Guide 2.0.3 Lootrunning Guide From A Non-Lootrunner (Please Correct Me)

Hey, so I was not originally planning to make a forums post as I have written a short guide in the description of this video: Wynncraft 2.0.3 Lootrun Raw Gameplay (Guide in Description) - 1089 Pulls One Hour



However, I got an unprecedented like to view ratio which made me think that people are looking for lootrun guides that very well don't exist. I am sure there are probably guides and better or more complex strategies in the lootrunner communities - maybe in their discord servers? - but I am an outsider and have not found any easily accessible lootrun guides with lootrun strategies. Even general information seems difficult to find and I am sure I'm not the only one who has experienced this.

The guide below will be copypasted from the description of my video with further elaborations (non-crucial information) put inside spoilers. I am doing this so the reading flow isn't ruined by extra information for those who do not care. Don't bother reading the spoilers if you are just looking for a quick guide and understanding of lootruns.

If you are an active lootrunner or just know some information, please state it below and please correct me in places where I am incorrect.

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Disclaimer: While I do have the Grandmaster Lootrunning rank, this is literally only my 40th lootrun. I have not done a single Corkus lootrun. I am not in the lootrunning community. I am not an active lootrunner. Frankly, I find lootrunning very boring so this guide may be "misguided." Basically take my words with a grain of salt.

- Lootrunnng Strategy -
These are all the beacons at Master rank and how much of each you can get per run (an * will be put next to numbers I'm not sure of - I am too lazy to review my footage and wiki is wrong).
Yellow (∞): Pretty Much Useless
Purple (∞): +1 Curse, +1 Pull
Blue (∞): Choose 1 Boon out of 2
Aqua (10*): 100% Next Beacon Effects
Orange (2): +1 Beacon Choice
Grey (1): +1 End Rewards Reroll
Dark Grey (1): +3 Curses, +5 Pulls
White (1): +5 Challenges To The End
Green (10*): +120s Time Bonus, Mobs Don't Gain Buffs For This Challenge
Red (10*): +2 Challenges To The Front, Gain No Time For Completing These Challenges
Rainbow (1): Rest of the Beacons Will Be Vibrant For This Lootrun

The Vibrant renditions for each beacon basically double their beacon effects except for Blue where you can choose a boon out of 3 and Rainbow where it doesn't do anything. One other rule is that you can only stack 2 Aqua beacons onto another Beacon.

Spoiler: Aqua and Rainbow Beacon Interaction

Aqua Beacons have no affect on Rainbow Beacons but Rainbow Beacons are able to preserve Aqua Beacons. Essentially, if you have taken two Aqua Beacons and then take a Rainbow Beacon, the Aqua Beacons will not take effect on the Rainbow Beacon and will boost the next Beacon you take. In addition to preserving Aqua stacks, Rainbow Beacons will also allow you to stack two more Aqua Beacons. This means you can actually stack 3 or even 4 Aqua Beacons onto another Beacon with the aid of a Rainbow Beacon (the most optimal Aqua stack being two Vibrant Aquas -> Rainbow -> two Vibrant Aquas -> Vibrant Grey / Dark Grey) but this is obviously a very impractical thing to pull off. It can happen though if you lootrun a lot.

So what is the strategy?
You will want to stack two vibrant aquas onto a vibrant grey giving you 10 end rerolls and two vibrant aquas onto a vibrant dark grey at the end of the lootrun giving you too many curses and +50 pulls. Once you get the vibrant dark grey you basically can't continue (you can see me try and fail a challenge after the dark grey beacon). If you are feeling it or have no better beacon options, you can take purple beacons but note that they are very inefficient for getting pulls. You will also get +1 pull for every challenge you complete.

So how do we ensure that we get these vibrant aqua stacked greys?
We will need to take advantage of the fact that beacons have limited uses. Try to save as much as possible on aquas and don't take the grey and dark grey until the very end. You will want to take orange, white, rainbow, green and red beacons until they run out thus somewhat forcing aqua, grey, and dark grey beacons to show up at the end of the run.

You will want to try and expand your beacon choices to 3 or 4 by challenge 10 and 5 or 6 (6+ would be ideal) by challenge 25-30 using orange beacons. Yellow, purple, and blue beacons will still show up even after you use all the orange, white, green, red, and rainbow beacons so if you only have 2-4 beacon choices, you may not be able to aqua stack the grey and dark grey beacons.

You should probably surrender the run if you don't get an orange beacon early - I typically surrender by challenge 4. You will also want to get a rainbow beacon around challenge 15 (I got mine on challenge 19).

While waiting on orange and rainbow beacons, you will want to take boons so that your subsequent challenges are easier. You can also take red and green beacons to get them out of the way faster or purples if you feel like it. Only take yellows if you don't have the option to take a blue, purple, green, red, orange, white, or rainbow. You can use up 1-4 aquas on other beacons. I used one on red and one on green. Once you have gotten the orange, rainbow, and white beacons out of the way, continue taking red and green beacons until they run out as well. Afterwards, you can aqua stack into grey first and then aqua stack into dark grey last.

Spoiler: "Gambling" Aqua Beacons - Aquas on Oranges, Greens, Reds, and Whites

As stated above, it is not worth continuing a lootrun if you don't get an Orange Beacon early. I also said that you can use up 1-4 aquas on other beacons if really necessary. One strategy you can do is if you have just started a lootrun and you get an Aqua Beacon choice early, you can take it and hope that you get an Orange Beacon next. If you don't get an Orange, then you can surrender at challenge 4 and no harm is done.

It may also be in your interest to try and use an Aqua on Green, Red, or White Beacons (after you have gotten a Rainbow Beacon) as those will ensure you have enough time and challenges to actually Aqua Stack the Grey and Dark Grey beacons.

Note that grey cannot show up twice in a row. Assuming you have enough beacon choices (6+) to force a grey to show up, this means you begin aqua stacking for grey when you see it as a beacon choice.

Note that aqua, grey, and dark grey beacons are not forced to show up (they are just way more likely to) when they are the only limited beacons left so preserving as many aquas as possible and as many beacon rerolls as possible is a good idea.

Spoiler: Explanation for Aqua Stacking Grey Beacons

When you have used up all other limited beacons, this means the only beacons that can appear are Yellow, Purple, Blue, Aqua, Grey, and Dark Grey. This is why having 6+ beacon choices is ideal. Assuming you have 6 beacon choices at the end, grey will always show up every other time. Thus, if you see a grey beacon and don't take it, it will disappear next beacon choice and reappear in the following beacon choice.

So when you are Aqua stacking for Grey (with 6 beacon choices) and see that your beacon choices are Yellow, Purple, Blue, Aqua, Grey, and Dark Grey (Dark Grey doesn't necessarily have to appear), you take your first Aqua. Assuming you are lucky and Aqua appears again, the next beacon choices will be Yellow, Purple, Blue, Aqua, and Dark Grey (Dark Grey doesn't necessarily have to appear). You then take your second Aqua. After that challenge, Grey should appear in your beacon choices and you will have successfully Aqua Stacked for Grey.

Spoiler: Aquas on Purples

I typically only use Aquas on purple beacons if I get unlucky and fail an Aqua Stack.

For example, let's say I have already Aqua stacked Grey and I am Aqua stacking for Dark Grey to end the lootrun. I pick up two Aqua Beacons but the Dark Grey Beacon doesn't appear. I'll dump those Aqua's into Purple instead (as there's no real better choice) to make sure I get some extra pulls. This is why having as many Aqua beacons as possible is a good idea.

One other example would be if I am trying to Aqua Stack (for either Grey or Dark Grey). I pick up the first Aqua Beacon but a second Aqua Beacon doesn't appear. I will then just use up this Aqua on Purple (assuming I still have a lot of Aquas left over). This actually happens in the video.

If you only have four Aqua Beacons left and you are trying to Aqua Stack for Grey (and have not Aqua Stacked for Dark Grey yet), if the second Aqua Beacon doesn't appear but Grey does appear, you should take the Grey Beacon and this will leave you with 6 rerolls. The reason is it is impossible for you to get a 10 reroll Grey Beacon at this point anyway without losing your shot at an Aqua Stacked Dark Grey. This is why preserving Aquas is important.

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Spoiler: Build Used In Video

https://hppeng-wynn.github.io/builder...
I tri-wield Freedom, Spring, and Ignis on this build (I use double cosmic tomes and assimilator guild tome to wield Ignis). This build is an old 1.20 build which normally prefers double mythic weapon tomes and sorcery (spell damage) tomes but given that both of those are useless in lootrunning, I have opted to change them to cosmic weapon tomes (allowing me to wield Ignis) and everlasting tomes (health regen raw tomes - mythic armor tomes also work and are probably better).

The reason why damage amplifying tomes are kind of useless in lootrunning is because of boons. Boons let you stack up ridiculous numbers in elemental damage %, spell damage %, damage %, and critical damage %, as well as let you stack up skill points, mana regen, health, health regen, and lifesteal.

I wouldn't recommend using this build if you aren't good at flying boltslinger.

Spoiler: Further Elaboration

Given that boons exist, it stands to reason that you should probably build something that boons can't cover. This means stuff like Major Ids and to a lesser extent, spell cost reduction ids (although this is somewhat covered by mana regen boons... note that mana regen is only one of the many boon options though). The ability tree you use is also fairly important because uh... yeah boons don't affect or change your ability tree.

My build in particular uses the Sorcery ID from Time Rift making use of the fact that is is fundamentally a dps increase and repeats Arrow Storm and Arrow Bomb casts. The Storm recasts aren't super important in lootrunning but the Arrow Bomb recasts are quite useful.

You are going to want to use a tree with adequate AoE (area of effect damage or area damage for short). I only play archer so I can only speak for archer trees.

If I had to rank the archer archetypes in order of practicality for lootrunning, it would probably be this:
1. Non-Elusive Boltslinger (With Bouncy Shrapnel Bomb And Regular Arrow Shield)
2. Trapper (Dominant Trapper Tree)
3. Sharpshooter (Dominant Sharpshooter Tree)
4. Elusive Boltslinger (Doesn't really matter what other stuff you get)

If you suck at flying Boltslinger, the list would look more like this:

1. Trapper (Dominant Trapper Tree)
2. Sharpshooter (Dominant Sharpshooter Tree)
3. Non-Elusive Boltslinger (Doesn't really matter what other stuff you get)
4. Elusive Boltslinger (Doesn't really matter what other stuff you get)

My reasoning for this is that Boltslinger is able to get Windy and Stormy Feet which is multiplicative with the Walk Speed % stat (another stat that can also be stacked up by Boons). Bouncy Shrapnel is good enough AoE to clear wave challenges and defense challenges really easily. Not having Elusive lets you keep arrow storm recoil making you able to reach higher up challenges quicker and it also lets you fly (and thus cheese otherwise non-cheesable challenges).

No other archetype can fly... well I guess you can somewhat fly with grappling hook assuming there is a ceiling but that is less practical to do reasonably.

Trapper very obviously has better AoE than Boltslinger but does eventually have to dodge some challenges for lack of being able to cheese them and also doesn't have as potent single target defense making it worse for Destroy Challenges and Slay Target Challenges.

Sharpshooter has decent AoE as well but the main issue with it is that it can't get Stormy Feet making it somewhat sluggish compared to Boltslinger and non-Phantom Ray Trapper (I would recommend Phantom Ray Trapper over Windstorm Trapper though). Sharpshooter also generally doesn't get Bouncy Bomb since it loses Focus making it's AoE worse. It does get Phantom Ray which can shoot through walls but Crepuscular Ray makes Phantom Ray not as practical for certain cheese spots as it will activate if you cast Phantom Ray while crouching off a block. Ironically, the more practical Sharpshooter Trees don't take Crepuscular Ray and get Bouncy or Shrapnel Bomb, both of which lose focus, at which point throws into question the point of playing Sharpshooter dominant trees at all for lootrunning.

Sharpshooter is far greater than Boltslinger and Trapper for non-lootrunning contexts as it deals the most concentrated damage, has decent AoE, has an arrow shield (bolt usually does not get an arrow shield), and has better range than Boltslinger. But in lootrunning, you are either dealing absurd damage (boons) or are dealing no damage (curses) regardless of the archetype you are playing and in that context, Sharpshooter is not as great compared to Non-Elusive Boltslinger which has greater mobility and flight, and Trapper which has greater AoE.

Elusive Boltslinger is by far the worst "sane" thing you could bring to lootruns because you get rid of Storm Recoil losing your greatly extended vertical mobility and you lose the ability to fly making you unable to cheese the otherwise cheesable spots that are normally uncheesable (ok that is a sentence). Examples of this would be Bone Monstrosity Challenge and Olmic City Destroy Challenge.

 

My question is, how many rounds should it ideally take to set this all up? Because I honestly don't know when Aquas "run out", and it's not really feasible to run out of both Reds and Greens unless you're willing to put 25 rounds into that alone.

 

The run in my video takes 42 challenges and that's a pretty good average to expect when employing this strategy. Aquas, Reds, and Greens can be used 10 times before they run out. This really is only a strategy that needs to be employed when you have 6 or less beacon choices. Anything past 6 and you don't need to run out all of the beacons. The logic is that yellows, purples, and blues will always show up because they are infinite beacons. You want to aqua stack greys and dark greys and those are three more beacons totaling in 6 beacon types that can appear at the end when you run everything else out. If you have 6 or less beacon choices, you need to run out all the other beacons in order to have the highest chance possible to aqua stack greys and dark greys. If you have 7 beacon choices, you need to run out all the other beacons except for one type because well, you have 7 beacon choices (1 extra beacon choice). If you have 8 beacon choices, you need to run out all the other beacons except for two types because you have 2 extra beacon choices.

 

i think it may be 3? the most rerolls ive gotten on a vibrant gray post nerf was 12, since i got 2 vibrant aquas + 1 normal aqua (2 vibrant aquas and a vibrant grey only give 10). i did get a rainbow after the first aqua, so it could just be a bug involving that.

edit: nevermind i saw your spoiler

 

I think Greens are actually 15, though that might be the Wynn Wiki lying to me. So far in my runs I ‘ve only managed to run out red to confirm (at least in runs where I was actuvely payinf attention to number of beacons used.)

 

I asked around and people are saying greens, reds, and aquas are ten.

 

The link doesn't work
I assume you copypaste this from Youtube and unfortunately it doesn't properly copy the whole link :P

 

When do you recommend using rerolls?

 

On this: aquas actually have a fixed pattern like the gray beacon. If you have enough beacon choices for it, aqua can only show up twice in a row whether you take it or not (I believe most people believe this only applies when you actually take it). You can easily test this out yourself, but if you want an example here you go: (note that I had 5 beacon choices and didn't take any of the aquas between screenshots)

Spoiler: image

Note that rerolling beacons on 'no aqua' state cannot make an aqua appear. With this in mind, if you want to stack a gray, you must take your first aqua beacon when aqua didn't show up on the previous challenge + gray showed up on your current challenge.

Also, this also open up the possibility to straight up force a stacked gray on only 5 beacons (+3 beacon choice). If you have 5 beacon choices, wait for a round which gray shows up + aqua didn't show up on previous challenge, then take the aqua. On the next challenge, gray cannot appear so aqua has a 100% chance to appear and on the one after that, aqua cannot appear so gray 100% shows up

 

There is the main question we don't know when beacons run out in challenges, we have to rely on our personal experience, it's really annoying that we didn't get any data on that from CT. Aswell it could be really good to have the probability of appearance, in order to make proper stats on what choice is the better, but there again we have to test out.

 

Beacons don't stop appearing after a certain # of challenges unless you have picked up all that you can.

 

I now know that you literally do have to put 20 challenges into it, which is honestly fine. Don't respond to less knowledgeable past me lol.