there were multiple ways to focus farm items, like 6× pskull rerolls or the charsi imbue bug that let you spam or roll back the quest without even leaving the game (private h4ck)
several public and private methods did similar things, but when you really look closely, there is evidence that a really different method known by very few was out there. we can even infer what it was and what its limitations were by looking at what that method made available to us. i’m talking about the method that imported all those rare diadems and rings in multiple permanent copies that share identical names and stats but have different base/gfx or defenses. people often say it’s rollback cube rerolling or charsi abuse, but that only explains the single copy rares, not what we usually refer to as imported rares. how do you (first) “imbue” a ring at charsi, (second) somehow make it spawn six identical copies, and (third) have those copies carry the same name but different gfx? lmao paput’s imported rings really shed light on the whole debate
this suggests some in game exploit that could generate items with identical stats. it’s not a dupe at all because there’s no way to create a permanent dupe of an item or make an unperm item become perm; if that were possible we’d have clear evidence. have you ever seen a fresh batch of perm 1.08 valks after 1.08? or new batches of perm btals? never
so they must have been able to generate items that the game itself could have dropped at the time, not weird imported items like btals or hex charms. in fact, those early import exploits weren’t seen again after they were patched; we didn’t get new imported items afterward. it had to be something generated by the game or server itself. like i said, it’s not duping and it’s not importing, otherwise we would have clear proof in other stocks showing people literally importing permanent fresh items into the server. that isn’t the case. the only things that exploit gave us are those unexplainable rares ring/diadems that have exact copies and names, and yet they 100 percent respect the game’s possible stat ranges. no cube or rollback method can reproduce all that, let me know when you reroll exactly the same stat combination and name on two diadems. these guys made 10 plus copies of each of their top end rings or diadems
this all happened before the nith dupe method went public. between 2012 and 2017, hackers were even able to import non ladder items to ladder during resets. we had nl unperm valks, fletchs, and btals on ladder east (all of which eventually poofed on reset, since they were unperm copies transferred to ladder, this also how we had a zbug last wish made... zbug was patched for a long time, all the zbugged items were in nl, then suddently you get a ladder only runeword in a long time patched zbug item.... xD). looking back at what was publicly discussed on blizzh*cker between 2002 and 2017 helps connect the dots
eth rare weapons can’t be cubed, so these weren’t cube rerolls, they came from server manipulation. hackers usually exploit in game systems in ways developers didn’t intend. think about quest rewards that give free items, rings from akara or gibdin, items from anya or charsi. maybe they found a way to manipulate those quests to make them drop the same items endlessly. or maybe they corrupted save files between nl and ladder, joining ladder games with a non ladder character that could use a quest that never marked completed because the save file didn’t exist on the ladder side
i’m speculating, but if we look at which items exist in multiple copies, rings and diadems, it’s clear there’s no crafting involved. why? isn’t crafting also done with the cube? why would they be able to permanently duplicate rares from a supposed cube rerolling method but not do the same with other cube based creations? see where i’m going?
think about mechanics, what happens if you dupe a magic item and then socket it with larzuk, getting 1 os on the first duped claw, does the second have a chance to roll 2 os, or is the socket outcome determined when the item originally dropped? what if they found a way to dupe white items (white items stay perm when duped) and make charsi’s outcome deterministic, allowing multiple permanent copies? that might explain multiple perm copies with identical stats… but it still doesn’t explain how they apparently produced circlet versions of top diadems like beast visage. from what i know, duplicating a white diadem should yield another white diadem, not a circlet
so did they really find a way to make the game vomit the items they wanted, with the stats they wanted, while leaving rng for defense, gfx, and base type partially intact? the only logical fit is the quest reward systems, those give perm rares. if it had been something else, we’d have seen perm duped crafted items or new batches of perm 1.08 valks, but no, we only have rare items, specifically diadems and rings
if you really want to figure it out, go full sherlock, gather evidence, item names, timestamps, copy counts, server or ladder context, and cross check that against public leaks from 2002 to 2017. see what holds up without breaking common sense
D2