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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster difficulty - tips on beating Fallen Order at the highest difficulty level

Strike me down enough times, and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine

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Guide by Ollie Toms Guides Editor
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Grandmaster difficulty in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order offers players the greatest amount of challenge in an already punishing game. Enemies hit harder, parry windows are smaller, and you'll need to know the game intimately in order to complete the game without dying an inordinate number of times along the way. Luckily, I do know the game intimately, and I've put together the below Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster guide to help those who are struggling to beat the game on this hardest difficulty level.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster guide contents:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster difficulty

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster difficulty

Grandmaster is the hardest of the four difficulty levels in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - and in order to stand any chance of beating the game at this level, you'll need to understand how these difficulty levels work.

Unlike many other games, setting the difficulty higher in Fallen Order doesn't increase the amount of health of each enemy, or increase the quantity of enemies at all. There are in fact three things which are heavily influenced by the game's difficulty level:

  • The amount of damage you take from all sources (including enemies and environmental damage such as falling off the map)
  • The aggressiveness of enemies (including their downtime between attacks, and their proclivity towards certain more dangerous attacks)
  • The size of your parry window (this is the time during an enemy's attack where blocking will result in a parry)

On Grandmaster difficulty, you take greatly increased damage from all sources; enemies are very aggressive and give you little time between each attack; and you must time your blocks perfectly in order to successfully parry blockable attacks.

I've completed the game on Grandmaster difficulty, and I can tell you that it's very challenging, frequently punishing, and ultimately extremely rewarding. I'd highly recommend veterans of Sekiro and Soulslikes (or those on their second playthrough) to try Grandmaster for yourself.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster tips - skill tree

Top tips for beating Fallen Order on Grandmaster

Grandmaster difficulty sets everything up to eleven, and you're going to have a tough time with most encounters. But stick to the following top tips, and you'll have a much smoother time through the Jedi: Fallen Order campaign.

Prioritise the right skills from the very start

As I mentioned in my Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order skill tree guide, not all skills in your skill tree are created equal. On Grandmaster, more than any other difficulty level, it's important that you beeline towards the correct skills from the very start of the campaign.

Here's what I'd recommend for those playing on Grandmaster difficulty:

  • After your first point into Overhead Slash, prioritise Superior Blocking in the Survival branch, then follow up with Improved Stims for survivability.
  • Then collect Dash Strike and Leaping Slash, the latter of which is one of the most powerful lightsaber moves at your disposal.
  • Focus briefly on the Force branch now, to collect Force Attunement and Enhanced Force Recovery.
  • After unlocking Force Push, focus on Evasive Kick, Sprint Strike, and Delay Thrust, setting you up to take Lightsaber Mastery as soon as it unlocks.
  • After gaining Force Pull, immediately pick up Grasping Pull.
  • Finally, pick up Mass Push so you can reach Howling Push, which is fantastic for shortening fights against larger enemies perched on precarious cliffs (of which there is a surprising number).

Once you've done all this, spend any points you gain on a combination of the basic Survival and Force skills (increased Health/Force, better healing, etc.) and you'll be set to defeat any boss on Grandmaster difficulty.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster tips - enemies

Learn the behaviours of each enemy in intimate detail

Like many games of this ilk, the key to victory in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is learning the behaviours, capabilities, and attack patterns of each enemy. On Grandmaster difficulty, you will find that a single slip-up can often lead to death, so there's really no choice but to learn each enemy intimately.

I'm talking about knowing that a regular strike followed by an overhead chop is enough to kill a Scout Trooper Commander. About knowing that after a Jotaz does its blockable roar-and-slam attack, it will always go straight into that two-step unblockable which always trips up newer players. About knowing that you can throw Malicos's boulder back at him if you time your Force Push right.

Your best bet when it comes to learning the ins and outs of all the enemies like this is to spend a bit of time consulting the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order bosses guides that I've written over the past week, as well as our guide on the different non-boss Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order enemies.

Uncover secrets and upgrades while you progress through the campaign

Unless you're attempting a speedrun on Grandmaster difficulty (hey, you do you), it's a very good idea not to rush through the campaign as quickly as possible. You'll want to take the time to explore every nook and cranny - partly because every encounter gives you more experience of each enemy, and partly because you'll gain so much more power by gaining extra skill points and picking up the various secret collectibles scattered throughout the worlds of Fallen Order.

I've already written a guide explaining exactly where each of the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Stim locations are, but that's not the only collectible that will help you. Scattered throughout every map are Force Essences and Life Essences, which upon collecting three of the same type will permanently increase your maximum Force or Health. This is enormously helpful in helping you take those extra-damage hits on the highest difficulty level.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster tips - double bladed lightsaber

Get the Double Bladed lightsaber as quickly as possible

I've gone into detail about this in my Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order lightsaber guide, but I'd urge anyone playing on Grandmaster difficulty level to head to Dathomir before heading to Zeffo - simply so you can reach the point where you meet the mysterious Wanderer, and then turn left and head into that small cave area where you can pick up the double bladed lightsaber upgrade far quicker than you could if you'd gone to Zeffo first.

The double bladed lightsaber doesn't hit as hard as the single blade, but its attacks are excellent at defeating multiple foes in confined spaces, and without this upgrade those moments will often lead to your death, because the combat system in Fallen Order isn't really well designed for taking on multiple enemies at once. So for sure: go to Dathomir first.

Seek out and practice against the most challenging encounters

If a certain enemy or a certain combination of enemies gives you a really hard time, then use it as a learning experience. Find the Save Point nearest that encounter, then just keep going back and taking them on again and again, learning their moves and attack patterns, and making your fight against them cleaner and cleaner until you can handily beat them every time.

This is particularly useful against the more dangerous enemies in the game. For me, it was the Purge Troopers. I found that I would always sustain at least some damage from the various Purge Troopers I'd come across (particularly those dual-wielding Electrobaton bastards), so I spent some time just grinding away at those specific encounters until I could beat them handily without taking any damage at all.

So whether your kryptonite is Purge Troopers, or Jotaz, or Nydak, or Undead Nightsisters, or Wyyyschokk, or any of the other horrible foes that Fallen Order throws at you - the best way to improve is to actively seek them out and master them.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster difficulty tips

And with that, I think we'll call time on this Jedi: Fallen Order Grandmaster guide. But that's not all we've got to talk about on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order! We've got in-depth explanations, tips, and walkthroughs for just about every aspect of this expansive Star Wars experience; take a look!

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order bosses:

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