Current oil prices and global financial situations underline the need for the best engineering practices to recover remaining oil from unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. These hydrocarbon reservoirs are mostly situated in deep and over pressured formations, with high rock strength and integrity. Breakdown pressure of the rock is a function of their tensile strength and in situ stresses acting on them. Fracturing stimulation techniques become challenging when treating these types of rocks, and many cases approached to the operational limits. This leaves a small operational window to initiate and place hydraulic fractures. In this training, a detail approach will be presented to reduce the breakdown pressure of the high stressed rock is presented. By selecting optimum parameters, fracturing of high stressed rocks will be achieved more economically and efficiently. Design of fracturing experiments and respective fracture pattern based on different shale formations, and the breakdown pressure will be illustrated by creating a simulated borehole at the center of the block. Also, experimental approach will be presented to investigate the impact of fracturing fluid on formation damage in the shale. Formulation of fluids, screening and injection methods will be covered to create the micro-fractures. Such micro-fractures improves the permeability of shale. Finally, results of these experiment will be explained to use in the simulation to predict hydraulic fracture network in shale reservoirs.