Since Dragalia Lost is an Action RPG in the vein of Monster Hunter, it's to be expected that some of its bosses have a couple of these up their sleeve.
General
- ANYTHING that applies the dreaded Curse of Nihility. Not only can you kiss several kinds of buffs goodbye, but on higher difficulties those buffs will stay gone, and you only have so much Dragon power to ward the effect. If a boss uses this effect as their opening gambit, you better learn to play without non-unique buffs if you want to make any headway.
- Fallen Angel Ramiel and Lilith use Accursed Shackles as their opening gambit for unavoidable Nihility and lots of damage. Fallen Raphael and Asura both have this as well. Fallen Angel Uriel and Iblis have a renamed variant of this move, but it's still the same move. The same can be said for Fallen Angel Michael and Surtr.
- Fallen Angel Gabriel and Jaldabaoth just apply it outright without damage when they summon their goblin hordes.
- In Trials of the Mighty, Thor does much the same with Lord of Bilskirnir. Thor's Hammer reapplies it after the first Overdrive is blunted by breaking a weakpoint three times; if you can't do that, then your team's done for.
- Also in Trials, Poseidon's Forceful Purge also hits the field and applies Nihility. It's done throughout, but not at the start, so enjoy those buffs while it lasts. Nidhogg uses it as his opening gambit, so learn to fight without buffs.
- Like Jaldabaoth, Chthonius just pulses it every so often without additional damage in Trials of the Mighty.
- In Trials, Gradivus' Anger applies Nihility to you and four stacks of Attack +25% to Mars. It's his opening gambit, plus he reapplies it, so bring dispels if you want to live.
- In Trials, Jeanne d'Arc will summon reinforcements aplenty and apply Nihility at the same time, both at the start and throughout the fight.
- Grimnir, in Trials, makes use of Voidlight Eraser. What makes it particularly noteworthy is that not only is it his opening gambit, but he can pull it off faster than you can shapeshift! If you haven't learned to fight without buffs, start.
- Even Harlenote has his own Nihility skill to throw at you in Trials of the Mighty. Wouldn't be so bad if it didn't fling you to the other side of the arena, especially given how unlikely it is for him to sit still for five seconds.
- Pumpking's forward rush is the bane of Solo runs due to its massive range and long duration, meaning your allies can still get hit even if you time your Skills carefully. It doesn't help that Pumpking likes to spam it when he enters Overdrive.
- Pretty much every purple Area-of-Effect attack is dangerous as they deal more damage and ignore the player's Skill Attack or transformation. Dodging them is not as easy either as most bosses, like the aforementionted Pumpking and Raid Bosses, have their attacks too big to dodge in time and usually take less time to charge. Since they can only be avoided by getting out of the way, they also tend to be real time wasters, which can be costly if the battle has a short time limit.
- Scylla's Raid Boss fight automatically seals the adventurer the player is currently controlling in a doll statue and it's usually going to be the first character unless the player switches adventurers quickly. Once sealed, she doesn't release them until she Breaks, meaning you're going to be playing most of the fight short-handed. This is especially devastating in the Omega Solo and up, since you don't have three other teams to pick up the slack.
- Universal Creation is pure garbage for the unprepared; Elysium activates it soon after he goes into Overdrive note , and the instant he does, he becomes immune to non-dragon damage so long as the Blue Soul remains intact, and your Shapeshift and Universal Transformation gauges are zeroed out. Alberius gets a pass because his skills are treated as Dragon skills, but nothing else works. You will also have to kill his backup dancers (Poseidon, Agni and Zephyr) to get your one dragonform shot (maybe two if you have enough Dragon Haste and/or had the foresight to bring Tiki and/or Notte along). You're also on a two-minute time limit once this begins going down; if time runs out, cue wipe. Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, you're forced into a fixed-stats fight before you even have the privilege of fighting the raids proper, meaning your mightiest adventurers won't be able to save you.note Oh, and you won't be able to get Human Mids until you win that fight, either. Buckle up, buckaroo.
- Even in the Story, Thor also has Thor's Hammer, an unavoidable attack that can only be mitigated by breaking a weakpoint three times in half a minute; the unmitigated form is a Total Party Kill. The story requirements can get a bit absurd - 55 hits three times over can be difficult to squeeze by unless you have a multi-hit weapon (Bow, Wand, Manacaster) or have Faerie Illusion as a shared skill.
- The Pincer enemies have Freezing Ice, an attack where they create a ball of ice that homes in on someone and freezes the ground. While not too troubling in most content, it's really obnoxious in the Kaleidoscape for multiple reasons. It always homes in on you since there's only one Adventurer; it can hit you twice with the ball itself and the terrain it freezes; it can freeze you if you're not immune to Freeze; and it can chase you for more than 10 seconds before disappearing, meaning you only have a brief moment before the enemy uses Freezing Ice again. All of this makes the Pincer enemies annoying to fight at best, and time consuming and risky at worst. Fortunately, an update shortened the time the ball of ice is active, making this attack a bit more feasible.
High Dragon Trials:
- High Midgardsormr shares an attack through all difficulties called Gale Blast, where he conjures up several tornadoes and sends them towards the opposite end of the arena. The tornadoes themselves are decently telegraphed, but they have really janky hitboxes and hit like trucks, which can sometimes prove a problem. In Master, he gets Storm Strike, which is an instant death move with an obscure tell.note
- High Mercury shares an attack through all difficulties where she conjures up several pools of water, which turn into instant death whirlpools after a few seconds. In Master, this attack is turned into Tidal Call. At first, it seems like the same thing, but soon after, she covers the whole arena in whirlpools except for certain spots dependent on the original configuration of whirlpools. The safe spots are tiny, and any Adventurer without a forward-moving Force Strike can easily get shafted, as the window to get into the safe spot is very unforgiving. Many a run has been screwed over by this move.
- High Brunhilda has her Crimson Inferno move. While it's much smaller than most of the attacks on this list, it comes very fast and getting caught in it means instant death. So a mistimed skill or a misdirected dodge can very well cost you one of your revives.
- She also has her Grand X-Muspelheim attack, which, while normally easy for players to evade, is the absolute bane of auto teams because the AI simply has no idea on how to deal with it. You either need a team that can reliably bring her down before she uses it, or a team capable of tanking it.
- High Jupiter has the Static Charge mechanic. Getting hit with any of Jupiter's attacks results in an electrical field around the player as well as a timer above their heads. When the timer runs out, the player and anyone in the area of effect is hit with damage and can be Paralyzed. Now, just a small circle isn't too bad, but each time you get hit the circle gets bigger. At its max, it covers half the arena. Jupiter's attacks can be hard to dodge as-is, but a maxed Static Charge can end a run real quick.
- High Zodiark has Accursed Venom and Spectral Flames, both of which essentially do the same thing. Zodiark lays out puddles of extreme poison. Accursed Venom has it launched in two rows, while Spectral Flame will cover the entire arena unless the players destroy at least one lantern at the corners of the arena. If the player gets caught in said poison puddle, their HP will quickly fall, even if they have 100% Poison Resistance.
The Agito Uprising:
- Tartarus' beast form pulls out a move called Void Shower when he starts running on fumes, which shoots several Wave-Motion Gun blasts in one of three arrangements: two on either side, two in the middle, and three separate beams, somewhat akin to the Gaster Blaster attacks. While it is blatantly telegraphed, it's still a purple-indicator attack that covers a lot of ground. Combined with the fact that he eventually starts spamming attacks tweaked out by Relentless Rage, and he starts firing the Void Showers off with no warning, and the tail end of his second phase can quickly become quite hectic.
- Punishment Arrows has to be blocked by an Adventurer trapped by Dimensional Shift (at the cost of their Dragon Gauge), as otherwise, you and possibly other players are going to be tailed by up to four persistent projectiles that deal shockingly high damage. His beast form upgrades it to Punishment Waves, which is much the same except now rendered map-wide while the non-trapped Adventurers take cover behind the one sealed. If this isn't followed and you can't tank a blow in Dragon form (not unlikely as Tartarus's moves drain Dragon Gauge), you'll likely be wiped out on the spot.
- Volk's Plague mechanic makes his solo fights very tough. Both ailments, Stun and Sleep, will debilitate your team, and with Plague reducing resistances, you'll be lucky to squeeze out with the team intact.
- Expert Volk is particularly infamous for his opening series of attacks, having to juggle between avoiding Volk himself, the Ravenous Claws he sends out, Adventurers detonating the bombs from Underdog's Scheme after healing Plague away (a gambit in itself dependent on status resistances too), then having another heal prepared for the immediate next time Volk uses Plague, as his following attack has him teleport to each Adventurer to deal heavy purple damage that, while being close range, will put your Adventurer to Sleep as he appears next to them. It tests you (and your possible co-op partners) to a point that, if you can get through this seamlessly, you can take on Volk just fine, but otherwise takes a lot of practice to get down at first.
- Expert/Master Kai Yan has Crushing Cataclysm in his beast form, where he grabs the furthest team member and holds them in place which, if not dealt with in time, can result in a full team wipe. If doing the fight Solo, your AI allies will do very little about it, as they're prioritizing the boss himself.
- Kai Yan can occasionally raise a shield around himself which protects against damage and hurts you when you hit it. This isn't normally a problem during regular quests due to players packing a healer and/or a dispeller, but in the Kaleidoscape you have to be able to accommodate those things yourself, and most adventurers are usually lacking one or the other. If you don't have a dispel ability or two when you enter the arena with him or a weapon that packs such an ability, then your run is fair-to-middling FUBAR.
- Expert/Master Ciella has her Floor of Despair attack. In Co-Op, it's easy to dodge, since Ciella helpfully provides giant icebergs just beforehand to block the wave. However, in Solo, your AI allies won't register the move as something to be worried about, so if they have multiple Vulnerability debuffs on them, it could kill them if you don't switch and move them yourself. It can get even worse if you have Lin You. One of her Skills inflicts Sleep, and on Solo, she has a nasty tendency to put Ciella to sleep before she can bring down the icebergs, meaning none of you will have any protection when Floor of Despair activates!
- Legend difficulty makes this attack even worse. Not only does everything above still apply, but now Ciella performs this move four times in a row as opposed to two times, and she can do it during the both phases as opposed to only the second phase. If that wasn't bad enough, she can occasionally summon the iceberg right on top of herself, making it where your AI allies will opt to attacking her rather than follow you behind the iceberg. The only way you'll be making it out of this is to be in control of your healer when it happens and hope they didn't waste their healing skills.
- Another nasty skill is her Therion form's Bolts from Above. The human form's version is techable and pathetic as a result, but the attack becomes untechable and causes plenty of damage; that, coupled with Vulnerability crippling your defenses, will end your run if you're caught up. It's even worse if Rebounding Arrows went off beforehand, since getting tagged by an arrow is near certain doom. Time Attack saw lots of ragequits in the first two minutes of the fight solely because Rebounding Arrows and Bolts from Above were part of her opening gambit, following lots of unavoidable damage and Vulnerability.
- Ayaha & Otoha (Master) have this attack that, in addition to caging the hindmost Adventurer, completely empties their skill gauges, which makes it difficult for the target to do much once they're released (if they aren't killed first), and this is usually followed by a storm of attacks that cages another character, who if they are inattentive is going to die. This is their opening gambit, by the way, which helps set the tone exactly what kind of hell you're in for. Time Attack challenges saw ragequits aplenty over this.
Rise of the Sinister Dominion
- In addition to the various moves that afflict Curse of Nihility, Corrosive Fog inflicts a DOT effect on the party that reduces healing received and worsens over time; the only way to rid yourself of it is to heal large amounts of health before it kills you (yes, unlike poison and burning, the damage from this effect is lethal). If in some circumstances it starts to stack then you're very liable to dying in a few seconds.
- May Meene have mercy on you on Expert difficulty Lilith, where Fallen Angel Ramiel uses both of Accursed Shackles and Corrosive Fog back-to-back as his opening gambit. And may Midgardsormr Zero bless your soul on Master, where Lilith uses this very same opening gambit.
- As if the sheer volume of mobs she summons wasn't bad enough (and Catoblepas Anemos is one of them, so don't neglect your Void Battles lest petrification end your run), Fallen Angel Gabriel has a very nasty ability in Healing Mother. It requires you to break a weak point three times lest she heal herself and her entire entourage AND double their attack and defense. On Standard, you are in for pain if she gets this off; on Expert, it's a death sentence unless you dispel everything quickly. She's got a way to inflict Creeping Corrosion to your whole party, but it pales compared to this, so bring Euden and every dispel skill at your disposal for the sake of your sanity. Jaldabaoth does the same, so don't forget him, either; if you don't have Notte or Tornado Bash to everyone, don't even bother with Master difficulty.
- Iblis, already generally regarded as one of the most difficult bosses in the game, has a bunch of dangerous attacks, and you need to be able to dodge and/or counter them if you plan on surviving, let alone winning.
- Inescapable Cascade has Fallen Angel Uriel scatter four balls of water that spray outward a few times. Those aren't that dangerous, but you need to bust them quickly lest they follow up with an unavoidable attack that inflicts 3000 HP in damage. The AI is not too quick to start attacking them, so you better be quick yourself.
- Tidal Fantasia has Iblis split into six bats, which fly around the arena briefly. You need to attack the bat that starts in the upper right corner of the arena, as that's the real Iblis, to make him turn back. Don't do so? May your elegy ring upon the wind... note
- A general rule of thumb is, similar to Tartarus, Iblis's attacks require a lot of good coordination and positioning, otherwise you're getting heavily punished, but one in particular stand out in this regard: Swelling Concerto targets each player with a large purple attack that inflicts Frostbite, before another purple attack covers most of the arena except a small spot in the center shortly after. Requiring very coordinated distancing from everyone, this attack can very quickly cause multiple Adventurers to nearly or immediately go down, and the damage you inevitably take anyways (unless Shapeshifted) is high one way or another. To cap it off, unlike Whirlpool Rondo or Piercing Oratorio, breaking his cape does not make the attack any more avoidable.
- Stalking Shadow has Iblis summon two whirlpools and a pair of bats to attack and chase after a target, one for each bat (they are not mutually exclusive except in Solo). If you don't lure the bats into the whirlpools, their shrieks will blow out more than your eardrums.
- Surtr's Crystal Firestorm has an extremely tight window to dodge each of the large purple attacks and detonating crystals unless you find just the right spot in time to avoid it with some ease. If caught though, your Adventurer is more often than not dead on impact. This move is infamous in particular in Surtr's Trials of the Mighty version, where newer players often don't know where the proper spots to be in are mixed with the greatly increased radius to compensate for the bigger arena.
Primal Dragon Trials
- Primal Midgardsormr's Trial has several attacks that have frequently ended runs, even if you exclude the everpresent Nihility.
- One of the shadows Midgardsormr can summon is Halloween Melsa, who will chase someone and kill them instantly if she touches them. Sounds simple, except she's always accompanied by other shadows whose attacks severely limit where you can move. While she can be avoided with invincibility frames, if she's still touching you when the i-frames end, you're zombie food.
- He also has an attack where he sets multiple tornadoes along one edge of the area with a gap in them. The idea is you need to get into the gap before Midgardsormr unleashes a gale that pushes you into the One-Hit Kill tornadoes, but the attack is accompanied by gusts of wind that push you away from the tornadoes if you're far from them or towards the tornadoes if you're close to them. The big problem is these gusts, including the last one, can sometimes push you into the tornadoes even if you're already in the safe zone, meaning surviving this attack is often a matter of luck. Even worse, the first two times Midgardsormr uses this attack, he also summons Halloween Melsa, who will kill anyone that touches her. This attack is so troublesome that most people just shapeshift so they can ignore the gusts of wind.
- Another attack is Surging Tempest, where he sends out two dodgeable tornado attacks. While it's not too damaging on its own, when the attacks hit, they leave behind a cyclone that, when touched, launches the Adventurer into the air for several seconds. This is key to avoiding the second part of the attack where the entire battlefield is covered in Wind Mana, though you'll most likely end up going into the cyclone too early and still take some damage near the end. No, the real danger is that the cyclones stay on the battlefield for Mids' next two attacks, the second of which is Cataclysmic Supercell. Three Weak Point Orbs pop up and you need to destroy all three or else Mids will launch an attack that will end your run right then and there. The orbs are pretty hardy, which means all four Adventurers need to furiously attack, maybe even transforming, but it's extremely possible that, when trying to move from one orb to another, you'll accidentally hit one of the Surging Tempest cyclones still on the field, launching you in the air and wasting 5-6 seconds that could prove fatal.
- It's not as though Humanoid Midgardsormr is easy, either. Storm Piercer inflicts Stormlash and can trip up people, since he launches it fast and unlike other similar attacks, he doesn't jet to the other side of the purple field. But that's nothing compared to Rampaging Winds. Mids summons tornadoes to surround the edge of the arena. You're supposed to get between the tornadoes to avoid it (there's a divider in the wall on the foreground that acts like a handy designation safe spot), but you only have a few seconds to get there, so if you dodge roll a bit too far or you're locked in an attack animation, there's a good chance you'll hit one, which will send you flying backwards, most likely either into or in the path or another tornado. It's not surprising to see even the strongest Adventurer die from getting juggled by this attack. And if you don't knock his health down fast enough, he'll launch two of these in a row!
- Primal Brunhilda:
- When in her human form, she has an attack called Fathomless Muspelheim. Much like her Muspelheim attacks in Advanced Dragon Trials, this ends up creating a big river of lava that will constantly injrue anyone who touches it. While this one only covers a thick strip rather than the whole arena, it's still easy for any melee Adventurers to accidentally step into the lava and whittle their health down. Worse, there are times where Mym will run off into the middle of the strip, preventing any melee fighters from doing real damage without hurting themselves, and the lava lasts a good long while.
- Much like Midgardsormr, Brunhilda has her own Manisfestations of War barrage. Most of them are easy enough to dodge and do minimal damage if it connects, but one of them is Child Ranzal. He will erupt into a burst of flames, charge forward, and swing his bat once. The range isn't huge, but if he connects you are DONE. Instant KO, regardless of your health. The worst part? Ranzal appears constantly, even on Expert, and can easily be hidden by Brunhilda herself as you fight.
- During the fight, Brunhilda will create "Mym's Souls," which are large red crystals that have to be destroyed. Leaving even one intact will result in huge damage to your party, if not outright KO. To make matters worse, she'll launch four flame tornadoes to roam around the arena, getting in your way, while also launching other attacks afterwards. Still, those four crystals can go down easy with some teamwork. Later on, however, she'll launch three smaller Muspelheim attacks, which will cover most of the arena. What you need to pay attention to, however, is that another Soul crystal gets summoned along with it. If you don't rush down and smash the Crystal, your run in done. Typically, said crystal is on the southern tip of the arena, which you likely won't see since Brunhilda moves to the center before launching the attack, making it a bad case of Trial-and-Error Gameplay.
