Rustshard

Rustshards, found only in Tundra and Volcano mining nodes, provide one of the few means to aqcuire a weapon with the Dragon Element prior to hig rank gear, Rarity 3 and below, and are the only way to aqcuire a weapon with Dragon Element while not online. The in game description "A hunk of rock? No, it seems to be metal... With a little polish, it could be more." alludes to the possibility of this being a useful and valuable item but doesn't really offer us much by way of specifics. The following article should provide a little more insight as to what these mysterious items have to offer us as Monster Hunters and why they might be worth going a little out of your way to obtain.

How To Obtain Rustshards

 * Simply put all you need to do is mine in the Tundra or in the Volcano. However to really get what you are looking for, as many Rustshards as possible, you will want to mine only the highest level nodes. What this means is that you will want to wait untill as much time as possible has elapsed before going on a mining spree. Go about your quest as normal and when you have the boss monster close to death or capture spend a little time doing a once over of the various areas and hit all the mining nodes. This should ensure that you have as much bag space as possible, ie normally you will have used most if not all of the other required items for the quest, as well as provide you with the highest quality of gathered items possible. Which will hopefully include some Rustshards.

Mine at any point in area 5, 8, 9, or 10 in the volcano for a small chance of them. The points in Area 5 respawn after a certain time has passed (usually five minutes), so all is not lost if you run out of spots early on.

How Do Rustshards Work?

 * Similar to Mystery, Shining or Ancient Charms just getting one doesn't mean you get what you want. At the end of your quest the Rustshards you have obtained will be Appraised to show what they actually are. Often supplying you with a basic version of one of the various weapons that have a Rust weapon path, getting the proper "Rusted Weapon" can prove to be quite the process. Keep it up though and eventually you should get what you want and from there all you need to do is provide the funds and the required materials to obtain a useful weapon.

Dragon Element?

 * For those of you new to the game you might be wondering what is so good about the Dragon Element and why on earth would it be worth going through this much trouble? Well, in short, it might not be worth your time and effort depending on what you want to do in the game. For example if all you want to do is paralyze, sleep or poison your enemies then the weapons obtained through Rustshards will do you no good. However, for those that don't want to only use status weapons, the Dragon Element is a powerful element to be using. Many monsters have a weakness to Dragon Element and the Dragen Element effect reduces the Affinity, or critical chance percentage, of the affected monster which reduces the damage you and your group take and may allow you to take a few more hits before collapsing. So it isn't necessarily the end all be all of Element types but it does offer some substantial benefits that are worth looking at.

Weapons
The following is the information on all the weapons obtainable through Rustshards.

Light Bowgun
Aquamatic "Spark"



This Article is under Construction and will be finished as time allows. Vebnstuff 16:42, October 4, 2010 (UTC)