Talk:Drops

Does anyone know what the chance of getting a rare drop is? In my newest save, started in 1.2.3, I've killed between 50 to 100 each skeletons and zombies, and only received a single rare drop (iron ignot). I don't think my grinder system would effect it (hole in the wall I attack them through). Anyone know? Raiu tree 05:30, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The chance is small enough that trying to determine it statistically would be extremely tedious; you'd have to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of mobs to obtain accurate numbers. Fortunately, MCP was just updated for 1.2.3, so it's possible to obtain mostly-comprehensible source code. The relevant bits:


 * Skeletons drop 0 to (2 plus Looting modifier) each of arrows and bones, only rare drop is a bow. Zombies drop (0-2) + (0-Looting modifier) rotten flesh, and iron swords are never enchanted. I believe the highest Looting modifier is 3, which only increases the chance of a rare drop to 2.538%, and doesn't affect which or how many you get. -- Orthotope 08:07, 5 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Wow, thank you! So then it looks like 1 in 40 without enchantments, unless I'm (very likely) reading it wrong. Good Work! Raiu tree 21:14, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Discuss other drops and orbs?
What do you think of expanding this article to cover non-rare drops and experience, or rather, all the effects of mobs' deaths? —kpreid 13:08, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * — I haven't seen an article on the general properties of non-rare drops. I think that all of these would have some useful commonalities for a single article (they're all entities, they all appear on death, and they each need a discussion of their probability distribution). —kpreid 13:08, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * — I could add the drop behavior for all mobs, wouldn't be too hard. The rare drops are distinct on a technical level, though: all mobs use the dropFewItems function, but only zombies, skeletons, and zombie pigmen use the new rare drop function. On the other hand, spiders only drop eyes when killed by a player, which is more similar to the rare drop behavior. -- Orthotope 21:02, 6 March 2012 (UTC)