Torchlight II

Not exactly a solution, but more of a heads up that you can actually die and continue your hardcore journey. For those familiar with the Van Helsing hardcore achievements, it works the same way.

When you die, DO NOT PRESS A AND DO NOT QUIT THE GAME!
Furthermore, DO NOT NAVIGATE TO ANY OTHER APP, GAME OR SETTINGS. Access the local save game ONLY through manage game & add-ons through the thumbnail's game options (press start). Do anything else and the game WILL SAVE the HC death.
It's imperative you don't quit or navigate to another app, not even system settings or the store. If you do, you force the game to save before shutting down and hence saving the death to the cloud.
That is exactly the thing you're avoiding with this trick. Die, don't press anything or quit in any way and delete the save while the game is running.

- Press the home button
- Navigate to Torchlight II thumbnail
- Press start (to the right of home button) to open Game options
- Select 'Manage game & add-ons'
- Navigate to 'saved data'
- Select 'Delete all' (including reserved space, to be sure)
- In case you would only delete the save game. DO NOT CHOOSE ' Delete everywhere'
- Confirm deletion
- If the game hasn't quit yet, do so by bringing up game options and choose 'Quit'
- Start game

The game will boot up and sync the cloud save game to your xbox. Lo and behold, there's your HC character again.

Keep in mind that you do lose some progress... I got set back 3 levels, but it still beats starting over by a mile. You may want to make a habit of going into the menu and save to mitigate the potential progress loss.

Hope this helps!

This can be obtained on Casual Difficulty with your hardcore character. I attempted my first playthrough as an Embermage but ran into issues of getting overwhelmed and lost that character. Second character I ran an Engineer. Early on Spiderbots and Flame hammer helped crowd control and did massive damage. Later in the game take advantage of Forcefield Skill from the Aegis skill tree, this prevented any health loss at the later stages of the game.

Blitz Skills
Flame Hammer (starting)
Coup De Grace (if points can be spared)
Construction Skills
Healing Bot (starting)
Spider Mines (level 14)
Gun Bot
Fire and Spark (if points can be spared)
Aegis Skills
Forcefield (level 7)

Stat Points
Pump most points in Vitality and Strength then about 2/3 of what you place in those two pump them into Dexterity. Lastly for put points in Focus as needed so you have enough to cast you skills

Hope this helps those having issues. Always take it slow and sweep and clear areas as you move through the areas/dungeons.

Note: Other solution provided did not work for me when my hardcore character died.

Also after posting this i did some research and there is a more in-depth guide for solo hardcore via steam community guides. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=23785...

Good luck

Other solutions and comments are great but here's more detailed guide for those who just wants to get this achievement as quick as possible. All classes have a viable build but, If you want to make it easy Engineer is the safest choice. In this game, difficulty doesn't give you more XP or gold. Actually playing casual gives you +%20 gold. Definitely do that...

There are 4 acts in total. 4th act being very short and only consist of 1 quest. Take it slow and do all side quests. On act 4 mobs will be around 50-51 level. Make sure you are 49-50 before proceeding to The Minehead.

Stats: I would highly recommend 4 STR - 1 DEX. You don't need Vitality other than what your gear gives.

Skills: Flame Hammer is our main skill, assign it any button you would like. Level it as much as you can.
Forcefield is our most important skill. Level it max. It is basically absorbing shield. This is why we are not giving any Vitality stat.
Fire and Spark Extra damage.
Aegis of Fate Defensive skill, time to time gives you bubble equal to your armor. Passive skill, definitely allocate some points.
Coup de Grace Every so often it does trigger for extra damage, not necessary but useful. This should be your last skill to level up.
Healing bot Self explanatory. Bot that heals us and give mana time to time. Not necessary but better choice comparing to other alternatives.

I wouldn't use any other skills unless you prefer it. This setup should be enough for all content.

Play style: Basically pop your forcefield and use flame hammer. In the beginning it can be difficult to maintain mana, try to play without forceshield until act 2. But around act 2 if you complete one of the side quest you will get a jewel called Rift Ember. It gives mana every normal hit. One of the most useful jewel for our build. Use it on a weapon of your choice.

Weapons: Technically you can use any melee weapon you would like. But I would highly suggest 1H Sword with mana steal on hit and a Shield. If you are very confident and need more damage pick any 2 Handed weapon. They can be any rarity, most likely you will one hit everything anyway.

Lastly, rarity of items completely irrelevant. Wear items actually helps you. You need more defense? Pick Vitality items. You need more resist? Pick belts with resistance you need. Damage? Pick Crit damage, critical hit, physical damage or fire damage.

Don't forget to enchant your items time to time. Small changes like %2 block chance on a shield could become very handy.

With this build, I have never died. In fact I'll be using this build to reach level 100. Due to losing my save while deleting local saves, I decided to build something viable. I hope you like it. Good luck!

So this will not be a full guide but a cheese method. Requires a second player that has not done NG+.

I played this coop with a partner and left this as the second to last achievement. We went through the main game and then grinded to level 100 in the normal game (did NOT do new game +). Once we got to level 100 (luckily we got a legendary drop and traded it and both got that one too) but we got level 100 and then I started a new hardcore character (engineer) and he was able to join me with his non hardcore level 100. He was blocked once from joining then we restarted a new multiplayer and then he was able to join again... So not 100% sure why the one time failed but if happens just try again. But I just stayed back while he would clear out the area. Since he had completed the game he had all the fast travel locations. He would travel and clear the area and then I would teleport in and tell him where the Star was on the map and he would just run there while I stood at the portal. He would throw a portal right before the next area and I would go to him. On boss areas I would go into the first area but not take the teleporter to the boss till he was dead. We cleared the entire game on first try no deaths with about 3-4 hours for the first run.

We both completed this at Level 20 and 24 respectively. We were both engineer and like other guides did put stats into Vitality and defense/health based skills for the most part. We would upgrade equipment as we found it but that's about it.

One area that was a little different was the Djinn tasks. On my run I just stayed at the beginning and he cleared everything out staying in the light. Took the teleporter and then cleared the second area. He can't remember if he opened the chest or not. But when I went through the first teleporter there was no light, everyone dead, and all the traps were disabled so I just ran it. When we did it for him I did not open the chest at the end and he had the light and traps still active. he saved and quit and when reloaded and going back to the Djinn the task was already complete. In the second task area we stayed together with the Hardcore person trailing behind just making sure not to get hit by tentacle.

Also, My level 100 was a embermage and not built for fire resistance so when I ran him through I actually died twice in the second to last boss fight but I was able to revive still even in his hardcore char game.

Untested thought. If non hardcore can join hardcore I wonder if the opposite works. If the achievement is tried to the quest completion or just killing him... I wonder if a new hardcore char can join a non hardcore person world (have them reroll so boss respwawns) and then just go kill him?