I've played about 150 hours now (not a lot mind you, but not a little either) and I know a lot of people who've played just as many or more. And I've yet to meet one person who has actually found Pan Arms, Sonic Knuckles, et al. Has anyone here legitimately found any?

I'm not gonna turn this into a thread on duping, etc, cuz it's been beaten to death on these forums for the past few weeks. Plus, while I personally feel that dupers are ruining the quality of the game (if I see one more low level player w/ better crap than my own I'm gonna flip!), it's not my place to say anything. Fuck it. Let 'em do what they want, just keep 'em out of my games. However, it seems that the only way to get these items is to trade for them, which is essentially accepting duped items (since they haven't been "officially unlocked" yet).

So is there any hope for someone who's hunting for these items who refuses to trade for possibly duped items? How's an honest player supposed to get ahead? Heh.

Guess until I hear otherwise I'll just have to settle for finding the occasional "not-so-rare" items and give up on the Sonic Knuckles all together.