Teach Me The Ways Of The Argon Whisperer

[PurpleBomber]

So I dove into update 13 recently after a hiatus of a few months, and earlier today I took my first crack at collecting argon crystals. "First crack" translates to the brute force method of 30 minutes of T2 survival with Nekros desecrating everything short of my family grave, and that yielded all of 0 argon crystals. I've skimmed the wiki for some insight, but there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of concensus there on how to get the stuff.

 

So, I turn to you all for some theories, personal experiences, and so forth. Best game mode? Does tier 3 have better chances than tier 2? Do lockers and crates really have a better chance to drop argon crystals than enemies?

 

(and yes I know about the decay thing and how the timer follows GMT 0:00 regardless of where you may live)

[Boosted.Oreo]

As far as I know t3 doesn't have better chances but instead of survival i would recommend defense since you need to move less and it's easier to collect drops as for your other questions I'm not sure

Edited June 8, 2014 by Shinzo.K

[(PSN)Bobtm0]

All I can speak from is personal experience and nothing more on the matter.  As such the following isn't necessarily a be all end all fact, but it's held true for me having collected more than enough Argon Crystals to craft everything that utilizes them with numerous crystals left over to decay slowly afterwards.

 

T3 does seem to yield crystals more often.  Additionally, I've oddly acquired crystals at a faster rate by simply running Exterminates.  In many cases, even in a straight rushed run without hitting up lockers/crates I'll end up with 1-2 per run from a T3 Ext.  Those missions take very little time so, overall, it actually feels swifter to just fly through them and hope for the best.

[Brahmastra]

I personally do T1 survival. For me they mostly drop between 8-15 minutes, 2-3 per run.

[VKhaun]

According to number gurus they have the best chance of coming from lockers and crates.

 

According to player heresay they drop frequently in the early parts of survival and defense maps.

 

 

My take on this is that they're breaking all the vases as they explore the map, then not finding squat from enemies. I search for Argon using Nekros with Master Thief, hedging my bets by basically doing both. So far most of my argon has come from lockers, but that's not a ton. Small sample size and all that. May just be my luck and not a trend.

[DAFIRE]

I personally do T1 survival. For me they mostly drop between 8-15 minutes, 2-3 per run.

For me it's T1 Surv to 20 mins,with a nekros and I usually get 4-5(6 if lucky)

[Shanicus]

Lockers and Crates man, lockers and crates.

T1 Survival with a Nekros, 15 minute run - gets me 0-3 on average.
T1 Survival with a Nekros, 15 minute run with Master Thief - 1-5 on average.

 

Enemies very rarely drop it, but lockers and containers seem to have the best drop rate. Doing Mobile Defense missions is also a good alternative, since they can spawn Treasure Rooms which have LOADS of Lockers and Containers to open up. Master Thief is a good mod to have for this - if you don't have Master Thief, just do Conflict missions, since Specters have a chance of dropping it.

 

As a side note, Vey Hek also has a decent chance of dropping an Argon Crystal (as does his map), but considering the grind to get to him, any Argon Crystals are a 'bonus' instead of an active farm point.

[mKta]

T2 defense , 1-2 crystals first five waves. Exit. No Nekros needed. Then repeat if you want more. This worked for me every time. Usually they dropped around wave 2-3 for me.

Edited June 8, 2014 by mKta