- Mar 13, 2019
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Welcome to the new superchest thread for versions 1.07-1.12!
In the past the SPF had a 1.07 superchest thread, a superchest thread for the most current patch as well as attempts to branch out to 1.08 and 1.09 that didn't quite take off. This time around all of the versions 1.07 to 1.12 will be consolidated into one compact thread.
Since I plan on creating a superchest info thread for the current patch in which the mechanics and current developments are explained I won't explain much about the way that superchests work in this thread but rather I will link to the info thread once it is completed.
Short History of Superchests
To begin I will give a short overview of superchests that isn't 100% accurate but encapsulates the history and appeal of superchests while giving a rough idea of what to expect from them:
It all began (in the times of patches 1.10f to 1.12) when three people independently posted screenshots of Ber runes that popped out of certain chests in Lower Kurast. People noticed that the items that came out of these chests together with the Ber rune were the same in each case and started to investigate this strange occurence. Soon it was discovered that the chests in question only had a limited amount, namely 65534, of drop 'patterns' and it was realized that because of this every superchest opened in Lower Kurast on the playersetting 7 had a chance of at least 1 in 65534 of dropping a Ber rune (which was quite high at the time).
Thus the hunt was on and people soon found that there were patterns that included other 'High Runes' (the name for runes Vex and up), thus making the superchests a popular target for anyone looking to make runewords such as Enigma, Infinity or Call to Arms.
Since then the Lower Kurast superchest runs have become one of the most prolific runs of Diablo 2 with them being one of the first targets people run when they are just starting to gear up.
Superchests in older Patches
While nowadays there aren't a lot of people that still play patches 1.10f to 1.12 there is still a large amount of time travelers that frequent 1.07, 1.08, 1.09 as well as the 1.10 betas 'a' and 's'. Each one of those patches has different superchest patterns and thus offers different possibilities for rune hunting (and usage, since runes have changed in use as well!).
The super chest patterns are determined by the drop mechanics of the game and within the same patch they only differ by the player setting and difficulty they were found on as well as the location the superchest was in. While 1.09 has the same rune drop chances as 1.08 the developers added the players command with 1.09 which means that it is the first patch in which one can run superchests (efficiently) at higher player settings. Previously the only way to run superchests at higher player settings was to run them in a TC/IP game which due to the overhead of hosting and joining the game turned out to be less efficient than running them on players 1.
On top of this change there used to be a bug in 1.07 that concerned the handling of the no drop chance on the player setting 1 which was fixed somewhere between 1.08 and 1.13 and could potentially change the drop patterns at players 1 from one patch to the next even if the rune drop chances remained the same. This is not very relevant for patches 1.09 to 1.13 since people usually run these chests at playersettings 3, 5 or 7 for a higher chance to find patterns of High Runes. However it should be kept in mind when posting players 1 patterns.
As a consequence of all of this it is reasonable to assume the following 'eras' of superchest patterns:
Why run superchests in older patches?
Covering this in detail would be too much for this thread so I will give a short overview only:
The Format of the Tables:
The tables will be split up by patch, chest location as well as player setting. If a player setting has no patterns yet I will simply omit it, it can always be added later. For the reasons given above there will be no tables for patterns in 1.07/1.08 on player settings 2 and above since they can not be run efficiently.
Similarly if there are no known patterns for a location it will be omitted. The vast majority of patterns are for Lower Kurast with River of Flame coming in as a distant second. Also all patterns here are for Hell Difficulty only.
One last thing: Once upon a time people tried to find all possible patterns by modifying their game to be able to open superchests at a very high rate. These were called 'stress tests' and while the runes found via these methods were not FAM there is no reason to doubt their results. However some people took offense to these methods either because they wanted to find the patterns legitimately or because they simply enjoyed the hunt more than the actual patterns (crazy, right?
). For this reason I will include the results of these stress tests as a spoiler in this post and omit them from the 'official' tables. This way people have a choice of whether they want to know the patterns immediately or whether they would like to find them on their own. That should be fair to everyone in my opinion.
--- Stress test results and methodology --- to be added over the next days.
I will try to compile the tables for user found patterns in the next few days.
In the past the SPF had a 1.07 superchest thread, a superchest thread for the most current patch as well as attempts to branch out to 1.08 and 1.09 that didn't quite take off. This time around all of the versions 1.07 to 1.12 will be consolidated into one compact thread.
Since I plan on creating a superchest info thread for the current patch in which the mechanics and current developments are explained I won't explain much about the way that superchests work in this thread but rather I will link to the info thread once it is completed.
Short History of Superchests
To begin I will give a short overview of superchests that isn't 100% accurate but encapsulates the history and appeal of superchests while giving a rough idea of what to expect from them:
It all began (in the times of patches 1.10f to 1.12) when three people independently posted screenshots of Ber runes that popped out of certain chests in Lower Kurast. People noticed that the items that came out of these chests together with the Ber rune were the same in each case and started to investigate this strange occurence. Soon it was discovered that the chests in question only had a limited amount, namely 65534, of drop 'patterns' and it was realized that because of this every superchest opened in Lower Kurast on the playersetting 7 had a chance of at least 1 in 65534 of dropping a Ber rune (which was quite high at the time).
Thus the hunt was on and people soon found that there were patterns that included other 'High Runes' (the name for runes Vex and up), thus making the superchests a popular target for anyone looking to make runewords such as Enigma, Infinity or Call to Arms.
Since then the Lower Kurast superchest runs have become one of the most prolific runs of Diablo 2 with them being one of the first targets people run when they are just starting to gear up.
Superchests in older Patches
While nowadays there aren't a lot of people that still play patches 1.10f to 1.12 there is still a large amount of time travelers that frequent 1.07, 1.08, 1.09 as well as the 1.10 betas 'a' and 's'. Each one of those patches has different superchest patterns and thus offers different possibilities for rune hunting (and usage, since runes have changed in use as well!).
The super chest patterns are determined by the drop mechanics of the game and within the same patch they only differ by the player setting and difficulty they were found on as well as the location the superchest was in. While 1.09 has the same rune drop chances as 1.08 the developers added the players command with 1.09 which means that it is the first patch in which one can run superchests (efficiently) at higher player settings. Previously the only way to run superchests at higher player settings was to run them in a TC/IP game which due to the overhead of hosting and joining the game turned out to be less efficient than running them on players 1.
On top of this change there used to be a bug in 1.07 that concerned the handling of the no drop chance on the player setting 1 which was fixed somewhere between 1.08 and 1.13 and could potentially change the drop patterns at players 1 from one patch to the next even if the rune drop chances remained the same. This is not very relevant for patches 1.09 to 1.13 since people usually run these chests at playersettings 3, 5 or 7 for a higher chance to find patterns of High Runes. However it should be kept in mind when posting players 1 patterns.
As a consequence of all of this it is reasonable to assume the following 'eras' of superchest patterns:
- 1.07: The original expansion patch, shipped with LoD.
- 1.08: The follow up to 1.07; it was live for only about two months on battle.net.
- 1.09a/c/d: These patches introduced the players command.
- 1.09b: This is the only patch in which the players command can be set to any value between 1 and 64 instead of the usual 1 to 8.
- 1.10a-1.12: Rune drop chances were improved, powerful runewords were introduced and all runes could finally be cubed up to the next higher one.
- 1.13a: This is a beta patch and acts as a transition between 1.12 and 1.13c. Its rune drops are worse than those in 1.13c but it doesn't offer anything worthwile that makes it worth playing. The superchest patterns here were only investigated briefly.
- 1.13c-1.14d: There will be a proper thread for the superchest patterns in these patches. [ADD LINK]
Why run superchests in older patches?
Covering this in detail would be too much for this thread so I will give a short overview only:
- 1.07: Many runes from Eld to Fal can be used to create powerful crafts that are not possible in patches 1.08+. Superchests can also drop charms which had better stats in 1.07 only. (e.g. +40 Max Damage on a GC, +6 to all Resists on an SC!)
- 1.08: Tal runes are used in the caster amulet craft which has the potential to produce amulets with +2 to class skills and up to 25% faster cast rate. (This is exclusive to 1.08). In addition the superchests can be farmed for perfect skulls which are used to reroll rare jewels for a chance of up to 6 affixes.
- 1.09: The superchests here may drop 5% faster run/walk SCs.
- 1.10a/1.10s: These patches have four rune words that were nerfed in later patches, most notably the infamous beta CtA that can potentially give +15 to Battle Orders. These runewords require runes ranging from Um to Sur and hence all runes Lem and above found in 1.07 to 1.10s may be forwarded to create these powerful items. (The only other way to quickly get a hold of these is to perform Hellforge Rushes, a much dreaded prospect)
The Format of the Tables:
The tables will be split up by patch, chest location as well as player setting. If a player setting has no patterns yet I will simply omit it, it can always be added later. For the reasons given above there will be no tables for patterns in 1.07/1.08 on player settings 2 and above since they can not be run efficiently.
Similarly if there are no known patterns for a location it will be omitted. The vast majority of patterns are for Lower Kurast with River of Flame coming in as a distant second. Also all patterns here are for Hell Difficulty only.
One last thing: Once upon a time people tried to find all possible patterns by modifying their game to be able to open superchests at a very high rate. These were called 'stress tests' and while the runes found via these methods were not FAM there is no reason to doubt their results. However some people took offense to these methods either because they wanted to find the patterns legitimately or because they simply enjoyed the hunt more than the actual patterns (crazy, right?
). For this reason I will include the results of these stress tests as a spoiler in this post and omit them from the 'official' tables. This way people have a choice of whether they want to know the patterns immediately or whether they would like to find them on their own. That should be fair to everyone in my opinion.--- Stress test results and methodology --- to be added over the next days.
I will try to compile the tables for user found patterns in the next few days.
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