That Finished 3x3 Key Feel

I finished my second ever 3x3 Key set and I'm feeling pretty accomplished. After my first set, I went and leveled a Sorc for Key farms so I was on a Key break for the week it took me to do that, then I started solo nihl farms on my pally and (big oofs) took like 6 hours or more before I got the three there. Then it was on to summoner farms on the sorc and given that drop rates, even solo in the zone, are about 40% better in full games I was on a speedrun every Baal game to kill The Summoner before Baal died and everyone left. That farm was significantly easier regarding the number of runs I needed before getting the three keys and the old D1 mage was nice enough to drop a Bul-Kathos band for me during them. Last step, the tower. I was expecting to be rich in runes after a bunch of Key runs, but even after getting like 100 runes after cubing it came out to about an extra Fal and nothing better than a Ko dropped for all the runs, but I did get a Trang glove and a sweet double Key drop while on the job so it wasn't bad, even if it took a while. Any time I was real quick, under 2 mins from game start to countess kill, was nice and I got way better at cutting times down by the end.

So, about 4 days and 12 hours of gameplay and now I can go get another torch. Even if the torch rolls crap and non-pal/sorc, it'll still be useful to me.

At any rate, I made this topic so others could share their unexpectedly good Key farm drops or record speeds for getting a completed 3x3 set through farms or just revel in their finished Key farm journey. Good luck out there and remember, if you ever see a five Key drop screenshot that junk, noone will believe it, but screenshot it anyways!

Congrats! Yea finalizing a 3x3 isn’t a small thing, and getting the second one is probably the best. After your second torch your characters start to get really strong, letting you farm some other equipment, increasing your clear speed even more.

After I got 2 pally torches in a row I took a break for a bit, just doing a Nihlathak or tower run or two ever now and then to break up trav/cows/LK/etc monotonony. After not too long you’ll be like: “omg, I can do an Uber run if I just get one more Key”. Which is much more enjoyable than focused Key farming.

Here to share my horrible luck with Key farming. Took around 120 summoner runs to get my very first Key off him.

Been 5-6 months since then, and have been farming keys for a while without much issue (prob found a dozen or so sets total, with a couple double Key drops), but now most recently I've done a record 150 Nihlathak runs without a Key drop, and it's starting to bug me!! Here's to hoping I can break that losing streak tonight..

Oof! 150 runs with no Key on Nihl sounds rough, but you're likely geared well enough that they're at least merciful on the time taken. If only Nihl was as low risk to just barge in and blast like the other two!
I had a long dry streak on this Key set on Nihl, probably 40-50 runs with no Key before I got my second one and I think at a point during that streak I ended up just quitting for the day because not seeing the keys was bugging me.
150, though. That's a long enough dry streak to make a guy think there's some dev messing with them, lol!

LOL, yes I do get those Truman Show vibes every now and then with these drops. But then I remember Murphy's Law and just accept my fate xD

UDPATE: Finally got it at run #180

Zero187 wrote: 4 years ago

Here to share my horrible luck with Key farming. Took around 120 summoner runs to get my very first Key off him.

Been 5-6 months since then, and have been farming keys for a while without much issue (prob found a dozen or so sets total, with a couple double Key drops), but now most recently I've done a record 150 Nihlathak runs without a Key drop, and it's starting to bug me!! Here's to hoping I can break that losing streak tonight..

I'm in a similar boat with keys from The Summoner. I have never gotten a key from him. Over 50 runs so far and that cheap bastard hasn't given me a damn thing. Normal odds would put it at about 1:12 in a solo game. I already hate the guessing game of which wing to go in Arcane Sanctuary even with Teleport. I know 50 is a low number of runs over the span of the three months I've been playing, but I hate farming items in general so I don't do it unless I can do it quickly.

My only Key of Hate was acquired through a trade. Meanwhile, I have 11 Keys of Destruction that I farmed with relative ease once I got Nature's Peace and figured out the Halls of Pain and Vaught. I don't go out of my way to farm those currently because I'm so far ahead on them. Keys of Terror didn't feel too hard to come by back when I was still farming The Forgotten Tower, but I haven't done a tower run in a couple of months now. I have three of those, and again, not in immediate need of more until I get caught up on Keys of Hate.

Just another reason why I prefer playing online. Better off trading for those damn things instead.

You can trade one type of Key for another. If you prefer farming either Nihlathak or The Countess, for example, you can use excess keys to buy Keys of Hate and forget about The Summoner. Personally, I like running Arcane Sanctuary for the ghosts as well, so I don't mind the guessing game with the correct path. The majority of my HR drops have been from there, killing ghosts on the way to The Summoner.

I agree with Arcane Sanctuary farm. Its fastest, after u kill summoner u jump to portal, get to act4 (shortest walking in town to WP) and leave the game.

Zero187 wrote: 4 years ago

UDPATE: Finally got it at run #180

Now the true test comes for the next set. Will your extended dry streak equate to a statistical Edge for the next couple of Key drops, or will it just feel that way even if they're dropping 20-30 runs apart? lol

I always go to the tower and trade keys if I have more than 3 keys of Terror. Within finding 3 keys of Terror I usually find one Ist one Mal and one Um from The Countess.

Had Nihlithak drop 3 keys once. That was dope as!