The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

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[EN] Heroic Hardcore Melee Guide + Walkthrough + Achievements
By barnak
Hardcore Heroic Melee guide + walkthrough from clear start.
   
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Introduction
UPD 21.01.2017 - THIS GUIDE NOT WORKING ANYMORE. Only like a walkthrough. Don't play melee class on heroic, it's not fan...

Hello my dear readers!

The main purpose of this guide is to finish the game on heroic difficulty with hardcore character from absolutely clear start (without any Items from other chars in the store)

We, I mean myself, but suppose you too, will play with a guy with a strange hat. At a close distance style of course (It is HUNTER ofc).

Pros
  • Simple Build (actually almost only Mystic Warrior is using)
  • Little difficulties against some specific enemies
  • Bosses are not a problem (because of FC and Bash)
  • High survivability (more than 2.5k HP, 1k armor and 300 all resistance at 30 level)
  • DpS more than 1.5k
  • Flexible, either effective against single enemy or party of mobs
  • Has difficulties only against some elites
  • It is simple to find pretty good items

Cons
  • Gear depended
  • Permanent risk that something will kill us
  • No good or any other items in the store
  • Not a ranger.. at all.
  • Depends on mana
  • Depends on LpH
  • Only one safe skill
  • Nothing can do with mines
  • .. and bombs

PS Sorry for my English, not my native language, so mistakes will definitely be.
Glossary
Most terms are common, but some are specific to this game.
  • AoE - Area of Effect
  • AP - Ability Point
  • SP - Skill Point
  • DpS - Damage per Second
  • AR - All Resistances
  • CC - Critical Chance - max 50%. We need about 30%
  • CD - Critical Damage - max 500%. Considering Rampage aura we need about 350%.
  • AS - Attack Speed
  • LpH - Life per Hit
  • H&R - Hit and Run
  • FC - Flowing Combo - main skill
  • EQ - Earthquake - main AoE
  • EE - Ethereal Embodiment - safe skill
  • CB - Crushing Blow - rune for Bash, which has percentage damage and depends only on full heals of the enemy.
The Build
Stats
We are melee, so all stats are going to body. And our defence, HP and damage also depends on it.

30 level stats:


Perks
We could have only 10 perks, so our chessboard has just some figures to play and a lot in the background. I chose these and in this order:
Perk
Requirements
Description
Comment
Berserker
-
+10 dmg at max rage
Need for Iron Man
Uncanny Fighter
25 base body
25 base dexterity
-20% mana cost
+1 mana regen
Really helpful from lack of mana, because drinking mana potions by cooldown isn't a part of my plan
Iron man
Berserker
10 level
As your HP goes down, your Resistances go up
Most important perk for our survivability!
Resistive
40 base willpower
+20% All Resistance
More Resistances = More Survivability
Veteran Hunter
15 level
+3 Ability Points
+2 Skill Points
Can use Items 1 level higher than you currently are. (never used this)
Helpful points
Mentor
3 powerups in 2 skills from 1 tree.(minimum of a tier one and tier two skill). Ex. 3 powerups in Strike and 3 powerups in Bash
+3 Skill Points
More skills!
Perfect Aim
110 base Luck
+5% Critical Chance
Useful perk because CC is not quite easy to raise up.
Gunslinger
110 base Dexterity
+7% Attack Speed
More AS = More Damage. It is Simple
Destructive
40 base Luck (already opened if you have Perfect Aim)
+50% Critical Damage
CD will help us in late playing
Master
Max all 3 skills in 2 trees. Ex. Strike 10, Bash 8, Flowing Combo 5, Parry Expertise 10, Fury 8, Bodybuilding 5
+5 Skill Points
EVEN MORE SKILLS!1
Base stat is a stat, which independent of items. Overall stat consists of base stat and bonuses from items. you can see values if you move cursor to the stat value in the character screen.

Skills
First of all, I hate the term "powerup" because it's ugly (What evil mastermind has created this word?). Instead, I used the word "Rune" because it is more simple and pleasant.

In brackets I've specified level of skill at character max level (30).

Mystic Warrior (70 SP)
  • Strike [1] - Transit
  • Lighting Strike [1] - Transit
  • Bash [1] with rune Crushing Blow - Our main skill untill we reach Flowing Combo lvl 3. Just use rune on fat mobs because it will ignore their defense and resistances (Hello Pals from diablo, especially smitters)
  • Cleave [1] with rune Soul Cleave - our main AoE almost till the endgame. Just use rune on party to heal yourself. The benefit of this rune against the similar from Bash is that healing goes from every enemy, which you've hit.
  • Flowing Combo [5] with rune Devastating Blows and upgrade Extending Combo - Our main skill after act 1. It has a huge amount of damage to a single target because you could have a critical for every hit from the combo. Ex. you can deal a three crits instead of one with Bash.
  • Earthquake [5] with rune Intense Shockwave - our main AoE in late game. Damage is good, cooldown is small and area is big.
  • Parry Expertise [10] with both upgrades - passive for survivability.
  • Fury [1] - Transit
  • Bodybuilding [5] - Our main passive which grants us much more HP.

Occult Hunter (18 SP)
  • Shoot [1] - default, no runes
  • Rage [1] - Transit
  • Elemental Damage [1] - Transit
  • Full Resistance [5] - passive for AR.

Tricks (3 SP)
  • Arcane Healing [1] - default. Second heal for us. Don't level up it because we are not a mage and our willpower is nasty small.
  • Ethereal Embodiment [1] - Our solely safe. Grants invulnerable and invisible for 3 seconds. And we could go through obstacles such prison, enemies, traps and other.
    Don't level up it either because invisible time won't raise up.

Auras (16 SP)
  • Rampage [5] - An aura that increases our CD at max Rage. As we have a max 500% CD, so we don't need to max this skill. At 30 character level I had 356% CD (without aura), so on aura I needed 500-356 = 144%.
  • Hunter's Rejuvenation [6] - additional LpH.


Katarina (but not Sforza)
She will have a tank role, so be in melee as we are.
Behavior: Defensive or Assistant
Stats in body. Skills at 25 level:




Items
We need these affixes on items:
  • Body
  • Resistance (Elemental / Physical / Poison)
  • Magic Find for Katarina (rings, amulets)
  • Crit Chance
  • Crit Dmg
  • Attack Speed
  • Life per Hit

From Epic items you definitely need King Borislav's Scepter
And other usefull:
  • full set Ravenscar
  • Croakwood Boots
  • Fulmegati Gloves
  • set Baskerville
  • Hat of the Fox
  • Golden Lion (I've got it from last boss)
  • Senzanome Helmet
  • Gold-Plated Pistol
  • Vlados Cloak

Enchant for resistances or CC. Rings useful for LpH.
Use essense with СС or body.

Okey. I've finished with build. Now lets talk about Walkthrough
Gorgon Pass (lvl 1-3)
Nothing difficult here. Just kill mobs, get level up, АР goes to the body, skills goes to first line in Mystic Warrior (Strike, Lighting Strike, Parry Expertise). Preferable to use pistols till our melee damage won't be at 1.5x higher.

There is a Treasure Goblin Domovoy near the river, which you need to slow down with your rune on pistols and shoot him till you get 20 items from him and achieve (What's in the bag?). If he falls down before that happened don't panic! You'll find him at the end of act 2.

Practice in killing elites with Grapple (most dangerous prop for us). After that take Berserker perk. Raise up Strike once and leave two SP for the future. Because at the forth level we'll get two valuable skills.

At the end of location Katarina will level up, so take both skills.
Markovna (lvl 4)
Our first town. There are some interesting places here:
  • You'll find a lying drunk man near Shopkeeper. Speak to him twice to get an essence from a goat in the forest two location next.
  • You'll find a statue in the East. You will need to place 3 gems there soon to obtain a key. near statue you'll find a house with robbers. Listen to their dialog to obtain their treasures.
  • You'll find the white chicken in the North (see screen below). Run after her to obtain an egg. Eat egg to obtain +10 НР permanently. And this is the first part of the achiv (Well fed)
  • If you kill a chicken with a sword, you'll get achiv (Chicken Runner).
  • If you kill every chicken, you'll get achiv (damnit slaughterer Chicken Slayer)


With levelup we'll get 5 SP, which we'll spend this way: Learn Bash, Cleave and take rune Soul Cleave.

Don't spend SP for Katarina, we'll learn Withering Kiss and Spirit Guardian at the next levelup.

Use Cleave only to heal yourself because it has a weak damage but it lowers our defence
Croakwood (lvl 4 - 9)
Really eventfull location.

At 6th level we'll take Ethereal Embodiment.

You can receive Wolfes Paw from Dreadwolfes elite, which often has a good affixes on it.

At 8th level I've respec 15 AP into dexterity to take perk Uncanny Fighter.


Interesting places:
  • If you'll finish quest with escort (3) and he'll not receive any damage at all, achiv (Escort Master) is yours.
  • Quest with ghost (7) has two options. [1] - bring him to the gallows, where you will fight him. [2] - Bring him to the sacred altar, where he'll give you yellow item.
  • You'll find Wisp (4) as well, Answer to riddle: I don't know your name. but Katarina does.
  • Gemstone (9) here.
  • If you listened to robbers, then goldstick (8) be clickable.
  • You'll find a scarecrow (5) in the north. He is weak, but some birds are bothering. I recommend to deal with him at 6th-7th level when you already have EE. For killing him you'll get achiv (Trophy: The Wingless Messiah).
  • You'll find Excalibur (6), which will be useful for us for a long time. Simply kill first elite and get Ancient Coin, then bring it to the Wishing Well [1] and kill the elite from the Well. You'll get Weapon Oil. Bring it to Sword in the stone [2] and the sword is yours. You also get achiv (Sword in the Stone). I recommend to do this quest at 5th-6th level.
  • I don't recommend to do the main quest (1) until you've reached 9th level. You could die. Preferable, that you'll kill some more elites (2) by re-entering to that location. And you can obtain from them Gold Plated Pistol, which has a really good CC and AS.

In the Camp you'll get a quest to kill some Electrowolf. For killing him you'll get achiv (Trophy: Electriferous Beast).

You'll clear whole location and finish all side quests at 7th level (if you won't quit and mobs won't respawn)

Other two levels you need to manage by killing elites or mobs.

Don't do Alchemist's quest till 9th level. There are strong enemies there.

I went to Boss at 9th level with that gear:







Occult Hunter
  • Shoot - 1, no runes
  • Rage - 1
Tricks
  • Arcane Healing - 1
  • Ethereal Embodiment - 1
Auras
  • Rampage - 1
  • Thrilling Heroic - 1

After your fight with him, you'll have two options:
  • Kill him. For doing that you'll get achiv (Trophy: Gruumsh) and moral satisfaction.
  • Leave him. You'll be allies in late game.
Markovna 2 + Inkwell (lvl 9-10)
Return to Town, start quest in the Well. You'll find some elites, loot and Mystic gemstone (see image below).


Talk to smith. He will offer you to test your smith skills for 100 gold. Just accept it. Definitely as you are clumsy with your hands so you forget something this world has never seen before. Take the sword with you and go to speak with Nutty Stefan (he could be in the north near the entrance or in the church or near the church). You can choose two options: one is to give sword to him and get the essence and the second to name this sword Bunnyslayer and leave it with you for one achivement. After this simply defend Town from Ghouls.
Gallowsbog (lvl 10-12)
Another one big location with ton of mobs, some side quests and some minibosses in the end :)

Just stay away from Lesovik's attack. It hurts for about 180HP, so don't gather parties with them.

I recommend to use the H&R tactic on them (Hit - run, hit - run, stepped into a dead-end - died pressed EE).

If you are lucky enough, you'll get epic armor from elites. It's called Second Skin. Put into it essence with the body.

At 10th level necessary to take perk Iron Man


Interest places:
  • If you finish quest with bombs (3) without detonation of any one, you'll receive achiv (Explosives Expert). To understand which bombs won't explode, look at their fuse. It must be RED.
  • You'll find 8 altars (6) during cleaning this location. If you'll activate all of them, the elite will show up at the entrance to the bridge. He is really simple (I killed him at 10th level) For him you get achiv (Trophy: Frenzied Forest Spirit) and a bone.
  • If you listened to lying drunkard in Town, then you'll get essence from the goat (8)
  • You'll find Whisp (4) as well. Simply follow him for some time. After all you'll fight him with his many minions. Pretty hard boss (most difficult in this location). Just use H&R. I killed him at 10th level. For him you'll get achiv (Trophy: Ignis Fatuus) and a bone.
  • You'll find 4 statues (5), which you need to rotate by their faces to the center Idol. After this near the Idol will be two elites. You'll get a bone and achivs (Trophy: Tweedledum and Trophy: Tweedledee). Kill first elite with Harmful Sigil. The second one could trap us, so their combination isn't good for us.
  • Last bone you'll find from elite with electric cages (7).
  • This four bones you can give to Professor (near the down-left statue) and he gives you 1.5k gold for each or you can bring them to Frog Idol (10) and it gives you 200 EXP and 2 AP for each bone.

Achtung! After brigde will be a lot of flying-damnit-birds with Lesoviks. Careful there.

We'll get 12th level just before minibosses. Teleport to Town, pass all quests, gets additional points and click on statue to receive a key.

I recommend to respec 30 AP into willpower and luck either to open perks Destructive and Resistive. Take Resistive (We have a nasty CC for now).

my gear before minibosses:






Kill healer at first, then grey Werewolf, then mob with big cannon and at last Electrowolf (he is the fattest one). For them you'll get achivs (Trophy: Electriferous Beast-King and Trophy: Judge Obesovsky).
Orichalcum Mines (lvl 12-14)
Just afraid of Kikimoras. Their rock attack is pretty harmful. Fortunately, their attack could kill other mobs as well as them. So I could kill about 60% of mobs with the help of them.

There are only two elites and one boss on the map. And Boss is pretty fat, but with the help of CB he'll die faster. But don't forget to kill shooting spiders and heal yourself. If you can't use healing, then go to invis (EE) and step back to a safe area. For boss you'll get achiv (Trophy: Arachnid Leviathan)

Not all elite is dangerous, just Kikimoras and some shooting spiders with Blood Boon, sigils or mana burn.

You'll get a lot of EXP in this location, so go to clear it again and get 14th level.

Take FC with rune Devastating Blows at levelup.

BOSS
The tactic is pretty simple. Just run around, activate towers (but not the central one), remove about half HP with CB and then activate the central tower and use FC. Repeat 1-2 times. You actually can ignore spiders. Just kill alone ones to refresh Rage. For boss you'll get achiv (Worm Slayer). And if you will kill him without towers, you'll get another one achiv (Who needs machines when you've got SWAG!).

Congratulations, comrade general! Act 1 is done. And we are still alive.
Dreadworks (lvl 14)
Welcome to Hell Act 2!

Really troublesome location. Mines... Grapplers... Artillery. If you won't be careful enough you'll die simply (I died once, I was grappled through three mines). So if you see Grapplers with Grenadiers, just try to take away Grapplers of Grenadiers or vice verse. Actually, they are no so dangerous if you'll charge into them. Because Grapplers don't use grapple at close distance as well as Grenadiers don't use mines (but there could be exceptions). Only 2-3 mines enough to kill you.


Interest places:
  • After shopkeeper (5) you'll find many grenadier with some grapplers
  • There is a pretty nice trapchest (3) on the map, some EXP includes.
  • You'll find Wisp (4), answer to riddle - Death.
  • Just before Wisp you'll find Gemstone (6)
  • There are two main quests (1) on the map. The first one is to get to the secret lair (question mark) and the second is to find an engineer, who tells you to find four electric coils.

Example how to charge into party
Secret Lair (lvl 14-15)
Yahoo! We'll finally manage to get here. We completed a 2/3 of the game for sure.

At 15th level we'll take perk Veteran Hunter. Skill these: raise up FC once and take EQ with rune Intensive Shockwave. It is really comfortable to hit EQ with triple rune into a party of mobs even at 1st level of skill :)

We have at 9th level of Bash 225% Weapon Damage, and only 70% on FC at 3th level. So to migrate from Bash to FC we need to raise FC to 3rd of 4th level. Because FC has 3 hits instead of 1 on Bash.

If you forgot to take a key from Markovna's statue, then take it (or you can do it at any time).
Take Bunnyhunter from your store, because you could get into Lost Place suddenly. I get there with the first teleporting.

And I also opened perks Gunslinger and Mentor.
Lost Place (lvl 15)
As I get here shortly after getting to Secret Lair, which was absolutely unplanned, so it wasn't good.

Lesovik's attack hurts for about 250 HP . And it isn't good to gather a party of birds.

Actually, to gather any party of mobs here isn't good for us

You'll find Rabbit (Hello Monty Python) somewhere at the end of the map. If you kill him with Bunnyhunter, you'll get achiv (Bunnyslayer). And you'll get another one (Trophy: The Rabbit) in any case.

Also, you can find three bones, which you can exchange at the local Idol for AP and EXP. (or at the Idol in the forest).
Rookery (lvl 15-18)
Pretty simple location. Especially if you have a good resistance from poison.
There is only one dangerous place on this map. Near the entrance to poison lab you'll find about 10 spitters.


Interesting places:
  • Dead rats (3) lying at the edges of the map.
  • You can obtain Vodyanoy gang's quest from beggar (4). But kill mobs around at first.
  • There are many beggars (5) on the map. You can give them some money to hear something interesting and it is needed for beggar King quest (probably)
  • Some strange guy (6) gives you two quests. The first one is to blow up the poison flow (6.2) with bomb (6.1). And the second one is to kill some party of mobs. You'll get achiv (Trophy: Dark Alchemist) for miniboss. And drink from the pit where the poison was. You'll get some resistances permanently. If no miniboss appears, then try to create a multiplayer game.
  • You'll find a white rat (7), which is not dead. Go after her to obtain meat. Eat it and you will receive +25 AR and achiv (Well fed) if you have already eaten the egg from first Town.
  • If you'll click on the fishing rod (8, up), then you'll receive some boots. It is referring to a character from Diablo 1 - Wirt (a child with a wooden leg, who could sell us an expensive item for 50 gold. You also could find him in Tristram from Diablo 2 and get his wooden leg, but that is another story). If you'll find a bait just below the rod (8, down) then you'll get a fish, which you can eat and get -10 to mana or you can give it to a nearby cat and get some yellow item from him (damnit knacker)
  • Just before sewers (1) buy a gas mask (6.1) (I bought it for 3k gold). Because with it your resistance to poison will be a pretty good and sewers will become much more easily clear and to kill a boss. I destroyed 3 of 4 poison tanks and killed the boss before he went to heal himself at last tank. For him you'll get achiv (Trophy: Mastermind Genius).

I went to sewers with this gear:






The Sewage Plant (lvl 18-21)
The main danger point is that there are damned BOMBERS on this location. But bomb doesn't explode instantly and it doesn't explode if we'll go near it. It just explodes after about 3 sec.
So in a fit of the passion battle see that nothing is burning or glowing or sounds like tick-tick-tick. because one bomb hurts for 200-300 HP. And it is also quite unpleasant when Behemoths with earthquakes hit you.


Interesting places:
  • Not far from us you'll find a really dangerous elite (2) with a lot of minions-bombers leaded by some resurrecting Leech (see image below). In spite of Leech, just draw away his minions and kill them in some quite place. After that he will be an easy target.
  • You'll find an entrance to a side quest (3) on the south. The description is below.
  • As on the last location here you'll find many beggars (5).
  • You'll get the Fox hat from some beggar (4). It gives a really good bonuses to us (but for me it wasn't actually because I found a full set Ravenscar). To get the hat answer to beggar that you fight evil in the name of wood good (or something like that, I don't remember the real phrase).
  • You'll get quest to save the beggar king (6) from the top beggar. Actually that location has nothing special, just Beggar King, some mobs and some loot.
  • Also, near this beggar you'll find a house (7) with a really big crack, where two men are bickering. Listen to their dialog to get essences from some barrels near the bottom portal.

So, location isn't difficult, but enemies are harmful.

Image as a gift
Abandoned Research Station (lvl 19)
Tiny location with weak enemies. But you'll find many interesting things here. And almost all of them are reachable only after you'll turn on the generator. So clear the location, turn on the generator and clear it again.


Interesting places:
  • Our scientist (1) is hidden behind the force wall, which you could disable only by turning on the generator (3). And every mech mob will raise. For the rescue the scientist gives you three options, You need to choose one (others will be buyable in the Lair). I usually take the Generator Plan.
  • On the way to scientist you'll find a miniboss (2) that looks like a common mob, but has 10k HP, earthquake and two kinds of tornado (see image below). So I don't recommend you to stand still.
  • That exact generator (3).
  • Near it you'll find an item for generator improvement in the Lair (dunno how it calls). It is in a tiny inconspicuous box. And also Mystic Gemstone (5) lying not far from it, but you need to get there by elevator.
  • Also you'll find some portal with button (4). It is not usual portal, but inverted one. I mean not we are going to the portal, but it is on us are going from the portal. After first two clicks on button there will show up two parties of birds from the portal. And after the 3rd click there will be essences from it. Also you'll find some funny tiny soldiers with 9 HP but damaging us as normal ones.

Image of the fat guy below
Industrial Port (lvl 21-23)
Huge location with various mobs and some quests either.


Interesting places:
  • Main quest (1) consists of killing pack of two elites, so I recommend to use EE and lure one of them to some quiet place.
  • Pretty sweet goblin domovoy (2) staying near you and whispering "My pleasure". From him you'll get an epic ring (no Mordor quest, sry).
  • Also, near you is lying drunk wounded man (3), who asks you to light on the lighthouse [1] and to defend supplies [2] after that.
  • Do you remember the domovoy from the very beginning of the game? Well, here he is (4). You'll get achiv from his body, if you still haven't received it.
  • Quest with flowers (5). Funny dialogs between Kat and Van every two flowers included.
  • Really sweet chest (6) with essences is lying nearby.
  • If you bought a treasure map in the Lair from assistant, then you'll get a quest to find the treasure (7) (which looks like a crate). For this quest you'll be rewarded with Mystic Gemstone.

Just before the main quest's elites I have been in that gear (with perk Perfect Aim):






Occult Hunter
Full Resistance lvl 2
Auras
Hunter's Rejuvenation lvl 2
Secret Lair (lvl 23)
Well, you'll find a quest like TD (Tower Defense, CO) - to reject mobs from going to your base.

Also, you can obtain two achievements (at any time of the year game btw) about traps:


Traps are just so cool!
To build 25 traps

Diversity in everything
To build every type of trap


Scheme of traps to do achiv (Spotless Defense):

We are green dot.

  • Line 1 and 2 completely on us
  • Line 3 partially covered by us if no work nearby.
  • Line 4 Completely ignores. Our rats will done with mobs pretty easily. But you also could help them.

And some hints about rats: If they are killed, you can summon a new one by standing on and releasing their trap (like a kind of button)

Half an hour of slack mode is for sure. Don't forget to look on the map to see new waves. And use EQ with runes. I used it almost by cooldown.

Waves:

The first wave will go on line 4 and nowhere else.
The second wave will be this way: 3 - 2 - 3 - 2.
The third one:
I went to the 4th line at the veeeery end of the wave, but mobs won't step closer than on this screen below, huh.

Lines sequence:
3,4 - 1,2 - 3,4 - 1,2 - 3 (boss)

The boss minions are not dangerous at all, but burns the whole mana, and the Boss, especially his beam, is really harmful. So I recommend to bring them to a party of rats and went to some safe place via EE and just wait. And you can shoot at them like I was (see image)

Rookery (Night) (lvl 23-25)
Well.. nothing interesting here.
Plenty of mobs, one quest, elite at the end of it and that's all.

A took Gunslinger perk.
The Old Town (lvl 25-27)
Huge location.. REALLY! HUGE!1

Enemies are not strong at all. Except Igors. Because they are quite tough and explodes after death (if last hit was not a critical) and also they place poison mines which deals massive damage to us. And if you want achiv (But they are so cute!) don't kill them at all (Yeah, this is hard).

You'll find Grapplers after some bridge. So be a little more accurate as usual. But I hadn't got any of critical moments so I hadn't got to use EE at all.


Some words about mystic gemstones. You should have 3 gems for now (or 6 if you didn't insert 3 of them into the Markovna's statue). Their locations:
1 - Croakwood
2 - Inkwell (Markovna)
3 - Gallowsbog
4 - Dreadworks
5 - Abandoned Research Station
6 - side quest "Find the Hidden Treasure" (NPC - in the Lair, treasure - in the Industrial Port)

Interesting places:
  • Main quest (1) consists of four parts, every part has an elite. There are grapplers on the bottom part, artillery near them, Mech helicopters on the top and wolves at last.
  • You'll find Wisp (3). Answer to his question - 42 (Hello Adams).
  • Also, you'll find a quest with rescuing three citizens (4). Nothing difficult, just some wolves and shooters.
  • If you'll insert three gems into a statue (5) then the portal will show up, where you'll find the best trophy in the game.
  • If you'll talk to some guy (2), then he gives you three options. Every option leads to a portal with specific loot and mobs.
    • Lost and Found - portal has rings and amulets. Population - DAMNIT BIRDS.
    • Flickers - Essences and wisps
    • Last one (I forget how it called) - trophies and fat mobs.
The Statue (lvl 25)
Little location, but has six gems and an epic trophy.


  • The main statue (1) is behind some force wall, To disable it you need to insert six gems into other two statues (5).
  • Three gemstones drops from elite (2)
  • One is lying in the chest (3).
  • And other two drop from the dead domovoy's (4).
After the force wall is disabled the boss will show up. He is pretty tough guy, but dies fast.

Gather loot from chests and click on the statue. Congratulations! You just obtained the best trophy in the world game. And also achiv (Rightful Heir and King's Bounty).
Secret Lair (lvl 27)
Another TD-style side quest will be from the person that respec your character.

Waves:
1 -- 3,4 - 2 - 3,4 - 2
2 -- 3 - 2 - 3 - 2
3 -- 3,4 - 1,2 - 3,4 - 1,2
The 3rd wave has a really big density of mobs. So run to 3rd and 4th lines to clear them.

No boss, no dangerous mobs.
Industrial Port (Night) (lvl 27-29)
Nothing special. At the bottom of the map you can finish side quest.

Nothing interesting here either.

In the middle of the map (on a highground) you'll find cannon and helicopter champions, so be accurate. Just lure out helicopters and kill them. After that you'll kill cannons easily.
Secret Laboratory (lvl 29)
Pros
Narrow corridors, the heaven for EQ.
Cons
Narrow corridors, it is difficult to evade artillery.

Location has a high density of mobs. If you'll turn left at the crossroads, then you'll find some NPC which you need to feed. He'll teleport us to a little location with some mobs and chests.

When you meet the professor he will give you three options. If you won't going to kill every mech cannon (personally I don't want to) in his room, then choose the option to pay him (it will cost about 10k).
The Pocket Realm (lvl 29)
At the very beginning of the location you'll meet some wisps with mages. You really could die here because it is nowhere to escape. So EQ! EQ! EQ!

On the North-West you'll find the last Wisp. Answer to riddle is Thunderbolt. Also, you'll get achivs (Riddle me Wisp and Ink Master)
The Gables and The Rooftop Mayhem (lvl 29-30)
The 30th level I get almost at the beginning of the first location

Actually, nothing interesting here except miniboss which looks like Michael Jackson just near the entrance to the Rooftop Mayhem. For him you'll get achiv (Trophy: Marquis of Soot).

My gear before last boss:

Perks
  • Iron Man
  • Master
  • Mentor
  • Veteran Hunter
  • Perfect Aim
  • Destructive
  • Resistive
  • Uncanny Fighter
  • Gunslinger
  • Berserker





Occult Hunter
Shoot 1
Rage 1
Elemental Damage 1
Full Resistance 5
Tricks
Arcane Healing 1
Ethereal Embodiment 1
Auras
Rampage 5
Hunter's Rejuvenation 6



Items


THE BOSS

Finally we get here. Actually the Boss is elementary. Just run around, destroy his buildings. Start with Gates and HeliPads and then Transformators.

After that kill all his minions with help of EQ running around at the same time. At last we'll face him 1 by 1, oh, sorry, 1 by 2 and kill him.


Congratulations! You beat the game.

And because we haven't got the best gear and normal DpS, the achiv Brute Force is unreachable (To kill the boss while all his toys are still being functional). But you'll get three achivs (I'm so Hardcore!, I'm Even more Hardcore! and I'm the Hardcorest!) at once.
Other Achievements
I'll write here achievements that wasn't included in the guide by some reasons. I won't explain every achiev, only some secrets and which is hard to get.

Unstoppable Force
Deliver a Critical Hit against a Charging
opponent with a Ranged Weapon.


Unmovable Object
Deliver a Critical Hit against a Charging
opponent with a Melee Weapon.


Jack of all Trades
Learn Every Skill



Obsessed Alchemist
Completely fill up the Alchemy tab
of your Inventory so you can't pick up
any new Alchemical items.

It is easy to obtain it by unstacking essences via shift key.


Fortune's Child
Gather a Cirtical Hit
chance of at least 50%.

It is easy to obtain it. Just gather 35% CC on the hero and take the upgrade of Rampage aura (5% CC) for full Rage. Then go to scenario Gallowsbog and find an altar with CC. Then just hit mobs while crit won't show up.

Also, it is quite fast to farm mobs at the last boss. But surely not on hardcore mode.
Conclusion
So, something like that. Thanks for watching reading! I would be glad ot reviews, wishes, comments, remarks, criticism, feedback and other. But don't invite to a tea party :)

76 Comments
barnak  [author] 9 Feb @ 1:46pm 
I would not recommend this guide as there was some changes in balance since I've created it :)
matheus da regulagem 4 Feb @ 9:48am 
Hey the guide still work? imma beginner and i didnt found any build guide for this game
barnak  [author] 14 Jul, 2022 @ 12:25pm 
You can try, but I don't think this build will work very well
TravellerLV 9 Jul, 2022 @ 4:37am 
does this guide still work? or is it outdated seen in the beginning outdated but comments suggest this guide build still works?
Reaper 5 Mar, 2021 @ 4:50pm 
Oh and I didn't take Uncanny and Mentor perks, still have those 2 points left, had a toon of potions all the time and tweaked a little bit Van's skills such as having: Earthboudsoul on EQ, Ghastly Shape 1, Rampage and Rejuvenation left them at 4, and removed both Bash and Cleave power ups.

Thanks again for the maps/walkthrough it definitely helped. Cheers. (Sorry for all the posting too many characters)
Reaper 5 Mar, 2021 @ 4:49pm 
On my Katherine build, I did 49 body 43 willpower, she was dying too much, willpower gives her better tankyness. On her skills I left Incorporeal Defense at 3 and Withering Kiss at 5 (Having around 1k defense was more than enough and more skill points there wouldn't make that much of a difference so I took those 4 points to Attack speed and damage for Van)

My gear damage was way lower than the end game guide build, with 563 on FC, but I had 100 more on each of my resistances, probably the game changed a bit or I need to tweak some more damage but afaik doesn't seem to be the gear level/damage probably substats such as crit damage or something. Anyway it was more than enough to rush end boss hit and run a little bit and calling off Katherine so she wouldn't die now and then, using a few pots and gg.
Reaper 5 Mar, 2021 @ 4:49pm 
The guide helped a lot, however a few notes to whoever plays using it next:

On Rookery it says "You can obtain Vodyanoy gang's quest from beggar (4). But kill mobs around at first.", I killed everything and couldn't accept the quest afterwards so just accept the quest, the only quest you should clear the location first is the one in Croakwood where you need to escort an NPC without him taking damage for an achievement.

Later on I found that there's an option to enable map reset mobs on settings, you should enable that for hardcore farming exp/gear. This guide doesn't mention that and the only thing you could do was the early werewolf dungeon afaik those reset if you don't fully complete them exit and re-enter.
Reaper 2 Mar, 2021 @ 2:33pm 
Hello, I'm at Croakwood, cleared the whole place and I'm level 7 as you said, so now how do I get level 9? Inside the werewolf den only (main quest dungeon)? Getting in and out resets werewolfs but there are no elites, only boss. I can't seem to reset Croakwood, I've read mobs don't respawn, I tried multiplayer solo didn't work either.
barnak  [author] 24 Jul, 2020 @ 1:12am 
Well, I'm glad that my guide is still useful to someone :cozyspaceengineersc:
MisterCensor 23 Jul, 2020 @ 8:55am 
Dude I didnt exactly follow your walkthrough but damn i followed your build and its quite effective... i even took out the boss at level 29 in brute force...amazing...that flowing combo skill did its work.