fader (boss): valheim ashlands

observations:

1. weapon choice: fader is pierce resistant. spear, knife, and atgier are sub-optimal here. any sword, including dyrnwyn (since it is mostly slash anyway) is fine. shock mace is fine, which is what i used. shock berserker axes might actually be really good here, if you have high enough axe skill to justify. if you are a solo completionist and want to attempt to one-cycle the boss without dying or leaving the arena, you will probably want 2x of whatever weapon you choose, for the extra durability.

i am not sure whether lingering health and lingering stamina are better for boss fights. i tend to think that the targeted application of the one-time potions is better, but i am open to other opinions.

2. fader's attacks: the only really dangerous attack is the spike swarm, which leaves a lingering fire carpet that deals insane DOT. this specific attack caused all my deaths. everything else can basically be shrugged off with heavy armor and fire res potion. when running from this attack, you may as well just sheath your weapons for the speed boost.

the problem is the fire carpet left by the spikes doesnt really look any different than all the other nonsense that visually clutters the fight. so, be careful what fire you stand in. some of it is safe, some of it isnt.

fader is another boss, like the queen, which is clearly balanced to encourage co op. for a solo player, your main problem is stamina management and just being patient. the first time i died, it was due to trying to push through his attacks and deal some damage because i felt i was circling too much. fader is actually a lot more generous than the queen as far as providing openings for melee damage. i was able to get off many block-cancel primary combos with the mace in between his attacks. but you need to respect the spikes when he rolls that attack.

like the queen, fader also has phased attacks based on health. from 100% down to 75% health, he is relatively tame. at 75% health, he starts to be more aggressive with the AOE nukes. at 50% health, he seems to start using adds. so, recognize that as you start the fight, it will get uglier and your windows of opportunity to deal damage will get narrower.

i am not sure what player behaviors trigger what attacks. if you are far away, he seems to tend to prefer meteors. but up close, it seems like anything goes.

3. adds: like the charred warlock's adds, fader's green skeletons have very low health. demolisher if they are close. these are basically just a stamina tax and nuisance.

4. corpse recovery: consider disabling auto pickup and also taking off the megingjord belt before you fight. when you pick up your body, you dont want to be encumbered. this caused my second death. if you werent wearing megingjord when you died, your corpse wont be over 300 weight when you try to pick up. the arena gets nuked as the fight goes on, and there are stone drops everywhere, clogging your inventory.

save bonemass for a difficult corpse recovery. the fight is so long, dont bother using it for 5 minutes of physical resistance mid-fight. as stated above, the only real dangerous attack here is the fire carpet DOT, so i am not sure how much bonemass would really help anyway. eikthyr power might actually be better here mid-fight, to reduce stamina drain.

5. the arena: this is a particularly odd arena spawn because it is right on the shore; almost half the arena is surrounded by water. this might have the effect of being less likely to be surrounded by ambient spawns during the fight, but water is also unsafe since it can boil you, slows you down, and applies wet effect. also, being partially surrounded by water makes corpse recovery vectors more limited. so, make your own decision as to whether you want to locate a different arena before fighting.

[xarugas]

Good run! This is a great showcase of adapting to a new fight without guides or spoilers, just straight skill and experience.

For my first attempt i prepared against possible outside interference from spawned mobs by raising earth walls around the anti-building radius of the arena. I used the dual axes pre-nerf with around 30 or so axe skill, and its dps was roughly the same as yours with the mace doing block-cancel combos. Dual axes against this boss is a bit risky because of the long recovery time for each full combo, which caused my first death from incoming meteors. (where i lost bonemass barely 30 seconds into the fight)

The ground spikes aren't fast enough to keep up with non-sprint movement even with heavy armor, so as long as you're moving right before the first spikes come up you're good. The attack frequency under 30% hp gets quite hectic with very little dps openings but it still felt a lot more manageable than the Queen. Fader is IMO, the best designed boss in the game so far. Cool atmosphere, great entrance and clear attack patterns. The attack frequency could use some tweaking though, like a cooldown for the spike attack specifically, or perhaps reduce the duration of the fire it leaves behind.

Oh and I prefer stamina potions over lingering/tasty as an emergency button for when i don't have time to wait for regen.

[Roctech]

I loved this bossfight, the music and the introduction of the boss is just a

[sittingforgetting]

will probably try a cleaner run. this was a first attempt with basically no research.

[milesparadise]

Finally got to him. Got mad and searched it up. Found your video. Got the win. Thank you! Small tip for you: auto pickup off is your friend on those tombstone runs 😂. Thanks again!! Big help.

[MashyMllow]

Once again mistland was my last adventure. but i will be cheering on for future clips of ashland from you! love your clips!

[juancamilomazueraarizmendy]

You're my hero bro, now I have some ideas to try in my world. Thanks!

[marianoitaliano]

You should show this to the game developers. I have yet to see such a tough, difficult boss fight. Respect to you for your perseverance and the skills you have. I don't know if the developers didn't exaggerate too much with the difficulty of this boss

[SolRama-ttod]

I am not this good at Melee and I did it with the green new crossbow, ashlands and carapace bolts. Fader is short sighted and if you stay at enough distance he doesn't go for you, when by chance (greedy me) he got nearer as I was wearing complete ferrings outfit I escaped the attack just running then I came back. My crossbow skill was pretty low 20, so I ended 40, around 300 or 400 bolts, but that depends very much on your skills, it took me long time but solo is the only way I found to do it, apart from the 2 trolls method, so a combination of trolls and crossbow should work.

[sethivaltas]

I counted atleast 7 different moves, if only they could've given like 1 to Reto.. oh well

[jantokar]

Congrat with a boss. Is a hell with fight with him. I wish you good luck.

[glorfyndel]

How do you attack twice super fast with mace ? What is that combo ?

[nosequeponer]

congratulations!! I haven't killed him yet because I want to upgrade the mace and the double axes and I'm missing 2 electric gems, but from what I saw of the fight, the spiked fire folder attack follows you wherever you go, and it's the only one of his attacks that eliminate his minions... I saw that one hit from the demolisher kills them, but on some occasions it can be useful to "take" that attack to where the minions are. again very good fight friend!!

[NRZC]

I wish the music was louder compared to effects.

[Positivectrl]

i did it today! :D as a mage, wearing embla q3 with askie cloak, using wild and frost staves, queen power, took around 25 mins

[GhxstDz]

i feel like the only thing that could kill you no matter is spikes.. your health went from 200hp to 0hp in literally less than 5 seconds, ig you gotta find a way to counter that or atleast predict that he's gonna be summoning those spikes

[sampsonsampson]

Black Metal boxes omg haha your base! :D Good video.

[Robert-dlut]

How come there's no mobs? When I fought Fader I had a very hard time because there's too much mobs joining the fight.

[AegisAuras]

Seems like fire DoTs from the meteors are the most threatening thing to worry about for melee users. I’m surprised they killed you even with flametal armor’s resistance and fire mead. Maybe Yagluth’s power would be better then.

I’m trying to think of a way to hatch like 20 asksvins around the boss area lol

[xVanquish]

I always use auto pick up off in fights I died too many times due to over cumber lol

[Blakkrazor]

Fader's hitbox is on the small side. I see you gotta get right in there to land those shots. Great work on sticking it to him!