The chances just aren't very good and if you're planning on grinding mobs, there are still much better places than the strikes that many people only do for the spinny loot at the end, because it's quicker than just killing mobs There's something you're still missing, as far as I can tell the only reason to do strikes (with a grinding mindset) is to get the rewards at the end. The tables for common mobs are the same outside the strike and are (most likely) the same on lvl 8 as they are on the common mobs in a lvl 24 strike so why bother with them?? The more strikes I get done in an hour the more engrams/ascendant mats I get. Everything else is secondary to that so f the trash mobs Also I'm not saying this is the fastest way to get ascendant materials but it's the fastest way in strikes... kinda starting to get to the futility point of destiny though when you're thinking of the fastest way to get ascendant mats but that's a seperately issue Tldr skipping unnecessary encounters is completely legitimate.