Baron Herx’s Lair

*For information about the character and lore, see Baron Herx.*

**Baron Herx’s Lair** is the final level of the main dungeon in *Barony*, found on the twentieth floor of the dungeon. It is here where the player squares off against the main antagonist, Baron Herx, to protect the realm at large.

## Description

At the end of the dungeon, Baron Herx’s Lair is simple and straight to the point, the player enters from a vacant room and crosses over a long bridge over to a sizable arena where progressing inside will shut off the opening behind them and unleash Baron Herx, ready to blast the player with his magical attacks.

### Mystic Orbs

Before entering the battle, the player has a second pathway open to them. This other path leads to a series of small rooms thematically resembling the Swamp, the Ruins, and the Sand Labyrinth from left to right, entering from the center Ruin-themed room. Each room has a pedestal for the player to place a Mystic Orb upon.

Each orb fits onto a specific pedestal, corresponding to where the orb was originally found. Inserting an orb removes it from the player’s inventory and they cannot retrieve it from that point forward. Doing so also grants the player several stat buffs related to the color of each orb. As these rooms are completely optional, they can be skipped if the player does not have any of the orbs, or would wish to use their orbs for trading with the Mysterious Merchant inside Hamlet.

## Strategy

When entering the arena and beginning the fight, Baron Herx can be quite the threat for players blindly charging in. His primary form of attack, a stream of lightning spell blasts, can easily tear apart a player if multiple hits land from it.

However, it is much less devastating at range, since Herx only ever aims where the player is and not where they will be, making simple strafing a good tactic. These blasts of lightning also show a predictable pattern, so timing after one shot and quickly coming in for an attack can be done safely.

At random points, Herx can summon demonic enemies such as Demons and Imps. These tend to make the fight much more chaotic, so taking them out quickly is advised. Since both monsters can also fire projectiles, they can also damage Baron Herx and vice versa, allowing for Herx to waste his shots on his own minions.

Herx will slowly float towards the player for most of the fight, as well as being able to quickly fly away to another part of the arena when damaged. This is especially effective against characters who rush down Herx with melee rather than fighting at range.

At half health, Herx will change the arena by removing most of the light, only leaving the center illuminated. This can actually pose some issues if Herx is too far away from the player, since the darkness can effectively obstruct the player’s vision quite a bit. Thankfully, since Herx is keen to casting out his lightning attack frequently, as well as the attack being very luminescent in the darkness, locating him and predicting his movements should not be too difficult.

### Aftermath

After defeating Baron Herx, he drops a Purple Mystic Orb, and a pedestal rises out of the center of the arena. Inserting this orb will summon a portal, leading the player out of the dungeon and into a text scroll, leading into Hamlet and the story content added in the Blessed Addition.

## Gallery

The entering room to the left and the Orb Room to the right, with the bridge to the arena between them.The bridge leading to Baron Herx inside the arena.The interior of the arena.Aftermath of defeating Baron Herx and using the orb to summon the portal to Hamlet. Note the loss of light outside the center of the arena.Some of the destroyed blocks outside of the arena.The easter egg of Rainbow Dash found inside the lair.The arena as seen through the Barony Editor named "boss.lmp"
## Trivia

* In older versions of the game or in Classic mode, defeating Baron Herx or Baphomet ends the game.
* Upon defeating Baron Herx, several walls outside of the arena are destroyed. This is odd, as there is no way players inside of the arena would see these changes without digging back out.
* In one of the long corridors next to the arena, several tiles depicting My Little Pony character Rainbow Dash can be found as an easter egg.
	+ Reaching this easter egg requires a form of levitation if viewed outside.
	+ Destroying one of the blocks with a pickaxe or spell grants an Achievement.