Gambling my life savings: A 1,000,000,000 gold gambling game for the NPCs of sanctuary

[ziambe]

Preface: As the SPF has provided me with countless hours of entertainment, information and intrigue, I humbly share this project for your entertainment and perhaps to inspire you too, to gamble your hard-earned gold

Introduction: I'm always on the lookout for fun 'little projects'. This year, I combined several of them into my Goals for 2022 post and as the year is coming to a close, I want to make a solid attempt at some of my unfinished goals in the category "Gambling my life savings". But first I had to collect some gold worthy of being named "life savings..." With gold find items from across old patches, this didn't take as long as I expected, and so after a couple weeks I was left with a stash worthy of the upcoming task:

Spoiler

So with the gold collected, I am left with just one task: actually visiting the vendors to gamble my life savings. However since I have not been tempted to purchase D2 Resurrected, I won't have the luxury of the refresh button on the gambling screen. No matter. As I am sure many forumites can relate, I am not one to shy away from a repetitive task

But why not spice it up? To help ease the monotony, I've made a friendly little competition for the NPCs of my gambling project!

Rules of the "Life Savings Gambling Game:"

• The gambling vendors in Acts 1,2,3 and 5 will be the "participants" (Jamella will not be participating - she has been disqualified after judges ruled that her gambling screen does not open as quickly as the other participants')
• The gambling vendors will be visited by a level 98 character with a full inventory and stash of gold and holding an Edge bow and a Gheed's grand charm
• All gold will be spent on circlets and coronets until the inventory and stash are exhausted
• This process will repeat from Act 1 to Act 2 to Act 3 and finally Act 5. Once each vendor has been visited once, a "round" will be completed
• If the gambling vendors provide an item *worthy* of being added to the player's collection they will receive a "point"
• "Rounds" will be repeated until all 1,010,000,000 gold is spent or the player's gambling addiction is cured
• The vendor with the most points at the end of the last cycle will be declared the winner!

Scoring: While ultimately up to the discretion of the player, most combinations of the following prefixes/suffixes may be considered worthy of one "point"

• +2 Class skills + 20 FCR magic quality
• +2 Class skills + 20 FCR + X rare quality (X can be @res/STR/Dex/etc)
• +3 Skill tab + 20 FCR
• 70+ Gold Find + Teleport charges (to help feed the gambling addiction)
• +2 Class Skills/3 Skill tab + 20+ PDR
• +3 Skill tab + 90+ Life
• Kira's or Griffon's - you never know...
• ...and last but not least, the two "jackpots" of the yearly goals and objectives thread:
  Spoiler

  

Prize: The vendor with the most points at the end of the competition will be selected by the player to be the SOLE participant in a future gambling game/project to be held by the player upon a TBD date

Which vendor's wares are worth their weight in gold? Which vendor will claim the title: Sultan of Sanctuary? Stay tuned to find out!

 

[ziambe]

Standings: This section will be updated periodically to show how many points each vendor has earned

Starting gold: 1,010,484,195
Remaining gold: 366,229

Completed Rounds: 75

​	​	​	​
Points: 6​	Points: 6​	Points: 5​	Points: 4​

Be sure to cheer for your favorite participant!

 

[ziambe]

Spoiler: Round 1

Elzix claimed the first point with this novel combination:


But Alkor was eager to match Elzix's early sprint:

Spoiler: Rounds 2,3 and 4

No points in these rounds, but a couple close calls!

The judges narrowly ruled against awarding a point for this beauty:


And minimum level requirements possible are always appreciated, however this was not quite useful enough:

Spoiler: Round 5

Gheed made his first score:

Although I found my first one of these a couple months ago, its always nice to have a second in case Larzuk doesn't want to cooperate:

Spoiler: Round 6

Anya finally joined the competition with a hilarous combination of mods...

The judges were very split on whether this would qualify. But in the end, the visionary mod was ruled sufficient due to its rarity:

Spoiler: Rounds 7 and 8

Elzix claims a point with a coronet which is destined to become very dusty:

Spoiler: Rounds 9 and 10

No point-scoring finds, but this could've been a nice twinking hat with 6 mods instead of 3 :/

Spoiler: Rounds 11, 12 and 13

Alkor offers the best prize to date:
Just missing 20 FCR, but well worth a point.

Gheed answered with a 2/20 dual leech, which although pretty average, is worth a point as well:

Spoiler: Rounds 14, 15 and 16

Anya played a cruel joke this time around:

Spoiler

But also 'apologized' with a very average 2/20 and earned a point:

Along with a 'souvenir' (no point for this one)-

Alkor found Anya's joke amusing and also offered an artisan's diadem with no suffix...
The ever-popular Elzix was a little more sympathetic however, and gave me a druid 2/20 which I somehow have never previously found:

Although 3 @res is too low to solidify this find as point-worthy, the combination of teleport and life makes up for it, scoring Elzix a point!

Spoiler: Rounds 17 and 18

Unfortunately the best thing to happen in these 2 rounds

Spoiler

Elzix offering 3 coronets in a single gamble

Though both he and Gheed also played nasty jokes these rounds with Elzix offering a Jeweler's Tiara and Gheed an Artisan's Circlet :/

Spoiler: Rounds 19 and 20

Didn't have one of these yet, but thanks to Anya, now I do!

 

[snickersnack]

Can I root against a participant? #%$& Gheed.

 

[coju]

Elzix is sick!!!! Go elzix!!

 

[Nona]

Oh this is so fun!! Thanks for the entertainment! I got to go with my gal Anya. Whoever gets you the best item you should get it personalized after them “Anya’s Jewler’s Tiara of Nirvana”

 

[HanShotFirst]

From the journal of Brave Sir Mordred (my last HC single pass character):

After spending all of NM Act II rebuilding our finances (after Gheed emptied our pockets), we gambled this circlet from Elzix, on our second attempt, <*Snip* Details aren't important.> Yep! Elzix is the man. I knew it! Don't shop at Gheed ... he's just the worst ...

Yes, Gheed emptied Brave Sir Mordred's pockets so thoroughly and without the slightest benefit that the whole fiasco was immortalized in song at the time ...

And the grudge still stands!

#%$& Gheed.

Go Elzix!

 

[BBS_Agonistes]

First, this is ah-mazing.

Second, I have a soft spot in my heart for Anya as I’ve shopped some decent stuff from her, so team Anya it is!

 

[PhineasB]

Awesome awesome thread!

I am excited to follow this, and regret not being more creative when I worked through ~ $200M gold in two batches earlier this year. But I also got no real keepers so I guess it would have been anti-climactic (and so I have to pull for not-Gheed 🙂)

 

[Swamigoon]

I'm throwing my support behind Alkor. His customer service manners are so much friendlier than Gheed's.



In addition to gambling, he can also sell you some potions and salves if you really need them.

 

[LD50]

Cool idea! 😁

Good luck and sorry but I don't expect your addiction to be cured too soon.. Also I'm rooting for Gheed, the only one showing some good old hawker mentality 🤑

 

[ziambe]

First 1/4 billion down. Elzix and Anya each tied with 3 points. Gheed and Alkor both at 2 points.

Spoiler: Rounds 21 and 22

Nothing

Spoiler: Rounds 23 and 24

Learning that the vendors can be painfully miserly...Not one, not two, but 3 troll socketed circlets/coronets these rounds: Jeweler's circlet of guarding from Elzix, plain Jeweler's Tiara from Anya and a Jeweler's Tiara of the Colossus from Elzix which I intended to keep but dropped on the ground and let poof as the doorbell rang

And on the note of miserly, when you do get an item worth keeping, the vendors always seem to want to make sure that it is still as close to garbage as possible: see the 4 non-useful mods here:



THANKS GHEED. No point for you for this twinking c(r)ap...

Spoiler: Rounds 25, 26, 27 and 28

Insult after insult after insult...
WTF!!

Spoiler: Rounds 29 and 30

/cry

Spoiler: Rounds 31 and 32

A point for Alkor!

Spoiler: Round 33

Nothin!

Spoiler: Rounds 34 and 35

That's a beauty!

Thank you Gheed!

Spoiler: Rounds 36 and 37

Small gift from Alkor (1 point)

 

[Swamigoon]

Since you wrote earlier that Alkor offers the best prize to date, then I choose to spin today's news like this: "Alkor's 2 points are more shiny than Elzix's or Anya's 3 points."

 

[ziambe]

1/2 way through the cash...it's an uphill battle....must. keep. spending.

Alkor with a slight lead and a 3-way tie for 2nd! Let's hope the greed of the gamble vendors dissipates a bit!

Spoiler: Rounds 38, 39 and 40

Nothing but teasers...artisan's tiara of the sun, jewelers diadem of the fox....etc :/

Spoiler: Rounds 41 and 42

The dry spell continues...

Spoiler: Rounds 43 and 44

The vendors can be very greedy

Spoiler: Rounds 45 and 46

Still nothing!

Spoiler: Rounds 47 and 48

Just brutal...

Spoiler: Rounds 49 and 50

Let this be a lesson...

Spoiler: Rounds 51 and 52

Feeling regret

Spoiler: Rounds 53 and 54

Feeling remorse

Spoiler: Rounds 55 and 56

Finishing off the 3rd quarter with an Artisan's tiara of the lamprey ;( and a 1/20 necro ;(

 

[maxicek]

Anya for the win.

 

[Jpy]

When someone says Why don’t you ever go to the casino?

 

[D2DC]

What do the vendors do with all this gold they've amassed? 🤔

 

[Excalibur]

What do the vendors do with all this gold they've amassed? 🤔

They Gamble. 😅

 

[ziambe]

Down to the last 1/4 Billion. The last 250 million was well, downright depressing. Literally nothing from the entire 3rd quarter...am I doing something wrong?

Well at least the end is in sight!!

The standings are still 3:3:4:3 with Alkor in the lead. But anyone can still steal the win!

Spoiler: Rounds 57 and 58

Artisan's Tiara of Guarding Thanks for nothing Elzix!

Spoiler: Round 59

A near miss but definitely a nice trophy with perfect suffix and prefix:

Spoiler: Rounds 60 and 61

Alkor provided a near miss this morning:

Would've been worth a point if I didn't already have a better MF prefix + suffix circlet.

However moments later Elzix finally coughed something of value up!

Worthy of a point and finally giving Alkor's 4 points a run for their money...

Moments later, Gheed almosts coughs up the grand prize

Spoiler

I'll keep it as a souvenir.

And then...as if the NPCs all decided to wake up after a month of winter slumber, Gheed also earns a point:

Would've liked +2 druid better as this is my 3rd necro 2/20 but I'll take it! (since you never know what kind of mood Larzuk is in). And so will Greedy Gheed take his point.

Spoiler: Round 62

Back to being stingy

Spoiler: Rounds 63 and 64

Alkor does not seem to like the thought of losing the challenge. He scores a point today with this just-enough-to-qualify sample:

Spoiler: Rounds 65 and 66

Since this is the last 3/20 I am still looking for (and one of the more useful ones) this cruel joke from Alkor stings hard:

Shame on you Alkor!

Spoiler: Rounds 67 and 68

A lot of action finally!
First off, Gheed and Elzix both offer a near miss (Although I may definetly get some use out of this with the help of Larzuk):



Then this appeared...technically both FRW and ML are marginally useful so even though it will probably never see the light of day, I have to follow the rules and award Anya 1 point for this:

Spoiler

A few minutes later, Elzix offers one of the most beautiful prizes to date and scores 1 point!

Spoiler

Such a beauty. Will Larzuk appreciate it also?

Then, just before the end of the round, ole Gheed heeds the call of the mission and also scores a point:

Spoiler

Not too shabby!

With points scored for Anya, Elzix and Gheed, Alkor's lead may yet be in jeopardy...

Spoiler: Rounds 69 and 70

A few jeweler's tiaras but with no or sad suffixes.

Spoiler: Rounds 71 and 72

With a 3-way tie and less than 50 million gold left in reserves, I was getting a bit worried about whether there will be a decisive winner...Then in round 72, my worries were temporarily relieved when Elzix coughed up this beauty:
That'll be a point!

Indeed I say 'temporarily' because Gheed immediately had to complicate matters once again by scoring a point on a technicality:

All but useless of course, and I would very much like to ignore such a find, however the judges reminded me that back in round 6 a point was already awarded for a 2/20 + visionary circlet and so it would be bad practice to ignore this one.

This brings both Gheed and Elzix to 6 points with just 34 million gold to go!

Spoiler: Rounds 73 and 74

Anti-climactic end! On to sudden death...

 

[ziambe]

Ladies and Gentlemen, today the 1,000,000,000 gold threshhold has been reached!

But....unfortunately we don't have a winner yet!!

After 74 grueling rounds (filled with regret and self-questioning), the final standings are:

Gheed 6 points...
Elzix 6 points...
Alkor 5 points...
Anya 4 points...

Admittedly, the judges were not prepared for this outcome. However after some deliberation, it has been decided that Gheed and Elzix will continue the competition in a single-elimination sudden gamble to the death match...😲!

The scoring rules will remain the same as in the previous round and the first vendor to end a round with more points than his competitor will be declared the Sultan of Sanctuary.

May the sleaziest vendor win!