Astaroth

**Astaroth** is the seventh boss of **It Lurks Below**. It is found in a dungeon at the bottom of the Garnet Layer in the Badlands after the player receives the quest "Kill Astaroth". It is currently the final boss of the story.

### Hearts of Darkness

Hardmode is active if hearts are left up. Four hearts can be found in the Mini Boss Dungeons

The order of hearts refers to the order they are encountered when starting from the surface.

* The First Heart will remove Astaroth's ability to summon Belzoroid ads if killed
* The Second Heart will remove Astaroth's fire spiral shot if killed
* The Third Heart will weaken Astaroth's attack damage if killed
* The Fourth Heart will half Astaroth's health pool if killed

It is highly recommended to kill all hearts of darkness when fighting for the first time.

Note: Bosses are the same level as the monsters found outside of their room.

### Attacks

* Astaroth will continuously fire a spiral of poisonous projectiles while in the air
* If the second heart is still alive, Astaroth will also shoot a continuous spiral of flaming projectiles
* If the first heart is still alive, Astaroth will continuously shoot a projectile at the ground that spawns a Belzoroid. However, these spawns are capped and will eventually stop regardless of how many the player has (or hasn't) killed.
* Astaroth will periodically - but rapidly - summon a series of Eyes of Annihilation centered directly on the player's position. These eyes, once fully expanded and upon exploding, do 16,000,000 damage to the player, ignoring all armor.

### Strategy

* Food Buffs, Scrolls, Shrine Buffs, Ogre Mushroom buffs, etc. are all highly recommended
* Wear the highest ilvl craftable (or unique) armor you can, preferably enchanted and turned into a runeword set.
* Burst Damage is key, as Astaroth is only vulnerable when it rests on the ground for a few seconds at a time.
* The most important thing in this fight is avoiding the Eyes of Annihilation- it is incredibly easy for a character without high speed or a fast movement skill (Dash/Teleport) to end up surrounded by these eyes in a corner with no way out. In that situation, your only hope is to either pop an Invulnerability skill/potion or hit the Recall button and pray you make it in time.
* Avoid trapping yourself by resisting the urge to move upon seeing an eye spawn on you. Astaroth summons them rapidly behind each other, so wait a second or so for more to spawn in that same location before moving out of range. Do NOT rapidly start darting around in the boss room as soon as the first eye appears, as you are likely to simply litter the entire boss room with them- leaving no escape.
* If you have access to flight or a dash/teleport, a good way to make the fight easier is to hang out just above the boss room in the rooms above while Astaroth is moving around the arena. This avoids most of its rapidly firing attacks, but also provides a great place to bait the Eyes of Annihilation- once it starts summoning, let a few accumulate and then rapidly enter the boss arena, safely away.
* Avoid slowness at all costs - this includes both Glide and a low Speed stat. While you should not be running around the boss room and littering it with Eyes of Annihilation, you should be capable of rapidly leaving any spot where one is about to explode. In addition, max resists are always recommended, as Astaroth's poison projectiles will slow you down and cause serious problems.

### Loot

* Gamma rune will drop if the boss is within close enough level range of the player to grant experience.
* A higher chance to drop some high quality items, including unique items.
* The more hearts of darkness left alive, the better Astaroth's rune drops will be
* In Normal Difficulty, bosses always drop some variety of seeds

1. ↑ Message from Skezla in the official discord.