Hey guys! I have a few questions I was hoping someone more familiar with the game could answer. My friend and I have just started with Grim Dawn and we are having a blast! Of course we started on Normal difficulty with Veteran checked, Hardcore characters (we love a good challenge!). We made it to Homestead, cleared out the fields to the West, and started adventuring North of Homestead before disaster happened. My buddy chose an Inquisitor, so he was kind of a glass cannon. Anyway, he ended up dying right outside Homestead in the blink of an eye (we suspect elemental damage was at play).
My thought process was to have him host the game so he can progress through the Main story line until he gets back to Homestead. I can assist him seeing as I am still level 47. I don’t want to have to re-complete all the side missions if the game world gets reset when we complete it on Normal. However, I don’t want him to miss anything important which will hamper him later down the road…
My questions are these:
- What is the quickest way to get him leveled back up?
- What is the most important pieces for him to pick up as he quickly makes his way through the main quest to Homestead?
- How fast can he blast through the main quest to catch back up with me?
- Should he make sure to pick up all the Shrines on Normal or will there be plenty on Elite and Ultimate?
- Anything important I am forgetting!?
Thanks for the input Stupid_Dragon (great name)! Yeah if we can get him to at least level 30 I think we can continue on from Homestead. What is the recommended level for tackling Elite? Oh, and should we worry about getting his faction reputation up on Normal? We were making good progress on the different faction rep before he died, of course mine is still intact.
It depends. Sometimes I go to Elite as early as 37, other times I’m levelling on Normal (Veteran) up to 55+. I don’t have anything particular to recommend, it’s just the gut feeling for me at this point. Usually I reach barrowholm on Veteran to open Coven and Barrowholm factions, since reputation for their favoured enemy is world-wide. Then if my aether and chaos resistance are okay I could proceed, if not I go Elite or FG campaign (which requires anything but aether and chaos).
Normal isn’t the best place to grind reputation, because bounties give too little. Usually I grind it on Elite, unless there’s a particular low level faction item I want. On the other hand, quests give a lion’s share of reputation, so I even come back from Elite to finish some quests I didn’t had access back before, just to get that juicy chunk of reputation.
Honestly, if it’s your first HC playthrough then the most important faction for you is Malmouth Resistance, since they sell exp boosting potions. Without them levelling past 75 would feel rather slow.
Thanks so much for this info, really appreciate it! It is interesting with this type of game where you have to complete the main quest to unlock difficulties. Normally we like to search every nook and cranny of the world map, but after he died I realized that if I perished as well, we would have nothing to show for it! It makes me want to prioritize that main quest line. Are there some quest lines that only appear on certain difficulty levels?
No, but there are some side quests that you only get once you have Honoured rep with the relevant faction. Plus be aware that reaching Nemesis status with hostile factions will trigger their heroes to start appearing.
I don’t play HC anyway, but I’d certainly never choose it for a first playthrough. Go SC so you can find out all the little problems you may encounter once you switch to HC. Otherwise you may find yourself losing more HC’s than you want, especially since you won’t have the necessary gear for them on a first playthrough either.