Reimaging Simple Features (Shrines, Chests, etc.)

Things like shrines and chests have been in the ARPG genre since the beginning, but they really haven't seen much development whatsoever.

I feel like there's ways to make these everyday mechanics something more interesting without very much effort whatsoever.

Shrines

Currently, shrines seem like an afterthought in basically every ARPG; PoE2 included. Getting a buff is kind of just... whatever.

Here's how I would reimagine them:

You find a shrine, covered in gold, trinkets, and valuables. When you click on the shrine, you're prompted to donate gold to the gods of wealth, riches, whatever.

The more gold you donate, the greater chance of various things occurring:

Common: A rare item dropping from the shrine after donating.
Common: A currency item dropping from the shrine after donating.
Common: The shrine giving you a buff, like increased gold find, magic find, etc.

Uncommon: A treasure spirit spawning, similar to a "treasure goblin/lizard" we see in other titles. There are multiple types, dropping different types of items (gold, currency, weapons, armor, rings, etc.). He runs around spitting out items as you hit him, until he dies and drops a lot of items.

These spirits also have a chance to drop a special coin, which you can put into a shrine to summon one of the gods of wealth themselves, a pseudo-boss fight. Perhaps they summon into the zone itself or it opens a portal to the "realm of riches" or something, where you attempt to defeat them.


Chests

Chests are currently pretty underwhelming. It should feel exciting when finding a chest, but it rarely is.

Why not make chests less common, always "special" (not having white, blue, and yellow rarity modifiers), and add some gameplay to them. They have much better chances of having good loot or are guaranteed/have a high chance to contain something specific, but they're locked.

"Chest contains additional currency." "Chest contains a unique item." Etc.

Throughout the map, if there is a chest, there is a corresponding key, that can be hidden inside destructibles (jars, stumps, etc. things we already see in zones) or carried by a "keyholder", an exceptionally strong rare monster.

You find the key, open the chest, and get the loot.