Torchlight Vanquisher Build for Very Hard Hardcore

After burning through the campaign on normal difficulty as the Alchemist in order to get a feel for the game and experience its storyline, I turned my attention to very hard hardcore (VHHC) mode where a character death is permanent and irreversible.

I typically have much more fun playing these games in hardcore mode. Because you actually stand to lose something, you start to care more about your character’s build and equipment not only because you have to (due to the increased challenge level) but because you want to. Hardcore mode forces you to invest part of yourself in your character. VHHC in Torchlight takes thought, strategy, and a healthy dose of caution.

This time around I chose to build a Vanquisher. I employ the following strategies:

• Every level, increase Defense by 3 and Dexterity by 2. You need the survivability offered by Defense and extra damage from the increased Dexterity. The other attributes are next to useless for the Vanquisher.
• Level up the following skills roughly in this order: Ranged Weapons Expertise, Critical Strikes, Explosive Shot, Armor Expertise, Adventurer, and Bock and Parry. I stopped Adventurer at 5, but the others are worth maxing out. Your primary attack throughout the game should be Explosive Shot as soon as you get it. I put one point into Ricochet so I could use it until I got Explosive Shot.
• Approach every pack of enemies carefully. Keep a finger on the health potions and prepare to backtrack immediately if necessary.
• Buy up all the map scrolls you can. Keep playing them until they become obscenely easy, then move to higher level map scrolls.
• Try to keep your character roughly 5 levels higher than the enemies you’re currently facing, whether that’s in map scrolls or the main dungeon.
• Phase portals are particularly dangerous because they take you to a two-floor dungeon with enemies that match your level. The entrances to both floors are often swamped with numerous powerful enemies, so be ready to backtrack upstairs if things get too hot.
• The hardest part of VHHC seems to be making it until level 5 or so. By then you should have bootstrapped your character with decent equipment and abilities to face the lower-level map scrolls and begin leveling up more comfortably from there.
• Use your ember! There’s little reason to continually save it. Since you find much better equipment every hour or two of gameplay, simply break the old equipment to recover your ember. This is a good time to upgrade the recovered ember and use it again on your newest gear.
• Enchant your gear repeatedly until you no longer feel comfortable with the disenchant risk. I usually go until 10% or so.
• Always give your pet the strongest Heal All spell you have.
• Pick up all loot and sell it when you and your pet’s inventories are full. You can easily afford the town portals and you’ll need the gold.
• Spend your gold on equipment, ember, map scrolls, and enchantments. As long as you don’t go crazy with enchantments you should have plenty of gold.
• Keep it simple and have fun. Expect the likelihood of death, but enjoy the thrill of every success.