COLDYLOX Deathmarked Cold Infiltrator



Welcome to the Complete Build & Leveling Guide for the COLDYLOX Deathmarked Cold Infiltrator. This build is great for new players, a top melee build, tanky, is solid at killing bosses and mopping up trash, and can easily farm Ultimate with self-found drops. If you’re looking for a fun melee dual wield cold stabbing build that can do all content, this is the place! Note the GrimTools links are available at the bottom of the guide.

JAN 2020 UPDATE! Click here to see a detailed announcement by the Guide Creator about the issues he encountered with the Grim Dawn Community, Forum Moderators and why he moved his guides from the Grim Dawn Forums.

Infiltrators are some of the strongest yet most complex builds in the game. New players are often deterred from playing them because it’s confusing what order to take skills while leveling, and how to optimize the build at end-game. One of the reason Infiltrators are so highly rated is because they scale amazingly with the right gear, and are capable of dishing out some serious damage while also avoiding harm through a combination of methods. This build is cold focused, which helps with survival (if an enemy is frozen or slowed down, it can’t do the damage it would otherwise do), and it’s a lot of fun. It’s also very consistent. It’s rare to get big spikes (as one does with leech-only based builds) because of the dodge, seal, cold and leeching. Yes, Pierce does more damage, but it simply does not have the survival of the cold version. It’s also fairly easy to farm some great weapons one can use prior to the end-game best-in slot (BiS).

Not only is this build fun to play, it’s great for hardcore! 



I’m going to extend all credit to Reinan22, probably one of the best (and most experienced) infiltrator players out there, and a great, patient and knowledgeable individual. I highly recommend subscribing to his twitch. He’s also fantastic at answering questions!



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.




Resistances are 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

  • 7: Wardstone | 7% Elemental, 15% Bleed Resistance | Amulet & Medal
  • 15: Silk Swatch | 18% Pierce & Bleed Resistance | Shoulder, Chest & Leg Armor
  • 15: Imbued Silver | 20% Chaos Resistance & 15% Bleeding Resistance | Mainhand/Offhand (Toggled Item Skill)
  • 15: Purified Salt | 20% Aether Resistance | Mainhand/Offhand (Toggled Item Skill)
  • 15: Antivenom Salve | 20% Poison & Acid | All Armor
  • 15: Unholy Inscription | 10% Vitality, 15% Bleeding | Hand Armor
  • 20: Runestone | 12% Aether & 12% Elemental Resist | Head Armor
  • 20: Soul Shard | 20% Vitality Resistance | Ring, Amulet, Medal
  • 20: Mark of the Traveler | 8% Movement Speed & 10% Slow Resistance | Boots
  • 24: Sanctified Bone | 18% Vitality, 12% Chaos | Chest & Head
  • 24: Aether Soul | 16% Aether Resistance | Amulet & Medal


Augments are 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.

  • 40: Arkovian Rose Powder | 10% Elemental Res | Rings/Amulet | Rovers Honored
  • 40: Slith Venom | 15% Poison, Acid & Bleeding Res | Rings/Amulet | Devil’s Honored
  • 40: Gazer Eye | 10% Aether Res | Rings/Amulet | Devil’s Honored
  • 40: Corpsefiend Tentacle | 10% Vitality Res | Rings/Amulet | Devil’s Honored
  • 40: Divine Flame | 10% Elemental Res | Rings/Amulet | Kymon’s Honored
  • 40: Blessed Ashes | 15% Fire & Lightning Res | Rings/Amulet | Kymon’s Honored
  • 40: Consecrated Silver | 12% Chaos Res | Rings/Amulet | Kymon’s Honored
  • 40: Necrotic Flesh | 15% Bleeding Res | Rings/Amulet | Order Honored
  • 40: Chillheart Powder | 15% Cold & Vitality Res | Rings/Amulet | Order Honored
  • 70: Venomguard Powder | 15% Poison & Acid Res | All Armor | Rovers Revered
  • 70: Nightshade Powder | 7% Pierce & 10% Cold Res | All Armor | Rovers Revered
  • 70: Bladeward Powder | 10% Pierce Res | All Armor | Devil’s Revered
  • 70: Mogdrogan’s Touch | 10% Poison & Acid Res, 7% Vitality Res | All Armor | Devil’s Revered
  • 70: Kymon’s Blessing | 15% Fire Res | All Armor | Kymon’s Revered
  • 70: Kymon’s Conduit | 15% Lightning Res | All Armor | Kymon’s Revered
  • 70: Demonbane Powder | 7% Vitality & Chaos Res | All Armor | Kymon’s Revered
  • 70: Mankind’s Vigil | 7% Aether Res, 7% Chaos Res | All Armor | Black Legion Revered
  • 70: Kingsguard Powder | 7% Pierce Res, 10% Poison/Acid Res | All Armor | Black Legion Revered
  • 70: Flameweave Powder | 7% Pierce Res, 10% Fire Res | All Armor | Homestead Revered
  • 70: Solarstorm Powder | 10% Fire Res, 10% Lightning Res | All Armor | Homestead Revered
  • 70: Wraithtouch Powder | 15% Cold Res | All Armor | Order Revered
  • 70: Spiritguard Powder | 10% Vitality Res | All Armor | Order Revered
  • 70: Spellward Powder | 10% Lightning Res, 7% Aether Res | All Armor | Order Revered
  • 90: Coven Warding Powder | 7% Elemental Res | All Armor | Coven Revered
  • 90: Coven Black Ash | 8% Pierce and Chaos Res | All Armor | Coven Revered


Transmutation
This is a new and critically important feature introduced with Forgotten Gods that allows the player to convert set items to another item of the same set, or of a random set. And it works with BLUE (non-legendary) set items! The quest to unlock Transmute is goven by Kargon in the Conclave of the Three. The quest unlocks after you’ve progressed to the Oasis area. The Tome is found on Canen’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 on Farming 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!



This build can be a bit slow while leveling and there may be instances where you have to run away to escape AoE damage on the ground. There may also be issues with AoE damage, and it could feel like it takes forever to kill things. Don’t worry. It’s part of the growing process and once you approach level 60, the build really begins to shine. By the time you hit 80 or so, you’ll be destroying everything you come across and Shadow Striking into large groups just to slice everything up like a master chef. Just make sure you keep your resistances maxed (stun resist is very important with this build) and Pneumatic Burst up at all times (for Shadow Dance, which may be one of the best survival skills in the game). 

The component Shard of Beronath (Level 55) is critical to this build and should be acquired as soon as possible! Make sure to slot the attack as your default left-mouse weapon attack when you get it!

The biggest nemesis of this build really is ground AoE. It can be very frustrating with many bosses, requiring you to retreat only to Shadow Strike back to them and run away again after a few whacks.

As mentioned, this build is great for Hardcore. Once you learn how to play and know when to run away, you’ll be very difficult to kill.

This build is designed to shadow strike into the middle of big groups and facetank bosses, but always have your movement glyph (I prefer Disorder) ready to get you out of tough situations.

Survival is dependent on dodge from Shadow Dance (through Pneumatic Burst), Life Leech on hit, Cold slowdown/freeze, and Inquisitor Seal. I never died leveling this character and only came close a few times due to AoE damage on the ground.

Rotation for Trash: Shadow Strike into the middle of the group, use Ring of Steel and move on. If you are using 2x Ugdenbog Chillstrife, your Veil of Shadow will be doing enough AoE damage that most trash mobs will simply die by being in your proximity. It’s quite entertaining!

Rotation for Bosses (Facetank):: Pneumatic Burst, Word of Renewal, Shadow Strike, ABB, Ring of Steel, Beronath’s Fury (x5 or so), then Shadow Strike, ABB, Ring of Steel, and such. Renew Pneumatic Burst and Word of Renewal as needed.

Rotation for Bosses (Hit & Run): You will occasionally encounter bosses you cannot facetank, usually due to ground-based AoE. With these baddies you’ll need to perfect the hit and run technique. Luckily, the Infiltrator is perfect for this due to Shadow Strike. The general technique (while ensuring Pneumatic Burst is ALWAYS UP) is: Shadow Strike, ABB, RoS, Beronath’s (x5) and then warp out (using the Disorder Glyph). Run around and then Shadow Strike back as soon as it’s safe.



Final Level 100 Stat Distribution: 77 in Physique, 30 in Cunning
Faction of Choice: Order of Death’s Vigil

Items

While this build focuses on the end-game Deathmarked legendary set (5 items) the good news is the build works great with self-found items, and farming green cold weapons is pretty easy (it can just take a bit of time to get the right drops). There are two main weapons to farm: 1) Spectral Longswords (which drop from ghosts, namely champions and nobles, and bosses), and 2) Ugdenbog Chillstrife, which are farmed in Ugdenbog from Janaxia or Larria. I personally prefer to use 2x Chillstrife Blades because of the damage they provide to the Veil of Shadow aura. With everything else, just focus on Cold Damage.

It’s also important to mention Chillheart, a fantastic Level 94 1H Cold Sword, which is acquired through the Crate of Entertainment Hidden Quest on Ultimate difficulty. Luckily it’s cake to get – you just go to the Vanguard of the Three, and if you stand in the green summoning circle for 15 seconds, the item drops on the ground. That’s it! Of course you have to get to this location in Ultimate first. Only one Chillheart can be acquired by a character, so to Duel Wield them, a player must do the quest on two characters and transfer between the two.

As mentioned, the Shard of Beronath Component is a key attack skill for this build. Make sure you use it immediately at Level 55!

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

  • 20-94: Spectral Longsword (1H) Farm Ghosts
  • 25: Rampage/Glacier (Relic)
  • 35: Deathchill (Relic)
  • 40-94: Ugdenbog Chillstrife (1H) Farm Janaxia or Larria
  • 50: Crescent Moon (1H/OH)
  • 55: Shard of Beronath (1H Component)
  • 58: Beacon of the Winter’s Veil (1H)
  • 60: Nemesis (Relic)
  • 75: Seal of the Night (OH Component)
  • 75: Seal of Annihilation (Amulet)
  • 85: Empowered Crescent Moon (1H)
  • 90: Ignaffar’s Combustion (Relic)
  • 94: Chillheart (1H) Secret FG Quest

Skills

Our goal is to make Nightblade as efficient for leveling as possible before we rush Aura of Centure in Inquisitor (Phase II). We also want these leveling skills to shine at end-game for bossing and ultimate farming.

Phase I (Nightblade)
ABB (5) → Veil (1) → Dual Blades (1) → Pneumatic Burst (1) → Shadow Strike (1) → Breath of Belgothian (1) → Phantasmal Armor (1) → Amarastas Cut (1) → Lethal Assault (6) → Shadow Dance (1) → Night’s Chill (6) → Ring of Steel (1) → Blade Barrier (1) → Anatomy of Murder (1) → Whirling Death (1) → Ring of Frost (1) → Elemental Awakening (1) → Circle of Slaughter (1) → Blade Spirit (1) → Execution (3) → Lethal Assault (Max) → Dual Blades (Max) → Whirling Death (3) → Amarasta’s (3) → Lower ABB to (1) → Shadow Dance (Max)

Phase II (Inquisitor)
Deadly Aim (1) → Word of Renewal (6) → Deadly Aim (9) → Vigor (9) → Inquisitor Seal (6) → Steel Resolve(1) → Null Field (1) → Arcane Empowerment (1) → Aura of Centure (Max) → Arcane Empowerment (Max)

Phase III (Custom Adjustment)
This is something very important to cover with the Inquisitor. While many builds are simple skill min/max (1 vs 10 or 12), the Inquisitor has numerous skills that need to be at a specific point to be efficient, and above that point it’s really unnecessary. For this reason, as experienced Infiltrator players progress and get BiS gear, they remove points from key skills to buff others. This includes the following skills: Amarastas’s Quick Cut (1/8), Whirling Death (1/8), and Execution (1/8). Deadly Aim also only needs 10. Vigor and Steel Resolve only need (8). So as you progress and your AQC, WD, and Execution are >6, start removing those points to put into Word of Renewal, Phantasmal Armor and Inquisitor Seal.

Devotions

Crossroads (Order) → Turtle (Pneumatic Burst) → Crossroads (Chaos) → Ghoul (Veil) → Lion → Crossroads (Primordial) → Viper → Targo (Ring of Steel) → Crossroads (Ascendant) → Toad → Crossroads (Eldrich) → Quill → Crown (ABB) [PARTIAL] → Remove Crossroads (Chaos, Eldrich, Ascendant, Order) → Amatok (Shadow Strike) [PARTIAL] → Eel → Rumor (Blade Spirit) [PARTIAL] → Solemn Watcher → Obelisk [PARTIAL]



Cold Inquisitor currently holds the highest Shattered Realm level, however that’s a build with very different (and focused) gear and devotions than this one. 




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

30 Comments

  1. Hi,
    Deathmarked set and Nightblade got hit in the last patches, what are the impacts on this build ?

  2. I haven’t played Coldylox for awhile, so I’m not quite sure on the overall impact. Reinan22 (the twitch streamer) is the most experienced with that build – I have a message out to him and will let you know what his feedback is. You can also visit his stream and ask directly. Sorry I don’t have a direct answer for you – so many builds, I haven’t been able to re-play them all since the patch 🙂

  3. There is some issue with CSS in this page
    didnt find way to report it so i just leave it here
    where it says color = “Red” with []
    Phase I (Nightblade)
    ABB (5) → Veil (1) → Dual Blades (1) → Pneumatic Burst (1) → Shadow Strike (1) → Breath of Belgothian (1) → Phantasmal Armor (1) → Amarastas Cut (1) → Lethal Assault (6) → Shadow Dance (1) → Night’s Chill (6) → Ring of Steel (1) → Blade Barrier (1) → Anatomy of Murder (1) → Whirling Death (1) → Ring of Frost (1) → Elemental Awakening (1) → Circle of Slaughter (1) → Blade Spirit (1) → Execution (3) → Lethal Assault (Max) → Dual Blades (Max) → Whirling Death (3) → Amarasta’s (3) → [COLOR=”Red”] Lower ABB to (1)[/COLOR] → Shadow Dance (Max)

  6. I assume you mean stat points, or do you mean skill tree points? You can get extra stat points by completing optional quests. As for skill points, remember that items provide points, so a value of 10/10 may not be 10/10 actual points, but only 5 points from the tree with +5 from an item. If this doesn’t answer your question, feel free to ask again citing an example and I’m happy to answer again.

  7. Hi, thx for the guide!
    Hit lvl 70 today and have a question:
    I missed “Steel Resolve” in Phase II (Inquisitor)!?
    There is only a note at Phase III (Custom Adjustment) -> “Steel Resolve only need (8)”

    Thx!

  9. Phase II (Inquisitor):
    Inquisitor Seal (6) → Null Field (1) → Arcane Empowerment (1)

    Shouldn’t there be Steel Resolve somewhere? Maybe:
    Inquisitor Seal (6) → Steel Resolve(1) -> Null Field (1) → Arcane Empowerment (1)

  11. Aren’t those boots like almost imposible to get? i think kings suffix is already very hard to get, let alone a Stonehide of kings, i say this because it seems that a big chunk of resistances comes from those boots.

    And ofc not even mentioning the rings with 0.8 drop chance, prob they will drop after 300 hours of SoT grinding.

    Insane build regardless

  12. Correct; those boots are insane and very, very difficult to find – but that is a final end-game “ultra” build. You can use a wide variety of alternatives prior to that point. I don’t think SoT is the best grind for those boots either, but it’s been so long I can’t remember – might want to ask in the Subreddit where the best place to grind King Green Boots is. Would be interested in the answer. Good luck and happy adventuring!

  13. Well i mean the rings are MI from SoT last boss and they have less than 1% chance to drop, i’ve already got one so it’s not that bad lol.

    And the boots are crafted, according to grimtools affix calculator (https://www.grimtools.com/shared/affix/) there is a 0.00074% chance to get them, so probably you will need to craft like 100.000 to have a chance to get those rolls (stonehide prefix kings suffix).

    Anyway there are some affixes i saw that can be used to replace kings, which is one of the rarest rare affixes, for example you can aim for a stonehide of readiness, which have 0.017% chance to be crafted, so probably like 6k on average.

  14. Interesting! The good news is you can probably get plenty of “good” rolls prior to the “near perfect” rolls that will enable the build to do what’s necessary for continued farming. Let me know how things go!

  15. Thanks for the guide! Im coming back since a LONG time ago… and I dont understand/remember what do you mean (in the devotions part fo the guide) by “Turtle (Pneumatic Burst)”: what does the skill mean there?.

    Also, when you state ” Crown (ABB) [PARTIAL]” does it only mean that you only spec into part of such constelations? If so… how far in do you spec into?

  16. What it means is that particular devotion constellation has an “action” socket you can assign as kill to, and for Turtle you assign Pneumatic Burst.

    [PARTIAL] means the constellation isn’t completed, so you put Amarasta’s Blade Burst in the socket of Crown, but don’t need to complete it.

    I hope this helps!

  18. Thank you so much for preparing this build and describing everything!

    I just bought the game and didn’t know what to do exactly, it seemed so complicated, and my first 20-30 levels weren’t very enjoyable because I didn’t know what to build or how. Your guide helped a lot! Now I have level 70+ character with this build and I can’t wait to start making other builds you described on your website 🙂 Great job!

  19. Thanks a ton for the feedback; great to hear! My top 2 favorite builds are the Skelemancer and Bloodydots; so when you’re done with Coldylox, check them out! Happy Adventuring!

  20. Love the guides! following this one for my first playthrough,

    I was curious, you recommend using the spectral longswords until you can get Ugdenbog Chillstrife. Is the buff to shadow strike from the longswords worth lowing your DPS for? Should the DPS value just be ignored and weapons that have cold damage and/or %increase to cold damage used in place of something that would give 100 or 200 more DPS?

    Thanks a ton!

  21. Thanks for the support! I honestly cannot remember, but DPS is more complex than the number as it relates to damage type and triggering of components and devotions. A higher DPS may not kill as quickly depending on the targets and triggers; ultimately, I recommend going with whatever works the best and “feels” stronger. Sorry I can’t be more specific; I haven’t played the build in quite some time.

  22. Thanks for the great build.

    Can you please tell me where i can find the Ignaffar’s combustion blueprint. I cannot seem to locate this anywhere.I have every other one LOL.

  23. Unfortunately, I believe it’s a random world drop, so the best thing to do is run dungeons/places where you can get the highest number of purple recipe drops. Players in the Grim Dawn subreddit can probably direct you to where the best place to currently do that is. Good luck!

  24. Great post! I’m having a blast with this toon! One question, though: How would u respec or equip Coldylox to be able to withstand the summoning circle? I have a dervish at lvl 100 & he only lasted 6 seconds…

  25. Really like playing this. Everytime I come back to Grim Dawn, I always build a Coldylox 🙂

  26. Hey Phoenix! Unfortunately, it’s been so long since I played this build that I can’t provide any guidance on your question. However, I’m sure Reinan (the origin of the build) would be more than happy to answer any questions. You can click on his name in the Credits section and visit his Twitch channel (he streams regularly). Good luck!

  27. Hi! What if I don’t have ignaffar and beronath? Are there any decent alternatives to these or do i just stop playing this build until i get them? Also, you recomend 3 weapons (Spectral longsword, Chillstrife and Chillheart). Which one is objectively the best?

  28. My apologies, it’s been so long since I played the build, I cannot remember. The Items section (at the bottom right above Skills) does list alternative items to the BiS/End-game gear. I hope that helps!

  29. Nerthazul: idk if it is still relevant

    with weapons just find something that suits you, you can also check dps meter with default attack on left click to check

    Chillheart is also a really good weapon until you find something better and is easy to get

    Also really good items:
    night stalker from bysmiel faction (its a blue print) really good pendant
    there are epic cold rings from the same factions which are decent (not amazing but decent)
    you can craft a belt with +1 all night blade skills from black legion faction
    you can buy all recipes for nemesis from a vendor in malmouth expansion and its good relic overall

  30. Great guide! Helped me a lot during my first playthrough.

    Btw, Spectral Longsword is a really good leveling weapon. It has decent stats, and it is really easy to get! It can be purchased from Benevald, a hidden merchant to the west of the Blood Grove Rift. You have to get down to that river, and he is at its north end. Guaranteed sale of Spectral Longswords. Just S/L a few times and get the well-rolled ones you like!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *