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

ziambe

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2009
1,220
1,873
113
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 :p

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:

1666032688335.png

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 :p

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:
    1666034225518.png
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!
 
Last edited:
Standings: This section will be updated periodically to show how many points each vendor has earned

Starting gold: 1,010,484,195
Remaining gold: 0

Completed Rounds: 76


1666036652506.png
1666036604789.png
1666036105481.png
1666036715947.png
Points: 6
Points: 6
Points: 5
Points: 4

Be sure to cheer for your favorite participant!

EDIT: After 8 months of intense competition,
a winner has been crowned!
 
Last edited:
Elzix claimed the first point with this novel combination:
1666072548930.png

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

1666072512333.png
No points in these rounds, but a couple close calls!

The judges narrowly ruled against awarding a point for this beauty:
1666073196166.png

And minimum level requirements possible are always appreciated, however this was not quite useful enough:
1666073416152.png
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:
1666072908173.png
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:
1666073082615.png
Elzix claims a point with a coronet which is destined to become very dusty:
1666077036949.png
No point-scoring finds, but this could've been a nice twinking hat with 6 mods instead of 3 :/
1666125292034.png
Alkor offers the best prize to date:
1666182394454.pngJust 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:
1666182490403.png
Anya played a cruel joke this time around:
1666474142127.png

But also 'apologized' with a very average 2/20 and earned a point:
1666474110447.png
Along with a 'souvenir' (no point for this one)-
1666474193522.png
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:
1666474353942.png
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!
Unfortunately the best thing to happen in these 2 rounds
Elzix offering 3 coronets in a single gamble :p
1667059144473.png
Though both he and Gheed also played nasty jokes these rounds with Elzix offering a Jeweler's Tiara and Gheed an Artisan's Circlet :/
Didn't have one of these yet, but thanks to Anya, now I do!
1667125024171.png
 
Last edited:
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”
 
  • Like
Reactions: ziambe and PhineasB
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!
 
Awesome awesome thread! (y)

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

XsDamnit.png

In addition to gambling, he can also sell you some potions and salves if you really need them.
 
First 1/4 billion down. Elzix and Anya each tied with 3 points. Gheed and Alkor both at 2 points.
Nothing :(
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 :p

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:

1667481937322.png

THANKS GHEED. No point for you for this twinking c(r)ap...
Insult after insult after insult...
1668164076527.png WTF!!
/cry

1668167798316.png
A point for Alkor!
1668867363352.png
Nothin!
That's a beauty!
1668960214595.png
Thank you Gheed!
Small gift from Alkor (1 point):)
1670189359181.png
 
Last edited:
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." :sneaky:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 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!
Nothing but teasers...artisan's tiara of the sun, jewelers diadem of the fox....etc :/
The dry spell continues...
The vendors can be very greedy :(
Still nothing!
Just brutal...
Let this be a lesson...
Feeling regret :(
Feeling remorse :(
Finishing off the 3rd quarter with an Artisan's tiara of the lamprey ;( and a 1/20 necro ;(
 
Last edited:
When someone says Why don’t you ever go to the casino?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zyr
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!

Artisan's Tiara of Guarding :( Thanks for nothing Elzix!
A near miss but definitely a nice trophy with perfect suffix and prefix:
1674483758273.png
Alkor provided a near miss this morning:
1674813312395.png
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!
1674813372195.png
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
1674813922099.png
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:
1674814034732.png
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.
Back to being stingy
Alkor does not seem to like the thought of losing the challenge. He scores a point today with this just-enough-to-qualify sample:
1675074110133.png
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:
1675596035833.png
Shame on you Alkor!
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):
1675677445901.png
1675677494479.png

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:
1675677594368.png
A few minutes later, Elzix offers one of the most beautiful prizes to date and scores 1 point!
1675677675165.png
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:
1675677770792.png
Not too shabby!

With points scored for Anya, Elzix and Gheed, Alkor's lead may yet be in jeopardy...
A few jeweler's tiaras but with no or sad suffixes.
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:
1678037909956.pngThat'll be a point!

Indeed I say 'temporarily' because Gheed immediately had to complicate matters once again by scoring a point on a technicality:
1678038038366.png
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!
Anti-climactic end! On to sudden death...
 
Last edited:
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!
 
Diablo 4 Interactive Map
PurePremium
Estimated market value
Low
High