3 DLC Character Grand Slam Guide

The most efficient and stupid way to get all 5 Memory DLC character achievements.

Preface

NOTE 1: This Guide is still in progress and will take time to fully complete but most of the more key information (Skills, Fight tips and Boss preparation) is here. I have recorded my attempt and want to work on a video guide to accompany this one.

NOTE 2: This guide is a small variation of the other Grand Slam team guide I made with Crusader and Duelist which I highly recommend looking at over this one. This guide for those who cannot be bothered to go 2-3 full playthroughs for each DLC character and instead do it in 1. As such, this team is a mess with many flaws and is way more risky than the Crusader + Duelist and most other Grand Slam teams. In addition, I am godawful at using the Abomination as my playstyle does not lend itself well to how Abomination is best used.

That being said, if you are mad enough, you can earn the following achievements at the same time with this team comp:

A Life Well Lived: Apply 5 Memories to any Hero
Inquisition's Prize: Apply 5 Memories to the Abomination
Maître De La Lame: Apply 5 Memories to the Duelist
Battle Hardened: Apply 5 Memories to the Crusader
Grand Slam: Defeat all 5 confession bosses with the same four heroes without any of them dying

Which is a very impressive feat that requires good planning, decision making and smidge of luck. Read on if you dare.

Prerequisites

• The Binding Blade and Inhuman Bondage DLC (Required obviously)
  
• Unlocked the following Skill Paths: Banneret Crusader, Antagoniste Duelist and Plague Doctor Alchemist.
  
• Fully Completed the Crusader, Duelist and Abomination's Shrine of Reflection.
  
• Complete Chapter 3 of Plague Doctor's Shrine of Reflection.

Recommended Upgrades/Unlocks

• Fully upgraded Timeless Wood.
  
• Unlocked Templar Crusader.
  
• Full Living City hero upgrades.
  
• Unlocking all Skills on Plague Doctor.
  
• At least the Orphan Wolf Cub pet but Reanimated Rabbit is preferred.
  
• 3 Wheels and 3 Armour on Stagecoach.
  
• Blight and Fire RES piercing Trinkets.
  
• Annotated Textbook, Early Experiment and Lover's Glove hero trinkets.

Why this is a bad idea

For a Grand Slam team comp to succeed, it needs to contain some of the following attributes:
- Reliable and Strong Healing. Keeping your party healthy at all times will minimise risk of losing a hero and forcing a restart.
- Reliable and Strong Tank. Someone needs to be able to take massive damage from boss crits at a moments notice and not waver. This is so that your less tanky heroes are well protected.
- Flexible reach and damage. Many enemies and bosses have unique strengths and weaknesses thus a team comp needs to be able to kill any threat thrown to them.

So what are the problems with Abomination, Duelist and Crusader?

1. No great tanking. Crusader is the best out of all 3 of them and he isn't a bad tank per say, but there is definitely way better. Man-At-Arms has stronger 75% blocks and rank flexible guarding, Flagellant has insane self-sustain and Chaplin Vestal provides strong healing to allies while guarding them. Crusader has decent utility but it doesn't help him stay alive that well. In addition, Bulwark of Faith has a 2 turn cooldown which means its very likely that multiple attacks may target vulnerable allies.

2. Rank 1-2 heavy. All of each character's strongest damage options are available at either ranks 1 or 2. This would normally mean you would have a frequently rotating team throwing out their strongest skills constantly, however there are some utility skills that throw this plan out of whack. Most notably, Crusader needs to be Rank 1/2 to taunt and sometimes that 1 turn without a taunt is just too risky. This mostly resulted in abomination staying in rank 3 spamming manacles for combo tokens which is a mildly inefficient use of the slot and in a Grand Slam, there is little space for dead weight.

Summary and Infographics

If you have seen my other guide, most of this stuff is pretty similar, especially anything regarding Duelist and Plague Doctor as they are largely unchanged in their role and moveset. Since I recorded my entire Grand Slam, I am planning to make a Youtube video to compliment this guide with video footage showing major fights as well as just general Grand Slam / DD2 tips.

Skills

Skills to Equip

Skill Upgrade Priority

Trinkets

Plague Doctor

Duelist

Combat Items

Positive Quirks

Confession Bosses (In the Order I Did)

The Team

Rank 1: Banneret / Templar Crusader

Recommended Skills (Both Paths): Bulwark of Faith, Inspiring Cry, Battle Heal
Banneret Skills: Tenacity, Smite
Templar Skills: Rallying Cry, Reap

Out of all of the DLC Characters, Crusader is the most flexible and what you want him to do would change the entire team composition and how its played. In my other guide, Crusader was a ranged damage dealer whereas he is now the team's dedicated tank. Bulwark of Faith is a solid taunt option with its 2 block and hp regen and I used it turn 1 most fights. However, the Crusader also functioned as a secondary damage dealer as Smite+ with a Combo token is no joke. Because of these two roles he had, he can easily wield a wide range of Trinkets that a lot of other characters can't. Healing, Damage and Tank trinkets are all pretty viable depending on moveset and playstyle.

I mostly ran Banneret with Bulwark of Faith, Inspiring Cry, Smite, Tenacity and Holy Lance but I found I rarely used Holy Lance and changing to Templar might be better against certain confession bosses with its Guard.

Rank 2: Wanderer / Antagoniste Duelist

Recommended Skills (Both Paths): Coup de Grace, Fleche, Mediation, Disengage
Wanderer Skills: Feint
Antagoniste Skills: Touche

If it ain't broke why fix it? I tried experimenting with some other Duelist builds like an Intrepide dodge tank build but Intrepide's passive is just nullified if Duelist is inflicted with a DoT so I went back to old reliable. Duellist here just whacks whatever in front of her with a cycle of Fleche and Disengage. The main difference here is that I used Wanderer for Acts 1-4 instead of Antagoniste because of Disengage's knockback synergising well with Abomination's pull meaning that a Combo Token Rank 4 enemy would be sitting directly in front of a Crusader with Smite+. In addition, Wanderer Coup de Grace is vital in managing Seething Sighs 4th rank lung. Mediation also got some love as a form of getting Dodge+ tokens when upgraded as well as a last resort taunt, vital for Act 3.

Rank 3: Wanderer Abomination

Recommended Skills (Human): Manacles, Absolution, Beast Bile, Ichor
Recommended Skills (Beast): Slam, Instinct, Rage, Maul

I am going to very honest now. I do not like Abomination. My playstyle does not lend itself well to the more volatile nature of Abomination, I like low stress and high friendship and Abomination can interrupt that flow very easily if mismanaged. So how I use Abomination is very boring, very safe and definitely not efficient. Abomination's main job is to use Manacles. Thats it. Manacles for Combo, Manacles for position disruption, Manacles for token removal. I occasionally used Beast Bile to remove corpses, Ichor for Rank 1 and Absolution when needed.

I almost never transformed into Beast. It was only when it was absolutely necessary like moving the Crusader out of danger, token manipulation or if I needed sudden burst of damage. I only transformed for the Chirurgeon, Harvest Child, Shackles of Denial, Ravenous Reach and Body of Work. Instinct removing Riposte is nice for Ravenous Reach's 3rd phase. Slam stops Harvest Child from reaching the front. Beast Form is the only way for Abomination to kill the Spectre of the Past from Body of Work.

The main benefit to how I use Abomination is mostly just the lack of errors and resources needed to go into him. Traits and Trinkets barely matter, very little of his skills need to be upgraded and with his high base HP and Absolution, he can keep himself healthy and at low stress. If you were to actually try to use abomination as more intended, I saw a reddit post by (Get the user here) where they used Abomination as a pseudo tank with Moribund Slam guarding Duelist as she is at most risk of dying (As PD has self healing and high Resistances.) The lack of consistent taunt is a concern of mine but if you prefer that playstyle + a Holy Lance spamming Crusader, that option does exist.

Rank 4: Alchemist Plague Doctor

Recommended Skills: Noxious Blast, Plague Grenade, Battlefield Medicine, Indiscriminate Science
Viable 5th slot skills: Ounce of Prevention, Magnesium Rain, Blinding Gas

Despite the nerf to Plague Grenade, Alchemist PD is still one of the best heroes in the entire game. Innate Blight RES piercing means she does insane damage over time, Indiscriminate science provides insane debuff removal and battlefield medicine provides very strong DoT cleansing as well. If you see my other guide, PD is pretty much identical in every single way.

Ounce of Prevention for Foetor, Sprawl, Ravenous Reach and Body of Work. Blinding Gas for Focused Fault. Magnesium Rain for Beast Dens and general encounters.

General Pathing

When going through regions, my priorities were:

Avoid and Reduce Loathing. Loathing Boosted Bosses are end killers and its 100% optimal to End the Run at the Inn to preserve heroes instead of risking it.

Plan your route to make sure avoid repair fights. There aren't run killers or anything but can be a slog.

Go to Field Hospitals if there you have really bad traits or diseases.

Go to assistance encounters for Flame, try to increase Flame if possible. I at most only ever selected -5 Flame options because low Flame gain result in some brutal scenarios (e.g. Quick Volleys in Tangle.)

99% of the time, I chose to fight my encounters has the minus flame + stress was too costly, and I rarely had enough relics to justify choosing that option. Although I would recommend not fighting the Chirurgeon unless you have significantly prepared yourself or are incredibly desperate to remove diseases as the risk is way higher than the rewards.

Potential Threats

Chirurgeon

Avoid fighting the Chirurgeon if possible. I had way too many close calls against him and the rewards are not worth it. You need to bring heaps of Bleed RES as Bone Saw can easily rack up a lot of damage otherwise.

Dreaming General

The main thing with this fight is with how situational Duelist and Crusader have Rank 4 access. Giving them combat items that reach there + human Abomination using Manacles and PD will provide enough cover to last long enough before the vines strangle you out.

Harvest Child

Make sure that Harvest Child doesn't get to Front as then it'll use Maws of Life which hurts. Debuff RES and Bleed RES is recommended. Careful planning around preventing Feed the Hunger can be done and is very rewarding. For example, you could have your Speed boosted Abomination move to Rank 2 with Slam before the Putrid Meat can use its attack so that only the Crusader is at risk of using Feed the Hunger, not the Duelist as well.

Seething Sigh

This is the first boss I recommend people to go for because its a perfect blend of challenge, warm up and practise to make sure your team is balanced enough to handle a Grand Slam. Due to the nerfs Seething got, it is much easier but still needs to be respected. Wanderer Duelist is needed here for Coup de Grace's damage as Manacles + Plague Grenade might not be enough.

Focused Fault

This boss is the closest thing to an anti-Grand Slam enemy because of how it focuses 1 hero incredibly hard, but there are many ways to deal with it. Changing Duelist to Antagoniste is potentially optimal for Phase 2.

Phase 1

The main thing here is that you want to make sure that PD has little to no Seen tokens by end of this phase. It may also be preferable if Duelist is the one being Seen due to how Phase 2 works.

Phase 2

With Dodge+ tokens on Mediation+ and either a Dodge+ or 2 blinds on Disengage+, Duelist is the best hero for this boss and can easily dodge tank her way to victory. Blinding Gas is also beneficial here if someone that isn't Duelist is being targeted. Crusader and Abomination have enough self sustain and damage mitigation that they can also be targeted without much worry.

Ravenous Reach

With 3 Phases, Ravenous Reach has a lot of tools that can cause massive issues for less prepared teams. Clotting Poultice is a vital inn item in reducing the risk of Bleeds for Phases 2 and 3. You ideally want to make sure your fastest character have over 100% bleed resist and have a healing item equipped. Plague Doctor is perfect for this role.

Phase 1

Move Resist Trinkets or Inn items are invaluable here as they can easily protect the target of Ideation from harm. The Blocks from Bulwark of Faith do massive lifting here, making sure that Crusader doesn't get to hammered. Coup de Grace and Flick on Duelist can bypass the blocks and PD / Abomination / Duelist Ripostes don't mind doing less damage due to the supportive utility of their skills.

Phase 2

Upgraded Ounce of Prevention + Clotting Poultice do massive lifting here. Some debuff resist inn items wouldn't hurt either as the debuff does lower your Bleed RES. Dodge tokens can be removed with Flick or Slam+ and can be easily be burned through with Duelist ripostes.

Phase 3

Last Grasp is an incredibly scary attack, that will put any bleeding heroes to Death's Door very quickly but because it lifts the Bleed, they aren't at a major risk of being hurt before you can heal them. Removing the Riposte with Abomination Instict and Duelist Disengage is also vital to perverse the team's well being.

Body of Work

The final boss of the game of course would pose a massive risk and requires a decent amount of preparation and some luck on certain trinkets and inn items. Templar Crusader might be optimal here with his Guard for when his allies are battling Spectres. Antagoniste Duelist IS optimal here as disengaging as a Wanderer would send the spectre to the back ranks where Duelist can't hit well.

Phase 1

Impermeable Poultice is a vital inn item to get for your team as resisting the Blight makes this phase significantly easier. Upgraded Ounce of Prevention is also very strong to help push the team over 100% RES.

Phase 2

During my run, I was able to acquire a Sodden Sweater from the Leviathan which I put on the Crusader, that combined with the Undertow trophy meant that Crusader could easily sit rank 1, not move and survive a very long time.

Phase 3

The biggest threat I found was the Spectres of the Past and the Shackles of Denial debuff as the Spectres can easily start to ramp up their damage significantly and some characters would have to waste turns getting to the skills they want to use, especially Abomination because transform is blocked by half the debuffs and a lot of his skills both Human and Beast are Ranged.

Pets

For Acts 1 - 4 I ran the Orphan Wolf Cub because I like to focus on positive relations but on Act 5 I saw Pot and Still in the first Inn and decided to give Reanimated Rabbit a try and...

Just go Reanimated Rabbit.

+1 speed is insane. Whiskey from Pot and Still counts as food I believe so I was stacking up over 6+ HP at the end. Then I got Food Barrels and I might never look back at anything else. That 10% resolute chance was absolutely insane and probably saved my Plague Doctor and Abomination during the final boss. The main downside is that your inventory starts to fill up with useless food as you want to keep at least 10 but it is absolutely worth it if you have good trinkets on your party.

For Act 1, I would still go Orphan Wolf Cub because it may be difficult to get enough Stagecoach Items and Food to justify the Rabbit but for the other Acts, Reanimated Rabbit is incredibly strong and you should think about it.

Not Covered Stuff

These categories I will not cover as I have already mentioned that in my other guide and little to no new information has been gathered. Negative Quirks, Combat Items, anything relating to Plague Doctor and Duelist are the same.

Minor Changes

Regions

Foetor is less risk, less reward as its much easier beating Plague Eater enemies due to multiple secondary sources of damage like Crusader. Harvest Child is much easier due to more access of knockback and pulls. But Abomination doesn't like the trinkets unlike Flagellant.

I avoided the Catacombs for the reasons I avoided the Sluice, just an unnecessary added risk.

[OPetz]

Veery nice mai friend