Artifact Dungeons

In this guide, we’ll cover the new Dungeon Bosses, discussing key mechanics and the countermeasures players can use to conquer the higher-tier stages. These bosses were introduced alongside enemies with two Elemental Weaknesses, though at the cost of also doubling their Elemental Resistances.

Significantly more challenging than Instance Dungeons, the Encore Missions require players to build teams around complex mechanics. Failure to address these mechanics properly will likely prevent you from defeating the bosses.

The Scorching Lava Stone Guardian

Also referred to as the Lava Golem by the player base, this boss is similar to other golem-type bosses, featuring high damage reduction and slow but devastating attacks that can kill your Hunters in one or two hits. However, it is relatively straightforward when it comes to gimmicks. We’ll focus on the elemental-advantaged teams, as while it is possible to defeat the boss without this advantage, the task can be daunting even with a high level of investment.

• Wind Team
• Dark(ish) Team

Wind Team

This team is easier to assemble, especially since Woo Jinchul is given to all players along with his weapon, and Mirei’s excellent damage output is a significant asset. The Wind team doesn’t rely on any complex strategies; proper timing is the key to handling the encounter.

Start with Woo, aim to break the boss as quickly as possible. Next switch to your support Hunter, such as Min, Han Se-Mi, or even Meilin or Lee Bora and let them do their thing. Lastly, finish your rotation by bringing in Amamiya Mirei and dealing as much burst damage as possible before switching her out whenever the Boss becomes Untargetable. Destroying the Rock Pillars can make the fight easier by providing more room to move around but is not strictly necessary.

The Wind team has a much higher Total Power and optimization, allowing it to three-star the encounter

Dark(ish) Team

This team is more challenging to pull off and requires either all Dark Hunters to deal significant damage or a very strong Silver Mane Baek (SMBaek) to exploit the %HP damage mechanics.

In this setup - Lim offers high break and solid damage output, Lee Bora buffs all your Dark Hunters and deal damage even after being switched out. SMBaek can fully use his kit, especially since Bleed and other %HP-based damage effects are enabled. The main downsides of this team are the lack of burst damage and the high level of investment required.

Lim could be replaced by Woo, and Bora could be replaced by Min, but at that point, you might as well opt for the Wind team instead.

Dark team, with a Total Power slightly above the red threshold, will take longer. However, more investment or better gear for SMBaek could change this outcome significantly.

The Pursuing Death Stalker

Commonly referred to as "The Scorpion" by most players (because, let’s be honest, it’s exactly that—no need for a long, complicated name), this boss presents more annoying gimmicks than the Golem, making certain Hunters essential unless your Total Power (TP) is significantly above the recommendation.

The Scorpion’s main gimmick is its passive health regeneration, which heals it by a percentage of its maximum health continuously. Therefore, the most crucial aspect of team building for this fight is ensuring you have at least one source of the Unhealable debuff or heal reduction. Cha Hae-In or Yoo Soohyun are ideal for this role, as they also happen to be the best damage dealers against this boss. Min is an excellent supporter in this battle, especially since both primary damage dealers specialize in burst damage. While Meilin is also an option, she doesn’t pack as much of a punch as Min.

As with most fights these days, having a Breaker is also essential. The Scorpion will frequently enter phases where it charges a powerful nuke and gains massive damage reduction, making Breaking the only way to stop it. It also buries itself under the sand, becoming untargetable before reappearing either at the players' feet or at a distance when preparing to charge its nuke. All of its attacks will at least stagger you unless you have super armor or a shield, making it even more frustrating to land your burst.

Team Compositions

• Fire-Light Team
• Mono Light Team

Fire-Light Team

While a mono Fire team Works best in killing the boss for those at high end by being able to constantly rotate through three powerful damage dealers (Emma being a sub DPS at high dupes/with her exclusive weapon), we found that a double Fire + Light team consisting of Emma, Min, and Yoo Soohyun is easier to build around while being more forgiving in play.

This team follows a double support + DPS format, allowing for mistakes thanks to Min’s powerful heals and Emma’s shields. Emma can eventually be replaced by Go Gunhee, but in that case, it might be easier to switch to a mono Light team. The only downside of Yoo is, as usual, her inability to adjust her position easily and the length of her skills’ animations. Her ability to deal high burst damage at A1 however makes her a very efficient DPS, focusing on hyper buffing her and unleashing her Ultimate + Hellfire combo. Igris will be used as the team greatly benefits from dealing critical hits.

Mono Light Team

Mono Light teams have become very powerful with the addition of Go Gunhee. His and Cha’s ability to rapidly rotate through their entire kits during buff/debuff windows makes this team easy to use and fun, requiring a high number of actions per minute (APM) to pilot effectively.

Mono Light teams have become very powerful with the addition of Go Gunhee. His and Cha’s ability to rapidly rotate through their entire kits during buff/debuff windows makes this team easy to use and fun, requiring a high number of actions per minute (APM) to pilot effectively.

Here come the dungeons featuring Sun Jinwoo (SJW). Kargalgan might be a familiar face to most, and his kit will be similar to his story version. The Cursed Giant Eiberg, however, is a new addition to the game. Aside from his totem mechanics, he resembles what you’d expect from a fairly basic Souls game boss. Both bosses are manageable due to their double elemental weaknesses, making it possible to use very strong free-to-play (F2P) weapons or even stronger SSR ones with great effectiveness.

The Almighty Shaman, Kargalgan

Weak to Wind and Dark, West Wind (WW) and the Shadow Scythe are premier options for anyone who hasn’t invested heavily in other SSR Dark weapons. For those with a powerful Plum Sword or Moonshadow, both are excellent choices, either as a duo or paired with one of the first two weapons mentioned.

In terms of strategy, the most notable gimmicks are Kargalgan’s ability to gain a large shield and the appearance of totems that make him invulnerable while he channels a powerful spirit bomb—complete with arms raised and everything. Keep your powerful skills or Ultimate ready for this phase, which occurs around 30% HP.

For supports, a Breaker with elemental advantage will significantly help in quickly breaking Kargalgan’s gauge and dealing substantial damage. Besides that, bringing two supporters to heal and buff SJW’s damage, as usual, will work well in this fight. If the shield becomes too troublesome, Dongsoo and Meilin are valid options (Meilin can be brought even if the shield isn’t an issue).

The Cursed Giant Eiberg

This boss is a bit trickier since strong weapons of the required elements are harder to come by, and his gimmick of summoning two totems with special effects can waste a lot of time. After dealing enough damage to the boss, he becomes invulnerable and summons two totems in the same spots each time. The red totem slowly heals the Giant, while the blue one slowly saps all your mana until it is destroyed. It’s best to focus on destroying the blue totem first, as losing mana will severely reduce your damage output and in turn making it harder to break the totem. The boss will continue attacking, so try to dodge and use shadow step on the totem for a quick and efficient takedown.

Aside from that, the boss isn’t complicated. He will jump around the map quite a bit and attack multiple times in a row, so be mindful of how you use your dashes.

For weapons, the reliable Orb of Avarice is a must-have for anyone lacking highly invested SSR weapons like Phoenix Soul. The Huntsman is also good, thanks to its innate breaking abilities, but Radiru’s bow can also be used. It’s also possible to use Thetis Grimoire or even Plum Sword/Moonshadow if your goal is to super-buff with only one strong weapon like the Orb or Phoenix Soul.

For supports, the same strategy as with Kargalgan applies: a strong Breaker with elemental advantage and any form of damage buffs will suffice.

Ice Witch Beste (NEW!)

One of the newest additions to the Artifact Dungeons alongside Kaisellin, Beste is a Fire Weak Boss with many mechanics, whose strength mostly lies in the sheer number of different attacks she can execute, both with and without obvious Warning Signs (like the Red Patterns). We’ll go over the Weapons and Skills to bring and explain why those are the better choices when considering Beste’s abilities.

First let’s start with abilities that the Boss uses only once per encounter then move on to the rest of her skillset:

• Her first noteworthy ability is a medium ranged Aura, which inflicts stacks of Freeze debuff to Sung Jinwoo if he stays in the radius for too long. As such, it is advised to utilize at least one ranged weapon - Ideally Orb of Avarice or Phoenix Soul Bow, as both feature high burst damage and large range. Note: Most of Beste’s skills inflict a stack of Freeze when hit and after 5 stacks, Sung Jinwoo is frozen for a few seconds.
• Her second major ability is used when she reaches the ~40% HP threshold, she channels a powerful attack that can be only countered by Breaking her. This Break is not as demanding as usual Break checks, and can be fulfilled by a single hit from Fire Armor Break Rune allowing players to bring a pure damage or buffing Skill alongside for maximum efficiency.
• At ~50% HP threshold, she summons two Elite Elf Monsters - the Captain and the Ranger, enemies most players are used to by now. Their skills are similar to their presence in usual stages, with Rain of Arrows and Tornado being the only true inconvenient skills. They have a small health pool and can be quickly taken care of by powerful AOE skills such as the Orb’s or the Fire Vertical Arts. She will also use a buffing spell, enhancing both her and her summons stats.
• Failure to whittle her HP down fast enough will lead to her casting a powerful combo, starting with a Circular Area away from her, followed by area close to her and then in the distance once more, each time releasing a powerful burst of energy from the ground.

Let’s move on to the rest of her skills, which are divided between abilities with a clear Warning Cue (i.e the famous Red Pattern) and skills with their own unique cues (i.e the Giant Snowflakes), in no particular order:

• At the start of the fight, and then often throughout, she will use one of her two long range skills: A Long & Wide Dragon or Three Long & Narrow Ice Shards Rain. Both are easy and straightforward to Dodge, and serve as excellent moves to enable your Shadow Step.
• At times she will make Giant Snowflakes appear next to Sung Jinwoo or his shadows quickly followed by Ice Spikes erupting from them, dealing some damage without any Stagger.
• Another frequently used skill is Homing Ice Spikes Wave, which lacks a clear warning indicator but takes a couple of seconds for her to cast. This skill initiates at her feet and moves towards Sung Jinwoo following him around for a few seconds. You can Dash into the spikes when near you to trigger Dodge and follow up with Shadow Step, generally taking you far enough to completely ignore the remainder of the attack.
• A few times during the fight, Beste summons a few Ice Dragonlings, these can be easily killed or ignored as they only throw small Ice Projectiles that will result in damage no higher than average Basic Attacks.
• Whenever you see a Red Circle around her, make sure to take a hike as she launches a powerful attack that serves as the first part of a particularly long and powerful chain of attacks. She will follow up with summoning Flower Buds in multiple places around the Map and on Sung Jinwoo’s position exploding them with a few seconds delay. Best to keep moving and avoid using any skill with long animation during this time.
• Lastly, whenever you see a very Thin & Long Red pattern, this a sign of Beste’s Dash Attack in that direction, inflicting damage and causing Knockback if in range. Not only that, but in her wake, multiple Ice Spikes will spread outwards hitting in a fan-shaped area larger than her own Aura. It's best advised to keep your distance and wait for her to arrive at her destination before approaching her, or Dodging in the split second she closes in on you and triggering Shadow Step as soon as she stops moving.

With all that said, Beste isn’t too hard of a Boss and mostly requires the Player to move frequently and avoid spending all their Dash charges on damage buffing (Such as spamming all your Dashes to get the Plum Sword’s Damage Amplification). Speaking of which, Plum Sword, as well as Moonshadow remain excellent secondary weapons for this fight to further boost the damage from your main Fire weapon.

When it comes to skills that can be brought alongside Armor Break, the Fire Vertical Arts is excellent thanks to its range and small Backdash, while the new Fire Sonic Stream will be incredible when paired with a highly invested Phoenix Soul, greatly capitalizing on the already exceptional Core Attack damage from the weapon.

For the main Shadow, the new Golem does wonders with the Orb of Avarice, while Tusk remains as top pick if playing the Phoenix Soul. Cerberus and Iron remain the best secondary shadows thanks to their overall damage increase and burst potential.

The Supports for this fight will vary depending on your needs, as Beste constantly attacks you, thus at least one source of Healing is welcome, and since her Break mechanic is easy to interrupt - no Breaker is needed, allowing you to go for more damage, or simply a Hunter with high TP to get you closer to the recommended power.

Here is a build example for Sung Jinwoo, with unoptimized gear and overall low Total Power (for the Tier 21, Challenge Lv0) and a lvl40 Orb of Avarice: