Silverwastes: Chests vs. Events

A major source of contention in the game is whether to have chest trains or run events in Silverwastes. You will often find heated arguments in map-chat as to which a given map will be, and when a map flips from one to the other, you can expect to hear grousing.

But how can one objectively determine which use of the map is "better" when it really boils down to a personal preference?

The usual answer is gold as in "Which use of the map nets you more gold, chests or events?" You'll hear people on both sides argue one way or another, but often you'll hear the most convincing arguments from the pro-chest croud. It seems logical, after all, that you'd earn more loot (and thus, gold) from something which, culturally, we associate with treasure.

But is that really the case? Can we, experimentally, provide evidence one way or the other? Turns out that we can.

Using the "Gold/Hour Tool" (see links on side-bar) we can measure the amount of gold per hour (from here out, GPH) earned in the game. If we focus specifically on a given activity, we can measure how much GPH that activity nets. Then, by comparing the GPH for each event we can come to some quantitative answer as to which is "better".

Methodology

For each activity, I focused on only that activity for a minimum of 1.5 hours. That way I could ensure that I get a reasonably accuracte GPH result for that run. After 1.5 hours, I would return to Lions Arch and deal with my loot. While I dealt with the loot, I would pause the GPH Tool's timer (since opening bags and desynthing things can take time and we want to only consider the time spent in the SW zone doing the activities.)

• Silverwastes Event Chain

  I used this guide, as well as information on the wiki, to optimize my event runs. I would strive to start the timed run on a fresh map (recently reset after VW win). I would stick around for the entire chain of events including Foothold, Breach, Vinewrath and Labyrinth.

  For Foothold, I would run around trying to tag as many events as possible. This means I'm one of those dicks that pops in during an invasion, tags a few mobs, then runs off to another event. The exceptions are supply escorts and rubble gathering, both of which can fail very easily if unwatched. Additionally, I would skip the rubble gathering if there wasn't a critical mass of people collecting, thus ensuring that the collection would finish before another invasion.

  For Breach, I'd complete a minimum of one sub-boss. Time permitting, I would go help out at other Breaches as needed.

  For Vinewrath, I'd go where I was needed (usually North, heh, that bastard lane is hardly ever full).

  During the event chain, I wouldn't open any chests (as this is purely testing the GPH from the event chain). The chests that spawn as a reward from a VW kill were the obvious exceptions.

  After the VW win, I would proceed (with the group) and kill the three champions on the way to the Labyrinth. Inside the Labyrinth, I would play strategically, and aim to win. This means for tiers 1 and 2, I run around and only open the Lesser Nightmare Pods. I would save any Nightmare Keys I have until tier 3, and, once I've used the keys, I would continue to work to get as many Lesser Nightmare Pods as possible. For most runs, we would complete tiers 1 and 2, and fail 3 (though there were a few times where we would also win tier 3).

• Chest Train (Choo Choo)

  I would only participate in chest train maps when there was a critical mass of people doing the chain. Basically, I found that if there were too few people doing the chest train you'd get significantly less chests on average. Meanwhile, many shovels make the map full of chests.

  I would make sure I had a minimum of two stacks of keys and at least 100 shovels at the begining of the run. I didn't want to waste any time having to buy more.

  If a chest train didn't last the full 1.5 hours, I would pause the GPH Tool until another comparable chest train could be found.

  Every chest train I was in would loop through Remnant's Retreat and kill the spawned champion there. I included the loot from this champion as part of the loop for the chest run as it, really, is only ever done during chest trains. The chest here, however, I did not include in the chest run. You can only open the chest once per day, so it didn't seem fair to include it.

  Occasionally, a chest train will diverge into capturing one of the forts, or killing one of the veterans for extra shovels. I included any loot obtained from these diversions in the chest train.

If the Skritt Burglar is spawned, I wouldn't participate and I wouldn't collect any of his dropped loot. The burglar was too inconsistent in the runs so, like the bandit chest, it didn't seem fair to include it in either activity type.

My magic find was 153% and I did not boost it (no communal campfires, no food, no banners.)

I would not mine any ores, chop any lumber or harvest any cacti. Again, these seemed like they might unfairly affect one run over another.

I was always solo, and never in a party (I know that, these days, the idea that parties affect loot is poo-pooed, but I'm a superstitious old-timer who has yet to see definitive proof that it doesn't affect things :-)

Random, aggro mobs that had to be dealt with were dealt with. This includes dealing with aggro mobs that prevent you from opening a chest, as well as aggro mobs that get caught up in an event. Loot from these aggro mobs would be included in whatever run I was doing at the time.

After the activity was completed, and a minimum of 1.5 hours had passed, I would pause the GPH Tool, waypoint to Lions Arch, and deal with my loot. This included opening loot bags, storing items and mats, and desynthing.

Here's how I dealt with the loot:

• Greens and blues: I would desynth every green and blue item using a Basic Salvage Kit. The salvaged materials would then be included in my totals for that run.
• Yellow armor: I would desynth every rare armor item using a Mystic Salvage Kit. The salvaged materials would then be included in my totals for that run.
• Yellow weapons and exotic items: I would keep every rare weapon as well as any exotics that dropped. They would be included in my totals for that run.
• Salvaged runes, sigils and medalions: I would sell all of these to the nearest NPC. This was mainly because a) they were usually worth more from NPCs and b) they took up a lot of room. Whatever small amount I got from selling these upgrade components would be included in the total for that run.
• Selling on the TP: Since the GPH Tool cannot track the TP, I would wait to sell things on the TP until after the totals were done.
• Junk: All junk is immediately sold to an NPC. The money earned from these sales would be included in the totals. This was mainly done, again, to free up inventory space.

I would repeat the above for a number of runs for each different activity. I then averaged the GPH for each.

The Data

The data is pretty big. It deserves its own page. You can find the full data here.

The Results

• Average GPH for Events: 11g 23s 58c (±deviation 3g 63s 92c)
• Average GPH for Chests: 9g 31s 10c (±deviation 4g 00s 89c)

The data analysis can be found here.

Bottom-line, events did yield a higher GPH than chest trains. This result, frankly, shocked me as I expected it to go the other way. That being said, there were a few caveats which I should mention:

• Event trains had a higher deviation than chest trains, if you exclude chest outlier.
  The first dataset for chest trains is significantly lower than the rest. I was tempted to throw it out, as I find its deviation highly suspect. If you exclude it from the standard deviation, chest trains had a much lower deviation than event chains (±2g 05s 46c). This means, with the exception of the first dataset, chest trains were more consistent between runs. Thus, the argument could be made that, if you only had a short time to play a chest run would, on average, be more lucrative than an event run.
• The delta between event average and chest average is small.
  There is roughly a 2g difference in GPH between the two averages. This means that the two types of runs yield fairly similar results. Event chains edge out ever so slightly over chest trains, but it's not really significant enough to declare event trains an undisputed winner.
• Events v Chests are still, really, a personal preference.
  Some people prefer one over the other, and the meager delta I've shown here does little to dissuade a person from one camp to the other.
• Chest trains became increasingly boring over time.
  I found it was extremely hard to force myself to do a chest train for more than 30-45 minutes. Filling out the 1.5 hours I set for myself in the methodology above was arduous. Additionally, it was difficult finding a single chest train that would last the full 1.5 hours- most would peter out after 30-45 minutes. Conversely, events were much easier to do for 1.5 hours (or more) simply because they were less monotonous and had more variety. This lends more credence to the supposition above that chest trains are better taken in short bursts.
• Event chains had better loot to sell, while chest trains had better mats to gain.
  This is, somewhat, an expected result. I'd get more rares/exotics from event chains than I would from chests, but I'd get significantly more mats from chests, much of which I couldn't sell and thus, couldn't include in the average GPH (for example, Obsidian Orbs). Additionally, I had to throw away three event run datasets where I obtained exotics worth more than 1.5G and only one chest train run data for the same reason. If these dropped results were included, the averages became 19g 47s 01c for events and 12g 10s 31c for chests.

So there you have it, event maps do give slightly more gold per hour, but the differences in both enjoyability of the activities and types of things you'd get from each really means that both uses of the map are valid.

After thought: Maximizing your Silverwastes GPH

The real big take-away from all of this is that the best way to earn gold in Silverwastes is to do both..

See, as you do events in the zone, your perserverance goes up. This boosts your base magic find and grants a bonus magic find to chests. This means that you should find better/more loot from the chests when you do activities in the zone.

So the most optimal way to maximize your GPH in the Silverwastes is to do the events and open as many chests as you can.

Now, this is, perhaps, the most controversial conclusion one can come to. People running around popping chests are viewed as not helping progress the map's events, and people working the events lower the number of shovelers.

Regardless, doing both will yield the best results as far as pure GPH is concerned.