So I have D2R on PC & PS5, and I’m wanted to work towards the D2R Platinum Trophy. And this means getting one of the dumbest trophies I could imagine. Getting Level 99 on a Hardcore Char.
I decided a Hammerdin would be best choice because I don’t have to worry about a lot of Magic Immunity and they have good damage & survivability.

I decided for a couple reasons I would be better getting this on Single Player too.
#1- Lag or randomly teleporting won’t get me killed.
#2-No shared drops
#3- Adjust Players Level whenever. (Been doing P8 all the time) and just hit Hell Act 2. But here’s also the downside. 0 Trading.

So with this humongous task to get 99 on HC SSF, where should I start collecting things at my current point of Hell A2 start Hammerdin?

Should I backtrack to NM? Progress towards A3 and start LK running for my Enigma runes? Hell Pits?
I can do P8 Pits but it’s a little risky and not super fast clear speed because I have to take it cautious especially if there are Archers involved cuz 90% of the time they’re Cursed & my Merc gets demolished in 3 seconds. Even P5 is a little sketchy.

This is my current loadout & the highest rune I even have right now is 1 Hel Rune from my NM Forge. I don’t have base Teleport- but I picked up a Teleport Staff & found a Telly Ammy.

Main Loadout: More MF but some lower survivability / clear speed.



https://i.imgur.com/BAJOuae.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/cKYoizi.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/oZVRtSg.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/CRMrM8N.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/pOrxF5u.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zO8Akim.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/yQQVWDY.jpeg (second hand)
https://i.imgur.com/xFu09nz.jpeg Stats using Rhyme(most the time.)
https://i.imgur.com/m8dmTLp.jpeg

I have alternate items in my stash as well if you wanna try to mix & match my current loadout and give farming suggestions.

Amulet= +1BComb / 16 CR / 16 FR / 16 PR / 23 LR / MDR 3
Ring= 4 STR / 2 Dex / 17 FR / 26 PR
Ring 2= 22 LR / 23 FR
Glove= 25 CR / 18 FR

Save my sanity please and help me accomplish my goal!
PS: My Merc is using Szabi Armor, Insight Scythe (best 40sbase i found so far)
Eth Rockstopper helm.

This post was edited by Matty0289 on Nov 16 2025 11:09am

You don’t need to have mf on a ssf hdin.
Mf doesn’t improve your rune drop, and it makes it harder to find the bases you need.

The early gear you need is all about low runes and bases:
2x spirit
Stealth
Lore or whatever new RW helm lvl 35 to fix your res for the element you need.

Same thing for merc
Insight
Bulwrack or FF (to fix your own fire res)
Many low RW option for armor

The rest of your gear is pretty much whatever you find along the way. You don’t NEED any particular unique/set item.
And the few unique items you’ll be looking for for your end game build will have already dropped a thousand times by the time you can make an enigma.

75fcr is totally fine before you have enigma.
You get it already from the lowest roll of 2x spirit and stealth.
You’ll want to upgrade your spirit shield every time you find a better base, and eventually reroll a 40+ res base untill you get 35fcr for your end game goal of 125fcr.
So keep all the spirit rune sets you find, and hel runes.
Some mages/trang gloves will drop easily without any mf.
Shako isn’t needed to make the build work, but you’ll also get it sooner or later, way before you get your end game RWs.

NM TZs is worth running for a while until you are comfortable to farm hell. A1 hell pits are also pretty easy for an areal lvl 85.

Good luck on your quest

Not gonna lie but this f**king sucks donkey.
Been abusing the TZ Andy reset in Nightmare looking for Shako or Vipermagi several hours a day for 2 days. Even used 18m Gold to Gamble for a Shako to no avail.

Found a few upgrades, sure. A nice 10 FCR / 38 CR / 10 FR+PR+LR ring.
War Travs (pretty low but at least it’s still good), Trangs, Gheeds (4 of them).

Even the Merc got an upgrade. Crown of Thieves/GFace/Tals Helm/ V-Gaze.
Atma / Duriel Shell armors.

Even got a bunch of other stuff for classes I’m not using such as 2 Jalals, Arreats, 2x Jade Talon/Bartuc & several unique Boots & rings (a dozen duplicates but meh). Even found Hotspurs which is kinda interesting. But overall still no closer to any significant armor/helm upgrades for me.

Takes about 1 minute / 1:30 per game to get to P8 TZ Andy & kill her with 350 MF after swapping amulets reaching her, but this seriously sucks.
If I ever find a random Vex I could make HOTO since I’ve found a couple Puls & a Ko but thats another story.

This post was edited by Matty0289 on Nov 18 2025 02:02am

Ty for update

Why does it sucks donkey*** ?

Just farming the same thing repeatedly and not really getting closer to my overall goal just got pretty dull. (No real exp farming Lv 71 Andy when I’m already lv 82-83.)
I did make some progress in terms of equipment though so I can just continue on.
Broke the 125 FCR. BP, all max resistancs (except poison which is 50s?), and about 120ish? MF.

Didn’t find Shako or Vipermagi but I came across a Que-Hagen armor & +45 All-Res 40s Crown Shield with 9%ED, so even though it’s not an optimal base, it’s definitely gonna work for now & I rolled a 35FCR.

I gotta use my first respec to add like 25 more points to STR to use Travs though. On the positive side, time to continue along with my playthrough. 3 days farming Nightmare TZ Andy drove me bananas so LK might really drive me up a wall.