Ascend_Farming

Depending on what you’re looking to get out of Ascend: Hand of Kul, farming usually becomes a necessity at some point on your journey. Whether it be harvesting souls to purchase that next upgrade, gaining experience for your next Ascension or just cracking open chests for a better piece of gear, farming is an important part of the process.

While everyone has their own little corner they like when it comes to banging heads for experience and currency, there’s a spot in Ascend that is generally accepted as the best, or most accessible, location for grinding out. Due to the game’s constant influx of content and balance updates, the information below might not be the most time/cost-effective means of farming forever, but for now, if you follow along at home you’ll do just fine in the long run.

The Ring of Bones

Nestled at the end of the Ruined Cliffs, The Ring of Bones is the last level in the zone and houses the entrance to the Tomb of Dakrum. The real value in this level is the scripted encounter that spews a few dozen basic enemies directly next to the warp entrance. This allows you to warp in, siphon the souls off the small horde with a massive combo multiplier, and then warp back in to repeat as needed. It’s a fairly straightforward process, but there are a few tips that can help for both soul farming and experience farming.

Soul Farming

The quickest way to do this is with the heavy area-of-effect spells, specifically Black Hole and Chain Lightning. Once fully upgraded, you’ll be able to cast Black Hole on the first run, Chain Lightning on the second, Chain Lightning on the third, and then start the process over on the fourth. This equates to thousands upon thousands of souls per hour.

You’ll want to equip a fast, one-handed weapon of the lowest quality you can find, and slot it with runes of speed if you’re able. What this does is allow you to swing as fast as possible, while dealing as little damage as possible, allowing you get to your combo multiplier going before killing too many enemies. Below is a brief video and the necessary steps showing the run in action.

[springboard type=”video” id=”840301″ player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ]

Steps:

  1. Warp to the Ring of Bones in the Ruined Cliffs.
  2. Equip a low-quality, one-handed weapon [Runes of Speed help increase attack speed for more hits per second.]
  3. Head left to the human settlement, touch the fire pit in the center of the village to initiate enemy spawning.
  4. Build a quick multiplier with a few hits; cast Black Hole and continue to swing while enemies are pulled.
  5. Warp back in and repeat steps 3-4 with Chain Lightning. If you’ve fully upgraded the spell you can do this twice.

Experience Farming

Farming experience in the Ring of Bones is nearly identical to soul farming, with the exception that spells aren’t necessary to excel. The idea with farming levels here is to capitalize on the experience bonus awarded for performing executions [pressing A on a near-death enemy when prompted].

When you successfully execute an enemy you gain an additional amount of experience worth twice what you receive for killing it, so you’re essentially awarded three times the experience for executing an enemy. If you’re not concerned with souls and are just after the experience, purchasing a Double XP Boost means you’re getting six times the experience for an execution.

There are different variations, but the best method we’ve found is to equip a slow two-handed weapon. Since the execution prompt is on a short delay, dealing slow area-of-effect swings allows the game time to initiate the execution prompt before the enemy is killed. Focus on using the [X, Y] and [X, X, Y] combination attacks to spread damage out over a large group of enemies, then continuously press A to snag the execution during the attack animation. Below is a brief video and the necessary steps showing the run in action.

[springboard type=”video” id=”841969″ player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ]

Steps:

  1. Warp to the Ring of Bones in the Ruined Cliffs.
  2. Equip a slow, two-handed weapon [Fire ruins help to tick damage away getting enemies closer to the execution threshold without killing them.]
  3. Head left to the human settlement, touch the fire pit in the center of the village to initiate enemy spawning.
  4. Perform area attacks using the [X, Y] and [X, X, Y] combinations.
  5. Continuously press A during the heavy animation to ensure executions when they pop up.
  6. Warp back in and repeat steps 3-5.

Epic Chest Farming

When it comes to securing the best possible loot from Ascend‘s many scattered chests, the best of the best comes from “Epic” Chests. Dark purplish in color, these chests usually punctuate the end of a long dungeon, and can contain anywhere from purple to gold equipment and items of your Caos’ level or higher. When needing to grab high-quality gear quickly – whether just before Ascending or to replace a broken item and avoid a costly repair – there are a few of these chests that can be snagged relatively easily. Below you’ll find a non-alignment dungeon guide to grabbing as many of these Epic Chests with as little time investment as possible.

Non-Alignment Dungeon Route

To perform this route, you’ll have needed to complete the campaign as several of these chests reside in high level areas. If you’ve just reached your next Ascension level and want to take a shot at some better gear before doing Ascending, avoid killing enemies while you do this run so you don’t push yourself into the next level and miss out on an Ascension.

  1. Warp to Mount Crimhorn, Hand of Kul. Collect the Epic Chest from the top of the stairs. [Non-Dungeon]
  2. Warp to Ruined Cliffs, The Gray Fane. Collect the Epic Chest from the area where you first encounter an Ogre. [Non-Dungeon]
  3. Continue through The Gray Fane toward The Gray Tomb dungeon. Collect the Epic/Gold Chests from the end of the second floor. [Dungeon]
  4. Warp to the Valley of the Dead, The Tomb of Kings. Enter the Tomb Gatehouse Dungeon. Collect the Epic/Gold Chests from the end of the first floor. Leave the Dungeon through the exit. [Dungeon]
  5. Continue through The Tomb of Kings toward The Crypt of the High Priest dungeon. Collect the Epic/Gold Chests from the end of the first floor. [Dungeon]

The entire run guarantees you several Gold Chests and 5 Epic Chests and can be performed in about 10 minutes if you’re only stopping for Gold and Epic Chests. However, if you’re killing enemies and looting every chest possible, you should walk away with several thousand more souls and a few dozen chests of all varieties.

Opposing Alignment Dungeon Route

Each alignment dungeon currently guarantees one “treasure room” at the end of the dungeon containing an Epic Chest and at least two Gold Chests. There are 4 alignment dungeons per alignment, for a total of 12 possible Epic Chests per day. As you can only be aligned to one God at a time, running dungeons from opposing alignments will require the purchase of a Mask Boost for 8,500 souls. Given the amount of souls you can earn from killing enemies and selling equipment within alignment dungeons, that price can easily be made up by completing the entire run.

If you’re using dash attacks to move quickly and not stopping to kill many enemies, you can enter all four dungeons of an alignment before your mask expires.

[A complete list of all Alignment Dungeons can be found in the Dungeons section of this guide.]
  1. Begin in Ruined Cliffs, The Battlements, purchase the appropriate Mask Boost as you’re standing in front of the door. Enter the dungeon and race to the finish for the guaranteed Gold and Epic Chests.
  2. Warp to the second dungeon of the same alignment [See: Dungeons]. This dungeon will house two floors and many chests. Grab convenient chests along the way and race to the guaranteed Epic and Gold Chests in the treasure room at the end of the second floor.
  3. Warp to the third dungeon of the same alignment [See: Dungeons]. This dungeon will also house two floors. Depending on how much time is remaining on your Mask Boost you should race to the treasure room at the end of the second floor. If you’re ahead of schedule, you may stop to grab convenient chests along the way.
  4. Warp to the last dungeon of the same alignment [See: Dungeons]. If you’ve been quick you’ll have enough time to get through the door before your Mask Boost expires – once inside, you won’t need it. Take your time and collect what you want from this dungeon; you’re no longer under time constraints.