Please bear with me if you are interested in how I received the bounties. This will be a long post but it provides useful information on getting the elders cipher bounty. Maybe I found a glitch, or maybe I was extremely lucky. If you’re not that interested, then just look at the tl;dr
I was irritated that players where not posting their process in how they received the bounty. Most of the post were "I got it, what do I pick." This is my epic journey to 3 Elder Ciphers Bounties in 3 runs. This might help in acquiring yours. Just do some digging in my recent games and you will see I’m telling the truth. I'm posting this with the hope of better understanding its method for dropping. I did receive three Elder Cipher bounties, which are on each of my three characters. I know, I know, where is your proof. To answer that question, just check my account in 2days when I can finish the bounties. I have to wait 1-2 days until I can continue completing the bounties. If I post a picture you will attack me with “its fake”. I was not recording so I have no video. In a few days I will have each exotic weapon on each of my three characters. I just received them tonight and wanted to get this out to the destiny community as soon as possible. Sorry if this post sounds rushed I’m tired.
[b]My theory:[/b]
Don't farm the Elders Cipher.
I believe the chance of it dropping is given to your account on Tuesday reset. The same way your account can only get one shader and ship from the lvl 35 arena. I feel those particular players will be capable of receiving the bounty during that week.
Another theory is a player has 6chances to acquire the bounty per week. Two chances per character per week. One chance for the very first kill on the lvl 34 boss and a second chance for the very first kill on the lvl 35 boss. This is just my experience and not fact, only theory. You can (not exactly sure if you can) check my games last week when I farmed for 4 hrs to try to get the bounty to drop. I had around 100 kills on the boss Urroxs and one nice long conversation with my teammates. That same week I tried farming Skolas for an hour with no luck. This week I hit the 3 bounties in 3 runs.
[b]Now lets talk about how I got each one.(I put in some work on the arenas)[/b]
This is my detailed experience with the 3 elders ciphers. This was all done on first runs and was the first I touched anything after the weekly reset. I started off running the weekly nightfall on one of my characters, but not the other two(this can rule out having the buff helping in the drop rate). I moved onto soloing the 32 Urrox's arena on my warlock. After completing this arena I went on to completing the lvl 34 vex arena with a friend. I took a break and returned to a friend asked if I would help kill skolas. I join as my warlock right at the skolas fight. We ran up the stairs and started the fight with the final boss. The third attempt we came out victorious with only myself receiving the bounty. On this third attempt we killed him before the second wave of bombs spawned. I received the bounty the moment we killed him. Later in the day I get on xbox live and start to solo another Urrox arena with my hunter. Half way through the arena two completely different friends joined. We completed the Urroxs arena and moved directly onto the skolas arena. At the final battle with skolas I decided to change to my titan because we had a hunter to run camo on the bombs. I joined the room as my titan and we crushed him on our first run. During this run we killed him after the two ways of bombs were disabled. The moment we killed skolas myself and one other player received the bounty. I joined a new party to boast about my luck. I went onto helping them with the 32 arena with my hunter.
After a little food break I return to run a second skolas arena with the team that crushed him on the first run. They chose new characters and we started it up. Half way through the arena a third set of different players joined asking for help on skolas. I told my teammates I would rejoin because the skolas fight should not take long. On my hunter, I joined right at the skolas fight. We ran up the stairs and started the fight with the final boss. The second attempt we came out victorious with only myself receiving the bounty. On this second attempt we killed him before the second wave of bombs spawned. I received the bounty the moment we killed him. I could not believe I got the third bounty on my third character. All acquired with different groups. All I could say was “Three for Three! Lets Go! Three for Mother *Trucking Three!" I returned to my previous fireteam to help them complete skolas once again.
*use you imagination
[b]Things you can rule out in its chance of dropping:[/b]
-running the nightfall for the buff
-needing to complete a lvl 34/35 arena from the beginning of the arena
-needing to complete lvl 32 arena before lvl34/35 arena
-killing a boss before or after a objective
-waiting later in the week
-giving the final killing blow to the boss(I didn't and still got the cipher)
[b]Plausible:[/b]
-farming the boss without picking up the rewards for the week e.g. armor/weapon cores (I was not able to test this, because it drop for me first kill on all three characters. I don't think it is possible to farm. Once you kill him the first time that week, the game takes you out of the drop rate)
-farming the bosses after first kill has an insanely low drop rate ( I did 4 hrs and will never do that again. It would be best if you wait for the next week).
[b]Things that could affect it dropping:[/b]
-running the arenas with new fireteams
-first boss kill on each of the arenas has an increase drop rate
-having a bounty slot open on your character. (I feel this is a must to get the bounty.)
-being alive when it drops(I was alive for all my drops. I doubt you need to be alive when he dies. I got the grimoire for killing him the first time and I was dead. I think the bounty would be the same concept.)
[b]tl;dr[/b]
-I have 3 Elder Cipher bounties on three different characters. Proof in 1-2days. I will equip all three exotic weapons on each character.
-Elders Cipher bounty is not farmable
-Elders Cipher bounty chance of dropping is given to the player at weekly reset
-Making a run with the same fireteam could affect the drop rate.
-Making a run with new fireteam members could affect the drop rate.
-I could just be luckiest destiny player since house of wolves dropped.
I hope this helps or I hope you enjoyed my epic journey. See you in 1-2days!
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Edited by benjoma: 6/10/2015 12:37:47 AMYou can get more than one elder chiper per PoE 34/35. I got 2 in the run i did with one character in skola's revenge. Skola's revenge is the best way to get elder chipers, try to get now that it has solar burn and it's easy. I did the 34(from round 2), then the 32 (from begining), 3 wanted bounties, nightfall and finally skola's (from begining) in one day, if you want to try what i did.