Zaluss The Demolisher

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Zaluss the Demolisher is the first and only guild boss introduced to Tower Keepers. There are 75 stages to entirely defeating Zaluss--each stage growing increasingly difficult to complete due to the strengthening skills and growing health in each stage--with a sizable reward in each stage, and the rewards becoming more fruitful as each stage passes.

Whenever a guild member fights Zaluss the Destroyer, that player is individually awarded the following: 1 random potion, 2 random pieces of equipment or a monster/machine, gold, guild marks, skill points or artisan points. This award is given for each battle, regardless of damage inflicted, and is in addition to the stage rewards mentioned above.

### Stats

Zaluss starts with a good amount of resistance to all elements until stage 6, where it transforms into an undead dragon. From then on, his shadow, poison and stun resistance are extremely high, rendering shadow dealing heroes like Warlock useless against Zaluss. Zaluss's Health increases at every stage until reaching a cap at stage 10. Each successive stage will have same amount of health from stage 10 onwards. There are 40 higher-level stages that give no reward.

### Skill

Zaluss has active and passive skills that get more potent with each stage. Additionally, higher stages unlock more of Zaluss's skills.

#### Active skills

Stage 1 - 5

* Claw Swipe: Deal xxx - xxxx damage to a row
* Deathly Crunch : Deal xxx - xxxx damage
* Suffering Breath: Drains all soul energy, and inflicts xx true damage for each point drained to all enemies
* Brood of Zaluss: Summon up to 3 dragon minions level xx
* Incinerating Breath: Deal xxx - xxx fire damage to all enemies
* Break free: remove all negative effects from the caster

* Purge: remove all buffs from all enemies

Stage 6+

* Eat your soul: deal xxx - xxx shadow damage and lower defense by xxx briefly

* Cage of bones: deal xxx - xxx damage and stuns target briefly

* Endless pain: deal xxx - xxx poison damage 15 times

* Disintegrating breath: deal xxx - xxx stun damage

* Wave of Death: deal xxx - xxx shadow damage to all enemies
* Break free: remove all negative effects from the caster

* Purge: remove all buffs from all enemies

#### Passive skills (All stages)

* Deadly: Increase Crit chance by x%

* Excruciating Aura: All healing effects are reduced by x%

### Rewards & Open Portal

All guild members can collect rewards after each Zaluss stage is defeated. Once a Zaluss stage is finished, guild members need to contribute gold to unlock the next stage. Of course, the cost to open the portal to the next stage increases as well, until it caps at 400k gold at level 7.

## Leaderboard

### Player Leaderboard

Top players in the guild who deal the most damage to the boss will receive the following rewards at the end of the event.

 2nd
 3rd
 4th
 5 - 10
 11 - 20
 21 - 50

### Guild Leaderboard

Each member of the guilds that do the most damage to Zaluss will receive the following:

## Guild Planning

Completing the full campaign through stage 75 requires killing 1.35 B total Zaluss health points, or 27 M health per member if it were divided equally among 50 guild members. (Of course, it never will be divided equally; your top Zaluss attackers will destroy far more than their share, while your weakest members will only be able to achieve a fraction of their allotment.)

## Strategy for Level 55 Players

### General Information

The Zaluss fight is incredibly delicate. To this day, only one general strategy exists that works and deals any major amount of damage to stages 6+ within the 300 seconds allotted, and the 4 heroes involved--Knight, Thief, Warmaster, and Witch--must have 7 stars and level 10 skills. Maintaining the stunlock on Zaluss requires perfect synchronization of skill order, skill cooldowns, initiative, etc. This requires exact equipment and skill choices, where ANY deviation will typically ruin the entire run. Thus it is important that whichever variation of this strategy you choose, you follow it *exactly*--hero order, gear, skills, everything. In fact, most dragon strategies require that you have 3 potions equipped at any time, and failure to do so can negatively impact a run! All mandatory gear and skills are marked in **bold**.

Due to a quirk in the game's animation, it is best that you play the attack at slow speed. You will get more moves this way, leading to higher total damage.

### Classic Team (by Ashbringer with help from Wolfeye1):

**Witch**

**Warmaster -- Knight**

**Thief**

 Warmaster
 Knight
 Thief

\*Knight can survive just fine without The Fortress (players will typically choose Strength of Legend or Dreadplate instead), but critical hits may require the use of potions. Similarly, Praetor's Righteousness is the most preferred weapon, but Vorpal Warsword operates perfectly fine as well.

\*\*If Thief is wearing the Demon's Skin, you may consider swapping out Witch's Vile Dart for Refreshing Brew to help him survive the -50 HP per 3 turns and the occasional Endless Pain. Knight will also benefit by recovering from Eat Your Soul and Cage of Bones by the time Endless Pain is unleashed. Witch will deal less damage, but you'll conserve potions.

\*\*\*Armor caps at 80%, so Steadfast is preferred if the Knight's Armor stat already exceeds 80% without the Enhanced Armor skill.

This strategy should allow Zaluss to use Eat Your Soul, Cage of Bones, and Break Free exactly once at the very beginning, then stun her for the rest of the attack. In the case of a Cheap Shot dodge, Endless Pain will also be used halfway through.

### Classic Team--Warmaster Front Variation:

**Witch**

**Knight -- Warmaster**

**Thief**

Use the same gear and skills as above.

### Plate of Undeath Team (by Ark\_Prime):

**Warmaster**

**Thief -- Knight**

**Witch**

 Thief

This strategy should allow Zaluss to use Eat Your Soul, Cage of Bones, and Break Free exactly once at the very beginning, then Endless Pain around halfway through, which will activate Warmaster's Wrathful Strike damage bonus. Use Inspiration and Shield Tactics right before Cage of Bones, then Shield Tactics again right before Endless Pain. Knight may occasionally need a common Heal potion in order to survive the pain; this is something you need to determine on the fly.

In the case of a Cheap Shot dodge, Endless Pain will be followed by another Eat Your Soul and then Break Free.

### High Risk, High Reward Team--Warmaster Front Variation (by Bitocul):

**Witch**

**Knight -- Warmaster**

**Thief**

 Knight
 Warmaster
 Thief

This strategy should allow Zaluss to use Eat Your Soul, Cage of Bones, and Break Free exactly once at the very beginning, then stun her for the rest of the attack. In the case of a Cheap Shot dodge, Endless Pain will also be used halfway through.

### Soul Skill Usage

Inspiration should be used whenever possible. Shield Tactics and Vile Brew should be untouched, except to use Shield Tactics right before an Endless Pain occurs.

With Waylay, the goal is to use the right number of Waylays to end the run right before Zaluss uses Break Free. This number changes between devices depending on lag. Experiment on your own to determine the correct number of Waylays for your runs. Also, make sure you do not use Waylay after a Flanking Strike but before a Backstab, since it is better for the Flanking Strike to buff the Backstab.

### The Dreaded Cheap Shot Dodge

A critical moment of every dragon run is the dodgeable Cheap Shot at the beginning of the attack, which has a 10% chance of occurring. If Cheap Shot is dodged, the dragon will use Endless Pain and/or Break Free around halfway into the run. Since there is neither a way to prevent the dodge nor to know in advance if it will happen, this will unfortunately be a major luck factor that you simply have to bear. Note that Vest of the Flayer reduces enemy dodge by 5%, which makes the dodge less likely to occur. Demon's Skin results in a higher damage output overall if the dodge does not occur; however, it does not have the 5% dodge reduction, and its 50 damage every 3 turns will put Thief in greater danger if the dodge does occur. You may choose whichever option suits your playstyle.

Most strategies need potions to survive a Cheap Shot dodge. Use Shield Tactics to defend against Endless Pain, then use a Heal potion on Knight. If you have Thief with Demon's Skin equipped, give the potion to him and then use a Resurrect potion on Knight instead.

### Warmaster Front and Luck Manipulation

If you decide to use a strategy involving Warmaster in the front line, for the purpose of activating his Wrathful Strike damage bonus after the first Eat Your Soul, proceed with caution. Zaluss has a 20% chance of hitting Warmaster with a critical hit, killing him instantly; and if this does happen, the run is unsalvageable even with a Resurrect potion. However, there is a trick you can use to anticipate and possibly prevent the death from happening.

Turn on "Show Combat Actions" in the pause menu (this is not only for the dragon; it is helpful everywhere). Then, you must pause the game the moment that the combat actions become visible. There is a visual cue for this: When Zaluss flies across the screen twice and then lands on top of the nest, she will flap her wings exactly four times. Count the number of times she flaps her wings inwards, and once you reach 4, wait just a moment, and then hit Pause. You should now be able to see the upcoming combat actions in the background. If you see Battle Fury in the queue, resume as normal. If Battle Fury is not in the queue, unpause and immediately click/tap on one of your heroes. Selecting a hero will re-roll the RNG for Eat Your Soul, thus reducing the chance of a failed run from 20% (1 in 5) to 4% (1 in 25).

## Strategies for Players Below Level 55

### General Information

Players who are not yet level 55 may still meaningfully contribute to the dragon without Tier 2 and 3 gear. However, remember to be diligent about pushing all heroes to 7 stars, especially Warmaster and Witch.

### Classic Team--Sub-55 Variation (by Plumpcorpse):

**Warmaster**

**Thief -- Knight**

**Witch**

 Thief

\***Do NOT give Ambusher's Hacker to Warmaster.** The extra attack speed changes skill cycles unfavorably, causing Zaluss to escape stunlock. He can use any other weapon, and theoretically, a maxed Tooth of the Lost God has more damage potential than a maxed Moon Mace (although the former is much less valuable outside of the dragon, and thus far less common).

\*\*Knight will be much more vulnerable before level 55, so Blade of Wonder is preferred for the increased chance to dodge any of Zaluss's attacks. One could also opt to equip Vorpal Warsword for greater damage, but this drastically increases the chance that Knight will need a Heal, Immune, or Revive potion to survive. Alternatively, replace Witch's Vile Dart with Refreshing Brew so that you can survive Endless Pain without potions, at the cost of potential damage from Witch and Warmaster.

This strategy should allow Zaluss to use Eat Your Soul, Cage of Bones, and Break Free exactly once at the very beginning, then Endless Pain around halfway through, along with Break Free and Purge later. A Cheap Shot dodge is thankfully impossible because Ambusher's Hacker reduces Zaluss's dodge chance to 0.

### Consistent Sub-55 Strategy (by SUBuddha adapted by BIG-BULLY):

*tl;dr: For maximum damage. Use lvl51-54 heroes team and +11 enchantments (enchanted at lvl51-54). (Knight)Vorpal Warsword+Strength of Legend/Dreadplate, (Witch)Wand of Swiftness+Coat of Quickening, (Warmaster)Tooth of Lost God+Chainskin, (Thief)Ambusher's Hacker+Vest of Flayer. For survival at lower keeper levels (lvl45-50), use Fighter's Adventure's Sword of Vengeance/Blade of Wonder/Moon Mace/Great Wyrmhide/Strength of Legend at max levels instead.*

This strategy works (300 second runs) with all skills level 9, 6-star Warmaster and all skill levels 10 7-star Witch, Knight & Thief. The damage is however significantly less (approximately 50% less) than if all heroes have 7 stars and lvl10 skills. This has been tested with all four heroes at level 50, without enchantments, with Knight using Blade of Wonder (level 60) and Strength of Legend (level 65), Witch using Wand of Swiftness (level 60) and Coat of Quickening (level 55), Warmaster using Moon Mace (level 55) and Chainskin (level 55), and Thief using Ambusher's Hacker (level 63) and Great Wyrm Hide (level 64). It has also been tested with all heroes at 7 stars and level 51 with the same gear, but Thief using a Vest of Flayer (level 55) with +11 enchantments.

However, to make the most damage with this strategy you should have all heroes at 7 stars and hero levels 51-54 (the higher, the better). It works consistently 100% of the time, without the use of potions. All items used should be combined to maximum level and enchanted to at least +3 up to +11 (at level 51-55). Expected damage is around 380k per attack, yielding around 8 million damage per event, when you are using lvl50 team with no enchantments and survival gear (great wyrmhide/stength of legend/moon mace/blade of wonder/sword of vengeance/enchanted vorpal warsword).

With level 52 heroes, level 51 enchanted gear (+11) on Vorpal Warsword+Strength of Legend/Dreadplate, Wand of Swiftness+Coat of Quickening, Moon Mace+Chainskin, Ambusher's Hacker+Vest of Flayer. You can do 432k-450k damage. With Tooth of the Lost God and level 53-54 heroes team, probably closer to 450k+. An all heroes lvl54 team has made potion free run: 468k-499k with moon mace55, cskin55, ambusher63, greatwyrmhide64, vorpal warsword61, str of legend65 all +11 (enchanted at lvl51-54). So can be worth trying both max+11 great wyrm and vest of flayer on your thief since ambusher remove the cheap shot dodge.

You can also get 510k damage per attack when Warmaster is equipped with your first King's Hammer when you arrive at level 55, if you are fast leveling and can't afford full lvl55 team gear. Then you don't have to change any of the skills or other gear.

You need to use Inspiration whenever possible and squeeze in either 2 or 3 Shield Tactics before the Endless Pain arrives, depending on the survival strength of your team. With lowest possible levels/gear/stars you definitely need 3 Shield Tactics. With stronger gear, 2 Shield Tactics might be enough. If you need to perform three Shield Tactics, you will want to trigger them when the timer shows 283 seconds, 263 seconds, and 243 seconds. If your team is strong enough to get by on two Shield Tactics. You will trigger Shield Tactics at 263 seconds and 243 seconds. It should be manageable with level 54 heroes and a minimum of 3 enchantments on all of your gear (Vorpal Warsword probably needs to be +11 while Blade of Wonder or FA's Sword of Vengeance can be +3 or +0).

No Waylays = more total damage for sub55 strategy, but not for the level 55 strategies.

**Warmaster**

**Thief -- Knight**

**Witch**

 **Knight** | FA's Sword of Vengeance(75)/Blade of Wonder(60)/**Vorpal Warsword(61+11)**, Strength of Legend(65)/**Dreadplate(62)**/Darkfire Plate(60)
 **Witch** | Wand of Swiftness(60), Coat of Quickening(55)

Equipment with bold text (+11 enchantments at lvl51+) = Maximum damage equipment for keeper level 51-54.

Equipment with normal text (non-bold) (no enchantments) = Survivability equipment for keeper level 45-50.

Personally. I prefer max level (+11) (enchanted at TK level 51): Vorpal Warsword, Strength of Legend, Moon Mace and Vest of Flayer. Because it gives great damage AND great survivability, which is useful in case I mess up my shield tactics timing when I am half asleep and are playing very sloppy. Also due to the fact that Moon mace 55+11 is godly on warmaster tank sub55 In Tower Attacks.

### Ancient Team (by Ashbringer, QuantumApocalypse, and Beatific):

**Druid**

**Warmaster -- Blackguard**

**Witch**

 Warmaster
 Blackguard

This strategy was most common in a previous version of Zaluss but became outdated when her Stun Resistance was buffed. Despite this, it is still a powerful strategy against stages 1-5 and can be used to decent effect against stages 6+.

Pay close attention to the very first Cage of Bones. If you do not see any actions from Witch showing up afterwards, it means you need to use an Immune potion on her immediately.

There are two major things you will need to balance when using this strategy: Invigor targeting and Soul Rend timing. The first Invigors should be used on Warmaster to increase Call to Arms and Battle Fury usage. Towards the end of the run, target Blackguard instead so he can dish out damage as rapidly as possible. Due to the fact that a fully healed hero cannot receive Invigor, some finesse is required--you must avoid having Warmaster or Blackguard reach full health unless it is absolutely necessary (for instance, using Rapid Regeneration in order to heal Blackguard from near death). Soul Rends should be timed to prevent Zaluss from using Break Free and escaping stunlock. Simply use Soul Rend right before Break Free appears in the combat actions, and about 50% of the time you will see Hex pop up next, prolonging the stunlock.