Archon Staff Hunting Update #2
Another 25 runs done, bringing the total up to 75:
The theme of the last couple weeks has been how brutal this grind can feel. I found a TC90 on run #32, then that Legend Spike on run #48, and when I went to bed last night I was up to run #72 without anything else. 40 runs with just one TC90.
I was complaining to my discord mates, and had half started writing the whiny forum post in my head. This morning I was determined to finish three runs so I could post a 75 run update, but then the narrative changed quite a bit when a Dimensional Shard dropped:
I was very much ready for a drop, any drop, so this was a big motivational boost. I haven't been streaming more than a handful of runs (though they're all being locally recorded), but luckily with this one I was streaming, and jimsfriend was in the audience when it dropped. Here's a clip of the moment, for as long as twitch clips are saved, anyway:
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This brings the forum's combined "Big Three" count up to 4, with froz having found 2 Caduceus, ziambe having found 1 Caduceus, and me having found 1 Dimensional Shard. Of course the game is a huge troll, so the one Big Three item eluding us is the one that matters. According to my best estimate, a TC90 weapon is supposed to drop on average once every 12.7 runs, and a Big Three item thus once per 76.4 runs. Finding one on run #73 feels pretty fair I guess.
I'm not sure to what extent I can allow this game, and this grind, to consume me going forward. Ideally I'd like to plan around doing 2 runs a day, but keeping that average up is tough. It might not sound like much, but there's something uniquely weird and difficult about having to play for 10-15 minutes to set things up, then ignore the game for 2 hours, then play for 45 minutes. It's a pattern that I find way more difficult than just doing a half hour's worth of Pit runs whenever I feel like it, or whatever. Doing 4 runs like that takes basically 12-13 hours, it's just hard to plan around being available for that amount even if most of it is "passive".
We'll see how things go, hopefully froz will find the Archon Staff any day now and this insane endeavour can be abandoned. If not I'll be back eventually for a new update after run #100.
ETA: I forgot to mention, my TC90.d2x stash (which includes all TC87s and all TC90s) is now at exactly 90 items, which I find quite pleasing.