I recently started to play Grim Dawn and I am obviously quite a noob. I am familiar with other Arpg’s so most mechanics do make sense to me. I am a little bit confused as to what the ideal leveling route would be. Right now I am on my first playthrough and completed acts 1-4 and the Malmouth expension story. Now I started the Forgotten Gods Story and am currently Level 65. I play in normal difficulty and I was starting to wonder if I am doing the right thing as the quests rewarded me with very little exp (like 2000). So I started to google and read that I am too high Level for this content (regarding exp rewards). I always thought the game was laid out like Diablo 2. Going through the acts, up the difficulty and going through the acts again and again - but apperently not? I kinda expected devotion shrines and quests that grant you skill points reset and should be played again in higher difficulties? Or am I just supposed to level where and on what difficulty I want until I reach Level 100 (is that even a realistic target?)
I expect if you’ve done everything, i.e. cleared all areas, then you might be a bit high. Forgotten Gods can be accessed after you kill the Warden at the end of Act 1, but the smoothest progression is to do GD - AoM - FG.
If you want to skip FG then you can since you unlocked Elite difficulty when you killed Loghorrean at the end of Act 4. Simply exit back to the character selection screen and then change the difficulty there. Shrines, quests, etc, will then reset, but you’ll keep your XP and faction rep. When you kill the Warden again you can access FG if you want on that difficulty or carry on with the base game to kill Loghorrean again and unlock Ultimate.
I think it is completely normal to finish normal at level 65-70 then finish elite at level 90 and reach 100 halfway in ultimate, especially for first character where you’re supposed to learn and familiarize yourself with map and quest of the game.
On second playthrough, you may have less time exploring, not doing side quest, and can reach Elite by 50.
Thanks for your replies. I would definetively describe myself as a completionist. I like to unlock every shrine, do every side quest, enter every dungeon or cave and walk to every corner of each map (for my first playthrough).
I was just worried that I might miss out on mandatory content if I am not following a specific route.
So far I understood that in order to unlock higher difficulties (elite and ultimate) I have to complete acts 1-4 on normal and elite (makes sense). AoM and FG is not mandatory for progressing and is considered extra content. I guess I am still not sure whether its recommended to do everything (including the expensions) on every difficulty in order to get every single possible shrine and skill point or other sort of build relevant rewards? It’s probably like in other games where at some point you know, what quests gives you what and which content you can skip and where you get your mandatory rewards. I realize I can farm reputation for the faction vendors seperately to the story at any point I want.
Don’t worry if you miss something important in Normal/Elite because there are so called ‘Merits’ that give you skills points, bags etc everything important from previous difficulties. People use them to start the game on Ultimate and have everything crucial from Normal and Elite done.
Also don’t worry about skipping shrines, just in Ultimate there’s enough of them to max out Devotion.
To sum up - don’t panic. I don’t think GD is a game where you can screw up irreversibly (not be optimal) by missing something or making a wrong choice. The devs made sure that’s the case on many levels.
Just to share my experience also as a new-ish player (since December '19) - I noticed this too. I played my first character on veteran difficulty, which has an XP bonus and also spawns more enemies. By the time I had completed all of the campaign content through FG, I was (IIRC) level 78.
I have the amusing issue now where I’ve progressed to elite and I’m breezing through it because my character is too high level for the content. It won’t be until Ultimate that I’m actually challenged again.
Ah, interesting. I’ve not hit that yet (although I’m not far off on a couple of factions).
I ended up starting a second character though to see how the game plays with a totally different play-style (first char was a pierce-based blademaster, second is a pet-based cabalist).
But yes, the expansions seem to mean that if you play as I do (clear whole areas, explore everything, do every side quest you can find) then you end up levelling faster than the content scales (for the most part).
There seem to be 2 issues coming to light here, and their interaction with each other are somewhat symbiotic
Levelling
Completing content
For a first character, I would argue that Completing all the content, regardless of challenge level (IE; if you’re leveled too high for forgotten gods), is important and a good idea. Doing this will teach you where roguelike dungeons are, where you can farm MIs, where unique vendors are, and so on and so forth. Yes you could research those things online but, it’s very satisfying scouring all the well designed landscapes in this game. You’re constantly incentivized by the minor dopamine releases triggered whenever you find a hidden treasure chest which there are like a BAZILLION of.
If you clear normal completionist style, you’ll know the landscape like the back of your hand for when you do Elite, and even more so in Ultimate and whenever you start new builds.
I don’t mind being ‘overleveled’. Obviously I don’t know how hard the game can get yet but I found the enemies on veteran-mode already hit pretty hard to somewhat challenge you in normal.
Something else:
What am I supposed to do with all the healing and energy potions? They drop in abundance, while they do stack to 100 sooner or later they will trash my inventory. They are auto pickup so I can’t help but gathering them and they sell for very few iron bits. So whats the smart thing to do here?
I believe there are a few disadvantages of being too high-level. When monsters are hilariously below your character level (I think the threshold is 10 levels below, but don’t quote me).
Monsters won’t drop rare crafting components such as ancient hearts, tainted brain matter etc
You don’t earn faction reputation for killing them
I’m going to be having this problem with my blademaster. I’m level 78 but in Epic I’m still in Act 1, in areas that have maximum levels of 65. So the average critter I meet is 13 levels below me. Sure, one Ring of Steel is enough to vaporise a trash mob, but I’m not getting much reward from playing him the moment.
That’s part of the reason I started a new character. I think that my only ‘solution’ for that char is to rush through Epic and get to Ultimate, so that the game starts scaling up again. Perhaps also I could try Crucible and/or Shattered Realm (but that would just exacerbate my problem in campaign mode). There’s always getting ready to fight Nemesis bosses too, as mentioned earlier.
What am I supposed to do with all the healing and energy potions?
After I go over 100 of either potion type, I keep the small stack and sell the batch of 100. A stack of 100 is surprisingly valuable for being (effectively) a 1-inven-slot item. Unlike other ARGS where I left excess healing potions on the ground with other trash items.
You can save them for later in your stash - especially the healing potions. In the typical endgame activities (Crucible and/or Shattered Realm), you won’t get any potions. The simply don’t drop in Crucible and SR. So sooner or later you’ll run out of healing potions. OFC they are relatively cheap and you can always buy as many as you want from vendors. But why sell them first, if you’ll need them later on?
EDIT: Regarding “completionist” versus more selective playthroughs: With every new character I level, I always play at least to the beginning of AoM in Normal. In Elite, I usually only play through the base game (until killing Loghorrean), then I do a more or less complete playthrough of base game, AoM and FG. OFC I’m level 100 before finishing the campaign, but that doesn’t bother me.
The reason why you want to play at least to the beginning of AoM in Normal is that you want to get in contact with all the AoM factions. To be able to gain reputation for a faction, you need to “know” them in game. “Getting to know a faction” usually means doing at least one quest for them. Once you discovered a faction in one difficulty, you will always get reputation for them in higher difficulties, even if you don’t actually meet them in said difficulties.
For example: Coven of Ugdenbog reputation is gained by killing beasts, Barrowholme wants you to kill Chthonians. If you did at least one quest for these AoM factions in normal, every single beast or Chthonian you meet from thereon will count towards your reputation.
That’s a great question with a very relevant answer- many of the items you can get from faction vendors are Soulbound, meaning they can’t be transferred from one character to another.
For these items, many of which are SUPER important in the later stages of the game, and essential to getting the most out of each build, you will need to get that reputation up on each character you want to be able to equip these items on. Vendors won’t sell them to you unless you hit that rep, and you can’t share these items in your stash, and other players can’t trade them to you or give them to you either.
