But then I wound up running in circles for a bit trying to find Adria, aaaand that’s all it takes. On my ‘best’ run, I think it was mostly Adria who caused me to fail - I guessed the configuration of Aranea’s cave correctly, got lucky on the path to Ghom, and the path to the Butcher was at least not noticeably difficult. For that matter, depending on your luck, even the right path may be a long and winding one that will waste a bunch of your time! Some are easy, sure, since the path to them is ‘set’, but others have a random dungeon you need to navigate… Queen Aranea, The Butcher, Adria, Ghom, and several others have maps that you can wind up wasting many a precious second in if you don’t get lucky and find the right path immediately. That’s what I did, too, but the problem just is GETTING to each boss in time, even going hell for leather. Well, that’s why I jumped into the season with a good buddy by my side! …only for him to flake out on me before we’d even hit 70. I thought I’d be able pull it off since I’m playing a Monk this season, which provides me with a pletora of speed-enhancing abilities, but both options genuinely seems to be the next best thing to impossible running solo.

I’m not sure how I can possibly shave more than mere seconds off my time on either count. Try as I might, I can’t get my Rift Clear below 4 minutes, and my best attempt at the 20 minutes boss-rush came in one boss shy. But now… all that’s left is the set-dungeon Conquest, which would require me to grind up an entirely separate character, and the two speedrun-Conquests. 50 million gold streak? Laughably easy with a fully-upgraded BotH and a spare Bovine Bardiche. Level 75 Greater Rift? Child’s play, I’m doing 90 easily. I’m almost done with my seasonal journey… all I’m really missing is that damnable third conquest.

Diablo 3 season 23 conquests