Apocrea. It's bound to make you spark a lot. Those scarabs, those bombies, Mr. Harvy-*cough* the Apocrean Harvester, they all wanna eat you for lunch. Along with breakfast, dinner and midnight snack but you get the picture.

With my item service, I need to farm Apocrea a /lot/ to get any decent amount of materials to craft obsidian weapons on request. Last Apocrea, I farmed 9 material sets (9 weapons worth) which is 13,230 sigils. That's a lot of sigils!! I also deal with a rather spotty connection which means that playing in parties can be difficult as more party members means more lag for me. However, I very rarely have to spark in Apocrea because I go slow, I play it safe and I use a certain loadout to make things go smoothly. Here's my strategy to farming the grasping plateau. Mini gave me permission to post this here. cx

Firstly, some tips and tricks, some repeated from Mini's video,

• 1. Dashing while you're soloing/everyone else is dead in the plateau will cause the harvester to despawn unless he is attacking. This is the most important thing to do while soloing Apocrea. If you hear him approaching, dash, he'll wait a few moments then despawn. The 8 second cooldown is easily short enough to be ready again once the harvester has respawned. If you dash too late/don't dash at all and he starts attacking, hold off dashing again until his attack is complete and you have dodged the incoming attack of arms.
• 2. Always take the time to kill the scarabs/detonate the bombies. Scarabs will quickly grow in number and swarm you while you're trying to pick off souls. They will quickly deplete your health, even a few of them at one ill-timed attack. Bombies are very quick and easy to detonate and they can break other headstones, releasing scarabs or souls when you aren't ready for them.
• 3. You don't have to complete the entire graveyard. I personally do as I like getting every last sigil but if you are most of the way through or are having a hard time and are low on health after using your emergency revive, it's best to just move on.
• 4. There's a way to dodge the harvester's attack. Run away from him as far as you can until you see/hear him hit the ground, then run perpendicular to him, then run back towards him and you should avoid being grabbed. You can do this even in a small space if you really have to.
• 5. If you need to AFK to do something irl or talk to someone in whisper, find and stand on the edge of the elevator. The harvester will be forced to despawn constantly and even if he spawns on your head, he will quickly disappear. This is the only safe zone in the plateau. I'm even doing so while writing this guide to take a break! :D
• 6. If you're running in a group, try to check each puzzle location if you can. There may be an apocrean material there!

Here's what I'd recommend you use to farm grasping plateaus solo.

Sprite/Weapons

• Maskeraith

At least level 30, preferably with maximum points in cloak time. If your maskeraith is high enough in level, I'd recommend the CTR bomb perk. This lil buddy is your backup in case the harvester decides to spawn on your head unexpectedly. Get out of the way of the harvester and cloak. You can still shield without losing your cloak if the arms come your way so cloak, shield and wait it out. I would recommend waiting for a short while after he despawns to make sure he doesn't spawn on your head twice in a row. He's known to do it! The drakon is less useful, the 2nd ability being the most useful but only after you have selected an ultimate, that being backfire barrier. It'd be used so you can run away from the harvester a little faster for a short time if he's attacking. The seraphynx is the least useful in plateaus, the only useful ability being the 3rd ability and that only really helps if you've been caught already by reducing the damage some.

• Electron Vortex

Must be heated to level 10 for CTR med bonus. Preferably with at least CTR low or higher. The EV is my first key weapon for farming grasping plateaus. It deals elemental damage and has a chance of inflicting shock when it explodes the second time. The safest way to deal with breaking gravestones is to drop an EV next to each one, charging up for the next one if one is close so you can keep going.
If the gravestone breaks with bombies, simply walk up, walk away and they'll explode while still in the vortex. If the gravestone breaks with scarabs, use a combuster/voltedge or divine avenger to kill most if not all of them before the vortex explodes. I would say the rocket hammer is less useful here as you could take damage while they're attacking in the vortex.
If the gravestone breaks with souls, this is where the divine avenger or rocket hammer really shines. While they're in the vortex, swing at them repeatedly while they're swirling around to deal the most damage. If you're lucky, they'll be shocked by the vortex, interrupting their movements so you can catch them easily and finish them off.

• Divine Avenger/Warmaster Rocket Hammer

If possible, have either with an ASI UV of medium or higher. I personally prefer the Divine Avenger and it is my second key weapon in Apocrea as a whole. A rocket hammer is a good substitute but it can be a bit more reckless and cause you to take more damage. I also prefer the DA for other reasons, like the arenas that you can get instead of plateaus.

• Combuster/Voltedge (optional)

Helpful for a quick swing at a low health soul if it's close enough. It's also useful against the occasional undead along with the frozen scarabs, like the frozen deadnaught with one specific puzzle.

• Arcana/Argent Peacemaker (optional)

Helpful for picking off souls or scarabs from a distance. I personally prefer the arcana since it does more damage per shot than the argent peacemaker.

Defenses

• Black Kat Cowl/Snarbolax Cap

I personally use a black kat cowl for Apocrea for its damage bonus and speed boost but a snarbolax cap would work just fine too for the sword damage bonus. Not only do both options have shadow resistance against all the things that show up in plateaus (minus the harvester), both also have freeze resistance as that's the primary status of the plateau. The damage bonus on both will help with taking out the scarabs/souls quicker, though the BKC would also boost the arcana's damage at a distance and the electron vortex's second explosion damage. The speed boost on the BKC also helps with getting around faster (duh) and outspeeding the harvester if you can't cloak while he's attacking.

• Black Kat Raiment/Snarbolax Coat

For a long time, I used the snarbolax coat up until this Apocrea as I crafted and fully heated black kat raiment. Either works, again, for the same reasons as the BKC/snarbolax cap. Since obtaining my BKR, I've preferred it over my snarbolax coat to pair with my BKC for maximum damage on all my weapons and the speed boost.

• Gorgomega/Crest of Almire
  The gorgomega is a very tanky shield, that's to say the least. It has heavy shadow resistance along with heavy freeze resistance, along with being able to tank more hits from the harvester's arms attack. Its only real downside is the decrease in movement speed, which I offset with my kat set. A good alternative if you don't have access to the gorgomega is the crest of almire. While it does let you move faster, it is a lot less tanky (takes maybe 2 or so hits from the harvester's arms) and lacks freeze resistance. While the swiftstrike buckler is quite powerful with that attack speed increase high, it takes very few hits from anything in the plateau really, which can leave you in a bad spot if you can't dodge the harvester's arms even if you're pretty far away from him. You can use it if you'd like to but I personally prefer the gorgomega for more tanking.

While this is a guide specifically for the plateaus, I also use this loadout effectively in the other levels of Apocrea, particularly the arenas. For the arena, the divine avenger's wide swing will interrupt greaver attacks along with hitting almost all in 180 degrees. This last tip is only really helpful if you have a maskeraith with its final skill. For the final wave of the last part of the arenas where tons of greavers spawn, I highly recommend placing yourself in a corner, activate your maskeraith's 3rd ability and start swinging your DA. The haze's explosion causes an interruption in the greaver's attacks along with your DA's swings, rendering them rather helpless so you can take them out without taking much damage or dying.

I hope this helps some of you players who just want sigils but want a safer, albeit slower, way to completing Apocrea. Good luck to you all who farm for those sigils and don't let Mr. Harvy poke you in the eye!