This marks going several times deeper than I ever have in delve in any league. There were moments where I thought I had done good enough and was going to call it quits. I however would then log back in and press on just a little further.

There was that range of 800 to 900 depth where I had just gotten yet another upgrade. I would not say things felt easy. They were however at least possible again. There did start to be some nodes I'd start to dread being in my path that I would rather skip around if I could.

At depth 840 I had found once again a city that has a chance at unusual chests. It was however quite bad luck that there were only two nodes in that city. Nothing insane was looted in there either.

I must have lucked out that one time when I was getting Divine Orbs out of looting chests. It was not even worth looting anything inside since I did not need anything that dropped. I did dart around a bit in each of the city chambers before quickly making it back to the top to go further down.

It had been ages since I cleared any of the darkness looking for loot. At this point, I was more or less broke again. Only a couple of Divine Orbs in the bank and I just needed a break from trying to push further on.

I always find this to be a relaxing activity. While it’s not as rewarding as finding clusters of fossil nodes to go after. I would at least end up looting a couple of Divine Orbs' worth of fossils, currencies, and resonators from doing so.

It however kept nagging in the back of my mind that I should keep pushing towards 1k depth and not taking a break from doing so. After about a screenshot's worth of nodes I'd run around clearing any fractured walls I could find. I’d go and gain another ten or twenty depths.

Then I'd kind of get tired of it. I’d attempt to go back to clearing the darkness once again. Just after only a few dozen nodes later not shake off that feeling. So, I'd go back to pushing a little further down and then log out for the day.

It was at this point I got rather tired of Delve. I had several 50-to-100-hour weeks of going after this goal quite hard. I was more than burnt out at this rate. Tired of trying to juggle too much and make time to reach this goal.

I then hit depth 900 and found quite a few fossil nodes to go after. Along with quite a giant city that I ran alongside. Many people looking to quickly clear and go deeper just hit up city nodes but don’t enter into them to quickly save time and get some easy depth. That always felt like a waste.

It is also kind of alarming just how many city nodes I have waiting for some moment for me to return to and quickly clear out. They have been among many things I've just been ignoring up to this point. The loot in them is usually not that great unless they have a special modifier on them anyway.

Once I crossed past depth 900 it felt like the difficulty setting had been cranked up to another level. I was starting to get killed a lot again. I was starting to regret going anywhere near quite a few different nodes.

At least one node I loved to hit and could still clear with ease. While also selling the fossils that dropped from it were Crystal Spires. I ended up finding a few of these along the way. Along with this back-to-back spot of them.

Then I hit a bad situation. There was a spot that required long travel between nodes. While that can be a great way to gain a few depths quickly. It had a high sulfate cost at every attempt. I ended up failing to clear that node six times before giving up.

I did not want to give up as I could tell by the map it was going to be a rather nasty amount of time and sulfate spent getting around that node. As there were quite a few dead ends. Making it even worse the direction I wanted to go in was also a dead end.

This was just how insane things were getting. 50% pack size, 50% increase in damage on top of increased attack speed, casting speed, and extra types of damage. Add in some chaos resistance which is the type of damage I deal. These creatures at least in one area alone were just nasty.

For a while, my only motivation stopped being reaching 1k depth. It was just to get as many Chaos Orbs from selling my loot so I could fully gear out a new alt and go do something else at some point in the game.

At the time I did not even have any idea what kind of character I was going to make next let alone even working on leveling it up. Prices were also starting to crash across the board from Divine Orbs costing a lot less than Chaos Orbs; along with all the fossils dropping in price as well.

It seems we were entering into the part of the league where the player's daily maximum count was starting to dwindle quite a lot. You also had so many players locked into the last things they had planned to do for this league. It was not unexpected to happen as like any ARPG that has leagues or sessions you tend to see this happen after these many days in.

At around the 950 depth any stage III azurite fissure node would be a tossup if I could even clear them. You can also see in this instance if I failed to overcome it. I could not simply just go left or right around the same depth. I would have to go quite far up and clear over this entire section to find another path down.

I ended up failing this node a couple of times before being able to beat it. In the back of my mind, I was almost certain I was going to be going the long way around just to skip around it.

I lost count of how many times my screen was just looking like this. I would just keep getting killed. On quite a few nodes as I killed the final creature for the node to be completed, I'd get killed. Meaning, any loot that dropped I now lost. As once you return it’s all gone as a new instance is opened up.

While in those moments I was just relieved I was able to push a little further on. They also just sucked so much. I would quickly hit the resurrect button not wanting to see or hear anything amazing drop. I did not want to know that I was just seconds away from missing out on looting because I got killed right as I defeated the node.

Quite a few times I'd just need to log out for a while. I’d burn so much sulfate just trying to get a little deeper in Delve. My progress had slowed down so much that it sometimes felt like I did not make any headway for the hours spent.

It then finally happened. I hit a node I could not clear. I’d have to go the long way around to go after it. I ended up going west instead of east as I could tell that one side at least had a high-value fossil node for me to go after.

I would end up having to go 14 nodes around just to end up one node below the spot I could not clear. This was quite infuriating at the very least. Even more so once I realized as the map cleared around that area that there was a dead end nearby that had some long sideways paths I'd have to take. Wasting even more will I had remaining to attempt my goal to go on.

With every single depth I was gaining in Delve, it felt like this would be as far as I could get. This would be the end. There were quite a few breaks over many days for the last remaining bit.

By depth 980 most of my attempts to go any deeper resulted in getting killed. I had hit one rather nasty stage III azurite fissure that had a 50% increase in rare creatures. You can see just all the yellow rarity creatures that had taken me out.

It was so late at night I don’t even recall how I did it. All I knew was it would be a nightmare to go around this node if I could not get past it. I had burned quite a lot of sulphate attempting it over and over again. Sometimes I'd get killed just trying to get to the node itself. Adding further insult to me.

I then got a small lucky break. I had a couple of depths pass right through a city. All I had to do was make it to the end of each node and click to activate the cites. It would not matter if I went into each one or was killed seconds later. That would count and I could progress further down. That got me down to 994.

Just as good one of the next nodes I'd end up needing to do would be considered finished once my crawler reached the end. That ended up being a good thing as well as I died seconds later. I however did not care about not getting the loot any longer. I was so close to reaching 1k depth.

Final Thoughts

Then I was in range. The next node I needed was 1,000. Even better yet this was one of those where all the crawler needed to do was reach the end. I’d have 1k depth locked in if I just made it.

It was also an easy one. No crazy modifiers that would end up getting me killed a few times. I even had enough sulfate to attempt it a few times before needing to get more. That all was not needed.

Once I had it in the bag I went back to the surface of Delve and logged out of Path of Exile. I took a few days' break from the game. I was not even sure at the time if I wanted to play any longer in the current league.

It was not till days later when it finally washed over me that I had reached 1k depth and I could take some pride in doing so. The furthest I ever plan on getting for quite a long time.

While I might enter Delve after a short break from Path of Exile. It won’t be anywhere near the 1k depth. I might go to around 700 and find something worthwhile to farm to get some more currency. That is if I plan on making another character in this league and doing other stuff.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Path Of Exile.