New Player Knowledge Compendium

New Player Knowledge Compendium

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Grim Dawn New Player Knowledge Compendium

i - Introduction

I feel there’s a fairly steep learning curve to get into Grim Dawn (as far as min/maxing and understanding builds and the more subtle game mechanics) and I remember being fairly bemused when I started, despite an extensive background in Diablo 1-3.

Starting out, I wished for a good beginner’s resource that went beyond the content of Crate’s Game Guide. So here’s my attempt to consolidate a lot of the answers I searched for when I started out plus tips learned from playing, to help other new players acclimate to the game.

Note: This started with me writing useful information from forum posts into Notepad++. I didn’t think I would write as much as I did or have it eventually become a guide for a wider audience, so I’m certain I didn’t give credit everywhere it’s due. If you see something I ripped from one of your posts, please let me know and I will credit you appropriately. Also, I'm aware pretty much all of this information can be found elsewhere, but I wanted to make a single comprehensive post.

ii - Table of Contents

I - Resources

[010] Guides and References
[011] Tools
[012] Builds

II - Game Mechanics

[020] Classes, Attributes, and Skill Points
[021] Skills and the Skill Tree
[022] Devotions

III - Gameplay

[030] Miscellaneous Info
[031] Campaign
[032] Acts
[033] Quests
[034] Factions and Reputation
[035] Kymon’s Chosen vs Order of Death’s Vigil
[036] Challenge Dungeons
[037] Notable Bosses
[038] Boss Fight Mechanics/Tips
[039] Crucible

IV - Gearing and Leveling

[040] Items
[041] Farming for Items
[042] Items to keep in your Stash
[043] Gearing
[044] Crafting
[045] Leveling

I - Resources
[010]Guides and References
Grim Dawn Game Guide - Crate’s official game guide
Official Grim Dawn Wiki - Officially endorsed and well-updated Wiki
ForgottenKane’s Hardcore Survival Guide - Great guide for any new player, hardcore or not

[011]Tools
The Maphack - Great tool to plan out routes, find secrets, and spawn locations; although outdated for newer content, it still gives you accurate maps for all current areas (just don’t always trust all the spawn point locations and you won’t find the newly added mobs)
Grimtools - Great site with both an item database and build calculator

[012]Builds (for beginners and/or top end game builds + stuff that looked fun)
Vitality Conjurer - Oft cited as the easiest character to start as with no gear
Witchblade - A top Crucible build, effective even without end gear (this was my first 85 to clear Ultimate)
Witch Hunter - A top DoT caster Campaign build, decent without end gear (my first character, first to reach Ultimate before I switched to Witchblade, but second to hit 85 and clear Ultimate)
Pet Pyromancer - The top pet build
Dual Wield Shadowstrike Spellbreaker - The current top melee Campaign build
Dual Wield Tri-Element Saboteur - A top melee build
Ulzuin Sorcerer - A top ranged build
Gunslinger Sorcerer - A good dual-pistol build
Forum Build Compendium - Lots more builds

II - Game Mechanics
[020]Classes, Attributes, and Skill Points

• You will choose one of six classes (Soldier, Demolitionist, Occultist, Nightblade, Arcanist, Shaman) at level 2 and can choose a second class at level 8.
• Once you multi class, your class name will change depending on the combination; until you learn them by heart, here’s a class table on the wiki.
• After selecting a class, you invest skill points into the class mastery to unlock skills in that class (more skills are unlocked the more Mastery points you invest).
• Max level is currently 85 (to be raised to 100 after the expansion releases) and at max level, after all bonus attribute/skill point quests are completed, you will have 90 attribute points and 223 skill points to distribute.
• Note: this is not enough points to even max out all skill points in a single tree, let alone two, so there’s a great deal of build diversity (not to mention different gear, devotions, and component possibilities).
• You gain 1 attribute point per level.
• You gain 3 skill points per level until level 50, after which you earn 2 points per level.
• Attributes are Physique (health, health regen, reduced chance to be critically hit), Cunning (bonus physical, pierce, and bleed damage, chance to hit, critical hit chance), and Spirit (bonus magic damage, energy, energy regen).
• You can refer to build guides for attribute allocation but the general rule is: enough Spirit and Cunning to wear your end game gear at max level, the rest in Physique.
• With exception for certain builds, Cunning is often completely ignored and a mix of ~70/20 Physique/Spirit is fairly common.
• It’s a good idea to save attribute points in the last 5-10 levels in case you find a piece of gear for which you’ll need to invest more points in a category you’re short in.
• Attribute points cannot be reallocated, nor can points in Masteries, but all other skill points and devotion points can be altered (at a cost at the Spirit Guide, which is cheap to start but goes up the more points you change).
• Skill points invested in Masteries not only unlock more abilities but provide base stats (Physique, Cunning, Spirit, as well as Health and Energy).
• While you can level as a pure class up through Normal/Veteran, it's recommended to multiclass for higher difficulties (due to the skill synergies this opens up, as well as the additional class's Mastery points adding more raw attributes/health/energy).
• You can hover over the “+” Mastery icon or the Attribute name to see how many points you’ve invested.

[021]Skills and the Skill Tree

• Active skills (that must be cast or toggled) have square icons and passives have circles.
• Toggled skills need only be cast once (at start of play, usually, to toggle them on), but reserve a certain amount of your Energy bar (i.e. if you have 1000 Energy and a skill reserves 150 Energy, after toggling it on, you will only have a max of 850 Energy to use).
• You can only have one “Exclusive” skill active at a time, from ANY tree (so you can’t have an exclusive Arcanist and exclusive Soldier skill active at the same time, for example).
• After placing a point in an active skill that starts a path (i.e. the horizontal line progression of abilities), you do not need to take points in all sequential abilities to put points in a higher tier. For example, you can do this:
  
• Transmuters are the offshoot/branch abilities in any particular skill progression. For example, the transmuter for the base skill Dreeg's Evil Eye (DEE) in the Occultist tree is Focused Gaze:
  
• Transmuters are one-point passives that fundamentally change how the skill works. In this case, it adds a cooldown to DEE, but adds significantly more damage and AoE.
• Many skills (active and toggled that you can put on your skill bar, as well as passive, which you cannot) are available only through components.
• Components are random drops that can be added to specific item types (depending on component).
• Many builds/leveling guides will advocate leveling with component skills as your primary skill, which can be confusing for new players who might not know how to get this skill. For example, Arcanists often level with Olexra's Flash Freeze (OFF). While OFF deals cold damage, it's much better when paired with the Searing Ember and Flintcore Bolts components, which can be added to your main and offhand. These grant Fireblast and Greater Fireblast respectively, skills that can be added to your skill bar, and deal fire damage (obviously), which pairs well with the fire resists reduction (RR) provided by OFF.

[022]Devotions

• Devotions are accessed from the skill tree menu and consist of a series of constellations, in which each individual star takes a devotion point and provides a permanent passive bonus or new ability.
• Stars with a red aura are Celestial abilities that can be bound to an existing active skill that will have a chance to proc when that skill is cast (click on the star to see available skills to bind to and select from).
• You can use the Spirit Guide to respec points (unlearn points).
• With the exception of the center (the Crossroads), every constellation has an affinity requirement before you can place points in it.
• There are 5 affinities: Ascendant (purple), Chaos (red), Eldritch (green), Order (yellow), and Primordial (blue).
• All tier 1 constellations require only 1 point in their affinity to unlock, which you can get via the Crossroads, since it contains each affinity.
• Once you complete a constellation, it will provide bonus affinity points to unlock further tiers.
• There are 3 tiers, with tier 3 providing the most powerful bonuses and abilities.
• Tier 3 constellations do not have completion bonuses since they already have a high affinity requirement.
• Constellation completion bonuses can pay for themselves. For example, you put one point in the blue Crossroads (top star). You now put three points into Eel (requires 1 blue), to complete it. The completion bonus for Eel grants 5 blue. You can now unlearn the point in the blue Crossroads and you'll keep Eel, since you have 5 blue points (which counts towards the 1 required for Eel).
• Commonly, builds will spec into and out of various Crossroads as they unlock more things/complete constellation bonuses.
• Devotion points are gained by cleansing shrines found throughout the Campaign (locations are set, although each difficulty removes more shrines).
• There are 59 shrines in total, 28 in Normal, 17 in Elite, 14 in Ultimate; you can cleanse them all but only gain a maximum of 50 devotion points.
• See the wiki for a list of shrine locations.
• Even after max devotion points, shrines are still worth cleansing, since they provide a decent set of item drops.
• Alternatively, you can use the Crucible DLC and spend tribute points earned therein to gain devotion points (more on the Crucible and tributes later), or a combination of both shrine cleansing and tributes.

III - Gameplay
[030]Miscellaneous Info

• On Campaign mode, there are three difficulties: Normal, Elite, Ultimate; whereas on Crucible these are Aspirant, Challenger, Gladiator.
• Each successive difficulty buffs monsters and provides a penalty on your top row resists (-25% on Elite, -50% on Ultimate, with additional -25% on bottom row on Ultimate). This Reddit post contains additional details.
• Normal has an optional “Veteran” checkbox that will have more mobs spawn as well as more hero monsters; if you have any ARPG experience, Veteran is the way to go unless you’re speed running through to a higher difficulty.
• You can open a rift gate from the map (press M), then toggle to the world map, and teleport directly to that rift (without having to open your own rift gate by pressing L).

[031]Campaign

• Whether or not you have the Crucible DLC, your first play through should absolutely be through the Campaign, full clearing maps to flesh out the map/explore/read lore/etc.
• The general map layout is always the same (not randomly generated). However, impassable blocks are randomly generated in different play sessions, so you'll have to take a slightly different route to go through the same area.
• There are secret areas that don't show up on the minimap, but you can wander off the trail (or destroy a breakable wall to enter). You can use the maphack site for these locations or find them yourself.
• Some secret areas are only accessible after destroying non-clickable environment (like wardrobes).
• One-shot chests are chests that are only available to open once per difficulty (Normal/Elite/Ultimate); after opening, they will not be present in future sessions on that character in that difficulty.
• One-shot chests are guaranteed to drop an epic with a chance for a legendary on Elite/Ultimate difficulties; items are scaled to the level of the area, not level of the player.
• One-shot chests appear as “Exalted Stash” when mousing over.
• See the wiki for one-shot chest locations.
• Pick up and read lore notes (they’ll be in your inventory) for good XP as well as some fascinating lore reading (truly, Grim Dawn has awesome lore).

[032]Acts

• While not obvious in game, outside resources divide the game into four acts, which consist of the following (locations in parentheses are where Challenge Dungeons are located):

Act 1:

Spoiler!

Main town is Devil’s Crossing, set in the swamps and backwaters of Burrwitch; you primarily fight Slith and Aetherials; final boss is Warden Krieg

Rift Locations: Devil's Crossing, Lower Crossing, Wightmire, Foggy Bank, The Flooded Passage, Burrwitch Outskirts, Burrwitch Village, The Warden's Cellar, Underground Transit, Hidden Laboratory

Act 2:
Act 3:
Act 4:

[033]Quests

• Some quests will only be available after a certain point (such as inventor quest for Origin of the Slith or to break down items; need to get to Act 2 and get dynamite before he offers it, even if on later difficulties you already have dynamite).
• Turn in the final quest (Bane of Cairn / kill Loghorrean) after level 50. It will provide a guaranteed legendary (legendaries can only drop at monster level 50+ but quest turn in takes into account your level instead).
• Several mutually exclusive choices are available in campaign. For your first play through, just do whatever you think best. You can change all your choices at each difficulty level, so nothing's permanent. However, you'll want to make certain decisions in Elite/Ultimate for your build for endgame. There's no way to reverse the decisions once you've taken them in a difficulty (besides starting a new character).
• Spoiler: For the arguably "best" choices (or a discussion of options), see below:

  Act 1: A Cultist in the Midst- kill Direni, gives Devil's Crossing rep and rare material Blood of Ch'thon; letting him live means fighting him later, no rep, and while you get a guaranteed Strange Key to enter the Depraved Sanctuary, this is easily dropped by cultists nearby
  Act 1: The Ironclad Chef- Let Ulgrim know about Devil's Crossing (otherwise you miss out on rep, XP, and some lore conversations)
  Act 1: The Origin of the Slith- only available after Honored with Devil's Crossing; give him formula to get some iron bits in addition to XP
  Act 1: Tale of Two Blacksmiths- side with Duncan for more XP in normal, makes no difference in later difficulties, so choose for your build
  Act 2: Paying Tributes- bribing Silas will get you 3 scrap, but lose out on some XP and additional quests, though people are happier; otherwise can give him scrap/kill him to unlock further quest and more XP
  Act 2: Vengeance- believe Isaiah, he'll be a vendor in Homestead, with better prices if you don't extort him
  Act 2: The Lost Elder- return talisman for more rep and iron; if you keep it, you'll get a rare amulet
  Act 2: A Family Crisis- choose the second line of each dialogue option to convince him to come to Devil's Crossing for XP and an item
  Act 2: Cronley's Secret- destroy crystal and keep some for some Aether Crystals
  Act 3: Allies Among the Ashes- depends, see Kymon vs Order section; generally, pick the faction you want for endgame in Ultimate, and choose the other faction in Normal/Elite
  Act 3: Burn the Taken- save her to get rare offhand, vs burn her to get rare dagger
  Act 3: Trapped and Alone- kill her in crypt will yield Rover rep; helping Kalista will yield a Riftstone
  Act 4: Precious Resources- give to Black Legion, since it’s harder to get rep with them
  Act 4: The Aetherial Witch- side with Anasteria for best Aether resist augments, can optionally kill her for access to Ikon Prison dungeon which yields great Black Legion rep and can farm Anasteria's legendary helm. See the Notes section in link for more discussion on how to handle this quest, see her wiki entry

• Quests can be completed in each difficulty level and some you should definitely do for extra skill/attribute points. These are:
  
• Quests that provide an inventory bag (to a maximum of 5):
  
• Some quests only become available after certain reputation level with specific factions:
  Friendly
  Respected
  Honored
  

[034]Factions and Reputation

• On your first character, once you hit Honored with a faction, buy a Writ to increase rep gain by 50% on that character for that faction.
• Once you're Revered, you can buy Mandates to put in your shareable stash. Other characters can then take/use these items to get 100% rep gain with that faction (but it's a one time use item, so for multiple characters, you'll need to buy it multiple times).
• Once you reach the end of the Hated bar for various factions, it will unlock a Nemesis boss monster that will spawn in certain random locations for that faction. These are:

  Aetherials: Valdaran, the Storm Scourge
  Undead: Moosilauke, the Chillwind
  Cronley's Gang: Fabius "the Unseen" Gonzar
  Chthonians: Benn'Jhar, the Colossal
  Kymon's Chosen: The Iron Maiden
  Order of Death's Vigil: Zantarin, the Eternal

[035]Kymon’s Chosen vs Order of Death's Vigil

• You must make a choice in Act 3 to side with one or the other faction.
• This will put your rep as Friendly with one, Despised for the other.
• Kymon’s Chosen/Order of Death’s Vigil are located on opposite sides of Sorrow's Bastion (when you side with one, and then change in another difficulty, it’s easy to go to the wrong side).
• Both factions have different augments available at Revered reputation.
• Based on your end game gear, you’ll want to pick the faction with augments you need on Ultimate difficulty.
• Once you’ve made that choice, pick the other faction on Normal/Elite to build up rep to Revered, stock up on augments of the opposing faction, then switch on Ultimate.
• After you’ve switched to a different faction, the factions won’t be accessible on other difficulties.

[036]Challenge Dungeons

• There are challenge dungeons (rogue-likes) that you cannot teleport out of until completion or death that require a Skeleton Key (craftable one-use item) to open.
• Generally speaking, save your keys for Ultimate difficulty after you're geared a bit, to get the best loot/best chance of completing it without dying.
• However, trying them out on Normal or Elite is a good idea to get a feel for them the first time.
• The dungeons consist of multiple challenging levels followed by an uber boss at the end.
• These dungeons with their bosses are:

  Steps of Torment (SoT): Alkamos, Lord Executioner
  Port Valbury: Overlod Van Aldritch
  Bastion of Chaos (BoC): Shar'Zul, Harbinger of Chaos

• You need to cap resists before attempting the various challenge dungeons; this makes a huge difference (I played Port Valbury without maxed Aether resist and got destroyed, did it with capped Aether and had an easy time).

[037]Notable Bosses

• Besides the act end-bosses (Krieg, Cronley, Karroz, Loghorrean), there are other notable bosses worth knowing about (particularly those that drop MIs).
• A quick reference:
• Rashalga, the Mad Queen (secret boss in the Hidden Path secret quest chain, accessed by touching a Loose Stone in the Bysmiel area)
• Salazar, Blade of Ch'thon (boss in Depraved Sanctuary, which requires a Strange Key to enter per difficulty, which can randomly drop from cultists)
• Gollus, the Deepdweller (boss in secret area of Den of the Lost, accessed through the Royal Hive via Skittering Den)
• Guardians of Dreeg/Solael/Bysmiel (all part of the Hidden Path chain, unique bosses that have a chance of dropping the MI legguards used in many endgame builds)
• Avatar of Mog'drogen (can challenge him after cleansing the Shrine of Mogdrogen, a quest available on each difficulty only after being Honored with the Rovers)

[038]Boss Fight Mechanics/Tips (this section needs expansion)

• Mad Queen - has red life leech aura which, when on, will heal her quickly (stay away), kill her worms when she spawns them, stay out of poison
• Loxmere - he will burn your energy, try to avoid this
• Anasteria - deadly combination of Aether RR plus Devastation direct damage spell
• Fabius - if he spawns with certain weapons (such as Notched Bone of a Thousand Deaths), he can one-hit you; you need bleed/pierce resists capped; his Shadow Strike applies RR
• Valdaran - he reduces lightning resist and has powerful lightning attack, overcapped lightning resist is important
• Mogdrogen - intended to be very challenging, on Ultimate he is extremely difficult and the fight is expected to take some time; he does a ton of lightning damage and summons lots of pets
• The Sentinel - he spawns pylons that heal him, kite him away from them

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Last edited by ceruleansong; Today at 04:38 AM. Reason: Added links and some more pretty colors

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New Player Knowledge Compendium