I am hoping to upgrade my charge blade soon but I need an S. Magala Plate. I have fought the Shagaru Magala a number of times now, breaking all the different parts off it where possible, but the Plate still hasn't dropped for me.
Does anybody know how rare the plates for monsters are? It is more likely to drop if I break a certain part of a monster?
According to Kiranico, the chances of a Plate dropping range from 1% for Caravan quest rewards, up to 5% for a High Rank Horn Break or Tail Carve.
Carve rewards and shiny drops are fairly straightforward; you have an X% chance of getting that item from the drop source.
The reward box is where it gets interesting. You are guaranteed a single item, rolled from the quest rewards table for that quest, and then a roll is made to see if you get another reward, which is affected by (Ultra) Lucky/Unlucky Cat, and the Fate Armor skills. If that succeeds, you are then given another item, rolled from the available quest rewards. This repeats until you fill up all the item slots in the box, or the roll fails to give you another one. For the Plate, the Caravan quest has a 1% chance of a reward being a Plate, and the High Rank Guild quest has a 3%. Note that this is for every roll; every item has a chance to be a Plate, and the possibility of having a full box of Plates exists, although it is vanishingly unlikely.
You are also guaranteed one item for breaking parts that give items, like the Shagaru Magala's Horn Break, but they have their own reward pool, for that specific break. So for Low Rank, breaking its horns gives you a 3% chance to get a Plate in the Reward Box.
So to maximize your chances of getting a Plate, you want to fight the High Rank S. Magala, break its horn, cut off its tail, and hopefully you have either the Great Luck armor skill, or Ultra Lucky Cat.
There are several ways to obtain different drops. Breaking a monster part will get you a reward from a specific drop table on the post-quest rewards screen. You can also perform certain actions to cause the monster drop an item, depicted as a shiny node.
As for S. Magala Plates, they can be obtained as a shiny drop (2%), body carve (3%), horn break (3%), and tail carve (4%). So to maximize your chances of getting a Plate, you'll want to cause as many shiny drops as possible, which would involve mounting and toppling the monster, break his horn, cut off his tail, and bring armor with the Carving skill or eat for Felyne Carver so you can get extra carves off his body.
Note, these drop chances are for Low-Rank. Chances for a Plate are slightly higher in High-Rank.
