Exar Kun Instance

*Updated:10/19/2023*

After debuting in 2021, the limited-time Exar Kun instance quickly became known as one of the most difficult and talked about content drops for players, and continues to live up to its reputation testing (and defeating) both veterans and new players alike. After travelling through the dangerous wilds of Yavin IV to arrive at the temple of Exar Kun, players are faced with the challenges of the temple itself and must fight through three tough encounters before they can hope to claim victory.

Here’s what you need to tackle the Exar Kun instance and come out to earn Fortune and Glory.

**Additional note:** This guide was written with the 3-man version of this instance in mind. While the general mechanics and encounters remain the same when the instance is opened up to 4-man, your party makeup may change and diversify.

# **Preparing your Team**

The team you’ll want to put together can only be made up of three characters (except its final week when it opens up to 4 players), so choose wisely. You’ll need a Doctor as a healer, a DPS/off-tank character, and a dedicated Tank. The tank can be TKM, Pikeman, or Swords. We highly recommend you do not use a Fencer melee character to tank, with the exception of the final boss. Even the Swordsman character is risky, but it is possible if you’ve constructed your character's build and trust your doctor. It's also a good idea to ensure that your DPS character is comfortable with tanking at least one of the bosses, as it is typically better to tank swap due to the amount of Battle Fatigue (BF) your dedicated tank likely receives during the first two encounters.

Your Doctor will want to have an array of Disease and Poison Area Heal packs, as well as the usual Area Stim Cs to heal the group,  which means they need to have a Master Doctor to handle this. The First Aid skill is also very useful to heal bleeding which comes with 2xxx Medic. Try to find the highest power-rated Disease and Poison Area Cures that you can find (or craft) - the more power in the status heal, the higher the likelihood you can remove multiple disease/poison stacks from your allies in a single use. From our own experience, we also highly recommend the DPS and Tank have some form of Status heal in their kit, so if anyone else has some form of Bleeding heal, or even a Disease heal (I’m looking at you, force users), it is beneficial to help make your doctor’s time in this instance much easier.

Additionally, your Damage dealer should ideally be a character with a Melee mastery or aptitude in close-quarters combat. For example, a Rifleman may struggle more than a Pistoleer, and combat skills with sweeping area attacks tend to fare better due to the sizes of the rooms and the encounters therein. Smugglers in particular will be great to have in these encounters due to their armor-breaking abilities.

Before entering the dungeon, you’ll want to visit an Entertainer for their Mind Buffs and receive the five Doctor buffs, although the Mind Buffs are not as essential for Jedi players. Once you have all those required buffs squared away, you can also invest in additional buffs from the doctor: Poison and Disease resistance. These help combat the first and final bosses and to ensure that you get the most out of these timed resistances, we highly recommend that you give out these buffs right at the entrance to the temple.

After you’ve buffed up your team, you’re ready to enter the temple and tackle the first boss. Speak to the Dark Shade inside the temple, and begin the instance.

# **Battling the Dark Shade**

When you start the instance you’ll be transported to the same room where you began, with the Dark Shade standing in the center of the room. Now, however, the doors around you will be closed. If you have a Creature Handler, now is the time to summon your pets if they do any area of effect attack and prepare them for combat. We recommend placing them along the door at the temple entrance, next to where your Doctor will go. Your Doctor character will want to stand between the pillars at the entrance to ensure they do not take any damage from the various combatants in this instance and readily heal the party with minimal interference.

With your back to the now-sealed entrance to the temple, your tank should ideally position themselves just in front of the top-right pillar. Depending on their weapon, they should have the best angle at hitting all of the additional mobs (adds) that will spawn in the room while still maintaining the focus of the Shade upon them.

Your DPS positioning is a little more nebulous, depending on their skills. We’ll address this positioning later on, but for now, it's a good idea to start near your tank. Once everyone has appropriately set up, have your tank speak with the Dark Shade to start the encounter.

After a short dialogue, the Dark Shade will lash out, summoning three types of creatures to spawn out of three areas of the room: Gackle Bats, Crystal Snakes, and Anglers. These creatures are small and hard to see but pack a punch if left unchecked and will continue to spawn every few seconds until the Dark Shade has been defeated. You’ll want to focus and attack them quickly and not let them stack up too much - too many of them will increase the chances of your party members becoming inflicted with poison and disease. More importantly, killing the adds is the *only* way to damage the boss.

Despite not being able to damage the Dark Shade directly, our tank will still want to Taunt the Shade, maintain Intimidate, and perform any additional status attacks (Blinds, Dizzies, Stuns) that they can do on it. After that, use any area stance changes (knockdowns) on them, and then begin throwing out two to three area or cone attacks, before throwing out another series of knockdowns. The trick is for the tank to alternate their attacks between area knockdowns and area attack attacks; even though you may not knock down the Dark Shade, you’ll knock down all the adds that constantly spawn in.

While this is happening, the DPS will want to be on the side of the room where the Crystal Snakes spawn. If they are not on this side of the room, switch now and stand in that corner. The DPS player will aim at the Crystal Snakes as their primary focus of attack, but if those have not spawned, then target the Dark Shade and exclusively use area attacks to hit as many of the adds as possible. The side with the Crystal Snakes is the best location to hit nearly everything in the room, giving the best coverage. If your DPS doesn't have a wide array of large cones or area attacks, you may have to have them move around to focus the various piles of adds as they start to stack up.

Throughout this encounter, the Doctor’s job is to heal the party and endure all the punishment. However, they also need to be concerned about the Poison, Bleed, and Disease attacks unleashed by the creatures. The Gackle Bats, Crystal Snakes, and Anglers all do Poison and Disease damage. These attacks add up, and Disease is the worst because it stacks BF for your Tank. The subsequent two encounters will be too challenging if the Tank takes too much BF during this fight. You’ll need to rotate in Disease, Bleed, and Poison heals to your entire party. Because of how quickly the Doctor may need to pivot or switch up their healing to help their ailing companions, we don't recommend relying on scripted macros for this encounter. A poorly timed heal or clogged combat queue can easily end a run.

That’s the entire first encounter. After that, it’s all about keeping Blind, Dizzy, Stun, and Intimidate states in the Dark Shade and quickly knocking out the smaller creatures. Using knockdowns often is highly recommended. If the DPS attack has an area state, such as the Swordsman’s Intimidate or the Fencer’s Blind, make sure to throw those in every so often in your regular attack rotation.

Eventually, the Dark Shade will fall, and then you will have cleared the room. Unfortunately, there is no loot available after beating this boss. Ghosts don't have pockets.

# **Tacking the Temple Guardians**

Congratulations on defeating the Dark Shade! The next challenge should be easier to tackle, but it will be a test to see how well your tank can handle BF and endure the rest of the encounter. However, how you did during the first encounter can define the rest of the instance. If your Tank’s Battle Fatigue reached north of 400, they will struggle just because they won’t be able to accept as much healing from your party’s Doctor. The sweet spot is around 220 or 260. However, some parties are fortunate to reach the second area with a Tank at 160. It all comes down to your Doctor watching those Disease, Bleed, and Poison ticks or any other Medics/Jedi helping to mitigate.

In the next room, you will find two Temple Guardians. Unlike the first boss, these two will automatically become Red when all of your party members enter the boss room. However, if one player remains in the hallway leading to that room, these two will not become red. Use this time to prepare your Creature Handler and switch out any pets if you have one present, or meditate some wounds away if you need to. This is also the time for your tank to switch out their PSG - if they have any charges left after the first encounter, the battle they're about to face will make quick work of them.

To start the encounter, have the party remain in the "T" portion of the hallway, close to where you first came in. Then have your Tank inch into the hallway to grab line of sight on the Guardians. Using Taunt, Intimidate, or any single target ranged ability try to only target one for now and pull them into the far side of the room where the rest of your party lies in wait. If done successfully, you should now only have one Temple Guardian in combat while the other sits on the far end of the hall. Focus your fire on the actively aggroed one, and take him down.

If you don't manage the single pull and accidentally grab both of the enemies at the same time, you're positioning will change a bit. Instead, have your Tank rush into the area where the Temple Guardians first spawned in and have your party remain in the long hallway. The Tank should Taunt both of these enemies and drag them to the left side of the room, away from the door. You want them both facing you in the corner, so they do not attack the center hallway in the center of the room where your DPS, Doctor, and potentially your pets are all fighting them. This should minimize the damage done to your party, but be a slog-fest for your Tank.

If you’ve battled the Droids in the Plasma Mining Facility instance on Naboo, these Stone Guardians are similar - they will be unaffected by Blinds, Stuns, Dizzy, or Intimidation. You have to use raw damage to beat them, so you’ll want to use your high Wound weapons or if you have a character who can perform burns, such as Bounty Hunter with Torso Shot on a Light Lightning Cannon (LLC) or anything from the Commandos, or a Smuggler who can use their shotguns to remove the armor of these targets.

It’s mostly a battle of attrition. The Stone Guardians do Bleeds and have Dizzy attacks that might cause your Tank to fall to the ground multiple times, but they do not do anything special outside of these and some Force abilities. Your Doctor will need to focus on healing the party and take care of any bleeds if they have that Medic tree. Otherwise, focus on healing - a poorly timed knockdown and burst of damage can spell a bad time for your tank. The DPS should focus on attacking a single target, as should the Creature Handler, to burn it down as quickly as possible. When the Stone Guardians’ armor breaks, it becomes much more manageable and you'll be able to take it down quickly.

Both Temple Guardians have the chance to drop Armor Attachments and Clothing Attachments that range from level 21 to 25. Alternatively, they might drop Power Crystals that are at Premium quality for Jedi players.

# **Facing the Force-Imbued Golem**

Congratulations on defeating the Stone Guardians and receiving your first bit of loot from the Exar Kun instance. If you have not been thwarted yet, the final boss is in the last chamber. Like the Dark Shade at the start of the instance, however, it will not become aggressive until you interact with it. Until then, you can enter the room and freely explore to prepare for the battle and take as much time as you need to set up. Check your food and top up on anything that may have run out in the previous encounters, like your Pikatta Pie, Exo-Protein Wafers, or Havla. If your Disease and Poison Resist Buffs ran out, now is a good time for your Doctor to reapply them.

The creature you are about to face is a massive Force-imbued Golem standing in the middle of the room. When setting up, we recommend having your DPS, Doctor, and Creature Handler pets on one side of the room in one of the hallways and your Tank on the other. When your Tank is ready to begin, speak with the Golem to begin the encounter. If you have used the same tank for the previous two encounters and have the ability to tank-swap, we do recommend swapping your primary Tank with your Melee Damage Dealer. Even a Fencer is superb at battling against the Golem because of their Dodge, but if they are hit, they can take a hefty amount of damage. Your Doctor will need to be on their toes for this encounter.

It’s important to note that this boss’s mechanic will go into different states for the encounter. First, it will have an ‘Enraged’ form where you and your party can not damage it until it is armor broken. This state can last from 15 to 35 seconds. After that, it will calm down, and you will be able to damage it. While the Golem is calmed down and in its damage phase, you will want to try to do as much damage as possible. The calm state also lasts from 15 to 35 seconds. You will receive a system message in the middle of your screen that dictates what state the Golem is about to enter, so be sure to pay attention and optimize your damage. For the abilities that apply bleeds, note that bleeds will not stick while the Golem is in its enraged state so be sure to safe them for the tired state.

It is important to note that while the Golem is in its Enraged form it can still be hit by States and Knockdown. You can save your Knockdowns for the damage phase to capitalize on the additional damage output, but don't be afraid to throw in a Knockdown while the Golem is Enraged if you need to help give your party a couple of seconds of respite. If you are not using states, conserve your Action and Mind as much as possible by hitting with regular or low-impact attacks until the Golem can be damaged again.

The Golem will be doing Bleeding, Disease, and Poison attacks against your party throughout the encounter. Because your primary Tank likely has the lowest Battle Fatigue, they risk taking the most damage from these effects. We recommend attempting to remove them as much and as quickly as possible, but it may be tricky. If your character has access to First Aid, Disease Cure, or any other Medic abilities, help out your Doctor and keep your party alive. The Golem's enraged phase is a good time to help supplement your Doctor's heals and cure those pesky states.

Do not be alarmed if your Tank or another party member dies, so long as they’re not the Doctor. If your tank goes down, the person who is DPS will need to Taunt the Golem, land an Intimidate, and remain alive as long as possible to try and give the Doctor time to perform a revive on the Tank. This can be exceptionally tricky. If everyone is communicating, the DPS might be able to knock the Golem down and line of sight (LOS) the Golem around the centerpiece of the final room to buy a few seconds. However, don’t lose LOS with your Doctor, or you will not receive any heals. Similarly, if you need to, your DPS may be able to peace out of the encounter and run behind the stone centerpiece long enough to meditate or avoid a deathblow. As long as your Doctor is still alive, do not clone! This will remove you from the instance. If you have the Hero of Tatooine Ring with remaining charges, you can use that in lieu of a Doctor revive.

Eventually, the Golem should fall, and you’ll be able to receive the final, best loot from the Exar Kun instance including decorations, unique weapons, sought-after focus crystals, or even the lightsaber hilt of Exar Kun himself. No need to talk to anyone or run back to the entrance - the instance will automatically close after 60 seconds and teleport you and your party back outside to safety.

This is certainly not the only way to succeed at surviving the Temple of Exar Kun, though hopefully helps anyone looking to conquer and claim the temple's treasures.

Good luck, and Happy Halloween!