Update: A rep for Crystal Dynamics has given us some clarity on the Marvel's Avengers loot bug. "We have investigated the issues regarding loot in Elite Hives and have found that there was an item incorrectly dropping which would show as a level 1 green," they write. "That item has been replaced with the appropriate loot for this mission." A fix for the incorrect loot will be pushed with the next patch.
Exotics are dropping "as intended," though at a very low percentage after your first completion of an Elite Hive. "To clarify this further,Elite Hives have a chance to grant exotic gear and an exotic artifact. The exotic artifact is credited to all heroes in your roster while the gear remains individual to heroes." Crystal Dynamics "will will continue to monitor drop rates for exotic items and make adjustments as needed."
Original Story: A Marvel's Avengers bug is causing some Elite Hive runs to completely lose all rewards.
Reports of the bug began cropping up in the past few days, and there are now several accounts on the Marvel's Avenger's subreddit. There doesn't seem to be a particular cause or trigger for the bug; some Hives just plain don't give players any rewards. We don't know the exact odds of this happening, but it's clearly occurring frequently enough to ward players off running more Hives, which is understandable given how difficult and time-intensive they can be on higher difficulties.
Multiple developers from Crystal Dynamics have confirmed that the team is aware of this bug and actively investigating it. As recently as 12 hours ago, Phil Therien explained that "there is a bug with Elite Hives not granting their rewards appropriately." He added that "we are investigating this."
New patch notes for Marvel's Avengers were released today, but neither the PC nor console patches mention the Hive bug. This loot bug isn't listed on the official page for known issues and workarounds either, which isn't that surprising given its newness and unpredictability. Fortunately, some other matchmaking and itemization bugs have been addressed, including a rare but bothersome bug that was blocking some players from clearing the campaign.
We reached out to Crystal Dynamics for more details on the Hive bug, and a representative simply reiterated that "we're looking into this." It seems that this issue is still very much in the triage phase, for the time being, you may want to spend your time on activities other than Hives.
Here are some Marvel's Avengers game tips to help you maximize your heroics.
