Icy Cellar Farming Guide

The Icy Cellar is a very cold and dark place with many potential monster types, much like the Drifter Cavern. This place lacks Fire Immunes, but has potential for extremely dangerous Souls and Dolls. Sought after Ghosts also spawn here, which have a high chance for Runes! You can even spawn in additional Elite Packs by opening Evil Urns! It is a relatively small square shaped area that includes a Gold Chest, and the Super Unique boss Snapchip Shatter. As of Patch 2.4, it is now level 85 which means any item can now drop to finish up your Holy Grail!

Having a well-rounded build with mobility, damage, and Magic Find is vital to the potential danger you face in the Icy Cellar. Compared to other max level areas such as Pit and Ancient Tunnels, the danger you face in and on your way to Icy Cellar is much higher. Items such as Enigma and Infinity become very important for builds to function well in here.

Why farm the Icy Cellar?

The Icy Cellar is an Area Level (alvl) 85 zone without any major Fire Immunes. Elite Packs in this area can drop every Set and Unique item in the game, making them incredibly valuable to farm. Hunting for Unique and Champion packs can net you tons of items that are Magic quality or higher. This is great for Holy Grailing, collecting every item in the game! In addition, there are Evil Urns that spawn in much like chests, which in addition to valuable loot spawn a random Elite pack. Be aware of the danger they can pose!

Killing high monster density frequently rewards you with High Runes (up to Zod Rune), Charms and valuable Runeword Bases, especially on high player counts (/players 7).

How do I find the Icy Cellar?

The Ancient's Way icy caves can be confusing to navigate on your journey to find the Icy Cellar. Looking at the Map Reading Guide can help alleviate this confusion.

The Ancient's Way Waypoint puts you in a map tile that only has one direction to leave it. Take the perspective of your Character when it is running in that direction, and the Icy Cellar is always Right.

To find Icy Cellar quickly, it helps to know what the exit tile looks like. There are 4 Waypoint tiles and 4 corresponding "Exit Tiles":

Waypoint "Bottom Left"

Exit tile

Waypoint "Top Left"

Exit tile

Waypoint "Bottom Right"

Exit tile

Waypoint "Top Right"

Exit tile

Tips & Tricks

Snapchip Shatter

Snapchip Shatter is a Super Unique that guards a Golden Chest inside the Icy Cellar. He's always in the corner of the map and always spawns Cursed and Cold Enchanted. He is Level 86 TC 87 which means he can drop all but 3 items in the game, ArachnidMesh, Azurewrath, and Tyraelsmight.

Be Cautious

The Icy Cellar has potential to be a VERY dangerous area with Stygian Dolls that explode, dealing massive damage when you kill them. The Souls steal your Mana and deal a ton of Lightning Damage. You can combat the Lightning Damage by stacking Absorb from items such as Thundergod's Vigor. Physical Damage Reduction  (e.g. Verdungo's Hearty Cord.) make the Doll explosions much more manageable.

Golden Chest

There is always a Golden Chest that spawns in one of the corners of the map. This chest can drop a large majority of the items in the game, including a Zod Rune.

Evil Urns

Evil Urns are clickable chests that drop items and spawn an Elite Group when opened. Open them at your own risk, they can be very dangerous, and you could easily get clapped!

Immune Monsters

Throughout Icy Cellar, there are many immune monsters.

• Similar to the Worldstone Keep the vast variety in mobs cause changing immunities from run to run.
• There are no Magic or Fire Immune Monsters in the Icy Cellar!
• Hybrid Damage builds are great to deal with the variety of immunities.
• Monsters Immune to Lightning are a problem until you get your hands on an Infinity.
• Monsters Immune to Physical are an issue unless you have a source of AmplifyDamage or Decrepify.

Maximize Magic Find

Super high level Unique and Set Items are the main reason to farm any high level area. Optimizing the "Better Chance of Getting Magic Items" Stat increases your chance of finding them. Make sure to keep up your kill speed and survivability, or the Magic Find you stacked will be for nothing!

Build Recommendations

Farming the Icy Cellar efficiently usually requires some very high-end gear, like Enigma, and /or Infinity. We do NOT recommend farming this area without them! Check out easier farming areas such as Andariel, Mephisto, or the Pit!

• 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.
• Assassin - Lightning Sentry / Fire Blast
  • The Trapsin can kill everything in the Icy Cellar with just her skills. However, Infinity is highly recommended with the amount of Lightning Immune and high Life of monsters.
  • Burst of Speed grants great mobility at all times, making Enigma not as important.
• Barbarian - Berserk
  • When it comes to Elite hunting, no build on the Barbarian is as efficient as the Zerker. When properly equipped, this guy just jumps onto a boss, uses howl, and basically one-shots the boss.
  • Find Item adds a chance for additional drops from the boss. This increases farming efficiency of any Barbarian build by around 30%.
• Druid - Fissure
  • Druid’s best option is to go Fire when farming Icy Cellar. It requires a decent amount of gear to function well in Hell difficulty, but this area has no monsters Immune to Fire Immunity.
• Necromancer - Bone Spear / Summon
  • The Necromancer can negate a lot of the Physical Damage with his bone armor, making him a safe choice for the Icy Cellar.
  • While the Bone Spear Necromancer snipes away at Elite Groups from a safe distance, the Summoner can do the same and also teleports right on top of any Boss if safe to do so.
  • Corpse Explosion grants massive Area of Effect damage for additional clear speed.
• Paladin - Blessed Hammer - is recommended AGAIN.......
  • The Hammerdin is one of the best builds for farming the Icy Cellar. Even before Enigma, this character can shred this area like nobody else. His high mobility from Charge, Vigor, and Staff of Teleportation allow him to get around just fine.
  • Blessed Hammer faces no immunities in the Icy Cellar due to its Magic Damage.

• Sorceress - Hydra / Meteor
  • Hydra Sorceress is very strong and can cast at a safe distance when fighting the danger in Icy Cellar.
  • Meteor and Fireball are very strong in the Icy Cellar with a massive DPS output.

Video Guide

Summary

• The Icy Cellar is a lot more challenging compared to other areas. Be sure that your Character is up for the task at hand!
• Be ready to fight many dangerous monsters. Tank up to face them.
• Focus your efforts on Elite Groups, they are the reason why you are here.
• Maximize your Magic Find without compromising your damage and / or survivability.
• Remember to screenshot and share with your friends awesome items found in this area!

Credits

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