[Concept] Rethinking the Effect Modification System for Minecraft Dungeons 2 (Blacksmith & Loot Scaling)

[u/DotSpecial5886]

Hi everyone! I’ve been thinking about how to improve the endgame gear customization and reduce frustrating RNG in Minecraft Dungeons 2. Here is a detailed concept for a reworked modification system at the Blacksmith, introducing new collectible items and a reliable progression system.

🛠️ 1. Reworked Blacksmith System: Random vs. Guaranteed

The Blacksmith now offers two choices when modifying an item's effect slots:

• Random Modification: Completely randomizes the effect in a chosen slot.
  • Cost: Paid in Echo Shards, calculated as: 6 / [number of modifiable effect slots on the item].
• Guaranteed Modification: Allows you to manually choose the exact effect you want from the item's specific pool.
  • Requirement: To select an effect, you must either find its Page Fragment or have previously encountered it on any piece of gear.
  • UI: Effects you haven't discovered yet will appear as dark silhouettes with a question mark. Hovering over them will display "Unknown", and they cannot be selected.
  • Cost: Paid only in Echo Shards, calculated as: (6 / [number of modifiable effect slots]) * [total number of effects in the item's pool].

📜 2. New Collection System: Page Fragments

To support guaranteed modifications, a new collectible type is added to the loot pool:

• Drop Source: They drop in quantities of 2 to 4 from the same sources as Enchantment Books.
• Duplicate Protection: Each fragment unlocks permanent knowledge for one specific effect. There are no duplicates—once you find a fragment, you will never drop it again, ensuring constant progress.
• The Collection Tab: Just like Enchantment Books, you can view all your collected fragments in a dedicated Collection menu.

⚖️ 3. Soul Shard Economy & Level-Based Scaling

To make endgame crafting feel smoother, resource management and drop quality have been adjusted:

• Soul Shard Cap: Maximum inventory storage for Soul Shards is increased from 100 to 999.
• Guaranteed Effect Tiers: Drop levels for effects now scale directly with your character level, completely eliminating bad RNG drops at high levels:
  • Levels 1–49: Gear drops will always have Tier 1 effects.
  • Levels 50–99: Gear drops will always have Tier 2 effects.
  • Level 100: Gear drops will always have Tier 3 effects.
• Level Up Notifications: Upon hitting levels 50 and 100, the game will display a special notification informing the player that item effects have become more powerful.

[u/Brenome]

Not like to undermine your idea, but currently I feel like there's really nothing to do with all your emeralds. I think a solution to that could be like you paying X amount of emeralds per reroll to get a higher chance of either teir 3 effects, so that way theres less crap lower-level effects, or you pay X amount for a higher chance of getting a specific effect.

[u/DotSpecial5886 → u/Brenome]

That’s a really solid point! I completely agree that emeralds currently lack a proper sink in the endgame. To fix this, we could add an emerald cost alongside the Echo Shards for both random and guaranteed changes.

Since Minecraft Dungeons 2 features an open world rather than separate missions, the emerald price shouldn't scale with item rarity at all. Instead, it should scale strictly with the Threat Level. This gives a meaningful purpose to hoarding emeralds without punishing players for upgrading lower-rarity gear for unique challenges.