BURN THE WORLD BWC and RoK Purifier (2024)

Welcome to the Complete Build & Leveling Guide for theBURN THE WORLDBlackwater co*cktail and Rune of Kalastor Purifier.This build is one of the best starting builds in the game, can do all content (save a few super bosses) and easily farm Ultimate for set gear with self-found drops.It’s hardcore viable, new player friendly, and scales very well. If you’re looking for a fun, powerful and top tier starter build with a complete leveling guide, this is the place!Note the GrimTools link is at the bottom of the guide.

Blackwater co*cktail (BWC) and Rune of Kalastor (RoK) have been around quite some time, yet I rarely see anyone playing with these skills. In my missions to find Top Starter builds to share with the community, I decided to revisit these old skills, and look out… This build is awesome. It outperformed my Acid Ravenous Earth build (as a starter) in both damage and survival. An additional great factor of this build is you start using BWC right at level 3, which begins the mission of melting all content in the game with ease. It’s truly badass – but more importantly, it’s fun!

This build is hardcore viable and can easily reach 100!

I researched a number of older builds before putting this one together. This includesblingi’s Purifier 150-170 Gladiator FarmerandJoV’s BWC Sorcerer build. Extended thanks toReinan22andRektByProtossfor taking the time to chat with me about this and other builds.

Before we begin, I recommend these mods to anyone playing Grim Dawn, especially new players. Note none of these mods cheat or change the core of the game – they just add quality of life:

GrimInternals (https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/tool-grim-internals/38773)
This is hands down the best mod currently out for Grim Dawn.Automatic component pickup and monster name/labeling with legendary drop Sound FX are just a few reasons why every Grim Dawn player should have this.

GD Item Assistant (https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/tool-grim-dawn-item-assistant/30491)
This mod allows the player to store an unlimited number of items they find. This is fantastic because it supports “account building” with extending storage to be anything the player feels is important in the future or for another build.

Item Color Filter (https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/tool-rainbow-filter-item-highlighting/42765)
A fantastic visual modifier to the game that shows item prefixes and suffixes in colors based on their damage/resist/skill type. Extremely popular and valuable. Note this is for the WanezGD Tool, which auto-installs and manages the rainbow filter. Download the setup.exe for the Tool.

Resistancesare everything in Grim Dawn. If you die, it’s probably because your resists were low. Below is a list of recommended components that are commonly used throughout the leveling process:

Components List

Augmentsare the most important thing for end-game and require honored or revered reputation with a faction to access them.Rule of thumb: as soon as you hit Honored with any faction (which will begin to happen in Elite mode), immediately buy the Writ (for 88,000 iron) that doubles your faction gain.This will help you get to Revered much quicker, and give you access to the necessary augments to help your resists in Ultimate.

Augments List
The factions a player gets Honored and Revered with first are generally: Devil’s Crossing, Rovers, Homestead, Black Legion, Order/Kymon, and Coven of Ugdenbog. I’m listing some of the most popular defensive Augments below for reference, which can greatly help in surviving both Elite and especially Ultimate.

Transmutation
This is a new and critically important feature introduced with Forgotten Gods that allows the player toconvert set items to another item of the same set.And it works with BLUE (non-legendary) set items!The quest to unlock Transmute is given byKargonin the Conclave of the Three. The quest unlocks after you’ve progressed to the Oasis area. The Tome is found onCanen’s Corpse. It costs 120,000 iron per transmute, and uses 1 Eldrich Essence (which is quite rare, so make each transmute count!). Luckily, a player put together a guide onFarming Eldrich Essence.Remember, if you can craft the helmet of a set, you can transmute those helmets to other pieces. This means you can craft an entire set just from the helmet recipe!

Another technique is toconvert a set item to another random set item. This costs 30,000 iron, scrap and crystals (which is a lot cheaper than converting to the same set). A good example of this technique is if you want the Mythical version of a set item (but you have none, and don’t have the recipe to craft the helm), you can take another mythical set item and convert it to a random set item with the possibility of getting a mythical of the set you’re looking for!

Final Level 100 Stat Distribution:94 Physique, 11 Spirit
Faction of Choice: Kymon

This build can easily make 100 and faceroll Ultimate up to AoM with self-found gear, so don’t worry about having the BiS complete legendary sets. You only need those for the really tough end-game content. The end-game build of this character uses the 3-piece Justice set of armor, however you can also use the Infernal Knight Armor set, or even a Flame Keeper’s Armor set. Whatever you have the gear for, you can make it work!

While leveling, you’ll find these items to be very helpful:

Fire Strike (1) → BWC (Max) → Flame Touched (1) → Vindictive Flame (1) → Explosive Strike (1) → High Potency (1) → Demon Fire (1) → Ulzuin’s Wrath (1) → Agonizing Flames (Max) → Thermite Mine (1) → Blast Shield (1)

Deadly Aim (1) → Word of Renewal (Max) → Rune of Kalistor (1) → Vigor (1) → Ignition (Max) → Inquisitor Seal (1) → Steel Resolve (1) → [Demo] Flashbang (1) → [Demo] Searing Light (1) → Aura of Centure (Max) → [Demo] Thermite Mines (6)

Deadly Aim (Max) → Temper (1) → Steel Resolve (Max) → Blast Shield (Max) → Flame Touched (Max) → Inquisitor Seal (Max) → Null Field (1)
Distribute the rest as you see fit!

Crossroad (Chaos) → Fiend (BWC/Fire Strike) → Quill → Hawk → Wolverine → Chariot of the Dead (Flame Touched) → Solael’s Witchblade (BWC) → Magi (RoK) → Viper → Ulzuin’s Torch (Flashbang) → Oklaine’s Lantern → REMOVE Quill→ Eel → Behemoth (Aura of Centure)

This build is so strong to play while leveling, most of the time you’ll just drop your BWC and run ahead, knowing you leave a trail of burning screams of anguish behind you. Your goal is to stack fire and burn damage any way you can while keeping good resists and health. I recommend the 100 health per level rule (e.g. at level 50, have at least 5000 – and at level 90 have at least 9000).

While this build can facetank later on with great DA, you are a kiter. You run around and avoid taking any damage, and often kill everything (including mini-bosses) before they even have a chance to reach you. If you do get some great DA and health early on, facetanking with Fire Strike is devastating and you’ll kill bosses 2x (or more) faster. You’ll get a feel for what works or not rather quickly.

Survivalrevolves around a combination of Blast Shield, Word of Renewal, Flashbang and kiting. Synergizing each of these allows you to down most any content in the game (paired with the right equipment). It takes time to get this down, but the good thing is farming up to Ultimate (and even the beginning of Ultimate) is such a cakewalk, you’ll have plenty of time to get it down.

Rotation for Trash:Toss your BWC or RoK when it’s on cooldown… that’s all. Everything will die behind you as you run away, manically laughing.

Rotation for Bosses (Kite): Thermite in area, BWC in controlled area, RoK behind you as you’re being chased, Flashbang when necessary, and WoR. Forget fire strike – too dangerous.

Rotation for Bosses (Facetank): Seal at your feet, Thermite Mines in front of you, BWC at your feet, RoK in front of you, Flashbang, Word of Renewal (WoR), Fire Strike 3-5 times, rinse and repeat.

Grand Priest Zarthuzellan, the boss at the entrance to the Steppes of Torment dungeon, has a 17% chance to drop a greatCodexthat gives an absolute ton of damage to BWC and is BiS until you need a shield for defense (or switch to Stronghold Defender at 94).

Mythical Warpfireis the ultimate weapon goal for this build (L94), however it’s very rare. However, if you want some ranged kiting fun with Fire Strike, you can use aStronghold Revolverwith your Stronghold Defender. It’ll be less damage, but the ranged proc of Fire Strike could compensate for hitting tough bosses at range. Give it a try!

Below is the recommend end-game goal for this build, however, as mentioned above, you can also use the Infernal Knight armor set. The Justice Armor Set is simply tankier and allows for better survival.

Below are additional complete build guides you might be interested in!