Harbinger League Mechanic Guide

Scaling Harbinger drops:

Extensive testing by players have shown that Harbinger drops do not scale with either player or area IIQ in any way whatsoever. This means that Harbingers will drop the same amount of rewards for someone with 0% IIQ on their map, as someone with 120% IIQ.

This has a number of implications. First, it means Harbingers are very profitable for low-investment Atlas strategies. Because all players get the same amount of loot per Harbinger, regardless of your level of investment, getting that amount of loot while having spent less currency on your map leads to increased overall profit.

Second, it means that effects that increase the number of Harbingers or Harbinger drops (from the Atlas, sextants, and Scarabs) are far more impactful – as those are the only source of increased Harbinger rewards.

Third, it means that Harbinger does not synergize very well with Atlas strategies that focus on increasing Area IIQ, as that investment will not scale Harbinger drops.

Notable Atlas Passives:

Ominous Arrival:

“Your Maps contain an additional Harbinger”

At only 3 Atlas passive points, and located near a number of other popular Atlas passives, this notable is incredibly powerful, and is a primary reason for Harbinger being such a popular league mechanic.

Getting a Harbinger in every single map you run – for free – is a ton of added value, for virtually no investment.

If you’re near this passive, it’s strongly recommended to take this notable, even if you have no further investment into Harbinger.

Unspeakable Offensive:

“Harbingers in your Maps have 60% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate
Currency Shards dropped by Harbingers in your Maps can drop as Currency Items instead”

This notable makes Harbingers significantly more deadly… but also makes them more rewarding!

While this passive can be dangerous early in a league, when you have a weaker character, it’s practically mandatory for stronger characters later on. Once you’re clearing maps at a breakneck speed, standing around waiting for Harbingers to spawn enemies becomes too time-consuming to be efficient for the rewards granted, and this notable fixes that problem!

First Wave:

“Harbingers in your Maps have 25% chance to be replaced by a powerful Harbinger boss”

King Harbingers drop more shards, and rarer types of shards. For anyone looking to invest in adding Harbingers to their map, this is effectively a mandatory passive.

Sextants:

“Map Bosses are accompanied by a mysterious Harbinger
Map Bosses drop additional Currency Shards
Harbingers in your Maps drop additional Currency Shards”

There is only a single Harbinger-related sextant modifier… but it is an obscenely powerful one. Not only does it increase the number of shards dropped by all Harbingers in your map, it also causes the map bosses to drop shards as though they, too, were Harbingers.

Of note – this causes all map bosses to drop shards. If run on a map that has 3 map bosses, then all 3 will drop currency shards. It even works on twinned bosses – if you run a map with the “Area contains two Unique Bosses”, it will double the number of Map Bosses, and they will all drop currency shards. This means if you get this modifier on a map with 3 map bosses, you will have 6 map bosses, all of which drop piles of currency shards.

This sextant is often quite expensive, however. In order to turn a profit, you will want to be running a map with 3 map bosses, as well as adding as many Harbingers as possible to your maps, to maximize the value of the “Harbingers in your Maps drop additional Currency Shards” modifier.

Scarabs:

Rusted Harbinger Scarab Polished Harbinger Scarab Gilded Harbinger Scarab Winged Harbinger Scarab

Harbinger can be added to maps through scarabs. Unlike some other scarabs, these have no additional effects beyond simply adding the Harbingers.

Prices will vary from league to league, however, generally Rusted Scarabs are almost always cheap enough to be profitable, even without other investment in Harbinger Atlas passives. Polished scarabs are usually profitable for players fully invested into Harbinger Atlas Passives, with Gilded and Winged Scarabs only being a profitable option for players pursuing High Investment strategies.

Kirac Atlas Device Mods:

During some leagues, a Harbinger modifier may be available as one of Kirac’s modifiers on the Atlas device, allowing you to spend Chaos Orbs to add a number of Harbingers to your map.

Other Sources of Harbinger:

The “Shadow Shaping” and “Shaping the Seas” Atlas passives can cause maps to drop with a Harbinger implicit “Area Contains 3 Additional Harbingers”.

While this is quite powerful, and stacks with all other effects that add Harbingers, the wide range of possible implicits makes it difficult to combine with other Harbinger strategies.

These maps can, however, be purchased from other players, if you’re looking to absolutely maximize the number of Harbingers in your maps.