Chest Run: Factions - Raisu Palace - HM

Hi all,

For those who don't know me, I am a full time Chestrunner as well as large variety collector. I enjoy chestrunning in NM for Q8 Foci, Shields, and Swords as well as HM for a variety of skins. I have been contacted by a variety of players seeking information about different chestrunning options. Since I have a large rotation, I decided to put together some info on my runs to share with the community. I also collect data on my chest drops to analyze trends and have a data set that will provide me insight on things such as % of weapon types that drop, Q8 chances, and different skins per map. I will include some of that data in with my posts. If these show to have an interest, I will continue to document other runs in the same fashion.

I want to stress that this is only intended to be a guide. There are multiple paths to take and builds to use per run. There is no right or wrong path or build. Feel free to choose to take a different path as you learn more about the specific run, be aware that chest spawn locations may change depending on your starting point or path. If you think my run is too long, shorten it to your liking. Sometimes it is more about chests per min than how long the entire run can take.

I hope you find value in this info and enjoy the art of chest running if you don't already.

Agent Chevy | AKA "Chevy"

My current data sample:

Agreed, this is one of my favorites as well. The Oni Blades and Forbidden Staves attract me here.

Regarding the Shield drops, even though my sample size is low at 145 chests, having 8 chests with 5.5% is actually high for shield drops. Now this may decrease over a larger sample. My overall shield drop rate is 4.0% across 8,647 chests, 26 locations tracked so far. The 8 Shields were 6 difference skins which weren't the greatest (Reinforced Buckler, Shield of the Wing, Bronze Shield, Ornate Buckler, Aegis, Wooden Buckler. However if my memory is correct, I think I have gotten Bladed shields here in the past just not while I have been tracking.

One of the best things about this run, just as Looney mentioned, is there is no armor here. Unless you are after farming runes, this wouldn't be the place. I had only 1 armor piece logged and after looking back at my data, it shows as a "Titan Armor" which wouldn't be possible here. It appears that I accidentally logged a Hell's Precipice run (just one run, 3 chests) in the wrong location. I will fix that in my data for future updates.

Quote from Mozo

There is also another chest possibility in the top left corner of the map you posted. Based on your route, you can loop down and back without adding too much, if any, extra time.

Great Catch! I will put that on my update list. Thank you

Edited: Added 2 more chests in Northeast corner (Thanks Mozo), I did not update the path itself but it should be clear to run in that loop to check all possible chest spawns.

Quote from Looney

Don't forget to remove the Titan Armor from your drop list, they didn't sneak over from Tyria ;P

This area is difficult enough, last we need is the addition of Titans

Data updated to remove Armor entry.

Quote from Ddraeg

How often do you rotate your runs? Is it based on; Picks consumed? Time spent? Runs completed?
Do you think the frequency of changing up the location has any effect on the drops?

This is somewhat a personal preference for the runner, and also some discipline lol (it can be tough at least for me to stay in the same location for a long period of time). When it comes to NM runs, since the average amount of chests it takes to get a q8 drop (mostly foci of course), is around 200, I will run until I get my first Q8 max item or 250 chests which ever comes first. Since I started to track my drops 8 months ago, I have run 26 different NM locations (all that have possible Q8 drops) and only had 4 that I stopped because I didn't get one. I will come back to those at a later date.

For HM runs, I don't have any set amount, it is usually until I get something nice or I get bored of the run. I would guess that I am probably running 75-100 chests at the same HM location before I move on. I usually run an HM run in between every 1 to 3 NM runs so I am usually itching to get back to looking for Q8s.

Using this method, I have covered 9697 chests, across 26 NM runs and 9 HM runs (35 total) over 8 months.

With this being said, I know others that will run the same location for 1000 chests regardless of the drop rate (can vary being higher or lower than a 200 chest run), and others that may last 20-25 chests at the same place before they prefer to move.

The impact to drops can be debatable and not really proven either way. Since there is success in all methods mentioned above, the drop rate wouldn't stop me from doing a large number in long location.

I hope that helps

Chevy