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)

Looting
I hereby confirm that looting does not add more per mob, but simply increase the CHANCE of it being dropped. This also increases the chance of the item being enchanted. This was tested with Looting Level 100 to make results more clear and responsive, but looting I through III should still behave the same way, just have less effect (it's looting 100 after all). Out of 5 bows, all 5 were enchanted. Same with all 29 gold swords. 4 Bane of Arthropods I, 1 Bane of Arthropods II, 2 Bane of Arthropods III, 2 Fire Aspect 1, 4 Smite II, 4 Smite III, 4 Sharpness I, 3 Sharpness II, and 2 Looting I. Some had 2 enchantments. With this confirmed data I will edit the page as needed. Funky3000 22:03, 6 March 2012 (UTC)