Guild Wars 2

Hi everybody,

What are the easiest ways of getting black lion keys that doesn’t break the bank? It seems as if buying them from TP is really expensive. I’ve been completing each area in hopes to get a key but haven’t managed to get that many from that. Any ideas? Thanks!

There are very few places to acquire them:
- Extremely rarely as a loot drop
- Gems purchased with gold (expensive in-game)
- Gems purchased with RL currency (expensive in-real-life)
- As a random drop from BL chests themselves (not feasible as you need a key to maybe get a key)

If they ever re-enable Lionguard Lyns, you may be able to get them with Captain’s Commendations in Lion’s Arch, though it is uncertain whether BL keys will still be available from her when/if she is re-enabled.

Leveling an alt to level 10, doing the personal story at that level, delete repeat. (Dunno if they changed the reward though).

Otherwise like Rising duck said the merchant in lions arch- exchange exotic jewels for coms, trade coms for BL keys.

Thanks! I guess I’ll just have to build up some gold and trade for gems..

Or get to level 10 like you said, thanks!

Ryan Mozo.9581:

Or get to level 10 like you said, thanks!

Here is a video of that method- but its a few months old so not sure if that still works. Good luck

edit according to the commentarys there it still works and takes about 25minutes on average. Less if you have a mate who does the story for you.

Why do you want them, btw? Overall they’re not worth it and the drop chance of a permanent trade or banker is probably lower than getting a precursor.

The level 10 story quest will give you a key as a reward, and you can keep making throwaway characters to farm it.

Thanks everybody! And Vol I can always hope haha. Getting magic finds from them could also help me get exotics for ectos too. They’re somewhat useful.

I thought the drop rate of keys/chest were supposed to be about even… I mean we all saw this coming, but really? I have gotten a 1:6 drop rate. During the betas I was breaking about even.

Or am I completely wrong about this?

Quiznos.4296:

I thought the drop rate of keys/chest were supposed to be about even… I mean we all saw this coming, but really? I have gotten a 1:6 drop rate. During the betas I was breaking about even.

Or am I completely wrong about this?

1 in 6 is extremely lucky. Im sitting at more of an 1 in 250 ratio….and tbh not really exaggerating. 2 keys 1,500+ hours.

I think you have a chance at getting one from the daily achievement reward, but I’m not sure. Anyway you can get most things that are in the actual chests that way. I have 4 Black Lion salvage kits sitting in my bank as well as portable banks, traders, merchants, and repair canisters.

Also far more basic transmute stones than I would like.

I got a black lion key once from a regular undead thrall in Orr. It was just layin there on the thrall layin on the floor. I actually didn’t entirely believe it happened but it did. I excitedly told everyone in map chat I got it and one guy replied “nobody cares.”

1:250 ratio sounds about right for me as well. I got my first key drop in months off a centaur the other day and was shocked. I don’t recall ever getting one from the daily, I’ve gotten a few from map completion.

I’m not really sure what to do with them, to be honest. My bank is already full of a bunch of account bound crap I can’t put anywhere else. I don’t use boosts and at one point I had half a row of BL salvaging kits it took me forever to use. At this point I’m basically just saving keys for the next holiday nifty they stuff into the chests.

I believe you can get them from map completion in many areas too.

Do your personal story quest, they get you a few keys from that. When you use a key on a chest there is about a 50% chance to get a key again, so they are kinda worth it.

Chickenshoes.6250:

I think you have a chance at getting one from the daily achievement reward, but I’m not sure. Anyway you can get most things that are in the actual chests that way. I have 4 Black Lion salvage kits sitting in my bank as well as portable banks, traders, merchants, and repair canisters.

Also far more basic transmute stones than I would like.

I got a black lion key once from a regular undead thrall in Orr. It was just layin there on the thrall layin on the floor. I actually didn’t entirely believe it happened but it did. I excitedly told everyone in map chat I got it and one guy replied “nobody cares.”

Hope he gets shot in WvW. That should be something that would turn heads. No one barely sees keys, and to get one drop is more “Wow!” inducing than getting a precursor to drop for you.

easily opened up 200+ black lion chests going for that endless mystery tonic
would not think something that can’t make you any money would be so rare

sitting on a ton of salvage kits, boosters, stones, 113 mystery tonics, got well over 3,000 guild influence, and after opening that many chests I had around 13 keys there is definitely NOT a 50% for another key

wish there was a mystic forge recipe for it like the toy tonics

In any case, if you’re going to be trying for any of the rare items in the chests I hope you’re a leprechaun with a whole lot of lucky charms
I hear the marshmallow horse shoes are the best

I’ve gotten a couple keys from opening up the chests themselves. And I’m a stickler for finishing areas, but rarely do I get a key from that. Maybe it’s just bad luck. And I have the same thing, tons of basic transmutation stones and mystery tonics, but nothing too good.

If you use a magic find booster, does this:
1. affect the contents of the chests?
2. affect the drop rate of keys? Or is it just for rarer items such as weapons/armor?

1. Magic find does not affect content of chest.
2. Changing drop rate of keys from 0.00000001% to 0.00000002% doesn’t make it any good.
3. The chest is overrated. opened 130. All I get is rubbish.

So you are trying to spend gold/time to get a chance to get MF booster to get a higher chance to get exotic/rare to salvage for ecto to sell for more gold?
seems like a bad business plan.

The only desirable items in the chest is Endless Mystery Tonic, Permanent Contracts.

Thanks Max. And well I’m just enjoying completing areas with all my characters, and gaining gold along the way. I’m not by any means rich, I’m just trying to save up to potentially get a Legendary down the line. So right now, one of the better solutions (in my mind) has been to just open up these chests and hope for the best. It’s just a way for me to potentially get something good (or help me get something good [using MF]) all the while saving up money.

Is it an incredible long shot? Probably. But one can still hope. If you don’t buy the BLK with gems, its a potential free way of getting a lot of gold. And I don’t just mean getting a permanent contract; I used the MF before in Fractals and every single drop I got was green/rare, plus tier 6 crafting materials. So selling 30-40 green weapons/armor to vendor for 1s+ and the tier 6 crafting materials landed me a lot of money just from using one MF. So in my eyes, a little help like that is worth it, and worth finding BLKs.

Max.4786:

……

The only desirable items in the chest is Endless Mystery Tonic, Permanent Contracts….

I’d add the salvage kits and the chance to get a minipack (should be possible to get one from them- haven’t seen any myself) to that list

I’ve gotten 2 BL salvage kits and a couple of the booster multipack if that’s what you’re talking about. I haven’t gotten the minipet pack thing though if that’s what you’re talking about. So you’re right, that’s definitely worth it Even though I haven’t used the BL salvage kits yet haha…

If you believe in statistics, you will know that the odds are not in your favor.

The path to being rich is to have a proper savings plan and not gamble on ridiculous odds.
Gambling is a leisure activity of the rich players.

To destroy your “hope”, read this.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest/Drop_rate

Why I didn’t list Black Lion Salvage Kit as desirable is because Master Salvage Kit out performs in the long term.
If you really need it to salvage extremely rare sigils (> 4g in value), then just spend 300 gem to get a set.

If you really want better loots, just eat more omnomberry bars http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Omnomberry_Bar

I would quote Han Solo and say “never tell me the odds” haha, but I do know the odds are not in my favor. It’s not my main form of trying to get money in guild wars, it’s almost like a little added bonus on the side. I’m not counting on this to get money for me. I just thought this was a nice addition on the side to try for (counting on getting black lion keys), which is why I was originally trying to figure out if there was any way of getting those easier. I’m not going to spend my money on the keys, so I’m not gambling on anything. If you got free lottery tickets in real life, wouldn’t you try to play the odds? That’s kind of my mentality with the BL chests.

And omnomberry bars are a good idea too, instead of relying on getting MF from the chests, thanks!

This game is incredible and frustrating … to have a chance to get a precursor i farm over and over in Orr .. im doing the Dragon fights Jormag/Shatterer/Tequalt whenever they are up only to get green or blue crap items and no BL Keys …. what dropped from a Ice imp for me yesterday in Frostgorge ? : a BL key … this is unbelievable …

I completed one of the hardiest jumping puzzle in southcove shore it took me one hour after several falls.. what was inside the grand chest ?? green and blue items no BL Keys …. proceeded to the champion wind rider after the puzzle .. killed the champion alone and opened the champion chest .. a blue item .. NO BL KEY.

There is no rewards in this game for hard accomplishments , no reward for actions that are really important… but you get one after you kill a ice imp.

one word : INCONSISTENCY

It’s the same thing with me. I completed some jumping puzzle, killed a giant champion destroyer troll by myself and I get blue crap.. Not even green! I did the same jumping puzzle to do what you’re talking about, I only got a couple green stuff too… Maybe we should go farm ice imps lol, I mean what if they incorporated the same thing in GW1 where you farm ice imps, you get icy dragon swords? But maybe for GW2 ice imps = black lion keys haha… It is pretty ridiculous though..

opened up another 90 chests
nothen
just wanna run around as an animal all day
or a ninja tree

“psst over here”
omg that tree is talking

hahaha that’s ridiculous. but how did you get 90 keys?

goldi.3129:

Max.4786:

……

The only desirable items in the chest is Endless Mystery Tonic, Permanent Contracts….

I’d add the salvage kits and the chance to get a minipack (should be possible to get one from them- haven’t seen any myself) to that list

I rarely open chests after I bought 5 keys one time and got nothing, determined it wasn’t worth it. But I did grab a spare key from something (probably alt doing storyline) and got a minipack out of it. Got a decent ghost minipet as my rare.

I got 25 keys during the Black Friday sale and also gained another 3 keys until Wintersday (was hoping there would be a BLC event, not a Wintersday Chest). When I noticed there wasn’t, I used them all (and due to a few lucky rolls and the double contract drop rate) got a Permanent Trading Post guy.

It’s fun to drop him in LA and have people run over only to QQ over an NPC they can’t use.

EDIT: And I bought those keys with gold, not gems. Been too poor to buy gems with cash for ages.

Rising Dusk.2408:

There are very few places to acquire them:
- Extremely rarely as a loot drop
- Gems purchased with gold (expensive in-game)
- Gems purchased with RL currency (cheap in-real-life)
- As a random drop from BL chests themselves (not feasible as you need a key to maybe get a key)

If they ever re-enable Lionguard Lyns, you may be able to get them with Captain’s Commendations in Lion’s Arch, though it is uncertain whether BL keys will still be available from her when/if she is re-enabled.

Fixed that for you.

I found that about 1 in 3 chests gives you a key, so the cost per chest is actually a bit lower.

I got a key from finishing Cursed Shore, and I just opened up 2 chests in a row and got keys out of both of them. I feel like its my lucky day lol. I’m also getting a lot of MFs which is fine by me!

I have got them farming the grenth event when it was glitched in the beging of the game i farmed the cannon spot and got 5 keys with only 150 mag find on in 4 hours, the kills were pirates on the shore lines , so i assume u can farm them from killing thing that have broken lock picks.