Shards Farm

[Silverwings92]

UPDATE: I will update the original post as new strategies are shared.

Hi everyone, loving the game to the point where I'll probably get all shards, even the longer ones from helms, artefacts etc.

That said, has anyone come up with a "best farming spot" for each of them ? I think a relatively in-depth guide on the longer shards could be something quite useful for at least a portion of the community; personally I haven't found much on the internet yet so I guess it's up to us to put something together.

I have not completed every single level yet, so I might be missing some (hopefully not many, it's gonna be already long as it is), so for now it would be great if we could go through at least some of them.


Weapons:

"Goblin Griefers"(Token that is as tedious as a shard): Needs to reflect 50 arrows from goblins.
Boring since goblins are rare and you need specific ones. You can't farm indefinetively on a single encounter since reflecting the arrows will eventually kill them.
I think that considering the weapon is in the supplies, you could run The Servant and do the very first encounter, which will be against goblins if the challenge is on hard mode (need to put the Disciple's Guise in the equipment) and then forfeit.

Sounds quite boring but still faster than going around searching for goblin archers, someone might come up with a better strategy though, I haven't put that much thought into it.

"Intriguing Sword" (DLC) (Not a shard technically but still a very tedious token): Defeat 25 goblins with a finisher.
Now this one is quite tedious, since not only goblins are rare on their own but the weapon itself won't trigger knockdowns so the chances are quite slim unless you wait every time for each goblin to do that attack that leaves them vulnerable to a finisher (I think It's when they want to grab you and fail).

Luckily, there are a couple of ways you can force knockdowns on any enemy.
First of is Estrella and her skill, it will do a single target knockdown most of the times.
You can just raise chances of knockdown with the House Lashar's Seal if you have the Servant DLC.
Best way to actually do it is to get Rethgar's Quake artefact which literally forces knockdown in a AOE fashion. With this item you can bomb as many relevant enemies as you can and kill 4 in a single charge if you're fast enough, you can definetively get 3 easily which makes this the fastest way possible since the item itself has a whopping 5 charges and no fame requirement, which means you can get 20 finishers on any weapon that requires them just by finding the artefact and the encounter with the desired enemy faction.
Lastly, Platinum Suit forces knockdown just like Rethgar's Quake with its bash, not as good as the artefact since it needs 18 fame but it is there, might come in handy eventually.

Of course you then add the few encounters that will spawn goblins like Goblin Hunt, Payment due and Street Fighter, don't remember other encounters that will 100% lead to a goblin fight but I might be wrong.

"Witching Blades"(Mildly tedious DLC Token): Same exact strategy used for the "Intriguing Sword", it's actually easier since it does not need any specific enemy faction although it does need fame to equip.


"Assassin's Blades": 50 Empire kills with a weapon that needs high fame... Any idea if this can be done somewhere that does not take ages ?

Milu's tip: For the Assassin's blades, the beginning of Judgement has an infinitely respawning empire token, so you can add only that weapon to your deck and fight them over and over again. The fame supply card also speeds this up by a combat or two, but I believe the fight generates fame anyway.

Sounds like a solid solution, I'll test it myself when I need it but it sounds very good on paper.

"The Peeler": This one wants the Armored Empire soldiers... which won't regenerate their armor so you actually need to find a ton of'em. I got to "The Moon" and I rarely even see any... no clue where this can be done.

Milu's tip: As for The Peeler, I ran it and all the other shard cards with destroying armor through The Sun, since the last fight is 4 Armoured Empire . Just be sure not to activate Ariadne until you break all of the armor. You can also add a couple other cards that have armored enemies, like Duel.

Again this sounds solid on paper, although the rest of the comment is not relevant since the shard's requirement is specific, it needs to be Empire, corrupted armor won't count.

"The Winds Return": No idea where to get mages consistently yet, perhaps later in the game ?

Strategy 1 by onFyre: "Play "The Tower", then when you run into the enemy camp encounter (forgot the name, but the combat one the dealer puts into the deck) you'll want to get a huge failure. This puts you in a fight with a mage and an ogre - I used it to get Hubie's bomb done quickly."

Strategy 2 by Garamoth:"Winds Return should probably be done on Tower or Endless. One endless adventure with mages should have 3-5 mages in it, including the ambush card."

Strategy 3: it is possible to find 3 mages in a single fight on "The Wheel", on the "Wheel of rage" encounter. Will probably not happen if the encounter is found on the first floor but haven't tested extensively.

In the end you either run "The Tower" and do the encounter with thughs and getting a Huge Failure (this spawns a mage + ogre), you either run Endless or you search for them on the wheel in the "The Wheel" encounter "Wheel of Rage".

Artefacts:

"Bloodletting Vial": 30 armored corrupted with 3 charges sounds quite long, any spot where multiple armored do appear ? Perhaps late-game ?

Tip 1 by Garamoth:"Bloodletting Vial doesn't actually want you to break the armor with the artifact, you just have to have it equipped. It's a huge lifesaver." It is indeed, it means you can just run any corrupted-heavy level like "Chariot" and get it done in a few fights at worst.


"Holy Purification": I guess one can just run "The Lovers" a few times and get over it with relative ease. No particular setup is needed since the artefact is given to you at the beginning of the quest.


Helms

"Felvin's Favour": Easy on The Wheel: lots of wheel gamits by default + the possibility to repeat encounters; run all the wheel encounters (Alchemist and Caravan work best since each spin counts) and it is possible to get 70+ spins in a single run.


"The Lord's Diadem": Gets done by the endgame but can be farmed on Justice.

Tip: adding Bertha's Betting House and Thomas the Ogre is a good start.

"Gambler's Hood": This one needs a level with many maps while the maps have to be as short as possible; I tried running "Hierophant" but it feels a mediocre choice at best.

Garamoth's tip: Doing it on Endless works fine since there is often no boss at the end of the stage; Berserker Armor works toward the gold count too.

It's no use 900's tip:For the gambling hood, I just used the devil challenge, the Lord Whats-His-Name encounter heals you for 50 life. the only floor you should end up not getting is the last one.

This one is very tedious and long but in the end, after a few tries I have to agree with It's no use 900. On The Devil you can have a deck that has only encounters that give equipments without fights (Fetid Fens, Fallen Treasure, Merchant's Favour etc.) and easily win the gamble at least a couple of times then forfeit on the last map and do it again.
It's probably faster than going Endless which has usually harder encounters with more restrictions, although the idea of adding Berserker's Creed to speed up the process can be useful on The Devil scenario if it wasn't patched, I'll have to try myself but I guess it still works.


"Frontier Barbut": One of the easiest to get, I got 50 hits in a single fight with three empire soldiers with shields: just spam the bash button on each of the soldiers once and repeat until it's 50; easier without heavy weapons since they deal damage on bash.
Imperials with shields will always appear on Hermit, both at the end of the first map and when doing the "Mage Hunt" event. Can also be done through "Illicit Trade" since the event triggers empire soldiers.
Can also be done on skeletons with shields but I personally do not remember where they are found, thought empire soldiers with shields would just be much more common to come across.

"Mask of Holy Fortunes": Will get done by the endgame, can be farmed in High priestess if you include some fame-gaining encounters in the setup.

Tip: adding Bertha's Betting House and Thomas the Ogre is a good start.



Thank you all for the patience! Hopefully the post can turn into something useful for other present and future players as well : )

[onFyre]

For the Wind's Return, you'll want to play The Tower, then when you run into the enemy camp encounter (forgot the name, but the combat one the dealer puts into the deck) you'll want to get a huge failure. This puts you in a fight with a mage and an ogre - I used it to get Hubie's bomb done quickly.

For the gambits ones, I think The Wheel is the best. Put in Bertha's Betting House and Thomas the Ogre to get the gambits of your choice.

[Garamoth]

Bloodletting Vial doesn't actually want you to break the armor with the artifact, you just have to have it equipped. It's a huge lifesaver.

Frontier Barbut is easy to get in 1-2 battles with Necromancers and skeletons with large shields. They will keep resurrecting the skeletons.

Winds Return should probably be done on Tower or Endless. One endless adventure with mages should have 3-5 mages in it, including the ambush card.

For Felvin's Favor, I assume cards like Alchemist and Caravan Raid count as multiple gambits?

Is there a list of all the cards you get from shards? Are they always handed out in the same order or is it random?

[Tarn]

The best way (imo) to farm the item shards is in endless mode. While you may unlock specific individual shards slower than farming specific campaign encounters, you will have opportunities to make progress on a shard much more often than setting up a new campain mission over and over again to kill one mage for example. There are a few encounter shards that can be farmed much quicker out of endless, however, the chances of you also completing those while you farm the item shards in endless are very high.

[Silverwings92]

Thank you all for the replies, I added the strategies down each correspondent item.

Still missing anything for the Gambling Hood, since it has specific conditions and it's not an actual gamble-related shard.

@Tarn: The idea was to avoid Endless as much as possible, and put together a guide that can do without it; that said , if doing a shard in Campaing would mean to make it pointlessly long, then Endless should be taken into account; for example, it might be the case for "The winds return", but it would need some testing since I personally have no clue if it is faster to get it done on Tower or Endless, would like to know as many opinions as possible.

@onFyre: Added all of your suggestions.

@Garamoth: Added all of your suggestions.

Thank you guys keep it up : ) If there is something tediuous like the above which I have not unlocked yet please tell.

[Garamoth]

As for the Gambling Hood, it's pretty easy to do on Endless also, as about 2/3 of floors do not end with a boss. Just heal up and leave the floor. As I said elsewhere, it may be a bug (or a synergy!) but using the Berserker Armor and getting +3 gold when drawing the gold gain card *will* count towards the 400 gold.

For Felvin's Favour: when doing the Alchemist card, Malaclypse will give you one opportunity to put back an item you picked, so that's 4 wheel gambits in a single card. And yes, they do count as multiple gambits.

[Silverwings92]

Thank you guys added the new info, now looking for a decent strat for Assassin's Blades and The Peeler, any idea ?

[Moxxy]

For Mask of Holy Fortunes and The Lord's Diadem just do The Lovers. Load up your deck with gold giving cards and a few good equipment scenarios. Get to the end of the first map then play the strength game over and over. The pendulum gambit is stupidly easy to get a huge success on and every time you do you get two card gambits with possible huge successes. You can swap the two helms in between each gambit. Even if you don't have both helms by the time you reach the end of the map getting a huge success will get you random gear. Most of the time I reached the end of the first map with 70-100 gold so that gave me 7-10 pendulum huge successes and 14-20 chances at card gambit huge successes in a very short period of time.

[gozon]

Winter's Bane (50 Northerners with finishers)

Do High Priestess, equip a buckler and Winter's Bane. Do not do regular attacks or counter attacks, instead, wait until someone green attacks you, and use the buckler to defend (defending with buckler increments Winter's Bane charge by 1). Use weapon ability when the charge fills up, and it guarantees you a finisher on the Northerner target. Also, aim for huge failure in Blizzard encounters. You can probably finish this shard in 2-3 runs.

Doing this allows maximum enemy finisher, so you don't "waste" their HP by attacking them to charge up. You can use finisher on every single enemy this way.

[Its No Use 9000]

For the gambling hood, I just used the devil challenge, the Lord Whats-His-Name encounter heals you for 50 life. the only floor you should end up not getting is the last one

[Milu]

I unlocked those two shards in some of the later missions, if you have them. For the Assassin's blades, the beginning of Judgement has an infinitely respawning empire token, so you can add only that weapon to your deck and fight them over and over again. The fame supply card also speeds this up by a combat or two, but I believe the fight generates fame anyway. As for The Peeler, I ran it and all the other shard cards with destroying armor through The Sun, since the last fight is 4 steel captains . Just be sure not to activate Ariadne until you break all of the armor. You can also add a couple other cards that have armored enemies, like Duel and some of the corrupted fights work too, since they have those terrors and also spires (and frankly a corruption heavy challenge might help you more).

[Derasght]

I feel like the Winter's Bane would be easiest to get on the Justice. Infinite supply of Northeners with infinite food and healing at the Fort. Plus you get an item in the beginning of the challenge and a repeatable shop to get Winter's Bane itself early.

About the Peeler. Personally, I grinded any Checkpoints I encountered by forcing my way through them. It hurts though, since they start doing damage before the attack after a few repeats...

[Silverwings92]

I will update the whole thing soon, and I won't add very easy stuff anymore since there isn't a point unless I feel like making a guide for every single shard in the game. This includes Winter's Bane but thank for the suggestion nonetheless.

Great tip for the Assassin Blade & The Peeler @Milu, will add it sounds solid.

Originally posted by Its No Use 9000:

For the gambling hood, I just used the devil challenge, the Lord Whats-His-Name encounter heals you for 50 life. the only floor you should end up not getting is the last one

So The Devil is like 4 maps ? You can gamble 15 each floor but you can't gamble on the very first so that would be 2 bets ? I don't really see the advantage but perhaps I'm missing something? It needs to get to 400 which is 14 bets in total, do I remember The Devil wrong?
Garamoth's suggestion sounds much more solid if it is not so, although it needs setup in Endless which I wanted to ideally avoid but perhaps this one specifically is so much better to do there that there is no point in forcing it on the campaign.

[Silverwings92]

Since probably everyone who has the DLCs is interested, I will ad the "special shards" even if they're easy, which they are, with the exception of Return to Lysa Hora that needs setup.

[Its No Use 9000]

Originally posted by Its No Use 9000:

For the gambling hood, I just used the devil challenge, the Lord Whats-His-Name encounter heals you for 50 life. the only floor you should end up not getting is the last one

So The Devil is like 4 maps ? You can gamble 15 each floor but you can't gamble on the very first so that would be 2 bets ? I don't really see the advantage but perhaps I'm missing something? It needs to get to 400 which is 14 bets in total, do I remember The Devil wrong?
[/quote]

Its slower then endless but you A: will be able to get the item itself easily (especially if you stack the deck with equipment gain cards) and B: the bets are guaranteed with the healing and no end of floor combats. for endless, you have to wait until the hood pops up, and to actually get the hood before you can start grinding it.

Basically its a slow but steady way.

edit: the quote didn't work right and I have no idea how to fix it. Rip

[Silverwings92]

So it's a hassle regardless.. I guess it's one of the more tedious shards in the game in the end and there isn't a really great setup to do it faster unless the berserker armor trick still works which can make it a little easier I guess.