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Getting the Ashes to Ashes (300 Mill kills) trophy without the Shieldbreaker DLC


Merco

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Just to make my point right off the bat - the Shieldbreaker DLC isn't essential in order to reach 300 kills on the farmstead. Loads of posts out there advocate getting this DLC and using 1-2 Shieldbreakers to reach 300 kills, but I assure you that it's not necessary to buy the Shieldbreaker DLC, even factoring in the new Mill reflection effects that kick in after 200 kills. Through a bit of bumbling and a lot of USB backups, I managed to find a team that reached the 300 kills threshold in order to get Ashes to Ashes.

 

I didn't really have high hopes for the team to begin with; I'd done one proper mill run previously and reached ~90 kills, with Vestal-Jester-Flagellant-Highwayman - the original plan was to get a good number of crystals and the Miasmal Orchard and Tainted Well upgrades before doing a full run, but my second team turned out to have the right stuff.

 

This was Vestal-Jester-Houndmaster-Hellion, and apart from a tricky bit around the ~250 mark, the team was able to keep stress down and reach the required 300 kills.

 

Setup - relevant/semi-relevant district buildings built beforehand were the Altar of the Light, Training Ring, Cartographer's Camp, Bank, Outsider's Bonfire, Granary, Performance Hall (and no mill buildings!). The reflection in effect was Reflection Obscura.

 

Hero loadouts/quirks were as follows (everyone was level 6):

 

Vestal (had been to the Darkest Dungeon)

(Relevant) + Quirks - Evasive, Hard Noggin, Lurker (not sure if this had any effect), Natural (cancelled out by trinkets used), Unyielding

(Relevant) - Quirks - Tuckered out (-10% damage if health under 50%)

Trinkets - Sacred Scroll, Wilbur's Flag

Skills - Divine Grace, Divine Comfort, Judgement and Dazzling Light 

 

Jester (shard mercenary)

(Relevant) + Quirks - Night Owl (not sure if this had any effect), Cove Tactician (ditto), Ruins Adventurer (ditto)

(Relevant) - Quirks - Infirm(!)

Trinkets - Flesh's Heart, Hero Ring (later swapped for a Blight Charm)

Skills - Battle Ballard, Inspiring Tune, Slice Off and Harvest

 

Houndmaster (shard mercenary)

(Relevant) + Quirks - Unholy Hater, Luminous, Spiritual

(Relevant) - Quirks - Only Shard Mercenary

Trinkets - Fuseman's Matchstick, Hero Ring (later swapped for a Berserk Charm)

Skills - Hound's Harry, Hound's Rush, Blackjack and Target Whistle (only really used on high PROT enemies)

 

Hellion (had been to the Darkest Dungeon)

Relevant) + Quirks - Eldritch Slayer, Stress Faster (not sure if applicable)

(Relevant) - Quirks - Only hamlet-related ones

Trinkets - Mildred's Locket, Hero Ring (later swapped for a Fasting Seal)

Skills - Primarily If It Bleeds, Iron Swan and Wicked Hack; I had Breakthrough as the fourth ability, but only used it about 2 times

 

As the above shows, I didn't have loads of locked in combat-specific quirks for everyone, and some negative combat quirks, but this was still enough to make progress with.

 

Supplies - I bought all the food, antivenom, bandages, holy water, laudanum, herbs and keys that I could; keys are super useful if you come across a cabinet curio as they let you unlock a secret compartment that often contains food. From memory I had one slot free, and obviously had the houndmaster's default dog biscuits x2. I used bandages and antivenom sparingly (perhaps too sparingly) - if you get hit with 3-4 bleed or blight, this can be outhealed by the vestal. Arterial Pinch from the cove crabs obviously requires bandaging ASAP!

 

For settings, I had all the Darkest Dungeon difficulty settings turned off, so no permanent corpses, multiplying enemy crits etc.

 

With the run itself, the basic strategy was to take out weaker enemies to move the wave progress bar up faster - once it gets to the next pip, you can often be removed from a tough fight with a large enemy by the Sleeper's Dream that pops up at the end of each wave.

 

I had the Jester using Battle Ballard constantly, only switching to Inspiring Tune or the two attacks when necessary (e.g finishing off an enemy at the end of a wave or making two enemies bleed). Notably I tried to use Battle Ballard near the end of waves wherever possible, as unless you rest at a campfire, the effect carries over into the following wave effectively giving you a head start against the new enemies (there are no squares in Endless Harvest, so you effectively carry the round from the previous wave into the next one, if that makes sense).

 

The vestal used group healing or individual healing where appropriate, only stunning or attacking when all heroes were ok. I did try to use Judgement on the Sleeper's Herald enemy during the farmstead sections, as the autoheal effectively cancels out any riposte damage from the Herald.

 

The hellion was used to smash enemies whereever possible, much like in a regular dungeon. Houndmaster usage depended on the situation; I was mainly using Hound's Harry for the multiple bleed effect, but when I came up against bone enemies from the ruins I used Hound's Rush for the higher individual damage.

 

I wasn't actively getting heroes stressed to trigger virtues, but all four heroes became virtuous eventually - the vestal went Courageous, the houndmaster Powerful and the hellion and jester ended up Stalwart.

 

My bosses were the Miller and Sleeper (unavoidable), then the Swine God, Brigand Pounder, Shambler (!), then past the 200 kills mark, the Drowned Crew and Thing from Beyond the Stars (!). I'd recommend fighting the crew if you get the chance, as my hellion became virtuous during the fight which seemed to block every attempt by the anchorman to trap her and heal the crew. Very important point - if you save onto USB in the room before a boss (i.e when the progress bar is at the end), then go into the boss fight and it's a tough one, you can reload that room save then get a different boss. This technique didn't seem to work so well on regular waves - the only thing that I could get to change was the lighting effect, and this was where I almost gave up around the 250 mark with a Darkest Dungeon wave.

 

Diseases - the hellion contracted Sky Taint from the Thing and the jester got Wasting Sickness, but these weren't too bad in the grand scheme of things. I'd definitely recommend reloading and redoing a wave if you pick up a lot of diseases, as this party doesn't have any way to cure them during the run.

 

As a closing comment, if you're following the above to get Ashes to Ashes, you could certainly make things easier for yourself by:

  • Locking in/farming for positive combat-related quirks beforehand
  • Replacing the Hero Rings that I used for another beneficial trinket; you could just reload if heroes become afflicted and continue on when you roll a virtuous result
  • Doing a few initial Mill runs to get enough crystals for the two Mill districts (Miasmal Orchard and Tainted Well) and building these before you commit to the Ashes to Ashes run
  • Using USB backups even more than I did, to get the optimal outcome from each wave (e.g low stress, near full health, ending up in a room with a good curio)

 

I finished on wave 10 with 305 kills, and the team was in fairly good shape. Obviously a lot of this was reliant on USB reloading and luck, but on the latter point you can stack the odds more in your favour by using Battle Ballard to raise your crit chance, and using the ability near the end of a wave to carry its effects into the next one.

Edited by Merco
Adding more detail, correcting spelling
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  • 1 year later...

Excellent advice; I can definitely second the importance of backing up your save during this RNG fest. I used the cross-save function at the main menu, which is much faster and easier than quitting the game to use the PS+ cloud or a USB. I did it at every safe room, and whenever the "Splendorous" lighting effect hit, so I could scum virtues on high stress heroes.

 

I personally succeeded with the party used in this video by Fourtwoflow. My quirks and trinkets were bad, but it still worked. You spend a lot of turns buffing the Leper, though, and the Man-at-Arms has trouble doing damage (be sure to keep his riposte active). A Plague Doctor with Emboldening Vapours would probably be better off in the MAA's place.

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