What about the rather simple solution of having aether crystals available at a certain shop - with unlimited supply?
They could (and should) even be quite expensive. Id be fine with 25-50k per Crystal. But even that would still yield you an option to spend the gold you gain in SR.
Fundamentally I agree with this
But the OP also has a point that the lab run is pretty dull.
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I’ve had that thought too, it’s a good idea. A weird, quirky hidden vendor obsessed with selling aether crystals. I didn’t put it in my bullets because it felt like the sort of thing they wouldn’t implement, but I’d gladly throw down 2.5M on occasion for 100 aether crystals.
An increased spawn chance or guaranteed spawn of more hero mobs in the lab ru. would be nice. Valdaran has spawned on a few of my runs but having him be able to appear more than just occasionally would be nice.
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I think adding heroes might even increase the chance of Valdaran spawning (not sure how that formula works). That would be a good change.
Also, there is already a totem spawn point.
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How about adding a new NPC in FoA that lets you trade in the massive amounts of lower level components you end up accumulating in the game for materials like aether crystals?
Or make other aetherial enemies in the game have a small chance to drop them? Or adding them as part of the drop table for SR, Crucible and Treasure Troves?
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honestly i’ve long desired “something” to use those stacks of regular components for
feels kinda sadge just keep tossing stacks of thousand embers one after another 
Reanimator class enemies dropping crystals doesn’t seem like it would be that far out of line either 
- tho i don’t think it would fit with every aetherial type
Don’t think i’d want crystals competing for the materia drop slots in Treasure Troves tho, swapping a 5-10% drop with fixed/near 100% drop feels a bit too far apart in worth.
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alright, i did a couple of better PV comparison runs Witch Hunter, Level 100 (GD 1.2.1.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
3.3 sec per crystal without counting load screen variable, 3.5 sec per crystal with load screen. 105 crystals/shards/clusters collected over 3 runs, - bit of rng involved in terms of map layout and the build used with shadow strike resets
Warden lab was 3.5 sec per crystal or 3.7 with my hdd’s load times, 65 crystals over 5 runs
Caveats being
basically everything was ignored in PV, didnt’ “pause”/stop to loot a single dropped item, (nor glancing for totem in Lab)
i think i might have missed a crystal pickup once or twice because even DPYes seems to have some fluctuations in insta loot vs kill/movement speed,
Not quite sure PV route was truly optimal or it’s better to shave another formation or two out or even include one more, but have to go the “long” way anyway if field gate path isn’t open (ironically a run with field gate closed was faster 
)
Definitely think i’d go PV if having a blitzer or shadowstriker char where the long stretches are good, Lab feels like it has potential to waste long movements a bit more
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I think the lab is still quicker. You can just chain your movement skills from one cluster to another. Ofc something like a Dervish or Warlord is super quick.
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i had issues getting a smooth “transfer” on my cdr shadowstriker (which also feels like it’s different compared to last i tried with a dervish)
might be combination with no VM, leap being more clunky and the witchhunter’s cdr being more variable/less predictable so feels like there is more flow disruption this time vs longer PV stretches
*i also feel like in my last Lab/Immol/Quarry trials i got Lab down to like around 30secs/run vs the 45-48secs now, tho that could be a brainfart, or current ssd actually being that slower
They could make it non competitive with the drop table. Instead of taking up a drop slot it could just be a % chance to also drop a small stack of aether crystals… I agree that I wouldn’t want them added to treasure troves if they competed with the existing drop pool.
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I suggested a lot of this in the OP but the NPC is a good idea. A hidden blacksmith that lets you trade in many low components for decentish amounts of aether crystals… Maybe chthonic seals of binding too would be great. I’m a big fan of creating uses for surplus resources.
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The trade could be something like 12 Cracked Lodestone + 12 Chilled Steel + 12 Searing Embers for a stack of 3 aether crystal. Imo those 3 basic component are the one who reach 1000 first on the stash, so 12-15 each resulting in 3-4 aether crystals kinda fair
I think this would work + killing those annoying mini aetherial abominations would feel a bit rewarding at the end because they got a lot of them on their backs.
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Indeed, MOAR carnage!