After five hundred responses I pooled the data on what's been working for different people and Update #4 below has some suggestions on how to improve your odds of getting a crimson doubles ghost shell to drop.
Original Post: How many hours/matches did you put into Crimson Days without a ghost shell dropping? I'm 17 hours in and still no ghost shell. And after all those matches I've only seen one ghost shell drop for one teammate.
UPDATE #1: I'm having a blast playing and don't care about 320. I'd just like to get one of each shell to drop at any light whatsoever and I was wondering how it was going for everyone else.
UPDATE #2: It seems like most people are getting their ghost shell(s) either by the 10th match they play (win or lose) or sometime after their 200th match, with very little in between.
UPDATE #3: Thanks for all the posts everyone! Bungie heard us and posted an update with good news. One guaranteed 320 doubles ghost going to your postmaster after the event if you competed in seven matches. Whether it's crimson or chocolate is going to be a 50/50 RNG. More details here: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/News?aid=44361
UPDATE #4: Despite the good news of a guaranteed 320 ghost shell after Crimson Doubles ends Bungie doesn't appear to have upped the drop rate for getting a ghost as an end game reward, which means you're only guaranteed to get one of the two event specific ghosts. I've been gathering a few theories from various commenters and decided to try them out and I got a low-light crimson ghost last night on my fourth match and a second crimson ghost by my tenth match. It's hard to pinpoint if I was one, all, or none of theories that I tried that got ghosts to suddenly start dropping for me, but I'll detail the three theories and people can try them out one at a time or in various combinations to confirm what works.
The first theory is that you need to have both the Crimson Doubles specific emblem and either the Rosebright or Valentines shader equipped while playing matches. There's no official buff, but some people believe this helped their odds.
The second theory is that you should keep both of the Crimson Doubles shaders in the inventory of the character you're currently playing on. While you may have gotten the shaders to drop multiple times on each of your three characters while doing the Crimson Doubles bounties (for instance having the Valentine's shader drop on your warlock and the Rosebright shader drop on your titan), those shaders will continue to drop multiple times until each character has gotten both shaders—but once you have both shaders on each character the drop rate for the Crimson Doubles shaders appears to go down, which could likely boost your chances of getting a ghost shell as a drop instead. Again, just a theory.
The third theory is that the ghost shells appear to be dropping more frequently for either lower light characters OR less experienced characters who've put less time into the game (such as they've only run hard mode Oryx a couple of times). Since you can't undo running the raid on a character and I would [i]never[/i] advocate deleting a character for a week-long event, you can either throw on some year one weapons, equip rare blue weapons and armor that you have laying around for infusion, or put on your original, white generalist ghost shell in order to drop your light below 300 and potentially trigger the game into thinking you're a newer player to the game.
The fourth and final theory is that if you've been playing Crimson Doubles primarily on one character trying running the doubles for a couple nights exclusively on a different character. The thinking behind this is that the random number generator isn't quite random and can sometimes end up in an endless loop. Most players see this quite frequently with the three of coins: they're missing a particular exotic (say the mida in my case) and it never seems to drop when you play as a particular character (for me it's my titan), instead you get half-a-dozen repeats of the same exotic (say seven telestos alternating with seven invectives), but when you switch characters (to a warlock for instance) and main that character for a couple weeks the three of coins finally drops the exotic you've been missing and you see almost none of the exotics you've been getting so many repeats of. SO, all that to say, if you've been playing doubles primarily on one character switch it up and grind a different character.
So last night I put all of these theories into practice and got two Crimson Doubles ghost shells to drop, one in my eighteenth hour and a second in my nineteenth hour of playing doubles. I put on the emblem and the Rosebright shader, I made sure I had the Valentine's shader in my inventory (I picked it up from the kiosk after getting it on one of my other characters), I put on the generalist ghost shell dropping my light to 288, and I switched from playing primarily on my warlock to playing exclusively on my titan. The ghost shells I got were between 290-300, but I don't care, I just wanted to make sure I got one of each ghost shell (and it's been confirmed by several commenters that your light level doesn't seem to effect the light level that the Crimson Doubles ghost shells drop at, so it seems I just got an unlucky roll, but at this point I consider getting any ghost shell at all lucky).
Those are the working theories and they worked for me. I hope they help some other guardians out there as well. Keep the faith and let me know if trying one or all of these theories helps you get your first Crimson Doubles ghost shell to drop. Best of luck guardians!
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1 Reply150 games no ghost.
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I've played about 40 matches and I got 7 so far
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4 RepliesCould be coincidence but I wasn't getting shit then put on the emblem and shader and suddenly rngesus liked me
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1 ReplyBiggest mistake was not either tying the ghost into a quest/bounty completion or associating it with a ranking system like SRL/IB/ToO rewards. I think that is where it completely falls to shambles, as there is no trigger to prompt a drop. Win, doesn't matter. Lose, doesn't matter. Utter failure by Bungie.
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3 RepliesWow....newer guy I'm playing with....another ghost....320....me still zero
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All the shaders but no ghost, my wife was given the ghosts randomly and never got them as a end game drop. It must have glitched or something cuz they both just showed up in her inventory. She's now getting shaders as drops... Lol
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I heard they drop if you have a low light level
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2 RepliesEdited by 123: 2/12/2016 9:15:43 PMYeah, it's like that for me. I've resorted to suiciding. I taped my controller and just go and do chores and errands. I went and paid rent a while ago and when I came back it was still going. I'd much rather play and have fun, but it got butter after 75+ legit matches with NO ghost
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[quote]How many hours/matches did you put into Crimson Days without a ghost shell dropping? I'm 17 hours in and still no ghost shell. And after all those matches I've only seen one ghost shell drop for one teammate. UPDATE #1: I'm having a blast playing and don't care about 320. I'd just like to get one of each shell to drop at any light whatsoever and I was wondering how it was going for everyone else. UPDATE #2: It seems like most people are getting their ghost shell(s) either by the 10th match they play (win or lose) or sometime after their 200th match, with very little in between. Has anyone seen in their experience if it helps the drop rate to wear the emblem and shader? Or to at least be carrying both shaders on the character you're playing as?[/quote] I had two drop just fine but they do seem rare glad I got two crimson s intellect and discipline and the other discipline and strength for my warlock
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1 ReplySuicide games now at over 100 after 70 legit games. Ghost count - 0 event specific drops - 27 blue Ghost drops Something is wrong here. Seriously, seriously wrong. And I love how bungie is getting heat from the community and online articles about this. Where's their response? Nowhere? Shocking. :0
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Edited by MonkeyMillion: 2/13/2016 12:16:12 AMPlayed about 9 games, got both shaders, and a chocolate ghost 304. Happy.
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Put 9-10 hours yesturday trying to get that crimsion one (nothing)
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3 RepliesEdited by Redacted7310: 2/13/2016 12:05:07 AMIf you want a chance at a high light level ghost then you have to have high light level on your character.
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All 3 characters done all bounties done no ghost shells. The Division can come out soon enough.
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2 RepliesIn the course of doing bounties and quest my buddy and i got 3 ghosts. I got 320 sugary and he got a 314 and 300. So i guess 3 within 8 matches. Mo suicides btw.
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Got both with in 8 games. 1- 316 1- 311
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I got the chocolate she'll ad the after match award on my 1st game then got 4 more over the next 6 games on that character
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Its bull 4 sure, its a 1week event and the drop rates are way to low. Srl was a 3week event and had 3x as much drops.
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3 RepliesI just got one after roughly 200 matches. I dropped my light level with a generalist shell and vaola.
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Only got 2 Crimson shells, both intellect and strength
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1 ReplyGot the chocolate ghost shell drop after the 5th match.
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Completed bounties on 2 characters with no ghost of any kind.
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3 RepliesDropped everything within first day after an hour and a half of playing
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5 RepliesEdited by The Loathsome Dung Eater: 2/12/2016 11:09:44 PMGot the shaders and Crimson Ghost really fast, but the Sugary Ghost has been eluding me so far. Probably played over 100 matches or so.
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1 Reply1 hour got both shells, both shaders and some candies. Lost all matches except one. #loseforloot
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1 ReplyI've played over 90 games and still havnt got a shell sadly