People keep yelling about map spam and gold going off the rails, but the real money isn't in chasing the same bulk trades as everyone else. I learnt that the hard way after nights of staring at listings and watching margins get squeezed. What finally clicked is that the high-end "processing" market is still half asleep, especially anything tied to the Temple of Atzoatl. If you want to play smart, you start thinking like a workshop owner, not a farmer, and you treat every exalted orb you spend as seed money for a bigger hit.

Why Double Corrupts Still Matter

The new gem setup makes six-links feel almost casual, sure, but the chase didn't vanish—it moved. Level 21/23 gems, clean Vaal implicits, weird niche outcomes people actually pay for… that's still brutal. And that's why a functional Locus of Corruption is so valuable. You're not selling "a run". You're selling a lottery ticket with better odds than most players can set up. Misses happen. Bricks happen. But even a so-so result on the right base can jump from "meh" to "why is this so expensive" in a heartbeat.

Room Planning Is the Whole Game

A lot of folks tunnel-vision on upgrading the Corruption room and forget the boring part: the path. Connectivity is everything. If you mess the layout and can't reach the Omnitect, you've basically lit value on fire. That boss isn't just a checkbox; it's where your Vaal splinters and follow-up crafting momentum come from. I plan my swaps like this: 1) keep the Omnitect route alive, 2) push upgrades where they won't block me later, 3) only gamble on risky connections when the temple's already stable. Do it the other way round and you'll feel it immediately.

Atlas Setup and Run Tempo

Your Atlas points should support speed and control, not vibes. Time Dilation is huge when the temple layout fights back and you need more clock to salvage a run. Contested Development is the real engine, though. It's the difference between slowly "hoping" for a T3 room and actually cycling upgrades at a pace that makes the strategy worth doing. Once that's online, you stop treating maps like full clears. Mobs are just batteries for time. Check the layout, rush the Architect, make the decision, and leave. The variance is real, so don't spiral after a bad corrupt—one big double hit can cover a whole streak of misses.

Capital, Risk, and Staying Sane

This isn't a zero-budget trick, and pretending it is will just tilt you. You need scarabs, you need decent item level bases, and you need the nerve to watch a good piece turn to dust sometimes. If you're short on starting funds and don't want to spend your week scraping together pennies, some players choose to top up and get straight to the temple loop; that's where a site like U4GM comes up in chat, since it's used for buying game currency or items so you can skip the slow part and focus on the high-variance payoffs.