Torchlight Infinite Currency

Torchlight: Infinite SS13 Afterlight is set to launch in about a week. Since the game shares certain similarities with Path of Exile and introduces a substantial amount of new content each season, it is sure to attract some new players.

However, because multiple past league mechanics overlap, Torchlight: Infinite can feel rather unforgiving for first-time adventurers. If you happen to pick the wrong hero or engage with the wrong system, your experience might turn sour. Below are some mistakes you can avoid once SS13 Afterlight goes live.

Server Selection

On the initial server selection screen, choose the server that is geographically closest to you. Opting for a server on another continent will likely subject you to frustrating lag. MS you see may appear quite high or jump around frequently, but that is merely a normal refresh artifact and will stabilise shortly afterward.

Auction House is shared across all servers. The only consequence of picking a non-local server is increased delay, which feels especially noticeable when crafting items, and you will only see the leaderboard for that server's region.

Character Choice

The character selection in Torchlight: Infinite can be confusing for new players. Compared to ARPGs such as Path of Exile or Last Epoch, the long list of characters makes Torchlight: Infinite look more like a MOBA game.

In reality, the development team has split playstyles into distinct characters, so the character you choose largely determines the direction of your endgame build.

During the levelling process, your character is mostly funnelled into a specific archetype, but that does not mean you cannot respec later. Nevertheless, these characters will only drop weapons and skills that suit their respective archetypes.

Trade Mode Selection

Before you officially start, be sure to pay close attention to the mode selection. It is strongly recommended that you create a Trade-mode character on Seasonal Server. Avoid Hardcore or SSF modes at all costs.

The game's economy revolves heavily around trading; you will need to farm Torchlight Infinite Flame Elementium and other currencies to trade for skills and equipment that fit your character.

Gear Upgrades

As you progress, you will continuously pick up items. A notification bar appears at the lower-right corner of the screen. If you see an upward arrow on an item icon, that usually means the piece offers better defence or attack stats than your current gear, so you should equip it immediately.

At the same time, you will soon obtain a Movement Skill - be sure to slot it, because movement skills are crucial throughout the campaign.

Path of Progression

At a certain point in the game, you will unlock Path of Progression system. This is essentially the season's progress track and provides generous rewards. You need to keep a close eye on it, as you will gain numerous Passive Points from it to strengthen your character.

Furthermore, completing each stage yields materials such as Pactspirit Crystals and Jagged Primocryst, which are used in the game's gacha system. Path of Progression offers many free draw opportunities.

Among these, Pactspirits are particularly important - the seasonal Drop Pactspirit can significantly boost your returns, and you need to draw to acquire new Pactspirits.

Season Mechanic

When you enter Dragonbone Ridge area in Act 1, an NPC will stand there and give you a brief introduction, after which a season mechanic node will appear nearby. It is highly advisable to engage with and defeat the monsters within that mechanic.

You can also click Reset Stag option to fully reset the current zone, allowing you to repeatedly farm the seasonal content. Although the legendary drops from the mechanic are not always abundant every single time, clearing it a few times is definitely well worth the effort.

Treasure Trove

Treasure Troves are golden portals scattered across the campaign maps. Completing one for the first time rewards you with a passive point.

Each act contains two Troves; if you miss one, you will permanently lose those passive points. Once you enter a Treasure Trove, you will find a large number of monsters inside. This is one of the few places during the campaign where you should stop and clear the area thoroughly.

Additionally, the first clear of each Trove guarantees a legendary item drop. You do not need to farm them deliberately, but if the dropped item suits your character, equip it straight away.

Every act has two Treasure Troves, and these pieces of gear can provide tremendous assistance - you might even use them throughout the entire campaign, so do not skip them.

Levelling

During the campaign, pay special attention to acquiring and equipping Support Gems and Auras. When the empty skill slot prompt appears on the interface, fill it without delay. Keep upgrading your gear as you go: pick up new items, compare their highlights, and if they offer more damage or defence, swap them in immediately.

For any useless equipment, you can use the Recycle option below the inventory bar and then select the item you wish to break down. This is the game's primary method of discarding items - you obtain materials through recycling rather than gold. You can also recycle multiple items in one go.

The above are some points you should keep in mind for the new season of Torchlight: Infinite. For first-time players, completing the campaign may take several hours; however, once you become familiar with the skills and the route, that time can shrink to one or two hours. By then, you will be ready to try out other characters as well.

As a popular ARPG, each season update of Torchlight Infinite undoubtedly attracts a large number of new players to the game. With the latest SS13, Afterlight, only a week away from release, many Torchlight Infinite players often mistakenly believe that defense is simply a matter of stacking high HP.

However, in actual high-difficulty content, this simplistic approach often leads to disastrous results.

Therefore, we must re-evaluate our understanding of defense in Torchlight Infinite before SS13 arrives, so that we can stand firm at any difficulty level in Afterlight.

Early Gameplay and Before T7

In the early stages of the upcoming SS13 story, and before we climb to T7, building a strong defense mechanic doesn't warrant excessive effort.

Because monster damage is relatively low at this stage, players only need to follow mainstream build guides, acquiring some basic health through gear and a small amount of Resistance through crafting.

Therefore, a wiser strategy is to focus resources on improving map clearing speed and damage output, as quickly eliminating enemies is the most effective defense at this stage.

Additionally, you need to focus on accumulating basic currencies like Torchlight Infinite Flame Elementium during this phase to lay the economic foundation for crafting core gear after T7.

In short, from the start of SS13 to T7, you only need to ensure your damage is sufficient to one-shot monsters; defensive attributes are secondary.

T7 to T8

Once you successfully reach T7 in SS13 and begin preparing for T8, you'll find the game significantly more difficult than at the beginning. That's when you should consciously build a defensive system for your build in Torchlight Infinite.

For T7, a crucial defensive requirement is that you cannot allow your three types of Resistance (Fire, Lightning, and Cold Resistance) to fall below 60%. In the game, Resistance directly reduces damage taken; 60% Resistance means a 60% reduction in elemental damage.

Furthermore, at this stage you can consider temporarily delaying the accumulation of Erosion Resistance, as its damage contribution is not as high as the three types mentioned above.

Simultaneously, you need to actively increase your life pool through equipment affixes, such as maximum life and flat life on rings and chest armor.

The introduction of Block mechanic is another milestone at this stage: Block chances should be applied separately to attacks and spells. Ideally, prioritize stacking spell blocks to 100%, as spell damage in Torchlight Infinite is often more lethal.

The default Block effect reduces damage by 30%, but this can be increased to 60% through specific talents and equipment.

In conjunction with Blocks, you can also introduce Regain mechanic, which instantly restores a certain percentage of life or a shield when you hit an enemy. This differs completely from traditional Regeneration and is a powerful survival tool that relies on attack frequency.

In addition to the above, you can consider activating Tenacity Blessing to provide 4% damage reduction per stack and equipping a defensive pet to further reduce the damage taken.

Upon entering T8

After entering Tier 8, besides the basic Resistance and Block, we need to choose Armor or Evasion as the core physical damage reduction layer based on your build direction.

Given that Armor has certain limitations in its effect against elemental damage, you can consider using Ember Armor or specific legendary equipment to improve your defense against elemental damage.

Evasion, by default, provides an additional 40% reduction in spell damage and works exceptionally well with Blur and Deflection.

Blur is an independent buff that provides a damage avoidance chance based on Blur value - each point of Blur provides a 0.25% damage avoidance chance, so a base of 100 points would provide a 25% chance to avoid damage.

Of course, Blur is not permanent; it decays by 10 points per second over time. However, you can continuously generate Blur through actions such as the movement effect of Eternal Sea Fog or Valerie's Night Stroll.

Similar to Blur, Deflection grants an 8% damage reduction per stack, stacking up to three times. However, being hit resets the stack count, requiring you to acquire it through Lightning Striker's Sacrum and Feline Steps.

In summary, you need to make Armor and Evasion complement each other in SS13 T8, combining them with Blur and Deflection to create a multi-layered defensive damage reduction system.

Profound and Deep Space

Once you've finally made it to Profound and Deep Spaces in SS13, Torchlight Infinite will be even more stringent in its considerations regarding your defenses.

First, you must push the three elemental Resistances mentioned above to the 90% cap, while simultaneously starting to stack Erosion Resistance according to your budget.

In these challenging phases, you can no longer just stack up Blocks randomly; you must reach a hard requirement of 100%. Otherwise, you will have no chance of survival when facing monsters with much higher damage than before.

On top of these, you must introduce more advanced damage reduction layers into your build.

For example, Light Hunter Belt is a very useful item when your mana is low, as it provides additional damage reduction, or using Injury Buffer to convert some instantaneous damage into damage over time to avoid instant death

Furthermore, in these two high-difficulty phases, the mechanism of converting physical damage to elemental damage is crucial for builds lacking physical defense.

In short, your defensive system in Torchlight Infinite should never be static; it must be dynamically adjusted based on the difficulty level and the characteristics of your build. Understanding the strategy at each step will definitely help you perform better in the upcoming SS13!