Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Crystal Hunting!
This post is meant to help novice and seasoned DQ’ers alike take advantage of every known way of pocketing more of those precious super rare crystals.
Crystals are the currency of DQ because they unlock new depths of gear customization. Super Rare Crystals (which, for the purposes of this guide, we’ll consider to be Topaz & Higher) are especially valued for their craft making traits and will thus be the focus of this guide. Here you will learn about every known method for obtaining Super Rare Crystals… So without further ado…
Method 1 - Farming
It should come as no surprise that the main way crystals of all kinds are obtained is through farming. Here’s what you need to know:
•Super rare crystals can be found on any floor 100+. However, every 100th floor (200, 300, etc.) up to 500 raises your highest minimum rarity crystal from loot. This means that, for ex., you’ll scarcely find any Quartz on floor 500 but you will find lots of Emerald. Upon reaching floor 500 your crystal minimum is highest. Basically, try to move up floors as fast as you can for the best crystals.
•Item Drop % / Item Find % and the Crystalline set affixes are the only two equipment stats that directly effect crystal finds and rarity of crystals (Crystal Find % directly affects this too but can only be found as an affix on Legendary and Eternal maps, not on gear). There are also stats that indirectly help you find crystals which we’ll discuss next. In any case, Item Find % helps you loot more crystals from drops while Crystalline set affix causes crystals you find in loot to be of a higher rarity. Either way, make sure both of these are on your farming gear. Also make sure you have 2x +2 to Sets affixes so you can beef up your Crystalline and other set affixes. Item Find is capped at 250%, or 312.5% if you have the Epiphany set affix equipped (again, make sure you have +4 to Sets).
Tip: Always have a hireling with you. They increase your farming stats & caps and you can load them up with farming equipment. Regardless if they die while you’re farming a map you’ll still receive their stat boosts (but you do not receive the effects of having Nadroji, Eternalized or Crystalline sets on a hireling so you can avoid equipping those).
•There are a few other affixes that indirectly help you locate the rarest of crystals. These include: Luck, Eternalized set, and Item Find % and Crystalline set affixes again. Put simply, the higher your Luck % = the more chances of finding a Legendary Item; the more chances of finding a Legendary item = the more chances of finding a Crystal or Eternal Legendary. Crystalline and Eternalized sets, respectively, also give you higher % chances of finding Crystal and Eternal legendaries, so combine these sets with a high Luck % to maximize your super-rare-crystal-finding ability =). How do Eternal and Crystal Legendaries translate into crystals? We’ll discuss that in method #2.
As for Item Find %, as previously mentioned, this affix directly helps you loot more crystals from drops, but it also helps you find more items (more random gear drops) when you kill an enemy or destroy a breakable. More item drops = more chances that a Legendary item will be found = more chances of finding an Eternal or Crystal Legendary.
•Maps can be purchased or looted from Cartographers starting from floor 21+. Maps come in 6 different rarities: normal, magic, rare, epic, legendary and eternal and are affected by your current difficulty setting. Each map comes with pre-set affixes but these affixes can and should be re-rolled using crystals, with the exception of eternal maps which cannot be altered. In addition to these affixes, each map has separate additional affixes that affect the loot obtained from the Cartographer. These can be viewed by clicking on the map’s icon, although generally speaking the higher a map’s rarity the more and better the loot from the Cartographer. What you mainly need to know about maps is that you can roll different affixes and the % of those affixes using Larimar and Diamond crystals. Focus on rolling for +% Pack Bonus and +% of Magic / Rare / Epic Enemies affixes. Pack Bonus means there will be more enemies in the map for you to kill. And the higher the rarity of those enemies the better the loot. Enemies have 6 kinds of rarities just like maps: normal, magic, rare, epic, legendary and mythic. Mythic enemies have a 100% chance of dropping a Crystal or Eternal Legendary. Legendary and Eternal maps, unlike lesser rarity ones, have all beneficial affixes which make them especially helpful in finding super rare crystals. Lastly, make sure you’re playing on the highest difficulty you can manage since your Luck % scales by 50% per difficulty (but note that Luck is capped at 650% / 812.5% with Epiphany and a map’s difficulty will add to this % but will not exceed the cap. In other words, you can scale down your difficulty if you want to kill stuff quicker. And if your Luck % is still capped when you do then it doesn’t hurt your chances at all and will probably speed up your map clearing times, win-win).
•On the topic of enemy rarity, you can enable shrines and resource pools to spawn 1-3 “Powerful Enemies” (AKA epic rarity enemies) by equipping a ring with the Hunter mythic or by acquiring the Ascension perk called by the same name. Kill rarer enemies for better loot, including crystals, and to get you closer to spawning a mythic enemy.
Incorporate all or as many of these tips as you can to maximize your super rare crystal-finding odds when farming.
Method 2: Finding and Converting Crystal and Eternal Legendaries
After looting a Crystal or Eternal Legendary it can be converted to a random super crystal for 500,000 gold by clicking ‘Convert’. 500,000g is a small price to pay for a super rare crystal as you’ll come to discover =). Although the super rare crystal obtained through this method is ‘random’, it does seem that the lesser rare super rare crystals are more likely to be obtained, but don’t let that stop you from converting unneeded crystal and eternal legendaries. In fact, you should always do this for the C/E legendaries you don’t want.
Crystal and Eternal Legendaries can be found by farming as previously mentioned, but they can also be obtained from the Vendor in the game menu. The Vendor doesn’t actually sell Crystal or Eternal Legendaries but when you buy any piece of gear it has a pretty good chance to be of a higher rarity than what is seen in the picture. It is important to note that the gear sold in the Vendor is also affected by your farming stats and by map affixes. For this reason I recommend buying every item in the shop when playing on Legendary and Eternal maps as a rule.The Vendor also sells mythstones and crystals, which brings us to method 3.
Method 3: Buying Super Rare Crystals
Occasionally super rare crystals (and mythstones) can be found in the Vendor’s shop for 5m gold, which, at that price, may or may not be worth it depending on how much gold you have. Personally, I’m approaching 1b gold and there’s not much else for me to buy so I make sure to keep an eye out for them. Also, never buy lesser-rarity crystals or mythstones from the Vendor since, unlike equipment, their rarity level is fixed.
Method 4: Converting Lesser-Rarity Crystals
There are two ways that converting less rare crystals will net you super rares. The first is quite obvious, just click the ‘Convert’ button to exchange any 2 crystals (and a sum of gold) for the next level crystal. The second way is through the Use Crystal achievement. Upon using / converting / salvaging every 500th crystal, you will receive one super rare one. The achievement can be reduced to 375 instead of 500 if you have the ascension perk Accomplished. Converting/salvaging crystals can end up consuming vast sums of gold but is the fastest way to obtain super rare crystals.
Tip: Converting 2 crystals for one of a higher rarity only earns you 1 crystal towards this achievement, whereas Salvaging only costs you 1 crystal (1 for 1) and earns you 1 crystal towards the achievement as well, making it the more efficient choice for proc’ing the achievement
Note: Avoid converting / salvaging more than 500 / 375 crystals at a single time since the achievement does not roll over. E.g. if you salvage 1,000 of a crystal you will only earn the achievement once and get one super rare crystal, not 2. For this reason you should also check your Codex before converting / salvaging to see how far along you are on proc’ing the achievement.
Other Known Methods / Tips:
•Crystal Finding Boost - for $0.99 you can buy this very helpful boost from the shop which gives your character +100% Crystal Find. Other boosts will also aid your efforts indirectly so don’t hesitate to support the DQ team if you wanna save some time =).
•Find Crystals Achievement - After looting 600 (450 with ascension perk) crystals a large pile of crystals will drop. This is one of my favorite achievements =D
•Impified - Pet imps transcombobulate (: loot as per their pet perk. Loot has a chance to be transcombobulated into crystals this way. To speed this process up have a pet imp on you and your hireling and make sure to adjust the loot pick up setting accordingly.
•Arena Reward Chests - Crystals are often included in the loot you get from PvP reward chests.
•Converting Legend and Mythic Rarity Items - I suspect this method will be controversial to some (and I don’t recommend it) but I’ve done some testing and there is a chance, however small it may be, to obtain super rare crystals from converting legendary and mythic rarity gear. The downside is the gold cost, 245,000 & 500,000 respectively, which can quickly add up since you will likely end up converting dozens before you get a single super rare crystal.
Well that’s all I have for you guys. I hope this guide is helpful and if my wish comes true maybe it’ll even get pinned ( hey I can dream right? xD ) - happy hunting my fellow DQers!
P.S. - did I miss a tip, trick or method? Comment or PM me if so :))
thanks in advance
If you are a new player, I recommend using 2 imps. They also give out anything that a normal monster does (Gold, Heal Orbs and etc!).