Hello everyone. I'm a longtime PSO player (most of my hours were on Xbox), but recently I got the GC version of the game online here and I'm loving it! That said, I am in the midst of something that I seem to recall happening to my main character on Xbox, which is a red box drought. I'm not talking about not getting many, or just getting photon drops or something, but literally none. The exception is when I'm running with other players, but due to what's dropping (based on section IDs) I question how many, if any, are due to me being there. It was going great for a while, but I'd say since about level 50, I've gotten hardly any (though some players have been kind enough to provide me with some nice equipment), and I'm now past level 80.

I find myself asking what higher power I have sinned against (and how), or what I've done wrong (do I have too many special items on my character, or even in the check room; am I in possession of a hacked, glitched, or duped item that is essentially punishing me by reducing or eliminating my chances of getting rare drops? It has reduced me to some sort of primal, superstitious player. I try speedrunning, not picking up any items, and other silly approaches in hopes of overcoming this curse. I lie to myself and say that all of the non-drops are going to be balanced out by an awesome rare item, or at the very least the Yamato I've been spamming the Forest and dragon for (which a friend online subsequently found on their runs and kindly gave to me, but that's not the same!)

Ultimately, I'd like to think that I'm not the only one going through this (misery loves company, right? Plus, on a more reasonable level, why would it just be me?) I don't feel like anyone should go through such a tough situation alone, and so here we are. I want to create a safe place where other Hunters going through this terrible affliction can give advice and support to each other, and possibly aid one another in the recovery from Red Box Drought.

Everyone goes through a drought every now and then - and red boxes are notoriously rare on Normal & Hard.

There are a few things that can block red boxes from dropping - hacked or stacked items being the best known ones. Hacked Mags are often easy to spot as the worse ones are over level 200. (Note, no legitimate mag has a Def rating below 5). Stacked items can be done via glitches, and essentially this lets you stack multiple items on top of each other. This lets you carry more than the legitimate limit of items - for example 99 Trimates instead of just 10.

The simplest way to get rid of this side effect of red box drops being disabled is to box or otherwise get rid of the offending items and reloading the area. (everyone returns to Pioneer 2 and back down to the area)

Well it's not much, but I got a photon drop offline today. I'm feeling optimistic. Thanks for the input, it's good to know everyone goes through it and that it's not some curse from a higher power. Funny, the red box dropped nearly right on top of an orange box, which was more readily visible to me. It wasn't until walking near that I saw the yellow text that made me realize what it was. Back to the grind I go.

Well it's not much, but I got a photon drop offline today. I'm feeling optimistic. Thanks for the input, it's good to know everyone goes through it and that it's not some curse from a higher power. Funny, the red box dropped nearly right on top of an orange box, which was more readily visible to me. It wasn't until walking near that I saw the yellow text that made me realize what it was. Back to the grind I go.

Hey I could give you some common red boxes that I have too many of anyway and are of no value to me. Let me know if you want some.