Dark Surge Farming Guide

Every Torchlight: Infinite season includes new mechanics that change how you can play the game. Season 1 introduced the Dark Surge, a force corrupting monsters in maps, the pinnacle boss - Tidemaster Keegan and the Corrosion system. By reading this guide you're going to learn how to fight the Dark Surge and get rewarded with special loot like Familiar Nexus.

Encounter

Players first encounter the Dark Surge mechanic within the Netherrealm. It has a small chance to appear in every Stage but some Star Talents increase this chance. Use Enhancement Compasses for guaranteed Dark Surge encounter in the Stage.

Every zone that has Dark Surge displays a purple progress bar on your screen with some of the monsters marked with a purple icon on the minimap.

After killing some of the marked monsters, the bar fills up. Once it's full, press the button to summon additional monsters to kill. The more monsters you've killed through the map, the more waves you can summon. Magic and rare monsters give more progress.

Rewards

When you summon Dark Surge monsters an icon appears next to the progress bar that determines what type of rewards the current wave of monsters drops. Possible rewards are:

• Gear
• Legendary Gear
• Commodities
• Compasses
• Dark Surge Boss

Very rare Boss wave spawns a special Dark Surge Boss. Killing it has a chance to drop an Dark Surge Edict - special keys needed to face the Dark Surge pinnacle boss Tidemaster Keegan.

Void Chart Constellation

Dark Surge Void Chart is split into several different paths, each granting separate bonuses, focusing on Dark Surge Edict, Aemberon Cores, Legendary and Corroded Gear;

• 1-3. Star Talents combined with Micro Talents between them grant a total of a 100% chance for Dark Surge to appear in your Netherrealm Stages. These are a good, free method to guarantee the encounter and can be used to free up a compass slot if necessary.
• 4-10. These nodes make Dark Surge Bosses spawn more often, make gear dropped by them have a chance to be converted into Aemberon Cores, and let you choose which Dark Surge Edict you want Bosses to drop more often.
• 11-13. Medium Star Talents increase your chance that the Dark Surge rewards are Legendary Gear, Ultimate Legendary Gear drops more often and gives all Legendary Gear a chance to undergo the Darkest Corrosion. As a negative these Star Talents reduce your damage dealt with each Dark Surge Eruption and prevents Dark Surge monsters from dropping non-Legendary Gear.
• 14-19. Increase the amount of spawned Dark Surge monsters by increasing the amount of Corrosion Energy granted by monsters giving you a chance that Dark Surge Eruption consumes only half of Corrosion Energy and giving you a chance that all monsters in the Stage are Corroded by the Dark Surge.
• The Micro nodes grant one of the following stats;
  • +% Chance for Dark Surge to appear in Netherrealm Stages.
  • +2% for dropped Aemberon Cores to be duplicated.
  • +3% increased Corrosion Energy granted by monsters.

Confusion Cards

There are 6 unique Confusion Cards related to the Dark Surge mechanic, some of them have multiple rarity versions;

• Humiliated - Dark Surge; 10% chance that 1 Supernova Explosion(s) drops with Legendary gear dropped by the reward monsters in Dark Surge Eruption.
• Heretical - Dark Surge; The reward monsters in Dark Surge Eruption have a 0.1% chance to drop 1 additional Familiar Nexus.
• Slanderous - Dark Surge; Corrosion Energy granted by monsters Corroded by Dark Surge +24%/12%/8%.
• Disgraceful - Dark Surge; The chance of getting Legendary Gear rewards from Dark Surge Eruption is increased.
• Resentful - Dark Surge; The reward monsters in Dark Surge Eruption have a 78% chance to drop 3/2/1 additional Aemberon Cores.
• Remorseful - Dark Surge; The chance of getting boss rewards from Dark Surge Eruption is increased.

Enhancement Compasses

The Enhancement Compasses are the final way to alter the mechanic in your Netherrealm Stages, there are 3 to choose from. Importantly; multiple Dark Surge Enhancement compasses of a different rarity can be used together.

• Dark Surge Compass - Guarantees the encounter in your stages whilst giving a minor buff to monster HP. A good option if you want to farm Dark Surge but need to save 15 Star Talents.
• Bandit Dark Surge Compass - This compass increases the chance of getting boss rewards from Dark Surge whilst granting mobs, and additional 30% HP. Use it if you want to focus on farming Dark Surge Edict.
• Divine Warrior Dark Surge Compass - This compass significantly increases the chance for Legendary Gear rewards from Dark Surge Eruption, whilst granting monsters an additional 70% HP. Using this Compass combined with Dark Surge Star Talents is one of the best ways to farm Legendary Gear in the game.

Keegan

To encounter Tidemaster Keegan you need to go to the Void Rift at the Netherrealm and place 3 Edicts - Edict: Dart, Edict: Dive, Edict: Ruin to start the fight.

You can also add 4th, much rarer Edict: Doom to summon "Uber" Tidemaster Keegan which is far harder but with improved rewards.

Corrosion

Corrosion is a special way of enhancing Gear that requires Corrosion materials obtained from the Dark Surge or Clockwork Ballet mechanics.

• Dark Surge Corrosion materials are used on Legendary items.
• Clockwork Ballet Corrosion materials are used on non-Legendary items.

Here is a list of possible Corrosion outcomes:

• Mutation - Adds a random Aember base affix.
• Chaos - Randomizes values of the modifiers on the item.
• Arrogance - Upgrades 1 explicit modifier by 1-2 tiers.
• Void - Nothing happens.
• Desecration - Upgrades 2 explicit modifiers by 1-2 tiers. This outcome can only happen if you use Familiar Nexus to Corrode an item.

After Corroding an item it is put in Corroded state which prevents it from being Corroded again. When a T1 explicit modifier is being upgraded by 1 tier it turns into a new T0 Aember modifier which is usually extremely powerful.

Summary

• Killing monsters infected with Dark Surge fills a bar.
• Summon Dark Surge monsters and kill them to get extra rewards.
• Kill Dark Surge Bosses to acquire Dark Surge Edicts.
• Allocate Dark Surge Star Talents, use Dark Surge Compasses and complete Stages with Dark Surge Confusion Cards to maximize your rewards.
• Use Dark Surge Edicts to summon the pinnacle boss - Tidemaster Keegan.
• Use Aemberon Core and Familiar Nexus to Corrode your Legendary gear.
• Getting an Aember modifier on your item by Corroding it can completely change how you use it.

Credits

Written by Zen_M.
Reviewed by Xtra37, Raxxanterax.