Dark Surge farming is the best method of farming currency during the early stages of progression. It is extremely consistent as it only relies on drawing one Trait Deck card; Transformation - Dark Surge.
All Dark Surge cards contain the Dark Surge Undercurrent. This causes you to draw additional Dark Surge Chaos Cards from the Deck after completing a Beacon. Meaning you can guarantee you have an additional card to run on every Chaos Invasion attempt.
TIP: For better results; make sure you have unlocked all the Dark Surge related Chaos Cards. To do this, kill the Timemark 5 Watcher in the Voidlands.

Trait Deck
Requirements
To farm this strategy you need an understanding of the Chaos Invasion System and have a build capable of completing Rank 4 Beacons and killing Timemark 7 Watchers. If you're struggling with any of the Watchers check out our Boss Guides here.
Adding compasses to the map increases rewards, but also makes them more difficult. If you're farming Timemark 7 content exclusively; focus on using Rusted and Dated. If you're doing this on a higher level of investment you need a strong build, capable of completing Rank 5 Beacons for maximum rewards.
Strategy
This strategy can be used as soon as you unlock Transformation - Dark Surge. Dark Surge Undercurrent guarantees you always have a Dark Surge Chaos Card to run; but is very unpredictable.
- Reserved is used to draw 3 cards from your Trait Deck. It should be used if you do not draw Transformation - Dark Surge.
- Honest, Honest, Agile and Alert are used as they do not consume a Chaos Invasion attempt. Meaning if you draw your powerful Dark Surge Chaos Cards towards the end of a Chaos Invasion Round you can continuing to run maps without losing your strong Dark Surge effects.
- A large portion of the profits when farming Timemark 7 comes from Rank 5 Beacons. Use Pity when possible to spawn Watchers faster.
- When using a Shiny Dark Surge Compass it is worth raising the Timemark to Tier 8 as you will increase the amount of rewards granted from the encounter.
- Only activate the Dark Surge after defeating the Beacon boss; otherwise you cannot spawn a Dark Surge boss!
Certain combinations of Chaos Cards makes it efficient BUT NOT ESSENTIAL to raise the Timemark to Tier 8 and use a Shiny Dark Surge Compass to guarantee that the area has a Dark Surge encounter.
The following examples are some of the combinations you are likely to encounter:
Tier 7
Benevolent combines with the commodities dropped from the Dark Surge encounter. Giving you a small chance to upgrade Flame Sand into Flame Elementium.
- Transformation - Dark Surge
- Addicted - Dark Surge
- Commodities - Dark Surge
- Commodities - Dark Surge
- Benevolent
- Honest or Agile
- Honest or Alert

Focusing on one reward type helps prevent you from diluting the pool of rewards and means you can use Compasses more effectively.
- Transformation - Dark Surge
- Admiring
- Fallen - Dark Surge
- Fluorescent - Dark Surge
- Fluorescent - Dark Surge
- Honest or Alert
- Honest or Alert

Tier 8
Dark Surge Bosses can drop valuable Edicts. When you draw both Rampant - Dark Surge with Brutal - Dark Surge raise the Timemark to Tier 8 and use a Shiny Dark Surge Compass.
- Transformation - Dark Surge
- Rampant - Dark Surge
- Brutal - Dark Surge, Rank 5 Beacon
- Rank 5 Beacon
- Rank 5 Beacon

Compasses are the most valuable reward type from Dark Surge. When you draw Compass - Dark Surge try not to dilute the reward pool to focus solely on the chance for the Dark Surge to grant Compasses.
- Transformation - Dark Surge
- Compass - Dark Surge
- Fallen - Dark Surge, Rank 5 Beacon
- Fallen - Dark Surge, Rank 5 Beacon
- Fallen - Dark Surge, Rank 5 Beacon

Reckless - Dark Surge adds a powerful Elite monster that drops a large amount of loot if you reach wave 5 of the Dark Surge.
- Transformation - Dark Surge
- Commodities - Dark Surge
- Fluorescent - Dark Surge
- Reckless - Dark Surge, Rank 5 Beacon
- Honest, Rank 5 Beacon
- Honest, Rank 5 Beacon

Compasses
Rusted Scouting Compass Dated Scouting Compass Shiny Scouting Compass | Increases the number of monsters corrupted by the Dark Surge. |
Rusted Profiling Compass Dated Profiling Compass Shiny Profiling Compass | Combine with multiple Fluorescent - Dark Surge. |
Shiny Dark Surge Compass | Use to guarantee the Dark Surge in Tier 8. |
Seed of Despair Seed of Regret Seed of Worry | Combine with Shiny Dark Surge Compass and Compass - Dark Surge. |
Dazzling Brilliance Compass Dazzling Abundance Compass Dazzling Profiling Compass | Use Dazzling Compasses with Dark Surge Cards that have corresponding rewards. |
Selling Your Loot
Here's the loot you can expect to acquire from this strategy;
- Edict: Dart, Edict: Dive, Edict: Ruin, Edict: Doom
- Rank 5 Beacons
- The Beginning
- Flame Elementium
- Fluorescent Memories
- Enhancement Compasses (Shiny Mechanical Compass, Shiny Might Compass, Dazzling Abundance Compass)
TIP: Selling items in bulk amounts means you can list them at a higher price!
Summary
- This strategy is extremely consistent as it only relies on drawing one Trait Deck card; Transformation - Dark Surge.
- Only activate the Dark Surge after defeating the Beacon boss; otherwise you cannot spawn a Dark Surge boss!
- Dark Surge Undercurrent causes you to draw additional Dark Surge Chaos Cards from the Deck.
- Rampant - Dark Surge and Brutal - Dark Surge guarantee that 2 Bosses spawn from the Dark Surge encounter.
- Edict: Dart, Edict: Dive, Edict: Ruin, Edict: Doom are exclusive rewards that have a chance to drop from the Dark Surge bosses. They are needed to fight the Tidemaster: Keegan; making them very valuable.
- Make sure you have unlocked all the Dark Surge related Chaos Cards. To do this, kill the Timemark 5 Watcher in the Voidlands.
Credits
Written by Milkybk_
Reviewed by Xtra37, Facefoot
Changelog
Published for Season 2