Quote

If you look inside the treasureclassex.txt file and look at any Champion or Unique main Treasure Class, you can see that they are always assigned in the same order: Act3-Act4-Act5-Act2-Act1. Act 3 Shard TC is assigned to monsters level 63-68, Act 4 Shard TC is assigned to monsters level 69-72… Act 1 Shard TC is assigned to monsters level 81-85.

Out of 130 areas in the game, 91 areas have Elite monsters with level 81 and above. Which means most Elite monsters will be dropping their Shards from Act 1 Shard TC. The problem is even worse in Terror Zones. When your character is at least level 76, every Elite you found in Terror Zone will be level 81+ and will be dropping their Shards from Act 1 Shard TC.

Act 3 Shard TC will hardly be used since only Elite monsters that will have that Treasure Class will be Elites in nonTZ Blood Moor. Almost all of Worldstone Shards will be coming from Act 1 Shard Treasure Class which means the ratio of Shards you can get will always be 5-3-2-2-1

The only way to force Northern Shard drop is to farm nonTZ Catacombs and Jail. With the current Shard drop ratio, you can Terrorize Act 1 five times more often than Act 5. Something to keep in mind when planning to Terrorize the whole game. If you are spending all your time hunting for Heralds in Terror Zones, you will still be getting Shards in this ratio. If you clear the whole TZ game 10 times over, your will have 28 - Act 1 shards, 16.8 - Act 2 shards, 11.2 - Act 3 shards, 11.2 - Act 4 shards, and 5.6 - Act 5 shards

Quote (IMCL85 @ 8 Mar 2026 23:28)

rng, got bunch of act 1 and 2 shard. very few act 3 - 5

Quote (unitedcows @ 8 Mar 2026 18:54)

Not RNG. Shards drop at different rates based on monster level.

More details from Reddit:

Quote (Dex3 @ 8 Mar 2026 23:58)

this cant be true... im still getting some notheren, deep in 96 lvl areas.. so.. or do i understand it wrong?

Quote (unitedcows @ Mar 9 2026 01:35am)

Tldr: When the monster level is higher than 81, the Act 1 shard TC is chosen. It drops shards in the ratio 5:3:2:2:1, corresponding to each act in order. So A5 shards will still drop but at a much lower rate than a1.

Conversely, if you want to flip the odds, you have to farm non tz catacombs and jail, where you'll get northern as the most common drop and other shards will be rarer.

Quote (Azomon @ 9 Mar 2026 00:17)

Pretty stupid way to spread the odds if you ask me

Thx for the intel tho! Very useful

Quote

And a5 shards are mandatory if you want to effectively farm sunders, which means you have to either waste time farming non tz jail or pay out the nose for them.