Wheloon Prison backpack farming

[EllisDee37]

The Wheloon Prison wilderness area is the best source of backpacks for Tier 4 (heroic) Cultural collectables, and is a viable option for Tier 5 (epic) as well. Both runs are the same, with no fighting (invisi-run the whole way) but elementals might drop all the Tier 5s you need. Gargoyles no longer drop Tier 4 cultural, having been fixed at some point to drop Tier 2, so Wheloon is the clear winner for Tier 4 farming.

There are 20 backpacks total, but one is inaccessible under a pile of rocks. Of the 19 remaining, 17 lay on an efficient path. This guide lays out that path for the efficient 17 pulls in around 4:30. (That time can be improved.) There are also 3 cabinets for Arcane, but those just slow you down and Through a Mirror Darkly is a better Arcane farm anyway, so best to just stick to backpacks.

Here is a map of the path:



Here's video actually running it:



And finally, here's a printer-friendly version of the map, which is the same map but with inverted colors. Click to open, then right-click to save the image to your hard drive for printing with MS Paint.




EDIT: Some additional notes...


The two backpacks not in the mapped path are:

1) Just outside the Army of Shadow quest entrance along the northermost edge of the map. You have to open at least one, possibly two gates to get to it, both guarded by groups of mobs. So this one is definitely skippable.

2) Just a hair East of the center point of an imaginary line between "Q" and the shrine above it. This one should be reachable in a timely manner, but for the life of me I couldn't find a way to get there from "Q" so I just gave up on it. Looking again with fresh eyes, it's almost certainly inside the Oldstone Hall area, which is easily accessible if you head directly West from "N" using the short stone stairs to bypass the blockade. If so, grab it then head back to "N" and resume the path as drawn.


Looking at the video, it's 30 seconds between entering and exiting the bookstore ("J"), which holds one backpack. If you skip that one, the run in the video goes from 17 backpacks in 4:30 (16 seconds each) to 16 backpacks in 4:00 (15 seconds each), so it's probably better to just skip the bookstore entirely.

[SuperNiCd]

Simply fantastic! Thank you for this and the many things you do to help the rest of us!

[Ulfo]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to EllisDee37 again.

SSG must remake their lame forum rep system. Really.

[Saekee]

awesome!

[EllisDee37]

I added some additional notes to the end of the OP.

[cdbd3rd]

....

And finally, here's a printer-friendly version of the map, which is the same map but with inverted colors. Click to open, then right-click to save the image to your hard drive for printing with MS Paint.....

Gotta spread myself around a little more before i can tap this post.


Dorim would have been proud.

[sk3l3t0r]

Funny how I find this guide after starting to farm these recently... perfect timing!

Thank you again for all your contributions to the community, your crafting resources have been a great help making my melee gear sets from 1 - 30.

[Arctigis]

Is invis running still a thing? I had 18 months off the game and on return can no longer pull this off without
incurring red DA.

[EllisDee37]

Is invis running still a thing? I had 18 months off the game and on return can no longer pull this off without
incurring red DA.

Champions and reapers can see you, and then aggro everything around them, who in turn aggro everything around them, and so on.

However, neither champions nor reapers appear on normal, so you can still invisi-run on normal. Wilderness areas are coded as normal.

[generalfoley]

You're a saint

[Xanthrawl]

Champions and reapers can see you, and then aggro everything around them, who in turn aggro everything around them, and so on.

However, neither champions nor reapers appear on normal, so you can still invisi-run on normal. Wilderness areas are coded as normal.

Nice work Ellis!

It's also important to note that any kind of Aura will make invis running impossible, even if it does not deal damage it will alert mobs to your location.

[Cordovan]

Very useful tip this.

[FuzzyDuck81]

With the poison boobytraps, it's a good place to pick up magical trap parts too

[Drekisen]

Thank You!

[Fedora1]

Very useful tip this.

Prediction: U39 will now include several new barriers and gates to prevent speed running collectables.

[Niminae]

Prediction: U39 will now include several new barriers and gates to prevent speed running collectables.

Now why would they do that? I'm sure it's much easier to simply remove the collectables than to add barriers and gates.

[noinfo]

Prediction: U39 will now include several new barriers and gates to prevent speed running collectables.

It's pretty sad when I am thinking exactly the same thing: Your paths have been changed to no longer be optimal :-)

[Splunge]

Thanks for all your farming tips. I keep a printout of your spreadsheet for when I need to farm collectables.

I never found the one near Q that you don't farm. I'll have to take a look.

I take a slightly different route. I start with N/O/Q/P/A. I skip the indoor ones, but I get the one outside of Army of Shadow. After K, I run north and jump over the fence as far to the east as I can, so I don't have to fight anything or open any gates. I haven't farmed wheloon in a while, but it looks like your path could be better. I'll give it a try next time I'm in there.

There's also a backpack just to the east of L, but it's under the terrain, so you can't get it. I bug reported it a while ago, but we all know how that goes.

[Memnir]

I'll circle back later and give this the Rep it deserves when I can.

[Fedora1]

Now why would they do that? I'm sure it's much easier to simply remove the collectables than to add barriers and gates.

Because making new barriers and gates has a greater potential to introduce unintended bugs and consequences, like making a quest impossible to access. This is always the primary option when "fixing" things.