the activity you are doing. It could be anything that yields something interesting.

This case in point was proven during my Hogglo hunt. I was hunting Hogglo and got a perception skill gain. After I killed all creatures in the area I went back to around where I believe I got the skill gain. Granted I did not mark the exact location.

So should I have put on an amp and sent it full send? Heck no at least from my own experience I won’t be. Throughout the night I ended up dropping quite a few probes and finding nothing or a slightly bigger than a normal claim or both an enmatter and an ore. Perception gains relating to mining can mean so many different things.

I’ve seen people almost go insane thinking something big is about to happen. When in fact nothing did or it was just something interesting of being a slightly better amount looted. It could be something as simple as uncommon item dropping. Heck, I’ve even found a nice pocket of a bunch of mining claims all next to each other from a perception gain.

There will even be players going around only looking to see if they get a perception gain before moving on to another area. More times than not I’ve gotten great loot without getting a perception gain. Granted anytime someone gets a massive HoF or ATH they swear they got a perception gain. This just adds fuel to the fire and people's beliefs around perception gains in general.

There is also far more insanity beyond perception gains. Players have always tried to work out the meaning behind different skill gains. While other skill gains could try and give you a range something interesting could be up to away. That is one rabbit hole after many years of playing this game I tend to avoid.

Final Thoughts

A single perception gain could simply mean:

• Player just off the radar
• Ore or EnMatter claim
• Fruit, dung, or rock nearby
• A creature on radar could have “slightly” better loot
• Nothing you end up finding at all

I’m not even going to go down the rabbit hole of larger vs small perception gains. I’ve seen massive skill gains mean nothing that I could find. While the smallest of skill gains result in getting a global. It is no wonder some people just ignore them and go on with their life in this game.

As far as how perception gains panned out for me in my many hunts this time on Hogglo. It kept the over 1,200k PED hunting spree on Hogglo from being a 50% loss. It was however still a total disaster. At least perception gains helped me find around 100 PED in loot at the cost of 20 PED or so from hunting Atrox and mining that I would have otherwise not done.

This ended up not being the post I thought I would be making. At some point i'll need to get revenage on Hogglo! Granted to my shock I’m almost break even over my lifetime of hunting them.

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• Another Hogglo Hunt
• Entropia Universe | Longtooth Conclusion Raining Globals
• Entropia Universe | D-Class Amp Mining On Calypso Part 1

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Entropia Universe.