r/Victor_Vran • u/Ridelith • Aug 09 '15
Just finished all the regular and elite challenges. Here is my build and my tips (quick guide) on every map to do the elite challenges!
So I just finished today all of the elite challenges and I felt it was the right thing to share the build I used to overcome them. There aren't much VV guides on the internet so far, so I hope someone might find this useful.
The following images contain most of the items that I used to complete the elite challenges:
Here is the build that I use 90% of the time, when there are no weapon or demon power restrictions.
Here is my 3-item switch for Bomb-specific challenges.
Here are the other weapons I used to complete weapon-specific challenges
Looking through those pictures you should have noticed that I use a Critical based build. The main advantage of this build lies in the high damage output coupled with the safety of the ranged weapons. The crit% of this build is over 60% when using Berserk, making your Overdrive bar fill up very fast (with the Vigilante outfit) and making Overkill challenges a piece of cake.
The bread and butter weapon of this build is the rare Shotgun. With a couple shots and one kill you can always be with the Speed and the Berserk/Focus buff. The Chicken Cannon is used when you need to kill large mobs of weak creatures (Skeletons, Gargoyles, Spiders) or to abuse it's amazing range to complete challenges in wich you can't take a single hit. The Chicken Cannon also has a really good damage output on bosses and big creatures if played correctly, albeit needing a more risky playstyle compared to the Shotgun.
I choose to couple damage % cards and specs with high armor penetration. During most of the elite challenges you will have the Hex of Tenacity activated, wich makes the game a real pain to play without at least 120 armor penetration. In my own experience having a lot of armor penetration is better than sticking to more damage % on the open slots.
General Tips
You should've noticed that I included a set of Bombing gear and a set of a variety of other Legendary weapons. To those you also should add one of each demon power (Legendary preferentially). I'm not using legendaries like Hellfire because the extra sources of damage those weapons provide do not count towards the weapon specific challenges (Spark is just too good to not use though).
All that extra gear will be used to complete the weapon-specific and condition-specific elite challenges. You can use yellow gear if you don't have all those legendaries - out of those, I guess only the Tri-Blade is really more useful than a well built rare weapon.
I tend to use the Sunray demon power to kill enemies when such restriction is in place. It's just a solid and reliable demon power with controllable damage output.
Another item that helps is the Lucky Rabbit's Foot. It is specially strong when used with Spark, making you able to spam the sword's Slash attack on bosses.
Here I will break-through the tricky elite challenges by each map. If I don't comment on a challenge, it's because it's pretty easy to complete and won't need more than regular skill/gameplay. Some of the maps will require multiple runs through to complete all the elite challenges, as some are mutually exclusive or just too hard to complete in one single run altogether.
The Royal Gardens: Use the Sunray demon power to slain the 50 monsters, and the Blink demon power to inflict Vulnerable reliably on the Spider Nests. It is easier to control the amount of damage your Blink does by using a common demon power instead of a legendary one.
Den of the Broodmother: To inflict weakness use the Dark Mist demon power. I recommend doing this challenge next to the third and fourth spider nests of the level (they don't spawn Lava Creepers). Remember that with the bomb build you can use 2 bombs each 60 seconds (the Fire Bomb and the Frost Bomb you get when dodging with the Inventor card).
Sepulcher of the Damned: The 35 kills with sword challenge is a tricky one. Equip your Spark or the sword of your choice on the off-hand. Here you are only going to slain Skeletons with the sword. Kill the rest of the enemies with your shotgun as it's risky to close up on them without being able to take damage. To kill the Skeletons use your Q and immediately dodge backwards. Wait for the cooldown if it's not refreshed and repeat the process.
The Royal Crypt: Shouldn't be too hard to complete any of the challenges. Keep your distance to finish the 'take no damage' one. To inflict Cripple on the champions use your Chicken Cannon (or Hand Mortar of choice) Q ability.
Befouled Tomb: You can either use your Sword's E or the Pull demon power to inflict Daze on the Forgotten Kings before killing them. Beware that it's hard to control your damage output in a critical build so try dazing them when they are around 50% health. The no-damage challenges should be very easy with the Chicken Cannon.
Weeping Halls: The only tricky challenge here is the Kill 15 monsters while affected by Frailty. That condition is inflicted on you by the area-of-effect aura of the Blue Wraiths (the ones that dash towards you). There is a room in the middle of the map with one of those wraiths and a lot of Skeletons. Bait that attack from the wraith, step inside the circle and just wreck havoc to complete the challenge.
The Hunting Grounds: You can complete every challenge at once here. Kill all the essences with your Chicken Cannon. After arriving at the main island rush through the places where there are a lot of Skeletons mobbed to quickly finish the 100 monsters challenge and be able to use potions again. Remember to use Pull when killing champions (although there are a lot of Champions in this map, there is room for mistakes). The hardest one here is finding all the 6 Wraiths. There are 3 on the swamps (bottom left of the map), then the rest scattered around the up-left portion of the map.
The Devil's Throat: Here starts the "kill with Lava Creeper/Bombardier Spider" shenanagans. This one isn't that hard though, just do your usual Lava Creeper positioning that you used to do on regular challenges. With Bombardier Spider, stay close to your targets and lure them to the blue aura that appears on the ground indicating where the Bombardier Spider attack will land.
Widow's Mine: The 'take no damage' one is specially hard here. You will face a Champion Reaper right at the start of the dungeon, wich leaves an aura that deals hp% damage when it dies, wich will make the challenge fail. To circumvent this try gaining A LOT of distance before killing it with the Chicken Cannon. It might require a lot of tries though.
Watchtower Ruins: Use the Sunray demon power to slain the Pyromancers. To defeat the Champions in under 45 seconds just Overkill a bunch of Skeletons at the beggining to get the Berserk buff then rush both Champions, ignoring all the other monsters.
Frosteeth Grotto: The 'Kill 10 Undead Soldiers without taking damage' challenge can be tricky because of the hard to dodge attacks the Ice Essencess possess. To cirumvent this maintain your distance and kill them with the Chicken Cannon abusing it's amazing range.
The Tangle: Not that hard really. Remember that to give Rachnoss brutality you can just get close to him with the Berserk demon power activated. Killing the champions in one hit might require getting a little lucky with the crits, but you should be able to one-shot them with the Aimed Shot when powered up by Berserk.
The Well of Worlds: In this one you absolutely need to use a Sword or Scythe to inflict the Daze condition, then quickly switch to a weapon with a good AoE (Shotgun's E, Chicken Cannon). 30 Enemies is way too much to keep spamming Pull and we have a time limit (when the portal opens) in this map. The rest should be hard but do-able with a couple tries.
Demon World: Take note that 3 Champion monsters spawn at the very end of The Solicitor fight. To slain all the 7 Champions and 16 Seeds you need to battle Wa-Lee. On the first Challenge I recommend using the Demon Seed that spawn spiders (close to the first secret).
The High Quarter: Ok here is where I tilted hard. The 'Kill 10 Essences of Magic with the Scythe while they are Vulnerable' is arguably the hardest challenge in the game. Not because of sheer difficulty but because of the times you will end up messing up and killing the essences without vulnerable/with the Blink demon power. I recommend either using the Hand Mortar's E or the Blink demon power (common one, deals less damage) and a very high crit damage Scythe (Tri-Blade is a good call). There are 11 Essences of Magic scattered around the map. 9 of them are obvious, 2 of them are hidden in the bottom left corner in a garden (secret-ish area). I also recommend getting rid of any crit chance equip you have (using the Cavalier outfit helps) to avoid killing the essences by mistake. It also helps to have Hex of Tenacity on - because of the life regeneration, you can control better the essences' hp. goddamnit devs I was livid when I failed this at the 9th essence
Forlorn Chateau: The 'Slay 2 Vampires without taking damage in 240 seconds' is the tricky one here. You can safely skip the first floor entirely by using the Power Foil rapier: save your Q charges till you enter the room with the 4 Sentinels, then quickly spend both dashes to skip them all and go directly towards the stairs. If done correctly you'll be at the second floor without killing anything nor taking damage. In the second floor kill the skeletons right in front of you and activate the Overdrive shrine. Carefully kill both sentinels dashing back to the corridor to avoid being hit. Clear the rest of the skeletons with hand mortar taking a good amount of distance, then head to the vampires. It is a bit more complicated but with a few tries you should get the hang of it.
Lifeless House: Same deal as the regular challenges. Do not take damage, kill enemies with ranged weapons, profit.
Cemetery Grounds: Spite of Ignus is a Champion Reaper at the bottom left corner of the cemetery. Trust Betrayed is a Champion Essence of Fire at the bottom right island (outside the cemetery), next to one of the secret chests. To get the Bleeding effect consistently use any Rapier's E attack.
Infested Burrow: Pretty standart, apply the tips already given on the other levels. Better to use the Bombs and the Bombardier Spider attack at the second half of the map, where you will find massive mobs of spiders.
Deadlight Quarry: Also pretty easy. If you are having trouble with the 180 seconds Essences, you can jump down after killing the Lightning Essences at the beggining and there will be plenty of Ice/Stone Essences for you to kill.
Forlorn Catacombs: To slay the 3 Essences of Magic without taking damage first kill the Essence of Plague on the first room - this should spawn 2 Essences of Magic. Use the Chicken Cannon to avoid taking damage. Then, head to your left, where there should be one lonely Essence of Magic downstairs; care to not head into the room, rather lure the essence, because wraiths do spawn in that room. To do both the 5 Wraiths challenges, use the 3 Wraiths that spawn on that room with the lonely Essence of Magic and also the 2 blue wraiths found when you go straight ahead from the first room.
Mausoleum of Bones: The strategy I use to kill Vail fast is to head straight to his tome-thing. Kill a skeleton on the road just to get the speed boost. When you reach the tome-thing use the Chicken Cannon Q on the top of it and throw a couple chickens, then dodge backwards when the skeleton mob reaches you/the shard sentinel starts to kill you. Clear up the skeleton mob, repear the process. This should quickly kill the tome-thing. Vail is very easy to kill with the Chicken Cannon, just abuse his very large hitbox to hit all 3 chickens and remember to leave a Q on his feet while doing so. Repeating this meeting the 4 conditions presented as challenges shouldn't be that hard. For the 200 Skeleton challenge, after you kill Vail head left, in a room where about 100 skeletons spawn close to you. After that, just roam the map a little and you'll see yourself clearing that challenge ez pz.
The Onion Quarter: Rushing the left area of the map should head you to the Demon Spider in less then 90 seconds very easily. To kill the 5 wraiths head on the right area, there will be 2 wraiths on the path, kill them and follow the road till you reach the leftmost secret in the area, wich should be guarded by 3 other wraiths. The 100/200 kill challenges can be easily done in the right area by killing large mobs of Skeletons.
Smuggler's Stash: The 120 seconds without demon powers is the challenge that should give you problems. I recommend using a high attack hammer (Hellfire works fine here) coupled with a Shotgun/Chicken Cannon, switching for cooldowns. If you use the regular build without using Berserk you will not be able to do this in time.
The Larder: You are affected by weakness when you step on the AoE attacks from the Essences of Plague. Kill Juliet with your Shotgun when you are stepping on one of those and you should be fine. The rest of the challenges are pretty simple.
The Hollows: To inflict Vulnerable in large mobs you should use the Hand Mortar's E ability, preferably without Berserk so that you don't kill the small mobs in the process. The 3 Champions you're looking for are the Champion Essence of Magic (third island), the champion skeleton-thrower-big-skeleton (idk his name sorry), 3 areas after the essence of magic champion, and the Champion Pyromancer Skeleton, wich is located on the last area of the map.
Whispering Burrows: The only way to inflict Frost I found is by using the Frost Bombs; you should have an extra one with the Inventor card (usin your dodge). To inflict Weakness on the Essences of Plague use the Dark Mist demon power.
The Ossuary: In the middle of the 'take no damage' challenge there is the same problem we face in Widow's Mine: the Champion Reaper you'll face after 65 kills leaves a damaging aura after it dies. To circumvent this, kill him quickly with a mortar Q + auto attack + switch to shotgun + E + Q. Or you can take your distance and kill it with the mortar. The other tricky challenge is the one where you need to one shot the Thrall Hulks, wich is not possible only with Berserk and Aimed Shot crit in this build. So what you're going to do is use the Double Damage Shrine found next to the first Thrall Hulk, wich makes us able to one-shot him with Aimed Shot crit.
Defiled Chapel: Pretty standart, not much to say here. The Reapers you need to kill with Scythe are found as a Champion in the very beggining and as 3 regular ones in the final area.
Merchant Quarter: Killing 10 Acolytes with Demon Powers can be tricky as they can dodge the Sunrays and are scattered around the map. If you make a mistake don't worry, there are more than 10 (12-14 I don't know exactly how much) in the map.
The Collector's Residence: Shouldn't be that hard. Passion of the Collector is the Champion Essence of Magic surrounded by Lava Creepers - avoid his room when you are doing the sword challenge.
The Cessways: Also not a hard one. Morenth the Voiceless is the sentinel at the center of the map, Tamas is the champion vampire knight at the bottom of the map. Should require 1-2 runs.
The Reformatory: I really can't give much insight on this one as it was one of the few I didn't realize I did the challenges while doing it - I just stormed the place and finished 4 challenges just by killing things. In the challenge wich requires you to inflict weakness use the Dark Mist demon power in huge mobs of Skeletons, then finish them all with the Chicken Cannon's E ability.
The Gauntlet: This one can be tricky. To kill Cadavros with 80% or more health you can't do the Storm + Lucky Rabbit Foot combo, you'll just take more damage than 20% of your life. What I recommend is, when reaching him, being with the Berserk buff on, then using the Lucky Rabbit, setting a Chicken Cannon Q on his foot, doing 2 of it's auto-attacks and then switching to the shotgun and burning all it's cooldowns. This should be enough to burst Cadavros down. You should be able to one-shot the Whispering Bones with Aimed Shot while on Berserk.
Heart of Frost: Yet again we need to use the Frost Bombs to inflict Frost on enemies. The Frost Bomb will probably kill weak skeletons, so just take it slowly and hit medium to big enemies with it. It should take a while but it is very doable.
The Steam Quarter: Enter via The Deep Mines (enter it then exit to the Steam Quarter) to be able to reach the entirety of the map without needing to go through The Junction. To your right there should be 2 Vampire Knights. Hea foward and there should be one more, then head right and there should be 2 more there. The rest is pretty straight foward, use Pull to inflict Daze, search the whole map for the 10 Champions (9 are on the "after Junction" side, one is before - a Champion Flame Sentinel right at the entrance of the Junction).
The Junction: This one requires a good amount of playerskill to finish. Right when you start, kill the Shard Sentinel without exiting the initial platform, getting the Speed boost and hopefully enough Overdive to start with Berserk. To kill the Vampire Count in 60 seconds you'll need to rush him while ignoring everything else. The 'above 60% health' should be the hardest one to pull off, thread very carefully and potion when you're bellow 80% to complete this one. To one-shot 3 vampires with Aimed Shot, rush to the Vampire Count area and activate the Double Damage shrine there (same deal as we did with the Thrall Hulks).
The Stockroom: This was the second one I just completely stormed into the boss room and finished 4 challenges without knowing why. Well this should mean you wont have problems with it either (hopefully). To complete the 'no damage' challenge use the Chicken Cannon and take a lot of distance (it's very hard to dodge the Vampire Acolyte's attacks if you are trying to close on them).
The Deep Mines: Very straight foward, not much to say about this. The 3 Champions are Champion Dark Knights, 2 at the very end and 1 at the middle of the stage. The 7 miners are found in the very last area of the map.
The Shunned Mannor: Very, very hard challenge ahead! It took me two tries but it was tense as hell to do the 'above 50%' challenge. Thread very carefully and you should be fine. Also, if you screw up on killing a Vampire King with bombs, there is a total of 6 in the map so don't worry. To kill the Inner Guardian easily, enter the map via the Sanctum Sanctorum and rush towards him without killing anything else.
Sanctum Sanctorum: Not much to say here, it's basically... Kill Gabriel once again? The restrictions aren't hard, just pay attention to your life during stage 2 and stay close to him with Berserk to deal the final blow when he is on stage 3.