Help on Helwalker Solo Build

[depthcharge101]

Based on what I've been reading on the forum, SC helwalker monk seems really powerful (mostly because of whispers of the wind and resonant touch). Question though, what is a viable *solo* helwalker build (or if it's even possible), since in the early game he's quite squishy.

Also, how should the stat be distributed? I am guessing PER/DEX/MIG/CON are all important, but not sure if I should dump RES...

[Waski]

I did solo helwalker run on PotD. When I am back from work I will check the save and post details of build.

[Boeroer]

If you feel that a Helwalker is too squishy at the beginning you can take another subclass. The only noticable things the Helwalker does is giving you up to +10 MIG (which is up to +30% additive dmg which isn't that impactful for a weapon user in the first place). The higher starting wound count doesn't matter that much later on as well. Helwalker is superb when combined with casters or anything else that uses damaging abilities that don't rely on weapons - or healing abilites as well. Because there are not many other ways to boost spell damage/healing power besides MIG. But for a SC melee Monk it actually doesn't make a ton of difference in terms of dmg output if you take a Helwalker or something else. The only SC Monk variant where I would recommend Helwalker is a Mortar Monk (or any other ranged monk really). Because you'll get attacked rel. rarely Enduring Dance helps a lot with wounds and then the added MIG is nice (because you won't feel the incresed dmg received a lot).

A Nalpasca is better suited for the early game as a melee monk (if you buy a decent amount of drugs at the Kraken's Eye first and search all surroundings for more you won't run out of drugs ever). Because the early game makes it hard to gain a ton of wouds via received damage - since the ratio of "overall health":"dmg needed for one wound" is very high (it drops with every level because you gain more health but the wound threshold stays the same). So in the early game the Nalpasca's drug-infused wound stream is highly useful. It never ceases to be somwhat useful because you'll find better drugs and they will last longer with every point of Alchemy you take. Only problem is if you get hit by Arcane Dampener which might happen several times later in the game...

Forbidden Fist is an excellent subclass that can be quite good in the early game because of the way the Forbidden Fist is played best: melee with tons of RES and tanky. Also the Forbidden Fist ability is quite impactful with its tier-3-CON affliction so early in the game.

Shattered Pillar can be nice in the early game as well (especially when using the Community Patch since that removes the superfluous max wound cap of 5 and sets it to 10 like all other monks'). No need to get damaged for wounds means it's a lot easier to use abilities like Force of Anguish every now and then without having to take damage at all. 

For any SC melee Monk I recommend* taking Parting Sorrow (it not only gives wounds on enemies' disengagement but also gives a wound on kill - because the killed enemy somehow counts as disengaged) and also Imagined Pain - and then use Nomad's Brigandine with the immunity to disengamgent attacks enchantment: every disengagement attack you cause is counted as a miss (100%) which will give you a wound. If you are a Shattered Pillar you can even combine this with Whispers of the Endless Paths (Offensive Parry) and trigger a riposte attacks that gives you even more wounds AND adds Resonant Touches. I mean you can use that as any monk but the SP gets additional wounds from this.

*I mean besides Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind which are must-haves. 

Once you get Whispers of the Wind you won't get attacked a lot anymore (because you are invisible). So I also recommend Dance of Death / Enduring Dance - even if you don't use it before PL9(!). Else you won't get any wounds between WotW executions. You'd either have to gain wounds the usual way or use Mortification of the Soul -  which will slow you down. Nalpascas can still gain wounds from drugs passively in addition to Enduring Dance (almost no downtime between WotW uses) and Forbidden Fists can use short-lived hostile effects (see Hylea's Talons for example) which shortens the downtime. 

I don't know if Parting Sorrow triggers on kill if the enemy wasn't engaged at all (see Whispers of the Wind's invisibility)???

They all can use Edér's armor (with the reflex-immunity enchnatment) + Keeper of the Flame + Imagined Pain to generate a ton of wounds during WotW (because the AoE of the flail has friendly fire and targets reflex which will miss 100% on Edér's armor - which will trigger Imagined Pain).

  

Edited September 1, 2020 by Boeroer

[Waski]

Human/Living Lands
base stats
12 mig
10 con
18 dex
18 per
14 int
4 res

after bonuses
22 mig  +2BB +1gift +1Rabyuna Boon +2Alchemic +2food +1human +1 living land
15 con  +2BB +2 Alchemic +1belt
23 dex  +2BB +2 Alchemic  +1Rabyuna Boon
25 per +2BB +2 Alchemic +1cape +1cauldron brew +1Sagani
18 int  +2BB +2Alchemic
12 res +2BB +2Alchemic +2Nature resolve +2Rabyuna Boon +1Human +1ring

Shark soup for food + all bonuses you can get I wouldn't go lower on might because with just 3 wounds (without thonderous blows, ) I had enough +dmg and +dmg taken(from helwalker) to push dot from hylea talons above 8dmg (treshold for wound generation)
Head: Cap of Laughingstock or Mask of the Weyc(for extra concetration)
Neck: whatever(i've used bone setter mostly) or Stone of Power if you want to use fists, you need two of them for stacking/reloading, easy to get)
Armor: Efiggy Husk with per immunity
Rings: Ring of Prosperity Fortune/ of Solitary Wanderer or Whispers of the Depths (for fist dmg)
Feet: Rakhan Field Boots (free full attack 1/encounter)
Cape: Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak
Hands:Hylea's Talons
Belt: Upright Captain's Belt
Pet: Pes/Ooblit/Eviee or smth with +health on kill

Weapon:
Magran's Favor(modal on)/Scordeo's Edge is hard to  beat but but I kept all weapons I found. Killed Serafen for Hand Mortar (always off hand, I need that melee  hits with swift flurry/heartbeet drumming from main hand for dot from talons to appear )  that AoE with cloak (stunts) was usefull when I faced a lot enemies. Modwyr for having int immunity when needed. Frosty bow for Dorudugan
Prestige+power lv from food+Stone of Power will push fist to post post mythic +95%dmg/+26acc/+7pen
Alternatively Whispers from Depths can provide +1pl.
For defense immunities and concetration: Shark soup for body afflictions immunity, armor for per immu, modwyr for int and hat+eevie for getting rid of res affliction(hat doesn't work on wearer but summons will  have it too)

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Waski

[dgray62]

My first complete run through in the game was as a SC Helwalker monk on veteran difficulty level using the OP Monk Combo that mepp22 brought to our attention earlier this year. It employs the Edér's armor + Keeper of the Flame + Imagined Pain combo that Boeroer mentioned. It was loads of fun, and is really OP once you hit level 16. But now I'm playing a Forbidden Fist/Trickster MC, and if I were to play again as a SC monk I'd probably go with forbidden fist, which is really a great subclass for the reasons Boeroer relates. It's much more tankier than Helwalker since you need to max RES to use the forbidden fist ability effectively, which makes the game much easier on PotD.

[mepp22]

I agree with Boeroer and dgray62, Helwalker is maybe not the optimal subclass for soloing a monk. Nalpasca would be a great choice if not for Arcane Dampener. And if you don't use mods Shattered Pillar is kind of crappy. I think Forbidden Fist might be the best solo monk class. Enfeebled is such a powerful debuff and super useful all game especially vs hard to kill bosses. Also Hylea's Talons combined with high resolution will actually give you a nice source of healing early (important for solo) as well as wounds. For Race I would chose Pale Elf. This is because Keeper of the Flame combo is so strong and the plus 4 fire resistance can really be a life saver if you do get hit twice and lose Veteran's Maneuver.  One thing to keep in mind when using this combo is Mortification of the Soul, Enduring Dance, Enlightened Agony, and Avenging Storm (from helm or scroll) count as a hit vs Veteran's Maneuver so most of the time you really only want to cast Avenging Storm (Swift Flurry and Thunderous Blows are fine it seems). In some fights there is no way for you to prevent getting hit a couple times and in these fights I recommend using different armor and possibly a large or medium shield with modal and Boots of the Stone.  In fights where there aren't tons of enemies Scordeo's Edge + battle axe modal combines really well with the Forbidden Fist enfeeble. Another reason to take Forbidden Fist is when you use WoW with the Stalking Cloak, Keeper of the Flame and Boots of the Stone and don't have Veteran's Maneuver running, you will constantly daze yourself which in turn heals you as it expires. Crimson Panoply is also great for this even if you don't have enough enemies to use WoW. 

Anyways I think Monks are probably the most fun class to solo with since they are already ridiculously strong and you can win pretty much every fight without cheesing.

[dgray62]

Mepp22, I like you're idea of trying your OP Monk combo with a forbidden fist, and also the idea of using crimson panoply when not using WoW. I imagine this would be best against small numbers of very strong enemies. Enfeebled is such a powerful debuff, which I hadn't realized until I tried a forbidden fist build. Once you land it, otherwise strong foes fall very quickly.

[mepp22]

Another neat trick you can use late game to finish off tough opponents is to have a weapon set with Weyc's Wand and Tuotilo's Palm that you can switch to. You can Empower a Forbidden Fist which will increase your power level by 3 (increasing your Transcendent Suffering level) and it lets you do a second Forbidden Fist immediately after. Tuotilo's Palm increases your accuracy by 5 and gives you some bonus deflection + reflex. I think the small shield modal gets suppressed by the bonus you can get from Scordeo's Blade so no need to use the modal if you were switching from it. Because of this combo I think Empowered Strikes is the better than Prestige as your final ability. It pretty much guarantees you get a critical hit enfeebled on the biggest baddy you are fighting. Of course you could also Empower something like WoW instead and follow it up immediately with some Forgotten Fists but I don't think Empowered Strikes works on WoW. Although the hits might trigger Least Unstable Coil...

[Boeroer]

Empowered Strikes didn't work with WotW when I last tested (but that was not too long after release, so maybe somebody check again). I reported that but got no answer if it ever got fixed (just something along the lines of "Oh really? That's not cool" ;)). I tested it with Inner Death an there it works (which leads to a reliable crit --> great dmg). Of course most Monks (especially solo) prefer WotW over Inner Death. Too bad that the endgame has too many enemies that are hp sponges so that even a 400 dmg crit with Inner Death doesn't mean much if you can't repeat it several times... If you combine it with Swift Flurry it can trigger some more main-hand attack rolls iirc - but that's it. With Envenomed Strikes you will cause Weakened and if you used the Weyc's Wand in the offhand you can immediately follow up with a second Inner Death (if you have the Mortification left). It would be a good alternative to WotW if it wouldn't use Mortification but Wounds instead.  

Edited September 2, 2020 by Boeroer

[mepp22]

I assume you mean Empowered Strikes not Envenomed. A big problem with Inner Death is you need two final level Talents to use it properly. One for Empowered Strikes and one for Inner Death which means you can't also get Wow and Imagined Pain which are too good to pass on. Also worth noting is Forbidden Fist is a Power level 0 Ability so it scales incredibly well with Monk Power level. It increases accuracy, penetration and damage additively from Transcendent Suffering (which scales with Power level) and it scales again directly from Power level increasing accuracy, penetration and a hidden multiplicative bonus to the base damage. Add in a couple Lashes (Kahako Nihi, Auroch Horn, Turning Wheel) and you can do some pretty insane damage to a single target really fast. Getting in 3 levels of Forbidden fist (2 in quick succession) can do incredible damage to finish someone off. To be honest I think Forbidden Fist might have higher damage potential than Inner Death.

[thelee]

10 hours ago, mepp22 said:

Of course you could also Empower something like WoW

 

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Empowered Strikes didn't work with WotW when I last tested 

yeah had a run relatively recent and as far as I can tell the only thing any kind of empowerment does for WoW is give you more attacks, regardless of what empowerment-enhancing talent syou have. The way WoW is scripted, it appears that the free attacks it grants you are the only real "effect" of the ability, so there's not much for empowerment to enhance. (But WoW empowered for more strikes is still good, and WoW alone is still good.)

[tptpt]

4 hours ago, mepp22 said:

I assume you mean Empowered Strikes not Envenomed. A big problem with Inner Death is you need two final level Talents to use it properly. One for Empowered Strikes and one for Inner Death which means you can't also get Wow and Imagined Pain which are too good to pass on. Also worth noting is Forbidden Fist is a Power level 0 Ability so it scales incredibly well with Monk Power level. It increases accuracy, penetration and damage additively from Transcendent Suffering (which scales with Power level) and it scales again directly from Power level increasing accuracy, penetration and a hidden multiplicative bonus to the base damage. Add in a couple Lashes (Kahako Nihi, Auroch Horn, Turning Wheel) and you can do some pretty insane damage to a single target really fast. Getting in 3 levels of Forbidden fist (2 in quick succession) can do incredible damage to finish someone off. To be honest I think Forbidden Fist might have higher damage potential than Inner Death.

Hello, can you show skills tree for Monk Forbidden Fist? As image from 20 lvl think.

Edited September 2, 2020 by tptpt

[Boeroer]

7 hours ago, mepp22 said:

I assume you mean Empowered Strikes not Envenomed. A big problem with Inner Death is you need two final level Talents to use it properly. One for Empowered Strikes and one for Inner Death which means you can't also get Wow and Imagined Pain which are too good to pass on. Also worth noting is Forbidden Fist is a Power level 0 Ability so it scales incredibly well with Monk Power level. It increases accuracy, penetration and damage additively from Transcendent Suffering (which scales with Power level) and it scales again directly from Power level increasing accuracy, penetration and a hidden multiplicative bonus to the base damage. Add in a couple Lashes (Kahako Nihi, Auroch Horn, Turning Wheel) and you can do some pretty insane damage to a single target really fast. Getting in 3 levels of Forbidden fist (2 in quick succession) can do incredible damage to finish someone off. To be honest I think Forbidden Fist might have higher damage potential than Inner Death.

Ha - no, I meant Enervating Blows.  

Yes, as I said most monks players wouldn't want to give up WotW and stuff just for Inner Death which has several shortcomings. Thinking more about it I also suspect it will not even trigger Enervating Blows because it's implemented like a spell and not a proper melee attack. Like Forbidden Fist - which has the same problem in an unmodded game.

[mepp22]

7 hours ago, tptpt said:

Hello, can you show skills tree for Monk Forbidden Fist? As image from 20 lvl think.

 

I don't actually have a full build planned out right now, mostly its just theory crafting.
Just off the top of my head I would play a Pale Elf, probably something like 8 Might, 10 Constitution, 10 Dexterity, 19 Perception, 12 Intellect, 18 Resolve. Background White that Wends or Aedyr, and job Mystic or Clergy.
Weapon proficiency you will need are Flail, Battle Axe, Sabre (not for the modal but Gauntlets of Greater Reliability might be needed vs certain bosses) Medium Shield, most likely Rapier for early game, maybe Large Shield and maybe Morning Star could be useful.
Skills should be Arcana and Religion. 
Abilities: 0 Swift Strikes, 1 Arms Bearer, 2 Two Weapon Style, Sword and Shield, 3 Clarity of Agony, 4 Swift Flurry, Stunning Blow, 5 Blade Turning, 6 Duality of Mortal Presence, Rooting Pain, 7 Crucible of Suffering, 9 Stunning Surge, Enervating Blows, 10 Thunderous Blows, 11 Turning Wheel, Parting Sorrow, 12 Uncanny Luck, 13 Heartbeat Drumming, Improved Critical, 14 Snake's Reflex, 15 Tough, 16 Resonant Touch, Razors Edge, 17 Soul Mirror?, 18 Long Stride or Bear's Fortitude?, 19 Whisper of the Wind, Imagined Pain, 20 Empowered Strikes.
These are probably the skills you would want to have at level 20 but you  want to respec once or twice. Dance of Death or Mortification of the Soul are useful early game but later on they don't really help you. 
Important Equipment: Stalking Cloak, Saint's Armor, Boots of Stone, Ring of Prosperity's Fortune, Ring of the Marksman or Ring of Focused Flame (when using using Keeper of the Flame depending on how much fire armor the enemy has), Hylea's Talons (Very good early could be replaced later), Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (Very useful vs Mega Bosses where you need to get hits off in order to increase your own accuracy), Crimson Panoply, Belt of Magran's Chosen (when fighting single enemies so you can get a 2nd enemy and use WoW), Horns of the Aurochs, Survivor's Tusk.
Weapons sets:1 Keeper of the Flame+ Scordeo's Edge, 2 Magran's Favor + Wintertide Bulwark or Magran's Blessing (For Boeroer's Swift Flurry trick depending on the enemy). 3  Weyc's Wand + Tuolito's Palm. 
Set 1 is for starting fights and when there are multiple enemies. Set 2 is once you have the extra accuracy from Scordeo's Edge and there is only one enemy, 3 is for rapidly finishing single opponents once they have lots of bleeding cuts. 

I honestly haven't really tried all of this so lots of it is just theory but I hope it helps

[mepp22]

4 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Ha - no, I meant Enervating Blows.  

Yes, as I said most monks players wouldn't want to give up WotW and stuff just for Inner Death which has several shortcomings. Thinking more about it I also suspect it will not even trigger Enervating Blows because it's implemented like a spell and not a proper melee attack. Like Forbidden Fist - which has the same problem in an unmodded game.

Hmm well in that case I think probably the best Combo would be swapping to the wand and shield after you have lots of bleeding cuts then Empowering Stunning Surge. This will almost certainly crit which will Stun and Weaken the enemy and being a Full Attack you have 2 chances to trigger Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. This will reduce Might and Constitution by 5 which means 20 less Fortitude and reduces Deflection by 10. It also improves Power Level by 3 increasing Transcendent Suffering as well as the inherent Power Level Bonuses. Following this up with a couple Forbidden Fists should be enough to finish off some pretty difficult enemies.

Edit: Actually only the shield bash can trigger Swift Strikes or Heartbeat Drumming. Skullcrusher would also be an alternative to the shield. There is some RNG but adding an injury to a boss is a pretty useful debuff. Also its important to make sure you are in melee range before doing this combo.

Edited September 3, 2020 by mepp22

[dgray62]

Thanks for the build suggestion, Mepp22. I started a SC forbidden fist monk and used the stats of 12 MIG, 12 CON, 16 DEX, 18 PER, 12 INT, 20 RES with berath's blessings. I understand why you suggest religion, for Keeper of the Flame, but why Arcana? Is this just so you can use scrolls? Also, why do you recommend enervating blows? I figured this would be unnecessary since you can already easily apply enervated.

[Boeroer]

Enfeebled.

When using Forbidden Fist a lot Enervating Blows seems to be a bit redundant, yes. 

[mepp22]

7 hours ago, dgray62 said:

Thanks for the build suggestion, Mepp22. I started a SC forbidden fist monk and used the stats of 12 MIG, 12 CON, 16 DEX, 18 PER, 12 INT, 20 RES with berath's blessings. I understand why you suggest religion, for Keeper of the Flame, but why Arcana? Is this just so you can use scrolls? Also, why do you recommend enervating blows? I figured this would be unnecessary since you can already easily apply enervated.

Those look like some solid stats. Arcana is for scrolls especially Avenging Storm. You just have to be careful when using it, you don't want to break Veteran's Maneuver. For example don't use Thunderous Blows at the beginning of the fight or you won't have enough wounds for WoW. Its kind of a thin balancing act but if you pull it off its insane. Very few fights can survive 2 WoW followed by Resonant's Touch if you have Avenging Storm up. You could pick a different Active skill and only use Avenging Storm from the helm, but I like the flexibility of being able to use different helms for different fights. Enervating Blows is nice because you can apply Weaken in mass. Also it reduces Constitution, therefore Fortitude Saving throws which makes it easier to apply Enfeebled. 

[depthcharge101]

Many thanks for all the feedback, there's a trove of information to digest, and I am getting convinced that Forbidden Fist monk might be the way to go.

Just three very naive questions:

- How well Forbidden Fist monk gain wound for WoW, particularly with Hylea's Talon trick? Since they only gain 1 wound after 1x Talon's dot expired?

- I understand the Keeper of the Flame trick (very cool indeed), but I am not planning to get the DLCs (have already done two playthroughs and didn't feel I need more 'gameplay'), so I don't think I would have access to it. But I assume Hylea's Talon is still probably good enough to be mostly on WoW without too much down time?

- I had the idea that I would be using double fists (since it'd make use of SC monk's power level well), but reading all these it looks like weapons are still the way to go. Are there no viable fist builds?

Edited September 3, 2020 by depthcharge101

[mepp22]

6 minutes ago, depthcharge101 said:

Many thanks for all the feedback, there's a trove of information to digest, and I am getting convinced that Forbidden Fist monk might be the way to go.

Just three very naive questions:

- How would Forbidden Fist monk gain wound for WoW, particularly with Hylea's Talon or Eder Armor trick? Since they gain wound after hostile effect, would that still work? Actually I still don't know how FF monk gain wounds: do they gain wound still based on received damage, but only after a hostile effect? Or they gain wounds in a completely different way.

- I understand the Keeper of the Flame trick (very cool indeed), but I am not planning to get the DLCs (have already done two playthroughs and didn't feel I need more 'gameplay'), so I don't think I would have access to it. But I assume Hylea's Talon is still probably good enough to be mostly on WoW without too much down time?

- I had the idea that I would be using double fists (since it'd make use of SC monk's power level well), but reading all these it looks like weapons are still the way to go. Are there no viable fist builds?

Forbidden Fist only gain wounds when negative effects expire and don't get any wounds from damage taken. When Forbidden Curse expires you gain one wound and since the first level of Forbidden Fist costs 0 wounds you can slowly gain wounds this way, but you probably need a better source early game (Dance of Death/Mortification of the Soul). Hylea's Talon is nice because it give a 25% chance of applying a negative effect on yourself for a fairly short duration. If you have high Resolution and or Clarity of Agony the negative effect expires before it can do much damage. Forbidden Fists also gain a small amount of health back when negative effects expire, because of this you actually end up with a decent source of healing (very useful when soloing). 

A lot of the build idea's I talked about require gear from the DLCs. One of the most OP combos in the game is combining Eder's Armor with Keeper of the Flame. I am not sure you will have enough wounds to constantly spam WoW without DLC Equipment. If you want to solo but only the base game I would recommend Nalpasca. You will have a much easier time most of the game and most of the fights that made me rule out Nalpasca are in the DLCs. 

Fists are actually great weapons (arguably among the best in the game). I was just taking advantage of some special weapons and using the game mechanics to make some truly OP combos. But honestly you can beat the base game soloing POTD with pretty much any class. Its those pesky Mega Bosses where you need to game the system.

[Boeroer]

Fists are among the strongest weapons in the game for a single class Monk. Totally viable. You still want to have some backup weapons for enemies that are very resistant or even immune to crush damage. 

Forbidden Fist can generate wounds with (Enduring) Dance of Death while using Whispers of the Wind. Mortification of the Soul also works. Combined with Hylea's Talons there shouldn't be too much downtime between WotE uses. Keep in mind that you are invisible when using it so you won't get attacked a lot (thus Dance of Death works well). For the same reason the "normal" Monks who gain wounds via received damage have no big advantage over the Forbidden Fist since they don't get damaged a lot either while concentrating on WotW spam.

If you have a Druid in the party you can cast Tanglefoot where the Monk will use WotW. Once he catches one of the short hobble effects it will almost already be over and he will get a wound. If you are wearing Nomad's Brigandine (no DLC item) and enchant it with immunity to Disengagement Attacks you can always disengage from enemies (--> 100% miss due to immunity) which will grant you a wound from Imagined Pain. 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Boeroer

[thelee]

3 hours ago, depthcharge101 said:

- I had the idea that I would be using double fists (since it'd make use of SC monk's power level well), but reading all these it looks like weapons are still the way to go. Are there no viable fist builds?

SC monk double fists are arguably the all-around strongest weapons in the game. I think for fun metagaming purposes though, people like to think about items because the fists aren't "interesting." In terms of pure single-target damage though, it's hard to beat SC monk fists and you definitely cannot go wrong with using them (save for the crush immune enemies boeroer mentions, but every weapon type will face some kind of immunity).

[dgray62]

Keep in mind as well that the OP combo Mepp22 is writing about, the use of Keeper of the Flame + Eder's armor works with two PL 9 abilities, WotW and imagined pain. You can't do this until you reach level 18. So this is a very powerful strategy for dealing with end game mobs, and the two alternate weapons set ups he recommends are for dealing with bosses. For most of the game, a monk does extremely well dual wielding fists, with an alternate weapon set up for the occasional crush immune foes.

[SilverArrowsMP]

On 9/2/2020 at 8:41 PM, mepp22 said:

Saint's Armor

Noob question: how are you supposed to get this on solo? Correct me if I am wrong here, but you can't get rid of party members until you have the ship, so you'd be doing all of Maje not solo (for exp purposes at least, as you could just leave them in stealth at the start of areas), and I tried to just kill him on the beach but he just revives himself.

Can you just kill him in the ship before the Pirate fight right at the start?

[Boeroer]

Solo is an official game mode that you have to choose from the game menu before starting a playthrough. It prevents you from adding somebody to the party but you can still meet Edér and talk to him. Once you both land on the beaches of Maje Island you can kill him and he will drop his gear, including the Saint's Armor. No need to do it before then. If you kill him during the ship fight he will be gone but drop no loot. I never tried to kill him right after waking up on he ship - but as I said you don't need to.

if you don't activate the solo mode you can still play solo of course (by not adding somebody to your party or just removing them manually) - but it's not "officially" recognized as a solo run (for the sake of achievements for example). If you want to kill a party member you have to knock them out four times to they get more than 3 injuries. This will kill them permenently. But in order to ge the gear you can simply take it from them in the inventory screen and then remove them from the party roster the normal way. No need for killing then. 

In solo mode the is no alternative to killing Edér (or get him killed by luring several boars to him maybe?) in order to get the Saint's War Armor. 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Boeroer