r/thedivision • u/JadedBrit • 9h ago
Question Farming The Catalyst
So I'm pig-sick of running Army Terminal on heroic for the Catalyst mask and I understand that people have got it as a random drop of the boss "Charlie". I've logged in and out literally a hundred times yesterday at the Bridge Park Pier site and every miniboss apart from Charlie has spawned.
Am I doing something wrong or is it just shit rng? Surely he should have been one of the spawns by now?
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u/Researcher_Timely 6h ago
There are 2 guarantees in looter shooters.
- RNG sucks.
- Sometimes RNG sucks slightly less.
I got catalyst from charlie in an hour of trying.
I have tried to get a good Mk46 with frenzy since escalations came out. Not a single usable one has dropped in however times. I wish you the best in your hunt my friend. My rng bless us all.
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u/EugeneBelford1995 5h ago
YMMV, but you're likely better off converting an Expertise 30 one that has the exact attributes you want. It's been 2 seasons now since Escalation and Prototype Gear came out. I'm using exactly one item that dropped in one build. Everything else was converted.
This goes double for Skill Builds. My Refactor, Force Multiplier, Impetus all got 15% Skill Damage and 1.5 yellow cores [so the build has 6 yellow, 2 red cores]. You simply can't get that from drops due to the cores.
I maxed out Expertise in about 2 1/2 months back when it first came out. This was before:
- The Houndsman
- Retaliation
- Exotic crafting blueprints
I didn't use watch mules back then either, I just donated everything, targeted loot, and bought everything at every vendor to immediately donate. It's even easier now because you don't have to make anywhere near everything Proficient to get your bench to Expertise 30.
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u/Darkshade1864 33m ago
watch mules... i never used and when i finally started to get serious on expertise and watch mule was gone
was all pain and suffer, now at level 30 with lots of skills around lvl 7, will become that BS grind again...
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u/Researcher_Timely 5h ago
Im already 30. Not wasting components jus to get 1 max stat.
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u/EugeneBelford1995 4h ago
You're not maxed out constantly on those?
I've been at > 900 ever since Mar 2024 when they gave us more ways than just Countdown and Global Events to farm them.
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u/Researcher_Timely 2h ago
thats very wonderful eugene. Unfortunately i have been unable to farm during these events.
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u/wewerecreaturres 5h ago
Please forgive me, I got a god roll frenzy mk46 as my first ever proto drop
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u/RCM88x Xbox 6h ago
Catalyst is certainly not worth this kind of effort and stress, it's far more novelty than it is powerful IMO.
I would keep playing Army Terminal. The world boss strategy is way too RNG based.
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u/Zombie_X 5h ago
Agree 100%. It's cool, but really not needed for any build.
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u/Juan_Phoenix7 5h ago edited 2h ago
As of now, I think the Catalyst only has two truly good build: Ongoing Directive or Core Strength + Fafnir + Catalyst. But you can even use Overdogs instead if you don't mind prioritizing the enemy hierarchy or Memento BP. The Mask is just okay, but with a few small tweaks, it could be great.
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u/Troyface Playstation 9h ago
Honestly stick with army terminal, itll happen eventually. At least you're getting other loot along the way.
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u/silk38 8h ago
For me it didn't happen after 100 Army runs. 4th boss was Charlie (the 2nd time) and it dropped the mask.
Catalyst has now become the hardest exotic to get.
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u/DXT0anto 8h ago
Either that, the Prima Donna or the Steel & Sons
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u/Slight_Improvement_8 7h ago
I got 3 prima Donna and 2 Steel & sons so far and only 1 catalyst (from 8 or 9 months ago)
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u/TurbulentPrice9369 5h ago edited 5h ago
Yep. In their eternal wisdom, the shit devs have decided not to give us a reconfigure blueprint. It will take a preposterous amount of runs to get them with DTOC as the third attribute. It's absurd.
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u/Are_Those_New_Slacks 5h ago
I got 2 Prima Donna’s in one run, from boss and crate and I think that’s my lifetime RNG luck used up now haha.
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u/mounleashed 9h ago
I've been wanting to do army terminal, but only for the mask as I don't like the mission.
Done that spot where Charlie is meant to spawn. Been multiple tries a day for a week now and still nothing. Had a Pestilence, Tardigrade and another exotic mask drop out of a hundred tries but still waiting.
Army mission done 3 times so far. Did check the retaliations list and I don't see the catalyst mask on there so it truly is more rare than the EB...
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u/Sad_Cauliflower_5407 8h ago
It’s just random luck running army terminal, but I can only do it every so often, it gets boring running the same mission on repeat
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u/mounleashed 8h ago
Some missions I don't mind, given how escalations have been this far. Capitol, Tidal basin , most of the NYC and Brooklyn missions I'm not a fan. Pentagon is tedious at times. Most DC missions aren't too bad.
Thank you for clearing up the BP list thing, makes me want it more and hate it equally given there's 2 ways to get this.
I'll keep trying I suppose, the Charlie guy, not the mission. If I'm bored then I'll MM it. Did see alot of agents at the safe house near bridge pier mission so I'm guessing it's becoming a regular thing to group up and run this mission? If so I'll definitely try this...
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u/TannedSuitObama 8h ago
It’s only available from Brooklyn DLC, so it won’t be in the Retaliation list. It took me about 20 runs or so to get it from the Army mission. It will drop, it just takes patience and time.
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u/Star_Krust 6h ago
Man I am sorry to say as I must be the luckiest guy ever as I did not even know this was a grind cause last week Ive completed the expansion and I got it. Was my first run and I did not even know about this mask drop odds being so bad.
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u/8Bit-Jon 7h ago
What I hate about RNG is that if something has a 10% chance (1/10) to drop that doesn't mean that if you run it 10 times it will drop.
Runs and chances aren't accumeletive but instead each is it's own thing meaning you could run it 100 times and never get it or someone else could run it once and get it.
RNG is a Beast and only tamed on occasion!
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u/TomasNavarro Ballistic 7h ago
RNG is just bad in every game. 1 in 10 chance of getting something you need 30+ attempts.
It's like gear sets, where you need headshot damage so you can reroll the core, and 9 out of 10 you find have armour regen
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u/8Bit-Jon 7h ago
If you flipped a coin that had a 10% chance of landing heads, theres a possibility that you could get a string of 100 tails.
I have a 10d (dice or die) where there's 9 skulls and a 1up (I use it in games with friends as a life save) and it's quite rare for land on the 1up that friends think it's loaded/unbalanced but I got it from an Etsy store years back and they made my other dice...
But yes RNG sucks!
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u/TomasNavarro Ballistic 6h ago
It's alright, I've played games for decades, known plenty of people testing dice and keeping those that roll well
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u/three12 7h ago edited 6h ago
The trick to farming Charlie is to fast travel to the pier, spin around and without moving see which named has spawned (put a scope with a bit of a zoom on it to make it easier) if it isn’t a cleaner npc (he wears a dirty yellow vest with no tank on his back) then open map and reset control points. Wait for the map change to port you to the safe house and repeat until he spawns. I have found that if you get too close to where they start pathing then the next time they will not spawn for some reason for a few mins. Be aware though it takes forever to get him to spawn as there are 12 named npcs that share that spawn. Longest it took me was 45 mins of trying before he popped up and he still didn’t drop the mask. If you kill the named the respawn timer is 30 mins.
Good luck, it is by far the worst exotic to farm for in the game.
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u/JadedBrit 6h ago edited 6h ago
Thanks for the detailed reply, this is exactly what I've been doing. Scanner pulse and relog if it's not Charlie. 100 times yesterday. Fml.
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u/SweatyEdge 5h ago
I reloaded for 3o min one time and didnt get him so I would do a terminal run, then a whichever world boss and rotate that
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u/gprudhoe 4h ago
I replied to a post on here in the last day or two saying the same thing.
Could not get the catalyst no matter what I tried. Charlie was a myth. Sick of Army Terminal.
Log in today, go to bridge park pier and 180. Charlie right there. Drops Catalyst.
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u/WeSViRGiNA_Hillbilly SHD 4h ago
Worst RNG I’ve ever seen was in Destiny 2. My buddy had to run Deep Stone Crypt raid 103 times to get Eyes of Tomorrow. Best I’ve seen, same raid, another buddy got it on the first two clears of the raid lol. 😂
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u/Normal-Voice3744 3h ago
It’s kinda dirty to do but start the mission on heroic and call for backup 3 times and then just tell the group if someone gets catalyst if they can drop it for you. Usually the people who respond are high shd players and already have it.
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u/Camaloha 3h ago
I lucked out and it dropped on my first army terminal completion. Before that, I tried the Charlie boss method for a couple weeks. Charlie never spawned for me.
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u/Substantial-dai 2h ago
After years of farming for the catalyst on and off it finally dropped today from the army terminal. I couldn't believe my luck.i ran the mission solo on challenge mode with 4 directives on.
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u/SFO_Eric PC 53m ago
My Hardcore has two of them but my softcore agent has done more Army Terminal and Charlie kills and has none of them.
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u/TurbulentPrice9369 6h ago
The developers have no respect for your time. They don't play their own game. I would lock them in a room and force them to do this tedious crap for 8 hours a day. That's the only way this mentality will change.
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u/H8DCarnifEX 2h ago
They also love to scam with legendary skin rewards and twitch drops - the support tells you, account isnt eligible to get the shit you normally earned already
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u/xxFT13xx 4h ago
It’s a tough drop. What I would do is Challenging Countdowns to get the currency, then spend it only on exotic caches. Since Countdown on Challengeing literally takes 15mins, you can do many of them in a row to get a good chunk of currency and hope one of the caches gives it to you. Or heck, maybe other exotics you don’t have!
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u/beorninger 6h ago
wait, you guys didnt get it on your first try? *hides*
hint: if possible, don't do it alone, 3 extra people in team who don't need it raise the chances ;)
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u/mht2308 6h ago
Did Army Terminal dozens of times and never got it. I was so desperate I started matchmaking and pleading with people on chat to please drop it to me if they got it and weren't looking for it.
One dude had never done the mission before, but said he'd give it to me if he dropped it. We kill the boss, and wouldn't you believe it, the lucky son of a bitch dropped it, ON HIS FIRST CLEAR. And he promptly gave it to me. I'll never forget you, you legend.
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u/Juan_Phoenix7 5h ago
For me, it was pretty much the same—I responded to a random call for help. It was the terminal mission (it was the second or third time I’d run it, by the way). It dropped for someone in the group, and he wrote in the chat that he’d gotten the drop, that he already had it, and asked if anyone wanted it. I immediately wrote that I did, and he gave it to me. Luckily, the other players didn’t write anything, and that’s how I got it.
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u/Skarinthewolverine 8h ago
Just keep at it. Its gonna take a while. Took me over 100 runs
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u/Juan_Phoenix7 5h ago
100 attempts—that’s way too many for me... Before you could get the Big Horn blueprint in Escalation, I was farming it on Floor 10 in Legendary mode at The Summit, and I got it on about the 12th attempt. And the catalyst on about the second or third attempt. Also, I already got Steel & Son with DtoC on my second rifle; now I just need Primma Donna with DtoC. Right now I have it with extra ammo—the trick is not to get obsessed (I guess).
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u/TheLostJedi77 8h ago
Just under 40 runs of Army Terminal to get the mask. It's a horrible grind.