Introduction
One of the most interesting details in GD is the faction system. Generally there are friendly and enemy factions you will meet during your journey in the world of Cairn. My ongoing guide have the purpose of provide short details about them and what kinda unique and valuable gear they provide.
Warning, this guide will have spoilers!
Advises about factions:
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Unless you can’t choose or you want to have Nemesis status, there is no incentive to not be friendly with Oucast and Barrowholm.
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Buy all components blueprints, they are used also in crafting.
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But faction boosters to reach higher reputation status quicker.
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You can do faction quests to further boos it.
Vanilla Factions
Devil’s Crossing:
The first faction you will meet and often the first faction, you will reach revered status. Definitely is worth maxing. You can do that by doing main quests in act 1 or kill Cronley’s gang members in act 2. Some valuable items/blueprints it provide:
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Bladesworn talisman- Relic that allows to dual wield early in the game. Gunslinger do that but for ranged specs.
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Survivor ingenuity- Great jewels augment in mid/early late game. Can boost your OA and DA a bit.
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Mogdrogen’s Touch- Nice resistances augment, giving acid and vitality.
Rovers:
Second faction you will meet. Their faction vendor is in Old Arkovia. Doing quest for them and killing undead will boost their rep. Items worth mentioning:
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Elite Rwovari footpads- nice faction boots, that gives you valuable CC resistances.
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Venomguard powder augment helps a lot with acid resistances.
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Mark of Mogdrogen- very nice movement boosting component. Helps with slow resistance too.
Homestead:
It’s the third or fourth faction friendly you will encounter, depending where certain path will carry you. There reputation is straightforward enough. Note you will lose or gain reputation in a quest in Fort Ikon, where you need to choose where to distribute some goods-to Homestead or Black Legion. Killing Beasts boost Homestead reputation. Some items:
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Elite Harvest foodpads- Great number of valuable resistances, also slow. I often use this item in my beginners guides.
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Elite Solar Sledge- Nice 2h fire weapon for leveling. It have flat fire and attack speed bonus.
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Flameweave powder- augments boosting your fire and pierce resistances.
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Courageous tincture - cheap consumable, giving DA and armor boost.
Black Legion:
Your first encounter with them is either at Homestead or Pine Barrens. Their faction vendors are both at Homestead and Fort Ikon. You gain reputation by killing Aetherial Vanguards, which are the enemies at AoM expansion and not regular aetherials. Also you gain reputation by killing Outcast, if you decide to be hostile with them. Items:
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Creed’s cunning- great augment mid game for elemental builds, gives you OA, damage, health and energy regeneration. I use it sometimes even in absolute end game builds.
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Mankind vigil- one of the better armor augments, giving you both aether and chaos resistances.
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Elite Legion Greaves- boots with stun reduction and also physical resistance. Great for leveling and undergeared characters.
Kymon’s Choosen:
First of all there are two factions that are in conflict in-between. Kymon and Death Vigil. You can select only one of them. You automatically turn hostile to the other. If you character is Necromancer, you can select only Vigil. When you speak to them, they give you information about the gear they’re providing. Kymon reputation is increased by killing Chtonics and Order members. Headquarters are in Sorrow’s Bastion. Items:
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Kymon’s will augment- jewelry augment, with DA, fire damage and more importantly damage reduction. It’s recommended for any end game character to have one source of reduction.
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Kymon’s blessing- armor augment with whooping 15% fire resistance. You need solid overcap against SharZul or Garganol.
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Demonbane Powder- armor augment with chaos and vitality resistances.
Order of Death’s Vigil:
Again headquarters in Sorrow’s bastion. You gain reputation from killing Aetherials and Kymon’s chosen members. Items:
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Elite Death’s embrace- tough to find better cold off hand for leveling.
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Spellward powder- armor augment with lightning and aether resistances.
Outcast:
Faction run by Anasteria. Only place where it’s present is in Fort Ikon. You gain reputation by killing both Chtonics and Aetherials. Note that you can turn hostile against them if you want. Only advantage is if you reach Nemesis status, you can farm Anasteria for her famous Helm. But it’s weak in current state of the game.
But at same time Outcast provides the worst gear/augments in the game. Unless you own just the base game, you rarely can find something useful.
Ashes of Malmouth factions
Coven’s Refuge:
First friendly faction you will meet in AoM expansion. You gain reputation by killing Beasts. Items:
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Wraith scream and Skyshard powder jewelry augments. Firs provide vitality damage and OA, second-lightning and OA.
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Coven’s bane is excellent weapon augment for vitality and acid casters.
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Coven Black Ash- armor augment with pierce and chaos resistances.
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Recipes - Blazerush is decent 2h fire weapon, Aetherbolt pendant is the best amulet in numerous builds, like Lightning Albrecht Aether Ray Mage Hunter. Mark of lethal intents is great acid medal. Hex launcher is useful weapon for aether Drain Essence Apostate.
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Green items- AoM vendors provides as usual various gear with resistances, skill bonuses and stats. So they aren’t universal but have some value.
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Blue items- Coven Sky and Storm seals are some of the better rings in the entire game! Coven medals are also good. Arcane is good for elemental casters, blades for pierce builds.
Barrowholm:
You gain reputation with them by killing Cjtonics. Note that you can turn hostile against them and try to reach Nemesis status. But generally Barrowholm provides great augments. If you don’t like them, for personal satisfaction you can kill them. 
Items:
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Ravager eye. Reason number one for be friendly with them. Probably most universal weapon augment in the game. Big bonus to health and DA, also great if you play pets. Other weapon augments are good for builds counting on big Weapon Damage and needing flat.
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Armor augments are decent but I rarely use any of them.
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Recipes: Mark of Voracious one is perhaps the better from them. I used this medal in Warlord physical tank. Reaver’s hunger amulet looks decent on paper for Cabalist. Also pets stuff.
Malmouth’s Resistance:
Last faction in AoM. They provide great gear. Doing quest will gradually uncovers more vendors. In final stage, their quartermaster is at Steelcap district. Gaining reputation by killing Aetherials Vanguards. Items:
-POTION OF CLARITY- Can’t emphasize enough how important is for leveling. Basically it doubles your speed. Also please buy Aetherward oil for good bonus against these pesky aetherials!
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Augments - Weapon augments boosting cold, lightning, pierce, lightning or tri-elemental builds. So very often your best weapon augment is bought here. Arcanum Dust is the most universal jewelry augment, giving you total damage and energy regeneration. Other jewelry augments have their purpose, nothing redundant or weak.
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Armor augments - Best one is Soulgard powder, giving pierce and aether resistances. Other augments are kinda meh.
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Recipes - I would start with The Desolator- a monster fire Gun for Purifier, crazy good! Hearth of Malmouth is nice amulet for casters, especially Mage hunters.
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Blue items - some are nice as placeholders for legendaries. I like for example the Badge of elements medal.
Forgotten Gods Factions
Cult of Solael:
First of all, I have to write that unlike Kymon/Order where going friendly with the one turn hostile with other, here selecting faction just give you chance for faster leveling reputation and few unique quests.
Also every faction have the blueprint for the useful belt called White Lotus.
So Solael offers interesting quests, although people that are playing in pacifist way will definitely not like it. So items:
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Augments - Weapon augments are great for vitality or pierce oriented builds. Solael’s Soulbanding offers pierce/vitality resistances for your armor slot.
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Recipes- Few useful one, best is perhaps medal Mark of burning shadows, which can be used for builds focued around Righteous Fervor or Blackwater Cocktail. Bloodsurge is decent amulet for physical or bleeding builds, especially Soldiers.
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Misc- Solael mark of slaughter is interesting medal for pierce Blademaster. Other blue jewels have some application too. I don’t really like the runes.
Cult of Dreeg:
I like them for items. Also enjoyable story line. But let’s see their “gems”:
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Augments- Weapon augments can be used in chaos or acid builds but offensively my focus is shifted to Osyr wisdom, great jewels augmentation for elemental builds, providing damage, OA and resistances. Armor augments, Dreeg omen gives you really juicy 30 DA, making it universally needed augment. Other augments provides very valuable resistances too.
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Recipes - The best from the bunch is Rancor, build enabling weapon for pierce or bleeding builds.
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Misc- Riftstalker is decent teleport rune, before you can use Displacement.
Cult of Bysmiel:
I will not lie and say that I picked Bysmiel only because of the “lady from Malmouth”.
That’s the faction you want if you play pets but not only,items:
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Augments - Other than pets, offensively Bysmiel Shroud is great for every aether build, Bysmiel cunning is the weapon augment for physical /trauma builds. Ateph glare is jewelry augment used in cold builds, others are less used.
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Recipes - Mark of Shadow queen, BiS for Panetti Mage Hunter but also great for any elemental Inquisitor based caster. Bysmiel Mindweaver is very good weapon for elemental based pet builds, using Occultist.
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Misc - Emblem of the Shadowy Assasin is very good offensive movement skill early game. Bysmiel vile seal is decent cheap ring for vitality melee builds.
Hostile Factions
In your journey you’ll encounter multiple hostile factions. You gain negative reputation by killing them or doing quests with friendly factions against them. Every rank will unlock more heroes and tougher enemies. The ultimate rank is called Nemesis and that gives you a chance to fight against very strong opponent. Nemesis are marked on your map with skull and their name appears in red. Each faction have one Nemesis, except Chtonic having two, one in Vanilla content and one in AoM. Usually Nemesis have multiple spawn points. They have distinguished loot, either shoulders or pants.
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Undead - Moosi is usually the easiest Nemesis to find, in Steps of torment dungeon and also it’s easy to reach Nemesis status with Undead. Fight is easy but beware of the second phase crystals, they are freezing you. You need freeze resistance or potion.
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Chtonics - Also possible to reach Nemesis fairly early. Benni Jahr is relatively easy Nemesis if you can face tank him. Kiting can be tough because of his traps. Grava Thul the AoM Nemesis is really tough opponent. Be wary of the nullification balls stripping all of your buffs!
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Aetherials - Nemesis is called Valdaran. Deals also lightning damage. If you run can teleport you back.
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Cronley’s gang - Nemesis is human Nightblade called Fabius. Reaching Nemesis status is tough but Fabius have small number of spawn points. He deals solid pierce damage and have DA shred and Blade barrier.
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Vigil/Kymon - You turn hostile to one of them and can reach slowly Nemesis status. Their “champions” are Zantarin and Iron Maiden.
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Beasts - Kubacabra the endless menace. Have cellular mitosis and multiple phases. Blood pools have healing abilities, don’t stand there! Can be tough for cold/vitality builds.
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Aetherial Vanguard - AoM aether enemies. Archmage Alexender can be very easy or very tough opponent. Meteors can one shot kill you. Best strategy is to stay under roof or pillar.
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Barrowholm - Tough to reach Nemesis. Reaper is very dangerous enemy. Have Savagery based attack which became more powerful with every charge. Summon ghosts that are shredding your resistances.
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Eldritch Horrors - FG faction. Kaisan is one of the toughest opponents in the game. Green crystals are nasty, if you try to escape them, he will use Doom bolt attack. Can be problematic for acid and especially pierce builds.
Hope you liked the guide, if you have something to add, please do! 
