This is not a hand-holding guide. Its a bullet list guide of what to do and when in what order. You should have played through the game already at least once on classic or explorer difficulty. You also need to be able to dodge and kite through enemy infested areas.

If at any point in the guide you are unsure where a mentioned item is, please refer to this excellent guide by Malkavia: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3352373764

If at any point you lack money, go out and loot/sell stuff. Most things can be bought later, it just takes some extra backtracking. I had enough coins for all the stuff I bought in this guide, only once did I have to sell 48 ancient coins and some skins.

Goals:
>> get to 74 prowess for Barbaric Poleaxe
>> get basic axe skill 1 for execute
>> get 45+ base focus to execute without having to build focus
>> get strong leather armor (28 AR, 6 MR)
>> clear forest primeval for items, shrines, LP and xp
>> pump only MIND
>> get to CH4, get magic + spells + 100 base focus
>> get legendary shield
>> 100% the game

As mentioned, my build for this insane playthrough is 100% MIND to be a magic user primarily. For martial talents I only take the shield talents to have a very beneficial perfect block. The legendary shield also gives a lot of passive armor and magic resist.

However, you can build anyway you want to. The first part of the guide maximizes coins and experience without any fighting. So by the time you are ready to fight some mobs, you have plenty of LPs and coins (or found weapons) to build however you want to. I will mention this again in the guide when I start to spend LPs.

You can also use mandragoras for any stat elixir you want, I prioritized MIND x5 then FOCUS x2. There are 7 mandragoras to get in the game. 8 if you beat up Henik for his mandragora. Of course, you can save scum coin pouches to get all the mandragoras needed to make every single stat elixir in the game. Even on hardcore mode if you are willing to do this with alt+F4. It's your game, you decide.

Go full dex bow, full strength axe or dex/strength daggers, all supplemented with as much MIND as you want base focus however you like. My build is just what I did in my insane run.

In order to plan ahead a bit for your build, it's nice to know what level can be obtained before the Red Tower. I got level 28 1/2, but I didn't maximize experience. I didn't fight every single npc in the game. You can fight any npc by drawing your weapon, standing close to an npc until you see the red crossed swords over there head and hold the attack button. You get experience and items the first time you beat anyone. You can mostly do this without repercussions. At most you need to pay a fine to your faction police to make amends. This can be a large sum, so be careful! You can soft-lock yourself this way out of quests.

User FreiherrVomStein went all out on experience and managed to reach level 29 before Red Tower. He got level 29 during the secret hewer camp fight. So 28 x4 LPs = 112 LPs from levels alone. Plus 8x3=24 LPs from shrines means you get 136 LPs max. On top of this you get the stat elixirs and several stat increases from events.

Catch mandragora without earpiece: activate mandragora, dodge back, he starts running, time your talk to him between screams and sing a lullaby (option 4).

Updated the guide with the location of free earplugs north of Babsi on the hill on a skeleton. This is right along the path of the guide before we encounter any mandragoras in the wild. So you can now catch all mandragoras without the fear of dying. Thanks user Cockadoodledoo for the mention.

I'm pasting this free leather armor from a treasure here as well, since it's technically possible to get this first thing at the start of a new game. You need to investigate the treasure spot and dodge some boars, but it's not even that hard. This section will be mentioned further along the guide as well so we won't forget.

[FREE LEATHER ARMOR: user Varyn [GER] found a hidden treasure containing a free leather armor. I never found this myself in 4 playthroughs, so kudos to him! (How many people even know of this armor?)]
Tip from FreiherrVomStein :
"when you go around below the stone circle and not above it, you can run out all the boars and dig it out with no pressure."

Still easy as pie on a new insane playthrough 9 april 2025

make pretty character, start game
collect village stuff
collect void plant - VOID PLANTS: 1/5 (see below for directions)
(they are called Brainfood plant in the game, but everyone calls them VOID plants...)
go east out of the village up the ramp and DODGE THROUGH the deathfog, you will get hit!

don't go to the upper parts above the village yet, you are pathetically weak and critters waste your time
meet asmus on the road south
get basaltroot from east cave from where you meet asmus - BASALTROOT: 1/6
run along the road south to the woodcutters camp collecting stuff along the way (esp berries!)

meet carima and blaan, get axe from blaan and equip it
OPTIONAL:get armor and earplugs
talk to cengiz
do larea quest (learn ointment from bombus)
run behind larea along the river east and slightly north to get the hidden treasure for a spear to fish
EQUIP THE SPEAR IN YOUR SECOND GEAR SLOT, DONT SELL IT!

help jendrik west outside of the camp and chop wood, get +1 STRENGTH
help agilo east inside the camp cook (need berries)
catch thief (owain) at night at the storage pits and convince him to ask cengiz for work
meet owain during the day and get him to work for cengiz, don't rat him out!
get work clothes from cengiz, then rob everyone in the camp, inc Bombus cart!
[NOTE on robbing people: some people are easier to rob at day and some at night, always WALK when entering forbidden areas and looting chests near sleeping people]
learn skin animals from larea
go down to ripper territory and get the LP shrine while dodging dogs - LP SHRINES : 1/8


back to the road and go west to the remnants camp and enter the hewers camp
pay 25g for a bed with blanda and rest in it
beat up blanda with mog, loot her stuff
leave hewer camp west into the caves, WALK past rock beast north-east - BASALTROOT: 2/6
go to frithjof dodging molerats and learn lockpicking from him (200g)
[NOTE: Frithjof & co. = thieves guild from now on]

steal everything at thieves guild at night
go back to hewer camp dodging molerats
at NIGHT, steal everything in hewers camp (esp conor bottom right and meluna 200g top right)
at 21:00 convince conor at the fire for sagar to go to nemeton (you stole his stuff so he wants to go)
SKIP doro escort since she attacks everything and we are pacifist for now
sleep until midnight again
loot everything outside hewers camp, Aidan's place etc (south exit hewers camp)
loot boris when he is sleeping and the guard is out - RELIC: 1/7

loot all merchant stalls (WALK!)
accept fulks quest, talk to aldo
loot both gladiator camps west of arena (make sure to read melunas letter to bady)
loot behind tavern the coin pouch
talk to kora about aldo for 2x60EXP and learn that baltus is missing (she walks between marketplace and tavern)
talk to bernold (tavernkeeper) and ask about eugen, learn he needs drinks
talk to eugen, give 2xbeer and 1xhoneymead (should have this else buy it) and slay some ripperzz *hic!*
get your stuff back from bernold (tavernkeeper) its day now
talk to gra near statue west of marketplace and tell him to go to proximus and accept his quest for snaga
loot statue when gra is gone and circle around to the hatch and loot everyting inside

accept package quest from boris
go to aidan (south-east from hewers camp entry) and give basaltroot for STRENGTH potion, use potion
go to where eugen slayed all the rippers and loot them, should obtain 10 juicy meats
go to tiaa (top side tavern), give 10 juicy meat, get bady food
talk to proximus and get the quest to get gra and bady in the arena
go to esther (near proximus, she stops you), agree to rig the fight and let her poison the food for bady
go to meluna in hewers camp (top right) and extort her for 50g for bady secrets

sleep till 22h then go get LP shrine near Gra's axe
this LP shrine is between remnants and woodcutters, south of the road - LP SHRINES : 2/8
run around the ridge, off the cliff, WALK, get axe, dont fight the bandits, one sleeps now, RUN DODGE
[UPDATE 26/12/2024: i guess they changed the pathing of the bandits. One is asleep and one is patrolling in front of the tent. So you can't easily grab the axe anymore. What you do, is approach from the north, wait until the patrolling bandit is facing south and standing south of the fire, then walk around past the tent, grab the axe. At this point the bandit will probably see you and the sleeping one will wake up. You now need to run and dodge away from them. Still very doable, just not a cakewalk anymore.]

back to road, then go west then north at intersection

go around ruins to see aldos corpse and keep his ring

go to remnants to Fulk at marketplace and report about Aldo, make Fulk beat up aldo and loot his stall stuff
go to Gra at arena and give him his axe

[Now we are done in the remnants camp. We are not going to the mines yet, because you need to fight there and we are not ready for that yet.]

This puzzle seems to be obscure for many players. Here is the solution. I ran here directly with an early baby Maso save. Nothing is required, just make this mosaic and the door will slide open.

go from remnants south to tavern along the road
[UPDATE 30/12/2024: user Cockadoodledoo mentioned the earplugs north on top of Babsi's hill. I didn't know about the earplugs, so I'm incorporating it here in the guide.]
you will meet Babsi to the right off the road, she is a hunter with a little camp
she has a quest to get some snaptor eggs, but we will do that later
north of Babsi, is a hill with a 'secret' passge up and on the hill is a cliff lichen and EARPLUGS so you can get mandragoras without fear of dying
there are no enemies so you can just run up the hill and get your loot

move along the road down south to the tavern and about halfway a little to the east, bait leshy (DONT FIGHT!), run around and grab LP shrine and spear - LP SHRINES : 3/8

[FREE LEATHER ARMOR: user Varyn [GER] found a hidden treasure containing a free leather armor. I never found this myself in 4 playthroughs, so kudos to him! (How many people even know of this armor?)]
Tip from FreiherrVomStein :
"when you go around below the stone circle and not above it, you can run out all the boars and dig it out with no pressure."

onwards south to the tavern, get sheep quest from olaf
talk to Sine about baltus for 100XP
on the heath, do filthy ring quest for Tuz (walking around on heath) but dont turn it in, use the ring yourself for now
Heath treasure! Tooth of the Viper

use rustmoss PIPE on heath mind shrine - MIND SHRINE: 1/7 (you looted one from Frithjof's chest in the thieves guild)

escort liesl to evi

get reward from olaf
loot shed west of tavern (sheep mask and sling)
loot tent to south along forest when the two other standing near fire (WALK!)

get mandragora south of the heath south of the red totempole - MANDRAGORA : 1/8 (see Mandragora section how to catch it without earplugs)

run east along southern ridge, pick up easy stuff
loot bag near elgar, DONT do his quest yet
go down around the ramps and go southwest for voidplant (pass through deathfog) - VOID PLANTS: 2/5
go into the cave, dont fight or mine, just walk and loot ruins, go up ladder into heath


go back to the road near the tavern
run east towards nemeton, before the area turns brown, go topside along the ridge, loot camp (LYRA)

run past frogs and bloodflies, loot some easy callashrooms (need 10 later)
go to nemeton gate, get blocked, get told to work at georgfarm
enjoy your time with muc (he kills the bloodflies for you and you get exp)
talk to georg get quest, learn that hasso is missing
talk to delani (in big house)
take only what you NEED from chest for 7x farmers meal (dont get all the contents, just the ingredients you need)
steal the rest that's lying around though! (like rustmoss etc)
loot sleeping pen

give 2x food to raya
give 2x food to jurek and jerzy
do bog iron quest, give jurek beer for his hat
go west to road then north to bridge, accept quest from dylara

[In this area, kill flies and water rats if needed. I had to kill two groups with axe, just hit and dodge, regain stamina, hit and dodge, pull to dylara if needed. If you can't manage the fights, come back later for the mandragora and just RUN and DODGE to the fox cave to get the boot.]

from bridge run east along ridge topside to get to a corpse, loot axe and equip it

catch mandragora north-east of corpse and down a ramp - MANDRAGORA : 2/8
run around, drop down ramp, go north avoiding bugs to the fox cave

loot boot, ignore foxes
run south-east around into red moor, south and west, back to bridge, return boot
give food x2
return to delani, turn in quest
turn in all quests at georg (you can now enter nemeton!)
accept new quests but we're not doing those yet
loot delani's chest completely empty now!

from georgfarm go south to nemeton, get lobo's quest (dude with cart near nemeton flag and wooden statues)
run along nemeton's palisade south-east ridge till the ramp into the moor
down the ramp in the moor, catch the luminous bass - LUMINOUS BASS : 1/4
run along the ridge in the moor to the north
circle around the frogs and get the filthy bag

run back south, then up the ramp east of nemeton, then north to appleyard, loot package near shack

run back to lobo and turn in filthy bag for 150xp
ask lobo to take you into nemeton
when you regain control, start quest with erwin (Travelling Merchants)
during the day, go to old man at big rocks, center of marketplace, start his quest
talk to enya (east stall), get free apples
talk to gerion (top-right stall), buy bread knife
talk to femke (top-left stall), DONT buy armor, ask for bearskin
talk to enya again, learn that femke does indeed have a bearskin
sleep till midnight, LOOT ENTIRE MARKETPLACE (inc bearskin with investigate)
go south to fighters quarter, get missing weapons quest from angus (after dialogue cutscene)
loot kendricks house just south of where you are
loot guardhouse further south LEFT chests (WALK in here to not disturb them)
sleep till day, loot guardhouse RIGHT chests
turn in old man quest at marketplace, get 150 coins
talk to kendrick near his house about missing weapons
talk to palina at west nemeton gate about missing weapons
talk to fia around the market warehouse about missing weapons
sneak into house next to warehouse, read cargo manifest with investigate
go south to stonehenge, meet gerdwin, nice guy
talk to yennifer bit south, get quest for wood
go north to market place, sleep till day
talk to swenn near warehouse, get wood
talk to yennifer, get tour
talk to adwin and deliver wood
loot everything in craft quarter!
talk to rura near all the furnaces, accept quest to get muc + find out about missing weapons
loot chunnaic place + diamond
do karottes quest (he wanders but now he should be south-west of the blacksmith)
meet helma east of the eating place, join class, get helma talisman quest from kids
meet humbert east of nemeton in the gardens, get extract, back to kids
after helma talisman, talk to kids again, start YOUR talisman quest
go to julani (standing near the road with some wood piles)
ask about missing weapons, hold her place for her while she cooks something
just double fortify (does this even have consequences?) and afterwards help karotte (he will kill bloodflies for you and you get xp)
after helping karotte, tell MUC (bit north near the flags and wooden statues) that RURA is waiting on him!
talk to julani, get scolded, talk to asmus (bit north next to the house), accept quest for package
sleep east in the derelict house, get quest from thieves jean& lock
do their first two quests, you have the items already (cup and diamond)
accept but DONT turn in 3rd quest! (you want to keep that ring and get lots of xp for turning them in)
bit south between the brown fences talk to afrin, DONT give money but make him talk to asmus, accept quest
go to asmus (north) and resolve afrin situation
talk to asmus again to get package to boris quest update
talk to mumme (northside palisade dude, second one right from the entrance) about missing weapons, chase him down, get henik clue (Man in the Moor quest)
go to bonny at eating place and ask about henik, get beer x2 and his location
talk to rura (near furnaces), turn in muc quest, get the cord, learn craft 1
get craft 2 quest from chunnaic (bear claw)
go to eternal fire (southern house craft quarter), light torches, get talisman q update to see raven
play LYRA tune at night (song is 1-3-4-2-3-4-1), etch raven symbol onto talisman
sleep till day, update q with olga to find blessings x3
turn in lock and jean with gerdwin (fighters quarter top house)
go south of nemeton entrance to meet henik, go with him, he kills everything for you, DONT FIGHT

get his mandragora (now with earplugs!), give it to henik
talk to fia, loot warehouse, see hair, meet fia and henik
loot kendrick house note [without this note, jennifer and harvey can't stay in nemeton]

[now you need to expose missing weapons, but you need to fight kendrick so postpone!]

[Now you've done everything possible without real danger. Now to get all the good stuff in the world! Next part is all about kiting/dodging/baiting with ZERO fighting, we are not strong enough yet!]

get LP shrine east of nemeton in the moor (can postpone if you find it too hard) - LP SHRINES : 4/8 (directions follow now)
start from georgfarm east exit down into the moor
you need to bait and dodge the water spikey beasts, you can not outrun them!
go south, south, east, south again until you reach the LP shrine, see screenshot

go back the same way to the georgfarm east exit
now go north slightly east and get fleur's corpse (stick to wood paths as much as possible)

go south then east to the ruins, loot the three swords in the south sword statue (investigate)
AVOID BIRD PEOPLE (I know they're called harpies, but not everyone knows that, but everyone does know BIRD PEOPLE!)

go south around the ruin, loot hidden treasure with investigate, then north and circle back to the stairs


go inside the ruins, use screenshots to navigate trap route
loot CEREMONIAL SWORD and RELIC - RELIC: 2/7

leave ruins same way, get talisman blessing 1 of 3 near stonehenge in north moor

go to raya near sleeping pen in georgfarm, let her know fleur is dead
go to delani, sell rustmoss for 5g a piece!

[Get caught by bandits west of nemeton past bridge for Missing quest. This quest gets triggered if you learn about 2 of 3 missing people (we know about baltus and hasso. Alternatively, you can get ambushed by Fawini at the tavern entrance, but that requires you to beat her up to get your money back after the Missing quest.]

do the missing quest, but dont fight anything! this part is completely on rails
when you need to get shrooms and meat, there is meat on a molerat corpse near the sandworm, just WALK past the worm to get it, also get 6 ordinary shrooms
solution guide to the two mosaic puzzles at the end :

at the end after you give weapons, dont fight, let them kill everyone, strength in numbers!
in the back cave of aldrik, get the STRANGE RELIC - RELIC: 3/7
get your gear from the chest now west of aldrik's lair, because if you return to the cave, one bandit will be alive(?)
we will return to this cave later to loot and kill everything, just get your gear
leave cave, smoke rustmoss with wind
run straight east to lake edge, then south-east dodging bloodflies
get moor LP shrine - LP SHRINES : 5/8

return to georg to get 200g for rescuing Hasso

west of nemeton before the bridge, go south, go east up the ramp

loot the corpse (ango), go south jumping off the ridge, GET THE CLIFF LICHEN and get shrine with CLAM - MIND SHRINE: 2/7

jump west off the cliff ramps and go north along the river, loot the letter off the corpse

get 1 sludgelotus and keep it as well as a bear heart when we get one, its for a quest
enter the little cave hidden behind the treecanopies, update quest from teigen but dont do it yet
run/duck/dodge/dive to the north
circle back along the nemeton ridge outside palisade for Treasure: Red Moor

this treasure has a +3 stat ring, so now we can replace the filthy ring and return that later
you should have at least 2000g on hand now to buy stuff from Jesko, if not do it later, i had 3130
buy RELIC and MANDRAGORA from Jesko - RELIC: 4/7 and MANDRAGORA: 3/8

run all the way back past remnants
use CEREMONIAL SWORD in mind shrine near east of remnants - MIND SHRINE: 3/7

on path to Garden of Gods, get mandragora - MANDRAGORA: 4/8

go to the big ruins to the east, click 3 tiles to open stairs, no fighting necessary!!! avoid enemies

get relic below ruins through center stair under statue (it just appeared) - RELIC: 5/7

go all the way to north road bandit duo before mines (the ones that mug you and Mottek)
before you reach them, take road south into swamp

<< SAVE HERE HARD GAUNTLET AHEAD >>
dodge south until you get to the LP shrine - LP SHRINES : 6/8
run around LP shrine until you get talisman blessing 2 of 3
get luminous bass south of LP shrine - LUMINOUS BASS : 2/4
run north back to the road to safety
[NOTE: this is a challenging route and you might get stunned and die a few times. Learn the route, learn to dodge and not get slowed. It's not that hard but it sure is harder than anything you did up until now.]


get mind shrine with LYRA - MIND SHRINE: 4/7

go north-west avoiding snaptors and dodging ghosts
get relic, bait the ghosts head-on to scream away from relic, dodge behind screamers, then get it - RELIC: 6/7
get void plant - VOID PLANTS: 3/5 (you will get hit 5-6 times by death fog, have 75% hp at least)

go south, jump down, get treasure above waterfalls


[Time for the last part of the pacifist lifestyle]
go all the way back to the woodcutters camp
go north, get shrine with RAM - MIND SHRINE: 5/7

from RAM shrine go EAST to new spell cave, also loot hidden alcove in spell cave

loot the skeleton just north of the RAM shrine
loot the camp to the east (go north around the water)
go into northern cave

in the cave, first go right, loot, then talk to Reija the Ruin Raider (she will teach you MIND pretty soon)
WALK past the two rock beasts
dont forget the west side cavern before you exit!

topside, SAVE first and loot the barbaric poleaxe from the ruins to the east, dodging BIRD PEOPLE
kind of hard, need to time dodges well
if you enter the ruin from the south and stick to the left wall, you can get the axe without even aggoing harpies!
loot axe and GET OUT (the axe is not optional in this guide)

run east, optional get the FIERY SHOUT stone in the north-east cave with the two bygones if you like dodging crap
run south, get MISTY STEP from the big corpse

run west topside of the opening, get mandragora - MANDRAGORA: 5/8
run northwest along the ridge and enter cave behind leaves for LP shrine - LP SHRINES : 7/8
loot skellie in the cave for epic trinket
outside cave, loot lichen to the left

If you want, go get the 7th relic and 1st armor piece, read the disclaimer first though, else skip to next section.



The 7th relic and 1st bygone armor piece used to be just pickups. Now, at least on insane difficulty, those items are HEAVILY guarded. I managed to loot the 7th relic, but i cant recommend doing this in this guide. You need to lure the melee bygone to the ladder. Then run back, dodge the caster while lockpicking the door (minigames OFF). Run to the LEFT room, pickup the relic, run to the RIGHT room, pick up the armor, run back out. Both items are on tables easy to see. This might get patched anyway, so for the rest of the guide, I will assume we have only 6 relics and not 7. This is not a problem, since we only need 5 relics before Reija will teach us mind up to 120!]
[UPDATE 23/12/204: user Rohan found a consistent way to get the 7th relic in chapter 1. See first two comments.
"1. you can actually sneak to the gate you have to lockpick where 2 guards are in front (yeah they dont seem to see you despite you being like 3m in front of you. they only trigger exactely when you lockpick the door.
2.so double klick on the door (once to lockpick, once to open it)
3. the mage skeleton will use an aoe skill, dodge to the right then use charge skill (needs enough base focus) to get inside, and dodge a second time upwards.
4. go into the left part where the relic is and grab it.
5. run out again with dodges, the mage skeleton always used magic missile on me at this part so prepare a dodge to dodge it.

thats it, its pretty consistent to do it within 3-4 tries even with like lvl 6, only light leather armor etc"

UPDATE 06 APRIL 2025: just did the above strategy. Sneak/walk to the left of the two bygones guarding the door. Save. Walk topside towards the door, DOUBLE click the door (minigames OFF). As soon as you click, the Gones aggro. Dodge into the door. Dodge green aoe areas that would otherwise root you if you didnt dodge, try to outmaneuver magic missile by zig-zagging, save dodge for other attacks. If you didnt get hit so far, you're good. Run into the left room topside and grab the relic. A spear Gone will run into the room with you, but he might also use poison cloud. This deals damage over time and slows you. I got the slow on me because the cloud was blocking the exit. Even slowed I could walk and dodge my way out of the ruin. So there is plenty of leeway. I did not need to use any ability, just run/walk/dodge. It wasnt that hard. Good luck! The guide still assumes you didnt get it anyway.

Fun fact: if you got the relic and got out of the ruin, you can save and re-enter the ruin. The Gones will not aggro and walk back to the first door. You can now sneak past them to the right side of the room and loot the ARMOR PIECE. Since the door is open, it's even easier this way.

However, user F4/80 found the sneak tactic not that consistent to pull off, so he came up with another tactic:
[summon rippers from scroll also works great for a run and grab strategy!]
I never tried this so I dont know if its easier or not.

Wether you got the 7th relic or not, head all the way back to the tavern.
Talk to olaf, show strange relic, get key to ruin raider cave. Go behind tavern into cave. see Ede.
Give Ede 3 relics, see Olaf.
Give Ede all your remaining relics
[ So I assume 6 out of 7 relics handed in for the remainder of this guide, so NO legendary weapons here yet.]
Ede and the ruin raiders sell more stuff and allow for more raiders to train you if you give them more relics.
With 6 relics, you can buy Ede's two stat elixirs for focus and hp for 1600g. You should have that.

Lets spend some LPs.
Remember you can build however you want! This is just my build you can follow.
We will start to fight stuff now to make progress. We are going for a full MIND build, but we have no magic yet. However, MIND fortunately also increases base focus, which we can use to our advantage.
UPDATE 06 APRIL 2025: we now have a magic spell in chapter 1! Green magic missile, 33 focus cost. I thought about replacing the execute style with this green magic missile. I decided against it:
1. Execute hits way harder (300% weapon damage for the barbaric poleaxe means 3x98=294 damage vs 150 green magic missile with 44 MIND).
2. Execute refunds focus if you kill the enemy with it.
3. Execute can hit multiple targets.
4. Execute has little delay so less chance of mob running out of the attack area.
So I'm sticking with the Execute route, which only costs us 3 LP and keep green magic missile for situational fights.
The easiest way to fight without spending any LPs on strength or dexterity, is to get a hard-hitting axe (Barbaric Poleaxe), have 74 prowess to be able to use it and have enough base focus to be able to cast execute. So, while in the ruin raider cave, learn Basic Axefighting from Zoltan for 3 LP.
Go to Reija to spend LPs. How many LPs? Lets calculate!
We need all the Stuff, Craft and Preparation talents.
We already have Craft I, Lockpick and Skin animals.
We need Craft II (3 LP), Brew Potions (3 LP), Gut Animal (2 LP) and Ichor (2 LP) = 10 LPs.
So spend all your LPs minus 10 on MIND with Reija.
I was level 9 with 44 LPs remaining at this point. After spending 34 LPs on MIND, I had exactly 74 prowess using four +3 stat rings.

If you dont have 74 prowess at this point and you do not want to savescum coin pouches for mandragoras, see if you still have some basaltroot and/or lichen to eat. We will make three +3 MIND elixirs anyway soon, so keep that in mind.
UPDATE 26 APRIL 2025: this playthrough I had 70 prowess with four +3 stat rings. No clue where the last 4 stats went, maybe last time I ate all my basalt roots and lichens. Since I was at the ruin raiders anyway, I decided to collect the 3rd blessing for the talisman to get an extra +12 prowess. It was very doable, so if you want to, you can go get it now as well.
Run up the hill west of the tavern on the hidden passage. Dodge past the three boars. Run into the forest. Now before the stone circle, you will encounter two shadowrippers. The screenshot shows the aggro red icons where they are located. Notice my characters' position near the tree stump: this is the exact point where the shadowrippers engage you! So run to that location, immediately go south to dodge the shadowripper pounce and then proceed to dodge them normally to the stone circle north west. BE CAREFUL AROUND THE SHADOWFLAMES. Stay at the top right of the stone circle to not engage more rippers. When the talisman receives its blessing, run back the way you came. Avoid shadowflames, leave the forest. Grats on your +15 prowess talisman.



Exit ruin raider cave from the north east, north past ruins and spiders, get key from crate, open door to thieves guild.
Go to Aidan east Remnant camp before hewer camp entrance. You need 900 500 coins, if you don't have that right now, start selling stuff. I sold 48 ancient coins and the extra ability battle shout and had 96 coins left after buying.
Pay up 500 to learn Brew Potions (he is the only teacher in CH1).
Immediately beat him up and get your 500g back.
Say sorry and use his own money to buy MIND and FOCUS recipes. (what a nice guy)
Make THREE MIND elixirs and TWO FOCUS elixirs. Drink all elixirs you have.
Now I had 80 total prowess with four +3 stat rings, so I swapped out one ring for the +4 armor ring and ended up with 77 prowess.
More importantly, I had 48 BASE FOCUS, meaning I can use Execute without building up focus.
You will need this ability now. We need better armor and we need the final talents.

Go to Babsi (just right off the road near remnant towards tavern)

start the snaptor quest. Let her take aggro. Babsi will regenerate if she goes down.
You only run in to Execute and then dodge away. Execute and dodge, thats ALL you do!
Thanks to the Barbaric Poleaxe, Execute hits like a truck.
Turn in options OFF the 'Draw weapon automatically' setting.
UPDATE 26 APRIL 2025: They changed it so you can NOT use execute if you do not have your weapon drawn. So it removes some of the safety, but you can still manage everything down below. Actually, now you are fighting properly and stuff dies a lot faster. Normal hits hit hard, you get focus back faster. In the end it is for the better. (it also kind of makes sense though to be really honest, I just really enjoyed the fast movement and being able to loot right away =]
You want to keep running around and Executing stuff and get some hits in here and there.

You can not get hit, you die in like two bites. I wrote this part originally when I still only had farmers clothes, you can tank a lot more hits if you have already gotten the leather armor.
If Execute kills an enemy, you get 45 focus back, so you can Execute again.
After the snaptors are dead, accept ONE egg from Babsi and learn Gut + Ichor talents.
Loot all animals, even already dead animals. The trophies can now be looted and you need money.

[UPDATE 03/01/2025: re-reading this section with other additions to the guide, this part might be confusing. You already have leather armor from the treasure, I mention this in the free leather armor section. But Olaf's armor is free $$ so you will still get it. Now Olaf might be a bit bugged when it comes to the trigger for giving you the armor. You need to have done the quests Ripper hunt and Sheep. Now in my case, Olaf didn't give me the armor. Not until Gawan went to nemeton and I returned. If Olaf doesn't give you the armor (he initiates dialogue to give it to you), just return occasionally. The trigger will come eventually.]
Now head south towards the tavern, go up the ramp and loot the yellow stone from the dead guy
you need to investigate the corpse and there are dogs around, you can 1-shot the dogs now

from the corpse, go north-east to see a man fighting dogs, that's faol
SAVE
help Faol get the ripper head
Same MO as with Babsi's snaptors. You 1-shot the little dogs with execute. Let faol tank the big dogs and you run around,execute off cooldown
Get the treasure near the waterfall when you head to the tavern.

Turn in ripper quest with Olaf.
Give Gawan the yellow glyph stone to start the quest Prosperity
Give Lorthiz his coins for 150xp. (he gave you the map after woodcutters camp)
Give Tuz the ring for 180xp and 40 coins.

clear the road between nemeton and the tavern of enemies for Doro later
go to Jesko, the merchant near the road outside of nemeton (the cat Mikesch runs around him)

I bought all his coin pouches (40x) for 600 coins
at this point I had 55 coin pouches, open them all and pray for mandragoras! (rare drop)
I got 1 mandragora! It's not crucial, but it's nice to be able to use the 5 void plants and 4 luminous bass if you can get 2 extra mandragoras from coin pouches
Of course, you can savescum 55 mandragoras if you want to. It's just not necessary at all though, at most you would get some extra hp for using mandragoras with Hawthorns.
give letter to palina for 100xp (you looted this south from the corpse earlier)
gawan is now south of the squatters, update his Prosperity quest by giving him 500 coins

return to the tavern, now that gawan is gone, olaf gives you leather armor!
use it with the 4 armor ring to not die so easily (18 armor wooh!)
i also bought redshroom tincture recipe to make some healing tinctures for upcoming fights

Run from the tavern to Babsi's camp. Go east to the library. Go south around the library and hop down to the mine. Get quest from Harald, turn it in (you should have plenty of wood). Go inside and get the quest from the guy in the back. Kill the stone beast. With 64 MIND Stroke of the Leaf did 210 damage. I needed like 8(?) casts to kill the beast. I didnt use execute because of cramped room, slow movement with weapon drawn, too easy to get hit and these dudes hit hard.
turn q in for Prospect I

go to remnants camp
i bought the berserker ring (+5 hp on kill), LYRA and HORN at the merchants
i could still use barbaric poleaxe with armor + berserker ring on and two +3 STR rings

do bernold's tavern rat quest, steal everything in there! Also clear out the little back cave (investigate)

make sure to have 50 coins on you else you'll miss out on prospect I!!
talk to mottek near the arena and run to mines, pay 50 coins to him when the bandits demand 100
at the mine camp entrance, get the quest to get rid of the bandits, we will do this much later, they also have a quest for you, that's where you need 1 bear heart and 1 sludgelotus
get prospect 2 from mottek if you paid him 50g, if not, pay him later and still get prospect 2
register with levin to mine and then rob his place (walk to the door)
rob lothars tent, get mine access and mining gear from lothar and immediately put your own gear back on
go into the mines
[NOTE: the mines are not big and everyone is close together, I'm not gonna post screens of every NPC. Also, you're gonna beat up EVERYONE in the mines (except maybe Inja, Jendra and Levin) for items, silver and XP before you leave.]
follow THE trusty and get prospect 3 from him
give agnessa some ointment and get prospect 4
give shona 10 stringy meat (you should already have that)
buy silver smasher from merik for 15 silver
talk to kessia, get finlay hideout quest
go very top right into finlays hideout, ask for silver, learn prospect 5/5!
with all prospect levels learned, MINE EVERYTHING YOU SEE from now on!
beat finlay up, loot his lair (start a fight by drawing weapon and holding your attack button)
tell kessia and andrick about the hideout, ask for SILVER from KESSIA else you get NOTHING
SAVE, use silver smasher on a silver vein, make sure the silver smasher BREAKS!!!
confront merik, beat him up, loot him and his chest right away, read the note
kill, mine and loot the eastern dark molerat section
tell murtagh about the food with MEAT
talk to oaf and say that andrick is no longer a problem
talk to oaf and update 'rogue friend' quest
beat up roisin for her earplugs
do a counterclockwise circle bottom left of the mines to get all the silver
talk to Jendra (bottom-right of the mine to trigger Emko)
run north, get stopped by Emko, fight mursel with him to sleep for free, then beat up Emko anyway
talk to murtagh and make him leave almar alone
talk to almar and get his place in the deep mine
go south to Jendra and go to the deep mine
do the entire on-rails deep mine route, mine everything, loot everything
kill the rock beast with executes on cooldown and running around or use stroke of the leaf if you levelled MIND, ez, let the girls tank it =]
after you escaped the DEEP MINE, get vote from levin
now, if you haven't done so already, absolutely beat up EVERYONE in the mines for items, silver and XP (except maybe Inja, Jendra and Levin)
sleep till 11PM / 23H, go to the exit, negotiate a deal with the exit guard and leave with ALL your silver! (get achievement if you haven't already gotten that one yet for leaving with 100 silver)
run all the way back to the remnants camp intersection

go east to the woodcutters camp and turn in rogue friend
run to remnants camp

go straight ahead to the upper quarter, up the stairs, go immediately right to the sleeping area, loot it (ango)
run rightside to the top of the upper quarter past the sleeping bunker up the hill, loot the hidden treasure

make sure its day, go to killian (top of the stairs you came up)
update 'join remnants' quest for xp, but DONT join remnants!
talk to lindon (to the right), get quest for money lender list
hit dummy next to farlan who is fighting the other dummy (bit north), get trashed, get his vote
talk to bardok the blacksmith, get BLUNT bady axe
talk to friedel in her office, lend money (100g)
sleep till midnight, get friedels list (investigate table) and loot her place while you're at it
give list to lindon and get his vote

go to bady at the gladiator training camp
talk to bady, report meluna is seeing jero, give him a honeymead, his blunt axe and tampered food
tell bady to get ready
talk to proximus, bet 500 on Gra, start fight, get paid 1080 (down from 2500 from classic mode?!)
talk to esther, get her vote
talk to bady and gra to finish up quest
talk to eugen get his vote

time for Boris' vote
talk to boris about asmus package, agree to sell rustmoss
sell rustmoss to Senga (marketplace hewer)
sell rustmoss to Cord & Gritx2 (hewers dropping off silver in north quarter and walking back)
tell boris you sold rustmoss, get 200 coins from him and not a copper less!
talk to boris again about his vote, ether and lindon voted for you so boris accepts you now
talk to killian about boris and eugen's vote, get 300 XP BUT DONT JOIN REMNANTS YET!!!

go outside remnants to the south and get ambushed by Boris' 3 goons: Bimmy, Jimmy and Gimmy
what you do is this, after dialogue, run back to remnants camp and get around the first ruin corner out of line of sight of the net and knife throwing
they trail each other, so you can beat 1 goon before the other's show up
also, they clump around the corner so your execute hits 2 or 3 goons
they should go down fast
be sure to have some food running and a healing item at the ready
if the fight is too difficult, you got two options:
1. maximize focus with a focus item
2. skip this part and get heavy leather armor first (takes a while!)
I found that the corner strat worked just fine and beat them all easy the second try
LOOT THE LETTER FROM ONE OF THE GOONS BEFORE THEY GET UP else afrin cant join nemeton again (if you go nemeton route ofc)


for fun you can confront Boris about the ambush and the letter
you can get 100g if you dont care about afrin rejoining nemeton
else tell boris to stick the 100g where the sun dont shine and get the ambush letter to asmus

talk to doro (top of hewers camp) and go together to nemeton, rest at tavern for extra xp and beat up Andarta if you are up for it, good practice for harder targets ahead (tip: run around the fireplace to execute again)
well, i guess that's it for Drova's only romance .....

Gambling time!
If you're feelin' lucky, you can gamble at Jesko's. Buy 40 coin pouches for 600g and open them up. See what you get! Dont forget to add up the money and the diamonds and rubies.

after you delivered doro, go to the bridge west and before you pass it head south and back up the ramp
bloodflies die in 1 execute so you can chain kill them now

loot all the rustmoss on the plateau and beat Ida up when she makes a fuzz, loot her stuff
go down to the medium island with the cave in it

Teigen is there and wants you to kill all the frogs, so do that
To kill frogs easy, aggro them and run back, the orange frogs will hop towards you away from the green spitters. Execute them on landing, run away to bait the tongue attack. After tongue attack, normal hit. Rinse and repeat.
UPDATE 09 APRIL 2025: or you can use Stroke of the Leaf, my new favorite spell! Two casts and a hit kills a frog. One cast kills a bloodfly. Two casts kill the crocs. Easy, I love this spell in chapter 1!
The crocs are also cake, bait their dash and second dash, then normal hit + execute = kill.
After killing the frogs, go into the cave, say the 12 frogs are dead. Loot his place!

Go to nemeton and meet Erwin, Lobo and Teigen at the top of the marketplace. Travelling merchant quest done!
Go see Henik at the tavern to get XP for helping him get the mandragora.
Go see asmus and tell him about the ambush and the letter. Afrin can now stay!
Finish quest with Asmus about the package.

You now have free Fast Travel between nemeton, georgfarm, tavern and remnants!

UPDATE 09 APRIL 2025
Erwin now sells Strong Leather Armor for 1500g. Decide for yourself if you want to get
it. I did not buy it this for insane run. We will be clearing out the rippers for the woodcutters camp. You can also go and beat up everyone in the upper quarter in remnants camp, since if you join nemeton you cant go there anymore.

I won't be doing primeval forest this insane run. Its too much hassle and there is no point really. I also think I am missing out on some XP in chapter 2. Also Bonny wont give you free farmers meals since you need to start that quest in chapter 2. if you get spark in chapter 1, you skip chapter 2. Also, woodcutters need help and I am not sure if skipping chapter 2 prevents you giving some help. So to be safe, this run I will not get spark in chapter 1.

Erwin now sells Strong Leather Armor for 1500g. Get it! We are now going to do the Primeval Forest. I mean clear it out completely. That includes killing a bear. I bought the armor to have an easier time. With all the 'Stuff' talents, you make money back easily and so far I haven't really sold anything yet, just 48 ancient coins and some random animal loot. I still have all the weapons, armor, trinkets, materials and much more. The forest animals give a ton of money through their skins, teeth and claws as well, so you can buy the armor and still have plenty of money left for CH4 spells.

Use free fast travel and go to the ruin raiders, level all MIND with Reija all your LPs.
If you see travelling merchants, check their inventory.
Lobo sells basaltroot and cliff lichen, buy it and eat it or make elixirs if you savescummed some mandragoras.
Go to the woodcutters camp and then south.
Kill all the rippers. When facing the leader ripper, pull out the two big rippers first. Engage leader, but backtrack west into the tunnel and deal with the two ambushing rippers. One leaf cast kills a small ripper. Hack away with axe and keep stalactites between you and the leader.
Turn in quest with Cengiz.

Go to remnants, fast travel to tavern.
Go do Frog Legs quest with Elgar (dude with frog mask on) south of the heath near the tavern. Heath = purple area south of the tavern.
After the frogs are dead, start looting rustmoss and tell Elgar to back off while wearing his own mask.

~ anything else to do? ~

Back to nemeton.
Here I finished the 'Missing weapons' quest by beating kendrick with Harvey and Jennifer. Turn that quest in at angus, but DONT JOIN NEMETON YET!!
Because you found the letter in kendrick's house, Jennifer and the ginger can stay in nemeton, yey!

Note on the 'Nest of Bloodflies' quest, it's a PITA on Insane. The little bloodflies spawn fast, fly fast, blow up fast and hurt like hell even with strong leather armor. Just skip it until we get magic spells in CH4. The quest will stay in your log. (UPDATE: we now have Stroke of the Leaf, but still I am skipping bloodfly nests until chapter 4)

rob Molvina's house.
go to angus and get all the bulletin board quests
laugh at kendrick
talk to bonny and get your free farmer's meal and beer each day!
talk to henik and celebrate
give 10 fish to Dunya (old lady at the inn) you should have that
sleep til tomorrow and turn in q at Dunya for the fish
get another daily ration from bonny (do this whenever you think of it)
Go north to georgs farm.
sell all rustmoss to Dylani
help the woodcutters

follow the path directly to the left of the tavern up the small path to the forest primeval

Shadowrippers hit hard. Use a bow/slingshot to single pull them. In packs they are really troublesome. Run back until only 1 ripper is onscreen, target it and shoot bow. It will come alone to fight. Cheesy? Maybe, you could go in axe swinging, your choice.
The crab mobs' explosions now leave damaging spores on the ground, so they are much more annoying to kill since you can't chase them constantly.
Get 3rd blessing from circle of stones if you haven't done so already. Enjoy +12 more prowess.

Continue killing mobs while you get the three virtues from the Refuge npcs. After talking to Roarke, ask Taron about the 4th piglet for 120 XP. Kite the bear around any tree stump and just use execute and weave in normal attacks to whittle it down. You can take around 4-5 hits before you die. Be careful, their body slam attack now has a larger hitbox and will hit you instantly if you are too close. Probably to prevent kiting around a treestump...
(these screenshots are from a different bear, but it's the exact same principle, kite around stumps)

Get the new spell: charge of the boar from the boar cave
Spiderboss with Bertine is pretty tough. Spiders are fast and bite fast. You'll run out of stamina fast. Kite, execute and eventually you will win. This fight is pretty intense!
Grab the void plant just a little ways south of the Spider boss' location - VOID PLANTS: 4/5
Create MIND elixirs first, FOCUS elixirs second. You should have made 4 MIND elixirs now. The fifth MIND elixir needs misty step for the void plant #5 and the mandragora to use can be bought from Bombus from CH2 onwards, so that elixir is settled. If you haven't gotten extra mandragoras from coin pouches, you can now only make 2 FOCUS elixirs. There are 7 mandragoras in the game, 8 if you beat up Henik after you've gotten his mandragora for him. One mandragora can be bought from CH2 onwards. Leaving you with 6 available mandragoras now. 4xMIND and 2xFOCUS elixirs minimal.
Do the ritual to get your spark. Accept mother root quest.
Don't give cay the food for truffles yet, you need to clear out the forest first.

With your spark, go clear out the entire northside of the forest, killing boars and rippers and the crabshrooms.
Get the mind shrine in the northern temple area with a HORN. There is a horn in the nearby eastern ruin on a table. Avoid bird people. Screenshot shows with the dots the HORN location right and the SHRINE location left. Get the lightning strike spell.

In the upperright area of the forest with the bear and the crabs, pull them one by one. Kite the bear around a treestump in the upperright part of this area. Get mother root 2/3.

Go into the cave north of the mother root and out the eastern exit.

Get the last mind shrine with a MIRROR - MIND SHRINE: 7/7 done!
Inside the cave, take the southern part and find the secret breakable wall, go out the southern exit and catch the fish - LUMINOUS BASS : 4/4

Northern forest is cleared. Now do the truffle quest with cay, get your food buff and headdress.

Time to clear out the southern part of the forest. I did the south eastern part first, the Bertine-spider section last.
Keep single pulling rippers and boars. Boars in packs can be pulled with a bow and then run away, executing as you go. Most of the time I got a single one. Sometimes it's just a hassle and you need to kill 2 simultaneously. Execute the little pigs first, since I believe they can also spawn thorns?
You can now also rest at the shed near the tavern through the south eastern forest exit.
Get the boar cave items.
Get the LP shrine in the forest - LP SHRINES : 8/8 done!!
Kill the two hunters roasting the pig. They are stealing your xp. Aggro them, run a bit to the north and circle the double tree stump, executing when ready. They can't really touch you if you are careful.
After clearing the south-eastern part, back to the village.
Turn in mother root quest, get your refuge armor. You don't need that armor's bonus focus now, so keep your strong leather armor equipped. Rest up, time for the last leg of the forest adventure.
Go south-west behind the blackflame where you and Bertine killed the spiders. Clear out this entire area, all the way up west-north. Everything, all the crabs and loot everything.

Approach the northern pack of 4 rippers from the west. You can single pull them all into the open area. Make sure only one is on screen when you fire the bow.
Dont forget the ramp with 3 crabs and the cliff lichen.

And we're done. Cleared out the entire forest.

Go to ruin raiders to level MIND with Reija, SAVE 3 LPs.

Go to nemeton, turn in bear claw quest with Chunnaic.
Learn Craft 2 from Chunnaic for FREE.
My stats are level 14 - 18 STR - 12 DEX - 85 MIND - 67 base focus
Join nemeton fighters, go to molvina, get heavy armor, start chapter 3 since we already did chapter 2 spark.

Before you start the expedition, if you want the woodcutters to live, you need to do 'The Situation at the Woodcutters Camp' first! If you wait til chapter 4, they will be dead and a Leshen will have spawned there with an army.
Start the expedition, run along with the gang.
Go see gawan outside nemeton. Pay him 1000g for the next part of Prosperity.
Do the expedition.
The Mighty Boar fight is the same, but more intense. I needed a lot more healing items, since it feels like the boars are spamming the ground thorns more. Also, the bear is tough. Don't tank anything, stay behind the NPCs. Especially during the mighty boar fight itself, let Henik get aggro and then execute and normal hits till done. Kite a lot, executing in between. It's not horribly hard, but tougher since the enemies are stronger and you are weaker.
After you captured the boar, run back to the tavern, then nemeton.

Just start chapter 4, since all the quests from the bulletin board stay active so you don't miss anything. (yeah, except the OUTCOME of 'The Situation at the Woodcutters Camp' ...)
Get your runestone!
Get druid armor!
I bought magical vision, focus elixir and health elixir. I had to finally sell lots of stuff to buy this, so i went all out with Lio and sold all my stuff.

We're not buying blaze and whirling energy, since we get this for free in the library which we will do right away.
First however, we need to get to 90 base focus. With the focus elixir I had 80 base focus, so we need 10 more. I had two +3 MIND rings, so I bought the recipe for +5 MIND rings from Chunnaic and made those. Together with the +6 focus amulet I stole from Deimo, I now had 91 base focus.
[UPDATE 29/12/2024: I had 91 base focus, but that includes 2 mandragoras gotten from coin pouches, which is +6 extra focus from the two remaining luminous bass. If you do not have 91 focus here, replace MIND rings with +6 focus amulets. You have the talent craft 2 and plenty of materials do craft them. Get to 90+ base focus!]


Help the druid in the grove (10 butterflies) for +1 MIND and 150 coins.
Play with olga and luten, report to helma.
Get quest from humbert, examine oskar, turn quest in.
Run to georg, talk to him. He gave me another 200g for freeing Hasso?
Run behind the big house to Gawan, finally get your 3000g.
The bandits on the road are too strong, come back when you have blaze and thunderstorm.

Go to the tavern.
Help out until Reija comes with you to the library.
Identify 5 sheep. Shadowrippers take 3 magic missiles to kill, you can fire 2 straight away and wait for the third. Same rules apply, single pull rippers and blast them. Avoid the bears for now.
Get 5 sheep and go west along the forest border to get Liesl. Turn in, get Reija, to the library.
In library get whirling energy with 5,4,2 and proceed with 3,1,5.
Whirling energy is perfect for many low hp enemies and crates and vases.
After the spriggan corpse, take the left tunnel to the two worms. Dont fight the wurms yet, run ahead to blaze and equip it in a slot. Then fight the wurms. Let Reija tank them. Two blazes and a missile kills one.
The bygone spear mobs are kind of dangerous now. They have high magic resist and their spells HURT.
The ranger bygones have low health and teleport. They are mostly annoying.

Library done, the golem is a lot tougher as expected. He chains attacks more and more ground damaging stuff is spawned. He needs 3 blazes + whatever damage Reija could do. Reija doesn't tank at all and is mostly useless.

We now have 2 armor pieces and we definitely want a third one to get Legendary armor.

Return to nemeton and get the next main quest for the Knoll.
Use potion of forgetfulness, we dont need execute anymore. Remember to KEEP 16 LPs to re-learn talents. Spend the rest on MIND.
Spend LP with Lio until you have 16 left, also learn Brew Potions from Lio (13 LP left now).
Also, buy root cone, Venomous Shout and fog shape from Lio if you want, since you can't get those spells in the world. (root CIRCLE is in the Knoll dungeon and FOCUS shape is in the library)
Get last quest from bulletin board.
Get your reward from Dunja for the 10 fish.
Re-learn Craft I and lockpicking from Rura.
Re-learn Craft II from Chunnaic.
Sleep till midnight, catch Adwin at the tavern, tell him to report to Gerdwin.
Sleep til day, turn in quest at gerdwin.

I now had 100 base focus with the extra MIND points. Goal now is to have 100 base focus without the two +5 MIND rings and +6 focus amulet so we can equip dps trinkets.

Get the 1st thunderstorm half south of nemeton.
Go along the leftside of the river north to the second half of thunderstorm. Kill and loot everything on the way, but skip the bandits on the bridge. (you can walk past Ripper (the bandit) to his left, hugging the wall)
Get Thunderstorm!
I killed the bandits at the bridge by pre-casting thunderstorm, when focus was 70, talk to the bandit on the bridge. Run around and after two blazes and they are dead (hope for some good thunderstorm RNG)

Go from the woodcutters camp to the far north into the cave to head towards the knoll.
Kill the bird people at the ruin. Enter the north-east cave and run around the ruin while blazing the bygones. get Fiery shout!
Go down and use misty step to get the legendary sword from the stone. This will be useful later, so equip it with a Draugr shield or something better if you have that (I sold all my shields).
Behind the sword in the stone is the 5th brainfood plant - VOID PLANTS: 5/5 done!
Go past the leshen to the north-west and go down to the ruins. Kill the bird people.
Now for a pretty tough fight: to get the 7th signet and the 3rd armor piece, you need to either kill the bygones or make a run for it. There are 5 or 6 bygones in there, so its a tough challenge. I only got the 7th signet back in chapter 1, but that was a fluke, I could probably not do that again. Now with more hp and armor, it would be a lot easier, but killing them is good xp, so let's do that.
Go down the ladder. Keep them off the screen for now. Cast thunderstorm, ready your sword + shield. You need the extra physical dps for the mages and spear bygones. Wait til you got around 70+ focus back, have food going and an ointment ready, chug a focus potion and GO.
Hope for good thunderstrikes, blaze them, dodge the fiery and venomous shouts, get some hits in to get more focus back but ofcourse dont get hit. The focus potion is crucial, you want blaze back ASAP.
If the bygones at the door are dead, it gets so much easier. Now you can single pull them.
Clear the rooms, get your big rewards.


Now you could do the 2nd crystal main quest, but I want to kill the remnant soldiers lurking in the valley. They are pretty tough and it feels good to beat them, especially because you are officially not allowed to, heh. So I went all the way back to the ruin raiders.
Turned in the 7th signet.
Bought the legendary shield for stats. It has +42 armor and +16 magic resistance.
Don't forget to make your 5th MIND elixir. Make it with the mandragora that Bombus sells near the tavern.
Go to nemeton, turn in armor quest with Chunnaic and get the legendary rune armor. You really want the focus to stay at 100 and be able to equip dps trinkets.

Talk to gerdwin about the situation at the woodcutters camp.
Head to georgfarm and report to delani that the bandits are dead.
Mention to Ida and her buddy that the bridge is safe again.
Do the bloodflies quests for georg.
Turn the bandits quest in at angus.
do teigens escort quest to remnants (beat him up when you get there)
back to tavern
Run to the tavern.
Go to the tavern cellar and clear out the tunnels.

deal with Deimo and Cay
deal with the beehive bear for Bombus and report to Birka

Now you are an unstoppable god of destruction. Clear out the map. Maximie your XP. Beat up everything and everyone for xp.

Lyra tune solution :

4,1,3,2,4,1,3,2



West door puzzle solution:



Statue item placement solution:

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
LYRA - CLAM - MIRROR - INCENSE BURNER - RAM - SWORD - HORN

First door LYRA 1,3,4,2,3,4,1

Second door : push button behind door 1

Third door puzzle:

All that is left now are the remaining main quests and the optional fights.
Of course, first get your old blood ring. Start this quest by collecting the fossil from the (now dead) old woman all the way down south map in the moor. It's with the pond full of tadpoles.
Old blood ring is crazy with blaze, I have seen my health go down to 40% and then right back up to 100% after a good blaze. Lovely.
Equip the old blood ring instead of a +5 MIND ring, but stay at 100 base focus.

4,1,3,2,4,1,3,2 = lyra door ouzzle solution
Doing the main quests up until the Temple crystal quest is actually a smart thing to do. In the Temple you can find an Opulent Berserker Ring which gives +5% hp on kill. Makes life easier, you could even opt-out of 100 base focus temporarily if thunderstorm is not needed.


One difficulty upgrade on insane was the powering of the crystals in the Kawd Moor, just before entering the Red Tower. This, I think, was a major flaw. Now, along with all the normal bloody critters, big tree like mobs spawn, sometimes three at a time. These mobs have the life drain skill from the Leshen. If you see two or more up, run! I dont know how you are supposed to do this without running, you dont have three stuns ready to go for them. Not to mention all the other mobs hitting on you, the spitters slowing you if you get hit. So for me at this point it was: run in, blaze as many mobs as you can at once and if you see the life drain trees, run away and go again (they despawn). Same goes if you are melee, run in and kill what you can to power the crystal. But if you see the life draining trees up, you better run. Unless it's only 1 and close to you so you can kill it. Otherwise be safe and try again.

Killed my 1st Leshen on Insane fair fight open ground no kiting just man to tree.
If you cant stop his lifedrain, you're dead. Feels like he keeps doing it until he is stopped or you are dead... The life drain ticks count as an attack, so you can perfect block a tick to stun the leshen.


Bady beaten ... twice! Ok the first time its just him autoattacking. The second fight is the big all out Bady fight where he goes ballistic. He is pretty doable, not really that much different from classic difficulty.


All 4 Leshen dead. 4th Leshen spawns in the woodcutters camp if you dont help them in ch2 or ch3. Kinda sad they dead, don't know that but not gonna replay from ch3 again.


Double golem before Drivanius dead. Its two golems that are tougher, I needed some healing potions 70% but all in all, just kite, regen focus and blaze while thunderstorm is running. I think stamina food is more useful than focus food at this point.

Drivanius also dead. What can I say, it's Drivanius with tighter tuning. Lots of running around, shielding for focus is pointless with these casters. Just run, blaze and keep thunderstorm up, popping a pot when needed.


Secret hewer camp battle done. Vortex mask obtained. This fight is ridiculous. You get snared so much its unreal. You need to conserve stamina to the best of your abilities. I am really curious how people beat this fight and in what way. I didn't cheese the fight, just magic and kiting and LOTS of consumables. I haven't used this many pots since I started this game.
There is one item that is crucial to beat this fight IMO. Noticed those Shadow mobs that spawn after you gotten the Temple Crystal? Those that give 2000xp? Well, they drop a handy item, called Shadow Fragment. It gives you 50% DAMAGE REDUCTION for SIXTY SECONDS!!
Like what? That's crazy. Well, it's crazy until you tried the secret hewer camp fight. Then suddenly it does NOT feel crazy, but pretty damned necessary. There are 5 shadows that spawn, so you get 5 shadow fragments. I had 1 left after the battle ....
[UPDATE 27/12/2024: just had a thought, a high health character with gladiators armor would be pretty tanky already, add in these shadow fragment and you become unkillable. I don't know if shadow fragment with gladiator armor stacks though and you lose out on the bonus from legendary armor. But this fight requires survivability in addition to high dps. I can't remember if the Opulent Berserker Ring triggers on killed Bygones, if it does, it would be OP with gladiators armor. Just be comfortable sitting on <50% health.]


Little proof of Insane mode

And done, main quest done, Jero dead, communicated with the divinities and all is well in Drova.
Insane difficulty 100% done. Will tidy up the guide.


Oops, forgot I still had to do the arena, so here it is. Arena champion, yey!


And also still had to do the new bandit camp for the heavy bandit armor, although thats just a chore at this stage. But still, 100% is 100%.

I don't know what to tell you. Dodge ♥♥♥♥ and hit the boss? I mean, you got less healing, constant damage, many vectors of attack. Hope you still have the shadow fragments that give 50% damage reduction. This fight is a bullet hell style fight. You just need to practice until you get it. I tried and failed at least 20 times before I got it. Took some breaks in between. The first part of the fight can be somewhat cheesed if you stand in the far lower right corner of the map and use ranged stuff. You only have to dodge the ground claws that come your way. But that spot is gone in phase 3. Then it's just .... good luck son!

TIP 1 I found the new lightning spell pretty effective against the boss in phase 3. But the wind up is tricky to get right. But you get to employ my favorite strategy in this game: run around like a chicken and nuke when full focus. Use focus pots!

TIP 2 get more ancient armor pieces and craft the heavy armor for added armor and use the legendary shield. Max armor really helps survive this fight. Since healing is reduced, I dont think the glad armor would work, since its tough to regain hp. Its better to mitigate hp loss. Of course you would need to stay at 100 base focus for the lightning spell if you go that route.