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also, here is a screenshot of winning Gladiator (the hardest if I remember correctly, it was a few months ago) mode of Crucible on Grim Dawn in steam screenshots, which is pretty hard and rare, I believe, just to show I'm not full of it, in general: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1109634650
A few videos on youtube helped expand my mind about strategies, like how to pull apart Llengrath and the bog dragons. I actually didn't use many of the strategies in various videos, but it helped (seeing a cipher beat the alpine dragon, seeing a rogue beat Llengrath, seeing a wizard do Llengrath). Ask me about a particular fight, I'll tell you how I did it. I wish I had video but with GOG I don't know an easy way to film it. I have camtasia I can try sometime, but it might be slow on my comp, not sure.
In general, if you know your way past a few of the hard parts, and if you have a chanter with very high defense and hit points, pretty much every fight is safe or at least relatively safe.
Stealth 7 is the safe value to sneak past them and also past the spiders down in the prison area. Using the Animat figurine is obvious not only in this situation. The forced talking to the stewart would be a real problem otherwise. And trying to fight the spirits using scrolls or such is too risky.
Uh, come on, "all others" and "fairly easy" sounds too much like bragging.
One doesn't do all battles in this game, if solo. Some are simply too dangerous, such as the druids/chanters in the Elmshore cave. And if you find ways to level up elsewhere, why return and take the risk? Undead Raedric is also highly dangerous, because it's one of the fights that doesn't end before completed, and split-pulling possibilities are severly limited for that fight. Baelsyr, optional, but high risk to fight him. Uariki and the animated weapons: very tough. There are more that are much more dangerous than Llengrath and the dragons.
Trying to explain, not brag (see below). And I meant to mean all fights necessary for Ultimate, not killing all actual mobs in the game. Regarding quiting out as you mentioned, yes I was aware of that method, but happened to not have needed it; I did the run clean, but of course I have no proof of that. But this thread isn't about convincing anybody who doesn't want to believe it; it is about answering questions that people might have to do ultimate, or just to win fights solo. I also did a Triple Crown Solo run with a monk 2 weeks back (no dragons or kraken) and also didn't need to quit out, not because I am so great, but because monks can do it fairly easily if you know the fights reasonably well. I used vampiric weapons and torment's reach and good armor for that, and ditched Int.
For example of "fairly easy," take the Raedric fight. Be around lvl 12 atl least. Go into it with a hatchet and extraordinary-enchanted medium shield (Redfield shield and Hearth Harvest hatchet but neither is necessary, really), sing Reflex chant, Dragon Thrashed, and Winds of Death, quaff a LLengraths image potion. Talents like Ancient Memory, Weapon and Shield, Superior Defl, Snakes Reflexes, and use the pirate hat for immune to charm. Use a Moonwell scroll if you wish. Start the fight and just run into the lower right corner of the upper plaform and fight everybody at once. Invoke Two Fingers of Daylight (immune to fear and a bit of healing). You'll crush the fight easily, hardly going beneath 90% endurance, and losing very little health. That is what I mean by fairly easy. And since you win by so much, if you are missing some parts of that, you can still win. I did do that fight in my Ultimate run, because it is my preferred armor. I did it around lvl 13, I believe.
I also did the druid/chanter fight in Elm's reach cave, because I like Berath's boon best. I believe I was also around lvl 13 or so (I've done it with a chanter multiple times in other non-ironman runs as well, and they blur together), but I may have been 16 for ironman. The principle is you start fighting at the entrance, so you can escape or kite easily. If you see Maggots being cast, always move. Kill the Keeper patrolling to the north before pulling the 2 chanters, other keeper, and 2 elementals. You can kill that final group (prior to the archdruid) all at once if there is one keeper, or you can try to split it. Ogres and Dragon Thrashed are very strong, and with a hatchet and shield and many defensive feats (you don't even need weapon focus peasant or anything, but I do take Gallant's focus), with very high endurance, resolve, and perception, your offense and defense are excellent. (You can ditch dex and have mediocre str and int.)
For the Archdruid, the big thing is that he is not aggro'ed until he is alone, or else he can glitch out and chase you all the way to the entrance, and Sunlance you from miles away. Once you kill all of that group below him, run up and attack him with Shades, which hit him consistently and blind him, reducing his accuracy. Stand near him with Dragon Thrashed and whack with the most damaging 1-h weapon you have, such as the Resolution sabre, or the axe that knocks prone might be wise, but I didn't think of that at the time. That tends to kill him all at once, but if you have issues, just have ogres fight him, drink a Llengrath's and maybe a Heavy Recovery potion if he does his lightning storm, and also that helps keep from a crit or even hit from Sunlance.
I didn't fight Uraki, but he is quite doable with the Rymgard's mantle and Stag Helm (immune to stuck is the main key to that fight).
I do agree that each fight you mentioned is truly hard without foreknowledge and without certain character builds, and each has killed me at least twice, with other characters and before I understood them well.
Other than dragons, actually it is the fights with Adragans that worry me most.
Odd about the 7 sneak; I've done Caed Nua with 5 sneak several times, and I'm not that great with sneaking, as a player. I've never played a high-sneak character.
10 str, 3 Dex, max End, Per, Res, 12 int. you can probably lose a couple pts of str if you want to fully max one of those 3 stats. (Much later I spec to around 7-9 base dex for the mine cart and Abbey grappling hook, and 12-14 str for Steadfast. You can keep those stats to beat the Dragons with the bow, doesn't matter much.)
Pick the region based on armor. The one with the sabre and small shield and brigandine is what I choose.
Winds of Death and Running/Reflex chant and Phantom invocation, of course, at start. Bold chant next.
You are going for 2 sneak, 1 ath, 1 survival, and 6 mech by lvl 4. Ancient memory at lvl 2 and Weapon/Shield at lvl 4. (In the future, take all defense/saves feats, including body control, plus Gallant's Focus. Order doesn't matter much, but Snake's Reflex can come at 16 and body control is good early-ish. Cautious attack is good until you start using Mirror Image and Llengraths Image in mid-late game, then they don't stack so get rid of it.)
Look the hidden pistol in the tent in the tutorial before clicking on the waterskin, sell everything except your sabre (given to Calisca) and your shield, including her scale armor. I have the pre-sale ring that sells for 1400 to Heodan, otherwise you may have to kill some NPC's later for money to compensate.
Wait on the traps in Cialant Lis to yo them solo. Clear out the oozes and skuldrs with your friends. So them right after you get to lvl 2 (and get 3 mech) and rest. Equip hatchet and medium or small shield.
In valewood, free the dwarf cook - phantom makes it no problem. Then head to town. Don't rest until I specify, because of random loot tables.
On Day 20, which should have a couple of hours left in it. Save and reload to start [non]random item spawning. Lvl to 3 from talking to the innkeeper, Get Rymgard's mantle from the chest on 2nd floor. Do the Against the Grain quest, look the grappling hook from the house northwest of the armory.
Go to valewood, kill wolves by sneaking and shooting the wolf with crossbow, switching to shield, standing north of the wolves at the archway so 2 young wolves attack you, and send your phantom after the adult wolf. Loot gloves. You can loot the random drop place, etc. for an item to sell.
Go to Magran's fork, careful not to aggro the boars in the middle-west. Loot the house, don't fight the will-o-wisp, reveal Black Meadow, sneak south-west to the adra stonehenge thing, look the corpse for greatsword (day 1) to sell, then kill the troll (again, phantom makes it no problem) in the middle south and loot the corpse for healing amp amulet to sell. Reveal Anslog's Compass, go to Black Meadow.
Kill troll near the path if you want, or do it later if you need exp, which will be tight to get to lvl 5 w/o fighting the bears in Valewood cave, which is somewhat risky. Loot the dragon head to the NE of the that early troll. Sneak down to the west of stream, don't aggro wights, loot the tent and bow in corpse in middle south, reveal Bridge on main map, sneak back west of stream north, sneak and loot the Armory's stuff from bandits (see a youtube video of a rogue speedrun if you don't know how), and loot the alter near the Shamblers in northeast, then go to Esternwood. It should be Day 2.
Reveal Raedric's Hold via the path to east, then loot the two celerys north of the path, careful with the first one that is near-ish to spiders. Follow the path to the west, go up to the graveyard, and sneak and get the Arbalest from the corpse and ring of protection and dagger from hidden brick in crypt. Equip the ring.
Go to Guilded Vale, visit armory, sell most everything but obvious stuff you want (keep arbalest). Buy the bronze horn and equip.
Still day 2, go to Gilded Vale temple down the steps in the ruins. Equip arbalest as your ranged weapon and enchant it with burning. Go west to clear the room with spiders there, not the big long room with spiders to the NE. The spiders won't attack as a group. Kill them one at a time with arbelest shot from afar, run back, switch to shield, kill with phantom. Ignore the final two spiders in the SW corner, sneak past, open the hidden panel with the hidden candlestick. Still Day 2, loot the trapped box that will have a +15 health amulet. Kill the two young skuldrs if you want, especially if you don't yet have an ear. A wizard's double potion can be helpful in your quickbar, such as against oozes.
Equip Rymgard's Mantle, go downstairs by ringing bell, right, middle, left, right.
Shoot shadows with arbalest then finish them with shadows. go to room with 3 shadows and chest and sarc, clear it out usual way, shoot phantom from afar, switch to shield, run to try to just have one, but either way your phantom will make it easy. DON'T loot the chest until Day 3, when it will be ring of defl. When you loot it, equip it. Rest when you need to, probably just one more time, maybe 2, before finishing the oozes.
Clear the 3 shadows in the main hallway, unlock the door, and carefully kill the shadow, phantom and oozes. Use your Bronze Horn animat for the phantom, and also you can flee until it stops fighting and then chase it with your arbalest, repeat until dead. Craft and use Bulwark of the Elements and/or Wizards's double when the adult ooze attacks, or two small oozes attack at once, and otherwise be careful. Then you complete the quest for the bones and can get to lvl 4, along with talking to the animancer in the tree. Get Mech to 6, and sleep for 1 more Mech in the Inn. Go to Raedrics, make sure to have camping supplies.
You need to be able to sleep once and still have it be day 5 at least, or else you can just travel between maps until you wrap it around to day 5 again. For me, with chanter, it is Day 4 still at this point. Go up the vines to the north of the keep, sleed to get rid of fatigue, and pull the guard with the pollaxe, run back, kill him with phantom and such, bronze horn as well if necessary. Sneak into the door, making sure not to aggro the archer, but if you do, just defeat him.
Put on priest's robe. immediately go unlock the door in the room to the ne, go downstairs. Also unlock the door right before the red carpet in the Throne Room for xp, but don't open it! Talk to Raedric, pick the 1) conversation items and agree to kill Kolsc for him. Now nobody is aggro except undead/oozes in basement. Get the gloves of manipulation - see the random loot tables (google random loot pillars of eternity).
Kill the roving paladin on the top floor with the priests, standing across from (south of) the stairs to the roof. Loot his plate mail, enchant it to fine, equip it.
Clear much of the basement, for exp and gold. Loot everywhere in the castle.
On day 6, get boots of stability from the basement. Later, on day 9 get gloves of accuracy from roof, and boots of stealth on day 14 (you'll come back for these and get them right before you go to Caed Nua). At lvl 5, you will put your stealth at 3, then the boots will make it 5, which will be key.
After day 9 gloves of accuracy looting, go to Anslog's compass. Kill the 3 xaurips and champion, then buy the pirate belt (if you need more money, try killing some npc's). Equip it and soul bind it, and head to the Bridge (straight from the Compass, because then you won't appear next to the skirmisher in the north). Upgrade the 100 damage from ranged attackers via the looter with the hunting bow. (Kill the melee looter and stand there and take 100 damage from the one enemy with the bow.) The rest of the upgrades you can do quickly soon, just involving taking melle damage and doing damage.
Kill the other looters and get the int hat that makes you immune to confusion. That will let you clear the spore cave for xp.
Loot the fine hatchet from near the tent wo the west by sneaking, at the Bridge. Go back to the Compass.
Kill sporelings slowly and carefully, and you can use them to upgrade belt, kill stationary spores with arbalest. The hard thing is killing the skirmisher xaurip. Remember you can increase your speed with a chant, and use a phantom, maybe flame burst from the belt, and animat. Once you kill the skirmisher, the rest you can just pull apart and kill.
Finish the quest with Hollowborn child quest (from Calisca's sister). Make sure to be at Raedric's by day 14 for the boots of stealth. Show up in Magran's Fork for extra xp regarding Kolsc. You can kill wolves and get the endurance potions and such, in the north of Magran's fork. I like to get the Resolve/Per helm in the Gilded Vale temple, beating the skuldrs by pulling them (with running chant) and arbalest when they flee, maybe a phantom, that sort of thing. It is actually pretty safe to do. Have wizard's double potion and bronze horn as backup. That should give you enough xp (plus you can kill some spiders in black meadow, get fulvano's boots, etc. to get to lvl 5 at Caed Nua before sneaking past phantoms.
At Caed Nua, you can kill your way along the south, including fire elems. Loot the sword in the vase, leave the main keep again, kill the earth elem and some other stuff for crafting and xp. Sneak past phantoms and summon animat at door and run to stairs and close door, see youtube for it demonstrated (5 stealth). Sneak past spiders, although you could kill them if you needed to, but you don't.
For Maewald, I personally like killing the spiders to the south of that main hallway/foyer outside his door. Once you clear that south room, the Maerwald fight is super easy. You can flee there anytime, and combat won't end, so he wont regen and you can summon phantoms, shoot with arbalest, etc. Sneak back up to the throne, report, and you are done! The game is then easy for a long time after that. Just focus on leveling as safe as you can, doing lots of side quests. I like the Mirrored Cload from the Ogre cave in Crossing on day 6, and on day 18 and 20 in Defiance Bay catacombs/temple, the cloak of protection and fenwalker boots. Day 9 of course get the boots of speed from Skaen temple.
Are you aware of the older topics about solo runs?
Typically, players do solo runs without asking questions about it, and it isn't anything like many people would ask questions here frequently. Nowadays there are videos and older topics giving hints.
You are contradicting yourself here when you claim fights are easy, but you require a minimum level to reduce the risk. In a Trial of Iron mode run, you don't know the minimum level that will be helpful. The requirement to test battles at some level and decide they are too much of a risk, will need to happen while practicing the game in a separate playthrough. Unless you quit often and return to fights later to retest. This is exactly the opposite of easy.
That one hasn't been available prior to the Deadfire pack. People, who've done solo runs before, didn't have it.
That's something I agree with completely.
Edit #1: I referred to Elmshore cave, not the Elms Reach Blood Sands.
Contradicting myself by saying that a fight is relatively easy but saying that you have to be a minimum level for it to be easy? That doesn't make sense to me. Remember, this is all in the context of succeeding with the Ultimate achievement, so most mid or late game fights can be done at lvl 16, and certainly at lvl 12, if you want. You reach 16 before most of the hard parts.
And, to further clarify, by "easy" or "relatively easy" I only mean that it doesn't take a bunch of hard-to-realize scrolls, difficult pulling, or other very clever strategies to win, once the general class and build is used. It is not in any way meant to be condescending, superior-sounding, or arrogant.
Where do people preach that? It's silly to generalize with regard to "necroing". Players stumble into older topics all the time using the search function, which defaults to sorting by relevance, or external search engines such as Google. Whether a topic is still relevant depends on the posts within it, not its age.
The game hasn't been changed significantly anymore during the v3 series. Except for the added somewhat overpowered Deadfire pack items.
Nobody denies that The Ultimate can be unlocked. You are free to post about it, of course, but you need to live with the criticism that you appear like someone who comes around bragging - and funnily, you've also had to mention your Grim Dawn achievement afterwards. Puzzling.
Let me tell you what "easy" would be. To start the game and roughly stick to the main quests and then level up steadily, regardless of where you go next. On the contrary, a solo run changes the path through the game completely. Player needs to test carefully how much to invest into skills, where to go next, where to avoid fighting at all cost, when to return to some fights because of worthwhile loot and which special equipment to put on before facing special enemies. That is the opposite of "easy". It is a problem that cannot be solved with intuition, but only with indepth familiarity of the game, which to turn into meta-gaming. You don't jump to level 16. It is hard earned progress that requires prior knowledge made during PotD playthroughs.
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Blessed_Was_Wengridh,_Quickest_of_His_Tribe
Your primary invocation will be the Phantom:
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/But_Reny_Daret%27s_Ghost,_He_would_not_Rest
The three wurms can be helpful, if you absolutely want to stay in combat a little bit longer and take out ranged attackers, such as squishy casters. Don't overestimate the two Ogres or the Drake. The three animated weapons are very good.
Area damage via a phrase:
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/The_Dragon_Thrashed,_The_Dragon_Wailed
vs Beasts:
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/With_All_Your_Strength_Slay_the_Beast
It's more important to use the right equipment for whatever task lies ahead. Keep all the items with extra bonuses against various types of attacks/afflictions.
Invocations, mostly the phantom, ogre, and ancient weapons summons, not the other summons. Each of those summons are super powerful until you get the next. A bit of the stat buff ones, and immunity ones in a few cases.
Other than using a bow to kill the adra dragon and ice dragon in the cave (forgetting his name), pretty much all damage is from summons and dragon/winds of death. You can use your hatchet to help summons flank.