Finished the main game on Story mode on level 60, after I started & finished the Crucible 101 wave. And now I finished the game on Apocalyptic and give you some tips for this playthrough. You need to GRIND, but this way very easy, easier than it was on Balanced for me. (Kill any boss in less than 30 mp.)
FYI in advance, I’ll be honest the grind time for level 40 is around 9-10 hours (included 2-4 real game time. Sorry I don’t remember the exact time). I „started” after. See at the end.
I used the Chaos Armor (from Crucible DLC - 60 tokens) which gives you +10% damage, +10% damage reduction, +20% health. Great help, but not required.
Start with the Level/Weapon Upgrades/Enhancements:
After 20 health you get only +10-15 HP / 1 attr. point, so doesn't worth it. Spend for Strength until 26. You get +5-4-3% and that's much more useful. Over 26 (125%) you will get only +2%, so from there I recommend to spend for Arcane. But keep in mind your play style, so if you don't use it spend for strength!
You will get 10-12 Luminous Visage (Attribute points). For level 5 you need around 1000 souls, for level 45 around 15.000 and for level 60 around 30.000! So don’t waste them early in the game for just a few thousands of souls, spend them around level 45-50, for 10x souls! I spent all collected 10 visage points at level 48.
The main weapon the "Barbs of Scorn" is good and It makes an attack around you, so defend you many times from a back attack, but you can use any if you want. I changed to Lance of Scorn when I got it with the Storm Hollow. Three reasons:
1. It has more power when fully upgraded Barb 240 vs Lance 290.
2. It shocks the enemy – see below.
3. You can evade from long distance (incoming arrow), so you can throw it far to the enemy.
Spend your higher weapon upgrades for ONE weapon first (12 fragment / 12 piece for 1 weapon)!
I used the Storm Hollow. The wrath - LB + RB - attacks your near surrounding and the more important, it shocks the enemy time to time, so they can't attack properly, very useful!
At the second half of the game: On your first weapon put FAFNIR, with as many souls as you can! At BALANCED It gives you +1% damage for every 3000 souls in pocket, and on hit 100% Melee Damage Reflected Back on Attacker. After 90k it gives you more % damage than the Balanced Juggernaut and you can reach +100% and more damage with 300k+ souls! Finished the game with 385k! If you die the souls will wait where you died, even you die again and again, before you reach them! No risk!
Title Update: unfortunately gave a maximum to 40%(SPOILER ------- You can found Fafnir enhancement at angel Usiel. You can get after killed Lust boss at cargo dock! Get it as soon as you can. From there don’t spend souls! 3k souls +1% damage, so if the Strength level up is just +4% and more than 12K souls, don’t worth it, so keep in pocket them. If can’t balanced immediately, but you have better damage enhancement use that).
I used these enhancements on any weapon (for passive capability - second line):
Balanced Fortifier, on max level it gives you +20% health, very important! +20% damage on the weapon.
Unfocused Juggernaut - found late - it gives you 4% damage reduction or 25% on max level -.balanced, very important. And +30% damage, useful!
Balanced Leviathan, on max level it generates +96 health points every minute! And gives you 5-20 souls for breaking boxes/objects! Important in grinding – see below! You can buy it at the shop from start for 5.000 souls.
Balanced Enoch, on max level it gives you 18% Amount of Havoc Generated every minute. Only 6 minutes from 0 to FULL!
Unfocused Azazel - found late - it gives you +6 wrath every minute or 18 on max level - balanced.
If you would like to you can get an Undying shard, just in case, but it won’t work at bosses! Fight starts over at death and you lose it!
HAVOC shard can refill the whole HAVOC bar! Can be very useful at bosses!
Don’t spend points at shop, just for gain levels. Sell items that you found. Just keep 1-2 HAVOC/Undying/Health and ALL weapon upgrades (Silver/Fragment/Piece…).
Always check the rooms for hidden tunnels, look up!
Get all Humans, very important! At 15 you get +30% health and at 20 you get +10 damage!
I made a video for a great spot for farming souls. It’s boring, but you can overlevel your character FASTER for level 30-40-50 and from there the game will be SUPER EASY! The game is harder in the early stages, but not too hard! I’m a casual player, never play on harder difficulty settings. When you get the Fafnir to Balanced and got 100k+ souls, the game – second half – turns to very easy, just when it should be very hard! You can farm souls anywhere, just there it’s faster. My 2nd run was 10 hours faster even I was on Apocalyptic and finished on higher level (62)!
So start the game and play until you get the Flame Hollow!
Title update add NewGame+, but you have to start a whole - normal - NEW GAME for this achievement, in NG+ you will not get the achievement! Credit to @TenrethNew Update fixed this with the option to change the difficulty level, so the achievement can be earned in NEW Game+ from now.If you reach a checkpoint (shop), check your life and if you don’t have max +life points, simply hit menu/options/gameplay and on the bottom „force restart”, so you will respawn at the shop with full health points (the enemy will respawn too! If you die middle in the map just run back there and avoid the enemy if you don’t want to kill them. But for the extra souls you should! :) )
When you get the Flame Hollow go to „North End”. If you don’t have it, go to Crossroads, open right side the Spider web with the Flame, go in the tunnel, climb, kill the enemy if you want, run forward and then take the right road, follow and the next area is the North End. The Serpent hole is on the left side. Buy the Unfocused Leviathan if you have 5.000 souls (or buy it later after a few levels). With this you will get +5 souls for every broken boxes! At balanced +20/broken box!
You can earn 1.300-1.600 souls/ 2,5 mins or ~2.000 with Balanced Leviathan. Check the video and more info below:
First you have to kill all enemies in front of you! Because in the building the basement stairs is blocked first! Only one time, after it will be open forever. You can open it with the bug, lure to the front door from the back side of the building (don’t forget there are 2 creatures in the statues! They will respawn each time.) and when the bug is lighting hit B and throw to there with RT. Now you can go down, but WAIT! There is a „Black Cat Monster” with RED eyes, so the hardest one! It is in the left end. You have to kill only one time, it won’t respawn! If you die you will try on the 2nd/3rd…15th… run. Break all the boxes downstairs and upstairs and the statues. When finished hit menu button and Force restart, start over. If you get killed by the Black Cat or the 2 creatures avoid them, and after a few level try again. You can get 700-1300 souls just when you get to the basement.
If this is too hard, early you can farm souls at the „Crossroads” Serpent hole. You can get 500-800 souls with weaker enemies, have to walk around, but takes more time, so slower.
OR
From the end of the video go forward (South End - Serpent Hole), go in the Church - CutScene - and go out left side to the garden. The "Troll" on the wall will keep screaming and 4 enemies will spawn, if you kill them 4 more will spawn for unlimited time. 100 souls / 4 enemies >>> 200 souls/mins. This is around 12.000 souls/hour. The main method is around 30.000-40.000/ hour (with non upgraded Leviathan, so just +5 souls/box)
After a few levels I recommend to try the other way. First reach level 15 on health then you can spend to Strength! Don't invest more than 5-10 points to Arcane before level 40. Around level 35-37 you can try how enough is that for you, so try to kill the enemies in the first method. If you feel good, you can start the game! Just in case I went to level 40 (9,5 hours for me, check time at Load Game menu). That was more than enough!
Good Luck!
Better chance with the Crucible DLC!
Finished the game on Balanced on level 60, and went to the the Crucible and finished the 101 waves in 1 sitting on STORY difficulty and got 75k points >> 75 tokens. You get 1 token for 1k points. If you do only 25 (1-25; 26-50; 51-75; 76-100) waves you get around 5-9k points, but if you do it one sitting you get multiplier for bigger points.
I checked If you bought an armor set at the Crucible previously, you can use it in a NEW GAME! I bought a Chaos Armor (there are 3 armors at this moment each for 60 tokens) - with 10% Damage + 10% damage reduction + 20% health - which I could use from the start on my new game!
You can find more info for the Enhancements/Hollows/Gameplay at my Crucible DLC
Solution for Quite Proper In Darksiders III