Shadow Crypt duo paths

[Gwadaboom]

Duo paths in The Shadow Crypt

If you're not soloing the Shadow Crypt the old standard routes for The Shadow Crypt aren't that good. They don't use the fact that there's more players running fully. Neither are a few of the other routes I've seen in circulation. For pure XP(/minute) you want to get 8 gears ASAP and end up on the ramp at the end of the paths with the players carrying these. This assuming there's no need to shrine.

Therefore I decided to construct paths for two players ending up with exactly 8 gears on the ramp at around the same time. No intersecting paths, except for the banner room at the end of course. I also avoided the green maze.

There may be better paths, but these work well for two (or more) players.

Player 1 goes east (fireball (spell/wand) the door), while player 2 does the fight at the start. Three instances as we all know depending on the color of that room. The players meet in the banner room and goes to the ramp from there.

Note that player 2 always goes west at the start.

All three paths have been tested. The two players will normally arrive at the banner room at around the same time. If not, the trailer will probably catch up while the other gets the final gear or during the ramp-fight.

RED
Player 1: (E)NNSEW
Player 2: WWEWW

GREEN
Player 1: (E)WWNEW
Player 2: WENEW

BLUE
Player 1: (E)SNSEE
Player 2: WSEEE

Verbose version

RED
Player 1: (E Red Attic), N Blue Attic, N Green Pyramid,
S Blue Maze, E Red Pyramid, W END
Player 2: W Green Attic, W Yellow Maze, E Yellow Pyramid,
W Red Pyramid, W END

GREEN
Player 1: (E Green Attic), W Yellow Pyramid, W Green Torches,
N Blue Pyramid, E Yellow Water, W END
Player 2: W Blue Attic, E Red Water, N Red Torches,
E Yellow Water, W END

BLUE
Player 1: (E Blue Torches), S Yellow Maze, N Green Water,
S Red Pyramid, E Green Torches, E END
Player 2: W Yellow Water, S Blue Maze, E Red Attic,
E Green Torches, E END

I hope this will be of some use.

/G

Edit: Tested all paths and added some additional info.

[morticianjohn]

Nice. I'll have to try this if the opportunity presents itself. The problem is generally The players I group with are unknown. Meaning we have little to no prior planning.

[Gwadaboom]

I tested all three duo paths today and they were accurate. Edited the OP accordingly and did some minor changes.

[Rumbaar]

Nicely done, duo farming for optimal XP farming.

[giggiddy]

Fantastic! +1 and thanks!

[Clay]

nice... been meaning to work out a duo path... now I don't have too!

[BDS]

Ran a few today, if you have more then 2 it helps to have someone else go each way and just pick up the gears.

Player 2 seemed to be finishing ahead of me a little but I was running solo as player 1, and had 5 party members as player 2.

Great if you have people who know what they are doing and wont ding.

+1 well done

[Dozen_Black_Roses]

Fantastic guide. I always farm this each life and this life the runs were 5 to 7 mins long and only the latter if one of the mazes the gear was not right there. Cut down the time alot. Thanks! Gave you +1 the other day when I found the thread.

[gee-dragon776]

Is there a way to stay flagged for it, cause i have been told some ways but they dont seem to work?

[Gwadaboom]

It's nice to get the positive response I see in this thread and it seems at least a few had a use for the paths from reading the posts above.

I've tried the routes with two of my TR's passing through with a couple of guildies. Not just soloing it a few times, as I did earlier to see if they were correct.

As I've seen no posts about any problems with this and I definitely had no probs with the two groups I went in there with this weekend, I think these paths are well confirmed to be correct. We did 4 minute elite-runs with 2-3 man groups the second time around when we had the paths rather set in our minds (2 casters minimum for best speed though), with 3-4 outliers on 3 and 5 minutes. This might get slightly better when the new routes are as "set" in your mind as the old ones were, but this seems quite good enough. Shaving at least a couple of minutes off our old average times IIRC.

/G

[MRMechMan]

3-4 minutes for an elite run is very impressive.

+1, have been meaning to do something like this myself, thanks for doing the work

edit: also, scorched bracers outta chrono are good for busting down doors if you don't have the str or have acid blast instead of fireball

[varusso]

Duo paths in The Shadow Crypt

All i can say is AWESOME!!!

A guildie pointed me towards this last night, and I 2 manned it with my sorc and a wizzie. 5-6 min runs on elite with no real effort. I love how short the paths are for each player -- not to mention the fact that we avoid the green gate maze entirely. Screw that maze, seriously LOL. One of the cool side benefits of these paths is that if you use the wrong exit, its quick and easy to fix, rather than having to figure out where you are, deep in the chain of the long walkthrough. Each path is at most 6 rooms, so a simple DDoor and pay better attention, and you are back on track in seconds.

This is DEFINITELY the new guide I will be using when I farm SC from now on -- assuming the other player can follow minimal directions

+1 to you!

[Infant]

Fantastic!

5 posts? This is probably the best "useful-posts-per-post" ratio on this forum .
Is there a possibility to add this to the wiki?

http://ddowiki.com/page/The_Shadow_Crypt_instance_paths

Would make it easier to search. Anyhow, +1.

Infant

[Rodasch]

Fantastic!

5 posts? This is probably the best "useful-posts-per-post" ratio on this forum .
Is there a possibility to add this to the wiki?

http://ddowiki.com/page/The_Shadow_Crypt_instance_paths

Would make it easier to search. Anyhow, +1.

Infant

You can edit the wiki, you know. You don't have to ask other people to do it.

[Postumus]

I haven't tried this myself yet, but I'm dying to since it seems to be working.

Great job figuring this out and posting it. Frankly it boggles my mind that people can figure these things out, because I sure don't have the patience it takes to do so.

[KyrzaBladedancer]

Just finished a Farm using this, quite impressive, even our slow runs were 5 minute runs. Thanks for these routes!

[StormPetrel13]

Using this method for a 2min run on elite with an all Arise (Thelanis) TR crowd and the owner of this thread leading.



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[PadrePio]

This is just awesome, tryied it out a couple days ago and got some nice 5-7 min runs with puggers.
+1

[RS-Makk]

Awesome.

Question - does this quest still need the reflagging or is it possible to just keep doing it (need to farm devout handwraps).

[Oolung]

Awesome.

Question - does this quest still need the reflagging or is it possible to just keep doing it (need to farm devout handwraps).

this doesn't path you through enough rooms to get all the gears you need. You'll still need to find 1 more of each gear, since only the optional chest drops the wraps IIRC. I'd recommend using the old instance paths for one person (wiki-link is posted above by infant), since those lead you through enough rooms to get 3 of each gear. This only has two because its made for quick XP runs, not loot runs.