Should I bonus roll?
A bonus roll is the only currency in the game that gets more valuable the more you waste it. Here is how to spend them.
Roll if the boss still owes you two or more items you actually want. Don't roll if it owes one — a single-item pool is a lottery, and that item will come to you from the Great Vault eventually. Pick one boss, stay on it until it owes you nothing, then move to the next. And never end a week with an unspent charge: a bonus roll you didn't use is worth exactly nothing.
What a bonus roll actually is
In Midnight Season 2 the bonus roll is the Nebulous Voidcore, and it comes out of the Great Vault. You get one charge per week from Week 2, and two per week from Week 8. Spending one gives you an extra roll on a boss's loot table — a second chance at a drop you already killed for.
One thing worth being precise about: a Voidcore pays out an item every time. It is a guaranteed drop, not a lottery ticket that can come up empty. The question is never whether you get something — it is whether you get something you actually wanted. Every percentage in this guide is the chance of the second thing, not the first.
That makes it the scarcest planning resource you have. Crests arrive at a hundred a week whether you think about them or not. Voidcores arrive one at a time, and where you point them decides which slots you can safely spend crests on for the rest of the tier. Most of the value in a bonus roll is not the item — it is the certainty it buys.
Knockout protection: why misses are not wasted
This is the mechanic most people plan around badly, because it rewards persistence in a way that is not obvious.
Every item a roll gives you leaves that boss's pool for your future rolls. When it was something you wanted, that's a slot closed. When it wasn't, the pool still shrank while the number of items you want stayed the same — so the odds on your next roll went up. Either way you are better off than before, which is why a run of bad luck at one boss is not a reason to go elsewhere. It is the reason to stay.
Finish one boss before starting another
This follows directly from knockout protection, and it is the single most valuable habit in this guide. Choose the boss with the best odds and keep rolling it until it owes you nothing.
Spreading rolls across three bosses feels like diversifying. It isn't. Knockout protection only compounds where you keep returning, so three bosses at 44% stay at 44% while one boss at 44% climbs toward certainty. Worse, you end up with nine unresolved slots instead of four settled ones.
Dungeons roll differently
Everything above is about raid bosses, where a Voidcore buys a second roll on that boss's table. A dungeon does not work that way. A dungeon roll is against the whole instance. There is one pool per dungeon containing every item every boss in it can drop, and your Voidcore rolls against all of it — you cannot aim one at the last boss because that is where the weapon is.
That changes the arithmetic in two directions at once. The pool is much larger, so any single item is less likely; but you also cannot be blocked by having cleared one boss's list, because there is no per-boss list to clear. The unit of the decision is the dungeon, not the encounter.
What to do with that. Compare dungeons, not bosses. The one worth your Voidcore is whichever still owes you the most items across all of its bosses — and because the pool is shared, a dungeon where you want three pieces is a far better roll than a raid boss where you want one.
Roll, or take the vault item?
Some weeks the Great Vault offers you an item or the Voidcore. Taking the item costs you the same weekly charge, so it looks like a straight swap. It isn't, and the difference is worth understanding.
Only a roll triggers knockout protection. Taking an item from the vault leaves the boss's pool exactly as it was. So:
- Take the vault item when it is on your list. You get the guaranteed piece, and you have not spent down the pool of the boss you are working on.
- Take the Voidcore when the vault is offering you nothing you want. A roll at your chosen boss is always better than a piece you will not equip.
- Take the vault item when it comes from a boss that owes you only that one piece. That is the lottery you should never be rolling for anyway.
The rule of thumb
A guaranteed item you want beats a chance at an item you want. Roll only where the guarantee isn't on offer.
What never to roll for
A roll spent on something you were going to get anyway is a roll thrown away. Three categories never deserve one:
| Don't roll for | Because |
|---|---|
| Tier set pieces | The Catalyst converts non-set gear into them on a guaranteed schedule. |
| Crafted items | Sparks are guaranteed income. You will have the item; the only question is when. |
| A boss owing one item | A 1-in-N pool is a lottery ticket. Take it from the vault when it appears. |
The hidden cost: a roll freezes a whole loot table
Here is the part almost nobody plans for, and it costs more crests than any other mistake in this guide.
A bonus roll pays out any eligible item that boss has — not just the one you were hoping for. So while you are still rolling a boss, every slot it can drop is live. If you spend sixty Hero crests lifting a belt to 321 this week and next week's roll hands you a Myth-track belt from that same boss, those crests are gone for nothing.
Difficulty changes everything
Where you roll decides what the item is worth when it lands, and the gap is much larger than most people expect:
- A Mythic roll lands at Myth 6/6 (item level 334) and owes no crests at all. It is finished the moment you receive it.
- A Heroic roll lands at Myth 1/6 (item level 318.) Reaching 334 from there costs five upgrade steps at 20 crests each — 100 crests, a full week's income.
So a Mythic roll isn't just "a bit better". It is the item plus a week of crests. If you have the option, roll at the highest difficulty you can.
Common questions
Should I save bonus rolls for later in the season?
No. Charges accumulate but the season doesn't get longer, and an unspent roll on the last week is a wasted one. More importantly, an early hit settles a slot, and a settled slot lets crest income flow safely for the whole rest of the tier. Rolls are worth more early than late.
What if I get an item I already have at a higher level?
It still counts as a miss, and a miss still knocks that item out of the pool. Slightly annoying, genuinely useful — your next roll at that boss is better than this one was.
Does my loot specialisation matter?
Very much. Your loot spec determines which items are eligible, so setting it correctly shrinks the pool to gear you can actually use. A smaller pool means a higher chance of hitting your list on every roll you make. Set it before you roll, not after.
How do I know which boss has the best odds for my spec?
You need two numbers: how many items you still want from that boss, and how many eligible items it can drop for you. The ratio is your chance. Doing that by hand across an entire raid is tedious, which is exactly why GearPath computes it for every boss and tells you where the next Voidcore should go.
Plan the whole season, not just this week
GearPath maps your gearing week by week — every crest, vault choice and spark — and works out which boss each bonus roll should go to, in what order, and which slots to leave alone while you do it. Free while in open beta.