Spiral Knights - Sciger's Safe and (Mostly) Sparkless Guide to Soloing Various PVE Stuff Levels/Events (Other Guides Welcome!)

Sciger's Safe and (Mostly) Sparkless Guide to Soloing Various PVE Stuff Levels/Events (Other Guides Welcome!)

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Fri, 06/30/2017 - 23:18

Sciger

After having a lot of these strategies for a while, I figured I might as well write it out for other people to reference if they'd like an idea for soloing certain PVE events or levels that can be troublesome when alone.

Please keep in mind while reading these guides that this is how I do my soloing. Some of my methods can be a bit slower than other strategies but I focus on preserving sparks as opposed to going through stuff quickly along with focusing on weapons that the average knight can obtain relatively easily. If your way goes faster and you can do it without sparks, great, write up your own guide (on here if you'd like!) to how you do it and what you use! I'll list it on this post if it is viable.

My guides are written in such a way that newbies will be able to get an idea for and why I am choosing the armor/weapon sets along with how specific monsters attack and act. For gear in guides, I recommend gear that anyone can get at any time, namely hall of heroes lines or recipe lines that are obtained from Basil. Any recipes that require PvP or gear that are not readily available will only be listed in the 'alternative' sections. If you wish to write a guide for this thread, please stick with this format as well!

Guides Needed: Operation Crimson Hammer; Firestorm Citadel (I may write one up myself); March of the Tortodrones; Grinchlin Assault (final battle)

Feel free to write any guide on any specific PvE level or event that you'd like though, more strategies is always great!

Guides to Normal PvE Levels: Soloing Fiend/Undead Arenas (By Sciger); Soloing Dreams and Nightmares (By Sciger)

Guides to PvE Events: Soloing Shroud of the Apocrea (By Sciger); Soloing Grinchlin Assalut (excluding final battle) (By Sciger)

Comments? Criticisms? Have a guide of your own? Feel the need to post a ridiculous GIF? Feel free to post!

Sat, 07/01/2017 - 14:15

Sciger

Sciger's Guide to Soloing Fiend/Undead Arenas

Fiends. Almost anyone groans a little every time they're going down to a level that contains this monster family. Devilites. Gorgos. Greavers. They'll chuck old donuts, chomp on your little toe and smack you with their wings until you need to spark and buy a new keyboard after smashing your current one in rage.

I effectively forced myself to learn how to deal with them, specifically greavers when doing undead and fiend arenas during Shroud of the Apocrea and Black Kat prestige missions. It took some time along with trial and error but I have a strategy that works rather well with some proper timing of your attacks and, of course, some useful gear! This guide is written so you may successfully solo undead and fiend arenas and may not work as well in a group.

In general, you shouldn't need any unique variants to do well in the arenas. They certainly would be helpful, however!

Armor Recommendations
The first thing we have to take into account with our armor is the status of the arena. In general, you'll want armor that resists the status you'll be encountering because knowing devilites, gorgos and greavers (of which can show up in undead arenas too) you'll end up having a status problem of some sort. Of all the statuses, I actually found fire to be the least of my concerns. Shock, poison and even stun (STUN!?) were my primary nuisances, namely with the final fight of both kinds of arenas as that fight is made up of almost entirely greavers and generally results in at least one death. With the proper equipment and strategies, you can get away from this fight relatively unscathed, no less using your emergency revive or a spark.

Fire and Shock
A good set to take along for a fire or shock arena is the divine hood and divine mantle and for a shield, the crest of almire. The divine set resists elemental and shadow damage, which will leave you more vulnerable to normal damage, but cut down massively on how long you have fire or shock. Status is the main concern in these arenas. The crest of almire can take a few hits from the fiends without letting you down too quickly.

Poison
For poison arenas, I recommend the dread skelly mask and dread skelly suit for the shadow/normal defense and poison resistance. For a shield, also used the dread skelly shield . Poison doesn't just prevent you from healing. It also cuts both your attacking power and defensive resistance to a mere 1/3rd of normal. You really can't afford to take hits here if you want to survive an onslaught of greavers in the end.
Alternatives: Another option would be the snarbolax cap and snarbolax coat as both pieces have sword damage bonuses along with the proper defenses and resistances. It's effectively a direct upgrade from the dread skelly mask and suit, however, snarbolax pieces are only available from Shadow Lairs. As a bonus if you decide to craft a snarbolax set, some recommended unique variants to buy as a wolver cap or coat to craft up would be poison, freeze, normal or shadow resistances.

Freeze
For freeze arenas, I would recommend the dread skelly set for the shadow/normal defense and freeze resistance. For a shield, the dread skelly shield will further boost freeze resistance. If you have both dread skelly pieces, however, you can get away with using the crest of almire. You may still be able to attack when frozen but when you can't turn to face the greavers attacking you, it's a major problem. That and freezelock. Looking at you, lumbers.
Alternatives: One can also use the Gorgomega as a shield and/or the Black Kat set as both have freeze resistance while having shadow/normal defenses. The move speed decrease of the gorgomega is easily removed with a black kat piece or a battle sprite perk.

Stun
Unfortunately, there aren't any shadow/normal helm and armor combos that also have stun resistance. Fortunately, stun can be outlasted a little more easily than other statuses. Any normal/shadow armor sets will work here though the dread skelly shield has stun resistance along with shadow/normal defenses.
Alternatives: If you don't have a dread skelly shield, a crest of almire should work fine too. Another great alternative if you have it is the gorgomega, as it has stun resistance along with hefty shadow and normal defenses.

For more experienced players, you can probably get away with running one or both Black Kat or Chaos pieces if you can outrun your enemies and avoid being hit. I wouldn't recommend it for fire and shock arenas, however, as the damage/interrupts can quickly become a problem if you end up being hit.

Weapon Recommendations

First Weapon: Combuster/Glacius
Personally, I'm more of a fan of combuster as you can't really go wrong with more damage on a target! Unsurprisingly, these are the main weapon against both undeads and fiends as the charge is a force to be reckoned with against either monster family.
Alternatives: The voltedge, while it isn't readily available to some players due to the recipes being only available via PvP, is really helpful with its infliction of shock as it can and will interrupt greavers mid-attack.
Recommended Unique Variants: While unique variants aren't really required, a charge time reduction unique variant would be exceedingly helpful. Remember: if you heat your sword to level 10, it will get a charge time reduction: medium as a bonus, a unique variant will simply stack on it. Even a low variant would still be helpful!

Second Weapon: Divine Avenger
I've been a major fan of the sealed sword lines for years, even after the brandish buff some years ago. Yes, the brandish family lines do more damage, but the divine avenger's wide swing and high knockback is my primary key to defeating greavers, even above the flourish and snarble barb lines.
Alternatives: Personally, I wouldn't recommend any alternatives to the divine avenger simply due to my strategy. However, the final flourish and barbarous thorn blade are still quite good at taking out greavers, though not near as good as taking out massive groups of greavers. If you'd like to do well in the final battle of the arena, don't take this in place of the divine avenger.
Recommended Unique Variants: I believe this strategy will still work without it but I highly recommend having at least Attack Speed Increase: Low on your divine avenger so you can interrupt greavers more quickly. I personally use Attack Speed Increase: Medium but a higher variant is always better!

Third Weapon (optional!): Barbarous Thorn Blade or Final Flourish
One simply can't say no to the piercing damage of these lines against fiends! Quick and vicious, it'll take down fiends in a snap with a couple of hits. However, I can't say it's completely essential to finishing these arenas without using your emergency revive or sparking. It just can't handle groups of greavers well since they will try to go behind you and could flinchlock you.
Recommended Unique Variants: One can't say no to more attack speed increase so any from low to very high will be helpful.

Fourth Weapon (optional!): Arcana
I typically bring this along so I can deal with howlitzers from a safe distance and then snipe the head before it starts moving. Also useful for keeping greavers at bay from a distance if you have a status to wait out. That's about all it's for here.
Recommended Unique Variants: While Arcana's charge is pretty useful, it isn't more useful than being able to fire off shots quicker. Attack speed increase of any kind would be helpful.

Battle Sprite
Maskeraith
I highly recommend the maskeraith in fiend/undead arenas for two reasons: the cloak and the haze. The cloak is amazing if you're in a pickle and need some time to wait out a status (shielding while cloaked and shocked won't reveal you and will prevent the shock spasm from doing damage) and/or just need to get your bearings and another angle to attack again. The haze is key for the final part of the arena, which will be covered in its own section later.
Alternatives: The drakon is just as helpful in the final part of the arena with its firestorm ability but doesn't have the useful cloak to save yourself in a pinch. The barrier can be somewhat helpful against greavers though but I just prefer the maskeraith more.
Recommended pet perk: Sword Attack Speed Increase
Alternatives: Move Speed Increase, Status resistance of the arena (if you're lacking resistance to the status due to not having an armor piece for it or are using black kat/chaos armor pieces) or Healthy Boost

The Strategy

Greavers
One of the more common enemies in fiend arenas are greavers, though they frequently show up in undead arenas as well, hence why that is listed here too. Greavers can be downright brutal to players if you aren't prepared and don't fight back against them. One of the biggest mistakes I see are people who try to shield until they have a chance to retaliate or just flat run away. If you have more than a couple greavers bothering you, they will break your shield and start dealing a lot of damage. You can't outrun them unless you have a decent amount of move speed increase and even then, they very likely will still inflict a status.

Dealing with Greavers
The recommended weapons are key here. Provided you have brought a combuster/glacius and divine avenger, you can easily keep the greavers at bay simply by timing your divine avenger swings so as many of them are closest to you as they attack. Greavers will swoop in to attack you, going behind you if you aren't moving away from them. If you can time it just right so they are right in front of, or even to the side, of you, you can hit them and interrupt their attack. (Greavers + Corner + Divine Avenger = Dead Greavers) Greavers can be flinched very easily with just about any weapon but the divine avenger's wide swing hits them during their attack. Greavers don't have much HP either so three hits will do them in without a silkwing healing them. (Greavers + Corner + Divine Avenger + Silkwings = Dead Greaver and Silkwings)

Gorgos
Gorgos are also a frequent in fiend arenas, showing up often enough in undead arenas too. In Tier 3, they will chomp in your general direction three times before slowly floating away from you to keep its distance. Their change in direction is rather spazmatic so nailing them with a brandish charge or shooting them can be rather annoying as they float the opposite direction of where your shot is aimed.

Dealing with Gorgos
Gorgos are a pain, easily my least favorite fiend, even above greavers. The best you can do is, when they aren't attacking, get as close as you can and deal as much damage as you can with your combuster/glacius or divine avenger. If you can predict what direction they're going to go, try charging your combuster/glacius, as that can sometimes take them out completely if they ride the entire charge. As soon as you see they are attacking, back up directly away from them as much as you can, only shielding if they get too close. Three chomps in succession on a fully charged shield will break it and deal you damage. If there are lots of gorgos, kite around them, keeping your distance while charging your combuster/glacius and releasing it when they aren't too close to chomp you. It's a bit slow but gets the job done relatively safely.

Devilites
I used to hate these lil boogers with a passion. Nowadays, they're still annoying but not near as scary as they used to be. It also helped when they were nerfed to not aim as well. Devilites will attack seemingly at random with very quick throws of random (but painful!) objects. They also have a tendency to dash around, especially when shot at.

Dealing with Devilites
Kite around them at a decent distance away from them but not so far that you can't dash in and attack at the right time. Right after a devilite has thrown an object at you, move in and attack. I personally like to either have a combuster/glacius charged so I can move in and pretty much OHKO them. However, another good strategy is to have yourself shielded, then move in quickly once they attack and double swing with your divine avenger or final flourish/barbarous thorn blade. That renders them either dead or at very little health so one more hit will finish them. Keep in mind that devilites are also easily flinched, but not as easily as greavers, so a sword swing will interrupt them if you're quick and they're going to attack again. If you are dealing with a group of devilites, try to time it so as many of them have just attacked as possible and move in to take out a few of them or unleash a brandish charge and let the status do its job. If you're lucky, some will 'dodge' into the charge and take lots of damage!

Surviving The Third Arena Stage
Easily the hardest part of both fiend and undead arenas is the very final battle in the third arena. This takes a little bit of doing to set you up for the best possible scenario for the final battle but it's worth not dying or at least, not sparking!

First Wave
The first wave of enemies to spawn will be greavers along with another monster, usually devilites, gorgos, zombies or kats depending on your arena. Killing all the greavers will cause two lumbers and two silkwings to spawn. Killing the other monster that spawned with the greavers will cause four howlitzers (or if you're unlucky, polyps) to spawn, one in each corner of the arena. I recommend killing the greavers first (unless some aren't aggroed on you) and then killing the other monster family.

2nd Wave (minus one silkwing)
This step is important: when the four howlitzers spawn, kill all but one of the howlitzers. Leave the lumbers and silkwings alone if you can as we will need at least one of these alive so the next step is easier. Make sure your dash is ready to be used. Get the attention of the final howlitzer remaining and stand in the corner of the arena that it is in. Dash so the howlitzer loses your aggro and is now facing outside of the main area of the arena. (Don't kill me yet, I'm too awesome to die!) Then, go about killing the lumbers and silkwings left until one of them is left alive. Try to shield bump the remaining silkwing or carefully lure/shield bump the lumber into a corner but not the corner the howlitzer is facing. Then, kill the remaining silkwing or lumber.

Third Wave (leave the one facing away from the arena alive though!)
A wave of two howlizers on each edge of the arena will now spawn for a total of 8 howlitzers. If you are safely in the corner, none of them will see you. From there, using brandish charges, go along the edges of the arena and take them out two at a time. One should be killed almost instantly if hit by the swing and charge. Back up and try to move yourself around in circles so the howlizter head can't turn fast enough to hit you. The second howlitzer on that side should either be dead and ready to attack or be low enough health that one hit will do it. Take out each howlitzer until the howlitzer facing away from the arena is the only one left. Then, you can finally kill it!

Fourth Wave
After the howlitzer faced away from the arena is dead, four lumbers will spawn in the center. Using either brandish charges or divine avenger charges, try to leave one of them alive. Lure him into the lower right corner. I specifically use this corner as it spawns one of the silkwing healers. Kill the lumber then charge up your brandish with your back in the corner of the arena. The final wave will then spawn. Release your charge to take out the silkwing healer right in front of you and back up into the corner again. Use your 3rd sprite skill (you should have maskeraith or drakon with you) and start swinging your divine avenger while backing up into your corner again between attacks. The reason for the sprite skill is primarily to interrupt the greavers' attacks. Still, try to time your attacks so you interrupt the most greavers at once. As you swing and as the firestorm/haze damage goes away, you will quickly overwhelm the remaining silkwing and take down a lot of enemies at once with the wide swing. Stay in your corner until most if not all greavers are down and pick off the remaining monster in the upper left corner.

Ta-da, arena done and loot is had! Woohoo!

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 23:19

Sciger

Sciger's Guide to Dreams and Nightmares

To Be Written

Sun, 07/02/2017 - 09:44

Sciger

Sciger's Guide to Shroud of the Apocrea (incomplete)

Shroud of the Apocrea is an event that comes back a few times a year. The event is difficult and typically done in parties due to the difficulty of the event level itself along with the fiend/undead arenas that can also be selected. I have been farming Apocrea solo for a few years now and have settled on a loadout that serves me well in any of the levels that are selected.

Please note that I will only be listing my specific set (along with cheaper/easily obtained alternatives) that I use for Apocrea. I will explain my choices as well.

Armor Recommendations

Overall, I use one loadout for any of the levels. One cannot afford to change the equipment due to the importance of the loadout for farming sigils in plateaus. This guide is primarily focused on the plateaus without taking the arenas into account. If you wish to only farm the arenas for radiants, crowns and heat and generally skip the plateaus, please refer to the fiend/undead arena guide and feel free to change your equipment.

Please note that I am listing my loadout but am also listing cheaper alternatives as my primary loadout uses non-readily-available equipment.

Helmet & Armor Choices
I personally use the black kat cowl and black kat raiment due to the shadow/normal defenses and freeze resistance. Both pieces also have a universal damage bonus (i.e. the damage bonus is applied to any weapon type, not just swords or guns) and a move speed increase of low for each piece. Go faster, resist damage from most sources in the mission, resist the freeze monsters on plateaus and instantly have a damage increase of maximum? Can't say no to that!
Alternatives: A cheaper and readily available alternative set is the dread skelly mask and dread skelly suit as they have the same defenses/resistances along with poison resistance but lacks the universal damage bonus and move speed increase. Another alternative that is not as readily available is the snarbolax cap and coat, having the same defenses and resistances as dread skelly but has a sword damage bonus medium per piece as well.
Unique Variant Recommendations: I would primarily aim for status resistances of any kind if you are using a black kat set to compensate for the debuffs for the arenas that you may encounter should you decide to do them, namely fire, shock or poison. The main threat on Grasping Plateaus, the Apocrean Harvester, deals non-typed damage so any defense increases will not help on those levels. If you are using a dread skelly set or snarbolax set, I would aim for a freeze or poison unique variant to stack on your existing resistance.

Shield Choices
My choice for shield is the gorgomega, hands down. High normal/shadow defense, high health, freeze resistance, what more can you ask for? Admittedly, it has a move speed decrease of low but this is easily negated by using a black kat piece, otherwise it is a bit of a hinderance without compensation.
Alternatives: Alternatives can be found in the dread skelly shield as it has the proper defense and resistances for the grasping plateau. The only downfall is that, while the stats are technically the same, the dread skelly shield takes far less hits to break than the gorgomega. Otherwise, the dread skelly shield is perfect for the mission.
Unique Variant Recommendation: Unlike the variants for the armor, I would recommend variants in shadow defense so it can take even more hits from typed damage sources in the plateau, like scarabs and bombies. A normal defense variant would be alright as well. This would apply for both the gorgomega and dread skelly shield.

Weapon Choices

Please note that while it is possible to skip on two weapons of this loadout, I highly recommend investing in two weapon slots as all these weapons have their use. If you really cannot afford two weapon slots and still want to try and solo it, take the divine avenger and electron vortex/alternative to the vortex.

First Weapon: Combuster/Glacius
The combuster's fire inflicts more damage on the souls is you can charge for it. The glacius' freeze is also helpful as it will keep souls in place so you can charge again and hopefully freezelock it. Personally, I only use the basic attacks for my combuster in case I can swat at a soul quickly if they're close for a finishing hit.
Alternatives: You can use the Voltedge too if you want but it's not a huge deal.
Unique Variant Recommendations:: Charge time reduction variants of any kind will stack on the level 10 heat bonus of charge time reduction medium. Charging is gud!

Second Weapon: Divine Avenger
Similar to the undead/fiend arenas, this weapon is once again my bread and butter to soloing Apocrea. After using an electron vortex on a breakable gravestone, the divine avenger's wide swing and high damage will allow you to deal with the scarabs or souls that spawn. Scarabs can be killed in a max of three successful swings with the divine avenger. The souls can be killed in a max of four successive swings. Since they will be swirling around in the vortex, they are effectively sitting ducks for a short time and will also take damage when the vortex explodes, which could finish off your targets.
Alternatives: I really can't recommend alternatives here. It's essential to this loadout. If you have suggestions, feel free to post!
Unique Variant Recommendations: Attack Speed Increase of any kind is super helpful.

Third Weapon: Electron Vortex
This amazing bomb pulled my soloing loadout together after using a shivermist buster for a while. Simply plant the bomb next to a breakable gravestone. The first explosion will break the stone and swirl anything that spawns in it around for a while before exploding and potentially inflicting shock. The shock from the exploding vortex is amazing at interrupting a soul's movements so you can catch up and finish it off. However, be careful as a shocked soul that floats too close to another breakable gravestone can break it and potentially unleash more souls! The electron vortex deals elemental damage, which will deal extra damage to scarabs and bombies.
Alternatives: The Graviton Vortex is a Basil-obtainable line that is very similar to the electron vortex. However, it deals shadow damage (which scarabs and bombies resist) and does not inflict any status effects on the second explosion. While it isn't as useful as the electron vortex due to the lack of shock and the shadow damage, the overall tool of keeping enemies in one place is the most valuable part and makes this bomb viable.
Unique Variant Recommendations: Charge Time Reduction of any kind is key. I will highly recommend that your bomb be level 10 simply for the charge time reduction heat bonus. The more charge time reduction you have, the faster you can plop them next to gravestones, the faster you can finish your plateau.

Fourth Weapon: Arcana
Arcana is a little gem of a gun. I was so thrilled when they released it during the gunner update. Before Arcana, I used the Argent Peacemaker, of which I wasn't too happy about since its hitboxes are a bit wonky. It is a super useful utility in being able to snipe souls from afar if they're floating too far away from you to be able to use a sword. Its damage is high enough that it deals a decent bit and can pick off a soul relatively easily in a few shots.
Alternatives: The Argent Peacemaker is a decent alternative, though I certainly don't prefer it as it takes more shots to deal a decent amount of damage and as I said earlier, it has a rather odd hitbox. I would recommend against using any kinds of alchemers as the angled shot could hit another breakable gravestone and potentially release more souls or enemies. A lot of people also like using the blitz needle and charging the shot against souls that are frozen or stuck in a vortex. This could be useful too though I personally prefer to use the divine avenger.
Unique Variant Recommendations: Attack Speed Increase on either the Arcana or Argent Peacemaker is always a plus.

Battle Sprite Choices
The maskeraith is my go-to emergency save if things go wrong in a plateau. When I say things go wrong, I mean the Apocrean Harvester has teleported onto your head (YES, he can do that!) and is now attacking you and you have precious little time to run away. In this circumstance, one can attempt to dodge the arms trying to grab you but if you are caught, you can simply cloak and he will lose his aggro on you. Or, if you don't feel like dodging his shenanigans, you can just cloak and shield and he will ignore you, the line of arms going in a random direction. This works well in parties too but he will despawn if you are going solo. The cloak lasts about as long as the arms do so if you cloak just after being caught, you will be freed just before the cloak ends if you have a fully upgraded maskeraith cloak.
Alternatives: A drakon is a decent alternative to the maskeraith but only if it has its ultimate skill in Flame Barrier and the ultimate chosen is Backfire Barrier. If the Apocrean Harvester teleports on your head, you can simply pick a direction to run, use Backfire Barrier and outrun the arms with relative ease. However, if you aren't fast enough, you can still be caught and will be forced to shield to reduce the damage as the harvester uses its gaze attack. Then, you still have to evade him once more as he starts attacking again.
Recommended Pet Perk: Bomb Charge Time Reduction. If you have a decent charge time reduction variant on your vortex bomb, you could swap this out for sword attack speed increase or move speed increase.

The Grasping Plateau: Information

The Grasping Plateau is a MASSIVE, rectangular shaped graveyard. The moment you enter the graveyard, you will have a map that is only static and showing you no details of the area. There is a glitch where if you have connection problems for a short time while loading in, you may end up having the map but it is rare. Here is an example of a map that was glitched and appeared for a player to get an idea of the shape of the level. The elevator, golden keys and golden gates will show up on the static map when you get close to them. I like using these landmarks as a general idea of where I might be as their icon will get smaller if you are farther away. I have found they tend to like to spawn on one end of the map or the other so I'll go to the other end of the map and work my way towards it to save time. There will be 1 or 2 puzzles on the map. If you solve them, you will be given 18 sigils and potentially an obsidian shard or binding essence. The various kinds of puzzles can be found on this page where there are screenshots of each puzzle's two corresponding areas.

The main enemy you will encounter is the Apocrean Harvester. This baddie will harass you relentlessly until you stand on the elevator or leave the level. His first attack will trigger if you get too close to him. He will start to raise his arms in the air and after a few seconds, will thrust them into the ground, causing many arms to come out of the ground and try to grab you. Your shield can take a couple hits from the arms but can break very quickly and still result in being stuck. If they succeed in grabbing you, you will be unable to move or turn but can still attack. His second attack will trigger once he is close enough to you and you are stuck. He will use a gaze attack that appears to suck souls out of you while dealing heavy damage. You can reduce the damage by shielding, assuming you have an unbroken shield. You will be released and he will then start his first attack again, allowing you time to run away again.
The best way to handle the Apocrean Harvester while you are soloing the plateau is to use your dash. Dashing causes him to lose aggro just long enough to despawn. Even if you dash close to him by accident, provided you dash before he attacks, he will despawn before his attack finishes. Provided you dash often, every 10 or so seconds, he won't be a major problem.
The Apocrean Harvester can be a total butthead sometimes. On occasion, he'll end up spawning on TOP of your head!! It'll startle you, it'll make you freak out and it'll make you run away. Or, if you let him get too close and are unable to dash in time to cause him to despawn, you'll have to handle him another way. If you don't have your drakon's Backfire Barrier ready or your maskeraith's cloak ready, and/or you don't want to lose your place on the map, you'll just have to evade the arms. The best way to do this is to run directly away from the harvester in any direction for a short time. Then, turn at a right angle and run in that direction for a short time. Then, run back towards the harvester for a very short time and the arms will be unable to turn fast enough to get close. By this time, you should be able to dash again to lose his aggro and cause him to despawn safely. Only dash once he is done starting his arm attack and is moving towards you again.

The Grasping Plateau: The Gravestones

There will be columns upon columns of breakable gravestones in the plateaus. These are where you get your primary source of loot! These gravestones are easily noticeable with glowing green cracks on them. Your loadout is designed to drop a single vortex bomb right next to each gravestone. The first explosion of the bomb will break the gravestone and trigger the vortex. Whatever is inside, if anything, will swirl around in the vortex for a short time before a second explosion sends them flying! If using the electron vortex, there is a chance that a monster that spawned from the gravestone will be inflicted with shock. If inflicted with shock, they will stay put during the 2nd explosion.

3 different kinds of monsters can be found inside breakable gravestones. There is a chance, on breaking a gravestone with any attack, that you will find nothing, find freeze themed bombies, freeze themed scarabs or apocrean souls.

Bombies are very easy to handle. Upon breaking a stone with a vortex, the bombies will be caught in the vortex, unable to run around. Simply move in close then run away immediately so you are diagonal to them. They will detonate safely with you out of the way of their explosion and bullets. Keep an eye on their bullets, however, as they can break breakable gravestones and potentially release more bombies, scarabs or souls.

Scarabs will also be caught in the vortex on the bomb's first detonation. Take out your divine avenger and approach the scarabs. They should be attacking in the direction you were standing relative to their location. Do not approach them in the direction they are attacking or you will take damage. Approach them from one side and swing your divine avenger twice in succession and you should kill most if not all of the scarabs. You can pick off the rest with your combuster/glacius, divine avenger or arcana.

Souls are harmless little fellas who just want to be free! The moment you realize there are souls in the vortex, pull out your divine avenger and swing as quickly as you can to deal as much damage as you can. If you're lucky, you'll deal enough damage that the vortex's second explosion will finish them off and reward you with a varying amount of apocrean sigils depending on your tier and party difficulty. If the souls are not defeated by the second explosion and a couple of divine avenger swings, they should be left with only a little HP so they can be easily defeated with a couple arcana shots or a single combuster basic swing. Otherwise, you may need to chase them down a little, which is where the arcana really shines. You will want to defeat these souls as quickly as possible. After 30-45 seconds, if they are not defeated, they will disappear and you will not get any sigils from them. Their movement is very erratic, hence my strategy of using a vortex to keep them in place for a while and deal as much damage as possible, if not take them out completely before they can float away.

The Grasping Plateau: Strategy

Upon loading into a grasping plateau, you will find yourself on a random part of the map. Your map should be static and you'll no doubt see many breakable gravestones scattered about various structures and nonbreakable gravestones. It is a foggy place and it can be difficult to see a reasonable distance.

The first thing I do when loading in to a plateau is move either left or right until I find the edge of the map. The edge of the map is characterized by a long, winding barrier. The corners of the map have a tall structure that has candles on both sides facing vertically and horizontally. In general, I'll try to find a corner of the map, sometimes breaking gravestones along the way with my vortex and dealing with whatever spawns, if anything.

Think of the grasping plateau as a massive grid with the gravestones spawning in one square of the grid. Sometimes, gravestones will be missing in their individual squares but you can keep track by the other gravestones around it so you can keep count. Once in a corner of the map, I will start clearing gravestones by going up and down along the map. I will clear 4 columns of gravestones in one pass, keeping track by noting which column a breakable gravestone is in by telling myself in my head. (Add a screenshot for clarification as this is no doubt confusing!) Once I reach the top or bottom of a column, I will move four gravestones over and start going vertically once more. I'll repeat this pattern until the entire plateau is completed. On one end of the plateau, you will find that you have 2 extra columns of gravestones, I generally will clear a single section of 6 that when I first start a plateau so when I reach the other end, I have only a column of 4 to do. (another screenshot to clarify)

Tips
Keeping track of where you are can be troublesome at times, especially if you have a runaway soul. If you can't remember which column is which number, don't hesitate to run back to an edge of the map (don't forget that there's an extra 2 columns!) and count groups of 4 columns until you are back where you lost count.

A fantastic way to keep track of where you are is using a golden key as a marker. A cat statue can also be used but it isn't seen on the static map. Simply put the golden key where your 4th column is. When you return to the same side your key is on, you will be able to move your key 8 columns over to mark your next 4 columns to clear. (screenshots to clarify)

If this whole column/grid system is confusing to you, that's okay, it's rather hard to explain! You can still clear the graveyard by going up and down along one side of the graveyard, clearing stones as you go without keeping track of where you are. Be careful to not go too far over at once so you don't miss gravestones!

If you come across a puzzle that isn't marked on the map and you have no icons such as golden gates or elevators to give you an idea to its relative location, you can use a golden key (if you have one) to mark the place until you find the solution for it, then take your golden key and finish your second puzzle or resume using it as a column marker.

It may be tempting to spend your sigils on materials as soon as you get enough sigils but hold off until you're done grinding sigils for the event. You may get obsidian shards or binding essences from puzzles, which will save you some time and grinding!

The Grasping Plateau: The Loot
Generally, you'll earn 300-350 sigils per completely cleared grasping plateau.

There are four different things you can obtain using apocrean sigils. There are three weapons you can craft with obsidian materials, which are bought with apocrean sigils. You will need 6 obsidian shards, 4 binding essences and 2 perplexing elements to craft a single obsidian weapon. You will need 1470 apocrean sigils to have enough sigils to buy all the materials necessary for one obsidian weapon.
The Obsidian Edge is a variant of the Acheron. It is a shadow dealing sword that sounds like a Gran Faust upon swinging. Its charge similar to the acheron's except it inflicts poison on the charge bursts. It also unleashes many tendrils as an animation.
The Obsidian Carbine is a variant of Sentenza. It is a shadow dealing gun with a unique firing sound. It fires 6 shots per clip. It is capable of poison on regular shot, making it very unique, but also poisons on charge attack. Its charge attack is similar to the sentenza except for the tendril animation on the final shot and the poison infliction.
The Obsidian Crusher is a variant of the graviton vortex. It is a shadow dealing bomb that functions identically to the graviton vortex, except for the tendril animation as well as a chance of inflicting poison on the second explosion.

To obtain all three weapons in one Apocrean event, you will need 4,410 sigils.

The one item you can get directly with apocrean sigils is the grasping aura which costs 10,000 apocrean sigils.

If you wish to obtain all four unique items from the Apocrean event, you will need 14,410 sigils. At approximately 300-350 sigils per plateau, you will need to do a lot of Grasping Plateaus!

So...are the weapons worth it?
Cue personal opinion section!!
Yes. A fair amount of people disregard them due to the difficulty in obtaining the sigils for them and the amount of grinding required. Others feel the poison effects aren't worth the work. Still others, albeit reasonable, state that the obsidian edge is not worth getting simply because of the acheron's major damage. However, we all know the acheron is broken (it appears to be pulling its damage values from the gran faust's damage table) and I expect it will be fixed at some point. That and sometimes, it's fun to not use an overpowered weapon! :P

Poison has its place too and is a very useful status. It renders silkwings and gremlin menders useless to their allies as they will actually damage their target instead of heal it. Poison also cuts down the attack and defenses of the poisoned target down to 1/3rd. You'll be able to kill your enemies MUCH faster and take far less damage if your enemy is poisoned. Of course, poison cannot be inflicted on poison themed enemies along with a few certain monsters.

Given some time and effort, you can craft an obsidian weapon (edge's precursor is silent nightblade, carbine's precursor is blackhawk, crusher's vortex is graviton bomb) by having its precursor heated to level 10, one set of obsidian mats (note above for how many of each and how many sigils it costs) and the following materials: 40 dark shards, 10 vile seals and the following materials, depending on which obsidian weapon you are crafting: 8 swordstones for edge, 8 grave soil for carbine or 8 sinful brews for crusher. You will craft your obsidian weapon at the mysterious alchemy machine, which can be found in the Arcade of Haven on the far right side near the Garrison's door. Go north of the Town Square to find the Arcade and go right.

I hope this guide was helpful for you! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post!

Fri, 06/30/2017 - 23:19

Sciger

Sciger's Guide to Grinchlin Assault (excluding final battle)

To Be Written

Sat, 07/01/2017 - 02:44

Zincamania-Forum

For poison fiend arenas you suggest fallen armor, which has a damage penalty against fiends. Since you recommend Dread skelly for freeze fiend arenas, why not just recommend dread skelly for both? Not only is dread skelly objectively better, it also saves on crafting costs since you don't have to craft the Fallen. Dread skelly shield also outclasses Crest of Almire for Poison Fiends.

You should also mention snarbolax armor in the alternatives, as it's a better dread skelly for your build which primarily uses swords. It's not impossible either to get for a new player, all they need to do is find a decent party to do the SL with. Compared to the other alternatives you suggest (Black Kat set), Snarbolax is easy to acquire. As a bonus, I'd recommend getting a wolver set with some UVs to start out with. Getting a wolver set with stun or poison high UVs is not going to be terribly expensive (should be like 60k crowns, which is cheap considering 1 roll at punch costs 20k) and it'll make the Snarbolax set quite a bit stronger right off the bat.

Finally, if Greavers give you trouble, a Dread venom striker makes easy work of them because every hit interrupts them and you attack much faster than the greavers.

Sat, 07/01/2017 - 16:23

Sciger

Thanks for the suggestions! I honestly forgot the fallen set has the fiend debuffs so I'll go back and modify that as that's not helpful at ALL! :) That's what I get for typing up a guide at 2 in the morning.

I'll definitely add Snarbs as a suggestion under freeze and poison arenas, can't believe I forgot that one too.

Tbh, I actually disagree with dread venom striker. While it'd be great against interrupting greavers, that's about all it'd be useful for and might be more of a hindrance in the rest of the arena. It'd be an okay replacement for BtB/Flourish for the optional third spot though I think. Thanks for the thought though! :D

EDIT: Fixed what was mentioned and also added screenshots for a guide to the final arena.
EDIT 2: Added the Shroud of the Apocrea guide. It is missing screenshots that I will obtain later when my internet is behaving.

Sun, 07/02/2017 - 05:15

Nitronicx

Some details I'd like to share

I recommend buying Apocrean materials just before crafting. As you've mentioned earlier, you can rarely obtain materials from the puzzles, so it is better to keep your Sigils, so you don't end up buying 6 Obsidian Shards and then finding one in the Plateau.

Also, at least from the little info I've got, Greavers should have 1.5x regular enemy health, so they aren't that weak. But then again, if you can reliably flinch them, they are harmless.

Sun, 07/02/2017 - 09:42

Sciger

I tend to do that already personally, I grind until Apocrea is nearly over, THEN buy the mats in case I get some from puzzles. :) I will clarify that in the guide though as a tip!

Quite, it's kinda funny how pointless they are if you flinchlock them. xD

Thu, 07/06/2017 - 03:40

Tqs-Remx

"Mostly" Sparkless Guide but not a Deathless Guide

A "mostly" sparkless guide implies that even if players use your guide, they can still suffer a double death - forcing them to spark.
I would highly recommend that you streamline your guide (i.e. editing completed guides) so that it becomes a deathless guide.

Other than that, your guide is a decent foundation and nice starting point for new players to build upon their own strategies for deathless runs.

Since the only completed guide (as of the date of this posting) is the fiend/undead guide - I'll make a few comments on it.

What is lacking from the guide:
As an endgame player, I found it interesting that you would mention the "knight in the corner" strategy against greavers - not many players know that - of course, I already knew that. However, what you should have mentioned is that the "theme" of the anti-fiend strategy section - which is to play defensively and to counterattack when the fiend's attack come on cooldown (which you sort of implied with the "knight in the corner" strategy). You should let players know that fiends (greavers, devlites, gorgos, trojans) suffer the longest cooldown after an attack and you should really drill in the point that the best time to attack fiends is during that period of time.

Armor:
While it is good that you have recommended several armor sets to deal with different status affliction situations - however right at the top of your first post, within the bold paragraph - you've written: "focusing on weapons that the average knight can obtain relatively easily" - which really says: "I have resources to buy a few essential weapons, but barely enough to buy 1 armor set."

For this instance - you should recommend 1 armor set which allows you to deal with a wide range of situation - and if the armor is at a disadvantage in a particular situation - write the disadvantages and strategies used to mitigate the disadvantage.

Overall:
Since this guide is made with the average player in mind, you should write your guide as if you were strapped for crowns - 3* to 4* weapons and armor, no god-tier uvs, not able to buy weapon and trinket upgrades and only having at best, a T2 battle sprite [LVL 1-49] (no hexing haze, no angelic aura, no firestorm, non max sprite skills) since the average knight is at that sort of position.

Once you realise that good player positioning and good playstyle and not certain weapons and armors are the biggest factors to a deathless run - weapon and armor recommendations become very meaningless.

Keep it up though, it was a good read. Expecting more in the future.

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Sciger's Safe and (Mostly) Sparkless Guide to Soloing Various PVE Stuff Levels/Events (Other Guides Welcome!)