Guide The Essential Hic Walkthrough Guide - Levels 10-30

Title Edit: 1-30*

Introduction:

Ok long story short, I actually got my first ever class to 100 in my entire wynn career... and that class was an HIC class.. (well i mean someone convinced me to actually go to se finally on my main right after but that’s not the point)




Since then, I felt the need to make an HIC guide for two reasons: I had some friends who wanted to play HIC but didn’t know where to start as well as the fact that I am currently waiting for people to throw more prof bombs so I’m writing this in the meantime LMAO

No, I have not done Legendary Island yet and who knows.. I might die and throw my entire 200 hours away. But in the meantime, I might as well write a guide (other than playing on my level 50 Shaman HIC class cuz I’m also now waiting for prof bombs on that too LOL)


So what is HIC?

HIC is a challenge in which you play on a class that has the Hardcore, Ironman, and Craftsman challenges enabled.

• Hardcore - Lose most items upon death and your chat icon turns from red to gray.
  
  
• Ironman - Unable to access the bank, trade with players, pick up items from other players, have your items be picked up by other players, receive buffs from other player’s such as healing or scroll buffs, or use the trade market. You are allowed to store any item inside your ingredient pouch.
  
  
• Craftsman - All gear and consumables you use in game must be crafted, including health potions. You are unable to use Mythics, Fabled, or Rare, Unique, and Set items with the exception of quest items.

The main goal of HIC is to survive for as long as possible and hopefully complete the Salted Challenge along the way, completing Legendary Island completely solo as well as all the quests and dungeons in the game all without dying.

Is this possible?

Well yeah. YYGAMER did it. (Assassin)



https://wynncraft.com/stats/player/YYGAMER


So did Linnyflower (Warrior)

https://wynncraft.com/stats/player/Linnyflower

Anyways, on with the guide!

Just to make sharing tips easier, here is a wonderful HIC tip list from @__Excel that I used to breeze the early game.
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/hic-tips.252802/

In addition, here’s a more comprised list of the builds + tips I used early game courtesy of @Ying Wang
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/hardcore-ironman-craftsman-guide-part-i.252480/

Before we start, I’d just like to throw it out there that please for the love of god always keep scrolls on you. They are lifesavers in so many situations.

Also remember that /class is your best friend in every dangerous situation. Get stuck? /class. Getting hoarded? /class Quest broken? /class Literally on fire? /class (and wait it out lol) Falling to your death? /class (yes it negates fall dmg) Mom calling you? /class

On a final note, keep in mind that this is NOT an HICH guide. I still haven’t done A Hunter’s Calling so I don’t know what to expect and none of these builds are optimized for PVP (well PVP is unbalanced from what I’ve been hearing) but for PVE.

Part 1 - Levels 1-30 Walkthrough

Levels 1-10

Spoiler: Levels 1-10

Levels 1-10
Full list of gathering spots:
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/list-of-places-to-gather-materials.239484/

Important Quests:

• King’s Recruit (It’s literally the tutorial + free Ragni scroll)
• Enzan’s Brother (For Therick’s Chain)
• Tunnel Trouble (For Ragni-Detlas fast travel)
• The Sewers of Ragni (Decrepit Sewers dungeon access)

Optional Quests:

• Cook’s Assistant (easy quest to do on the side while you are at Katoa Ranch)
• Poisoning the Pest (grants access to a nearby farm for wheat)
• Infested Plants (easy quest to do on the side while farming
• Elemental Exercise (easy quest to do for xp as well as an ingredient you can use to craft an optional elemental weapon)

Important Ingredients to Collect:

• Strong Flesh (for crafting your level 9 weapon)
  • Assassin zombies (west entrance to Nivla)
  • Mage zombies (west entrance Detlas)
  • Archer zombies (east Ragni entrance).
  • Strong zombie (emerald trail)
• Forest Webs (for crafting walkspeed accessories and leveling tailoring)
  • Nivla forest spiders
• Rotten Flesh (for leveling up woodworking/weaponsmithing)
  • Ragni and detlas zombies
• Wool (for leveling up tailoring and armoring)
  • Sheep pen right outside of Detlas to the west.
• Pink Wool and Wooly Armor (for leveling up tailoring)
  • Sheep pen right outside of Detlas to the west.
• Spider Eyes (for leveling up alchemy; optional if you choose to do scrolling for HP recovering instead or are mage or shaman)
  • Nivla forest spiders
• Freshwater/Soft Stand (for leveling up scrolling for HP recovery instead)
  • Crabs on the Coastal Trail from Ragni to Nemract.
• Eggs (if you choose to level up cooking for xp food later on)
  • Katoa Ranch chickens + egg merchant near Maltic.

Optional ingredients to be kept if found:

• Soft silk (for crafting mid/late game agility accessories)
  • Nivla forest spiders
• Lucky spider egg (for crafting mid/late game xp potions)
  • Nivla forest spiders
• Bob’s tear (well.. if you don’t want to spend the time looking for one when you do Bob’s Lost Soul)
  • Loot chests + Bob the Zombie in Ragni

Walkthrough:
Welcome to HIC soldier. The first thing you will be doing is either actually doing the tutorial for a safe spot to gain materials for the time being (as well as that 100% refine chance), or /skiptutorial if you’re as excited as I am for the run. If I had to list the classes in order from easiest to hardest I’d say as follows:

• Mage (free heals and the option to not do alchemy and fishing altogether is nice)
• Warrior (resistance is nice)
• Assassin (being vanished is really useful)
• Archer (running away is the best defense)
• Shaman (option not to do alchemy but you’re frail)

Once you level up, I recommend dumping all your future skill points into defense for now but you can also put them into agility if you’re into that sort of stuff.

My main goal once I finish talking to the King is aiming for a level 1 set in order to survive Nivla Forest. Just use 6 ingots, 3 string, 3 paper from either the tutorial or around emerald trail. There’s a patch of copper behind the item identifier on emerald trail, you can get wheat from one of Ragni's farms, and you can get oak from the plaza in Ragni. While you do this, I recommend casually killing every archer, strong, and assassin zombie you can find for strong flesh. I usually casually collect 5 and use them for my first weapon - a weapon crafted using 5 strong flesh and 1 Therick's chain (from Enzan’s Brother).
Here’s the wynndata page: https://www.wynndata.tk/cr/560228640

Next, after I finish making a level 1 armor set, I grind woodworking (or weaponsmithing) to level 10 using all the rotten flesh I collect from casually killing zombies and finally craft my weapon (using lvl 7-9 as the setting). For Shamans, gudgeon can be found in a pond on emerald trail. This new weapon will pretty much 1 or two shot any mob you encounter from Ragni to Detlas.

Afterwards, I make my way through Nivla Forest and save any forest web I find. It’s not required but I personally collect 24 forest webs total to use for walkspeed accessories (which add up to 48% walkspeed bonus oo). I literally used level 1 walkspeed accessories on my main HIC class until level 100.
Here’s the wynndata page: https://www.wynndata.tk/cr/962326796

Once making it to Detlas, I immediately do tunnel trouble to unlock fast travel from Detlas to Ragni and start killing the sheep in the sheep pen for wool to use for leveling up tailoring/armoring to level 10. Keep in mind a mage zombie usually spawns nearby (every 5 min in my experience) so you can jointly farm strong flesh and wool here. Then, of course, I level up tailoring and armoring and craft a level 7-9 set of armor. You do not necessarily need to put any sort of ingredients for your level 7-9 armor build (I never did, I just used plain health armor) but you can add forest webs for even more movement speed.

Lastly, I level up alchemy using any spider eyes I collect. Getting started on alchemy is a complicated thing to talk about for several reasons. You don’t necessarily need to level up alchemy until you’re combat level 20 for one and in actual fact it would be more beneficial to level up scrolling instead as it gives the same amount of healing as potions do (if i recall correctly) but at early levels it's personal preference. If you are mage or shaman, you don’t even have to level them up in the first place if you do not intend to use xp/buff consumables at all (but I still do, just give me a sec to explain)

You can either save time and get started on scribing for consumables you can use late game (and your eventual legendary island run) or level up alchemy for now so you can use xp potions as soon as possible (for herb cave as well as dungeon spam). On my current Shaman HIC run, I did not level up alchemy until I was around combat level 40 as I only leveled it to level 40 so I could unlock the ability to craft xp potions with 2 charges (since Shaman doesn’t need potions). I have not done scribing yet but I may do it when I reach level 70 for use on Temple of Legends. On my archer, I did use potions all the way until level 100 but I kept it alchemy at around level 80 and decided to just grind level 1-90 scribing instead so I could have scrolls to use on LI.

In regards to cooking, leveling cooking is completely optional and I only level it up to level 50 so I can craft xp food using 6 bandit’s rations (level 46) for around 25-30%ish xp bonus. On my archer run I did not start leveling up cooking until level 90 (before cur spam) and on my shaman I did not start leveling cooking up until level 50 (before herb cave).

In regards to juuling, I personally didn’t level it up until I was around level 80 as, as I said before, I used walkspeed rings until level 100 with the exception of 2 level 80 spell damage/health rings.

Levels 10-20

Spoiler: Levels 10-20

Levels 10-20
Full list of gathering spots:
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/list-of-places-to-gather-materials.239484/

Optional Quests:

• Elemental Exercise (easy 1 minute quest to do for xp as well as an ingredient you can use to craft an optional elemental weapon)
• Creeper Infiltration (lowkey dangerous quest due to pigmen hoarding but it knocks out one of your Temple of Legends requirements as well as gives some good xp, just be sure to be careful as well as toss the creeper mask. my tip is to kill the pigman boss for the skin before you start the quest as it saves time from actually risking being hoarded by pigmen)
• Arachnid’s Ascent (easy quest to do for xp, i guess it unlocks infested pit if you’re into that kind of thing. my tip is to /class at the parkour to make it x10 easier)

Important Ingredients to Collect:

• Strong Flesh (for optional use on level 19 armor)
• Bone Meal (for use on level 27-29 armor and leveling up tailoring/armoring)
  • Decrepit Sewers dungeon
• Forest Webs (for leveling up tailoring and woodworking)
• Rotten Flesh (for leveling up woodworking/weaponsmithing)
• Wool (for leveling up tailoring and armoring)
• Pink Wool and Wooly Armor (for leveling up tailoring)
• Spider Eyes (for leveling up alchemy)
• Freshwater/Soft Stand (for leveling up scrolling for HP recovery instead)

Okay so level 10-20 is actually incredibly easy. With your new chad weapon you can now breeze through Decrepit Sewers twice (once if you’re doing a mage no pots run) and acquire tier 3 tools. I make sure to keep any bone meal I get from it as it is useful for level 27-29 armor due to the spell damage it gives as well as leveling up tailoring/armoring.

Afterwards, I usually just do Elemental Exercise cuz it takes like a minute to complete then proceed to grind to 15 using a spot immediately south of Nivla Village followed by leveling up to 20 in a spot south of Time Valley.

I bring armoring, tailoring, woodworking/weaponsmithing, and scribing/alchemy to 20 and craft a level 17-19 set of armor throwing in some spare strong flesh here and there. I still use the same ingredients as last time to level my proficiencies up as there aren’t really any new ones that are worth grinding for.

Granite can be found in a granite mine right above the abandoned mines, trout can be found on the bridge between detlas suburbs and nivla forest, birch can be found in detlas suburbs, and barley can be found in nodes scattered around the farms of the detlas suburbs as well as an angry horse farm nearby time valley (if you’re into that sort of thing).

For my level 17-19 weapon, I craft it using two tier 1 or tier 2 powders I found while casually opening chests.

You can level up cooking if you’d like if you plan on using xp food.

Oh also.. beware of Mooshroom cows... They hoard VERY easily and can literally chase you around Detlas (happened to me lol).

Levels 20-30

Spoiler: Levels 20-30

Levels 20-30
Full list of gathering spots:
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/list-of-places-to-gather-materials.239484/

Important Quests:

• The Dark Descent (for unlocking Underworld Crypt)
• Misadventure on the Sea (optional quest but a useful one. gives free ingredients as treasure to use for leveling up profs if you explore the ship a bit. do be sure to crowd control the chonker tho)

Optional Quests for XP:

• Macabre Masquerade Hallowynn 2014 (somewhat dangerous quest due to easy mob hoarding but it takes like 2 minutes to do, I usually bring a friend with me if I know I can’t go at it alone).
• Studying the Corrupt (I do not recommend doing this quest although it takes very little time to complete because you will not be doing the Lost Sanctuary for tools (unless you are a madman). In addition, while trying to activate the mage to open the cave for you, sometimes the mage doesn’t appear unless you /class, leading you to waiting a couple minutes with high damaging nether mobs in your face if you are unaware of how the quest plays out. Plus this quest is VERY out of the way)
• Recovering the Past (I do not recommend doing this quest as its glitch potential is comparable to CUC’s boss and it feels like it takes 10 minutes to complete. It’s also a very out of the way quest. If you don’t know what you’re doing on the bridge stage it can be risky as well).

Important Ingredients to Collect

• Strong Flesh (for optional use on level 29 armor)
• Bone Meal (for use on level 27-29 armor and leveling up tailoring/armoring)
  • Decrepit Sewers dungeon + Ancient Nemract citizens
• Forest Webs (for leveling up tailoring and woodworking)
• Rotten Flesh (for leveling up woodworking/weaponsmithing)
• Waterlogged Branches (for leveling up woodworking/weaponsmithing)
  • Bremminglar Coast mobs + Misadventure on the Sea
• Wool (for leveling up tailoring and armoring)
• Pink Wool and Wooly Armor (for leveling up tailoring)
• Spider Eyes (for leveling up alchemy)
• Freshwater/Soft Stand (for leveling up scrolling for HP recovery instead)

Levels 20-30 will be your first somewhat difficult spike as this is a common place where many people can die due to the many weird hazards that exist in this level range. For example, on my very first blind run of HIC (I didn’t even know you lost your hardcore icon color at this time cuz I was such a noob lol) I died in Saint’s Row because I underestimated the level of hoarding there and on my new shaman run I nearly died to the Underworld Crypt Key Guardian because I forgot how much damage it does with charge with level 20 gear. Oh yeah, don’t ever go to Saints Row to grind. It requires a quest that gives you a quest item to unlock and it’s extremely dangerous due to hoarding. Anyways, long story short, this will mark your first grand step on your HIC journey. Be safe out there.

My first immediate goal is to unlock the Underworld Crypt dungeon by doing The Dark Descent. It’s a mob-free story quest that takes roughly 5 minutes to finish.

Afterwards, I go back to Time Valley grind spot and grind there using double xp. Yes, I said with double xp. I did this on both my archer and shaman runs as this is the easiest way to breeze through combat level 20-30 with little to no harm (thanks to the people who threw the bombs btw ily) . You can usually get to level 27/28 at this spot to unlock your level 27-29 gear as the mobs still give you so much xp despite it being a level 15 grind spot.

The only new ingredient at this point you can easily acquire is bonemeal for armoring/tailoring, found from Ancient Nemract citizens. You can go back to Decrepit Sewers to farm it much more safely (god I hate UC key guardian) but I never did on my runs as I just kept the bonemeal from my first 2 visits. However, keep in mind I only personally collect bonemeal in order to put into my level 27-29 armor build for extra spell damage and instead continue to use the items collected from the Detlas sheep to level up tailoring/armoring to 30.

A combination of bonemeal and strong flesh usually acts as my level 27-29 armor build. Afterwards, I use rotten flesh to bring woodworking (or weaponsmithing) to 30 (you can also use waterlogged branches found on bremminglar coast but they aren’t common and kind of out of the way) and craft a level 27-29 weapon using either two tier 2 or two tier 3 powders. I powder my weapon using tier 2 or tier 3 powders.

Since I forgot to mention: salmon can be found behind the ancient cathedral, willow can be found near nemract, gold can be found in the abandoned mines, and oats can be found at the farm behind the Potion Making Quest NPC.

So about Underworld Crypt.

Underworld Crypt is by far the most easiest dungeon to complete mechanically wise. In terms of the actual combat, it is VERY risky to solo however it is very possible to with level 27-29 gear.

On all my Underworld Crypt runs on Archer and Shaman combined I brought someone to carry me through it. This is the easiest dungeon to be carried through as you can easily run through the run section with your walkspeed rings, can simply stand on the platform above each parkour mini boss while your friend tanks, don’t even have to bother with the token room, simply remove the archers from the boat ride to avoid damage, and simply press buttons while your friend clears the slimes during the boss fight.

If doing solo, I recommend crowd controlling the minibosses to death, killing the archer zombies first on the boat ride, and button mashing during the boss fight. Also, I personally completed the runs with a dungeon bomb as depending on what gear you have while doing the dungeon for tools, the key guardians can actually do damage as mentioned before. You will need to complete the dungeon 3 times in order to get the full tool set. One less if you are playing mage and are doing a no pots run.

That’s practically it for levels 20-30.

I’ll make part II if I notice people are interested. I promise lol

 

play challenge modes they are fun

 

Don't doubt the power of mage

 

yeah but you can't use lunar on hic so what's the point no lunar no mage
also, fel, hich when?!?!?

 

play hich for clearer skin and anxiety

 

after shaman hic idk this'll prob snipe any future hich run i do

 

Where's your signature phrase? :(

--------------------------------

For levels 10-30, there is a very gamer item called:



This ingredient helps give you massive defense sp early on, which will help against Underworld Crypt.

There's another ingredient called Cracked Skin, which is a better version of Warped Skin, but it's for lv 30+. I even still use it for endgame armor due to how little dura it takes off. Scarab Husk is an even better version of Cracked Skin as it gives +dura instead of -dura but it's hard to grind for it.




HIC gang rise up!

 

I FORGOT THAT THE TIME VALLEY MOBS DROPS EXISTED YOU ARE ACTUALLY SMURFING (I'll edit it on the guide when I have the time lol)

 

Damn, I could not play hardcore lol (I started 2 profiles and died both times before lvl 30), I've been playing a lot of IC, though, and it's similar (other than the not dying part, haha). Thanks for the guide, waiting on a second part :P

 

i hope this guide helps you not die xd. and yeah part 2 coming real soon! almost done writing 30-40 haha

 

What if you wanted to: Play wynncraft HIC
But the server said:
Low quality meme i know xd

 

Oh I see someone actually used my tips thread :D

I loved running HIC - made it to like late 30s best run. That doesn’t sound like much but it was so good for me seeing as I lost SIX classes to goddamn connection problems. I would just freeze for 5 seconds and run is over. Most of those runs made it to around 20-30.
I actually have a good network plan and relatively low ping for EU, but often get connection spikes like that.
Moral of the story is don’t run hardcore if your connection isn’t the best of the best.

 

your tips thread is AMAZING. words cant explain how helpful it was for me even in the midgame but numbers can. 11/10

 

pain

 

hic is just
bread in french

 

spain without the s