Talk:Infested Hive/@comment-27655220-20160222160650/@comment-27655220-20160317165613

I also had a Hive (Alert) the other day, one that rewarded just credits, and after 5 run throughs did not spawn any of these hard-to-find hives. So I have to qualify that every single Hive (Alert) does not seem to have a chance to spawn these hard-to-find hives. After several weeks of running every alert i see, I'm going to say (4 out of 5) 80% of these alerts have a chance to spawn these hives.

I believe there is an additional hidden variable but haven't been able to decode it. My guess is that this variable is related to the original event Operation Breeding Ground that introduced these Hives: and that variable was Stench/Stink. Players started the event at zero "Stench" which spawned Difficulty 1 hives (Lancing, Stabilization, Security). Destruction added to "Stench" (a hidden number) and later runs had 3 new Higher Difficulty hives.

But after the event, they permanently placed these missions at six nodes on Eris, I believe they removed this "Stench" mechanic and replaced it with a fixed spawning of High Difficulty hives. So why do Hive (Alert)s have a different spawning code? about 80% of the time? I don't know, but it does not seem related to Enemy Level or any other visible variable that I have seen.