Lottery Spawn

Some Notorious Monsters appear via lottery spawn. This means that when a spawn point for a monster is about to be filled, there is a chance that a NM may spawn instead.

For example, the Damselflies in the Valkurm Dunes above Whitebone Sands have a chance to spawn the Valkurm Emperor.

The monster(s) who may spawn the NM are called placeholders. Killing the placeholder free's up the spawnpoint, allowing the 'lottery' to determine whether it will spawn again, or the NM. After the NM is killed, there is usually a certain amount of time before he can appear again. This is referred to as the respawn time, even though he will not necessarily appear after that amount of time, owing to the lottery. Respawn time in that case refers to the minimum time before there is a chance for him/her to spawn again.

The chance that the NM will appear is different for all NM's; some always within a few minutes of the respawn timer; some taking hours or even days to spawn.