Airship Guide

[Nyalia]

So is it now confirmed favor is a better stat than retrieval?

See above - there's no proven (or even suggested) causation between high Favor and better drops. However, there may be some correlation there, because no stat affects the rarity, but higher Retrieval usually means lower Speed and lower Surveillance. Those two are the stats that actually matter. High Survey gives you a better chance to get two chances at an item per sector, and high Speed gives you more chances over time. So, a ship that has low Retrieval has higher of the stats that actually matter. Favor is not one of those. Retrieval doesn't matter because you only get 1 Spoil per hit (unless you get Optimal yield (which gives a chance at 2) and get lucky).

I wish people would stop saying that about Favor without any data to back it up =\ The only thing Favor affects, from my research, is exp gains.