I am about to play Grim Dawn and it looks great! Such a great game from what I have seen! But I have a few questions...


1. How do I save my game? Is there an auto-save feature?
2. Is the loot I find in chests, bodies, etc random or is everything placed?
3. If I am in the middle of a area/dungeon/etc. and I quit the game, does my character save where he is, or do I respawn in a different place?
4. The gamplay looks similar to games like DIablo III and Torchlight II. Is that an accurate assumption?
5. Anything else I should know before diving in?

Thanks, everyone!
A few more questions (sorry...)

1. Is there much grinding in this game?
2. If I leave an item on the ground and leave the area or leave the game, will that item still be there when I come back to that place?
3. Is there a "stash area"? I mean, if I want to save an inventory item for later, is there a place I can put it for the time being?
4. Do enemies respawn if I leave an area or quit the game?

Hello Gavindale,

1. There is only save&quit. No auto-saves in between. Therefore, if you leave the game, it will be automatically saved.
2. As in almost any ARPG, all loot (including their atrributes within a certain range) is completely randomized. There are only few exceptions in the starting area, some quest rewards and some high-end gear.
3. You will respawn in the last hub area you visited. There is also a waypoint system in the game for fast travel between areas.
4. That is an accurate assumption. Grim Dawn is created by the people behind Titan Quest and is in the style of the Diablo and Torchlight games.
5. In my personal opinion, this is the best ARPG I ever played and it strongly competes for my personal best game ever. With the expansions Ashes of Malmouth and the Crucible it is ridicously good and addictive. A second big expansion "Forgotten Gods" is announced for Q1 2019.
A good starting class for a new player is the Soldier. But you can really pick anything you like. All classes and combinations are viable and have builds which can clear all content in the game, if you so desire.
Visit the official forums on grimdawn.com for much, much more info on the game.

Additional questions:
1. It depends on your playstyle. Finishing normal/veteran difficulty is certainly doable without any grinding. The higher difficulties require more focused gear and builds. Clearing the main campaign on all three difficulty levels is doable without the best high-end gear. This is only needed for the Crucible DLC and specific dungeons and certain super-bosses.
2. If you just leave the area, the item should still be there. If you however quit the game, it will be lost forever.
3. Yes, there is an expandable stash area. You can also use it to share items between characters.
4. Enemies respawn only if you leave the game, not if you leave an area.

A few additional tips from me:
The game might seem overwhelming at first as there are lots and lots of different skills, classes etc. Don't let that scare you! You can refund skill points easily. Try and experiment!
The game has a devotion system. You can restore shrines in order to get devotion points. You invest these in star constellations, which will give you diverse boni and unique powerful skills. It offers another layer of customization, but can also be quite complex. You can refund devotion points. In the expansion, you can find a potion which resets all points.
Spend attribute points wisely! Physique is needed for all characters, Spirit is important for jewelry and caster items. In the expansion, and only there, you can find a potion which resets attribute points.
The game also has a faction system. Doing quests and killing certain enemies gives you reputation with that faction which in turn will unlock a faction merchant. They sell good items and powerful augmentations for your items! Use them!
Don't be afraid to use components for your items. You need them for crafting, yes, but you will also find a lot of them.
Choose Angrim as your blacksmith with all characters in all difficulties.

Have lots of fun with the game! I have not played anything else since April :)
Nymes

Where is the stash located? I really need it!

The area with the stash opens up when you complete the first quest. When you kill the reanimator, Kory will open the gate in Devils Crossing for you

Edit: And if you are completely new to the game, take it from someone who has 850hours in this game, DON'T NEGLECT FACTION GEAR.

When you are starting out, your gear drops are likely going to suck. Don't do what I did and just assume because an item is an epic, it's better than a rare. My last playthrough was with a Warder specialising in Cadence and I was able to finish the game on all 3 difficulties using only faction gear. The only parts I could not finish were the bosses in Port Valbury and the boss in the Ancient Grove on ultimate difficulty. He only died 4 times on ultimate difficuly too.

Just throwing that out there ;)

Welcome to the game and to the community.

The game saves automatically whenever you do anything, same as Titan Quest does - though the devs added the Save button to make people feel better in that game.

The smuggler is located inside the prison in Devil's Crossing. Talk to Rook (not Kory) once you've completed the first quest and killed the animator in the Burial Hill cave. Don't forget to find the shrine there and cleanse it - that'll be your first devotion point earned. The smuggler has both a personal stash and a transfer stash area where you can store items for use by other characters. You start off with one of each, but can purchase extra stash tabs when you have enough iron to do so. As in Titan Quest you'll find the smugglers scattered throughout the game so it's not necessary to go back to DC every time to unload your goodies.

Nymes has covered your questions and IwubCheeze makes a good point about faction gear. The other thing I'd advise is to explore everywhere. Cover all the map areas as some things are not on the main path and you could miss out on gear, quests and shrines.

Note too that there are more shrines than there are devotion points available. In the base game the maximum for devotion points is 50, with the Ashes of Malmouth expansion it's 55. The base game has 59 shrines, Ashes of Malmouth pushes that total up to 71. So if you do miss some you won't lack for others to find. Also if there is a shrine you can't cleanse, it'll show on your map as a shrine icon with a red cross through it so when you can always go back and try again later.

If you just have the base game you might find some beginner builds in this Compendium on the official GD forum.

http://grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48165

If you have Ashes of Malmouth as well (definitely recommended) then have a look at this one.

http://grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76322

The game can be quite complex so don't be afraid to ask questions, either here or on the forum. There are plenty of people around who'll happily help you out because we love the game and want others to have as much fun playing it as we do.

Lol, I derped on that one >.<

It happens. Kory does the illusions you get from the various Loyalist packs, that's all.

Thanks for the help, everyone! One more question - what are faction gear, and can I get them from the guy across the road from Rook in the first city?

In Devil's Crossing, the faction merchant is inside the prison, behind the iron gate next to the fireplace.

Faction gear is sold by quartermasters from factions you meet. Ellis is the Devil's Crossing quatermaster but you won't be able to buy the higher tier stuff until you gain reputation with the faction. When your character gets to level 35 and you have a respected reputation with Devil's Crossing (or any other faction for that matter), you'll be able to buy their weapons and armour.

Considering this is your first character, I strongly recommend you do this as you will more than likely be using crappy gear. Faction gear will be able to see you through normal difficulty at least and you won't need to waste time checking stats on the low level magic and rare items that drop. You'll also avoid doing some of the stupid things I did on my first playthrough like waste time trying to farm better gear from the Warden just to progress, paper cutting monsters to death or keeping keeping a crappy piece of armour (esp one with a low armour rating) equiped simply because it was an epic (blue) item.

Just be sure to pick up the junk items and sell them as faction gear is quite expensive at low levels.




MILD SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

By the time you hit level 35 and you are taking your time by exploring the entire map, you should have found the Rover faction in Old Arkovia, Keeper Unkala is the quartermaster there. So you'll have gear from at least two factions to choose from.

Cool! Thanks so much for the heads up!

There are various factions in the game, some of which you're automatically hostile with like the undead, beasts, chthonians, aetherials, etc. Others you start off tolerated by like Devil's Crossing, Rovers, Homestead, etc. As you find them along your journey you'll be given the opportunity to do quests for them which will increase your reputation with them: from tolerated to friendly, to respected, to honoured and then to revered. Each progression will unlock more faction gear buying options and with some factions will also trigger extra quest opportunities.

Another way to gain reputation with the various factions is to do bounties you get from their bounty tables. There are usually 7-8 to try in each play session, you can choose whether to accept a bounty or not, but can't go back to a previous one and you can only have one bounty from that faction at a time to do although you can have several bounties from different factions: one from DC, one from Rovers, for example.

For those factions you're hostile too you also gain rep with them: from hostile to despised, to hated and then to nemesis. Once you reach nemesis status with a hostile faction then you might run into their special nemesis heroes.

More on the faction system here:

https://grimdawn.gamepedia.com/Factions

Wanted to see if I could start the game again and exited after finishing first quest , game reset back to the begginning at lvl 1 lost all my gear and levels?

Are you using Cloud saving? If so, are both boxes for this ticked - in GOG and ingame options? If so and still not working verify the game files, make sure your anti-virus isn't interfering with the game and maybe switch to local saves.

If your Antivirus has Ransomware Protection, add grimdawn.exe to exception list, as the AV will protect the "my Documents" folder and not let it write there.