Guide (WIP) The Ultimate Guide to Completing an HUIC(H) Playthrough (v0.3.3)

The Ultimate Guide to Completing an HUIC(H) Playthrough​

Table of Contents

Spoiler: Table of Contents

First Reply

• Introduction
• Definitions
• What is HUICH?
  • Hardcore
  • Ultimate Ironman
    
  • Ironman
  • Craftsman
  • Hunted
• What is the HUIC Challenge?
  
• General Advice on Playing HUIC

Second Reply

• Before Starting Your First Playthrough
  • What class to choose?
  • Know How to Make and Use Crafteds
  • Knowing Where to Avoid Bugs, Glitches, and Dangerous Areas
  • Managing Your Inventory
  • Finding a Group of Friends or Carries
  • Choosing Consumable Profession(s)
• Earlygame (Lv 1-39)
  • Lv 1-9
  • Lv 10-19
  • Lv 20-29
    
  • Lv 30-39
• Midgame (Lv 40-69)
  • Lv 40-49
  • Lv 50-59
  • Lv 60-69
• Lategame (Lv 70-99)
  • Lv 70-79
  • Lv 80-89
  • Lv 90-99
• Endgame (Lv 100+)

Third Reply

• Miscellaneous Info
  • Applying Consumables
    
  • Durability Mechanics
    
  • How to Farm Rare Mobs
  • Ingredient Bias Theory
  • Staying Safe in Hunted Mode
  • "Tickskipping"
• Other Challenges Relating to HIC
  • 5/5 HIC
  • Max Level HIC(H)
    
  • Naked HIC(H)
• The HIC Community Discord Server (THICC)
• References

Introduction
HUIC(H) is one of the hardest challenges that Wynncraft can officially offer. This complete guide will walk attempting players through the entire HUIC playthrough, from starting out to completely beating the challenge, as offered by me and any other players who have also beaten the challenge. For those wanting to also do Hunted as well (HUICH), this guide will not mention how to hunt, but rather give you simple guidelines on avoiding getting killed by hunters.

Any mentions of HUIC can also be applied to HUICH and HIC as well. The guide will mostly be meant for HUIC.

This reply walks through the basics of HUIC.


Definitions
Many acronyms and dubbed words are stated in this guide. See the spoiler to view their definitions.

Spoiler: Definitions

• HUIC(H): Hardcore, Ultimate Ironman, Craftsman, (Hunted)
• HIC(H): Hardcore, Ironman, Craftsman, (Hunted)
  • In this guide, HIC(H) will mainly refer to HUIC(H) instead.
• Hunter: Player that hunt other players in Hunted mode

What is HUICH?

Figure 1: Badges of an HUICH class. The last symbol is guild level and does not relate to any challenge mode at all.​

HUICH is an acronym standing for the following:

• H = Hardcore
• UI = Ultimate Ironman
• C = Craftsman
• H = Hunted

Players often get confused which “H” corresponds to which gamemode. If the first letter in the acronym is “H”, then it is always Hardcore unless it is the only letter in the acronym. Any other “H” therefore corresponds to Hunted.

If there is only an I, it refers to Ironman, which is an easier form of Ultimate Ironman.

Upon making a new class, if a player has the prerequisites required to start a gamemode, they can select to turn their class into any combination of gamemodes they desire. For the purposes of this guide, this guide only focuses on turning on all 3 (or 4 with Hunted): HIC(H).

Now let’s break down what each gamemode means.

Hardcore

Figure 2: Symbol of the Hardcore badge.​

Hardcore is a gamemode that only gives players 1 life. If the player dies, the badge permanently turns gray as shown below.

Figure 3: Grayed out Hardcore badge.​

There are exceptions to not losing this badge:

• Dying in a duel (/duel)
• /kill
• Dying in housing
• Dying in limited-time minigames

Any other death is fair game. Even a scripted A Canary Calls quest can cause players to lose your badge if players choose the wrong dialogue choice [1]. A good rule of thumb is, if any death can activate Second Chance (ability from Paladin Warrior), then it can remove Hardcore status as well.

In addition, upon death, the player will drop most of their items as if the player only has 1 Soul Point.

Players must have a Lv 30+ class in order to unlock this gamemode.

Ultimate Ironman

Figure 4: Symbol of the Ultimate Ironman badge.​

Ultimate Ironman is a gamemode that forces players to only use what players can get by themselves. The following list shows the restrictions of Ultimate Ironman:

• No Bank
• No Guild Bank
• No trading
• No Trade Market access
• No sharing mob drops except mob tokens from quests or dungeons, or rare mobs under a certain threshold (needs more testing)
• No sharing mob XP
• No picking up any other item that was not caused by you (e.g. cannot pick up other players’ thrown items)
• No obtaining buffs from other players

The threshold for receiving a dropped item from a mob is presumed to be approximately dealing 90-95% of the mob’s HP. If any other player deals more than 5-10% of the mob’s HP, then the Ultimate Ironman player cannot obtain the mob drop. Exceptions are mob tokens from quests or dungeons, or rare mobs (needs more testing). If the Ultimate Ironman player deals approximately 50% or more of the mob’s HP for these types of mobs, then the mob will drop the items for the Ultimate Ironman player and drop separately for any other non-Ironman players dealing damage to the same mob.

Ultimate Ironman also gives players the ability to turn your ingredient pouch to a pouch that can store any item instead of only ingredients.

Figure 5: The Ironman pouch can store anything.​

Items obtained on (Ultimate) Ironman cannot be taken off the class or to other players without de-Ironman the class.

All party-wide buffs used on the Ultimate Ironman class can be applied to any other non-Ironman players nearby, but not vise-versa. It is possible indirect buffs that affect the mob still work. The following may work:

• Winded (Riftwalker Mage ability)
• Distraction (Trickster Assassin ability)
• Marked (Shadestepper Assassin ability)
• Choke Bomb (Trickster Assassin ability)
• Etc.

It is possible to downgrade Ultimate Ironman to Ironman by using the /ironman command. This change is permanent, and it must be taken into deep consideration before executing. The command can be run again to de-Ironman completely as well. The reason for running this command is for players to transfer valuable items they may find on their (Ultimate) Ironman classes at the cost of de-Ironman completely.

Players must have a Lv 50+ class in order to unlock this gamemode.

Ironman

Figure 6: Symbol of the Ironman badge.​

Ironman is the same exact gamemode as Ultimate Ironman, except the difference is Ironman allows the player to access the character bank, and the ingredient pouch is no longer a special Ironman pouch. The player can access up to 10 character bank pages, regardless of their in-game rank (10 pages total). This helps players who may have issues with inventory management and want more space.

Craftsman

Figure 7: Symbol of the Craftsman badge.​

Craftsman is a gamemode that forces players to only use crafted items. Players cannot use any other item that isn’t crafted as part of their gear. Players will then need to do Professions in order to obtain more powerful gear. There are exceptions to this rule, however:

• Required quest items that need to be worn in order to progress a quest (e.g. Breathing Helmet)
• Siegfried’s Helmet
• Oak Wood weapons that are untradeable (starter weapons)
• Tomes
• Charms
• Some (very few) niche items

Players must have a Lv 50+ class in order to unlock this gamemode.

Hunted

Figure 8: Symbol of the Hunted badge.​

Hunted is a gamemode that forces players to be in Hunted mode all the time. Hunted mode cannot be toggled off unlike regular Hunted mode. Being killed by other players in Hunted mode, whether through toggling or not, will count towards Hardcore death as well.

However, with hunted mode, players can obtain 1.5x Gathering XP and Combat XP from mobs. These XP bonuses are multiplicative with other XP bonuses like Gathering XP and XP bonus from gear.

Players must have completed A Hunter’s Calling quest (Lv. 103) in order to unlock this gamemode.


What is the HUIC Challenge?

Figure 9: Original HIC challenge requirements set forth by Salted in 1.18.1.​

The HUIC challenge is a challenge put forth by Salted to challenge players to complete the entire HUIC playthrough back in 1.18.1. The requirements are the following:

• Lv 103 (105 in 1.19+)
• No grayed out Hardcore badge (no deaths)
• Complete all quests
• Complete all miniquests (implied)
• Complete all dungeons
• Complete all caves (2.0.3+)
  
• LI Solo
• Discover all territories
• Discover all secret discoveries
• Complete all raids (1.20+)
• Unlock all tome slots (1.20+)

Some of these requirements have been added onto the challenge by the community to signify a complete playthrough.


General Advice on Playing HUIC
Out of recorded history, only 22 unique players have beaten HUIC, and 8 unique players have beaten HUICH, for a total of 26 unique players beating HUIC(H). 4 players have beaten both challenges. This, sadly, has less unique players than the number of unique players with max level (Lv 1690 excluding Lootrun Rank) on a class, which is 30+. This statistic is important because most HUIC playthroughs end due to dying to bugs, glitches or lag, which discourages many players from attempting again or even trying.

The number one most important advice is knowing how to play your class to avoid death. Many deaths can be avoided simply by knowing how to play your class. For example, knowing when a situation gets dangerous for certain classes, or how to use movement spells to avoid fall damage or getting out of sticky situations.

There are many other important pieces of advice as well. Know which quests and dungeons are dangerous. This includes boss fights that can deal a lot of damage, true damage mechanics, and one shot mechanics.

When falling down a cliff greater than 10 blocks, use movement spells to break your fall, especially after falling 20+ blocks at a time. Using multiple movement spells on your way down helps in case a lag spike occurs. Even if there are slime or water blocks below, get into the habit of using movement spells. You never know when a mob decides to randomly use a push spell to push you down a cliff.

Know how to manage your inventory extremely well. Do not keep all ingredients and materials unless you are sure you will use them soon. Exceptions are extremely rare ingredients and materials needed to craft your gear. Avoid doing quests that require you to hold your quest items for a later quest until you are absolutely sure to complete the next quest that uses said quest item. For example, avoid doing any prequests like Dwarfs and Doguns Part 1-3 until you are absolutely sure you can do part 4 due to obtaining 2 quest items in part 3.

Get help tackling hard content like dungeons and raids. Form a cohesive team to help you tackle these contents such as bringing a Guardian player, a high DPS player, or simply a player that kills or lures mobs away from you. Know each player’s strengths and weaknesses, and form strategies in case of emergencies. For example, form a /party to see everyone’s HP and have other teammates drop everything to come protect you if you reach under 10% hp or the like. In addition, know which content prevents getting help, such as client sided quests or quests that other players cannot get to once they have already completed the quest. You may find players willing to help you anywhere just by asking. If you still cannot find players, there is an HUIC discord server dedicated to helping players complete their HUIC playthroughs. For more information, see “The HIC Community Discord Server (THICC)” section in the third reply.

 

This reply walks through the entire HUIC playthrough.


Before Starting Your First Playthrough
What class to choose?
Figure out the class you are the most comfortable with. The class you choose can succeed or fail your playthrough depending on how well you can play your chosen class. Here’s a small list of pros and cons on selecting a class:

• Warrior (Very Easy)
  • Has access to Second Chance, an ability that will save you from dying for 3 seconds after taking any fatal blow.
    
  • Has the highest base defense, allowing you to take massive damage.
    
  • Respectable damage depending on the abilities chosen.
• Mage (Easy)
  • Can heal and teleport to get out of sticky situations.
    
  • Can lootrun very fast to obtain ingredients or emeralds needed.
    
  • Access to all very well balanced archetypes to increase damage or reduce damage taken from mobs.
    
  • Access to Manastorm, a mid to lategame ability to reduce mana regen requirements massively.
    
  • Lowest base damage.
• Archer (Medium)
  • Highest DPS allows shredding hard content (high HP mobs and bosses) with ease.
    
  • Low base defense may hurt more than usual, but this can be negated slightly through the use of Arrow Shield and its upgrades.
• Assassin (Hard)
  • Allows vanishing on certain ability trees to escape sticky situations.
    
  • Decent base damage and base defense.
    
  • High mana regen requirements are needed on most abilities to get the most out of Assassin, hindered due to a small amount of mana regen ingredient options early to midgame.
• Shaman (Very Hard)
  • Can clear mob and minion hordes very easily.
    
  • Lack of good movement spells and abilities make escaping out of sticky situations hard.
    
  • Revolves around the usage of totem heavily on most ability trees, requiring the player to know where, when, and how to use the totem effectively.
    
  • Lowest base defense.

Know How to Make and Use Crafteds
It is essential to know how to make and use crafteds, even coming up with your own recipes to fit whatever ingredients and materials you have on hand. In general, avoid trying to get T2 materials earlygame and T3 materials early to midgame as these materials can take too long to get before the gear gets outclassed. Try to use the highest tier of materials you have at the moment when crafting your main weapon. Avoid extremely hard to get ingredients unless you are willing to spend several hours trying to get them. Here are some ingredients to avoid, although if you get them by chance, do save them for your endgame gear:

Spoiler: Ingredients to Avoid

Ingredients denoted by * should not be used for the playthrough unless for niche cases to be determined by you.

• Azure Blossom*
  
• Bottled Fairy
  
• Incremental Mapping Module*
  
• Stolen Pearls

These other ingredients can be obtainable within an hour or two depending on your luck.

• Every other single T3 ingredient except Glimmering Coins and Soul Stone (Glimmering Coins and Soul Stone are super easy to get)
  
• Desert Fossil

Many good ingredients can take some time to grind, but are manageable. Many of these can drop from rare mobs, which are much more easily farmable when you know the location of their spawn nodes in addition to using multiple alts or players to help spawn them for you. For more information, see “How to Farm Rare Mobs” section in the third reply.

It is not recommended to grind for Sky/Dernic materials as they take too long to grind for very little benefit as of 2.0.4.

For more information about Professions in general and the nuances of Professions, refer to my complete guide here [2].

Knowing Where to Avoid Bugs, Glitches, and Dangerous Areas
Many playthroughs end because of bugs, glitches, and dangerous areas. Unfortunately, these may change over patches and it is hard to stay up to date for this guide. Here are some things to know:

Spoiler: Areas/Quests

• Elevators in Rymek: These elevators are known to randomly send you over a hundred blocks into the air for no particular reason.
• Edge of cliffs: You may get knocked down by a mob or accidentally walk off the edge.
• Facetanking bosses and true damage mechanics: It can kill you unless you are absolutely sure it won't kill you and for a good reason (i.e. comboing)
• Mobs with projectiles, especially those with shotgun and storm spells: These mobs will shred your armor durability and can reduce your HP fast. Shotgun spells can instantly kill you almost without warning.
• Mobs with Multihit: Same like projectiles, Multihit can shred your armor durability and may kill you.
• Any quest/area that makes you fall and it cannot be avoided:
  • A Journey Beyond: After getting "pooped" out of the worm.
  • A Point of No Return: Literally every part of the quest.
  • TNA: Upon entering the raid.
• Any secret discoveries that make you fall:
  • Space Between Worlds: Sometimes getting launched could glitch out. Prepare to use movement spells to break your fall.
  • Panic Zealot: Make sure to have full HP and don't hold any item that gives HP.

Spoiler: Bosses

• Most dungeon bosses and minibosses
• All raids
• Quests:
• Tower of Ascension
• All Roads to Peace
• Realm of Light 3
• Temple of Legends
• Bob's Reincarnation
• Qira's Hive
• Beyond the Grave
• A Canary Calls
• Dwarfs and Doguns Part 4

Spoiler: Mobs

• Most Neutral Mobs: Many of them have reflection or high damage projectiles.
  
• Mama Zomble: Shotgun and multihit spells with unusually high damage.
  
• Raiding zombies in Lazurus Pit: These mobs have unusually high damage in a small arena in the beginning of the quest.

Obviously, most of these are required to be done in order to complete the playthrough. For some content like required falls, it may be best to do them as soon as unlocked in order to not waste your time completing other parts of the playthrough if you mess up the fall and die. For other content like bosses, prepare your gear well by having enough EHP, damage, and sustain, and/or get other players to help you out.

To reiterate, when falling down a cliff greater than 10 blocks, use movement spells to break your fall, especially after falling 20+ blocks at a time. Using multiple movement spells on your way down helps in case a lag spike occurs. If possible, you can mount a horse before falling and let the horse break your fall. Even if there are slime or water blocks below, get into the habit of using movement spells. You never know when a mob decides to randomly use a push spell to push you down a cliff.

Managing Your Inventory
With only 55 inventory slots, it is essential to be able to know what to keep and what to throw away. Here's some advice on how to manage your inventory:

• Ingredients and materials
  • Throw away any ingredient or material you know for sure you cannot use at the moment. This includes high tier high level ingredients/materials that cannot be used due to low level craftings or not enough to craft.
  • Keep any extremely rare ingredients such as Decaying Heart.
  • Work on 1 crafting profession at a time. If you are trying to level up Jeweling by getting gems, do not also gather ingots for Tailoring or your inventory will fill up fast. It's best to waste some time going back and forth doing 1 crafting profession at a time.
• Quest items
  • Avoid doing quests that give you a quest item that is needed for a future quest, such as Climbing Helmet. Only do the quest when you are absolutely sure you will do the next quest needing the item.
  • You may glitch out quest items by filling your entire inventory with random items, then putting a quest item in the crafting area (crafting in vanilla Minecraft) of your inventory, and closing your inventory. This is an allowed glitch. To get quest items back done this way, do /fixquests, but make sure your other classes and bank does not have any quest items that you need on the HUIC class or it will not work.

Make sure to have space allotted for each tool, weapon, scrap, emerald pouch and scrolls. Always have at least 1 scroll to some city in case you need to get out of sticky situations. A horse is nice to have to ride off a cliff to break fall damage or to move around, but it is generally not needed.

Using Mods
If using mods fancy you, there are a few mods that can help your playthrough.

Wynntils/Artemis is a general Wynncraft enhancement experience, ranging from chat filters to GUI changes to making playing Wynncraft more intuitive [3].

Finding a Group of Friends or Carries
Having a few players dedicated to helping you complete the challenge makes the playthrough significantly easier, especially for raids. If you happen to have a group of these players, try to get them to equip certain equipment:

• Guardian: Mythic spear that redirects any non-Ironman player damage to the user wielding Guardian. Useful for raids.
• Hero: Mythic spear that gives bonus damage and defense to every non-Ironman player nearby if the user is below 50% max HP. Useful for raids.
• Diversion: Ability that gives non-Ironman absorption that decays over time. Can be useful for raids.
• Indirect buffs:
  • Winded: Ability that debuffs mobs.
  • Lure/Taunt: Abilities/Major ID that taunts mobs away from you.

Choosing Consumable Profession(s)
It is generally advisable to level up at least 1 consumable profession, usually Alchemism. Alchemism is needed for good HP potions for healing, although Scribing can be secondary. Cooking is not recommended for healing as it heals over a 2 minute period instead of 6 seconds. The duration is doubled due to a longtime bug where crafted healing consumables lasts double the time and heals double the amount displayed.

Other than using these professions for healing, you may consider using them to make actual combat consumables as well. Use Alchemism for strong potions at short durations, Scribing for easy to make consumables (Energetic/Earthly/Windy/Watery/Fiery Auras), and Cooking for longer duration, but weaker consumables. Judge the available ingredients yourself and decide if leveling any of these professions is valuable for your playthrough. Just keep in mind that it takes time to level up professions, which may slowdown your playthrough, which increases risk.


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The rest of this reply goes over the entire playthrough.

Most of the sections below are mainly compiled by @daedricrift, @Crouton_18, @Nynnf, and @Linnyflower from the The HIC Community Discord server.


Earlygame (Lv. 1-39)
Earlygame is where most HIC playthroughs end, partially due to inexperience and partially due to low number of skill points that make it hard to give yourself more EHP. This section will guide you through the earlygame step by step.

It is generally not recommended to wait for profession bombs at this time, as the amount of materials and ingredients required is so low that waiting for bombs will slow you down more. Of course, if there are bombs thrown, use them to your advantage.

Do not worry about min-maxing your build at this time. These levels fly by quickly, and it is not worth your time for marginal increases in damage given by higher tier materials and ingredients.

Lv. 1-9
Most mobs will 2-5 shot you. Obtain some armor ASAP, even Lv 1-3 armor with no ingredients will suffice. This is especially needed to grind ingredients required to level up your craftings. You may craft a weapon with no ingredients as well as it is generally better than using the starter weapon.

Once some sort of gear has been obtained, head to the Ancestor Grotto cave west of Maltic (-639 -1946) to farm Strong Flesh. Zombie Archers drop these at 100% drop rate. Get at least a stack of these, more if you want to hoard to use for later levels (you will come back to use this ingredient until Lv 30s). Use these to level up your weapon profession as well as Armouring and Tailouring. Craft gear using these as well, and make sure you have enough durability to use them effectively (~100 is enough).

There is an Egg Merchant that sells Eggs for very cheap, use these for leveling Cooking. For the other professions, save whatever ingredient you can get your hands on at the moment. Generally, 12 ingredients is enough to level up each profession from 1 to 10 without any profession bombs.

After obtaining Strong Flesh gear, head to -295 -1552 and farm Corrupted Mobs and Nivla Spiders. Be very careful of Lv. 15 Zombies, they deal a lot of damage. Each mob gives a lot of Combat XP and drops ingredients needed for the other professions. Farm these until you have about a stack of each or enough to level. Head to Deltas to finish professions.

You may try to get your first emerald pouch simply by opening any of your first T3/4 loot chest to save on inventory during ingredient grinding sessions.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

The important quests to do in this level range are:

• The King’ Recruit (Access to Wynn)
• Poisoning the Pest (Wheat Farm)
• Infested Plants (Easy Xp)
• The Sewers of Ragni (Unlocks Dungeon)
• Tunnel Trouble (Fast Travel)
• Mushroom Man (Easy Xp)

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

• Armoring: Strong Flesh (6 per craft leaves you with ~50 dura with t1 lv 1 stuff, enough to last until your next armour set)
• Tailoring: Strong Flesh (same as above)
• Jeweling: Forest Webs (6 per, leaves you with ~50 dura)
• Weaponsmithing: Strong Flesh (Spider Fangs for leveling)
• Woodworking: Strong Flesh
• Alchemism: Red/Brown Mushrooms (Spider Fangs/Poisonous Spider Eyes for leveling)
• Scribing: Coastal Sand (Fresh Water for leveling)
• Cooking: Potatoes/Eggs

• Strong Flesh can be obtained by killing cave mobs with a 100% drop rate slightly west of Maltic. It isn't recommended that you go there naked as Corrupted Grian can easily two shot.
• Forest Webs, Spider Fangs, and Poisonous Spider Eyes can be obtained by killing spiders in the Nivla Woods.
• Brown/Red Mushrooms can be obtained by farming nodes in the Nivla Woods.
• Coastal Sand and Fresh Water can be obtained by killing Crabs and Crabs Hiding in Sand on the coast north of Ragni
• Potatoes and Eggs are sold by merchants. The Egg merchant is southeast of Maltic and the Potato merchant is in Bremminglar.

Grind 15 more of each mushroom so you can complete the mini quest and potionmaking Potato and soft sand good for lootbonus at low levels.

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Oak
  • Hunted safe: Ragni Park, in the city on your right
  • Multiple mobs: The entirety of Nivla Woods
• Copper
  • Multiple mobs: Behind the identifier on the Emerald Trail
• Gudgeon
  • Multiple mobs: Southwest of the identifier on the Emerald Trail (-635, -1540)
• Wheat
  • Hunted safe: North Ragni by training camps / moat
  • No mobs: Farm unlocked from Poisoning the Pest

Lv. 10-19
Continue grinding the Ancestor Grotto cave for Strong Flesh. This level set is very similar to the previous one as your damage is high enough from a Strong Flesh set that you do not need to spend time grinding specific / rare ingredients. You will want to avoid the Shroominator at the grind spot along the black road as it’s high attack speed combined with high damage can end your playthrough before you craft your level 17-19 armor. This also applies to Undead Soldiers outside of Detlas and their multihit spell.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

There are very few quests in this level range and all of them pose a combat challenge that can be challenging if not properly prepared. With that being said, they all give significant Xp or unlock an important feature.

• Maltic's Well (The attacks are easy to dodge with basic strafing)
• Elemental Exercise (Keep your distance and don't let the mobs swarm)
• Potion Making (Watch out for the white circles and the charge attack)
• Stable Story (Watch for the charge attack)
• Arachnids Ascent (Optional as it unlocks tools you already have)
• Supply and Delivery (Free Xp and Fast Travel)
• Lava Springs (This can be dangerous, but rich healing potions can be worth the risk, just be careful)

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

• Armoring: Strong Flesh (6 per craft leaves you with ~50 dura with t1 lv 1 stuff, enough to last until your next armour set)
• Tailoring: Strong Flesh (same as above)
• Jeweling: Forest Webs (6 per)
• Weaponsmithing: Strong Flesh (Spider Fangs for leveling)
• Woodworking: Strong Flesh
• Alchemism: Red/Brown Mushrooms (Spider Fangs/Poisonous Spider Eyes for leveling)
• Scribing: Coastal Sand (Fresh Water for leveling)
• Cooking: Potatoes/Eggs

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Birch
  • No mobs: Mage island
  • Few mobs: Detlas suburbs
• Granite
  • No mobs:
    • Top of Pigman Ravines
    • Top of Abandoned Mines
  • Few mobs:
    • One of the caves in Pigman Ravines (-789, 85, -1325)
    • Behind the detlas apple farm (295, -1715)
• Trout
  • Few mobs:
    • South of the bridge to Detlas
    • Pond outside Detlas to Nemract
    • East of the Hobbit cave
• Barley
  • No mobs: Durum Isles, top right, or to your left when you leave the Seaskipper
  • Hunted safe: Outside Maltic
  • Few mobs: Southwest of detlas there is a small farm (275, -1500)

Lv. 20-29
A lot of the ingredients will remain the same as they have been in previous guides mainly because they are so plentiful to come by and do adequate damage up until this level. At this point though, you have a choice whether to go for a more spell based set or continue on the melee (strong flesh set) you have used up until this point. At this level you start to unlock the use of spells that become more viable than melee. Spells are good/better than melee because it keeps you further away from the mobs thus taking less damage. The changing of armor from Strong Flesh to Bone Meal reflects this. However it is fully dependent on playstyle if you wish to make this change or not. The Ancient Nemract grind spot poses a larger threat to dying but will drop Bone Meal which can make leveling professions quicker and be a source of spell damage in combat sets. While in the Nemract area, watch out for Gilded Bowman and Underworld Crypt Key Guardians as both of them are capable of ambushing you and shredding your hp.

Underworld Crypt is currently the easiest dungeon in the game to get carried through and doing so will allow you to unlock T4 tools very easily and early on. This does not mean you should attempt to solo it without proper preparation.

Keep a lot of Tempo Town scrolls on you at all times because it has cheap scrolls for low level cities and soul points do not matter on hardcore anyway.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

• Pit of the Dead (Try to skip the cave with movement spells as the spirits do high damage)
• Gravedigger (The miniboss is quite easy at level)
• The Dark Descent (No mobs to fight and unlocks UC)
• Dwelling Walls (Free xp)
• Tempo Town Trouble (Be careful of the miniboss. The quest is out of the way, but it does unlock fast travel)
• Misadventure on the Sea (Gives many ingredients)

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

• Armoring: Bone Meal (6 per craft) (Strong Flesh is still also perfectly viable if you prefer melee based builds)
• Tailoring: Bone Meal / Strong Flesh (same as above)
• Jeweling: Forest Webs (6 per)
• Weaponsmithing: Strong Flesh / Waterlogged Branch (Spider Fangs for leveling)
• Woodworking: Strong Flesh (Seabird feathers can be used for leveling as they are easy to grind)
• Alchemism: Red/Brown Mushrooms (Spider Fangs/Poisonous Spider Eyes for leveling)
• Scribing: Soft Sand (Fresh Water for leveling)
• Cooking: Potatoes/Eggs

• Bone Meal and Old Bones can be obtained from Ancient Nemract Resident (Skeletons) and Roaming Skeletons near Ancient Nemract
• It is a good idea to hold onto any Split Essences you come across while looting chests / caves in the nemract area if you are playing a Woodworking class as they provide good mana sustain and spell damage for its level
• Spike Residue can be used for Armoring and Tailoring if you feel more comfortable playing with a very tanky setup

Strive for tankier setups. Choose defensive stats over offensive unless you don't deal enough damage to do content. Be careful grinding for ingredients / materials in Ancient Nemract. This place is dangerous for this level because of Gilded Archers that have high damage and use arrow storm spell. Underworld Crypt Key Guardians also spawn here with high HP for this level with charge, explosion, and high aggression range.

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Willow
  • Some Mobs: north of the Underworld Crypt entrance
• Gold
  • No mobs: far east side of the Abandoned Mines (864, 28, -1298)
  • Few mobs: south of the graveyard near Nemract (330, -1990)
• Oats
  • Durum Isles, middle island Behind Essren’s lab on the black road
• Salmon
  • East coast of the Nemract Cathedral. Rare mobs spawn occasionally.

Lv. 30-39
In this level range, a lot of HUICs die to mobs in the desert. Be very careful when traversing the desert. Rare mobs, especially neutral ones, have high damage and reflection. Avoid rare mobs and Sand Swept Key Guardians at all costs. Do not attempt SST alone. The boss' multihit along with the swarming of some of the combat rooms can prove deadly. While grinding prospectors for ingredients, be careful for canyon swoopers that can show up out of nowhere and deal knockback. Do not attempt Rymek Luke at level, there is a very high chance you will die.

At this level range, it is recommended to start doing secret discoveries as they give large amounts of experience and quests start being inconvenient to do to level up.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

• The mercenary (Just run)
• Meaningful Holiday (Free xp)
• Kingdom of Sand (Unlocks SST)
• Tribal Aggression (Gold Bars, be careful and run through caves quickly)
• Pirates Trove (Free Xp)
• Clearing the Camps (Be careful and don’t rush the camps)
• Canyon Condor (Unlocks bridges, Don’t fight until you are well prepared and even then be careful)

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

• Armoring: Cracked Skin/Illicit Yarrow (3/3 ratio) (Cracked skin for leveling)
• Tailoring: Cracked Skin/Illicit Hemlock (3/3 ratio) (Cracked Skin for leveling)
• Jeweling: Fake Tooth/Forest Webs
• Weaponsmithing: Illicit Whitehorn (Gritty Rocks for leveling)
• Woodworking: Illicit Quince / Lunar Shard (Waterlogged Branch/Lunar Shard for leveling. Or use more Illicit Quince)
• Alchemism: Any/All Illicit ingredients (Gunpowder for leveling)
• Scribing: Lunar Dust (Gunpowder for leveling)
• Cooking: Potatoes, Rare Potatoes (Mashed Insect for leveling if needed)

• Illicit Ingredients/Contraband Ingredients can be found being sold in Rymek. The shop is directly in front of you when you use a Teleport Scroll. They are sold 6 Illicit Ingredients for 15 Gold Bars and 3 Contraband Ingredients for 24 Gold Bars.
• Cracked Skin, Fake Tooth, Gritty Rocks, Gunpowder and Gold Bars are dropped by Dead Prospectors west of Rymek.
• Waterlogged Branch can be obtained by killing mobs on the peninsula north of Bremminglar. Though I haven't been able to test this personally.
• Lunar Dust can be obtained by killing mobs on Half Moon Island. They are very quick to grind, but it is dangerous.
• Potatoes can be bought in Bremminglar or Rymek
• Rare Potatoes can be farmed on Potato Island (-443, -3270)
• Mashed Insects are farmed by killing Desert Scarabs

Gold Bars can be used both to level on their own, but also to buy illicit ingredients. It is recommended to grind prospectors for them and not to buy gold bars without a lot of emeralds in stock.

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Acacia
  • Possibly Hunted safe, no mobs:
    • Above Rymek (1292, 120, -1308) Requires Canyon Condor
    • Bremminglar + near pirate caves and near potato merchant
  • Mobs: outside Almuj in the savannah
• Sandstone
  • No mobs: Second level of the Rymek Canyon wall (1486, 94, -1430)
  • Few neutral mobs: Behind the Invaded Barracks (1500, -2250)
• Malt
  • No mobs:
    • Bottom left island of Durum Isles
    • Outside the Eagle Camp
• Carp
  • Hunted safe: in the rymek moats (12, 30, -1344)
  • No mobs: high on the Almuj River up the waterfall (1180, 160, -2288)

Midgame (Lv. 40-69)
Once you have reached this stage, your odds of completing have increased dramatically as you get the hang of experiencing HUIC as well as getting a taste of a hard area like the desert. Don't let your guard down though, as the Nessak and Jungle areas are even more dangerous!

At this stage, consider only doing profs when there are bombs, especially for craftings.

Lv. 40-49
The rare mobs in the Nesaak area have a very high spawn rate making it easy to grind high star ingredients that can be used both for crafting combat sets and leveling professions. Most of them are neutral mobs and deal respectible damage, so be careful when killing them. Ice barrows is a dangerous dungeon to attempt alone at level 43 when it is unlocked so it can be best to either get carried through the dungeon, or wait until your 40-49 set is crafted. While doing House of Twain, you can do the secret discovery up the waterfall for some bonus XP. The quest is also very good for emeralds letting you buy more ingredients.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

• Ice Nations (You're already in Nodguj)
• Heart of llevigar (Free Xp)
• Star Thief (Free Xp, Easy mini boss)
• Fate of the Fallen (Unlocks IB)
• An Iron Heart (Easy miniboss, good Xp)
• House of Twain (Good Xp, be careful of spirits in cave and don't try to facetank the boss. It is not terribly difficult but don't underestimate it)
• Rise of the Quartron (Don’t get too close to the boss as it deals massive damage)

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

Typically you would probably want to spend most of your time on the Ice islands grinding Ice Silver/Ice Sliver which account for most of the prof categories and gives a lot of Combat XP.

• Armoring: Ice Fishing Nets/Viking Stone (Cracked Skin/Ice Sliver for leveling)
• Tailoring: Ice Fishing Nets/Ice Silver/Viking Stone (Cracked Skin/Ice Silver for leveling)
• Jeweling: Forest webs (Illicit Tingflower/Gold bars/Fake tooth for leveling)
• Weaponsmithing: Viking Stone/Router Shield (Gritty Rocks/Ice Sliver for leveling)
• Woodworking: Ice Silver/Viking Stone (Ice Fishing Twine/Ice Silver For leveling)
• Alchemism: Illicit ings/Gunpowder (for usage and leveling)
• Scribing: Gunpowder
• Cooking: Ice Fishing Bait/Rare Potatoes/Bandit Rations

• There is a lot of rare mobs around the Nesaak and the Tundra, these mobs drop higher tier ingredients (T2/T3) which you can use for leveling
• Ice Fishing Nets/Bait/Twine can be found in Nesaak being sold by a merchant
• Viking Stone can only be found in chests or you can grind them on one of the Ice islands (1050, -3330)
• Router shield is an ingredient from Saints row boss altar for weaponsmithing that is good for Health and Defence
• Rare Potatoes can be found on potato island grinding potato imps (-440 -3268)

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Spruce
  • No mobs: Nodguj Island
  • Hunted Safe, multiple mobs: outside Nesaak, North of the lake. The safe box expands a ludicrous amount. Some mobs: Swamp near the Secret Discovery map in Gavel (-2020,-5050)
• Iron
  • Few mobs that don't usually enter the cave and can be killed easily: Lusuco quarry (-463, 34, -390) / If the mobs in the floor get up, simply /class to despawn them instead of fighting.
• Hops
  • No mobs:
    • Mountain ridge (-2189, 80, -4881) the path to get there starts outside the spider pit at -2135, 62, -4685
    • Near the Burning Farm (-1823, -4957)
  • Hunted safe: Outside Bucie
• Icefish
  • No mobs: Nodguj Island (892, 34, -3377)
  • Few mobs:
    • Small pond near Nesaak (-95, -750)
    • Mini Quest Spruce Woodcutting 2 (-180, -920)

Lv. 50-59
Time to go on an adventure!!! Cross the entirety of Gavel to get to Thanos. You can buy zombie eyes for very cheap from the necromancer merchant which will be used for leveling armoring, tailoring, weaponsmithing, and woodworking. Stay in the mountains / trees and avoid mobs as much as possible. Make sure to buy Thanos scrolls to get back to buy zombie eyes as needed. Use this video as an example on how to get to Thanos from Llevigar:

Video 1: Going from Llevigar to Thanos as Lv. 30s. ​

If you are playing as Warrior, once you hit Lv. 58, get Second Chance immediately. This level is the earliest access to Second Chance. Do not worry about sustain, damage, etc when obtaining this this early, as Second Chance will save you in many unexpected ways such as server lag. Once you obtain this ability, you have almost won HUIC.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

• Grave Mistake (No mobs)
• The Maiden Tower (Shrek)
• Crop Failure (Easy Xp, lots of ingredients albeit low level)
• Corrupted Betrayal (Unlocks UR)
• RoL 1 (Unlocks Raid, but don’t do it)
• Zhight Island (Unlocks Ingredient Merchant)
• The Passage (Unlocks fast travel)
• An Iron Heart 2 (Easy XP, just run through)
• Order of the Grook (Easy XP, no mobs)

Do not do Death Whistle at this time, as it gives Death Whistle Leaf, a valuable ingredient for consumables. Only do this quest when you need Death Whistle Leaf, preferably in the endgame.

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

• Armoring: Lizard Scale/Viking Stone (3/3 Ratio) (Zombie Eyes for leveling)
• Tailoring: Reptile Scales/Viking Stone (3/3 Ratio) (Zombie Eyes for leveling)
• Jeweling: Fake Tooth/Forest Web (Broken Antic Bead for leveling)
• Weaponsmithing: Viking Stone and Water Powders (Zombie Eye for leveling)
• Woodworking: Viking Stone and Water Powders (Zombie Eye for leveling)
• Alchemism: Illicit ings (Naga Tail/Zhight Herbal Mix for leveling)
• Scribing: (Zhight Herbal/Lunar Dust for leveling)
• Cooking: Ice Fishing Bait/Bandit Rations (Zhight Herbal for leveling)

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Jungle
  • Hunted safe: Upper Pirate Cove (starting at -677, 74, -3048)
  • Few mobs: Near the Sodeta Manor in Dernal Jungle
• Silver
  • No mobs:
    • North western corner of the Llevigar Plains area (-2143, 53, -5066)
    • Across the bridge from Temple of Legends is a Large Silver Mine
• Rye
  • No mobs, though some spawn outside agro range: Outside Worm Holes (no quest req) (-2063, 53, -5467)
• Piranha
  • Safe, one occasional mob:
    • Outside of Iboju Village (-773, 74, -725)
    • Lake outside Troms / Temple of the Legends

Lv. 60-69
At this level, you have unlocked the Confectionary Merchant and the ability to craft with Hellish Cinders. These two things will hard carry your professions for the rest of the playthrough. The combat sets for this level and onward will no longer be set in stone. You will have to do your own exploring to determine what combination you like the most. However, there will be ingredients listed that are recommended to be used, it’s just in what combination and number is your decision.

Galleons Graveyard is a much easier solo dungeon, but CDS is much more efficient to do if you have a carry as it is both a faster dungeon in general and gives extra fragments from the Forgery Chest.

At this stage, start looking for mana sustain. Both Abyssal Galoshes and Purified Helmet of the Legends are quest items that provide decent mana sustain without the need of using scrap to repair. This avoids having to gather good mana sustain ingredients, which take time and effort to do. Do not complete the Temple of Legends quest completely for the helmet as the boss fight is extremely hard without mobility and good mana sustain. Just get to the point where you can obtain the helmet and stop there.

Spoiler: Quest Guide

• Beneath The Depths (Abysso Galoshes)
• Lost in the Jungle (Quick and easy, dont underestimate miniboss)
• ROL 2 (Easy and almost no mobs)
• Out of My Mind (The miniboss is easy)
• Lost Royalty (Free xp)
• Lost Soles (If you craft boots and dont want Abyssal Galoshes)
• Memory Paranoia (Just a good quest and gives XP, no mobs)
• Temple of the Legends (Gives Purified Helmet of Legends, CoW is an optional boss fight at level as you get the helmet before it. Avoid doing CoW bossfight at this time. Be careful of Lightdust Cave and consider getting a carry.)
• Grand Youth (Another easy quest with almost no combat)

Skip these at level:

• All Roads Lead to Peace (The boss fight is quite difficult, you can do the quest up to the boss fight for ingredients though)
• ROL 3 (The warden is a difficult boss fight that if your unprepared for can prove deadly)
• From the mountains (The mobs in the cave plus the miniboss are difficult. It can be done but this quest should be seen as optional)
• Lazarus Pit (The zombies in the first stage of the quest do a TON of damage for their level. Just avoid this until you have higher level armor)

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

• Armoring: Hellish Cinders, Ironwood Chips, Viking Stone, Chitin Plate, Soft Silk (Cocoa Caps for Leveling)
• Tailoring: Hellish Cinders, Ironwood Chips, Viking Stone, Windswept Roots, Ritual Catalyst, Chitin Plate, Luxroot Cuttings, Soft Silk (Licorice Ropes for Leveling)
• Jeweling: Native Jadeite, Naval Shard, Candy Button (Candy Buttons for leveling)
• Weaponsmithing: Ironwood Chips, Viking Stone, Ritual Catalyst, Chitin Plate, Native Jadeite (Hard Jawbreakers for Leveling)
• Woodworking: Ironwood Chips, Viking Stone, Windswept Roots, Ritual Catalyst, Chitin Plate, Luxroot Cuttings, Native Jadeite, Sugar Stick (Sugar Stick for leveling)
• Alchemism: Tenebrous Plasma, Essence of Dusk, Wybel Taffy (Wybel Taffy for leveling)
• Scribing: Essence of Dusk, Ice Cream Sandwiches (Ice Cream Sandwiches for leveling)
• Cooking: Any Confectionary Item (For leveling too, buy Ice Cream Sandwiches or Wybel Taffy for cheap and highest level)

• Hellish Cinders are dropped by archwraiths near visceral pits (-750, -5500)
• Ironwood Chips are dropped by Mahogany Colossus in the Dernal Jungle (-600, -450)
• Chitin Plates are dropped by almost every mob in Dernal Jungle, most often Mosquito Swarms
• Soft Silk are dropped by Kobalscale Moths, a rare mob in Dernal, or a rare drop by Thunder Grubs (-618, -729)
• Windswept Roots can be obtained from completing Onluk's task in All Roads Lead to Peace. More of them can be acquired from a cave near (-1370, 104, -4350)

Here is an example legging for this level range: https://wynnbuilder.github.io/crafter/#16+6+73B15l+W6A81

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

• Dark
  • Safe, no mobs but mobs nearby: North of Bucie. (-1426, -5069)
  • Safe, no mobs: On a hill with some trees near the ??? Yellow Meteor Start (-1395, 73, -5590)
• Cobalt
  • Safe no mobs (though some nearby): Cobalt cave next to the Reclaiming the House quest start (-1439, 47, -5380)
  • Few mobs: Cave in Dernal Jungle (-625, -385)
• Malt
  • Safe, no mobs:
    • A small farm south of the main Cinfras entrance. (-579, -4851)
    • In the Forgotten Burrows (Worm Holes)
• Koi
  • Few mobs:
    • River split south of Gelibord (-974, 42, -5143)
    • Fountain of Youth (-815, -425) (Do not attack the relic guardians at fountain of youth spot)

Lategame (Lv. 70-99)
At this point, there is no excuse to dying by skill issue. Make sure you think through what your build will be for each level range, and incorporate using T3 materials crafted under speed bomb. Make sure to obtain sustainable mana and health regen.

Content becomes a lot harder with caves, quests, dungeons, and raids. Make sure your build can handle these, and bring consumables as backups or to supplement your EHP.

Lv. 70-79
deez nuts

Spoiler: Quest Guide

jebaited

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

jebaited

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

jebaited

Lv. 80-89
deez nuts

Spoiler: Quest Guide

jebaited

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

jebaited

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

jebaited

Lv. 90-99
deez nuts

Spoiler: Quest Guide

jebaited

Spoiler: Recommended Ingredients

jebaited

Spoiler: Gathering Locations

jebaited

Endgame (Lv. 100+)
You are in the final stages of the playthrough. Don't screw up by skill issue now! Make sure your build that you made in the level 90s range can clear any content with minimal consumables. Be very wary of server lag, ping issues, bugs that can kill you, etc. You're right at the finish line!

now add the endgame you dummy crokee

 

This reply walks through any other miscellaneous info about HIC.


Miscellaneous Info
Applying Consumables
There are 4 different types of consumables:

• Crafteds: Alchemism, Cooking, Scribing
• Those sold from NPCs

Each of these are stackable amongst each type, meaning every single stat from the consumable will be added into your stats.. In addition, consumables sold from NPCs are stackable with everything, including amongst each other.

When applying consumables that are of the same category (other than those sold from NPCs), these consumables are stackable as long as the stats are different. If some or all the stats on each consumable are the same from each other, only the one that is used first are considered. In addition to this, if the first one's duration runs out but the second one does not, the second one's stats does not get reapplied to fill in the gap. For example, assume the following consumables applied in order from first to last:

• Cooking: +10% Spell Dmg
• Scribing: +10% Spell Dmg
• Alchemism potions:
  • +10% Spell Dmg, +2 Agi
  • +20% Spell Dmg, +2 Def
  • Potion of Agility (skill pot): +71 Agi, +50% Walk Speed

The overall stat increase will then be:

• 10 + 10 + 10 = +30% Spell Dmg
• 2 + 71 = +73 Agi
• +2 Def
• +50% Walk Speed

Notice how the +20% Spell Dmg from the second Alchemism potion did not get added, but the +2 Def did. Since there was already a % Spell Dmg in Alchemism, the second one's % Spell Dmg does not get added. However, since there was no +Def in the first Alchemism potion, the second one's +Def does get added. Because of this, the second potion will lose 1 charge.

When using scrolls, the scroll's charge will be used up if anyone within the scroll range does not have any 1 of the scroll's stat buff, even if the user already has the scroll applied onto them.

Durability Mechanics
Unfortunately, more research is needed into how durability degrades over time. However, 2 things can be confirmed:

• Durability degrades much slower than before depending on how mobs attack you.
• Accessories only degrade by moving. Getting hit by mobs doesn't count anymore.

For damaged items, the percent effectiveness on IDs causes the degraded IDs to rounded down. For example, suppose there is a crafted wand with +1 Attack Speed Bonus. Upon reaching 99% effectiveness, this ID will instead be +0 Attack Speed Bonus, which will render the wand's stats useless. However, when hovering over the item, the ID will still show as +1 Attack Speed Bonus, when in reality, checking the player compass stats will show as +0 Attack Speed Bonus, or rather nothing since the compass never shows +0 IDs.

To repair items, simply go to the blacksmith and click on the repair option. You do not need to carry scrap with you to repair, as long as there is scrap in your bank.

Repair costs are determined by a base repair cost and a used repair cost. The base cost is the cost to repair even if you only lost 1 durability. The used cost is the cost to repair for the lost durability. These costs have not been determined yet on how it's calculated exactly, but the blacksmith will tell you either way.

It is advisable to only repair when your item effectiveness is around 50% or lower.

How to Farm Rare Mobs
ooo rare mob i likey
bro u needa werite this section

Ingredient Bias Theory and How to Abuse It
First theorized by @Sir7alot and 1 other person, the ingredient bias theory is a theory where certain ingredients of a certain crafting profession are more biased to spawn in loot chests based on the highest level of the player's crafting profession. In addition, the ingredient that spawns in a chest is first determined by the tier, followed by the crafting profession chosen, with bias towards the highest crafting profession of the player in term of raw XP, then by the closest level ingredient to the level of the chest. Although there has been no real data collection on these, there has been massive anecdotal evidence and observations of these from @Sir7alot, including of my own.

The best way to describe this theory is by using an extreme example like Lunar Charms. Lunar Charms are one of the few ingredients where it is common to find them in chests they shouldn't belong in, or at least that what would many assume. A player could find a Lunar Charm in a Lv. 70 chest even though the ingredient is Lv. 38. The only reason this is possible is because there are only 2 T3 Scribing ingredients closest to a Lv. 70 chest that can spawn in loot chests:

• Plane of Nonexistence: T3 Lv. 105 -> 35 level difference
• Lunar Charm: T3 Lv. 38 -> 32 level difference

There are no other T3 Scribing ingredients closer to Lv. 70 other than these 2 ingredients. Ingredients that cannot spawn in chests do not count Since Lunar Charms is closer to Lv. 70 than Plane of Nonexistence, the chest can spawn Lunar Charms.

How do you force a Lunar Charm to spawn more often then? Make sure your Scribing level is the highest crafting level, or at least make sure it has the most cumulative XP than that of other crafting professions, even if it just beats the second highest by 1% of a level. Then, lootrun chests between Lv 33 to Lv. 71. Why these levels? Again, Plane of Nonexistence is Lv. 105, and on the opposite end is Ectoplasm, which is Lv. 26. The minimum and maximum levels where Lunar Charms will spawn more will therefore be Lv. 33 to Lv. 71.

But what about the other crafting professions that Lunar Charm can be used in (Alchemism and Jeweling)? These can also be abused by their respective crafting profession as well, but with less efficiency. Let's take a look at the previous and next T3 ingredient between Lunar Charms that can spawn in chests:

• Alchemism:
  • Major's Badge (Lv. 80)
  • Ectoplasm (Lv. 26)
  • Possible Lunar Charm level range: Lv. 33 to Lv. 59
• Jeweling
  • Large Lapis (Lv. 49)
  • Stolen Pearls (Lv. 36)
  • Possible Lunar Charm level range: Lv. 37 to Lv. 43

Notice the smaller range of chests that can spawn them for these crafting professions. Because of this, it is more preferable to level up Scribing than either Alchemism or Jeweling. However, since loot chests can still spawn other ingredients of other crafting professions abit with lower probability, it is still preferable to farm Lunar Charms where all 3 crafting professions overlap for the highest chances. For Lunar Charms, it is Lv. 37 to Lv. 43.

This method will also spawn a lot more Scribing ingredients for lower tiers as well. But what if need Lunar Charms, but you do not want a bunch of Scribing ingredients? You can still use this theory for a different crafting profession, say Alchemism. Just note that when opening Lv. 70 chests, there will be a lower probability of Lunar Charms spawning because Alchemism has another T3 ingredient that is closer to Lv. 70: Major's Badge.

I recommend using this theory to your advantage on hard to get, but good ingredients like Decaying Hearts, Flameheart, etc.

Staying Safe in HICH
There are many hunters that hunt players. Most of them may tend to target those doing professions as they can obtain their loot. However, there are some hunters that hunt HICHs as well. Although this guide will not go into full detail on how to stay safe, it will instead list general guidelines on staying safe.

• Never announce to anyone that you are doing an HICH playthrough. Rumor will spread rapidly and many hunters have their ears on the ground on finding out and hunting you.
• Play during low player counts on low player worlds. This reduces the chances of encountering other players who can see your [PvP] tag.
• Know which hunters will hunt HICHs. This does get into borderline stalking, which is against Wynncraft's rules. Be careful on both your side and the hunter's side to not break this harassment rule. Talk to a mod if you think you may be harassed, but also remember that this is part of the challenge as well.
  
• Use Second Chance. Having 3 seconds of immunity can safe your life.
• Do not abuse /class to avoid hunters. It can force a death on you if you are tagged and cause moderators to ban you if you abuse it enough times to avoid hunters.
• Know which areas are safezones. All cities are safezones.
• Find gathering places where it is very rare for players to prof in.
• Find places where hunters could hide and be ready for them if they do hide there.

"Tickskipping"
Due to a lack of better words, I will dub this technique as "tickskipping". Tickskipping allows you to skip 1 tick from each node, which will increase your efficiency in gathering materials. To perform this technique:

1. Stand in an area where you can reach the most number of nodes within a 4 block radius from you.
2. Click on a node.
3. As the gathering animation starts, look at the next node.
4. Continue clicking on the next node.
5. Repeat for as many nodes as there are within your range.

Ideally, all the nodes should be together within your range so that you don't have to move. Of course, this isn't the case. To solve this, stand in the least number of spots where you can harvest all the nodes, while also making sure that your reach to the next node isn't blocked by another node.

Figure 9: Reaching range in Dernic Farming spot. Purple represents Dernic Seed nodes, red represents the player, and green represents the player's reach.


Figure 10. One path to gather Dernic Seeds. Purple represents Dernic Seed nodes, red represents the player, green represents the player's reach to harvest nodes, blue represents the player's movement, and orange represents the player's viewpoint turning to the next node. Assuming each node takes 5 ticks to harvest, this path barely completes the entire cycle before the next node spawns, giving an extra 1 node per cycle (60 seconds vs 65-70 seconds).​

You can also combo this by moving yourself a bit each time you auto-click a node. When the animation of clicking a node does a hit, tap one of your movement keys to move up to ~0.2 blocks per hit. Move too far or too slow and the animation stops, and the harvesting resets. As long as you are in range, the node will keep auto-harvesting. This technique is hard to pull off and often times are not worth the extra 1-2 seconds saved due to the unreliability of making sure nodes continue harvesting, while also making you restart your harvesting.


Other Challenges Relating to HUIC
5/5 HUIC
You really like HUIC? Why not do it 5 times, 1 for each class? So far, only 1 player has ever completed this challenge, @JKLDragon [4].

Max Level HUIC(H)
You really like profs and HUIC(H)? Why not go for max level on your HUIC(H)? So far, only 1 player has ever completed this challenge on HUIC, @Linnyflower [5].

Naked HUIC(H)
Are you a masochist? Naked HUIC(H) is the HUIC(H) challenge, but with the addition of completing it without any armor. This includes not using any quest armor outside of required quest areas. There has been only 1 recorded player that has beaten Naked HUIC not once, but twice (@Crokee) [6] [7].


The HIC Community Discord Server (THICC)
Funny acronym right? (ahaha…) The HIC Community Discord server (THICC) is a Discord server dedicated to helping players complete their HUIC playthroughs. Please note that this server may not help you for HUICH, though HUICH is discussed from time-to-time. For the server link, please DM @Crouton_18!


References

Spoiler: References

[1] https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-great-injustice-to-all-hardcore-players.306511/
[2] https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-comprehensive-guide-to-professions-v1-5-2.268901/
[3] https://wynntils.com/
[4] https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/hics-completions.308560/
[5] https://wynncraft.com/stats/player/linnyflower?class=5f6a45d0-b642-47ee-a084-df24559dbd0a
[6] https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/naked-hic-died-to-ponr-bug-but-is-still-completed.300688/
[7] https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/second-naked-hic-completion-it-didnt-die-to-fall-damage.306675/

 

hey wait thats my inventory

 

been wanting this for a while, very nice guide!

 

Thanks for the guide! Now I'll know what to do with my claustrophiliac archer I made HICH for some reason.

 

I've been asked so many times for HIC and HICH guides, always replying I don't know enough of it to make a comprehensive guide. Love to see a guide by people who actually know what they're talking about!

 

Beware of mama zomble at all times. She has pull + shotgun (you will die)

 

hippity hoppity ur inventory is mine now

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Added.

 

Subject myself to tens of hours of grind or play the games that I am enjoying… Tough call but I might try a HIC(H?)

 

what a helpful and informative thread!

 

Added Ingredient Bias Theory and other niche mechanics copied from my prof thread.

 

super helpful guide!

 

Fixed some typos and started writing earlygame guide.

 

Hold on one sec I think I’ve got an (ICH)

 

Updated info to 2.0.4 as well as added more info for lv 1-30 guides.

I will continue to """shamelessly""" copy the rest of the HIC guides from the Discord server to here on another time (credit is already given teehee).

 

Lv. 30-39 added.

 

Midgame added. Waiting on Daedricrift to write the rest so I can """shamelessly""" copy paste.