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I have found the ancient device maybe 7 times and seen 5 of the outcomes. To see all 10 for the Wheel of Misfortune achievement and to find all the locations for the Nooks and Crannies achievement, you need to find this thing quite often. I've spent hours of farming Desolate Sands and it barely seems to show up.

How can I speed up my runs so that I'm not wasting time wandering the Desolate Sands?

I've seen it appear at the north and south ends of Desolate Sands. Any information is useful if it saves running around this place. Does it appear on the sides or can I skip searching these?

If I see certain things, does it mean I can stop searching that side of the center gap in the middle of the Desolate Sands? It seems like the large spiral location takes the place of the Ancient Device as I've not seen them on the same side of the gap. I've also never seen it near the 3 Mysterious Jars that summon Pazuzu so it's possible this takes the place of the ancient device as well. I've also seen a location with a booby-trapped chest in the middle of a large circle and an area with a bunch of skull-shaped spawn closets, but I've definitely seen them near the Ancient Device. Anything that once I see it says: Stop searching here and move on would be very helpful.

Is there a rule like "there can only be 1 random dungeon in this area", meaning that if I am trying for one of the device's dungeons and I see Vile Cavern or Shaitan The Broodmother (who's death opens up Cave of Burrowing Horror), I should just re-instance and try again? Any rules that can end a search early would also be very useful.

Is there some sort of temporal component that determines when it will appear? Does it appear more during certain times of day? On/close to the hour? During certain moon phases? Anything that can tell me when I should be searching would also be very helpful.

Here's where I've seen it

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  • I would like to know also as well, it's very hard to determine the map layout just by the layout itself when you spawn.
    – Xanaxiel
    Commented Jun 4, 2012 at 0:53
  • You might be interested in my answer in gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/69452/… Good Luck
    – Riil
    Commented Jun 4, 2012 at 11:43
  • @Riil I'm not asking where it spawns. That's already there in my question. And your answer doesn't even cover both spawns, making my question a better answer to the question you linked than your own answer to that question. I'm asking how to speed up searches for it because I'm having to do a great many of them. I'm afraid your link is irrelevant to the question.
    – skovacs1
    Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 2:07

2 Answers 2

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I actually am doing it a different way and I find it much faster. Rather then using the South end checkpoint, I use the one in Zoltun Kulle's Archive to the North west. Walk directly east across the bridge and you run right into where it spawns. When it spawns the first thing you will see is a semicircle pit with bones in it, that's how you know you got the right spot. You see it about 10-20 steps away from the bridge when it spawns, if its not there I reset. I've been running it over and over again both ways (only need 2 more to get the achievement) and coming from the top is much easier to immediately spot it and leave if you don't.

There are 5 other spawns that can take place in either of these locations to my knowledge: 1.) Tar pits (Nothing) 2.) Giant Boneyard (Nothing) 3.) Giant Spiral with a Resplendent chest 4.) Giant Circle with a Resplendent chest 5.) Urns that contain Pazuzu (Though these might spawn in the lower half only, because thats where I usually find them)

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  • Thanks for the specificity. Going to try this out. I've only got 3 left for the achievement now.
    – skovacs1
    Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 2:02
  • To get even more specific, I actually just recorded the exact part I was talking about and threw it up onto youtube. Hope this helps and happy hunting :) Edited the post above to contain the video
    – Xenogard
    Commented Jun 5, 2012 at 6:37
  • I'm using this method, and it works really well. That's the good news. The bad news is this: To see all 10 events will take about 30 tries at the wheel itself, and 150 reloads in total (assuming flat distributions). If you're at 8/10, you're halfway there. I suggest doing this achievement in small, tedious bursts :)
    – Catalept
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 11:55
  • Yeah it took me roughly a few hours farming this one area to get all them, after I made this video I got number nine the next morning but it took me roughly an hour to find the very last one. So I completely agree with the statement 8/10 is only about halfway there. Luckily this to me has seemed to be the quickest/easiest method for finding the ancient device itself.
    – Xenogard
    Commented Jun 10, 2012 at 7:44
  • Oh also I forgot to mention the Pazuzu urn's have their own spawn points independent of these two. I tend to find it on the western side of the map most of the time, and it will spawn usually towards the north or the middle. Though I'm not certain those are it's only spawning points, but I do know the ancient device and the Pazuzu urns can spawn at the same time.
    – Xenogard
    Commented Jun 10, 2012 at 7:52
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What I ended up doing was:

  1. Getting the Checkpoint at the south edge of the Desolate Sands.
  2. Running up to the first location spawnpoint.
  3. Exploring first point.
  4. Exit and repeat.

I didn't see a reason to run to the second spawning location as it would take some time with all the mobs and everything.

But beware that the exploding kamikaze mobs can start at the top of your own spawning point.

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  • Your answer's a bit ambiguous. Could you please elaborate? Checkpoint at the edge of Desolate Sands - which edge? The first point - which point is the first one, north or south or somewhere else?
    – skovacs1
    Commented Jun 4, 2012 at 15:53

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