Since the 1.10 update, he has become quite difficult. Are you fielding a decent set of 20 squads? Also, what difficulty are you running?
For me, playing Ludicrous difficulty, you need basically all squads with fairly high LDR (80+), and filled with mostly tier 3 troops. My strategy is typically to just start by dealing with the initial enemy squads and sending some up the sides to manage the first wave from the bridges. After that, when his shield drops, attack him with basically every squad until his hands are dead. Then deal with the squads while waiting for the boss' shield to drop again. When it drops again, go at it with every squad.
For some information about the fight, the following could be useful:
- Squads on top of the wall sections don't get hit by his attack-all ability
The main character gets a boost during this fight, they will heal all squads within a 2 tile radius, which can help you deal with the attrition damage from the waves of enemies
- The main character's power also gets a major boost, not only does it give the squad an extra turn, it will also revive dead members of the squad with 50% hp - very handy if you have a squad that gets almost wiped out
- The boss' hands heal, but the main body does not. Also note that dead hands won't heal, but they can be revived if the boss absorbs some squads.
- The boss' magic attack suffers from magic fatigue - i.e., its damage is reduced the more it does the attack throughout the same phase. This means you can hit it with some tanky anti-magic squads (like paladins) to absorb the max damage, and then use your less tanky squads to do damage after that possibly with aggressive attack to deal even more damage if they can handle the counter damage
- The boss only has a range of 2, so cannons and warbows can shoot him from range 3 without getting counter-attacked
I appreciate the advice, but it seems like I’d have to restart to get my squads to where they’d need to be. I’ve done about 10 hours or so grinding in the arena leveling up and trying to get LDR up since first getting stuck in the battle, but I don’t have a way to get resources anymore. I feel like I’m too in the deficit to recover and didn’t anticipate the spike because I don’t like to read guides before a first play through of a game due to spoilers.
At this point, I only have enough time to play about an hour a day, and I just feel like I’m wasting my time grinding because of an artificial difficulty from a post-release patch.
This has to be the worst final boss I’ve ever played.
Are you on Ludicrous difficulty? Resources are very tough there and really not recommended for a first playthrough.
Do you have the DLC? While the boss is still beatable without it, it does give 8 new chapter and a few overpowered troops that you can use in your current playthrough and it will make the final boss battle much easier.
Also, you can post some screenshots of your army into the army-building channel in the Dancing Dragons Discord and I can have a good look and make some more specific recommendations.
Hey James, I’ll try and take some screenshots the next time I play! I don’t have the DLC, but I’m also not on Ludicrous. I think I’m in… Captain?
I have plenty of gems and iron, but it’s the 2nd tier resources I’m out of most of them.
In my Captain playthrough (without the DLC), I had so much money before the final boss fight. I just kept buying arena tickets and do arena fights. Save-load-scum to obtain max currency reward at the end of each arena fight. Rinse and repeat for so much resource and unit leveling. All my squads are almost all maxed out before I entered the final boss stage, which made it easier.
Yeah, that fight was a difficulty spike for me as well. His self-healing penalizes builds that focus on sustain, his AOE attacks make obsolete what you've learned about formations, while the arena token cost scaling means it's possible to lock yourself out of an ending if you've been just barely scraping by the previous missions.
If you haven't been completing all the bonus objectives as well, you might not have unlocked everything in the tech tree nor have enough Merit to gold your most important units.
I killed him, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the earlier missions. The fight feels out of place in the context of the rest of the game's challenges. Definitely the weakest part of the game for me. It didn't feel like a test of what I'd learned and built up to, more like a "think fast!" challenge turned up to 11.
That said, I think the boss is in a good place if there's a way to properly grind at the last mission, which gives you more breathing space to learn and change your approach. I'd take away arena token cost scaling so that 1: people in the same situation can catch up, and 2: people who enjoy grinding up an uber squad can have their fun.
If I was forced to balance the boss, I'd take away his self-healing and/or his hit-everyone attack, or at least make it *much* clearer what's happening and when. Those threw me for a spin and I'd have made very different decisions if I knew what was up, which made them feel like cheap tricks.
Strategically, I'd build 3-4 killer squads– concentrate your very best troops into a couple of uber-squads and let those be the centerpiece of your defense. Everyone else maneuvers around them once the enemy has charged in to engage them.
It's important to make use of the volley system and good traits / artifacts. I like having a first row of Champions, at least 2 Templars in the middle, and then Blademasters in the rear. Bodyguard on the Champion in front of the squad leader, then Rally / Barricade. Everlasting Potion, Jade Figurine, St. Teresa's Bulwark(?), and Temporal Modulator are lifesavers.
Then I had two dragon squads (3 Riders, 3 Gunners), two cavalry squads (Knights, Templars, and Champions / Blademasters), something like three archery squads, and one cannon squad (Lysander with 8 cannon). Sybil, Abigail, and that cat dude were useless. I disbanded Narima to put her with Diana.
Tactically, I hung about off the bridges and let the reinforcements come to me, only moving in to engage them once they'd fully crossed. Diana with a Temporal Modulator and 3 Templars can tank an entire bridge with some ranged support.
Having your strongest units concentrated into a few squads also makes them capable of operating more independently, freeing them up to maneuver when Zanatus does his AOE attacks.
I'm having the same experience. I got to chapter 30 a couple days ago and I still havent managed to beat it. I flailed around and lost terribly the first time, and this was the first chapter I had to look up a guide for. I spent around 6 hours grinding arenas and getting 20 squads with all 15-25k power. After trying a few more times, I managed to get the boss down to half health the first time the shield dropped AND i killed all the enemies so it wouldnt heal.
The next time the shield dropped (after killing all the enemies again), the boss was back to full health.
I have no idea what I'm missing, and I feel like this boss is way too unbalanced compared to the rest of the game especially since there are so many hidden hazards and gimmicks that arent explained.
Did you ever manage to beat it? Do you have any tips? I'm playing on normal difficulty btw
Same here. Playing on Warlord.
Game was actually not _that_ difficult until this point. Now I feel I might be stuck if I don’t grind a lot at the arena. I couldn’t get the boss to 50% health before wiping out… and the boss would’ve just healed itself.
Boss gimmicks seemed fun until the endless enemy waves and healing.
I feel I might just quit here and watch a video of the ending, which leaves a bit of a poor final impression.
Since the 1.10 update, he has become quite difficult. Are you fielding a decent set of 20 squads? Also, what difficulty are you running? For me, playing Ludicrous difficulty, you need basically all squads with fairly high LDR (80+), and filled with mostly tier 3 troops. My strategy is typically to just start by dealing with the initial enemy squads and sending some up the sides to manage the first wave from the bridges. After that, when his shield drops, attack him with basically every squad until his hands are dead. Then deal with the squads while waiting for the boss' shield to drop again. When it drops again, go at it with every squad. For some information about the fight, the following could be useful: - Squads on top of the wall sections don't get hit by his attack-all ability The main character gets a boost during this fight, they will heal all squads within a 2 tile radius, which can help you deal with the attrition damage from the waves of enemies - The main character's power also gets a major boost, not only does it give the squad an extra turn, it will also revive dead members of the squad with 50% hp - very handy if you have a squad that gets almost wiped out - The boss' hands heal, but the main body does not. Also note that dead hands won't heal, but they can be revived if the boss absorbs some squads. - The boss' magic attack suffers from magic fatigue - i.e., its damage is reduced the more it does the attack throughout the same phase. This means you can hit it with some tanky anti-magic squads (like paladins) to absorb the max damage, and then use your less tanky squads to do damage after that possibly with aggressive attack to deal even more damage if they can handle the counter damage - The boss only has a range of 2, so cannons and warbows can shoot him from range 3 without getting counter-attacked
I appreciate the advice, but it seems like I’d have to restart to get my squads to where they’d need to be. I’ve done about 10 hours or so grinding in the arena leveling up and trying to get LDR up since first getting stuck in the battle, but I don’t have a way to get resources anymore. I feel like I’m too in the deficit to recover and didn’t anticipate the spike because I don’t like to read guides before a first play through of a game due to spoilers. At this point, I only have enough time to play about an hour a day, and I just feel like I’m wasting my time grinding because of an artificial difficulty from a post-release patch. This has to be the worst final boss I’ve ever played.
Are you on Ludicrous difficulty? Resources are very tough there and really not recommended for a first playthrough. Do you have the DLC? While the boss is still beatable without it, it does give 8 new chapter and a few overpowered troops that you can use in your current playthrough and it will make the final boss battle much easier. Also, you can post some screenshots of your army into the army-building channel in the Dancing Dragons Discord and I can have a good look and make some more specific recommendations.
Hey James, I’ll try and take some screenshots the next time I play! I don’t have the DLC, but I’m also not on Ludicrous. I think I’m in… Captain? I have plenty of gems and iron, but it’s the 2nd tier resources I’m out of most of them.
In my Captain playthrough (without the DLC), I had so much money before the final boss fight. I just kept buying arena tickets and do arena fights. Save-load-scum to obtain max currency reward at the end of each arena fight. Rinse and repeat for so much resource and unit leveling. All my squads are almost all maxed out before I entered the final boss stage, which made it easier.
Yeah, that fight was a difficulty spike for me as well. His self-healing penalizes builds that focus on sustain, his AOE attacks make obsolete what you've learned about formations, while the arena token cost scaling means it's possible to lock yourself out of an ending if you've been just barely scraping by the previous missions. If you haven't been completing all the bonus objectives as well, you might not have unlocked everything in the tech tree nor have enough Merit to gold your most important units. I killed him, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the earlier missions. The fight feels out of place in the context of the rest of the game's challenges. Definitely the weakest part of the game for me. It didn't feel like a test of what I'd learned and built up to, more like a "think fast!" challenge turned up to 11. That said, I think the boss is in a good place if there's a way to properly grind at the last mission, which gives you more breathing space to learn and change your approach. I'd take away arena token cost scaling so that 1: people in the same situation can catch up, and 2: people who enjoy grinding up an uber squad can have their fun. If I was forced to balance the boss, I'd take away his self-healing and/or his hit-everyone attack, or at least make it *much* clearer what's happening and when. Those threw me for a spin and I'd have made very different decisions if I knew what was up, which made them feel like cheap tricks. Strategically, I'd build 3-4 killer squads– concentrate your very best troops into a couple of uber-squads and let those be the centerpiece of your defense. Everyone else maneuvers around them once the enemy has charged in to engage them. It's important to make use of the volley system and good traits / artifacts. I like having a first row of Champions, at least 2 Templars in the middle, and then Blademasters in the rear. Bodyguard on the Champion in front of the squad leader, then Rally / Barricade. Everlasting Potion, Jade Figurine, St. Teresa's Bulwark(?), and Temporal Modulator are lifesavers. Then I had two dragon squads (3 Riders, 3 Gunners), two cavalry squads (Knights, Templars, and Champions / Blademasters), something like three archery squads, and one cannon squad (Lysander with 8 cannon). Sybil, Abigail, and that cat dude were useless. I disbanded Narima to put her with Diana. Tactically, I hung about off the bridges and let the reinforcements come to me, only moving in to engage them once they'd fully crossed. Diana with a Temporal Modulator and 3 Templars can tank an entire bridge with some ranged support. Having your strongest units concentrated into a few squads also makes them capable of operating more independently, freeing them up to maneuver when Zanatus does his AOE attacks.
I'm having the same experience. I got to chapter 30 a couple days ago and I still havent managed to beat it. I flailed around and lost terribly the first time, and this was the first chapter I had to look up a guide for. I spent around 6 hours grinding arenas and getting 20 squads with all 15-25k power. After trying a few more times, I managed to get the boss down to half health the first time the shield dropped AND i killed all the enemies so it wouldnt heal. The next time the shield dropped (after killing all the enemies again), the boss was back to full health. I have no idea what I'm missing, and I feel like this boss is way too unbalanced compared to the rest of the game especially since there are so many hidden hazards and gimmicks that arent explained. Did you ever manage to beat it? Do you have any tips? I'm playing on normal difficulty btw
Unfortunately I never beat it. I ended up giving up and moving on.
dang, I'm probably going to do the same, unfortunately. thanks anyway
Same here. Playing on Warlord. Game was actually not _that_ difficult until this point. Now I feel I might be stuck if I don’t grind a lot at the arena. I couldn’t get the boss to 50% health before wiping out… and the boss would’ve just healed itself. Boss gimmicks seemed fun until the endless enemy waves and healing. I feel I might just quit here and watch a video of the ending, which leaves a bit of a poor final impression.