Rift Lockbox Changes – How You Can Benefit

With RIFT 3.1 Hotfix #9, Trion has introduced improvements to future lockboxes, starting with the Levitate Supply Crates.

As per CM Morgana:

* Significant improvements have been made to lock boxes, starting with the all new Levitate Supply Crate!
– These lock boxes are now more likely to drop premium items, with a higher variety to boot! The possible drops include Character Portraits, Character Slot Extensions, Extended Hair Style Sets, Trade Skill Extensions, Underwater Mount Training, Planewalker: Water Attunement, Earring Slots, Skin Color Set Bundles and Hair Color Set Bundles!
– Almost all premium items are now tradable!
– The amount of Void Stones and Abyssal Crusader’s Marks that are rewarded have been increased.
– There is now a 100% drop chance for equipment.
– Rare runes no longer drop when opened at level 65.
– A new upgrade tier has been added to equipment that brings it in line with Marauder and Expert gear.
– Costume Bundles, Warfront Announcers and Combat Pet skins now have a chance to drop.
– Many of the less desirable potions and temporary enchants no longer drop.

How does this affect you? Well, if you purchase lockboxes, going forward the new boxes will have a chance at better drops, 100% chance of dropping lockbox gear and some of the undesirable items will no longer drop!

The biggest change to future lockboxes starting with the Levitate Supply Crates would be the ability to trade almost all premium items that drop from these lockboxes.

Tradeable Premium Items

A lot of the premium items that drop from these new lockboxes are now tradeable. This includes:

• Boosts
• Wardrobe Bundles
• Portraits
• Warfront Announcers
• Combat Pet Skins
• Character Slot Extension
• Hair Color Set
• Earring Slots Unlock

Yep, even Earring Slot Unlocks are tradeable!

What does this mean?

• It means that if you open a lockbox and you get a premium item, chances are you’ll be able to sell it to recoup some of the cost of the lockbox. Some premium items cost a lot more than a single lockbox.
• It also means that you can get premium items for cheap.

Currently the most expensive way of obtaining a premium item is to buy it using Credits obtained from REX at current market prices. The cheaper alternative is to purchase premium items through a Gifter via platinum.

Auction House

Now there’s an even cheaper method. Search the AH or check in trade chat/crossevents for anyone selling the premium item you want and chances are high they’ll be selling it cheaper than Gifters.

Transcendent Pots on AH

Check out these transcendent pots on the AH. Sure, nobody really uses Favor much anymore, but 100 plat is a pretty decent price (I saw quite a few going for 60p on another shard). Or how about those Experience and Token Tablets for only 350 plat across multiple shards?

Transcendent Pots cost 1k Credits each (900 for Patron). Even with Patron discount accounted for, that’s still 720 plat at a gift rate of 0.8 plat per Credit (630p at 0.7p/credit). You’re getting quite the deal.

Wardrobe Bundles on AH

Deathbound Steel Bundle comes from particular lockboxes and isn’t available on the RIFT Store for direct purchase, but it goes for as low as 20plat on certain shards.

I also recently stumbled upon a Crimson Gothic Bundle and Powdered Gothic Bundle for 60p and 75p respectively. Those cost 1,282 Credits on the RIFT Store with Patron discount. Compare that to Gifters charging 1,025p (0.8p/Credit) or 897p (0.7p/Credit). It’s even more expensive on EU.

Now, the above examples might be anomalies, but you’ll still get significant discounts on wardrobe bundles thanks to the latest lockbox changes. Just this instance I see several Jester Bundles for 300-400p each. They cost the same in Credits as the Gothic Bundles. You’re still getting more than 50% off compared to the already discounted rate Gifters charge.

Earring Slot & Planewalker: Water Unlocks

Planewalker Water Unlock on AH

Two of the most interesting additions to new lockboxes are Earring Slot and Planewalker: Water Unlocks.

Currently on Laethys (NA) for instance, there’s a Planewalker: Water unlock for 700p. There’s also an Earring Slot unlock for 2,200p. That’s 2,900p total. Compare that to the RIFT: Typhoon Edition which costs 4,500 Credits (4,050 for Patrons).

Note: Earring Slots unlocks may or may not be for a single character; confirmation is required on this. (According to Stormreaper the versions on the AH are single use, although the ones obtained from RIFT Store seem to apply to all chars.)

As more and more lockboxes are opened and more of these tradeable unlocks appear on the market, will the price drop? Probably.

Rune Unsocketing

Rune Unsocketing Apparatus on AH

A premium item that is used fairly often is the Rune Unsocketing Apparatus. 100-150p on several shards. Costs 160 Credits each (144 for Patrons) so it’s a quick way of obtaining that rune remover, instead of having to find a Gifter (and then likely use a mule to exchange).

Finding Premium Items

Currently there’s no ‘Premium’ category on the Auction House and some items don’t seem to really belong anywhere. Your best bet is to use the search field in the top-left hand corner of the Auction House window. Just check the RIFT Store -> Services and RIFT Store -> Boosts sections for names of premium items and then type in their name in the AH search field. For wardrobe bundles, just type “Bundle”.

Will Get Cheaper

These premium items will likely only get cheaper as more lockboxes are open as the weeks and months go by. The higher supply will drop their prices. Just look at the Deathbound Steel Bundle – a wardrobe bundle only available in certain lockboxes and not for direct purchase on the RIFT Store. Their price has dropped to 20p!

Now, don’t expect the more desirable wardrobe bundles or transcendent pots to drop in price significantly in the short term, but already all these premium items have cheaper-than-direct-purchase prices and several are many times cheaper than what Gifters charge.

Whilst players are new to pricing these premium items (and some players might not even know the regular cost of these items), you might find some pretty steep discounts on some of these items.

Thanks to new lockbox changes, next time you are thinking about purchasing a premium item, check the AH to see if you can’t get it cheaper.