Speaking of experimental weapons, i just got the Kpist.
I was testing out MP stability and there were 4x players in the game. I wasn’t host. Host was lvl30. We took down lvl1 proto tank rival and from it, i got the 6* Kpist.
As far as i can tell, experimental weapon drops are working fine, moreover since post February’s Hotfix, i’ve taken down in total of 4x rivals. 3x in my solo game and just now, the 4th one in MP.
I´ve never said that its totally broken, and I actually got a 6* grg (sadly my third overall) just a few minutes ago! But the loot system regarding drops needs some polishing to get more balanced.
Does anyone know what the “area level” affects in terms of drop, rival spawn etc?
Region score only affects chances of rival spawning. It doesn’t affect weapon drops.
In one of the older dev streams (when Rivals feature just came), devs said that in order to have any proper chance for Rival spawning in, region level should be at least 10.
You got lucky, and from that you say it’s working fine? I think not.
I’m closing in on 70+ downed rivals since the patch, and not a single drop. Working fine? Really? I don’t think so. I really don’t think so. Now I already got all experimentals for my three characters. That’s beside the point though. (And don’t get me started on the LMGs, the droprate for them are even worse. The best I’ve got since the DLC got out is one 4 star KVM59. ONE.)
I’ve been playing games where the devs thought it was a good decision to put incredible grind in to artificially try and extend gameplay (for example, used to play Vanguard Saga of Heroes mmo, where the devs in their wisdom decided to try and extend the gameplay when going from level 50 to level 55 by an INSANE amount of XP grind. That didn’t land well, and a huge bunch of players left the game. Didn’t take long after that before it was time for sunset for that game).
Imho artifical roadblocks like these are NOT in the best interest for any game, unless you only want to cater for a handful of extreme hardcore players. If that’s your target audience, don’t expect to make a lot of money out of your game.
The devs should trust in their product, and let the actual gameplay speak for itself. The gameplay is the thing that should make your players want to come back for more, not grinding to find the best gear available.
It’s not only me who got 6* weapon post hotfix. Beomez above my reply also got 6* m/49 around the same time. So, my guess: RNG.
Btw, you’ve had more luck with LMGs than i have. Without taking account of known weapon spawn locations, i’ve only gotten one 3* KVM 89 from random drop. And that’s it.
Though i do agree about the grind. Moreover so because in the early days, there was very little if any grind at all. Every FNIX tank you took down had a guaranteed 5* weapon in it and sometimes 5* mod as well. Back then, it was just matter of few kills to get the weapon you wanted.
But since most players weren’t happy with the machine loot table, namely the little amount of ammo they gave, devs overhauled the machine loot table in June’s Update and brought Machine Loot into the game, which also brought the grind into the game.
I’d rather have very hard time through the game with guaranteed prize at the end (launch day) rather than breeze through the game and grind at the end (current state). But my preference is minority and i have to accept what majority wants.
Drops suck, said a billion times now.
Here might be a solution?
First rival down on Himfjäll dropped an exp. PVG90 - thank you devs, if you did (?) take a look on the drop chance for these with this latest patch! 
Didn’t get an experimental but did get a yellow kvm89 on my first Himfjäll rival
Did they adress this or is just a coincidence ?
Don’t know yet, haven’t been on an active rival hunt lately. Will have to see after the next run if it was just a lucky shot on the +70:th rival…
At the moment I’m staying off the DLC island, killing level 4 rivals like crazy, and I’m finding on them only clothing items - no experimental weapons whatsoever.
I’m lvl 27. Just killed a lvl 4 military hunter rival. For the loot, 7 rnds of 5.56 ammo. That’s all. Nothing else. Since the last update the first of the week ALL boxes and robot drops are terrible. 1 item per box/robot. Before, I could run a bunker and maybe a settlement and have enough loot to take on the big guys. Now, like yesterday, I had to run 3 bunkers and a whole town. Still didn’t have enough health and rockets to really take on a. mil or apoc tank.
If all I get for a rival is a few bullets, what’s the point??? At my gear lvl (purples, not found a gold gun yet nor an experimental), they are bullet sponges. So I spent an hour and a half of farming ammo and health to get 7 5.56 bullets and 200-300 xp. All the lvl 4 rivals I’ve killed have this kind of drop for me since the update. 1item. Usually ammo for guns I don’t use.
I started playing the day the Jan update dropped (Jan 28 I think) and still no better then purple guns. For me, they broke the game with the Feb update. Before I had no problems. Since then, fell thru world 4 times, game crashes every 30- 45 mins, lagging really bad in high activity places, hunters spawning in houses and barns, runners spawning inside buildings right behind me.
The game was great for me prior to Feb update, now it has become a bugged grind. They need to fix the drops for EVERYTHING!!!
Oh and when I took on that rival, all of the sudden 8 hunters appear, 4 apoc 4 military. And I don’t know how many dogs…had to take them out first cause the flamethrower extends to you no matter how far away you are and their bullets go thru walls and most barriers. The rival was running around like a lunatic, wouldn’t stop long enough to get a shot in till all the others were dead. Then he just stood there. Till I killed him.
My point exactly. 
@hulyn
MIGHT be a complaining RNGesus…
MIGHT just as well a wrong playing out rebalance issue…
I’m sorry, still, sir.
OMG! I’m so stupid!
I totally forgot about this:
Restricted Experimental Weapons to only drop to players who are level 25 and above.
My current new character is level 20 at the moment 
@0L0
And still, you’re not even remotely in my shadow, when it comes to stupidity. XD
Race ya… ROFL
Yeah I had a similar scenario what started as a rival harvester and a apocalypse tank suddenly 8 hunters turn up and god knows how many dogs and after it all using at least 20 rpgs 15 grenades and probably 40 rounds of the 50 cal. and possibly 800 smg rounds what I got in return was sad.
SAD I tell you.
If you do vanilla main missions, especially the last ones, you will get at least 4x 5* (golden) weapons if you pick them up. Those four include: m/49, Glock, HP5 and AI-76. There’s also known spawn point of 5* .44 Magnum.
Though, another way of getting weapons is player trade. For example, if you’re on PC, i have 6* 12G shotty and 6* Kpist to give away. Got some 5* weapons as well if you’re interested.
I wouldn’t give a 6* 12G pump gun to my worst enemy! I still have a bit of decency 
Black Hole acts up…
Please elaborate on this, sir… I missed the pun I fear… 
While back I got this large pot with medication for senility…
8 hours later… it was empty…
Kept forgetting I took one already. XD 
Black Hole… XD