So I'm still early in the game. Using the basic gear.
I'm trying to make the Calibur, as that was suggested to me as a good all around weapon to build up.
But I need Swordstone for it. The thing is, I've been told that it's only worth about 500. Yet the Auction House has it going for 1-2K on average. I don't want to spend all my money just to get the two I need.
Is there an easier way to find some?
The price of swordstone has, indeed, gone up a lot. I've sold over 50 at over 1k each, it may be very hard for you to get it cheaper from the auction house. Swordstone does sometimes drop from monsters, but usually only on the lower levels. It may well be cheaper for you to just buy a calibur from the AH, plain ones or often very cheap as people craft many of them to get the special Unique variant ones. If you have already bought the recipe and haven't learned it yet, you can probably resell it on the AH.
Good luck!
Depth 28 iron edge arena, they drops 2-4 in whole arena so... That's the best way.
I had the same problem, forums give one price, auctions and in-game give a much higher one. I'm guessing the influx of new players increased the price of Swordstone.
The way I'm doing it is by going through arena gates and hoping for Forge Sparks to trade with the Token Merchant. I only need 4 (2 swordstone for Calibur) so it's not too much trouble.
1-2kc ea. seems way too high.
@magic13: In Tier 1 it's more or less impossible to encounter Swordstone drops. I've never found one after going through it 5 times.
@poul: Depth 28 is not "early in the game".
Well duh, it was worth 500 crowns before all the steam players came in. Blue shards were worth 20-30 crowns, now they go for 300 easily (sold today around 350 of them for that much). Enemies that drop Swordstone appear in almost all Arenas and Mechanized Miles. There is also few Mecha Knights in Deconstruction Zones (3-6 i think).
@poul: you might want to check OP's join date
I'm talking about challenge, he could also get carried into to d28 arena.
but anyways, listen what the other helpul people writes.
I've most reliably gotten Swordstone from turning in Forge Sparks at the token trader, honestly. At least early game.
yeah I sold over 2 dozen yesterday for 1350 each, and even sold 10 for 1550 when I realized I prolly wasn't charging enough... All of them sold within an hour of posting except for the 1550's which took about 10 hours <_< But all sold for that price as buy now, none completed their auction.
I'd suggest going the token route - that's how I got so many to sell on the market. They aren't that rare of a drop, but you do need to hunt the right mobs. If you are a decent player you can try doing a solo run - this ensures you get 100% of the mat drops as normally they are divided amongst the group.
If you can make it through t1 without dying much, it's perfectly possible to get them.
Three runs on the iron skull gate gave me:
Run 1 - depth 7 = 2 swordstones (this was the arena)
Run 2 - depth 7 = 1 swordstone (non-arena)
Run 3 - depth 7 = 3 swordstones (non-arena)
As you can see, I've only encountered them on depth 7. You do need to be able to get into the second half of t1 if you hope for 2star mats to drop. Every single one of these came from mecha knights or retrodes as well.
Oh, so you can only get them at depth 7 and deeper?
That makes a lot of sense. I've been doing a couple of dungeon runs, but I've always run out of energy before getting to depth 7. :(
You can get swordstone at Depth 5 and lower.
FYI material drops:
Stratum 1: Up to 1* drops
Stratum 2: Up to 2* drops
Stratum 3: Up to 3* drops
Stratum 4: Up to 4* drops
Stratum 5 and 6: Up to 5* drops
I wouldn't use Forge Sparks on Swordstone myself since once you get 20 you can buy a Sun Silver which sells for around 15k. :D
Anyway, yeah, an arena at Depth 5 or lower will be your best bet since it guarantees tons of Mecha Knights, you can also get them cheap with Jelly Gems but you have to be able to kill the Jelly King first. :P
So I need to hit a stage that's past the 5 mark on the list of levels you see when selecting an area to go to?
Sturak: Each tier is split up into two stratums. A full tier 1 run has six levels (not counting the terminal in the middle).
Basically, you need to find levels where constructs will be when you're doing the last half of a tier 1 run. Look for levels named "Mechanized Mile".
Well, one of the places I see early on (the first "dungeon" level you hit) is called Mechanized Mile.
So I have to get past that checkpoint with the store guy, and find one below it?
I have to agree that Forge Sparks are a good way to get Sword Stones. I haven't run many Clockwork descents, maybe half a dozen, not all of them complete, and I was sitting on 8 Forge Sparks when I found I needed two Sword Stones and an Iron Gear, and each of those costs two Sparks. Yeah, there's probably a better way to get those, but that's a way and that's what I did.
I'm not sure where I found the Sparks, though. I think most of them came from those walled-off sections of "much higher difficulty" that some depths have. Pain in the gunpuppy to get through, but they have nice rewards at the end. Never seen a Sword Stone drop though. Not in person, anyway.
Do construct stages. I find that Swordstone drops a lot off of retrodes.
According to the wiki you can get the swordstone from:
Mecha Knight series
Retrode series
Trojan series
Gremlin series
So look for Construct strata - Iron Skull gate has one in the second half of Tier 1.