Chaos Sanctuary & Diablo Farming Guide

The Chaos Sanctuary is the best overall area to farm in Diablo 2. It not only has Diablo - The Lord of Terror himself, but also many bosses which grant large amounts of Experience and loot such as Unique and Set Items, Runes, and Bases! Nightmare difficulty has its purposes for Experience and character progression, but Hell is the primary focus. Hell in this area is extremely challenging, and you will be punished for being unprepared such as lacking Resistances, especially Fire, and overall character power!

The Chaos Sanctuary is connected to the River of Flame at the end of Act 4. Simply take the River of Flame Waypoint and head over the bridge on the top right side.

Why farm Chaos Sanctuary?

The Chaos Sanctuary is a great source for everything in the game including Experience, Runes, Bases, Set and Unique Items. It's also quickly navigated, with the River of Flame Waypoint being only a few teleports away. Diablo is the only monster in the game that drops the Burning Essence of Terror which is 1 of the 4 Essences required to make a Token of Absolution to respec your Character. The Chaos Sanctuary has a static layout with consistent Elite spawns, making it easy to memorize and navigate. The Chaos Sanctuary also provides unique challenges that help you become a better player, like learning to kite monsters, dealing with immunities, dodging projectiles, and avoiding dangerous Curses and Auras.

Items

Here are some examples of what you can find in Hell. Check out our drop calculator for all possible drops.

Looting Strategies

1. Prioritize Magic Find and mobility while only killing the main boss of the Elite packs on Players 1. This is to guarantee a drop and be able to move on quickly to the next pack (works well for Grailing).
2. For Runes and Bases use a well-rounded build, ideally farming Players 7, to kill all Elites and their Minions.
3. Looting Diablo drops, you'll need to kill the Seal Bosses fast with some form of Teleport to skip ahead and hop to each side of Chaos Sanctuary. Remember to stack Magic Find only after you've reached the appropriate FCR Breakpoint and Maximum Resistances (especially Fire). While Players 1 is decent, Players 3 is generally the best for this strategy.

Note: Diablo, Infector of Souls, Lord De Seis, and Grand Vizier of Chaos cannot drop all the items in the game like the other randomly spawning Elites can due to their Treasure Class restriction. To say this another way, it is more valuable to kill the Elites in The Chaos Sanctuary rather than the Bosses for extremely rare items… who would’ve guessed that?!

Experience

Level x-96

The Chaos Sanctuary is one of the best places to gain Experience. A solid strategy that works until ~Level 97 is to kill all the Elites and their Minions which grant large amounts of Experience. The higher the Player Count, the better.

Level 97+

At Level 97 and above, Diablo becomes a main focus for Experience gain due to his high monster level (94). He is 1 of 3 enemies in the game that grant significant Experience, with Nihlathak (95) and Baal (99) being the others. Typically, this strategy has one person with high mobility make a Town Portal at the star in Chaos Sanctuary and immediately clear out a Seal Boss, while 2 other high-level players clear the other Seal Bosses to spawn Diablo as fast as possible. Due to the way that Experience works, Players 7 with a maximum of 3 actual players in that area is the best for this strategy. Read our detailed post on Experience for more information.

How do I find Chaos Sanctuary & Diablo?

Location and Mechanics

The River of Flame is right next to The Chaos Sanctuary. Travel to the top right of your screen past Hadriel and past the bridge.

The Chaos Sanctuary has a cross-like shape and special mechanics that include 5 Seals and 3 Seal Bosses. When all 5 Seals are opened and all 3 Seal Bosses are dead, Diablo spawns at the center star of The Chaos Sanctuary. There are also Oblivion Knights that cast these Curses on you: Amplify Damage, Decrepify, Lifetap, Lower Resist, and Weaken.

Grand Vizier of Chaos

On the left side of Chaos Sanctuary, there are 2 possible layouts each containing 2 Seals. The green circle in example layouts indicate which Seal spawns the Seal Boss, Grand Vizier of Chaos. He spawns nearby and is always Extra Strong and Fire Enchanted.

Lord De Seis

On the top side of Chaos Sanctuary there are 2 layouts and 1 Seal. When this Seal is opened, Lord De Seis, spawns nearby. He always Extra Strong and Aura Enchanted. Initially the Aura is Fanaticism, however, if you leave him alone long enough he might change his Aura.

Infector of Souls

On the bottom right side of Chaos Sanctuary there are 2 layouts and 2 Seals. When the West most Seal is opened, the Infector of Souls spawns nearby. He is always Extra Fast with Spectral Hit.

Diablo

When all Seals are popped with all Seal Bosses dead, the screen goes red and Diablo himself calls out, "Not even death can save you from me." After a few moments, Diablo always spawns in the center star of The Chaos Sanctuary.

Tips & Tricks

Moat Trick Infector of Souls

On the right side of The Chaos Sanctuary, you have 2 different layouts. You can abuse the J shaped tile with ranged builds by attacking Infector of Souls over the moat without him being able to hit you.

Portal Trick

You can make Diablo waste actions during his fight by placing a Town Portal next to him and stepping back, making him summon bone prison on it over and over as long as there is no active bone prison on the Town Portal.

Pre-Cast

While waiting for Diablo to spawn in the center of The Chaos Sanctuary, you can pre-cast Blessed Hammer in specific positions to put those hammers on the field. When Diablo actually spawns in, you can jump on him too and effectively be hitting him twice as hard. This also works for Skills that linger for a while, such as Blizzard or Meteor.

Seal Popping

The Chaos Sanctuary has a unique mechanic referred to as "Seal Popping." After all the Seals are opened and Seal Bosses are dead, all the monsters are killed throughout this zone and Diablo spawns in afterward. We can abuse this process to our advantage to get more loot. Seal Popping has a few mechanics to understand to pull off properly.

• By teleporting quickly past as many mobs as you can and hitting the final Seal of killing the last Seal Boss after, you can get all those monsters you just activated to drop items.
• Monsters have an activation period and remain active for about 8 seconds after being outside their activation range, which is approximately 2 screens.
• These drops are not affected by Magic Find, and Seal Popping works best in higher player count. You can also open up a Town Portal in a location where many mobs are located to keep that area active when the Seal Pop happens.

Build Recommendations

While every Class can clear The Chaos Sanctuary, some do it better than others. The Paladin has a big advantage over other Classes due to his Blessed Hammer Skill, and its additional damage to both Demons and Undead. Don't farm this area unless you're ready for the challenge it holds.

• Amazon - Lightning Fury
  • Do not farm this area without Infinity on this build. Instead, check out our Secret Cow Level Farming Guide, where she destroys cows!
  • Without Enigma, the Amazon is among the worst Characters when it comes to mobility. However, with her insane DPS coming from Charged Strike and Lightning Fury she destroys this area with ease.
  • She cannot easily make use of Seal Popping with her low mobility.
• Assassin - Lightning Sentry
  • The Assassin has very high mobility through Burst of Speed especially when paired with a Staff of Teleportation or Enigma.
  • She also can take out any enemy here easily with Lightning Sentry followed by Death sentry. With these Skills you're dealing Lightning, Fire, and Physical Damage, letting you clear any immunities they might have. Though Infinity makes this drastically easier to deal with immunes it is not required. However, it is recommended to have at least a Wand of Lower Resistance.
• Barbarian - Berserk / Whirlwind
  • The Barbarian is very gear dependent and typically isn't recommended for straight Chaos Sanctuary farming on a budget. However, with decent gear such as Grief and Enigma you can quickly make Chaos Sanctuary your home with its high mobility, damage, and survivability.
  • Berserk and Whirlwind can take full advantage of almost all the strategies in The Chaos Sanctuary, however the Berserk Barb suffers when trying to kill mass density.
  • The best part about these Barbs is that they can deal Physical and Magical Damage, which is something that The Chaos Sanctuary has no natural immunities to.
• Druid - Hurricane Tornado
  • The Wind Druid can farm The Chaos Sanctuary fairly well, even on a low budget. While the Wind Druid is not the fastest clearer, it deals both Physical and Cold Damage allowing you to deal with most of everything.
  • He can also be pretty safe and is always welcomed in groups with the Oak Sage Skill at his disposal. He can also use his Summon Grizzly or other summons to tank or distract mobs.
• Necromancer - Bone Spear / Summoner
  • The Necromancer is well-equipped to farm The Chaos Sanctuary without any danger. This is a very slow character without decent gear but has so many options to counter the enemy's forces. With the use of Bone Prison, Bone Wall, Curses, and Summons you have all the Crowd Control you could ever want.
  • You can also use Bone Prison or Bone Wall to pull monsters from off-screen towards you then use Corpse Explosion after they start to die from either your Summons or Bone Spear.
  • Summoner will be far stronger generally against Diablo compared to the Bone Spear Necromancer. This is because Summoners have many minions that deal single target damage quickly.
• Paladin - Blessed Hammer
  • The Hammerdin is the best build in farming The Chaos Sanctuary. Even before Enigma this character can shred this area like nobody else. His high mobility from Charge, Vigor, and Staff of Teleportation make him only marginally slower than the Sorceress in getting there in the early game.
  • He also has Blessed Hammer which deals additional damage to everything that is in The Chaos Sanctuary on its own. Between the benefit of having Auras and buffs for you and your team, this is an excellent character for your farming.
  • See Tips & Tricks section to kill Diablo faster on average.
• Sorceress - Blizzard / Lightning
  • The Sorceress is very strong when it comes to farming The Chaos Sanctuary. High mobility through the built-in Teleport and high Cold Damage from Blizzard make quick work of this zone. The issue with Cold Damage however, is that the most annoying mobs "Oblivion Knights" are Cold Immune, and you'll need your Mercenary or a Fire Skill to take them out.
  • While Infinity can make the Blizzard Sorceress stronger, most people respec into a pure Lightning Sorceress. This character rips through The Chaos Sanctuary at a blinding pace and has some of the fastest clears.
  • Both the Blizzard and Lightning versions can destroy and take advantage of all the farming strategies in this area.

Video

Summary

• The Chaos Sanctuary is one of the best areas in Diablo 2 for Experience, Runes, Bases, Sets and Uniques! Just remember that it normally requires a very powerful character to farm it efficiently, and we recommend starting off with our Andariel or Mephisto Guides first.
• Load your character up on Fire Resistance before farming here so the Infector of Souls doesn’t barbecue you!
• The Chaos Sanctuary can be used for any stage of the game depending on your needs.
• Utilize different strategies in order to take full advantage of the mechanics in this area like Seal Popping!
• Beware of curses and auras as they can kill you when you least expect it.
• Remember that you don’t have to farm alone - grab teammates to help you out and share in The Chaos Sanctuary treasures.

Credits

Updated and Maintained by MacroBioBoi
Originally Written by BTNeandertha1
Contributions by Teo1904
Reviewed by Raxxanterax