Do intermediate portal levels have an effect on loot quality

Question

As a level 6 player, it is impossible to upgrade a portal to level 5 on your own:

2*6 + 2*5 + 4*4 + 2*3 = 4.75

So the portal will be Level 4 at max. It also shows "L4" in the app when you select the portal.

When hacking, it will yield mostly items of level max(portal lvl, player lvl), uncommonly of that +/-1 and very rarely +/-2

My question is: Does hacking a level 4.75 portal have the same item drop probability as a plain level 4 portal? Or will I get level 5 items more often?

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There was a similar question a few months ago, but the answers didn't rely on hard evidence or credible sources:

What determines the quality of items obtained from a portal hack?

Edit to make the difference more obvious:

I do NOT want to know what other factors might influence the items dropped. This question is specifically about whether the portal level is counted discrete (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...) or if intermediate levels (4.125, 4.25, 4.5, ...) exist for calculation.

Answer 1

It looks like in the portal hacking phase, the level used is the "rounded" level.

• the XM cost is based on the portal level
• the attack you can receive in response of hacking an enemy portal is based on the portal level

It sounds logical that items dropping is related to this "rounded" level.

As far as I experienced it (i'm now level 7), to get high level items, I have to hack "real" high level portals.

A portal at level 5.75 ( 7+6+6+6+6+5+5+5, made by 1 L7 and 1 L6 player) will still give me less high level items than a real L6 portal ( 7+6+6+6+6+6+6+5 made by 1 L7 and 2 L6 players).

I never get any L8 items from portals that were at lavels 5 or 5.25 or 5.75, the first time I got some was when hacking a real L6 portal :D

Answer 2

Since this question can only be answered by insiders, I've conducted a survey by recording all my hacks of portals of both factions where all resonators had 100% energy. I only have enough samples for portal levels 5, 5.5 and 6, so here are the results:

P    L1  L2  L3  L4  L5  L6  L7  L8 #samples
5.0  0%  0%  0% 14% 64% 17%  5%  0%   33
5.5  0%  0%  0% 17% 66% 16%  2%  0%   53
6.0  0%  0%  0%  0% 11% 70% 17%  1%   27

Using a t-test to check whether the different groups are drawn from different distributions, the p-values are

• 5.0 vs 5.5: 0.13
• 5.5 vs 6.0: 3.26 * 10^-24

For the statistically unenlightened (he he), this roughly means that the items from level 5 and 5.5 portals are probably drawn from the same distribution, whereas it is as good as impossible that the items of level 5.5 and 6 portals are from the same distribution.

Result: No, intermediate levels don't matter, the rounded (down) level counts.

Answer 3

Portals seem to give better items based on a number of variables; the key one seems to be the amount of time it's been a portal for whichever team its currently a part of.

The longer it's been with a specific team, the better items seem to drop off the portal, however there does seem to be a random element to this or its possibly being effected by other variables we aren't yet aware of. I personally seem to get items centered around my level.

Answer 4

Intermediate levels of portal does not matter for received items level from hacks. But Intermediate levels of portal does matter for received items quantity from hacks. Same rounded level portals with stronger and higher level resonator give more items than the same rounded level portals with low level depleted resonators. And enemy portals give less items than identical friendly portals but levels of items aquired is same.

And I accept the theory that a portal which were not attacked recently and is fully charged gives better yield than a portal which has been destroyed recently. Fully charged portals give better yield than depleted portals but still the out put level is same. (+/-2). If you are at a higher level than the portal you hacked, the items received will be +/- 2 portal level. If you are at a lower level than the portal you hacked, the items received will be +/- 2 your level. There is still very rare chances of +/-3.