Just got one in an artifact shipment. Open it up and, lo and behold, I get a Heavy Graviton Shearer. Which is what I'm already using. I thought you were supposed to get something better than what you already have access to?

It goes by level... I finally started saving them. coincidentally I'm doing a huge energy research push at the detriment of weapons at the very least. They vary by about 3 levels, like mkI mkII, mkIII

So are you saying I've over-researched based on my level? I'm actually researching things at fairly even pace. I'm not ahead on weapons, or ANY one tree.

Well I'd say you're level 60-80. My sample sucks.... I wish they were send-able. It would be the best loot in the game to the rank leaders. I would think they have REALLY good artifact production though.

Possible you are just have an over abundance of research planets making you ahead of the curve for your rank.

I'm level 59. Pretty close on the guess!

Still, it would be nice to get something I hadn't already researched. I would have presumed what you got was not based on your current level, but on what your current research is. It pretty much means that weapons lockers will always suck for me, and they use a LOT of arti points. Here's to never getting another one!

Unless, of course, Dan has a fix for this...

Minerals: 331 27.8%
Artifacts: 341 28.6%
Research: 520 43.6%

I'm Rank 90 and my stats are less than 100 more than yours for any of your above. I'm not sure if you are high or I am low. I've not gotten the max amount of planets for my Rank though. I am having trouble finding ones worth invading/owning.

The weapon found in a locker is based on your rank and a randomly generated number. So there's a range of weapons you can get for your particular rank. When you open the locker a number is rolled and you get a weapon somewhere in that range.

Perhaps you aren't over-teched for your rank, but you may have gotten a bad roll.

Just as an example that the result is at least partially random, I opened one of these a while ago and got a weapon that was a full three tiers (not just levels, but tiers) behind my current research at the time. I do have fairly high Research production but don't put a lot into Weapons so my Weapons research definitely was not high for my rank.

I was pretty disappointed with it but figured I just got an unlucky result from the RNG Goddess, likely because of some unresolved sin in my past involving statistics and a broken calculator. I have since repented and give regular offerings of irrational numbers to the RNG Goddess in hopes of receiving blessings in the future.

I think I turned in four of them at around level 70. I got 3 heavy graviton shearers and one normal one. The first one was well above my ion cannons, then I did a huge weapon research push when NPCs came out, and the rest were pretty disappointing. I have pretty high artifact production so I think I might just flat out quit researching weapons... I was contemplating not researching shields any more as well, but the combination would make it pretty hard to defend a planet. Dan did just make cloaking more useful however.