When to switch difficulties?

[Captain Butthurt]

So I've just finished the base content on Normal + Veteran, and I'm now ready to take on the Malmouth and Forgotten Gods content with the same character. But now I have access to Elite difficulty.

So, what is the recommended course of action here? Do I change to Elite immediately? I believe I can do so relatively painlessly, as almost all of my resistances are overcapped (a PoE habit, lol), and currently I am a lvl 60 Cabalist who didn't have any trouble killing the boss in the Necropolis.
Do I wait for a better moment? If yes, what should I wait for before I switch difficulty?

Since we're talking about difficulties, how do I unlock Ultimate difficulty? The tooltip says that I have to beat the game on Elite, but I cannot create a new character on Elite difficulty, and I have already beaten the game on my current character, so I probably cannot unlock Ultimate with him.
I am aware of the special item I can buy in the FG expansion for my new character to switch difficulty post-creation, so I'm just wondering if that is the only way (starting a new char in the Elite difficulty).

Speaking about completing the game on Elite \ Ultimate difficulties, at which point do I have to switch difficulty on my new character to get corresponding achievements? Theoretically, I can just breeze through the game on Normal+Veteran or Elite, gain levels fast with those extra EXP potions and grind relations with Mandates, juice up my resistances and then switch to Ultimate literally just before the final boss.


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TL:DR
Just completed the base game (still AoM and FG ahead), unlocked Elite, wondering when to switch to Elite and how to unlock Ultimate difficulty for my current and \ or 2nd character.

Sorry if the text is a bit messy, this stuff seems really clunky to me.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

you unlock Ultimate ehwn you beat base game Elite, with that char -difficulty settings are per char, you don't create a "new on ultimate", you just keep going with the same; new toons then will always be created for Normal/Veteran
then on alternate chars you can send merit, which will enable them to go to Elite/Ultimate without having to beat the game, but your first char have to beat Elite itself

usually the recommended route is to do base game, AoM and FG, then Elite. however, depending on how fast you leveled, you can run into have exceeded the lvl cap in certain zones on Elite if you did base+AoM+FG, which will mean reduced XP for a while on Elite as you don't get xp for being too higher lvl than monsters you kill in overleveled zones; you still get xp for quests tho
if you already plan on playing to ultimate, on your first char, i'd almost say jump to elite now and wait with AoM and FG for Elite, that way you shouldfn't run into the issue of being overleveled for Elite, and then you can skip quick to Ultimate too
Ofc that would mean waiting a bit with the story, if you can hang on for that long

then on subsquent chars, my recommendation would be to, buy Ultimate Merit for alt, do base+AoM+FG on normal/Veteran on alts, then skip straight to Ultimate after, skipping Elite entirely, since specially if you use xp potions on alts, you will be massively overleveled for most if not all zones on Elite having done "full game" on normal/veteran

^hope it makes sense

[Quiximo]

There's really no wrong answer, play however you enjoy it. If you like the story, stick to the difficulty you're on. There's plenty of time to speed run and min max later.

If you want to jump difficulties early though, I'd do it after you get to the Coven. That'll cut down on your rep grinds later since you'll passively earn rep killing various monsters. You have to be in Malmouth for Malmouth rewards, so that's less of a loss, similar to the FG reps.

[Captain Butthurt]

I seem to be missing some key info.
I have beaten the base game on Normal+Veteran.

Unlocking Ultimate difficulty requires you to beat the game on Elite with the same character (character that just killed the final boss and cleared the game on Normal+Vet).

So, my question is - does the story reset when you choose Elite difficulty in the main menu? I'm too terrified to check myself because if it does I'll be forced to skip AoM and FG content.

Damn, devs really should work on explaining this system more.

[Quiximo]

I won't presume to tell the devs what they should be doing, but I will say that this system is nearly two decades old and that information is abundant if you care to look.

[Filthy Peasant]

Your progress stays the same on normal + veteran. On elite and ultimate you start from the beginning.

If you switch to ultimate later on, your will keep your progress on elite.

Keep in mind: there are quest which will provide skill points. It's in your interest to do them on every difficulty. Later when you get merits to unlock higher difficulties with new characters, this is not needed as it unlocks them on lower difficulties.

[Gregor]

Originally posted by Captain Butthurt:

I seem to be missing some key info.
I have beaten the base game on Normal+Veteran.

Unlocking Ultimate difficulty requires you to beat the game on Elite with the same character (character that just killed the final boss and cleared the game on Normal+Vet).

So, my question is - does the story reset when you choose Elite difficulty in the main menu? I'm too terrified to check myself because if it does I'll be forced to skip AoM and FG content.

Damn, devs really should work on explaining this system more.

It's like starting on Normal, just that your character got all the progress it had on Normal saved, so lv and reputation is carried over, Rifts and Questprogress is not.

[Captain Butthurt]

Thanks for clearing a lot of stuff!

Believe it or not, the intricacies of difficulty system are not explained properly in the wikis and popular guides. And I didn't feel like diving into Reddit rabbithole to dig up this basic info.

One last question - will I be able to buy merits if I reach the corresponding vendor on Normal + Veteran? So that I could skip the Elite difficulty on my current character and start any consecutive chars on Ultimate.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

to get merit, you need a character that has defeated Warden on the respective difficulty you wish to unlock
so for elite merit you need to beat Warden on Elite with your char, for UItimate merit you need to beat warden on Ultimate before you can buy it and send to alts

[powbam]

Originally posted by Captain Butthurt:

Thanks for clearing a lot of stuff!

Believe it or not, the intricacies of difficulty system are not explained properly in the wikis and popular guides. And I didn't feel like diving into Reddit rabbithole to dig up this basic info.

One last question - will I be able to buy merits if I reach the corresponding vendor on Normal + Veteran? So that I could skip the Elite difficulty on my current character and start any consecutive chars on Ultimate.

There is an official Game Guide here..
https://www.grimdawn.com/guide/

and it has a section that discusses the difficulties briefly.
https://www.grimdawn.com/guide/game-settings/game-difficulties/

The Official GD Wiki also has a section covering the topic..
https://grimdawn.gamepedia.com/Difficulty

[Captain Butthurt]

True, but those simply state that merits and different difficulties exist. Duh.

What these sources of information fail to describe is how exactly one switches to another difficulty and how this decision at the end of vanilla campaign impact DLC content (along with other details like being unable to skip Elite difficulty on your very first character, etc).

So all these wikis and guides are not that helpful in this particular matter.

[powbam]

Originally posted by Captain Butthurt:

True, but those simply state that merits and different difficulties exist. Duh.

What these sources of information fail to describe is how exactly one switches to another difficulty and how this decision at the end of vanilla campaign impact DLC content (along with other details like being unable to skip Elite difficulty on your very first character, etc).

So all these wikis and guides are not that helpful in this particular matter.

The wiki and the Game Guide both spell it out quite clearly that you need to beat the final boss on each difficulty in order to access the next difficulty in turn. The ability to get merits to skip difficulties on subsequent characters is barely a year old - this feature came with the release of FG.

Difficulty Merits: https://www.grimdawn.com/guide/about/forgotten-gods/#q07
and again..
https://grimdawn.gamepedia.com/Difficulty#Difficulty_Merits

The question of whether or not to continue on with the DLC content on lower difficulties is a personal choice. As for "how" one switches I can understand how it might not be the most clear on that topic but nothing that some light browsing of your Main Menu options wouldn't reveal.