Training Grounds

The training grounds was the fourth building that I unlocked, and I unlocked it in stage 6. This building provides bonuses to damage and mitigation against specific types of enemies.







The basic training grounds increases magical and physical damage by 5% when you have manually activated it.



In order to activate this bonus, you choose which enemy you would like to have the bonus on, and then you gather the specific supply to go with it:





supplies needed:

Against elites and named --> Peerless Rapier x 1
Wild Sylesti --> Sylesti Collar x 5
Forest Spriteling --> Spritely Branch x 10
Nightfall Battlemage --> Worn Weapon x 5
Nightfall Brigand --> Worn Tome x 8
Nightfall Mender --> Worn Charm x 5

The bonus lasts for half an hour with the basic training grounds.

Upgrading the training grounds increases these bonuses.



Upgrading to rank 1 costs 100,000g, and 20 spritely branches.







When the training grounds is upgraded to rank 1, damage amount is increased by 10% and mitigation is now added, and provides a bonus of 2.5%.




The buff lasts for a certain amount of time (An hour at rank 1), to increase the time that the buff affects your party, we will need to feed it more supplies.

Upgrading the training grounds further should provide increased bonuses, with rank 3 and 4 seeming to unlock passive bonuses.

Blacksmith's Station

The blacksmith is one of the most difficult buildings to create but will become extremely useful to us in our travels. This was the third building I unlocked, and I made sure that I unlocked it before reaching stage 6.







The blacksmith is a building that allows you to salvage items for raw materials, smelt ore into bars, reforge existing equipment, create new equipment, and also create avatar items. There is a process to follow that allows us reforge and create items.



Let's now run through each of the blacksmith functions as part of this process.

Salvaging

This is the first part of the process, and allows us to destroy pet equipment in exchange for a useful raw material called Enchanted Powder. Items that are destroyed in this manner are permanently removed from the inventory and cannot be reclaimed.

To salvage an item, first click the button below.



Next we select the item we wish to salvage.





And then we salvage it.



And that's it!

Exotic equips give us 1 Enchanted powder, and salvaging Vinethorn Equipment gives us 2 Enchanted Powder. For this feature alone, I suggest collecting all the exotic equipment you can, and try to save it up for your blacksmith. I would avoid trying to salvage Vinethorn equipment because it is far easier to earn 2 exotic items than it is to earn 1 Vinethorn.

Smelting

Smelting is a different process that converts the ore we find from mining veins into Ingots. These Ingots are useful items that allow us to reforge and craft.



To use this function, we first select the white box 'click to select ore'. You then select which ingot you wish to craft.



Crafting ingots requires ore and the gold currency as such:

Iron Ingot --> Iron ore x 5 and 500g
Silver Ingot --> Silver ore x 5 and 2500g
Gold Ingot --> Gold ore x 3 and 10000g



You can also smelt up to 4 ingots at a time:





Enchanted powder and Ingots are used together for reforging and crafting.

Reforging

Reforging allows you to increase the stats of a piece of equipment using the raw materials already obtained. At the moment, there are two classes of equipment we can reforge: Rare Exotics and Epic Vinethorns.

to reforge, select the 'click to select an item' box.





Reforging an exotic item once costs 1 Enchanted Powder, 2 Iron ingots, 1 Enigmatic Shard and 10,000g





Reforging a piece of Vinethorn Equipment once costs 2 Enchanted Powder, 4 Iron Ingots, 1 Enigmatic Crystal and 25,000g.





An item can be reforged a total of 5 times.

A more detailed run-down, explanation and advice involving the reforging aspect of the game can be found here.

Crafting Avatar Items!

Avatar items are not a necessary part of surviving the Lost Grove, but they do comprise a major of the game and allow you to customize your avatar.

We can craft avatar items in the blacksmith by finding designs that drop from various enemies, including elites and named. Once you find a design, we go back to the blacksmith and go to the avatar items section:



Then we click the box to select our design, click on the design and press the green button



Once we select the design, we can see how much stuff it costs.

For the crazed druid's black antlers, it costs us:

Enchanted Powder x 10
Iron Ingot x 10
Silver Ingot x 6
Gold Ingot x 2
Damaged Manikin x 1
Spritely Branch x 50
Bundle of Glossy feathers x 2



Once the item is crafted, it goes into our inventory, and then it can either be saved to our wardrobe or sold.

Note: Crafting the item destroys the recipe. I'm not sure if you're able to find the same recipe a second time, and re-craft the same item...

Glossary for section 1 avatar item crafting can be found here.

Tracker's Hut

This was the last (and most painful) building for me to unlock. Out of the 5 major buildings, this one took me the longest to gather materials for. I ended up being stuck at 19/20 Nytekrie Quills and 2/3 Ferrikki Orbs. Fun times! However, finally, we gathered the last of the supplies, and we quickly rushed to construct it.








The trackers hut allows you to increase the chances of encountering a specific sylesti.



To activate the bonus, you need to supply the item associated with the species you want to track. The amount needed per each tracking is different depending on the species:

Regular tracking requires 5 of a rare (blue) item
Fabled tracking requires a single epic (purple) item







Upgrading the trackers hut increases our chances of encountering our chosen sylesti species per tracking, and also increases the duration of the bonus.

Upgrading the trackers hut to rank 1 costs us

Gold x 100,000
Spritely branches x 200



At rank 1, the Trackers Hut increases the encounter rate bonus by 200%



Upgrading the trackers hut to rank 2 requires 250,000 gold, 400 spritely branches, and 50 mountain hearts.

Enchanted Portal

We can finally construct the portal! Constructing it costed me 1mil in gold, 6 glowing crystals and a Heart of the Forest.









Once the building is constructed, we are presented with two options: Our portals, and the imbuing of crystals.

Portal Function

By clicking on the 'portal' icon, we are able to go to various locations that we unlock throughout the Lost Grove. At the moment, we can travel between Ethernia (outside the lost Grove), our Barracks and the Untamed Forest.



By selecting the option to take us to the untamed Forest, we are led to the very edge of the First Zone, and we end up just to the left of the cave entrance.





To return to the barracks, simply walk up to the portal, and follow the instructions.

Imbuing Crystals

The second function of the portal allows us to imbue Glowing Crystals. To access it, simply click on the icon. Crafting these cost a single Glowing Crystal and 10,000g each, and are a consumable item. They allow us to return to the barracks from anywhere inside the Lost Grove.

Section 1, Stage 3, Deactivating the Barrier: An Overview

Stage 3 is accessed through the completion of stage 2. In order to progress, you will have defeated nightfall bandits, captains, or Eleane the Duelist. You will have also upgraded two barracks buildings.

This stage takes place in the same area as stage 1 and 2.

New Features

There is a new npc to talk to! His name is Lead Researcher Dorian Grey

There is also a new item to gather called Singing Shard.

Section 1, Stage 3: Deactivating the Barrier Task

In this stage, we have successfully fended off the bandit threat, and allowed the Guards to rescue the Lead Researcher Dorian.

Captain Rylak tells us where to go next:



The researcher will be close to the barrier on the far most southern side of the Lost Grove. To reach him you can follow the path below. I suggest following the green arrow because yellow and blue do loop back onto the green path. You could take the orange path but it inevitably turns off onto green. Purple path is actually the reverse of the orange path.

























When you find Dorian Grey you speak with him about an experiment he is doing.







Interesting...





So, now we have to collect singing shards from nightfall bandits, captains and Eleane the Duelist.



Bandits will typically drop 1, Captains drop 3, and Eleane drops 6.

Once you have some shards, hand them in to the researcher!

Stage 4: Disabling the Pylons

At this point, we have finally collected enough shards for Dorian to break the barrier!





Once you reach this stage, there is nothing to do but wait....



I'm not even kidding.

With nothing else to do for awhile, this is a good time to grind for the remaining barracks buildings, and level up our proficiencies.

It is also time for an interlude! Yay!

-----

Interlude shenanigans here

Stage 5: Defeat the Grove Behemoth!

Before you commence and Defeat the Behemoth!

To maximize your comfort throughout the more challenging incoming sections of the grove, ensure that you level your party to 70, attain rank 3 proficiencies, and have your pets fully geared up in Vinethorns. You will also want to have the following buildings: Temple of Light, Trading Post, Blacksmith (a definite) and the Training Grounds already built. If you do all this before defeating the Behemoth, then you will be most prepared for when the Lost Grove difficulty suddenly scales up

Once you defeat the behemoth, named encounters increase to level 73. If you still need to farm for building materials and vinethorns, then it will be wisest to do so with your pets at level 70, and the bosses at level 68.

So now that the interlude is finished its time to just lazily ease back into unlocking more of the Lo--





OH MY GOD

It's just like a sentient Christmas Tree! Yay!

So, this is our goal now. Kill sentient Christmas Tree.



If we talk to the scientist guy standing next to the sentient Christmas Tree he says some things about it:



Some Tips Before We Kill The Behemoth



At the time I'm writing this section of the walk-through, the boss has already been defeated many times, and is now a considerably weaker enemy. For the rest of us who have yet to catch up, there are some important things we should know before we charge on ahead into an ATTACK!

1.) We can now get pets to level 70 even before we defeat the Behemoth!
2.) We can now level up element proficiencies to 4!
2.) All the enemies in the lost Grove remain at level 65 - 68 UNTIL we defeat the Behemoth and unlock stage six. As soon as we defeat the Behemoth, all enemies jump up to level 70 - 73.

For this reason it might be better to wait if you're still trying to grind for difficult buildings like the Blacksmith. This is because the manikins are dropped by the Captains and Eleane, and these will become more difficult to obtain when their levels suddenly jump.

I am going to hold off on defeating the boss for now because my blacksmith is nearly complete:



I'm also going to get my party to level 70 before defeating the boss and irreversibly scaling up the difficulty of all encounters in the Lost Grove

Stage 5: Grove Behemoth Strategy!





The Behemoth can be defeated with max stat pets at level 65, level 3 proficiencies and full vinethorn gear sets.

If your party is low stat, and lacking in vinethorn equipment then you will want to hold off tackling this boss until your party is level 70. For this fight, I would strongly recommend having a fully decked out air DPS pet because this encounter relies on a high level of damage output.

When the fight starts, the boss already has two effects on him: Construct and Camaraderie





Construct only affects the Behemoth when he is at < 1% health, so for now it's not too relevant.

Camaraderie is a stacking debuff that stacks as more players attack and defeat it. The higher the stack, the weaker the boss is.

There are a couple of toxic debuffs that he places on your tank (middle pet). These are Plasma Infection and Debilitating Toxin





These aren't too deadly. However, he does randomly (?) cast a 5 turn stun that hits all of your pets, and he uses a fairly strong attack, called Inhaling, that you must block on your middle pet if you want to survive this encounter.



Once you see the inhaling effect show up on the boss, then it's a good idea to block, or have Thorncoat up (if you have an Earth tank).

When the boss reaches max mana, he will use Rejuvenating Spores on himself, which can heal him. It is a good idea to try and do a lot of damage to him when this is effecting him, as a lot of damage will disrupt him from healing.



Finally, you get him down below 1% of his health and the Construct ability activates and becomes Reassembling!



At this point you need to do at least 36,664 damage to him within 10 turns or he will regenerate about a quarter of his health. If you are able to do this, then he is defeated!