Gauss Ammo - shop location?

[Ole122]

Now having 3 GRs in my career, I only have two tons of ammo. Now I know that Research, Rich and Manufacturing (and maybe SLDF Presence) are the tags to look for when trying to buy GR ammo but somehow I haven't had any luck at all so far. Anybody know if they changed the shop tables in Flashpoint or anyone who can give me a hint on where to find ammo?

I tried Black markets as well and one faction shop (Davion I believe). Any advice on this side, any particular faction to ally?

 

[Pherdnut]

Find two black markets and bounce between them. I suspect the earliest source of Gauss and ammo will be complete SLDF Highlander mechs which also include a bunch of DHS. But I think the vanilla SLDF weapons can drop on black market worlds. Those are like 24 mill but well worth it if you have the money.

 

[ronhatch]

The way the stores work changed completely with the 1.3 update.

Since this exact question comes up pretty often, I spent some time looking through the files... if I'm reading them correctly, Gauss ammo will not show up in any of the standard stores. Not even the ones with tags that used to spawn it. I'm not seeing where the faction and black market stores are defined, so I have no idea for those.

Edit: Never mind... I definitely read them incorrectly, and I've found the other store definitions. Digging in deeper now and will post an update later. Initial guess is that all SLDF tagged worlds have a chance.

 

[BunglingLummox]

I created a thread about a week and a half ago, confirming that I found a Gauss Rifle and a ton of ammo on Illiushin, literally immediately upon starting a new career, so maybe start there? No special requirements, regular planetary shop.

 

[ronhatch]

OK... it's hard to follow without a program written to do it for me, but I believe I've traced the branches the Gauss ammo can take that end up in shops. I've ignored collections that have "loot" in the ID, since those appear to be designed for flashpoint rewards and the like.

It does not appear to be possible for them to show up in faction or black market shops. Any normal shop at a planet with the Star League tag has a chance to get them, though. If a standard Gauss Rifle shows up, there will always be a single ammo bin available as well, but the ammo can show up by itself. (The + and ++ versions don't come with ammo.) All of the following planets have the relevant tag and include the itemCollection_shop_starleague bit which appears to be the only path to Gauss ammo:

• Andarmax
• Bellatrix
• Brisbane
• Brixtana
• Cate's Hold
• Cavalor
• Claybrooke
• Dunianshire
• Hurik
• Illiushin
• Jamestown
• Joppa
• Kimi
• Midale
• New Roland
• New Vandenburg
• Niomede
• Piriapolis
• Repulse
• Smithon
• Victoria
• Yuris
• Zathras

I haven't made any attempt yet to figure out what the odds end up being, but it seems likely that the systems with fewer OTHER item collections available are more likely... and 7 systems have only a single other collection:

• Anadarmax has itemCollection_major_Liao
• Brixtana has itemCollection_minor_MagistracyOfCanopus
• Kimi has itemCollection_minor_Locals
• Piriapolis has itemCollection_minor_Marik
• Repulse has itemCollection_minor_Liao (probably fewer other items possible than at Anadarmax)
  
• Smithon changes depending on who has control... when the Directorate is in control, the only other collection is itemCollection_minor_AuriganDirectorate
• (Smithon under the Restoration has itemCollection_minor_AuriganRestoration and itemCollection_MechParts_RestoSmithon)
  
• Zathras has itemCollection_minor_Locals

 

[IceTitan]

Think the skulls and populations may play a part also.

 

[Knarf]

I saw one in a normal, non-Black Market, shop very early in the campaign. It cost over a million and I just couldn't afford it. There was also ONE ton of ammo.

Kicking myself now that I didn't buy it. LOL

 

[ronhatch]

Think the skulls and populations may play a part also.

From a programming standpoint, it almost certainly depends only on the list of item collections they have designated for the planet.

That said, choosing which item collections should be associated with each planet was probably based in part on the skulls and populations involved.

 

[Kodan]

I can personally confirm that both Joppa and Cate's Hold shops can spawn the gauss rifle and ammo. Rifle is about 1.2million and ammo was 45k I think it was. I can also confirm that every black market I have been too has been able to spawn both the complete SLDF Highlander at 24 million cbills and salvage parts at 1.5-1.8 million cbills. Spent less than 10million cbills getting both a SLDF Highlander and 3 gauss rifles and ammo(plus some other minor stuff).

 

[fredman]

I can personally confirm that both Joppa and Cate's Hold shops can spawn the gauss rifle and ammo. Rifle is about 1.2million and ammo was 45k I think it was. I can also confirm that every black market I have been too has been able to spawn both the complete SLDF Highlander at 24 million cbills and salvage parts at 1.5-1.8 million cbills. Spent less than 10million cbills getting both a SLDF Highlander and 3 gauss rifles and ammo(plus some other minor stuff).

Confirmed! I went to Joppa last night - and there it was: the SLDF Highlander! 3 Atlases in my lance are now sporting Gauss rifles with 2 bins each of ammo ( a fourth is still waiting for more ammo)! Thanks for this!

 

[Pherdnut]

I haven't made any attempt yet to figure out what the odds end up being, but it seems likely that the systems with fewer OTHER item collections available are more likely... and 7 systems have only a single other collection:

The collections at the root level don't impact each other, so it's not like the old system where too many tags made it harder to roll stuff you wanted. Each collection is rolled on independently. But some of them branch out and select one or two other collections. That's where odds get really low for some stuff. Check every shop as you go on multi-leg trips. They're still not super-common but it's dramatically easier to roll stuff like thermal exchangers now.

Black markets have like a 1.9% chance to drop an SLDF Highlander. SLDF has like 0.3% just to drop a rifle and should be similar for any other SLDF item because it rolls from that SLDF table that's full of collections that aren't SLDF.

 

[Pherdnut]

Confirmed! I went to Joppa last night - and there it was: the SLDF Highlander! 3 Atlases in my lance are now sporting Gauss rifles with 2 bins each of ammo ( a fourth is still waiting for more ammo)! Thanks for this!

Never liked the vanilla Atlases. Too many hardpoints in the core which always gets a gyro in my builds. SLDF Highlanders actually have a half-ton more capacity than Atlases and KCs. KCs have ballistic mounts in their arms (more accuracy) and one of the most flexible hardpoint layouts in the game.