Allow Aetherspun Gold to be Tradable / Obtained Through Other Methods

[EmiliosN]

Does anyone else feel a little frustrated that an upgrade material is completely locked behind random chance?

I can understand the intention of wanting players to engage with all aspects of Occult Crescent in order to upgrade their gear:
- Arcanaut +1 - Silver + Gold Pieces
- Arcanaut +2 - Forked Tower + Coffers

But I think that allowing Aetherspun Gold to be obtained through more than just random coffers can be beneficial for everyone.

To start:

What is Aetherspun Gold?
Aetherspun Gold is a material you can obtain rarely from treasure coffers around The Occult Crescent South Horn. It is used to augment your Arcanaut gear from +1 to +2, providing additional stats.

Each augment requires 3 pieces of Aetherspun Gold and 6 pieces of X-Fixative, a material purchasable with Sanguinite earned from The Forked Tower: Blood.

Why is this an issue?
Aetherspun Gold only being obtainable through random chance means that players can be bottle-necked in upgrading their gear without any sort of alternative method.

Due to the upgrade requirements, Aetherspun Gold has no value if not combined with the X-Fixatives, and vice versa, worth only a measly 10 Silver Pieces if you have no plans to upgrade your gear.

Players can begin to feel trapped by this, leading to a poor gameplay experience and ultimately, abandonment of the content altogether.

Suggestions

1. Allow Aetherspun Gold to Be Tradable and Sold on the Marketboard

Players with both gil to spare and not enough time to dedicate to this sort of grind can purchase Aetherspun Gold off the marketboard, meaning the only bottleneck of the upgrade becomes the X-Fixatives purchased with Sanguinite.

This encourages players to step into the Forked Tower to finish their upgrades, engaging with their local Field Operation communities and creating a more vibrant scene.

Additionally, players with no plans to enter the Forked Tower or use the Aetherspun Gold as upgrade materials have an additional item they can sell to make money, which ties in with:


2. Make Aetherspun Gold a Guaranteed Drop from Golden Bunny Coffers

Fortune Carrots are a TRADABLE rare item that can drop from treasure coffers. They're used to summon Happy Bunnies that spawn a Gold Coffer, providing higher tier rewards.

Tying Aetherspun Gold to Golden Bunny Coffers allows the Fortune Carrots to be circulated much more often on the Marketboard, instead of being mostly bought and sold for Achievement Hunters. This also allows Aetherspun Gold to be as expensive as the Fortune Carrots themselves.

In the recent live-letter, Yoshi-P had expressed that they had measured the value of these coffers almost entirely by pure Gil, with the 200k reward from Golden Bunny Coffers not even being a drop in the bucket to what players are familiar with nowadays.

[EmiliosN]

3. Make Aetherspun Gold a Rare Drop from The Forked Tower: Blood

While the least alluring suggestion, allowing Aetherspun Gold to drop from The Forked Tower means that players are gaining additional rewards during the raid besides the pure Sanguinite.

While I appreciate the devs' intentions with the Aetherspun Gold, allowing it to be more accessible to players alleviates a frustrating bottleneck that could make or break the experience of upgrading your gear in Occult Crescent.

[Themarvin]

It all could be mainstream if they fixed Forked Tower....

[ACE135]

I think they want players to interact with all aspects of OC and not just one thing and being able to ignore everything else.

I have opened about 750 chests so far and have about 45 or so Aetherspun Gold and have no use for them.