The fell-daeodon

The fell-daeodon
Scenery 5 of 31 · the Calvendris Heart's northern edge. Alone · Nightmare · Geomancer.

The Bellow run is the attack to respect. It is announced, runs straight down the line it bellowed along, and does not turn. A byre lying on that line between you and the daeodon stops it, so fight near the byres, not in the open.

What you hold

Three spells, exactly. You have your two starting spells, plus one pick from the single boss draft you earned at scenery 3. A solo hero drafts once per boss and never after ordinary sceneries.

• Tap: The Old Name: a Self spell that deals no damage. A beat after you press it, stone rises in the direction you face, around you. The stone blocks friend, foe and your own beam, then expires.
• Hold: Slow ground: a stone Beam from a 9 s pool. It pushes the one body it holds slowly away. This is your starting damage.
• Your draft. The draft deals four cards. Card one is always one of the Geomancer's own spells, and the rest are random, so no particular card is promised. The rule: At each boss draft take, in this order: a new damage, control or summon spell; if none is offered, an upgrade of a damage, control or summon spell you hold; if neither, any new spell. Between two equal cards, take the Geomancer's own.

The build we used: Card one was Set fast, the Geomancer's own defensive spell, and we passed on it. The random cards were The grinding, Pinned and Searinglight. We took Searinglight, a holy Beam, which gives you a second channel.

If your hand differs: all ten draft orders cleared, with very different picks. Three took the Geomancer's own card one, Second wind. The others took The hammer, Set down, Two of them, Standing timber, Judgementfall or Ashenline. On Nightmare a boss ignores every control status: Mark, Weaken, Slow, Root and Stun do not land on it. Pinned's root or Judgementfall's slow will not stop the daeodon, but their damage still counts.

Talents

You have 4 points, and they are your choice. The runs put all of them into The Nearest (Geomancer talents), bought in this order:

1. The Colour He Stands in ×2: stone spells deal 3% more damage per point. It was the first and fourth point bought, and Slow ground is a stone spell.
2. Close Work ×1: melee attacks deal 3% more damage per point.
3. What Lands on Him Most ×1: take 4% less damage of the element that has hurt you most this fight per point.

Each point went to the deepest open row, a new talent before a second rank; rows open at 5, 10 and 15 points, so with 4 only the first row is open.

The fight

Controls (keyboard / pad): move with WASD / left stick, and aim with the mouse / right stick. Cast is Left mouse / South; hold it to channel. Blink is Shift / East and jump is Space / North. Next spell is E or → / R1 or D-pad right.

1. Opening. The daeodon fights alone. Start Slow ground on it and keep holding while nothing is winding up.
2. Bellow run (answer: walk out). It bellows down one line, then runs that line. On Nightmare you get 1.9 s instead of 2.6 s. Walk off the line, or stand in a byre's lee on the line between you and it. A byre there stops the run.
3. Short rush (answer: strafe). A short, fast line with about 0.8 s of warning. Step sideways.
4. Wheel (answer: blink). It turns its whole body in a ring around itself, with about 0.7 s of warning. Blink out (Shift / East).
5. Hook (answer: kite). There is no warning. It is what standing next to the daeodon costs. Stay out of reach.
6. Tap or hold. Slow ground does your damage. The runs averaged about 26 holds and 5 to 6 presses of The Old Name per fight. Don't raise The Old Name between you and the daeodon while channelling, because the stone blocks your own beam.
7. The end. It has one phase; the runs took 52 seconds to 2 minutes.

What goes wrong

• Leaving your draft unused. The two closest runs both ended at 17.5% health. Both were the dodge-first style in draft orders that gave a second channel (Searinglight, Standing timber) and never cast it, so they fought on the starting pair alone.
• Fighting in the open. Only a byre on the Bellow run's line stops it. Out in the open, your one answer is to walk off the line in time.
• Nightmare. There is no pause, and some attacks have only one escape. Health is 100 and resets each scenery. Alone, going down ends the fight Defeated, and you can retry the room.

Tested

We ran 60 automated runs on the shipped rules: ten draft orders, three play styles (keep range, fight close, dodge first), and two skill levels. All 60 cleared. The fastest took 52.2 s and the slowest 120.1 s. The lowest health in any run was 17.5%. Across all 60 runs, the hero was recorded inside a boss tell only twice (both Wheels, both walked out). These were automated test runs, not human play.

Screenshots

One complete fight in the current build, played by an automated test player with the game's normal controls: the Geomancer alone on Nightmare, holding the build used above. The fight took 1 min 16 s of game time.