Grim Dawn: Definitive Edition

My guide will be split into two parts. Part 1 will be general tips and guidelines for completing this game on hardcore + ultimate difficulty. Part 2 will be specific infos for this achievement, so if you already have a good build, scroll down to part 2.

Part 1:

The "ultimate + hardcore" achievements are by far the hardest in the game. While it's theoretically possible, to complete these with any class, I would highly recommend you to follow these tips, to save yourself from the frustration. Believe me, these achievements are kinda frustrating.

You will not be able to complete SR25 on ultimate difficulty with random gear, so the key to success are target-farmable items.
What are target-farmable items? The drops in this game are almost completely random, almost all bosses can drop almost all items. This makes it kinda hard to farm for good, class-specific gear. However, there are two exceptions:

- The dark one's set
- The krieg's set

Both sets are dropped by fixed, respawning enemies and are actually really good. However, Krieg's set has a lower droprate and is made for melee classes, not something I would recommend for these achievements.
The dark one's set boosts your vitality damage and several skills from the Shaman, Occultist and Necromancer classes. This is especially good, because these classes are the best, to tackle the hard achievements. For more informations about the dark one's set, check out the following link: https://grimdawn.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_One%27s_Gift

So, let's talk about classes. As I said above, the best classes for these achievements are the following:

- Conjurer (Shaman/Occultist)
- Ritualist (Shaman/Necromancer)
- Cabalist (Necromancer/Occultist)

The Ritualist and the Cabalist come with a downside, they both have an either weak early-game or mid-game, or might not be suited for inexperienced players. The conjurer however, is strong during all parts of the game and will be the class I chose for this guide.

I would highly recommend you to start out as a Shaman and "rush" through the skill tree, until you unlock the "Briarthorn" summon. Then continue spending your skill points like this, everytime you level up:

- 2 points into Briarthorn
- 1 point into the skill tree
- 1 point into each of the Briarthorn add-ons once you unlock them, but leave them at 1 point

When your Briarthorn is maxed out, pick up the Occultist class and continue to do the same thing there with the "Hellhound" summon.
Make sure to put 1 point into the "familiar" summon and the "mend flesh" add-on on your way through the Occultist skill tree for the heals. This will ensure you are tanky enough, while still having summons that one-shot your enemies.

When you are approaching mid/late game, you can follow this skill build by Maya:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdawn/comments/resy7l/petwalker_...

Please note, I used a slight variation of that skill build. Instead of leveling up the pet add-ons, I only spent 1 point in there and put the remaining points into the wendigo totem and the storm totem, which worked out really well.

Some general tips:

- While you are running the pet build, HP is the most important attribute. Only put enough points into the other stats, to wear your armor
- Movement speed is really important. Being able to circlce around your enemies (or run away), while your pets are killing them is essential
- If you are playing singleplayer and you are stuck in a situation you won't survive, simply press start, quit out and reload.

This should carry you through the game until you can farm the dark one's set.

Once you get the dark one's set, it will be much easier. My build looked like this in the end: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jjqRn2

So, there is actually a way to save your character, if you die. This is an unpopular option and some might consider it cheating, but since this game throws absolutely ridiculous stuff at you (I stopped counting how often I got one-shotted from full health and max resistances), I decided to include it.
If you die you can simply:

- Hit the xbox button and select Grim Dawn
- Press start
- Select "Manage game and add-ons"
- Select "Saved data"
- Select your profile
- Select "delete local data" (ATTENTION, don't delete your save from everywhere, only the local data!)
- Start the game again and your last save will be downloaded from the cloud

Be aware that xbox updates the cloud-save every time you close the game and every 15 minutes in the background, so you will have to be fast to save your character.

Part 2:

Now the "Immortal Shattered Vanquisher" achievement requires you to complete the 25th shard of the shattered realm on ultimate difficulty, on hardcore mode. The shattered realm is an endless dungeon, you can enter right at the start of the "forgotten gods" DLC.

There are a total of 73 maps, which are chosen randomly. To complete a map, you will have to kill the monsters and collect their souls, until the progress bar is full and creates a portal to the next map.
Each shard consists of 3 maps and 1 boss room, with up to 4 bosses. The higher your shard, the more difficult. So you will have to clear a total of 75 maps and 25 boss rooms.

You can ignore the timer, the only benefit is better loot when leaving the shattered realms. Once you left, you will have to restart the shattered realms from shard level 1, unless you unlocked a waystone.

Waystones are items you can trade in for a shortcut to a certain shard level. You can pick between shard level 5, 10, 15, 20, etc..., the only requirement is, you must have beaten a shard level before you can skip to it.
Now here is a good tip: You can complete the shard levels on normal difficulty, to get the waystone blueprints and use these on higher difficulties. The only downside is, you can only teleport to the first waystone of the shard tier, if you have not beaten the other shard levels on your current difficulty.
So to sum it up:

- Complete shard level 20 on normal and get the blueprint
- Create the shard level 20 waystone
- Change your difficulty to ultimate
- Trade in your waystone to start at shard level 20
- Clear shard levels 20 to 25 on ultimate and the achievement is yours

When you enter the boss rooms, make sure to only aggro one boss at a time and immediately run back to the starting corner of the room. You will most likely not survive fighting multiple bosses at once on higher shard levels.

For more informations on the shattered realm, check out this link: https://grimdawn.fandom.com/wiki/The_Shattered_Realm