World of Warcraft’s in-game Valentine’s Day celebration is nearly here, and this year Blizzard is “sharing the love” by dramatically increasing the drop rate for one of the game’s most hard to come by mounts.
The mount in question is the X-45 Heartbreaker, a giant, flying pink rocket that is only earnable for a few weeks out of the year while the Love is in the Air event is ongoing. Players queue for the event dungeon with the hope of earning the mount in one of the Heart-Shaped Boxes rewarded for completing the dungeon once per day, per character. Because of the way the rewards are structured and the mount’s incredibly low drop chance, players have long felt forced to complete the event dungeon on as many characters as possible every day the event was active in order to maximize their chances of earning the mount.
Thankfully, that won’t be necessary going forward. In a forum post, Blizzard has explained how the event will work differently this year so that the first Heart-Shaped Box earned each day on an account-wide basis has a greatly increased chance to contain the mount. All subsequent boxes earned across various characters will still have a chance to drop the mount, but it will be the ultra-rare, original drop rate. The change should encourage players to complete the dungeon once per day for the best chance to earn the mount while simultaneously making it so players don’t feel forced to grind the event dungeon on multiple characters.
According to data from Wowhead, the chance of earning the X-45 Heartbreaker prior to this change was estimated to be around .03% per dungeon run, a frustratingly low number that was made even worse by the fact that the event was only active for a few weeks per year. The mount saw its name changed in 2021 as part of Blizzard’s efforts to make its MMORPG more inclusive amidst ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits.
Though there is no word yet if a similar system will be applied to other holiday events later this year, Blizzard did state last year that it was looking into solutions targeted towards “holiday events in general.”
WoW’s Love is in the Air event will begin on February 6. It comes hot on the heels of the MMO’s new Trading Post feature, a battle-pass-like system where players earn a special currency by completing tasks that can then be exchanged for new or previously cash-shop-exclusive mounts and cosmetics. The game’s next major update, patch 10.0.7, is slated to arrive this spring, and will include long-awaited Heritage armor sets for orcs and humans, new story content, and a major rework for Retribution Paladins specialization.
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