This guide will tell you how to get to Disorder, the final boss, what to expect in his two phases, and tips on how to beat him.
Note that this is a work in progress, I intend to update it later.
The Journey
I’ll keep this simple, mostly since I’m going from memory. I’ll update with more detail later.
Start in Story Mode, do all the quests, including unlocking all the levels and characters.
Build the beacon and finish a run with each character ending in level 9.
Finally, start a Standard Run with Purse, reach level 9, and there will be a second staircase.
I’ve tried it with some special runs, and they didn’t have the extra staircase, but Hard Mode did, so I’d expect any quest you get from defeating Disorder, or from those quests will likely have access to him too.
Going through the special staircase will trigger an in-game animation where all your friends show up and unlock the door for you. You then get a few levels where the only interaction is a preview of Disorder. No vendors, no monsters, no chests, etc. Disorder is on floor 12.
Note that there is no place to increase HP or send items to town after defeating the boss on level 9, but your items will arrive in town when you defeat Disorder.
The Fight
Phase 1
Disorder’s first phase has 250 hp and cycles through the following attacks:
- 21 damage and a Hex (2×2, 3 energy to remove, 1 energy cheaper each turn)
- 27 damage and 13 poison
- 21 damage and 2x Lil Hex (1×1, 3 energy to remove, 1 energy cheaper each turn)
Phase 2
Disorder’s second phase has 999 hp and cycles through the following attacks:
- 35 damage
- 2x 21 damage
He has the special ability that triggers when he takes more than 300 damage in a single turn, granting him 999 shield.
Note that the first attack of Phase 2 begins the moment you defeat Phase 1, so be prepared for the 35 point hit.
Note that these are the damages I saw in early rounds; I’m sure it goes up over time, and there’s some variance. I will update as I encounter him more. There may be more attacks, but those are the ones I’ve seen so far. Let me know if you see others.
Tips
Most of his attacks are pretty straightforward, In fact, phase one is almost identical to some of the monsters you’ve fought on the way here, such as the Corrupted Sage (but more damage and poison).
There are really 4 aspects of this fight that need to be addressed:
- Auto-shield every 300 damage
- Hexes
- High damage/turn
- Poison stacks
Poison is the first of these you’ll encounter, but since most of this section is about mitigating it, I put it last.
Auto-Shield
This one’s easy to deal with. Pick your favorite.
- Pick your favorite way to mitigate the poison damage (I detail a bunch below), kill him over time.
- Use damage that pierces shields, like poison, burn, or piercing (there’s a lance at least that has it)
- Last-hit for a lot (do just under 300, then hit him hard)
See the “Burn Disorder Down Fast” for an example of dealing with both the poison and auto-shields.
Note: Burn doesn’t technically pierce shields, but it may work due to the timing. I honestly haven’t tried DoT’s on him. I also suspect it’ll count against your next turn’s 300 damage. Again, work in progress.
Dealing with the Hexes
I’m pretty sure they don’t negate the items behind them, but I still tend to be cautious. I try to only partially cover up items I need, particularly if they include activation. If you have two 2×2 items next to each other, cover up half of each with the big one. Anything more than 2×1 in size can be partially covered with a Lil Hex. Keys, pouches, loot (including that arrow you found that you’re never going to use but you need to research something else in town); you don’t need these during the fight anyway.
There’s also items that will cleanse hazards, like the catapult. I’ve never bothered, but your playstyle may be different than mine.
High Damage
Phase 2 starts at 35, and then 42 the round after. There are tons of ways to block this, but detailing them is more a basic gameplay mechanic than a fight-specific guide, so it’s mostly out of scope.
Still, here are a few ways:
- Several armors and +2 haste/round (will also help with the damage scaling if it’s a drawn-out fight). You may need to block a lot in early Phase 2 or use consumables with this approach. Depends on how much you have. I only list +2 haste because that’s the minimum to increase armor over time.
- Lots of energy and a shield. Optionally with +haste forged into it.
- Reliable way to get 2 dodge every other round (2x Ninja clothes?)
- Armor + regen to heal through it
- Burn Disorder down fast. See Below.
Poison Damage
13 poison is a lot. You should have 40-50 hp by now, so 13 poison will kill you in 4-5 turns, no matter how much armor you have. His Phase 2 drops 999 shields whenever you deal 300 damage in a turn, so a conventional fight should take at least 4-5 rounds. So we may need an unconventional tactic. Here are a few:
Cleanse the Poison
There are a lot of items that can remove the poison.
Clean Burn
- I usually save these for their curse-removal ability, but they also cleanse your statuses. Not that this will also wipe out all your rage, haste, and dodge too. This also requires that you have another item to sacrifice. If you’re relying on this, make sure you wait until the end of Phase 1, since it only works once (unless you have more candles and items to destroy).
Cleansing Rag
- Pro: Only removes poison
- Con: Only 1 stack/swing.
I’m not saying this is the best approach, but if you have enough energy (you picked up an Ore, right?), it’ll do the job. If not, it’ll at least mitigate the poison enough to survive it. At 2 attacks/round, 13 poison will only deal 26 damage. If you think you’ll have to spend most of your energy blocking, pick up a dagger or two and make sure they’re adjacent.
Swamp Buckler
- Only removes poison, turns it into much-needed block. What’s the downside? Oh yeah, it’s hard to find and completely useless in most fights up until now. But I suppose not everyone avoids the Brambles and the Swamp. Still, not a lot of poison in act 3… Unless you also have the vampiric halberd. Great combo. Anyway, if you have this against Disorder, then the poison won’t matter. Good job, this fight turned easy. Note that the Venom Sword also derives its stats from your stacks of poison, but does NOT cleanse them.
Cleansing Potion
- Heal through the Poison
- Unmitigated, 13 stacks is a lot of damage to heal through (91).
- Assuming you have 50 hp (40 to start, +5 at the end of acts 2 and 3), you’ll need 42 healing or 9 stacks of regen to survive. If you’re building up regen each turn, you’ll need at least 2/turn. Two forges of +1 regen to rings should barely do it.
- There’s a lot of ways to heal, and having just the minimum means you better block every point of incoming damage.
Prevent the Poison
- Stopwatch or Bolas will put Disorder to sleep for 1 round. Use them when he poisons you.
Burn Disorder Down Fast
- Only have 4-5 rounds to kill Disorder? Then do that. In my last two runs, I was lucky enough to find my favorite relic, Ore. By “lucky”, I mean i horded a ton of dice and rerolled to get it. Then I sold every Legendary or Relic I didn’t need (along with a few rares) until each shopkeeper told me he wouldn’t buy anything else (3/shopkeeper). Then I put a few forges of +1 rage on my favorite weapon (30 gold a piece is hard to do when every 40 is an energy, but it’s worth it). By the time the fight ended, I’m dealing over 100/swing with a dozen swings per round. If you have a few different weapons with different damage values, you can make sure you get close to the 300 limit in phase 2, then hit him hard.
- Alternatively, weapons that pierce shields (there’s a lance that does it) or stacking poison on him will also work. Forging poison on weapons is much cheaper than rage anyway.
- You may have luck with alternative methods of burning down (cleavers come to mind). This wouldn’t be much of a game if there were only one way. Still, I find Ore to be a particularly reliable way to win. Even if you don’t have rage, it still ensures you have the energy you need to shield the incoming damage.
