The pit-keeper

The pit-keeper
Scenery 21 of 31 · Tornskarr, the Bend-Cliff. Alone · Nightmare · Cryomancer.

Standing in a pit's kerb makes the pit-keeper take 30% more damage. On Nightmare your first step into a kerb also starts its second phase and Smothering, whatever its health. Your roots and slows do nothing to it on Nightmare, so only their damage counts.

What you hold

You hold 11 spells: your two starting spells plus one draft from each of the nine earlier bosses (ordinary sceneries give none). Taking an upgrade ranks a spell up instead of adding one; one tested draft order took stillair twice and held 10. You have 20 talent points.

• Ahead of It: tap frost Bolt; a slow shard you have to lead, rooting what it hits.
• The long cold: held frost Beam; you cannot move while holding it, and it slows the body it is on.

A draft deals four cards: the first is always your own spell (one your talent tree pays for), from the third draft one is an upgrade, the rest random. 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 Cryomancer's own.

The build we used: afterfrost, stillair and needleglass were the own first card. Five more own frost spells came as other cards: winterdrag, creepingfloe, rimehold, calving and glacierlance. The last was a random card: sapfall.

If you are dealt something else: afterfrost was in all ten builds; glacierlance, needleglass and stillair in nine; shatterpoint seven. Every draft order cleared. The build we used was the slowest; the two fastest (under 3 minutes on average) held both Heavy spells glacierlance and shatterpoint and fewer control spells.

Talents

Your choice; this is what was tested: all 20 points in Distance (Cryomancer talents), in order. Rule: buy in the deepest row the tree has opened, new talents before second ranks. Rows open at 5, 10 and 15 points, the ultimate at 20 (open here, but no point left).

1. The Length of the Hold ×2: Beam spells reach 3% farther per point.
2. Less Lead to Owe ×2: Your projectiles fly 3% faster per point.
3. Mid Channel ×1: Take 2% less damage while channelling per point.
4. Denser While Held ×2: Your channels deal 3% more damage per point.
5. The Colour Coming at Him ×2: Take 4% less damage of the element that has hurt you most this fight per point.
6. From Back Here ×1: Deal 4% more frost damage per point to enemies more than 8 m from where you cast.
7. Nothing Near Him ×2: Deal 4% more frost damage per point while nothing is within 4 m of you.
8. He Has Not Moved ×2: Deal 4% more frost damage per point after standing still for 1 s.
9. Too Close ×1: Enemies stepping within 4 m of you have a 5% chance per point to take a frost hit of 6.
10. As Far as the Frame ×2: Each point extends your bolts, throws and beams a fifth of the way to the room's edge.
11. The First One in ×2: Each fight, a frost hit of 3.6 per point strikes the first enemy to come within 4 m of you.
12. He Can Still Turn ×1: While channelling with the stick idle, you turn to follow the enemy your beam is on, faster with each point.

The fight

1. Four cold-fire pits, one per corner: standing in one costs nothing and you cannot fall in. Alone you also face one doorway-shade.
2. Keep your distance: Underneath (answer: kite) hits whatever stands next to the boss.
3. Take a kerb (2 m round a pit) when ready for phase two. The +30% is the same alone as for four.
4. Smothering (answer: walk out) is aimed at you; step out of its ground. It reaches for the empty pit nearest the boss, and standing in that pit's kerb when it lands stops it.
5. Below 30% health, Smothering p3 comes every 7 s instead of 14.
6. The bestiary's answers for the rest: walk out of Far quarter and Silhouette, strafe Nearest dark and Reach, jump Under the kerb (Space / North), blink Glaze (Shift / East).
7. Hold cast (left mouse / South) on The long cold or glacierlance from a kerb between attacks; a blink or jump ends the channel. Cycle spells with Q/E / L1/R1 to cast taps while moving.
8. Kill everything in the court and the room clears.

What goes wrong

• Standing close. The close style fell to about 61% health in every one of the ten draft orders. The styles that keep 5–7 m away never dropped below 98%.
• The warned attacks were not the threat: walk-out attacks caught the hero 393 times across 60 runs and cost no health at all.
• Counting on control. Ahead of It's root, The long cold's slow and sapfall's weaken do nothing to a Nightmare boss; they still work on the shade.
• Nightmare has no pause. Alone, going down is Defeated: nobody can revive you. Retry the room.

Tested

60 automated fights on the shipped rules: ten random draft orders, each in three styles (up close, loose distance, wide berth) at two skill levels. All 60 cleared with no downs. Fastest 2 min 4 s, slowest 7 min 30 s, lowest health 61%. 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 Cryomancer alone on Nightmare, holding the build used above. The fight took 4 min 23 s of game time.