01Overview
Farming in PD2 is a trade between two things: how fast you kill and how good each drop is. Magic find only improves the second: it raises the chance that an item which drops is magic, rare, set or unique. It never makes more items drop, and it does nothing for runes, Worldstone Shards, maps, gems, keys or other uber ingredients.
That is why most PD2 farming is done in dense places with high area levels: level 85 zones, corrupted zones and maps. More monsters killed per minute means more of everything, and a moderate amount of magic find on top turns more of those drops into uniques.
02How magic find works
Magic find counts in full for magic items, but has diminishing returns for rares, sets and uniques. The effective value for uniques is MF x 250 / (MF + 250), for sets MF x 500 / (MF + 500) and for rares MF x 600 / (MF + 600).
Effective magic find by item quality
| Magic find on your character | Uniques | Sets | Rares | Magic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | 71% | 83% | 86% | 100% |
| 200% | 111% | 143% | 150% | 200% |
| 300% | 136% | 188% | 200% | 300% |
| 400% | 154% | 222% | 240% | 400% |
| 500% | 167% | 250% | 273% | 500% |
| 800% | 190% | 308% | 343% | 800% |
There are no magic find breakpoints, only diminishing returns: going from 0 to 200% adds 111 points of effective unique find, going from 200 to 400% adds only 43 more.
How much is enough
- 0-100% comes for free from normal gear and is always worth having.
- 100-200% is the sweet spot for most characters in maps: a few magic find pieces that cost little damage or safety.
- 200-300% suits a character that still kills everything quickly with it.
- Above 300% only pays off for a dedicated magic find setup on content it overpowers.
The simple test: if swapping in a magic find item makes your runs noticeably slower (roughly 10% or more), you find fewer uniques per hour, not more. Damage, safety and movement always come first.
Where magic find comes from
- Sockets: an Ist Rune rune gives 30% magic find in a weapon, body armor or shield.
- Uniques: Harlequin Crest, War Traveler, Chance Guards, Goldwrap, Nagelring and the grand charm Gheed's Fortune (only one can be active).
- Bountiful crafts (made with a Perfect Topaz) roll magic find and, since Season 14, gold find in place of light radius; their magic find values were lowered this season.
- Small charms, jewels and magic or rare items that roll magic find.
- Maps: magic find affixes, magic find corruptions and a Standard of Heroes (+20%) raise drops for the whole map. Density and monster rarity affixes are even better, because they add more drops of everything.
Gold find in Season 14
Season 14 removed personal gold; there is one shared stash gold pile with a 25 million cap. Gold buys gambles, Larzuk's Malus from Larzuk, items from the Gheed map event and donations to your guild hall. A little gold find is useful, but do not trade magic find for it.
03What drops where
PD2 drops as if a vanilla game had five players when you are solo, and a full game drops a bit more than vanilla with eight players. Drops depend on the area level: champions and uniques in an area level 85 zone are high enough to drop every item in the game. Maps (87-92) and corrupted zones (85) are the same or higher, so any of them can drop anything. The table shows where each kind of loot is concentrated.
Farming spots by goal
| You want | Best places | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Runes | Hell Countess, Travincal council, Chaos Sanctuary, Treasure Fallen map event | The Countess rolls a separate rune table (up to Ist Rune) on top of her item drops, and her Tower Cellar is area level 85. The Treasure Fallen can drop runes up to Zod Rune. |
| Uniques and sets | Rare maps with magic find; level 85 zones (Pits, Ancient Tunnels, Crypt and Mausoleum, Kurast temples); Pindleskin for a fresh character | City of Ureh drops socketed uniques, Warlord of Blood corrupted uniques and Na-Krul's Abyss ethereal uniques. |
| Uber keys | Hell: Countess and Blood Raven (Key of Terror), Summoner and Bloodwitch the Wild (Key of Hate), Nihlathak and Izual (Key of Destruction) | The Spire of Darkness map event drops up to six keys. Pair key runs with the Countess's runes. |
| Worldstone Shards | Corrupted zones, maps, the Dark Wanderer map event | Shards drop from monsters anywhere in Hell; corrupted zones drop 50% more of them since Season 14, and the Dark Wanderer drops 4-10. |
| Essences for a Token of Absolution | Nightmare or Hell act bosses | Andariel and Duriel drop the Twisted, Mephisto the Charged, Diablo the Burning and Baal the Festering essence. |
| Prime Evil Soul | Hell Diablo, Baal and Mephisto | Combine Diablo or Baal runs with essence farming. |
| Lucion ingredients | Abaddon, Pit of Acheron and Infernal Pit (Demonic Insignia); corrupted zones (Talisman of Transgression); demons anywhere (Flesh of Malic) | The three red-portal zones of Act 5 are area level 85 and very dense. |
| Trang-Oul's Jawbone | Undead monsters in Hell | A very rare drop (about 1 in 22,500), so it comes as a by-product of farming undead-heavy areas. |
| Jewels, charms and skillers | Maps and level 85 zones | A high item-level grand charm can be rerolled forever with 3 perfect gems; low item-level charms cannot roll the best affixes. |
| Perfect gems | Anywhere in Hell, Treasure Fallen | Perfect gems only drop in Hell; 3 flawless gems also cube into a perfect one. |
| Runeword bases | Hell Cows | The Cow Level is dense and has no immunities. A white base corrupted with a shard gets maximum sockets half the time. |
04Level 85 zones
These Hell zones are area level 85. They are the best open-world farms before maps and stay useful between map runs. Pick the ones whose monsters your damage type can kill.
- Act 1: Pit levels 1-2, Hole levels 1-2, Burial Grounds, Crypt, Mausoleum, Tower Cellar levels 4-5 (the Countess), Catacombs levels 3-4
- Act 2: Stony Tomb, Halls of the Dead level 3, Claw Viper Temple, Maggot Lair, Ancient Tunnels, Duriel's Lair
- Act 3: Swampy Pit, Flayer Dungeon, Kurast Sewers and the six Kurast temples
- Act 4: Plains of Despair, River of Flame, Chaos Sanctuary
- Act 5: Abaddon, Pit of Acheron, Infernal Pit, Echo Chamber, Worldstone Keep levels 1-3 and the Throne of Destruction
The densest of them are the Act 2 tombs (Stony Tomb, Halls of the Dead, Claw Viper Temple) and the Act 1 Crypt and Mausoleum. Travincal (82), Hell Cows (81) and Arcane Sanctuary (79) are lower but still popular for their density or their bosses.
05Corrupted zones
PD2 has no Terror Zones; its equivalent is the corrupted zone. Once your character has killed Hell Baal, every Hell game you create has a corrupted zone:
- monster level is raised to 85, and most zones get more monsters
- more Worldstone Shards (50% more since Season 14) and tier 1 maps drop
- it is the only place the Talisman of Transgression drops, one of the three Lucion ingredients
The zone is the same for everyone and rotates every 15 minutes. A running game keeps the zone it was created with, so make a new game to follow the rotation; community trackers show the current and next zone. Season 14 added a monsters-remaining counter to corrupted zones and maps.
A good farming session
Check the corrupted zone when you make a game. If it is a zone your build clears well, run it; otherwise run maps or your favourite level 85 zone. Pick up shards, maps, keys and runes always, and identify rares from area level 85+ monsters: many of the best rare affixes can only appear on dropped rares in Season 14.
06FAQ
Is Pindleskin still worth farming?
For a fresh level 70-80 character, yes: the red portal next to Anya stays open after Nihlathak dies in PD2, so a run takes seconds, and his pack drops uniques and sets. Once you clear level 85 zones or maps comfortably, area farming gives more per hour because shards, maps and events add up.
Should I wear magic find on a boss run?
On regular bosses such as the Countess or Pindleskin, yes, if it does not slow the kill much. On uber bosses, no: their main rewards (organs, Hellfire Torch, Annihilus, ingredients) are fixed drops that magic find does not affect, and the fights need all your damage and safety.
Does the Countess still drop high runes?
Her rune table stops at Ist Rune in Hell, but her regular item drops come from an area level 85 zone, so any rune can drop there. She also drops the Key of Terror, which makes her a standard stop on key runs.
Do the drops get better in a full game?
Yes. A solo game already drops roughly like a vanilla five-player game, and the drop rate rises with more players up to a little above vanilla's eight-player rate. Monsters get tougher too, so a group farm needs a group that kills fast.