Hello!

I can see that breadcrumbs should/could support parent categories:
$path = modK2ToolsHelper::getCategoryPath($row->parent);

However i am unable to get more than 1 level of parent.
Is this a configuration issue on my behalf?
if so why is the top parent category hidden?

What i am wanting is top_parent->parent->child_item
what i current get is parent->child_item

Also i dont want to go hacking core files, as i would like to update and continue using K2

I always prefer to control my breadcrumbs using joomla's menu structure. Have you added the top_parent and parent to the menu items?

If you want your breadcrumbs to follow your K2 Categories structure you should use the K2 Tools module.

On the other hand if you want to show your Joomla! menu structure you should use the default breadcrumbs module.