WOBL: Upper Floors

The newest floors of the Demons’ castle have been released, and they bring with them a new type of gear: Cores. Those will greatly boost Jinwoo and your Hunters but will be jealously guarded by 4 Bosses, each bringing their own mechanics to spice up the fights and keep you on your toes.

We’ll try to keep it short and concise for now as Hard mode isn’t available yet and could bring more mechanics and gimmicks.

For more information on the Cores, check out the little guide we cooked up for the occasion at

Core Review

Not too much to say about this iteration of Methus, as an entry Boss he’ll mostly be a DPS check to make sure your gear is good enough to proceed further. The skeletons he summons can be largely ignored and will die by the AoEs of your carry, and his special gimmick is extremely easy to clear: you just have to step onto the symbols within the reduced area a total of 5 times to cancel his nuke. As a small piece of advice, the symbols will never appear on the same side one after the other, so if you’re unsure where it will appear next, just run in the opposite direction of the symbol you stepped onto. Keep in mind the boss attacks may push you out of the circle where the mechanic happens, so make sure to dodge properly or you might end up killed - this may be more relevant once the Hard mode version is released.

As the second Boss of the dungeon, Esil shouldn’t prove to be too much of a challenge when it comes to her mechanics, so here are a couple of tricks to optimize your runs and avoid running around the map too much:

• Whenever she dashes and leaves a trail of fire, keep your shadow step for when she comes back, otherwise you’ll have to walk back to her;
• When she summons her two crystals on opposite sides of the map, run towards the closest one and make sure to keep your shadow step to teleport directly at the second one’s location, saving you quite a bit of time;
• After the cutscene, quickly expanding pools of fire will appear all over the map, and interestingly enough the safest spot will be right in the center of the arena, underneath Esil.Otherwise, you can move to the edge of the map and find the place that will not be covered by the pool of fire.
• Be careful however, because just after the pools explode Esil will come crashing down on the middle of the map, and a fairly powerful shockwave will spread from the point of impact, all the way to the edges of the battlefield. Make sure to dodge a second or two after the pools explode if you’re sitting under Esil, otherwise you’ll take heavy damage on top of being knocked up in the air.

Nameless King anyone? With that said, Mounted Baran will be the first challenging enemy you’ll face if your power is lacking. High health, Mana drain, some attacks debuff you even as you dodge them, etc… The mechanics of the fight themselves will be pretty simple, such as running around to catch the Lightning orbs during Kaisel’s charge up phase, or staying away from the lightning puddles on the ground. With that said, here are a couple of tips to make your run smoother:

• As a rule of thumb, remember that every ranged Lightning Attack from Kaisel will apply a Mana Drain + HP dot on you, so even if the attacks don’t deal too much damage they could make it much harder to play mana hungry Hunters if you just stand still and take lightning showers;
• Starting phase 2, Kaisel will start casting Thunderstrikes on the map, around and away from himself and those will also target both the Hunters and the Shadows. It makes it difficult to properly access him, but usually at least one side of Kaisel will be mostly clear of any Lightning puddle so look for that spot and stick to it if the Mana drain bothers you too much;
• Also during phase 2, Kaisel will take off and start a series of 5 Bombardments, littering the area with more Lightning puddles before shooting a powerful Orb of Lightning as he lands. Make sure to keep a dodge for that one, as it will sting quite a bit otherwise. A nice trick here is to try to stick to the edges of the map for the first 4 Bombardments and then rush back to the center of the arena for the final one, giving you much more space to maneuver.

Nameless King entrance, again? This fight will be your final challenge, and oh boy is the encounter getting full points for Style. Baran won’t be too strong, in fact he’s very well balanced on the side of mechanics when you compare him to good ol’ Vulcan, especially on release. The fight will be mostly about keeping track of your available dodges, as well as being patient whenever Baran starts his long combos.

Beware that the points we’ll cover will spoil the flow of the fight if you’ve never seen it before.

The Baran fight is divided into 2 phases, each distinct:

• At the beginning of the fight, Baran faces you with his Longsword ( his very, very long and huge Longsword), his attacks will be relatively simple and slow, but will reach a fairly wide area. He’ll teleport, disappear, fire a beam and call down lightning strikes, etc, etc..
• Midway through that phase, Baran will become untargetable and teleport before the rundown altar and will start sending massive Walls of electricity at SJW. Keep moving using your dodge’s speed buff, and make sure to progressively move towards the extremities of the map to avoid the final Wall. After that, he’ll turn gigantic once, try to stay where he was (next to the Altar) to be protected by Esil’s Shield for the last strike.
• Once you take him down, he’ll enter Phase 2 and pick up his Daggers. Expect him to be faster while keeping all his previous abilities, Walls and Giganto aside. He’ll gain a new ability, the Kang Taeshik special where he starts moving so fast he leaves afterimages. After two series of fast moves from him, dodge. Repeat that 3 times and you’ll be done with that mechanic.
• Halfway through, you’ll start a badass QTE cutscene of SJW and Baran exchanging blows at high speed, and you’ll have to time your taps/clicks to be good or better. Succeeding enough times will put Baran into a Break state, during which he’ll take significant damage.
• Lastly, as Baran finally fears for his life, he’ll start preparing one final, sure kill move. Keep the fight close to the center of the map so you won’t have any distance to run and put an end to his tyranny
• It’s also worth mentioning that dealing enough damage before Baran starts his last resort attack can entirely bypass this phase and kill him - this is valid in Normal mode, but might be more difficult in Hard mode, as he might also get an HP stopper.

This time around the bosses are weak to both Wind and Dark, two already strong elements both for SJW and the Hunters. While the two teams offer similar dps, it's very important to note how currently a mono dark team isn't as viable as wind due for the hunter boss stages to the lack of healing and shielding. It's possible that, when Isla drops, the hard mode for WOBL will also unlock, so we'll get a chance to test the dark team again soon.

For Jinwoo, every SSR weapon from these elements will be a viable option while Westwind still remains strong but will require more precise gameplay as the Bosses move around a LOT. The Plum Sword still offers excellent buffs and reasonable damage at A3, so it remains an excellent pick as a secondary weapon. If you’re having a hard time managing your Dodges between offense and defense, slotting in Woo Jinchul as Support will provide you two extra dodge charges as well as good break. In the same fashion, the Swiftness Blessing Stone will offer extra Dodge, and the Daily Quest Completion one will give you more room for errors and can help you cheese certain mechanics that would nuke you.