Anti-farm code

The pop up looks like the "tip" pop ups you get in the very beginning of the game, or just after you make a PvP character. Its that light blue box. And it says something along the lines of "if you kill too many of the monsters, eventually they will run out of loot."

I got it ironicly, not while farming, but while I was trying to cap Devestating Hammer in Ice Floe. It's a random spawn, so I was doing that part over and over again, and it kicked in. I thought it was hilarious.

*edit* opps ^ posted just before I did.

Yeah I've never gotten the popup myself, but I have noticed my drops in a certain area to diminish greatly. I'm giving it a weeks rest to see if that fixes it.

EDIT: I guess I never got the popup cause I turn them off. Heh.

I have had that too. At a certain moments monsters don't drop anymore. I never got the pop-up though.
When that happens, I don't give it a second thought and go elsewhere. There are 1001 spots (I am not sure about that number) where I can find junk to sell.

i got it from soloing the plague devourers outside druids to lvl myself to 20, after about 10 runs

I haven't had the pop up yet, but I make it a habit to rotate between my 3 main farming spots every 2 or 3 runs.

with topk, I think it doesn't trigger the code. It's just like clearing an entire area in between farms. Also, the average topk run is a bajillion times longer than the average ettin, griffin, minotaur, etc. run.

Ive seen in pre seering, I thought this was something you could see on a site.

Seems like the details are a well-kept and possibly changing secret.

Things that SHOULD clear any anti-farming penalty, IMO, include:

1. Doing a quest with another character on the same account.
2. PvPing.

I also would guess that Sorrow's Furnace is immune because you go into Grenth's Furnace and accept a quest and then go into another zone and then kill things. Besides, it's SUPPOSED to be a farming area.

All that said -- in the first five ettins I killed farming, I got 2 useful superior runes (Death, Soul Reaping). I haven't come close to that rate of success since.

sorry for the hi-jack, but i turned tips off as soon as I made a new toon.
How can i turn them on again?

I didnt know doing a mission reset the code. I usually switch between my few farming spots until i notice the drops start diminishing.

Also, the amount of people farming a certain area will have a negative impact on drops.

So I gather nobody has any idea how the PERSONAL farming nerfs work, except in the most general terms?

Well obviously Anet aren't going to give out specific details, otherwise pro farmers would be bale to find out how to negate the code.

I think anyone who claims to know exactly how farm code, or aspects of it, work (and I have yet to see anyone who would boast this) is probably taking a rumor or something their 12 year old guildie said is true.

We have general anecdotal ideas of how it works and general anecdotal ideas of how to get rid of (reset) it.

What people are saying about not sticking in one map for too many successive runs, and varying things up, is generally how it's supposed to work. I've been curious about green drop rates, but since these involve quests sometimes, and several maps always, this seems to work in its own right to keep the rates even over the long run.

hmmm...... first time i hear of it! i farm Hydras alot, do ToPK, and never got anything like that! hehe... HOW MUCH time you gotta spend farming to get that! i rly hope it wont happen in ToPK! I love that area so much more then SF!

but ty for bringing it up! ill try not to OVERFARM the area....

It may be that almost anything a human would do works, which is why everybody has a different method and everybody thinks it works.

I was hoping for an experience along the lines of "I think X works and Y doesn't, because I tried both and my drop rates were substantially different. Oh, that could just have been randomness, but I really feel it was more than that."

ive done 10+ mountain troll farming runs each day last weeks. in the beggining i always got gold scrolls of the bosses, now i always get 2 mountain troll tusks or a blue scroll and all the other drops sux
.. however i hate that code. but if i still carrie on farming after the popup came, til' i dont get any drops, will i never get drops there again?

I hit the code on my 55 on the minotaurs in Elona (ill bet money im faster than any bot). After it was active I went to power lvling people on the trolls outside droks for a while. When i can back to Elona the drops were back up and I did about 30 runs (average of about 12 minotaurs a run) and I never hit the code again. Not that im complaining but...explanation?

i got same thing while i was doing chest run.. n after that i was gettin purple drops so i went to diff spot.

its bs message tho, i didnt kill anything cos i was doin chest run.

I know if you kill the same mob over and over no matter about the timer u will get less drops so it also deals with what you kill...So the penalty takes place if you kill the same monsters, and if you dont meet the minimum hidden timer you must stay before coming back to the area again. Even if you dont kill any mobs and you rezone a few times the monster in any area you enter will drop less and worse. Doing mission runs seems to take longer and you can get more runs in because the penalty is only affected by you killing the same mobs however.( to my knowledge and of course the math behind it i cant explain.) there is probably a ratio between same monster/time like you can only kill 50 of the same type in 10 mins. Anything over that will trigger less drops or worse. In the missions it is like you can only kill 50 of the same type thats why it seems you can do faster runs and acquire more drops because mission farming isnt based on timer just same mob kills. ( Just a random number). That is how i see it.