How much does premade size add to key fragment drop rate?

Quepha··2 votes·2,339 views

It's very difficult to figure this out due to the sliding drop rates over the course of a month, lack of consistent premade sizes, small sample size with an apparent limit of key fragments we can find in a month, and my lack of desire to play solo as all I know is that it would reduce drop chances, so can a Rioter just give us an idea of how much benefit we gain from going through the effort to get a 5 man premade together?

There are a number of ways it COULD be working that all influence how much effort I should put into finding that fifth man before going into the queue...

Additive: it gives a simple flat boost to drop rate per member of your premade, say a 3% boost per member, so a 5 man premade may increase the droprate from a base of 10% to 22% (4 additional members * 3% + 10% base). I highly doubt it works like this as it would make it more influential later on in the month while barely being visible early on, and it seems like almost any nonzero value would end up with a higher droprate than I'm experiencing in my full 5 man premade games.

% boost: This appears to be the most likely, something like a 20% boost per additional member in your premade for a total of a 80% boost in a full party (aka 1.8x droprates, NOT a key fragment dropping in 80% of games). This would scale appropriately with reducing droprates and it doesn't seem too far from my experience in key fragments dropping from wins.

Multiplicative: Functionally the same as the previous at a value of +100%. This seems unlikely given I had such a low drop rate in my premades and solo games would be only 1/5 of THAT drop rate yet people, myself included seem to be reporting more key fragments from solo queue wins than would be expected if they were so rare. I include this method because it is basically the same effect that premades have on getting chest drops (5x the number of players who can get an S to qualify you for a chest on whatever champion you're playing) and it seems odd that the only method we have to increase key drop rates seems much less effective for keys than it is for chests which everyone thought was going to be more about champion mastery than simply getting a premade.

Stronger scaling: Some stronger form of scaling (quadratic?) based on party size. This also seems unlikely since the increase would be even more drastic than multiplicative. This possibility is only included because of the roulette system riot used for party rewards a while back where 2 man premades had almost no benefit while 5 man premades had increased odds of a bonus AND access to higher tier prizes.

Key fragment drop rates seem frustratingly low with little you can do to affect them while chest drops are hilariously easy to get simply by doing the exact same thing that is supposed to help you get keys. Riot said that some people were supposed to get more keys and others would get more chests but it seems pretty clear that opening chests is completely gated by key drops while chest drops are trivial for the vast majority of players.

8 Comments

Minarde1 votes

%boost do seem the most likely, as both Party IP and Mastery do the same thing.

Riot said that some people were supposed to get more keys and others would get more chests but it seems pretty clear that opening chests is completely gated by key drops while chest drops are trivial for the vast majority of players.

I'm not sure I agree here. Casuals who only play a few games would likely find more keys than chests. Boards community tends to be more dedicated, so the falling key drop rates become more noticeable to them.

Quepha1 votes

{quoted}

%boost do seem the most likely, as both Party IP and Mastery do the same thing.

I'm not sure I agree here. Casuals who only play a few games would likely find more keys than chests. Boards community tends to be more dedicated, so the falling key drop rates become more noticeable to them.

I get my chest within 3 games of it being available every week, the odds of ANYONE on your team getting an S- or better is insanely high. I didn't even get my first full key before I had 3 chests ready to open.

Minarde1 votes

It's anyone in your premade, not your team. There's also the fact that chests are limited to one per champion per season. There's probably a significant number of people who'd prefer to play a small set of champs rather than constantly rotating to farm chests.

Quepha1 votes

{quoted}

It's anyone in your premade, not your team. There's also the fact that chests are limited to one per champion per season. There's probably a significant number of people who'd prefer to play a small set of champs rather than constantly rotating to farm chests.

It's very easy to put together a 5 man premade through chat and you'll usually get your chest on the very first game with the champion. If you aren't willing to put together a premade for chests then you aren't willing to do one for keys either so your key fragment droprate is also in the gutter. The 450 champions alone have you covered for like 3 months with champions you can afford from about 2 days' worth of IP each if you're playing very casually. 1350 champs cost less than a week's worth of IP each and that covers you for the rest of the year.

Players who absolutely refuse to touch champs other than their main for even a single game are definitely very rare outliers with how easy it is to get those chests.

Minarde1 votes

It's very easy to put together a 5 man premade through chat

Not really. Depending on specific friend list sizes and MMRs, it could be fairly difficult to get a decent 5man together. And just grouping with the first four people makes for shoddy matchmaking and thus shoddy games.

and you'll usually get your chest on the very first game with the champion.

Definitely not true. It's typically a few games minimum.

Players who absolutely refuse to touch champs other than their main for even a single game are definitely very rare outliers with how easy it is to get those chests.

You mean at least 2-3 games with 34 different champs? That's a little much to expect from everyone. Even some of the people I regularly play with only play 7-10 champs at most. There's also the fact that neither TT nor ARAM have chest drops for now.

Quepha1 votes

{quoted}

It's typically a few games minimum.

I have done this for 7 chests now. I don't think I have yet gone more than 2 games without getting a chest due to someone in my premade earning an S rank. S ranks are very common among a group of 5 people.

Minarde1 votes

Your experiences are atypical then, as, going by the post-game notifications, I run into maybe one S-rank every five games or so.

Nekusen1 votes

ive been playing several duos a day for weeks and still no keys since my 3rd chest

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