Archadust's Fresh Start run Guide (b95)

Strat:
Run 1: find the ore trader, go to F2 and find the potion guy, get level 2 altogether and send your ressources to the closest elevator, kill yourself

Town: Upgrade Primary with 3 stars, buy blacksmith, get boots (and if possible Attack power 1)

Run 2-x until thief is unlocked: A1 boss is already quite doable, so just go for it (take ore on the way, maybe gold but ore is more important for now), reach A2 and hope for early thief.

Town: With 15 ore you can buy Guild Hall 2 and Tavern 1 (hope to get Enchanted Slamemr or at least Smelly Old Man, attackpower/crit drinks are okay, else hope for the Ore drink)

With Enchanted Slammer or other DPS drinks, fresh character can easily kill Golem, so go with thief and sorc (in any order)

At this point you should be level 3 (maybe more) on ranger, and get the guild rank up, with the added ore you can buy the Skill Building to next rank and get both Primary T3 and the speed passive T1. Along with maxed blacksmith (maybe not, armor is last to upgrade)

Next run: Enchanted Slammer, clear A1, clear A2, Warden is hard but doable, after that you can wander in A3 until you find a lift to get as much resources as possible.

After beating warden once, A1 portal should be easy enought and will be your pushing route, no more golem unless farming ore or such (BUT DO NOT PICK UP COMBO)

Town: Get potion guy to T1, maybe ore trader (He can help a lot !), Blacksmith T2 if possible
In terms of skills, get Marked Prey T1 and the speed boost T2, maybe Flurry T2 but not more, else the mana cost will be too punishing (I almost never used the root spell so I don't unlock it, maybe it is worth, idk)

Fountain should be unlocked later in the game, usually while struggling late A4/Watcher, T4 primary attack is much more important (And maybe Powershot, but I haven't took it in my 3H run, it works well without it).
Hope to finish the game on the first attempt with Fountain, you should go all in with general store, keys, and upgrades (potion slots/power, blacksmith T2)

Fountain setup: Gentle Traps, Safe Corridor, More Imps / More enemies, More Elites, No lift OR no Ore

HOH fresh start b101 speedrun guide - Arena Strategy

REQUIREMENTS: Pyramid of Prophecy + Witch Hunter DLC (since you’ll be using the arena and playing as the Witch Hunter)

So it turns out that the arena is a very effective early game farming tool as it frequently gives high tier items that can help with damage, crowd control, and survival. Remember to kite enemies around the edges, grab items and boons when you can, and keep an eye out for literally anything that can hurt you (as you are playing the arena in a much more vulnerable state than is usually intended).

Witch Hunter is my personal character of choice for this challenge for a few reasons 
1. You start with him immediately (this is very important)
2. He has decently long range and a strong primary (also quite important)
3. He is better against bosses than ranger as he can maintain his attack and movement speed while shooting and moving at the same time, whereas ranger is slowed down and shoots slower too. (This may be more of personal preference, if you find yourself struggling with WH, try out ranger instead)

Below is a very general description of the few runs you’ll be doing.

first run: get to lvl 2, get 5 ore, get potion, suicide
at town: buy crossbow rank 2, blacksmith, and either 1 weapon + 1 armor or 2 weapon (depends on how much gold you found)
second run: arena
town: buy town hall 2 and blacksmith 2, also max blacksmith 1
third run: arena
town: get guild hall 2 and fountain 1, buy crossbow 3 and passive 1 rank 1 or 2 
fourth run: arena
town: get ore trader, apothecary, buy an extra potion charge and more potion healing, cash in excess ore for gold and get all shop items and as many keys as you can
fifth and final run: go in guns blazing and hope for good RNG

Keep in mind this run has a sizeable element of luck involved, so results may vary based on your item drops or level arrangements. Always have a backup plan if things don’t quite go your way. 
Also, I doubt this is the only viable way of approaching this, so feel free to explore other possibilities too!

EDIT: Ok so now that I’ve gotten a much faster time, I feel like I should add that if you’re willing to roll the dice a little more, you can skip doing the arena for a third time, this means you’re a lot less likely to get guild hall or blacksmith 2 but that’s ok just make sure you have the fountain cause that saves a lot of time, your damage output is really just up to whatever items you happen to get. Also be sure to grab combo in your final run as the extra speed really helps out and if you get a bunch of spheres the nova projectiles really help with midgame crowd control 

Other tricks (courtesy of Slaith):
- you can skip having to run up to the ore trader on floor 1 and grab him and the apothecary on floor 2
- you can bind a key to kill you, thus giving you an efficient way of dying after the first run or to change arena layouts

Namn	Författare
Archadust's Fresh Start run Guide (b95)	KellyFromSales 5 years ago
HOH fresh start b101 speedrun guide - Arena Strategy	AJL828 5 years ago