Ninth trial · 4,150 health. The Cistern is a flooded hall with plank roads 3.25 m wide over dark water: an inner ring round the centre pool where the wyrm's head rises, an outer ring with a moat behind it, and eight spokes joining them across the canals. His coils rise from the water as tails; they can be hit but take 26% less, so hit the head. Each Strike bites a hole in the roads that stays for the rest of the fight. A new ability joins at 100, 80, 60, 40 and 20% health and none ever leaves.
In the film: a male Alchemist wins in 3:31 after the pull. He takes seven hits (two Strikes, four Wave passes and one eel volley) and regenerates back to 100 of 100 health by the end. He never leaves the head seven seconds without a hit, the longest gap is 3.7 s, so the first card after the win is Whack-a-Mole; the second is Magnum Opus, the Alchemist's class ladder. Only 34% of the floor is left, so Patchwork is not earned. The game's test player controls the hero.
The wyrm hisses: “Visssitorsss.” over the title card, “Sssplash!” at each Wave, “Feeding time.” when the eels come, “Ssspin!” at each Whirlpool, “One look. That'sss all it takesssss.” at the Stone Gaze, and “You ssstood... where I could not reach.” as he falls. A beaten party hears “Ssseafood.” Boss voices in Settings controls the audio.
The five spells
| From | Spell | How often | Damage | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | Strike | every 5 s | 35% physical; leaves a hole for good | Walk out of the circle, or roll in the last 0.4 s |
| 80% | Wave | every 20 s | 20% physical per pass, out and back | Roll through the crest, blink over it or be immune |
| 60% | Eel Swarm | every 3 s, for good | 15% physical, once a volley | Step off the lane within 1 s; roll |
| 40% | Whirlpool | every 20 s | 15% physical a second for 5 s | Leave the roads beside the three pools during the 2 s warmup |
| 20% | Stone Gaze | always | 10% a second, not physical | Never face the head for a whole second |
Strike
From the pull, every 5 s, the head picks a living hero: a 2.5 m circle locks on that hero's spot and the head lands there 1.5 s later. Everyone inside takes 35% physical and is thrown along the swing to the nearest planks that way; a roll within 0.4 s of the impact takes nothing. Where the head lands, the planks are gone: the circle becomes a hole of open water for the rest of the fight, and a road cut through is cut for good. A blink carries you over one hole. Strike where you can afford to lose floor, away from the spoke you need.
Wave (from 80%)
Every 20 s he hisses “Sssplash!”, and 1 s later dives; for that second he is out of reach and immune. Then he surfaces and a ring wave 1 m wide runs from the centre pool to the wall at 6 m/s, heaps against the wall for 5 s and runs back. Where the crest is, it hits: 20% physical each pass, so standing still costs forty. Roll through the crest, blink over it or use an immunity, once on the way out and again on the way back.
Eel Swarm (from 60%)
From 60%, for good: every 3 s, for each hero, a swarm of eels leaps from one water to another along a straight line through that hero, between the two nearest waters that line up (the moat counts, so the outer ring is covered too). The lane, 1.2 m wide, glows on the planks and the water boils at both ends for 1 s; then the eels cross. Step off the lane or roll. A hero takes at most 15% physical once a volley, however many lanes cross the spot, so a party may stand together.
Whirlpool (from 40%)
Every 20 s he hisses “Ssspin!” and three of the nine pools wind up for 2 s, then spin for 5 s: the centre pool or the eight canals, never a Strike hole and never two canals side by side. Every road beside a spinning pool turns red and is hit whole, not just near the water: 15% physical each second. For a canal that is its two spokes and its arcs of the inner and outer ring; for the centre pool, the whole inner ring. Pools near the heroes are picked first. Use the warmup to reach a road no spinning pool touches.
Stone Gaze (from 20%)
From 20%, for good, and with no warning on screen: whoever faces the head for a full second, without turning away, loses 10% of their health each second until they do. The cone is wide, about 75° to each side. It is not physical, so a roll does not help. Casting turns you to your target, so at range hit a tail with your back to the head; in melee, hit a tail from the inner ring facing outward, or from a spoke side-on, or turn to the head for one blow and away again inside a second.
Achievements
Besides the shared no-damage and Blind Faith achievements, the trial has two challenges of its own. The film earns Whack-a-Mole but not Patchwork, and their pictures are still to come.
Patchwork
Defeat the Ring-Wyrm with at least half of the floor still standing.
Whack-a-Mole
Defeat the Ring-Wyrm without his head ever going 7 seconds unhit, from the pull to the kill.
For Patchwork, every Strike is a hole: spend them on floor you can lose, near holes already made, and kill him fast. For Whack-a-Mole, keep landing hits on the head; tail hits do not count, and neither does anything while he is under water in the Wave's dive. From 20% each head hit means facing him, so turn for the blow and away again. All of them: Achievements.
Tips
- Hit the head: tails take 26% less.
- Every Strike costs floor for good. Lead it onto ground you will not need, and keep a way back to the spokes.
- The Wave comes back: after rolling the crest on its way out, be ready for it again 5 s later.
- Against the eels, a short step sideways off the lane is enough.
- When the pools wind up, look for the roads not touching any of them before you move.
- From 20%, watch your facing, not a meter: there is none.
- In a party, each hero gets his own eel lane, and stacking on one spot is safe from the eels.