Dwarven Realms – Beginners Guide

General Guide for New Players

By Drythus.

This guide is based off the assumption that you follow the standard build of using 3 of the same offhand abilities as this is standard practice in the games current state. Abilities stack so 3x of the same gives you all the ability damage amount as the multiplier and reduces the cooldown adds together to improve your uptime on skills.

Like most ARPGs Dwarven realms scaling is based on stacking multipliers. These multipliers are predominantly Crit, Ability, Elemental. There are flawless equipment modifiers (we will go over these later) that also act as standalone multipliers.

There are 3 elements to progression in this game and this guide is going to go over each of these for different stages of the game. The 3 elements to progression are gear, abilities, and fossil progression (this falls under gear but deserves its own category due to how it allows you to scale).

Early Game (Rupture 1-35)

The progression at this point is very linear. Kill enemies, loot lootables, equip new gear/abilities, kill bosses. Most high tier players blast through this pretty quickly to get to the “meat” of the game which starts at rupture 36.

Gear: You will find random weapons and you will get materials to craft armor pieces. A very straightforward progression at this point. If you find something better than what you are wearing equip it. You can also make changes using the workbench to improve damage output and survivability.

Abilities: You will find various offhand abilities through these levels and at some levels and will unlock the ability to upgrade them to purple quality These are endgame offhands that offer changes to the way the abilities they modify work. Find what you like and build off of it. The idea here is that you want to figure out what you will commit to as, while respeccing is an option, it does not change the investment you make in your fossil.

Fossil: You will find your fossil in these first ruptures and some small gems. These is just the baseline dont worry about farming these low ruptures for gems as you will get an abundance of them when you get past the campaign

Skill Tree: Lets talk Skill Tree – when putting points into your skill tree you want to focus on points that can give you scaling you cannot get otherwise in the game. Predominantly this is inventory slots, crit chance, life steal chance, and life steal amount. You also want to get the 3 elemental main abilities (Taste My Lightning/Fire Starter/Arcane Fury) that stack for additional buffing in ruptures. Other than this its all flavored to what you want/need out of your build. Endless Wind is highly recommended as well in most builds as it really helps with maintaining your damage output through your skills.

Cards: Every unique rupture levels you complete rewards you with the ability to get a “Card” these cards vary in stats but there are some cards sought over the others but this varies based on the meta each season and the changes made. If you collect 4 of any card you gain a bonus and it doubles the value of all the cards previous (ie 4 of the 30 flat damage cards gives you 180 flat instead of the 90 you had with only 3) it also removes those cards from the possible pool making it more likely to get other cards you want. This progression happens throughout the game and you will continue to do it through your entire game progression.

Early – Mid Game (Rupture 36-70)

There are a few dungeons that fall in here that I will briefly explain to provide an understanding for their purpose.

Elysia: A number of gems and a boss fight. After the boss fight you can loot a chest to get a good amount of gold & some damage reduction. You can also upgrade your dragonling pet at the NPC at the end.

Underground Enclave: There are a number of small/large stones in this dungeon to provide small boosts but this dungeon is the only source of belts in the current game. The boss also drops T2 items that can supplement your gear without needing to craft it

Catacombs (Cata1): Catacombs scales with your highest rupture. This will always be your highest rupture + 15 (i.e. if you have completed rupture 40 it will be rupture 55). What this allows you to do is get gear that is 3 ilvls higher than you would otherwise be able to find. On your first run (in one of the 3 hidden rooms) you will also get your recipe for all of your mythical rings which are a crucial part to your early game build.

Catacombs Level 2 (Cata2): Another level to catacombs with some lootables. The predominant difference between this and Cata 1 is the level doesnt scale and there are not nearly as many lootable gems/slugs. There is, however, a boss fight and the reward at the completion of the dungeon is a skill point there is also sometimes a pedestal with a mount reward and another hidden area

Min Loduhr: This zone has a lot of chests and a fair amount of ability/ele/hp stones for your fossil but its generally considered very long and not highly productive to run. This may change in future seasons as we generally see old content refreshed to be brought into the modern game (such as with belts being added in S19 to bring a reason to run enclave again)

Sands of Time (SOT): With the changes wrought this season this may be hit or miss at this stage of the game as it can spawn anywhere from rupture lvl 36 to rupture lvl 100. This is essentially a boss fight with a bunch of lootables after you complete the boss. The chest you get at the end is a gamble chest that can reward anything from a simple egg (no use just sell it) to T3 gear (from Bridge of the Demigods) and other assorted dungeon keys.

Tomb of Fortune (Trapsino): This is a trap arena. If you reach the end you get a single chest with random loot (same loot tables as Sands of Time).

Fellowship Dungeons (1,2,3): These dungeons are accessed via your fellowship once your fellowship has reached a certain level (currently this is fellowship level 1, 2, and 3). Each version of these has scaled difficulty (50, 75, 100 respectively) and have a different amount of ability/elemental/hp stones scaling up based on which you are in. They also have T2 gear but it is costly as you need to have run 9 other dungeons to have the oak pieces for keys.

Gravediggers Tomb: Zone with a guy you talk to who unlocks 1 of 5 crypts you go in kill bugs and loot chests for gems to progress your fossil

Gear: The focus at this point is going to be on getting yellow gear with 4 modifiers that are conducive to improve survivability or damage output. You will find Codexes as you progress that can be used to upgrade Yellow items with 4 enchantments to legendary items with special modifiers (Only applies to boots, helms, amulets, bracers, and relic) Optimal progression will have you farming low level ruptures to collect bags of infused sand and you can easily do this while farming for shadow mobs & pet containers to get dungeon keys for elysia and gravediggers cove.

Pet: You will get your dragonling at this stage of the game and start some of the early progression of adding modifiers to that dragonling. The key here is to recognize that different color dragonlings reflect different elements (red/fire, purple/arcane, blue/lightning). You also want to make sure you are taking into consideration your build and get a pet with a secondary modifier reflecting an element you may use (ie if you are going to use Arcane Apocalypse for the arcane elemental buff as your supportive skill and you arent using an arcane skill as your main skill you will want to get the conversion modifier on your pet “Fire skills also benefit from Arcane”. When upgraded with all modifiers you will also scale based on extra inventory slots

Crafting: At this point in the game its about optimizing stats on the yellow items you get to maximize output. The item level on your gear will be low and you will need to eventually scale it up. You should also take the time to unlock all of the codex you will use for your build out at this point (you can farm them all in compaign maps)

Abilities: At this stage of the game you should be picking the ability and element you want to focus on (again it is recommended to pick 3 offhands of the same ability as they scale better and you will be provided more linear progression instead of spreading the damage progression out over multiple skills).

Fossil: This is where we start to get into the nitty gritty of grinding fossils. You want to speed farm ruptures to get “Bag of Time Essence” that can be turned into infused rupture beetles. This will allow you to run infused ruptures which have a couple of benefits. They provide 2x the xp per mob kill and they provide elemental, ability, and hp stones that you can craft and add to your fossil. The more efficiently you can clear ruptures and get these bags the faster you can progress through this phase of the game as these are direct multiplier scaling and defensive scaling with the hp stones. The fossil will be your single point of greatest progression throughout the game. You will also craft stance stones as you have them available.

Mid – Late Game (Rupture 70-100)

Elven Capital / Olympus / Bridge of the Demigods

Dungeons:

Elven Capital: You unlock this through your crafting and contributions to Elven Reputation at you will want to build this out to a point where you can select “The Lost Path”. Once you have unlocked this you have a chance to find a portal every time you break open a mining node. This takes you to a dungeon with a bunch of mining nodes you loot for flint and stone which can be turned into Damage and Armor stones (respectively). There is also a chest here with the keystones needed for 1 of the 2 lategame bosses. You do need an ambassadors key purchased from one of the 2 vendors in every normal rupture. You will get the mats for these keys from dismantling your crafting items and from some loot boxes, or buying from vendor in ruptures. It is recommended that you wait until you have progressed your “Digging Deeper” skill higher to take the most advantage of these keys as you accumulate the resources to purchase them fairly slow. (Note: Ambassador keys can be obtained as a direct reward from SoT chest and Trapsino)

Olympus: Straightforward rupture – mobs with a bunch of gems/containers with lootable gems leading to a boss fight. This boss has ability/elemental/hp stones as well as when its dead it can drop T3 necklace, bracers, rings,relics.

Bridge of the Demigods: Sraightforward loot and fight the boss. Rewards include T3 Helmets, Chests, Legs, Gloves, Boots, Weapons. This gear Isnt really useful, currently, unless it gets ideal stats. The boss also grants a large amount of xp. The Chalice of Blood is in a vase at the end as well which is the component for the key to Cathedral of fire (for late game section). You will consistently farm this when available for cathedral of fire keys as well as for the xp from the boss and to optimize your gear.

Gameplay Focus: You will spam run ruptures but you will want to scale up to 75+ ruptures to get scrolls. Every map drops a scroll from the boss chest on kill. These scrolls correspond to the rupture location (6 locations 6 different flavors of scrolls). These scrolls will be used, along with imbued dwarven runes, to craft bridge of the demigods keys. You will predominantly run this as well as elven capitals (if you have scaled your crafting high enough)

Gear: More crafting or, if you are lucky, pieces from Bridge. Most of the time you have reached the point to be able to clear demigods you have already found a better weapon in the catacombs (remember it scales +15 from your highest rupture which generally puts the weapon higher than the purple weapons you get from Demigods).

Fossil: The same as the previous section with the exception that, with enough crafting, you will also do elven capitals to increase your Damage/Armor. By this point in the game you should be closing in on 50% damage reduction. Continue to add elemental, ability, hp, and boss damage to your fossil for more scaling.

Late Game (100+)

Rupture Archeon, Zul

Dungeons:

Cathedral of Fire(Archeon): Unlocks @ 105 Requires Rupture 120 completed Rupture Difficulty 125: Boss fight with some lootables after the boss (gems/T4 gear)

Zul – Unlocks/Required Rupture: Not positive Rupture Difficulty 160: I have not done this dungeon but from second hand knowledge appears to be a straightforward boss fight with some final rewards, including T4 weapons (ilvl up to 50)

Game Loop: At this point you are pretty familiar with the process. You will be running infused ruptures/fellowship dungeons (when you have keys) predominantly to scale your damage and survivability through your fossil. You will also throw in a smattering of the other dungeons as you find/have keys. Do bridge/archeon as you have keys for level progression as well as gear. Run elven capitals and continue to craft to raise your digging deeper. If you have reached a point where you are satisfied with all your cards, and dont expect to need to respec, you can convert your gold into Flint at the trader in town and then convert that into large damage gems. Continue to stack elemental/ability/hp gems for rupture scaling and push ruptures as your power grows. Once you have reached the thresholds for the dungeons and the materials needed continue to grow. After defeating Zul you have completed everything the game currently has to offer but can continue to push ruptures and gain levels for prestige and for the challenge.

Remember Time Invested & Efficiency if you are looking to compete with the top of the leaderboards.

Useful Info & Tips

Boost crafting faster once you get digging deeper and want more levels.

Crafting stations:

• Rupture 18 (Arkavian Crystals – Purple)
• Rupture 22 (Harmoniyan Orbs – Blue)
• Rupture 26 (Masadian Essence – Brown)
• Rupture 33 (Kabarian Fragments – Green)

Crafts relics for 200 of each of the resource, which is the cheapest way to raise it at the moment.

• Large gold slug – Large damage buff
• Large white slug – Large amount of XP
• Large red slug – flawless items
• Large blue slug – drops large stones.
• Amadora snails – Spark effect (deals damage to enemies around you)

Damage Calculation:

Base damage = (((Flat Damage of weapon x Stance % damage x % Damage x % Attack damage) + (Strength Flat Damage x % damage x %attack damage)) x % Extra Damage per inventory slot x % Crit Damage x % Boss Damage

Then Ability damage = Base damage x % Ability Damage x % Elemental Damage x % Boss Damage

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Overview of Every Container in the Game

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General Tips

• Seasonal characters will be able to compete against other players on the current season’s leaderboard. Press ESC in-game to access this.
• The more you have of an offhand, the lower the cooldown on the ability will be. You can only have a maximum of three of the same offhand.
• The offhands ‘Burning Shield’ are very strong early on, and I recommend using these until you find something you like. You can find the set within Rupture 5.
• Ruptures require you to collect 75 Time Essence to be able to open the path to the Rupture Lord.
• Enemies with yellow health bars are known as elites. Elites will always drop Time Essence when killed.
• Rupture levels 1 through 35 are often referred to as the campaign.
• As you progress through the campaign, you will unlock various stations and NPCs in your home fort.
• Belts cannot have the same offhand ability as your chalice.

What is the best stat?

In the current version of the game, you will find a lot of success with the Strength stat. Strength increases your damage.

• Agility increases your crit chance and life steal chance.
• Stamina increases your max health and health regen.
• Endurance increases the amount of life you steal and increases your energy regen.
• Luck increases your Crit DMG.
• Dexterity increases your Atk speed, Move speed, and armor. (Armor reduces the damage you take)
• Wisdom increases your experience gain.
• You can take other stats if you like, but early on, Strength is the best choice, in my opinion.

Off-Hand Locations

• R5: Spinning Blade (1s) – Electric Dragon (1.2s) – Burning Shield (1.5s)
• R7: Zelkor Mages (1.2s)- Chain Lightning (0.3s) – Arcane Apocalypse (0.4s)
• R8: Dragon Flame (1.5s) – Eye Of The Storm (1.1s) – Arcane Orb (0.4s)
• R9: Rain Of Flames (0.3s) – Static Charge (0.6s) – Vortex (0.5s)
• R11: Rain Of Flames (0.3s) – Starblades (0.9s) – Toxicity (1.1s)
• R13: Fire Beam (0.4s) – Spark (1.6s) – Death Blade (0.3s)
• R14: Carnage Of Fire (0.3s) – Ferocity Of Wolves (1s) – Kraken Seed (0.5s)
• R15: Fiery Totem (0.4s) – Lightning Plasma (0.8s) – Arcane Totem (0.7s)
• R16: Fire Orb (0.4s) – Lightning Totem (1s) – Blood Dragons (0.8s)

Note: Numbers next to off-hands are cooldowns with 3x of same off-hand, you can make them lower if you get the belt but I don’t have belts of every skill.