Loot & Gear Guide
Making the most of our randomized-loot run — no crafting, just smart looting
🎒 ⟡ 🎒
Crafting's gone — now it's a pure loot hunt
A recent update to our loot mod (Ancient Mega Pack) removed the crafting/upgrading system. There's no
building or upgrading gear anymore — what you find is what you get. That actually makes things simpler: the only
skill now is recognizing a good drop and offloading the rest. And with our more-enemies mod, more
fights means more loot rolls — so we get more chances at something great than a normal run does.
🎲How loot works in our run
Our gear is randomized. The same chest or enemy can give different things on different playthroughs, so the
classic "find item X in chest Y" guides are unreliable for equipment — don't plan around them.
But it's not pure chaos: rarity is gated by act, so you get gear that fits where you are. You won't pull a
legendary off a goblin in Act 1.
| Act | What can drop |
|---|
| Act 1 | Uncommon & Rare |
| Act 2 | …the above, plus Very Rare |
| Act 3 | …all of it, plus Legendary |
⚔️ Why the more-enemies mod helps
Every extra enemy and mini-boss is another roll of the dice. More bodies on the field = more loot drops = more shots
at the gear we actually want. Clear the bonus fights — they pay out.
👀The one skill: recognize effects, don't chase locations
Because loot is random, the winning move is to know the effects worth grabbing on sight — then snap them up
whenever they drop, wherever they drop. Below is the cheat sheet for each of us: the bonuses that make each character
stronger. See any of these on an item? Grab it.
(Quick word check: spell save DC = how hard your spells are to resist · concentration = staying focused to keep a spell going · initiative = your turn order · necrotic = death/shadow damage · radiant = holy/light damage.)
🛒Grab-on-sight — what helps each of us
The two spellcasters — their power comes from gear, so these matter most:
📖 Eila — support bard
Her job is to make her spells land on enemies and not break. Grab on sight:
- +Charisma / +spell save DC — the top prize. It decides how often her control actually works on enemies, and it powers her Cutting Words.
- Concentration help — anything that gives advantage or a bonus on concentration saves, so Hypnotic Pattern / Hold don't drop early.
- Healing boosters — she's the only healer; "when you heal, also do X" gear stretches every Healing Word.
- +Initiative — acting first lets her trap a group before they scatter.
📜 Endblade — necromancer wizard
He gets stronger the more he kills and the more bodies are around. Grab on sight:
- +Intelligence / +spell save DC — top priority. Intelligence also lets him prepare more spells, so it helps twice.
- Necrotic damage & "on-kill" effects — he racks up kills with group spells, so these fire constantly.
- Summon / undead boosters — extra HP, damage, or numbers for his army.
- Spell-slot recovery — anything that refunds a used slot = more casts of his big spells.
The two fighters — they find great gear on their own, but watch for these:
🪓 Greta — dwarf barbarian
The wall and the wrecking ball — soaks hits, hits back hard. Grab on sight:
- Extra weapon damage / "on-hit" effects — she swings often, so these add up fast.
- +Strength — her main stat: more hits, harder hits.
- Survivability — extra health, armor, or damage resistance keeps the front line standing.
⚔️ Minthara — drow paladin
Tanky frontliner who blasts single targets with holy smites and buffs the team. Grab on sight:
- Radiant (holy) damage — boosts the same holy damage her smites deal.
- +Charisma — powers her smites, auras, and spells all at once.
- Armor & health — heavy-armor frontliner; more toughness = more swings.
- Concentration / spell-slot help — holds her aura spells and gives more smites per rest.
✓ When two of us want the same drop
Give it to whoever it's most core for — a +spell-save-DC piece does more on Eila or Endblade than on a fighter; raw
weapon damage does more on Greta. If it's a tie, the one with the emptier slot wins. No wrong answers — it's a for-fun run.
💰What to do with everything else
With no crafting, there's no reason to hoard anymore. Keep only what someone will actually wear — sell or
salvage the rest for gold. Clean bags from here on.
- Unwanted gear — if the Salvager works for you, break gear into gems and sell the gems (pays more
than the raw item). If it doesn't, just sell the gear to vendors the normal way.
The old crafting materials — here's the verdict on each pile now:
💎✨Astrum Crystals & Enchanted Dust — SELL. Their only use was crafting, which is gone. Pure gold-fodder now.
🪨Runic Shards (of Reclamation) — KEEP 1–2. Still works: a one-click enchantment stripper. Not for everyday use — it's the fix if a piece of gear has stuck or bugged enchantments left over from the crafting removal or an old save. Heads-up: it removes ALL enchantments on a piece — only use it on gear you want wiped, never your good equipped items.
🪙Planar Coins (our "Fey coins") — KEEP & USE. The coin/Capsule system survived the crafting cut — it's our best way to target loot now. Full how-to in the next section.
🪙Planar Coins — still your best way to target loot
Good news: the coin system survived the crafting cut, and it's not tied to the broken camp cube — capsules
are world loot. It's the closest thing we have left to aiming our gear instead of waiting on pure luck, and
our Fey coins are part of it, so don't sell them.
📦 First — where capsules come from
Capsules sit inside glowing "astral-light" sealed containers that spawn in random spots across every Act
(dozens per run — they glow, so they're easy to spot). On Tactician they're locked tight; crack them open one of
three ways: (1) pick the lock with thieves' tools (use our best Sleight of Hand character), (2)
bash it open — just attack the container (reliable fallback, let Greta smash it), or (3) find the
special purple lockpick hidden in Act 1 (a dark/underground spot, behind a Perception check). Inside is the
Void Capsule you spend coins on.
Then — the full loop:
- Collect coins from boss kills. They come in themes — Fey, Shadowfell, Celestial, War, Psionic, and more.
- Stack them up: 5 of the same coin combine into 1 coin of the next tier up (better rolls), so hoard before you spend.
- Crack open a glowing container (above) to get a Capsule, then pick the type — there are 22: 12 by gear slot (helmet, ring, amulet, two-handed weapon…) and 10 by theme (Shadowfell, Celestial, War, Psionic…).
- Spend coins → pull a random item of that slot or theme.
- Don't like it? Put it back within the reroll window and pull again without spending another coin. (That window is tighter on Tactician — no endless free rerolls.)
📌Guaranteed items — NOT random, don't miss these
These are story/quest pieces, not loot-table drops — the random shuffle doesn't touch them, so they're
in their normal spots and safe to plan routes around. Several are irreplaceable (permanent stat boosts!).
⭐ = top priority, grab no matter what.
| Item | What it does & where to find it | For |
|---|
| ⭐ Auntie Ethel's Hair |
+1 to any one stat, permanent — only one exists. Act 1, from the Hag (Auntie Ethel). |
Eila (CHA) or Endblade (INT) — party call |
| ⭐ Mirror of Loss |
+2 to any one stat, permanent (needs a DC 25 Religion check). Act 3, the Cloister of Sombre Embrace — the working one. ⚠️ The Act 2 Gauntlet-of-Shar mirror is cracked & useless, skip it. |
A caster — Endblade passes the check best (Religion runs on INT) |
| Necromancy of Thay |
Endblade's necromancer tome — Speak with Dead now, Danse Macabre (5 ghouls) later. Act 1, Blighted Village (hidden cellar). |
Endblade |
| Dark Amethyst |
Opens the Thay book safely (skips the damage/curse). Act 1, the Whispering Depths spider lair. |
pairs with the Thay book |
| Tharchiate Codex |
Fully unlocks the Thay book's Danse Macabre. Act 3, Sorcerous Sundries. |
Endblade |
| Volo's Ersatz Eye |
Permanent See Invisibility. Act 1 — rescue Volo (Goblin Camp) and let him "operate." |
anyone (utility) |
| Withers |
Respec / revive / hire mercs from camp. Act 1, the Dank Crypt — already met in Session 1. ✓ |
whole party |
(These four are also on Endblade's field-notes page — the Thay-book chain is his whole questline.)
📋Loot checklist
- Keep only what you'll equip — no upgrading means no reason to hoard "maybe later" gear.
- Salvage or sell the rest for gold (salvaging gems pays more, if your Salvager works).
- Recognize effects, not locations — use the grab-on-sight lists above; ignore "item X in chest Y" maps.
- Loot the glowing containers — crack them (pick / bash / special lockpick) for Capsules, then spend your Fey coins to target gear.
- Keep a Runic Shard or two — they still strip stuck/bugged enchantments; handy after a mod update.
- Grab the fixed story items on schedule — Hag's Hair, Mirror of Loss, Withers, Necromancy of Thay.