Battle Strategy

This resource is outdated and should not be followed.

Power: 4

Monster Lean:

- Can steal the player's Mana Shield

- Can remove any negative status effect applied by the player

- The first time you kill Afterlifex, he will regenerate some HP and then retaliate based on the damage dealt to him.

- His attacks deal -10% damage and attempt to inflict Disease. You can resist with your END/LUK

- He can become immune to an element you strike him with at low health

### Strategies

The
first boss of the Moderator Challenge gauntlet is thankfully easier than the
others. The key to beating Afterlifex is not to take things too quickly. His
revival ability ensures that you cannot nuke him without forethought. If you
try, he will resurrect and hit you with enough force to wipe out your HP bar.
Status effects are also a no-go because he can remove any negative ones and
steal your own mana shield.

The easiest way to win this fight is to not do anything fancy. He only deals
additional damage if you try to nuke. Using a simple weapon attack with a
darkness armour/shield and misc should reduce his health quickly. Also note
that he can become immune to your weapon element so make sure you have a weapon
of another element ready to use. Once he has revived, feel free to nuke his remaining health as he is unable to revive for a second time.

## Carandor

Power: 4

Monster Lean: 1.5

### Abilities

- Boss Boost +30 (Hail to the king, baby!)

- Can steal your Celerity status

- Can reflect any immobilising status (control, daze, fear, freeze, hypersalinate, paralyse, petrify, thermal shock) onto you

- He can spend SP on a quickcast skill to inflict himself with Celerity. This can stack

- He can spend HP to increase SP

- If he has enough MP, he will spend it to cast a spell and deal increased damage

- His regular attack heals his MP.

### Strategies

From
the abilities above, it's clear that Carandor is very much geared towards
maximising the damage he deals. This battle is ultimately decided during the
first turn, as he will continually use his transfusion ability (HP->SP) to
carry on stacking celerity. If you can either gain initiative or endure his
high damage output on the first turn, you are almost guaranteed to win because
he has little-to-no health left. However, that is easier said than done, given
his fire spell can wipe out your health even when wearing a dedicated fire
armour. This is made more difficult within the challenge gauntlet, where you
must face both Afterlifex and D.U.M. before him (draining your health). A word
of caution: do not use quickcast status effects such as celerity, as Carandor
will steal them.

The safest way to win this battle is to gain initiative. This will let you use
a defensive misc (to endure his next attack) or better yet, kill Carandor
before he has a chance to fight back. Going in with high levels of LUK is
recommended. To further boost your chances of going first, wear the Whispering
Raiment when entering the fight and buy the Ambush potion from Lucretia's shop
in Granemor. This will give you a combined +210 initiative, meaning even those
players with 0 LUK should have a chance to strike first. The only other options
are:

i). Increase your MRM as much as possible in the hope he misses
ii). Use an armour and shield that offer maximum protection against fire damage
in the hope you can endure the attack

However, I recommend you steer clear of these if at all possible.

The aim of your first (and hopefully only) turn should be to kill your foe by
any means necessary. An easy strategy for free-to-play Mages would be to make
use of both Cryomancer robe and Arctic Athame. The 'imbue lore' skill of the
former ensures that you deal over twice your normal damage with ice spells. The
latter boosts damage by +37% as Carandor has >0 INT. A damage/INT/ice
boosting misc would also prove very useful. Boosting your INT by using the
Celtic wheel shield will also maximise your damage. Then, cast the strongest
ice spell available to you. Whilst Arctic Tornado is the best overall, Frigid
fury is also sufficient. For the lucky few that possess Spectral chains, this
is also an ideal time (provided it won't waste precious mana that you can't
recover on the same turn). As always, the poelala pet/guest are also useful to
further maximise damage.

Warriors and Rangers have things a little more difficult. The 'Cryo-Chrono
Blast' skill from Horo-Show void vigilante is a good option (boosted using
Chieftan's Ironthorn). Make sure that you boost your damage as much as possible
(miscs/booster pets) to give yourself a better chance to kill him in one shot.
Those that possess the Frostval past weapons will find them extremely useful,
as they can inflict ice vulnerability. Carandor also cannot remove this effect,
ensuring you can exploit this vulnerability.

### Useful items

Weapons: Arctic Athame, Frostval Past weapons

Armours: Cryomancer Robe, Horo-Show Void Vigilante, Whispering Raiment

Shield: Celtic Wheel, Chieftan's Ironthorn

Spells:Arctic Tornado, Frigid Fury, Spectral Chains

## D.U.M. (DragonUltraMaster)

Power: 4

Monster Lean: 1.5

### Abilities

- Boss Boost +30 (Hail to the king, baby!)

- Daydreaming: Similar to ZardAde, D.U.M becomes immune to the element you first attack with on any given turn. After he falls below 66% health, he can become immune to 2 elements at once. Below 33%, this increases to 3.

- D.U.M. also highly resists harm and void element attacks.

- He possesses three different attacks, each of which has a 33% chance of occurring
- His attacks deal random element damage. They can also deal harm damage

- One of his attacks has a 33% chance to inflict celerity on himself. This overall reflects a 10% chance (combined with all of his other attacks).

- Another of his attacks can inflict you with Controlled (28% chance, 1 round). This can be resisted with your END/LUK

### Strategies

D.U.M
can strike using multiple elements on a single turn, including with harm
damage. He also has a chance on activating Celerity. Only one armour, the Horo-show void Vigilante, can reduce harm
damage and it is weak to most other elements. For these reasons, playing
defensively is not recommended, as you are unable to properly defend against
his attacks.

The main issue with damaging DUM comes from his resistance to harm/void attacks
and Daydreaming, his signature ability. This makes him resistant to the
elements you strike him with. For example, if you were to use a three-hit fire
spell on him, only the first hit would do damage. This means you must either
use one-hit attacks and constantly switch elements to get the most out of your
attacks.

It is best if you can gain the initiative in this fight. Unlike other fights
such as the Void Dragon Queen, this is not absolutely necessary, but avoids you
taking substantial damage before having to face Carandor in the next round.
Once your turn begins, D.U.M lacks the ability to mess with your quickcast
status effects (unlike Carandor/Afterlifex) so feel free to make the most of
these. In particular, the celerity from Shadowfeeder pendant and the Control
from Love potion/Vampire subrace are advised because they increase the number
of turns you have to act. These may be crucial when it comes to tanking hits.
Stat boosts from Arcane Amplification/Buffalot's beach bod can also be helpful
to increase the damage of your spells/skills. If you do use any quickcast
abilities, make sure to use the Purple rain strategy to regain any lost MP/SP because you may need it against
Carandor.

Although Kindred Spirit's Valiance was mentioned in the introduction, this
free-to-play armour is particularly useful against D.U.M. The skill deals significantly more damage than any other. It also follows your weapon element.
This means you can choose a multi-element weapon and get around the Daydream
effect. Free-to-play weapon options include the Ku Brush (melee) and Prismatic
Paintbrush (magic). Whilst the former maxes out at level 136, this should be
irrelevant as you are using the kindred skill. The default Guardian weaponry
will also prove useful, though it is restricted to Guardian only. Use
Chieftan's Ironthorn to increase the damage of your kindred strike and make the
battle faster.

Whilst less effective, there are also a number of other options. For mages with
access to the Frostval 2014 event, the level 147 Lollipop mace may prove useful
because it possesses no special (unlike the prismatic paintbrush). The rare Eye
of Chaos spell deals damage from all 8 elements, ensuring you avoid the
daydream effect. For those without access, the free-to-play Four-Eyed Blaster
offers a less reliable alternative. Ensure you boost these spells as much as
possible before using them.

Instead of using multi-element items, you can also choose to use one-hit
skills. These deal the total amount of damage before the Daydream effect kicks
in, preventing any damage reduction. The rare S.A.N.T.A armour immediately
springs to mind, with its one-hit laser skill. Alternatively, the champion
donation armours also possess one-hit skills. However, Kindred is still more
reliable.

### Useful items

Weapons: Ku Brush, Lollipop Mace, Prismatic Paintbrush

Armours:Kindred Spirit's Valiance, S.A.N.T.A

Shield: Chieftan's Ironthorn

Spells:Eye of Chaos, Four Eyed Blaster

Pets:

Misc: Love Potion, Shadowfeeder pendant

## Ryn the Undying

### Abilties

- Fearful Presence. You may be unable to act on your first turn.

- Immune to both the Afraid and Panic status effects

- His spirit rend attack has a chance to instantly kill the player if they are undead

- His standard turn regeneration is split between his MP and SP

- If he has sufficient MP, he will cast a light spell to inflict you with Spirit rend (light-element freeze). He will not cast this spell if you are already inflicted with this condition. If inflicted, he will use his regular attack, which can deal darkness/fire damage

- If there are sufficient status effects on the player and he has enough SP, he will spend it to use a darkness skill which consumes these status to deal additional damage

### Strategies

Ryn has a very similar skillset to Sylith, with two minor differences

**i).** Ryn the Undying does not summon a Death Knight minion

**ii).** He cannot cast 'Memento Mori'

With this in mind, gaining initiative has additional importance in this fight. You will not gain the free strike that Sylith offers when summoning her undead minion. For more strategy information, see Sylith.

## Sylith

Power: 3

Monster lean: 1

### Abilities

- Fearful Presence. You may be unable to act on your first turn.

- Immune to both the Afraid and Panic status effects

- A 10% chance to instantly kill you if undead. In the challenge version, this chance applies even if you are not undead.

- Her standard turn regeneration is split between her MP and SP

- Memento mori: If Sylith is hit with a sufficiently strong spell/skill OR is hit with an attack that reduces her HP below 25%, she will cast a quickcast skill similar to purple rain. This resets her HP back to the level it was the turn before.

- Every turn, you can be inflicted with either poison, burn, bleed, cripple, afraid or blind. You can resist this with your END/LUK

- On her first turn, she will summon a Death Knight minion. This minion will deal darkness damage and can sustain itself after Sylith is defeated. You must beat both Sylith and this Death Knight to win the battle

- If she has sufficient MP, she will cast a light spell to inflict you with Spirit rend (light-element freeze). She will not cast this spell if you are already inflicted with this condition. If inflicted, she will use her regular attack, which can deal darkness damage

- Once you are inflicted with enough status effects, she will use a wind skill that automatically hits and consumes any negative status effects to deal additional damage.

### Strategies

Sylith
has a number of highly damaging attacks at her disposal. Her spirit rend spell
means you need to defend against both dark and light damage to tank her
attacks. Her auto-hit wind spell also deals more damage by consuming any
status' gradually inflicted over time by necrotic aura. Because of these
abilities, killing her quickly is extremely important. Her high HP (9-10
thousand at level 150) makes this easier said than done. Her most dangerous
ability, 'Memento Mori',  can also rewind
the damage done on a turn (without refunding your SP/MP to boot). As such, you
need to prevent her from attacking as well as dealing as much damage as you
can. Fortunately, Sylith offers one lifeline: her first turn is always used to
summon a death knight. Whilst she can rewind time on this turn, it gives you a
vital opportunity to strike.

As with other offensive bosses (Carandor, for example), your first turn really
counts. Since Sylith spends her first turn on a summon, failing to strike first
isn't as big a deal. However, gaining initiative by using the Ambush potion
(Lucretia's shop in Granemor) and Whispering Raiment is still recommended. She
can use 'Memento Mori' on any turn and having two targets can make your nuke
attacks easier to tank. If she does manage to summon her death knight, make
sure you target Sylith first, as she is the more dangerous foe.

Once your turn begins, you should attempt to stunlock for as long as possible. She
is immune to fear-based effects, but cannot resist Control/Celerity as easily.
The free-to-play ShadowFeeder Pendant can inflict celerity, though you need to
be at least level 100 to get one. You can acquire the seasonal Love Potion from
Snugglefest, which you can repeatedly click to attempt control. For those that
can't wait for February to roll around, the level 4 Vampire Subrace Ability
also has this effect (Adventurers sadly cannot access this skill, so you'll
have to hang around). These skills both cost SP, so guardians will find Essence
orb extremely useful to keep your SP levels up. You may also find other quickcast
SP-restoring items like the Kindred Shield (Make sure to stack up charges
before your fight!).

Aside from Kindred, there are a number of light nukes that can take down
Sylith. White Knight z is one of the better token choices, which you can
combine with Chieftan's Ironthorn and a damage boosting Misc. Mages also have
access to Lumenomancer robe and the premium Lumenomancer bloodmage. Whilst the
former can significantly boost the power of any light spell (Creation burst and
Star forge immediately spring to mind), the latter has an in-built spell that
receives elemental compensation and a blood boost. Both options will be able to
kill Sylith with repeated use. Spellboosters are recommended.

For those without access to these premium options (or non-mages for those who
can't use lumen. robes), there are also free-to-play options available.
Ultimon's Armour has a reasonable old lean light skill and also defends against both
dark and light attacks, making it ideal to endure Sylith's Spirit rend attack.. Whilst this skill is sufficient to kill this boss,
it will take repeated uses. You should make sure to start the battle with a full
SP bar and stunlock Sylith with the above methods to ensure victory.

### Useful Equipment

Useful items

Weapons: Light MageStave

Armours: Lumenomancer Bloodmage, Lumenomancer robes, Ultimon's Armour, Whispering Raiment, White Knight Z

Shield: Chieftan's Ironthorn, Kindred Shield

Spells:Creation Burst, Star Forge

Pets: Lepre-Chan

Misc: Essence Orb, Love Potion

## Ultimon

### Abilities

- He has a 1% chance to use his nuke attack. This will do massive damage and automatically hit

- He has passive backlash (100% damage reflected)

- his attacks hit randomly for dark/light damage

- if he has enough SP, he will spend it to use a skill for increased damage. This can also inflict you with Choked

### Strategies

Ultimon
almost entirely relies on his 1% nuke attack to kill the player. In order to
land this rare attack, his other abilities and traits are designed to slow the
player as much as possible. Low elemental resistances (including harm/void)
limit your damage output, further reduced by the choke effect applied by his
skill. Player nukes are also discouraged by his backlash effect, which also
hits you with 100% of any damage you inflict. Fortunately, these effects and
traits severely cut into Ultimon's damage output, meaning his regular attacks
aren't worth worrying about. Unfortunately, his 1% nuke is a force to be
reckoned with, dealing over 10 times the damage of a regular attack and being
completely unavoidable. Get unlucky (i.e. being hit with multiple) could
severely reduce your chances of victory.

As long as you keep your health above 2000, you should be prepared for
any nuke Ultimon can throw your way. Your best option is to sit in an armour and
shield that defends against both light and darkness. Examples of the former
include Shadow of Doubt and Eternal Twilight's Mantle. Shadow shields include
luminous shield and exalted paladin guard. Crystal of Restless shadows is also
an ideal misc to reduce light/darkness damage. The Luminous blast spell may
prove useful as it element-seeks and deals additional damage vs shadow enemies,
just be aware that it will trigger Ultimon's backlash ability. Other trigger
items involve the Luminous Blade and the Rat Flail. The fight itself is simple:
Slowly drain his health and keep your health up with potions / heal spells and
skills. Celerity and SP drain equipment may also be useful, delaying or preventing Ultimon from using his sp attack and increasing your safe damage windows.

### Useful Equipment

Weapons: Luminous Blade, Rat Flail

 Armours: Eternal Twilight's Mantle, Shadow of Doubt

Shield: Exalted Paladin Guard, Luminous Shield

Spells: Luminous Blast

Pets:

Misc: Crystal of Restless Shadows

## Void Dragon Queen

Power: 4

Monster Lean: 1.5

### Abilities

- Boss Boost (Hail to the king, baby!)

- Takes 0% to harm/element X and -300% to void attacks

- Soft damage cap (0.33 clawback)

- Standard miss effect for void dragons. If you miss, you are dealt a hit of void damage that regenerates the Queen's SP

- If hit with a Void/Harm/Element X attack, she will regenerate SP

- Starts with 2 dragon "consorts". These monsters essentially function like regular void dragons

- Can spend MP to grant her celerity

- Can spend SP to deal increased void damage

- You can be inflicted with Imbue: void. This makes all attacks on your next turn (excluding spells) deal void damage.

- If the Queen's HP falls below 50%, her attacks will automatically hit.

### Strategies

When fighting this boss, there are two major points to bear in mind:

**1). She deals void damage.** This is made more difficult by her ability to always hit you when she falls below 50% health. You cannot easily defend against void damage (in fact, there's only one way), so don't be afraid to go on the offensive!

**2).** **Her attacks can imbue yours with void energy.** This means that on your next turn, they will deal void damage and heal the boss.

The single best way to take down the Void Dragon Queen is hard and fast. Whilst she possesses a soft damage cap, her high resistances (200% to every standard element!) make it easy to deal large amounts of damage in a single turn. To get the maximum advantage, you'll want to gain initiative (letting you attack first in battle). To determine your chances, try using the AQClassic Calculation Sheet. You can increase your chances by using Whispering raiment or getting the Ambush potion at Lucretia's potion shop in Granemor. Remember, you can always flee if you don't gain initiative!

Once you have the initiative, you should attempt to kill her as fast as possible. The Queen should be your main target, as her two Consorts are renamed void dragons. To maximise your chances of killing her, I suggest trying to immoblise her and using shadowfeeder pendant to give yourself celerity. This will give you additional turns to wrack up the damage before she has a chance to fight back. More information on how to stun your foe can be found on The Stun Meta page.

Regarding how to reduce the Queen's health to zero, her high elemental resistances mean almost any standard nuke is suitable. For guardians and Z-token spenders, the skills of White Knight z and the Bloodzerker armours are highly effective. Adventurers and those that don't want to spend money can use the skill of the Horo-Show Void Vigilante, as the skill receives high elemental compensation. As an additional benefit, combining this armour with the weapon, shield and misc from the same set also offers some protection against void damage. However, when using the skill (and when using the other armours mentioned above), you'll want to be using Chieftan's ironthorn. This shield massively increases your damage output. Any other damage boosters you can muster will also be useful here. After all, you outside of the Horo-Show set, there is no way to defend against void damage!

### Useful items

Weapons: Horo-Show Void Vanquisher

Armours: Horo-Show Void Vigilante, White Knight Z, Blazing/Terra Bloodzerker

Shield: Chieftan's Ironthorn, Horo-Show Void Vindicator

Misc: Horo-Show Void Visor, Shadowfeeder pendant

## Void Nightbane

House Number: 3729183 (May have to battle a lot of low level guards before meeting him)

Power: N/A

Monster Lean:N/A

### Abilities

- Level 500 "Unbeatable" boss

- Immune to All status effects

### Strategies

***Disclaimer:** Nightbane, in this form, is considered to be*
"unbeatable". As such, the only thing you gain from beating him in
this way is bragging rights. The following method, devised by Khaiin (an amazing
strategist and one of the more eccentric members of The Gogg's Tavern Discord
server), is the only known method that is able to legitimately kill Nightbane!

Void Nightbane is one of the few monsters in AQ designed to be utterly
impossible to kill. Possessing over 100,000 HP, total immunity to all status
effects (due to him being level 500) and the ability to deal 32000 damage in a
single hit make him *almost* impossible
to kill. I state *almost* because one
method has been discovered:

To pull this feat, you're going to need a large amount of time (and I do mean
large), as well as very specific build and equipment setup. To begin, the
following stats are recommended:

STR: 0
DEX: 150
INT : 250
END: 0
CHA: 150
LUK: 200

Upon
entering battle, you'll also want to be wearing the Male/Female Asgir Warrior r
armour. The reason for this is as soon as the fight begins, Nightbane will
certainly strike first and reduce your HP to 0. However, if you are reduced to
0 whilst wearing one of these armours, there is a 10% chance of paying [Your Level]\*7 MP (or your current HP if
that's lower) and healing HP equal to 1/3 of the MP your spent. Already,
this means you'll only get to the second stage 10% of the time!

The above ensures that you can enter the battle without
instantly killed, but doesn't provide a mechanism to kill Nightbane. This is
where the Essence of Carnage comes into its own. In "Defiant" form,
this guest can be used to slowly store a boost to the next spell you use over
time. There is no cap to this effect, and can carry over between battles. For
the fight against Void Nightbane, Khaiin stored a boost of +70800% damage
against the combat trainer before attempting to fight the boss. The stats above
will allow you to store ~10% per turn, which means this process will take ~20
hours based on approximately 10 seconds per turn. (You can get this item within
the Burning solstice saga)

The final part of this strategy comes from the Samukematsuri set, a perma-rare
Frostval set from 2018. Wearing the full set ensures all attacks automatically
hit, necessary as Nightbane will be easily able to dodge your attacks
otherwise. The final piece of the puzzle is Whirl tide, a 9 hit water spell.
When combined with the Damage boost from the Carnage guest, this spell will hit
the damage cap (32767) on each hit, for a total of 294303 damage. This is
enough to beat Void Nightbane.

Khaiin has recorded this feat to prove that the
strategy works, which you can find here

Useful items

Weapons:

Armours: Asgir Warrior, Samukematsuri set

Shield:

Spells: Call Essence of Carnage, Whirl tide