[How To] Ambush Strongbox Farming

You know the only time a box could possibly be valuable enough to use an exalt, already has 3 good affixes on it. An armorers or Blacksmith's box with "All sockets linked", "One additional Socket" is the best combo but isn't valuable enough yet to use exalt on it. It would also have to have +items on it like a +6 or higher, but then it's already got three pos mods on it so you can't exalt it. On the wiki it says in the strongbox section there's +1 or +2 sockets on items, but I haven't even HEARD of someone getting +2 sockets on a strongbox so I think it's bullshit. If it wasn't actually BS and you had a box with +2 sockets and "all sockets linked", that would be the only situation I can think of that would warrant 1-2 exalts being used. But I really don't think +2 sockets exists.

From yours and other comments, I take it I am not the only one who refers to Chemist Strongboxes as "Strongboxes of Rogue Summoning".

Since this is also meant to be a guide for people new to strongboxes, it is worth mentioning that when a strongbox detonates corpses, there is a few moments delay after opening before it does so. Any monster that you kill in the time between opening and detonation gets detonated too.

The other night I almost killed the party member who opened the box by triggering a stage 10 flameblast (this was only normal so not much chance of a gold ele reflector) as soon as the box opened. There may have been no corpses present when he opened the box but he was lucky to survive (barely) the detonation of the 20+ corpses of the summoned mosters I had just killed.

Nice guide!

A heads up to you using smoke mine to get away after opening a box. If it has the mod 'Casts a random curse' it can cast silence in which case you can't detonate the smoke mine. Be ready with a flask of warding when opening it. No need for more exiles to get a near heart attack form this.

Suffix "of Singularity" (= Contains 1 additional unique item) on a "Cartographer's Strongbox" does not provide a unique map :(

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tiarel35 wrote:

Suffix "of Singularity" (= Contains 1 additional unique item) on a "Cartographer's Strongbox" does not provide a unique map :(

I can confirm this.
Also the singularity suffix on chemist's strongbox does not provide a unique flask (per se).

In both cases the unique drop seems to follow the same mechanics as any other unique drop and you'll get a random unique.


Anybody knows of a statement about the inapplicable affixes? "+chest level" still rolls on gemcutter's boxes for example.

If self-found, definitely use the weaker boxes to summon Rogue Exiles if you can handle them.

Vaal Orbs are definitely worth using on any Armorer's Strongbox with +quantity mods and no +rarity mods in level 50 or higher areas. The chance of a 6L is just too valuable to pass up when Vaal Orbs are cheaper than an alch. Even if you get a level 15 base armor with Thorns and various other rubbish mods, it's still a better Tabula Rasa.

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