Originally posted by Lil brekky:

A handful of my experienced gamer friends gave up on the game as soon as they did the math on the Bronze grind. The first bronze bar is REALLY exciting. The 20th and 40th Bronze bars are exciting, because you're unlocking entirely new mechanics. The 200th bronze bar is not, especially when it takes longer and longer to get more bronze as you scrape out the nearby zone, and the benefit is less and less substantial AND less and less qualitative (VERY minor numerical upgrades that do not scale with the cost). I suspect most of my other friends would have also given up if I hadn't coached and motivated them through it.

The crafting numbers are simply wrong. 90 minute voyage last night netted me 100 Silver, which was enough to... upgrade two weapons to Level 4, ~10 damage each. The cost:benefit ratio on that is frankly insane. It costs more because it's "the max level" but it doesn't change anything substantially more than the cheaper upgrades. Imagine my frustration if that long voyage left me 1 Silver short.

The problem is worse when multiplied by worldgen RNG. Some worlds will have a much harder time grinding through ores than others. Heck, different runs on the same world can vary radically, but it's not GOOD variance. it's a difference of, "Player A can easily find a lot of what they're looking for nearby," vs. "Player B will need a dozen hours more because they randomly explored a different (wrong) direction". The variance is strictly better/worse, which is bad variance.

Anyway, that's my $.02 on why the dropout rate on this game is high.

That's why most people just skip bronze armor, it isn't really needed.