silverfox.1056 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 I know you use to be able to farm them by doing the beginning story over and over, but if I'm not mistaken they nerfed it so you could only do it once a week or something like that. Is buying them really the only (efficient) way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbrother.1340 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 @silverfox.1056 said:I know you use to be able to farm them by doing the beginning story over and over, but if I'm not mistaken they nerfed it so you could only do it once a week or something like that. Is buying them really the only (efficient) way?yes buying them in the only reliable way to get them with any efficiency. I get them now and again on drops but only a few times a year.I also never really get anything of value from the chests. I do get things I want though even though they have no value :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashburntoo.7431 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 You can get 1/week with a lvl 10 story on a new character... that's the nerf that you're remembering. Keys are available at later story steps if you want to invest the time in a single character to "farm" it out. You have an RNG chance of getting them as map rewards or from the BL box that features weekly as part of the login rewards. The only "efficient" way of getting them is by purchasing them, which is logically what Anet wants. If we could get 5-10 per week or even per month with little effort, very few people would bother to spend gems (cash) on them. You could dedicate your time and effort to amassing gold to convert to gems to get keys, but that's like working a full time job to fuel casino trips in the evening... if that's your thing. Edit: Wiki site for reference - shows all of the acquisition methods (BLCK)... Also, watch for a sale as part of this March sales blitz. I'd be very surprised if it didn't show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illconceived Was Na.9781 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 From the wiki articlePersonal story rewardsCompletion of the level 10 racial story (Only once per week per account). ← This is the so-called "Key Run"Setting the Stage (level 40)The Battle of Claw Island (level 60)Living World rewardsLiving World Season 2: Tangled Paths - Into the Labyrinth (level 80)Heart of Thorns rewardsHeart of Thorns: Act 3: Roots of Terror (level 80)Contained inContainers Bought From the Gem ShopAccount BumpAccount Jump StartBank Job PackageBlack Lion Introductory PackageBlack Lion Key SetBlack Lion Keys and Scrap PackageChest of Black Lion GoodsElonian Introductory PackageIronclad Appearance PackPath of Fire Preparation PackWhite Mantle Appearance PackContainers Earned as RewardsAchievement Chest (Heavy, Large, Massive)Mini Jackal Pup Reward ChestMini Raptor Hatchling Reward ChestOtherChance from the reward for map completion, except for city maps and Southsun Cove (since December 1, 2015)Extremely rare drop from foesChance from PvP Reward Track chestsReward in some PvP Rank tracks and PvP Mist Champion tracksEditor's note: to make it easier to answer the OP's question, I separated "other" into "Gem Shop" and "Non Gem Shop". The wiki article doesn't do that (although perhaps it should). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echoherb.6528 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 There are various sources of getting them, but buying the keys is the only real reliable way of getting them. The rewards you get from the chests are generally not worth buying the keys imo, but hey it's your money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sombra.3246 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 I would not recommend buying, but getting them in game is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardid.7203 Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 I stopped trying to farm them in game when I noticed it was boring to do.I realized:1- Keys themselves weren't truly valuable, due RNG nature.2- Farming them was a repetitive chore, a work I have to do when I should be getting fun.3- The time invested "working" to get a key from the game was relevant.4- My own pay per hour in my real work allowed me to get the cost of a key in less work-time.So now I buy them with cash because I requires less work-time from me and is more fun. I buy them in small batches (5) whenever they add a new patch, to support the game and try my luck. It has worked quite well so far.If I couldn't buy them with cash I wouldn't get them at all. They don't deserve such involvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itspran.3610 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Chief, easiest way for me was just map completion. Not guaranteed but 20% chance of getting em. I got like 4-5 keys per day doing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowmoon.7986 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Add to boot you can sell gifts of masteries as legendaries for around 500g profit each. World completion will give a quite alot of keys and other mats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goettel.4389 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Map completion has a decent chance of dropping one, good enough to open the occasional chest for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyncale.1629 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 @"Shadowmoon.7986" said:Add to boot you can sell gifts of masteries as legendaries for around 500g profit each. World completion will give a quite alot of keys and other mats.How do you mean? Are you talking about making a legendary (for which you need Gift of Exploraton) and then sell the Legendary? That sounds like a lot of work for 500g, assuming that you buy every mat from the TP in the first place. Admitted, I enjoy making Legendaries (on my 5th) but not for selling.As to farming keys by rerolling a level 10 char: I am doing that now with my Alt accounts (using the "level up with Cooking for less then 1 gold") method and I am actually kinda enjoying it. However, I am 53 Keys later, and never got a single "uncommon" drop. Let alone a rare or superrare(which I understand). :) I am still enjoying it since I do get the occasional nice Dye now and then and off course some utility stuff. Also simply enjoy the mindless footwork as a noob in Queensdale. The wardrobe unlocks (few and far in between) have not much use since these alt accounts do not even have the simplest basic stuff so I get rather mundane stuff usually. :) Also, after a year, I guess I will have enough statuettes to get a Black Lion Claim ticket and maybe a couple of scrap tickets. All it did was strengthen my belief to never ever buy Keys for gems (dollars) in the store. 53 keys is over 4200 Gems which is equivalent to 50 euros... this must be the worst return for any microtransaction in any game(ok, hyperbole). I guess you have more use out of it if you use those keys on a single Main account, but still. To be sure, not strapped for money, else I would not have so many Alt accounts (that already paid themselves back in Dailies gold). I just think the rng on Keys is really, really bad. I use the gold from the Alt-dailies for making Legendaries. I want all of them! (Exept the newer ones without the collection part, those are boring). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danikat.8537 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 @Tyncale.1629 said:@Shadowmoon.7986 said:Add to boot you can sell gifts of masteries as legendaries for around 500g profit each. World completion will give a quite alot of keys and other mats.How do you mean? Are you talking about making a legendary (for which you need Gift of Exploraton) and then sell the Legendary? That sounds like a lot of work for 500g, assuming that you buy every mat from the TP in the first place. Admitted, I enjoy making Legendaries (on my 5th) but not for selling. There's 2 ways this can work. The simplest is to make a gen 1 legendary and sell it on the TP, in which case you have to do everything yourself so it is a lot of work, especially because you ideally don't want to buy the materials from the TP, at least not using 'buy now' as you're aiming to keep the cost as low as possible in order to maximise profit.The other option is to find someone who wants a legendary and offer to make it for them. They provide all the tradable parts (precursor, materials for Gift of Might and Magic and the legendary specific gift, ectoplasm, potentially materials to make the mystic clovers) and a pre-agreed amount of gold to cover the cost of the account bound parts. That way you only have to provide the Gift of Battle, Gift of Exploration, Bloodstone Shard and 250 Obsidian Shards, plus the minimal time needed to combine it all.If you're the type of person who does map completion and WvW anyway that's very little additional effort on your part in return for a large chunk of gold (plus it skips the TP fees you'd pay if you sold it that way), and the other person gets a legendary for less than it would cost on the TP without having to do what they might consider the most time consuming and difficult parts.Of course there's a risk for both parties in being scammed. The person making the legendary could take the materials and vanish, or the person buying it could never pay the extra gold, and in either case Anet won't help because you're not supposed to trade outside the TP. So you do need to make sure it's someone you can trust. But it can and does happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyncale.1629 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Thanks for the explanation, Danikat, makes more sense now. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProtoGunner.4953 Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 You get quite a lot by map completion. Story gives you a few and the rest is RNG with an extremely ridiculous low drop rate. Don't rely on it. Better you either buy it with gems, either by converting it from gold (if you are a poor student) or with cash (the "I work" approach). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dajas.4715 Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Pvp reward tracks also give you a bunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlord.9082 Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 @silverfox.1056 said:I know you use to be able to farm them by doing the beginning story over and over, but if I'm not mistaken they nerfed it so you could only do it once a week or something like that. Is buying them really the only (efficient) way?My advice to you is to NOT get them. They are absolutely worthless. Got myself 100 keys for Christmas and got nothing but junk. Only 7 keys yielded a 5th slot and of that only one got a skin worth about 20 gold... 5th slot drop rate is absolutely atrocious. It is just a waste of money. On the subject of rare drops, the same seems to go for dyes, their drop rate is stupidly low too. I don't mind spending money but this is just ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marthisdil.9654 Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 @Tyncale.1629 said:@Shadowmoon.7986 said:Add to boot you can sell gifts of masteries as legendaries for around 500g profit each. World completion will give a quite alot of keys and other mats.my belief to never ever buy Keys for gems (dollars) in the store. 53 keys is over 4200 Gems which is equivalent to 50 euros... this must be the worst return for any microtransaction in any game(ok, hyperbole). I guess you have more use out of it if you use those keys on a single Main account, but still. To be sure, not strapped for money, else I would not have so many Alt accounts (that already paid themselves back in Dailies gold). I just think the rng on Keys is really, really bad. I use the gold from the Alt-dailies for making Legendaries. I want all of them! (Exept the newer ones without the collection part, those are boring).$50 is about an hour's worth of real-life work for some of us. Far better return on our time (which is more valuable) to purchase than farm in that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordOfDarkness.6837 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 @Marthisdil.9654 said:$50 is about an hour's worth of real-life work for some of us. Far better return on our time (which is more valuable) to purchase than farm in that way.$50/h? I earn $3/h :'( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holgarf.6581 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Or don't buy keys because the drop rates for anything half decent are shockingly bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeefa.3915 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 @Marthisdil.9654 said:@Tyncale.1629 said:@Shadowmoon.7986 said:Add to boot you can sell gifts of masteries as legendaries for around 500g profit each. World completion will give a quite alot of keys and other mats.my belief to never ever buy Keys for gems (dollars) in the store. 53 keys is over 4200 Gems which is equivalent to 50 euros... this must be the worst return for any microtransaction in any game(ok, hyperbole). I guess you have more use out of it if you use those keys on a single Main account, but still. To be sure, not strapped for money, else I would not have so many Alt accounts (that already paid themselves back in Dailies gold). I just think the rng on Keys is really, really bad. I use the gold from the Alt-dailies for making Legendaries. I want all of them! (Exept the newer ones without the collection part, those are boring).$50 is about an hour's worth of real-life work for some of us. Far better return on our time (which is more valuable) to purchase than farm in that way.Just going to point out 50 euro isn't the same as 50$ (quick search and it is more like 56$) Maybe a small difference, but felt like pointing it out. Either way I certainly don't get that much. On topic... I do keyruns of varying lenght almost weekly. I do them because of the tomes and scrolls I have and get, since I have nothing else to do with them. When I have scrolls that give level 30-40 I also get the level 40 story key. When I have level 50-60+ scrolls I also get the level 60 story key. I may consider the LS2 key too when level 70 and 80 scrolls happen, since you can skip all personal story and LS instances between that key and the previous one.I will admit it is a lot of work for mostly little outcome, but since I got the time but not the money... eh it works for me. If I had no scroll or tomes there would be no keyruns, not even the level 10 one.I do occasional map completion too, but mostly if I got nothing else to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo.8759 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Just using money buy it ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drizzt.1796 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 :'(same.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solvar.7953 Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Every time a new chest comes out, I open 5 of them with keys. That way, I'm playing the lottery, but am not to upset that I didn't win big (if I used 50 keys and got nothing of value, I'd be more upset/annoyed).Whenever they are on sale, I buy 25 of them - that is enough to last for 5 new chest cycles. I enjoy GW2, so figure I should throw some cash at Anet once in a while. The vast majority of stuff in the cash shop is stuff of zero interest to me (cosmetics), and I've already bought pretty much all the useful convenience upgrades (shared slot, unlimited gathering & salvaging).I do get occasional keys from map completion - I slowly work my way through map completion - for whatever the daily vista/gatherer is, I have a character who does not have world completion work on some unexplored area of the map in that area. So over the course of several months, I get another world completion, and an occasional key for each map completion.But I'm also like some where I get paid a good salary, so spending 20 minutes farming a key is not worth it to me - I'd rather spend that time doing content I enjoy, and spend a few dollars to buy the keys. But I understand that not everyone is in this situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aspirine.6852 Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 I got a lot when I did map completion, but it's random so I could be very lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Vega Van Kain.9842 Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 @silverfox.1056 said:I know you use to be able to farm them by doing the beginning story over and over, but if I'm not mistaken they nerfed it so you could only do it once a week or something like that. Is buying them really the only (efficient) way?Usually, 10 bucks !Or some pvp/wvw tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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