Normal Countess Rune Drops

Aug 20, 2016  A Diablo II - Lord of Destruction diary of 300 Hell Countess Runs for rune hunting, including a deeper going analysis and statistics of the findings, as well as calculations of feasibility.

In Normal difficulty, The Countess can drop rune numbers 1-8, (Tal is #7 while Eth is #5). With the drop rate that high, and both ‘Stealth’ runes being in the drop pool, it shouldn’t take more than 2-4 Countess kills to acquire one Tal and one Eth rune so that you can move on.

The Lurker Lounge: Diablo II - The Workshop The WorkshopDiablo II Mechanics and StatisticsKnowledge is power. In this forum, we discuss detailed game mechanics and statistics, from how Diablo II functions, to the probabilities of events happening.Questions? Read the and please obey the.Subject: 'Rune drop rates for countess'Archived thread - Read only Topic #1080Reading Topic #1080Charter Member26-Aug-01, 10:08 PM (GMT)'Rune drop rates for countess'I've done about 20 countess runs on hell and haven't gotten a single rune, not even the first time I killed her. I've been using a lvl54 sorc, with about 180% magic find (I know that doesn't help with runes).

Dear Blizzard, I've played Diablo 2 for roughly 15 years but the rune drop is very, very, very low. The highest rune I picked up from Hell mode while running around killing monsters was an Ist rune. The highest rune I received from Hell Forge was a Gul rune (only once). The only people who have high level runes are dupers and botters.

It's extremely difficult for regular, legitimate players to get high level rune drops. To fix this issue, first get rid of botters and dupers (based on the recent banwave, it seems that you are determined in addressing this issue).

Next, change the Hellforge rune drop in Normal from El-Amn to Sol-Pul. Nightmare Hellforge from Sol-Um to Um-Ohm. Hell Hellforge from Hel-Gul to Lo-Zod.

(these are suggestions) Also, modify the Countess rune drops. Next, increase the rate of high level rune drops by at least 3x compared to right now. Possibly allow us to gamble for runes using in game gold (Blank rune for 100000 gold, could turn out to be anything from El-Zod) Sincerely, zwitterion. 07:15 AMPosted by The only people who have high level runes are dupers and botters. It's extremely difficult for regular, legitimate players to get high level rune drops.

I agree with the rest of your post, but this is just false. You don't have to dupe or bot to get HR.

They will drop. Where do people find HR? The ladder just reset a few days ago so I'm still stuck in NM at this time.

But in previous ladders, I would run around Hell mode with my brothers (Countess, Andy, Travincal, Mephisto, Shenk, Chaos, Baal). What am I doing wrong that the highest rune I found was an Ist running around Hell? Ok first off, if you're rune farming in Night Mare you're going to have a bad time, okay? Second, if you want large scale low-mid low runes you need to farm countess and Hell mode Chaos Sanctuary. I never have issues getting low to mid level runes in Hell Chaos runs, and that plus the garaunteed 1-3 drop from countess each run stacks up very quickly. This isn't World of WarCraft or Diablo III.

This is a game where nobody is entitled to anything, and we are all slaves to the eternal grind. I don't care what dupers and botters are doing. Blizzard is working on banning them, so it's no reason to adjust drop rates for us. That would just make it even easier for cheaters to keep doing what they do. 07:48 AMPosted by Ok first off, if you're rune farming in Night Mare you're going to have a bad time, okay? Second, if you want large scale low-mid low runes you need to farm countess and Hell mode Chaos Sanctuary. I never have issues getting low to mid level runes in Hell Chaos runs, and that plus the garaunteed 1-3 drop from countess each run stacks up very quickly.

This isn't World of WarCraft or Diablo III. This is a game where nobody is entitled to anything, and we are all slaves to the eternal grind. I don't care what dupers and botters are doing. Blizzard is working on banning them, so it's no reason to adjust drop rates for us. That would just make it even easier for cheaters to keep doing what they do. The reason why I am running around NM is because of the recent ladder reset.

'Where do people find HR? The ladder just reset a few days ago so I'm still stuck in NM at this time. But in previous ladders, I would run around Hell mode with my brothers (Countess, Andy, Travincal, Mephisto, Shenk, Chaos, Baal).

What am I doing wrong that the highest rune I found was an Ist running around Hell?' 07:31 AMPosted. I agree with the rest of your post, but this is just false. You don't have to dupe or bot to get HR. They will drop. Where do people find HR? The ladder just reset a few days ago so I'm still stuck in NM at this time.

But in previous ladders, I would run around Hell mode with my brothers (Countess, Andy, Travincal, Mephisto, Shenk, Chaos, Baal). What am I doing wrong that the highest rune I found was an Ist running around Hell? Enemies are capped for what they can drop, you aren't going to find high runes in Nightmare.

The hell countess can only drop up to Ist, but she is the most reliable for all runes up to that point. Beside that, the chests in lower kurast, the council, and the chaos sanctuary are the best places imo. 07:15 AMPosted by Dear Blizzard, I've played Diablo 2 for roughly 15 years but the rune drop is very, very, very low.

The highest rune I picked up from Hell mode while running around killing monsters was an Ist rune. The highest rune I received from Hell Forge was a Gul rune (only once). The only people who have high level runes are dupers and botters. It's extremely difficult for regular, legitimate players to get high level rune drops. To fix this issue, first get rid of botters and dupers (based on the recent banwave, it seems that you are determined in addressing this issue). Next, change the Hellforge rune drop in Normal from El-Amn to Sol-Pul.

Nightmare Hellforge from Sol-Um to Um-Ohm. Hell Hellforge from Hel-Gul to Lo-Zod. (these are suggestions) Also, modify the Countess rune drops. Next, increase the rate of high level rune drops by at least 3x compared to right now. Possibly allow us to gamble for runes using in game gold (Blank rune for 100000 gold, could turn out to be anything from El-Zod) Sincerely, zwitterion LOL ^ future botter because hes too impatient to just play normally. #1 warning sign. 07:48 AMPosted by Ok first off, if you're rune farming in Night Mare you're going to have a bad time, okay?

Second, if you want large scale low-mid low runes you need to farm countess and Hell mode Chaos Sanctuary. I never have issues getting low to mid level runes in Hell Chaos runs, and that plus the garaunteed 1-3 drop from countess each run stacks up very quickly.

This isn't World of WarCraft or Diablo III. This is a game where nobody is entitled to anything, and we are all slaves to the eternal grind. I don't care what dupers and botters are doing.

Blizzard is working on banning them, so it's no reason to adjust drop rates for us. That would just make it even easier for cheaters to keep doing what they do. I am guaranteed that you have never played diablo or at least never speak to anyone in game 1) its nightmare(or nm for shorter) no Night Mare 2)we dont say Chaos Sanctuary is just diablo or chaos hehe is so funny when we read those posts, we all understand you looser snitch you can hide from bliz but you can hide from D2 gamers:) P.S. You have to wrote those thinks and read them every day so you can learn the game its not so easy like the videos on youtube. Yo retards you triggered me. I play hc us east ladder i farm hell cows hell chaos and hell baal with friends whom are legit in past three days - ohm from cows - ber from meph - sur from chaos - vex from chaos - cham from chaos FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLS HIGH RUNES ARE LITERALLY EVERYWHERE WE FARM FIVE GAMES A NIGHT IF THAT IFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF THAT I do not support those whomw ould make a game easier just to meet their needs. Vanilla WoW weeps.

Normal Countess Rune Drops 2

Botters shall be banned! Dupers Gonzo! A legit diablo 2 where people work for their!@#$ is a happy diablo 2. I found 2 vex (both from caskets in catacombs odly), Lo, and sur last ladder in less than 1 month. I found ohm on day 3 of this ladder. I also received 3 Gul from 6 hell forges.

I played the first 4 days of ladder with two friends and we also found several shakos, a couple tal armors, and tons of white monarchs and runeword bases which we traded for decent runes. It took less than 1 week to build hoto and 2 enigma, tho the bers and jahs we traded for were probably duped by botters, so there is that. Before the drop rate change, I had only ever found 1 hr (cham). I think the drop rate is okay now. When blizzard finds a way to fix botting and duping, then let's consider the drop rate again.

What Is The Highest Rune Countess Can Drop

I believe drop rates are based on the idea that you'll be able to trade for things you need as long as a few thousand people are playing. When the bots stop and there's only a thousand or so people playing, maybe we'll need to reconsider. There are singleplayer players who have found enough high runes to build some really nice gear, so even if bots and dupes are fixed. It won't be that hard to get nice gear.

We'll just spend more time using naj staff or Tele ammys instead of building sweet sweet enigma.

This rune finding guide lists precise odds to find runes from every commonly-sought monster and chest in the game. It was written in 2004 for v1.10, and while the odds and strategies remain accurate, there is no mention of the Uber Quests, and this guide does not cover newer techniques as Level 1 Hellforge Rushing. (Source. Download the guide in the original PDF form, with prettier tables and graphics.)

• Patch: v1.10
• Gametype:PvP
• Guide Topic: Rune finding
• Class:Amazon, Assassin, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Paladin, Sorceress
• Author:Urlik

• 5How does one legitimately get hold of some decent runes?
  • 5.5Thieving the Sparkly and Special Chests
• 7Objects (Chest TC)

This guide is intended for Diablo II LoD Expansion, patch 1.10 final only.

Downmix software. 5.2 Try setting your Realtek software from 5.1 to stereo. ('speakers' - 'speaker configuration') and play with the options under 'sound effects' when something is irritating.-6. Set it back to normal when you hate it or gaming/watching movie again. When someone know how to upmix 2.1 sound source to 5.1 properly then pllssss let me know. Award Winning Penteo 16 Pro upmixes any stereo or surround track to 5.1, 7.1, Atmos, Ambisonics, Auro3D and DTSX - up to 16 output channels. Every Penteo upmix downmixes perfectly back to the orignal stereo. SALE - Save 20% before October 31/19.

The purpose of this guide is very simply to help your characters be more effectivein their rune finding efforts.

To be perfectly honest, I was motivated to create a Rune Finder's Guide out offrustration in trying to find accurate sources for rune drop information. I'm surethat many of you have felt the same frustration; especially after patch 1.10 wasreleased and introduced all those uber new runewords. In addition, a kindredrune-fanatic named Uzziah held a Rune Race which truly got me started onworking out some drop chance numbers on my own.. and it just kept growing and growing.

Eventually, I worked out the math for every rune-dropping sourcein the game. Then I did a lot of testing with modded files to confirm certain dropbehaviors from objects as well as 'counting' tests in order to determine theaverage number of rune drops per area 'clear'. Revision 2.0 came to be afterThrugg steered me over to a post by Jarulf, in which Jarulf writes about howobjects drop items with references to relevant snippets of actual game code.

It is, because I don't hide anything from you at all. You can see all thecalculations on the appropriate tabs. I'm quite confident the math is correct.But if you want to check it for yourself, feel free.

Let me count the ways.

1. Trade with some lucky bastards who already have the runes you want.

1. Run Hell Countess over and over and cube her drops as high as possible.

1. Run character after character after character to the hell mode Hell Forge

Quest.

1. Repeatedly clear areas in the game where the average number of rune drops

per time spent is high (e.g. Hell Cows).

1. Thieve from Sparkly Chests and/or Special Chests over and over with a

teleporting character.

I'll comment on each Strategy

Trading[edit]

A lot of folks favor this method it seems. But I have to ask them somequestions.. Somebody burnt their eyeballs out and crippled their wrist to find those high level runes. Are they really going to be that eager to give them up?Can there be very many on the market? How do you know the rune is genuine?Runes don't get the fingerprinting that Doc Tenshi came up with to hampercheaters and item dupers.. Maybe I'm being too much of a purist, but in mybook a high level rune just isn't the same if it isn't authentic. If you use thisstrategy, I recommend dealing with only the most trusted players.There's nothing quite as satisfying as finding a good rune on your own.

Hell Countess ad infinitum[edit]

Hell Countess is the best source for runes up to Ist. But she's on the bottomlevel of that nasty tower. For best efficiency, a teleporting Sorc is ideal. My BlizzSorc keeps a slight distance and TK's the CI+FI Countess while the Merc doesthe dirty work with his massive poker. I recommend grabbing ALL rune dropsand cubing them up. I really don't think it will slow you that much. Yes, even pickup those El's! For reference, in an average of 896 Hell Countess runs at Players1, you will be able to cube up an Ist with her rune drops, assuming you also havethe required gems. Yes really! And it only takes 512 Ists to make a Zod. For Ist and below, she is by far the best source. Do her! If you have the stamina,within about 4000 runs (on average) you should be able to cube up to an Ohm.

Hell Forge Rushing[edit]

Although I have doubts, you may discover that you can be more productive atfinding high level runes by rushing a steady stream of new characters to the hellmode Hell Forge Quest. To me, this approach defeats the purpose of playing asa 'Rune Hunter' character. I also have a strong suspicion that if you were tocompare ratios of net total rune value per play-hour invested, Rune Huntingwould beat Hell Forge Questing's pants off. I could be wrong. Perhaps we havethe makings of a new type of contest to answer this question once and for all?The top end for hell mode Hell Forge seems to be a Gul. You need 256 of thoseto cube a Zod. Trouble is, the hell mode Hell Forge won't be dropping youa Gul for each new character you bring to it. On average, you will only get a Gul9% of the time. That brings us to about 5000 or so new charactersthat you need to take all the way to hell mode Hell Forge. Yikes!

Area Clearing[edit]

This strategy follows the basic law of averages. More monsters means moredrops which means more runes. Start with monsters which have the highestchance to drop runes among all their drops. Then look for areas where there aretons of monsters, preferably crowded together, and let the carnage ensue.Obviously, the more of a killing machine your character is the better. LightningJavazon's, Multishot Bowazon's, Windy Druids, Blizzard Sorcs.. take your pick.

Try to run at the highest Players X setting you can manage without a significantreduction in your clearing speed. This is important because if you aren't payingattention to this metric, you may end up spending more time to earn less runes.Kinda like working more hours for less money, LOL. Nobody wants to do that!I contend that the best place for the area clearing strategy is the secret CowLevel (more on this later). Find your average clearing time over say 3-4 runs atPlayers 1. Then try a few runs at Players 2, a few at Players 3, and so on.Calculate the average time to clear for each Players setting. Plug these timesinto Table B below and you'll discover the optimal Players X setting. The sameprocedure can be used for other areas too. But for highest accuracy, I first needto provide you the appropriate 'Scale Factors'. Unfortunately, I don't have themall figured out yet, as this is a rather arduous process (see Area Counts sheet inthe Excel version for more info).

I would like to thank MattIs for first pointing out the sensitive relationship between the “Players X” setting and rune drop productivity. Thrugg expanded on this and created a handy efficiency table for the Cow level based on hitpointscaling rather than the actual clear times. This is Table A, below. It is likely thatthe result of P2 probably won't be any different in Table B for all but the mostpowerful characters.

I put some hypothetical numbers in the 'Average Time to Clear' column in TableB for illustrative purposes only.

Note: In creating Table A, I didn't know how many hitpointsCows typically have, so I let 'A' represent it.

The conclusion here is that unless your character is doing enough damage to killa group of Cows with one 'attack' at Players 2 or 3, the most efficient setting forcollecting rune drops is Players 2.

Now as for objects.. that's a different story. Objects don't hit back and they don'tbecome any harder to pop at higher players settings. Thus, it's in your bestinterest as a smart Rune Hunter to pop them all at nothing less than Players 8.Clear the level, raise the Players setting to 8, then go back and pop the objects.The No_Drop chance is calculated when the object is popped, not whenspawning the level. Incidentally, I believe the same is true when a monster iskilled but I haven't verified this.

Thieving the Sparkly and Special Chests[edit]

This is a strategy best handled by a fast-casting (63% fast cast or higher), non-ES, high defense Sorceress. Bringing along a strong Merc for a meat shield isessential. It would help even more if she fortified the meat shield with othersummonables too (from item bonuses). Set the Players to 8, TP to a Sparkly orSpecial Chest in a 'known' location as fast as you can. Do not engage anymonsters! Pop the Chest, hit the Alt key to see what dropped, then get the helloutta there!If you happened to spot a good rune drop, go back and snatch it up or show offyour pride and honor and fight for your prize!You can do a lot of runs in a short time with this strategy. My Blizz Sorc ranMeph's center chest (a Special Chest) about once every 20 seconds 100 timesover with no deaths. Budgeting 15 minutes of each play-hour for replenishingblue pots, keys, cubing, etc, that comes to about 18 runes per hour for a SparklyChest (or 9 for a Special Chest). Say you collect 100 runes per week (about 5.5play-hours) in this manner from Bonesaw's Sparkly Chest (at P8).. There is a 16% chance that at least one rune will be Ist thru Zod. Sweet!

Best Single Sources to Find Specific Top 10 Runes[edit]

For Runes Ist and below, Hell Countess - at Players 1 - is by far the best source.

• * Zod capable Cast and Missle monsters start spawning in level 81 areas, while Zod capable Melee monsters start spawning in level 82 areas.

For Runes Ist and below, Hell Countess - at Players 1 - is by far the best source.

• ** Ordinary Objects and Super Objects are fully defined in the text. The rune drop chances shown are the averages.
• *** Although they too 'sparkle', the Quest Chests in Act 2 and Act 3 behave like a Type I Object, as far as rune drops are concerned.

Although it offers the best chance in the game, an Act 5 (H) Sparkly Chest (popped at P8) wouldrequire 625,000 runs on average before you see a Zod. Kind of depressing ain't it? I wish you the best of luck. :D

So, you're probably all wondering..

'Where are the best areas in the game to invest my precious time - killing monsters and looting their chests over and over and over again - in order to find some high level runes?'

Well, sadly, no one area will selectively pump out only high level runes.For any given rune that drops, there is a ridiculously small chance that it will behigh level. In fact, the chance for Ist thru Zod is only 0.1589%. See the sectionon 'Rune Ratios' for a chart.

Now, that we have cleared that up.. The answer is really quite simple. The bestarea is the one where your character can find the most runes in the shortestamount of time. It's preferred though not essential (depending on your runegoals) that your chosen area be one with sources able to drop up to Zod.I can't help your character on killing speed. That will depend on his/her class,gear, and skills (not to mention the aplomb of the driver). But, I can help onwhich areas will drop the most runes (on average).

That can be reduced to a math problem by simply counting the number of'different' rune sources in the area, then multiplying each by the correspondingchance for that source to drop runes and summing it all together. By repeatingthis process a number of times, one can obtain a mean and standard deviationfor the number of runes that will drop in a specific area.

Regretfully, I was unable to complete all of the areas I would have liked for thisrelease of the guide, but I think I chose some pretty good ones to focus on.You can see the details of all my tests (so far) on the Tab labeled 'Area Counts'in the Excel version of the guide. Here is a summary of the results:

The 'ranking' of areas will be the same regardless of players setting. Also,remember that the highest ratio of rune drops per time spent is your goal, notsimply the highest average number of rune drops alone.

Best Area to Clear for Finding Zod = Hell Cows

There it is folks. :) Good luck!

Probably the best thing about Cows is that they aren't immune to anything. Theyare 50% resistant to Physical, Fire, Lightning, and Cold and 33% resistant toMagic and Poison.

“What I do after entering the Red Portal is teleport across the field until Ihit a wall, then with my back to the wall I go crazy on those Moo Moo's!

Tee hee.” - Snow Bunny.

How does the River of Flame compare to Cows? As you can see, not evenclose.. even when wraiths come out to play (which isn't more than 20-25% of thetime, btw). I have a strong suspicion that WSK won't come close either, based on lower wraith count and lower over-all monster count.

Although more tests are required to prove it, the only area in the game that mayhave a higher rune drop average is the Arcane Sanctuary. Unfortunately, onlyUniques and Champions in this area can drop up to Zod. Ordinary monsters(including wraiths) can drop up to Cham. All those Special Chests at the end ofthe false paths to the Summoner can only drop up to Lo. The Summoner himselfis the best single source for Gul thru Lo (not counting the 1st time you kill Andy).Lo is his top end as well. But aside from all this, there are two pesky problemswith Arcane's, both of which hurt your clearing time.

1. The layout of Arcane's is frustrating to navigate -- there are just so many turnsand narrow pathways.. You will kill slower as a result.2. When fighting wraiths, be certain that they are hovering over 'ground' whenyou kill them. If they die while hovering in space (or over lava in RoF), whateverthey would have dropped is lost to the inky depths.

Another area that may be of interest is Sewers L2. This is a level 85 area and itconsistently has three Special Chests on the menu! With a teleporting character,you can reach it very fast and quickly kill any resistance in there. Unfortunately,the Special Chests in there can only drop runes up to Ber. But I'm notcomplaining too loudly 'bout that.. Hehehe.Some other areas with potentially high averages:

• Maggot Lair L1-L3
• Great Marsh
• Flayer Jungle
• Durance 2
• Wilderness areas of Act 5 (Bloody Foothills, Frigid Highlands, ArreatPlateau, and Frozen Tundra).

I single out these areas mainly because of mass quantities of monsters andchests. And there's always the confirmed presence of Super Objects (plural, ifyou catch my drift).

I think one of the best aspects to the area clearing strategy of rune finding is thatyour character doesn't have to futz with donning all that anemic MF gear, LOL.When hunting for runes, MF is not a factor. Kill proficiency and knowing where togo for the best chances are the only things between you and grabbing a Zod.I offer up this guide to provide you the knowledge. Now it's up to you to load upon battle gear and wreak havoc!

To all you HC Players out there, especially the meleer's: BE CAREFUL!

There are several different inanimate objects in the game (and some animatedones) that can drop from the Chest TC (with a chance for Runes). In one of hisrecent posts, Jarulf did an excellent job of explaining how several of these objects are initialized and operate. Based on the contents of Objects.txt and myown tests, I have expounded on his explanations. To simply things, I havegrouped those objects that have identical rune drop behaviour, even though theymay differ in other ways.

First, we need to define a couple things: desired quality and a magical+ test. Jarulf writes:

A Chest TC drop will use normal calculations to determine the quality of the item. But it can also have as a parameter a desired quality. If it has a desired quality, any item generated will get (if possible) that quality. If it

can't get the desired quality, it can be of a failed quality (e.g. rare instead of unique) or if it is an item that can't be magical (such as a rune or potion) it will be of normal quality.

A test for magical+, will check if the FIRST item generated from a ChestTC drop (excluding No_Drop) is of quality: magic, rare, set or unique. Items that can't have magical properties such as runes, potions, gems, keys, etc. are, as already mentioned, considered of normal quality.

Super Objects[edit]

• Sparkly Chests
• Special Chests

Both have rather complicated drop behaviour.. I'll introduce the simpler objects first and then come back to these.

Type I Ordinary Objects[edit]

These objects use OperateFn 4. They have a chance to be locked and a chanceto spawn a monster. If unlocked, there is a 75% chance to make a single ChestTC drop (up to 4 items) with no desired quality (MF is applied normally). Iflocked, they will always make two Chest TC drops (up to 8 items) with no desiredquality. The chance to be locked is (monlvl1/2 + 8)% and the chance to spawn amonster is (monlvl1/8 + 5)%, where monlvl1 (from levels.txt) corresponds to eacharea on the map regardless of difficulty level. I created Table C below to serveas a quick reference. These are: Caskets in Arcane's and all 'true' ordinaryChests (anything that looks like a Chest except Quest-Chests, Special Chests,and Sparkly Chests).

Type II Ordinary Objects[edit]

These objects use OperateFn 4, but are not lockable. They have a 75% chanceto make a single Chest TC drop with no desired quality. These objects also havea chance to spawn a monster, just like Type I Ordinary Objects. These are:Tombs in WSK or in Nil's Temple, Some Rat Nests, some Hidden Stashes inAct5, some Barrels in Act5, Animated Skull-and-Rock Piles, Hidden Stashes inany of the Icy Cave areas, Dead Barbarians in Act5, Dead Persons in Act 5,Burial Chests in Act 5, Object1 and Object2 in Nil's Temple (I have no idea whatthese are), and Object1 in Snowy Areas (?) of Act5.

Type III Ordinary Objects[edit]

Most of these objects use OperateFn 14, which means they make a single ChestTC drop with no desired quality. These are: Crates, Rogue Corpses (of alltypes), Guard Corpses (of all types), most Hidden Stashes, Skull Piles, Jugs,Skeleton Corpses, Hollow Logs, Loose Rocks, Loose Boulders, Coffins, Stashes,Pillars, Cocoons, Tristram Bodies, some Rat Nests, Corpses of Villagers, GooPiles, Harem Beds, Hung Skeletons, Bone Chests, Hell Fire Braziers, and Pilesof-Skulls-and-Rocks and some Barrels in Act 5 outdoor areas..Note: there is a 33.3% chance that the Goo Piles in the Sand Maggot Lair willhave a poison trap.The remaining Type III Ordinary Objects use OperateFn 1 which means theymake a single Chest TC drop with no desired quality and they have an 18.08%chance to spawn a monster. These are: Caskets (all areas except Arcane's),Sarcophaguses, and Act 1 Beds.

Type IV Ordinary Objects[edit]

All but one of these objects use OperateFn 3, which means they have a 21%chance to make a single Chest TC drop with no desired quality. These are:Urns, Large Urns, Baskets (in dungeons), Dead Bodies in Kurast Sewers, Jars,Rock Piles (in dungeons), and Trapped Souls.Barrels (Act1-4) use OperateFn 5, which means they have a 21% chance tomake a single Chest TC drop with no desired quality and an 18.08% chance tospawn a monster. Exploding Barrels never drop anything. No surprise there.That's it for the Objects that are verified to have a chance to drop runes!For reference, bookshelves use OperateFn 26, which means they either drop TPor ID scrolls or books, but never any runes or other items.Kudos to Jarulf, for his discovery and explanations of a number of Objectfunctions.

Objects that use un-deciphered Functions[edit]

Armor and Weapon Racks (obviously these would never drop runes), BurningTrapped Souls (found in Act 4), Stashes in Act 3 Jungles, Evil Urns, QuestChests (Act 2 and 3), Tainted Sun Altar, Gidbinn Cauldron, and Hellforge Quest.These all have not been fully deciphered yet as far as I know.It's well known that the Hellforge Quest drops 3 gems and 1 rune. In hell mode,quite often it is a nice rune. Anecdotal evidence from several players suggeststhat a Gul rune is the highest possible in hell mode. I do not know the actualchances for Guls (or other runes) from the Hellforge Quest, but I will try to gleanthis info straight from the corresponding Operate function and include it in thenext revision of the guide.

Table C - chance for Object Traps or Being Locked in each Area

Objects are tied to the Act in which they are located for determining drops.Since we are concerned with rune drops

• Act 1 (H) Objects can drop up to Vex (r26).
• Act 2 (H) Objects can drop up to Lo (r28).
• Act 3 (H) Objects can drop up to Ber (r30).
• Act 4 (H) Objects can drop up to Cham (r32).
• Act 5 (H) Objects can drop up to Zod (r33).

Objects in Level 85 areas, such as The Pit and The Mausoleum are notupgraded to a higher TC as monsters are. They still only drop as Act 1 Objects.

Objects in The Moo Moo Farm drop as Act 1 Objects, also.

For reference, items that drop from objects will inherit the level of the area thatthe object is located in. Act 5 (H) Objects located in level 85 areas are in factcapable of dropping up to TC87 equipment; the chance is just very small. Thegame code does not cap the quality level for equipment drops from objects atTC66 as I had previously thought. Drop testing has verified this.

A somewhat cheesy but effective tactic[edit]

Drop testing has verified that it's not necessary to use a Players 8 setting before entering the area the object is located in to gain the benefit of a very low chancefor No Drop. After clearing an area at a manageable Players setting, you canraise it to Players 8 and then run around and pop all the objects.

Okay, easy part is over.. let's talk about those Super Objects.

Sparkly Chests (Super Object)[edit]

The following explanation is paraphrased from a post by Jarulf..For a Sparkly Chest, the game picks from 6 weighted options for how it will drop as follows:

Option 1 (2% chance). The game will make a Chest TC drop cycle (up to 4 item drops) with a desired quality of unique. If the drop cycle fails a magical+ test, itwill make another Chest TC drop cycle with a desired quality of unique. If thatcycle also fails a magical+ test, the game will make more drop cycles accordingto option 6. Note that option 1 can generate up to 6 unique items if it fails plus upto an additional 16 unique items from option 6. Gasp!

Option 2 (4% chance). The game will make a Chest TC drop cycle with a desired quality of set. If the drop cycle fails a magical+ test, it will make anotherChest TC drop cycle with a desired quality of set. If that cycle also fails amagical+ test, the game will make more drop cycles according to option 6.

Option 3 (6% chance). The game will make a Chest TC drop cycle with a desired quality of rare. If the drop cycle fails a magical+ test, it will make anotherChest TC drop cycle with a desired quality of rare. If that cycle also fails amagical+ test, the game will make more drop cycles according to option 6.

Option 4 (20% chance). The game will make up to 10 Chest TC drop cycles with a desired quality of magic. As soon as 3 of them pass a magical+ test, the10 attempts are aborted.

Option 5 (30% chance). The game will make up to 10 Chest TC drop cycles with a desired quality of magic. As soon as 2 of them pass a magical+ test, the10 attempts are aborted. Then, as long as the number of failed magical+ tests is6 or less, it will then make a single Chest TC drop cycle with no desired quality,followed by a number of gold drops equaling 6 minus the number of failedmagical+ tests.

Option 6 (38% chance). The game will make up to 10 Chest TC drop cycles with a desired quality of magic. As soon as 1 of them passes a magical+ test,the 10 attempts are aborted. It will then make a number of Chest TC drop cycleswith no desired quality equaling 4 minus the number of failed magical+ testsdone so far. Next it makes 5 gold drops, 2 heal potion drops and 2 mana potiondrops.

Note: A Sparkly Chest works the same whether it is locked or not.

Special Chests (Super Object) vs. Type I Ordinary Objects[edit]

The following explanation is paraphrased from a post by Jarulf..First, the game will check if the chest is locked, and if so, unlock it if you have akey or are an assassin. Second, the game sets the number of drop cycles fromthe appropriate Chest TC to 2 if locked (up to 8 item drops), otherwise to 1 (up to4 item drops). Next, the game tests for a flag in the initialization routine. SpecialChests always have this flag set. If it is set, there is a 5% chance that the gamewill make the desired quality of the drops rare, otherwise (95% chance) thedesired quality will be magic. If the flag is not set there is no desired quality andthe game will pick quality normally, applying MF and so on (Type I OrdinaryObjects). After that, the game will make a random chance to drop at all. 75% ofthe time it will drop. The other 25% of the time, it will only drop if the flag is set orif the chest was locked. Next, the game will make either 1 or 2 actual Chest TCdrop cycles (depending on if it is locked or not), with a possible desired quality asmentioned above. If the object is a Special Chest AND none of the previousChest TC drop cycles (1 or 2) passed a magical+ test, it will make up to 10 moreChest TC drop cycles with a possible desired quality as mentioned above. Assoon as 1 of them passes a magical+ test, the 10 attempts are aborted.

Note: Empirical evidence suggests that most Special Chests stay that

way and remain in the same place on the map; however, some mayintermittently switch to behaving like a Type 1 Ordinary Object from runto run (I observed this in the Maggot Lair). I believe this behaviour isrelated to the initialization flag that Jarulf discovered. The conditions forhow and when the flag is set need to be investigated further.

Quest Chests (pseudo-Type I Ordinary Object)[edit]

It may sparkle like a Sparkly Chest, but a Quest Chest uses different operate andinitialize functions and is actually rather ordinary. Jarulf didn't post about howany of the Act2 and Act 3 Quest Chest functions work, so I am basing their dropbehavior on empirical evidence and drop tests. Quest Chests behave like Type 1Ordinary Objects in that they can drop up to 8 items if locked or 4 if not. Thenthey drop a random number of additional gold piles (there seems to be an upperlimit of 10), plus the quest item of course. The important thing is that as far asrunes are concerned, they behave like a Type I Ordinary Object.

Where are all the Super Objects !?![edit]

I'm fairly sure that every 'off-shoot' area contains a Sparkly Chest. Cave L2, Underground Passage L2, Pit L2, Mausoleum, Crypt, Stony Tombs L2,Ancient Tunnels, Icy Cellar, and all 3 red portals to Hell in the outer areas of Act5, to name some confirmed sightings. Some other locales with a Sparkly Chestare: Bonesaw's Platform on the Glacial Trail, Snappy's Hideout, and someserpent surrounded islands in the Great Marsh and Flayer Jungle, amongothers..

The deceivingly ordinary-looking Special Chests can always be found in: theCrypt, the Maggot Lair, at the end of the false paths in Arcane's, in the false TalRasha Tombs, in Sewers L2 (Act 3), a couple spots in Upper Kurast, and ofcourse the ever popular center chest behind Meph, among other musty andsunless places.

These Super Objects can be run over and over. They have a better chance (onaverage over several runs) to drop runes than any single monster (exceptHell Countess up to Ist).

Don't pass over any objects in Act 5 (H)! They just might contain a Zod.

“To dream the impossible dream..” (voice of Luciano Pavarotti)

Note: All the lovely calculations related to rune drop chances fromobjects are shown in the Excel version of the guide.

Rune Drop Averages for all Single SourcesBased on the calculations shown in the Excel version of the guide, the followingrune drop averages for all single sources were determined.

The number of monsters, chests, etc. does not scale up with 'Players X' setting.However, the mean quantity of rune drops for each kill does scale up for mostmonster types (and all object types), since the chance for no-drop is driven tozero. Remember that the highest ratio of rune drops per time spent is your goal,not simply the highest average number of rune drops alone.

To download the Excel version, point your browser to:http://www.flightsofsplendor.com/diabloII/Urlik’s_RFG_v2.xls

Jarulf - for explaining how the game drops items, how treasure classes work,how to calculate drop chances, and especially how several Objects work.

Thrugg' - for clarifying the No Drop weight equation for higher “Players X”settings and for pointing out some of the finer details of calculating theCountess's rune drops.

Uzziah - for organizing a Rune Race which inspired the creation of this guide.MattIs - for pointing out that one's rune drop productivity while area clearing islikely to be optimal at lower rather than higher 'Players X' settings.

RTB - for giving me the password into the Dimension of Numbers. and especially..

Jenny - for tolerating many of my late night test sessions.Strategies and Tactics