• Can anyone remember the lost strongbox in that ice mountain area in prophecies?

    Didn't need a key to open it. It must have been in prophecies for months before people found it.

    I have vague memories of farming it non stop until anet nerfed it. It dropped mainly trash but also ultra rare weapons like dwarven axes (I think).

    Searched on Google and found nothing :(

  • It, and almost all other "keyless" chests/barrels etc were removed when the key system was introduced. This was before my time, but the change to this happened in September of 05, according to wiki. The only similar keyless chests that remain are those in the Underworld, the Fissure of Woe, and Sorrow's Furnace (which was added with that same update). These chests still have the possibility of dropping Dwarven Axes, Crystalline Swords, and Serpent Axes, among others, but only in uncommon (purple) rarity.

    Swamp clubs appear to be exempt from this and were, to my knowledge, only available from the initial keyless chests.

    Nice to see someone from waayyyy back return to the game.

    Wiki info on most of these is pretty lacking, for sure. I've seen old screenshots somewhere on the interwebs of people opening some of these, but this was years ago and I can't seem to find them today.

    IGN: Vengeful Was Unholy
    Discord: Unholy2295
    WTB Pre-nerf Greens -> Information
    My WTB Thread

  • I remember when the chest would spawn outside The Granite Citadel like right outside the door and you could open it in under 15 seconds, and rezone, people farmed the life out of that chest, you would get Sup Absorb and Sup Vigor ( oh which back in the day where worth 80-100plat each ) I remember the day Anet removed that chest.

    IGN: En Rayged

    Edited once, last by EnRayed (November 19, 2020 at 7:09 PM).

  • That's pretty much why they removed the unlocked chests and such and went with the key system. People (and RMTs) were farming the heck of the things. I think the only unlocked stuff you find now (if not related to a quest) is in Pre-Searing Ascalon and the Hidden Treasures, et al. in Nightfall.

  • I remember when the chest would spawn outside The Black Citadel like right outside the door and you could open it in under 15 seconds, and rezone, people farmed the life out of that chest, you would get Sup Absorb and Sup Vigor ( oh which back in the day where worth 80-100plat each ) I remember the day Anet removed that chest.

    So I remember sup absorbs being 100k but I cannot recall what the black citadel is.

  • My fondest memory of keyless chests is running Sorrow's Furnace over and over again.

    A well known member of Guru actually took the time to show me how to do it. I think it was Todeshand.

    Got a few nice Crystalline swords and Serpent axes of it.

    I remember even the most crappy stats went for over 100 plat, just for the skin. Was a lot back then.

    The item I'm still the most proud of is the 14% stance Q9 Crystalline sword I found there.

    Thank you for reminding me! :)

    IGN: Eowyn The Wite

  • Sorrow's Furnace was an awesome run and that entire area was special when it was first added. Honestly it's a bit of a shame that anet patched out some of the amazing original weapons skins and requirement levels. I'm not arguing that the keyless chests should have been kept, just that I want to be able to open a tyrian serpent axe in 2020 ;)

  • It, and almost all other "keyless" chests/barrels etc were removed when the key system was introduced. This was before my time, but the change to this happened in September of 05, according to wiki. The only similar keyless chests that remain are those in the Underworld, the Fissure of Woe, and Sorrow's Furnace (which was added with that same update). These chests still have the possibility of dropping Dwarven Axes, Crystalline Swords, and Serpent Axes, among others, but only in uncommon (purple) rarity.

    Swamp clubs appear to be exempt from this and were, to my knowledge, only available from the initial keyless chests.

    Nice to see someone from waayyyy back return to the game.

    Wiki info on most of these is pretty lacking, for sure. I've seen old screenshots somewhere on the interwebs of people opening some of these, but this was years ago and I can't seem to find them today.

    Sorry to necro a thread, but these chests (there were two in dreadnaught's drift) are some of my favorite pieces of forgotten content/Guild Wars history. They were so unknown among most of the player base.

    Here's what really happened: The key system was introduced in 05 like you stated, but they actually overlooked a few chests. There was one left in Maguuma jungle somewhere (I don't have any specific info on this one), one that would sometimes spawn in the little park area in Ice Floe right outside of Thunderhead Keep that mostly dropped armor pieces (this may be the one mentioned being outside granite citadel, or there were two), and finally the best two were left in Dreadnaught's Drift.

    Back in the day it was quite difficult to get to Dreadnaught's Drift, but typically you would run up from Rankor or War camp. There were two chests past large groups of enemies: the lost strongbox and the frozen chest. The frozen chest would drop 5-10 pieces of armor of all rarities. The Lost Strongbox was where it was at though. This thing exploded with 4-12 weapons at once. Serpent axes, dwarven axes, fellblades, crystalline swords, summit shields, white reavers, etc. I believe the only weapons that weren't proven to come from this chest were max tyrian sickles and tribal axes (are these in game now?). I personally farmed it several times and got some serpent axes that made me wealthy early on in the game.

    It was kept extremely hush-hush for a surprisingly long time, since nobody really had a reason to ever go deep enough in dreadnaught's drift to find them. There were no titles or vanqs back then. The only reason someone would explore the area would be for fun or to get Feast of Corruption from Maw the Mountain Heart. Until finally one day on GWG someone uploaded a farming guide for them. The few people (including myself) who already knew about it had begged the creator to take his post down, which he eventually did, but the damage had been done. The remaining open-world keyless chests were removed within the week. :cry: