Helllo-
I’m relatively new to the game and only recently completed SR on ultimate for the very first time on a character and saved to lvl 12 with a waystone- (Was doing it for the skill points)-
What is the typical routine as far as farming for legendaries? I see people saying do lvl 30-31 …but does that mean you start around 25 and get to 31 before you loot? Whats the minimum amount of SR shards you can do before you loot the chest room? What lvl shard do you start and end at before you loot? How much time do you spend on each SR session? Appreciate any tips here…like I said I’m pretty new with SR
Cheers
You should eventually be able to start on 30 so you would then do shards 30 and 31 and cash out when you finish 31 for loot. Then rince and repeat.
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You need to do at least two shards. If you only do one you get a lot less loot. On the other hand there is no benefit to doing more than two, so do two.
SR starts to be good for farming legendaries at about shard 20. So 20/21 could be an entry-level tier to do if your build is not that strong. When well equipped most builds can do 28/29 or 30/31 quite easily. (I mean softcore “easily”. Maybe subtract a bit for hardcore.)
You will see posts from veteran players saying that 34/5 or 36/7 are “easy” but you don’t need to go that high to farm. You can try pushing to see how far you can get though (again, assuming softcore).
In terms of timing, if you are not trying to be quick then a run will probably take about 6 minutes. Some speedrunners are doing 30/31 in 3.30 these days but that’s with very strong builds and with a style of play that prioritises speed (for example, pulling all four bosses at once - can be effective with a strong build, but not very relaxing).
You want to try to finish ahead of the SR timer as otherwise you lose two chests. Generally, you won’t have a problem unless you die.
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Note that the “do shard 30 and 31” advice is mostly from before the latest expansion.
I’ve seen overviews from the Chinese community that show you find very few of the new upgrade materials on those shards. Higher shards are much more efficient (but also much more difficult.) Farming skeleton key dungeons on ascendant (with drop rate bonus from altar) and nemesis bosses in the campaign or doing Crucible can both be even better than doing Shattered Realm. (But again, quite possibly very hard.)
Legendary drop rates are still pretty good in SR though, even at lower difficulties. So if you just need items that is a good option. And there are still some item sets that only drop in SR, I think.
(And some that only drop in the world, like the Apolyton set from the tempest totem thingies.)
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i wonder if higher shards even even more efficient for it
*ignoring time variable too ofc, since that will vary even more player by player (eg Coincident’s power time vs scrub me)
But when i read the new reward list provided by mi0, although no one asked or mentioned it at the time, i wondered if SR doesn’t just straight up “suck” for FoA mat farm, even under top conditions like Coincident (no clue if chinese community runs faster avg than he does ofc)
Because a couple/4 ashes or echos, for 6mins (or more spent), sounds absolutely pitiful vs getting whole frags etc in Ascendant and loads more echos and ashes MC 
Sry for ping/pulling in semi unrelated topic, @mi023 @Coincident but wonder what you guys’ perspective is on this in terms of time v reward and getting the avg echo potential on 36?
So if ashes/echo gen is actually kinda on the lower side, and if MC is better for that, seems like just picking whatever is most optimal for regular legend/MI volume person to person might be the best choice, even if it then still falls outside the new mat rewards, and then farm fragments in MC with altar bonus instead ? 
(ie don’t just push for sr36 “because” of echos, if it actually hampers your time vs 31 or 32 item volume farm)
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That’s true. @mi023 said recently that 32/3 is twice as a good for ashes/echoes as 30/1.
But … @57Belair did ask about farming for legendaries, and I think the best answer for that is the highest shard you can comfortably manage - which ofc could vary a lot depending on build and player.
For max efficiency for ashes/echoes I think we don’t want to be in SR at all?
Three of them, plus the original SR set that can be completed at shard 24.
It’s a good question. Is there a point (36? 38?) at which SR becomes most efficient for everything? Or not so much.
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i mean, i can’t state as in terms of optimal or avg, just from my own pov, but getting potentially 4 echos, even for 6mins (which i can’t run sr36 in at all/i barely run 31 that fast and do a single shard in 5+mins on sr36 last i tried), is less than half what i get in MC dungeon farming with Altar bonus
That’s also why i’m skeptical if even 32 is optimal if it’s mainly for echos. Getting 2 echos every 4mins (which i still don’t run 32 in ofc), is still less than MC simply because we get whole frags there on top of echos in dungeons and from nems
Last i did an hour of dungeon farming i got like, sec, looks like i didn’t actually screenshot that. Last screenshot i have is of a nice stonks PV clear, getting 5 frags and 51 echos
but that’s kinda rng with the Nemesis reward dropping a full frag or not ofc/wont be each time
*edit, i realize soul frags are likely big rng, but everytime you do get 1 in MC, it’s like 2 full reward 36runs, and in MC you then still get regular echos on the side. Hence my curiousness about the efficiency/worth largely from the echo side, since legend-MI/volume wise we always got SR/Cruci for that regardless.
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That’s my hunch too. I think the whole fragments - two of them from the Dread! - is going to beat out everything.
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*i personally skip dread because too slow a fight to be worth on most my chars , unless i get ambushed in a dungeon while forgot to turn the black goo off
I don’t have enough statistical data to tell you if a fast run of 36-37 will get you more echos per min, than for example, running a good Ascendant route with Altar on 2 aster + 3 ashes. I feel that now with the DLC these differences in efficiency will be rather small.
So in response to the OP, I will say: don’t optimize.
When you optimize for farming, you don’t optimize for fun.
Instead, embrace the variety of the game.
Run a bunch of SR. Got tired of it? No problem. Go Ascendant + Altar. Want something different? Try Crucible. Want a challenge? Go kill some celestials. Need to get stronger? Go back to SR farming. Keep changing it up and do what you feel like.
Doing only the most optimal things, is the most optimal way for you to get burned out and quit.
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Amen!
To which I’ll add: also switch up the character you use, once you have several.
Some characters are much better farmers than others, but switching from a caster to a melee character to a skater to a summoner is a lot more fun than using the same character for multiple runs even if it’s not quite as fast.
Also lets you compare and test your character’s performance at the same time you’re farming for useful stuff, makes it much more fun i.m.o.
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