Kangaxx Cheese Guide: Smack My Lich Up!

Quick Guide to beat the very difficult lich and demi-lich, Kangaxx. Cheesy tactics a must!

Introduction and starting the quest

Kangaxx is an optional series of lich fights that can be completed in chapter 2. Why should you do this? For the xp, for the challenge, and for the best ring in the game!!! Screenshots speak louder than words!
It has so many abilities it doesn't show in one screenshot. It also improved hastes the user x3 per day.

The plot of this quest is that you have to kill 2 other liches to get to get Kangaxx's body parts for him. However, you don't need to talk to him to get this quest started. You can kill straight up kill
the first 2 liches to get the parts you need, quest or not.

Lich #1 is in the basement of the Cult of the Unseeing Eye. (start this in temple district) The cult is a good sidequest and you should probably complete this one first. The lich itself is in the coffin you are warned not to mess with. It's tough, it casts nasty spells like time stop, power word kill... etc. Luckily the cult's headquarters is huge. You can summon some junk, have a stealthed, hasted character pop the lich lid and run away fast! Just keep summoning junk and keep your party way back. Once the lich starts casting crappy damage spells instead of instant kill stuff, you've prettymuch won. I find it's best to summon awful stuff first because it will instantly die (summon animal 1, summon undead etc.). Then you can summon some better stuff like elementals later.

Lich #2 is in the Bridge District, southern part of town. A very tough fight as well, but summons carry the day and stay away when it time stops.

Beat these two liches before you have a chance at Kangaxx. If they're too tough, save it for later and when you have better spells / more hp / resist.

Kangaxx part 1, cheddar lich

Once you have the golden arms and legs (1 part) and golden torso, head on over to Kangaxx's Crab Shack down at the docks. It's an obscure building near the thief's stronghold and the inn.

You'll need to pick the lock, there's a trap on the door too. Once inside, you'll fight 3 crappy minotaurs. If you want, you can retreat to the streets and they'll follow you out so that you have more room to fight. When they're turned into glue, head back inside. The lich is downstairs.

My strategy involves keeping everyone except 1 fast character right near the exit so don't position your tanks. Give one character the 2 golden parts. When you first talk to the lich, agree to get the parts. Make a save here. Buffing would be appropriate here if you want to try to fight the first lich through normal means. This fight will be tougher than the first 2 liches because he has more hp, seems to have better spells, and right after you kill him, he turns into the almost impossible demilich! Feel free to try it normally though.

If you want to do it my way, summon the best stuff you can before you turn in the golden parts. Hopefully you can summon a few elementals and then haste them and your messanger. You need to haste your character that pops the coffin (and make sure they have both golden lich parts) or have the boots that doubles your movement speed. Position your summoned stuff right near the coffin, but leave a clear path for your messanger character to talk to the lich and get the fluff out of there fast! Click the coffin again and huuuuge suprise, the evil lich will try to kill you!



He takes a minute to come out of coffin. Take the time to run your hasted messanger back to the main party near the exit. Make sure he comes out of the coffin and says his garbage and turns hostile. Then, take the whole party and LEAVE!!! (If you leave before he turns hostile, it ruins the whole thing)

Random Aside- If you time it right, pause a ton, you can actually see him as a neutral character. If you have a good rogue (or assassin, better yet!) you can hide after talking and possibly get a cheesy backstab off while also ordering all of your ranged chars to fire crossbows etc. and cast on him while he's neutral. In one try out of about 11, I got really lucky and somehow messed up his scripting by attacking early. He just stood there neutral, never said his speech and never even cast a spell. This is not reliable, however. Every other time, he got pretty mad and cast time stop fairly early! Probably not worth messing with, but interesting.

So, you left Kangaxx high and dry and you're upstairs. He's got some hasted elementals next to him. Now it's time for some high quality cheese. Not that fake yellow american cheese, not aged cheddar, not even nice herb goat cheese. We're gonna drop some high priced Époisses de Bourgogne on this lich.

Here's the trick. Just keep going upstairs and downstairs. A LOT! Do not let him cast a spell.
Just keep changing floors. He will waste his spells, sometimes the summons will get a hit on him. Do this a ton. Eventually he will burn all his good spells. When he starts casting level 1 damage spells, you know you've got him. The elementals may kill him or you can finish him off with ranged weapons. Whatever you do, do not get near him, stay right near the exit. As soon as he dies, get out of there! The demi-lich packs 15 spells that will insta-kill your characters and he chain casts it, going so far as to actually removing them from your party instantly. Ressurection not even possible. So get out!

Demi-Lich! We need a stronger cheese!

So... you can try to fight the Demi-Lich if you want.
It casts imprisonment constantly. This is a level 9 spell which not only
kills your party member, but removes them totally from the party. No ressurecting.
Only remedy is a level 9 spell, freedom which is only a reactive measure,
not proactive and you can't get it yet anyway. Yeah.. and you thought I was cheesy!

So get the hell out of that house. You need backup!
No matter what your party consists of.... you need to either have your main character
as a berserker or get Korgan the evil dwarf in your party. He hangs out at the copper coronet.
He's pretty impatient as far as his own personal quest goes so don't rest too much or do his quest so you can take your time. He bailed on me after 3 days. If you are a good or neutral party and don't have him already (Note that I've read Protection scrolls - protection from undead or magic might work, but I haven't tested it. Feel free to leave comments and I'll add the info to the guide with credit)

Berserker rage nullifies imprisonment spell! But there's another catch... only a +4 weapon can hit the Demi-lich!!! And +4 weapons are pretty rare.... Luckily there's a solution!
The adventurer's mart sells a +4 staff, but staffs don't really do enough damage. I tried it out and Korgan was only hitting the Demi-lich for 2 damage per.... His rage wore off first and he died due to cheesy imprisonment #13!

So where do we find a lich killing weapon? The +4 staff costs 13,000 gold and doesn't even do the job. Luckily, there's a place you can get it for FREE, right in town! It's a pretty unlikely spot.

Yep, the Crooked Crane, that dump inn where you have to sleep in the hay. This is at the town gate area.
Walk inside and discover a hidden wall!

Haste up your rouge character and unlock that wall. Send only the rogue in and discover another lich! Ignore the lich, set the lockpicking skill and pick the chest right behind the lich. Get that sword out of the chest and get the hell out! If you do it correctly, the lich won't even get a spell off.

ID that sword somehow then give it to Korgan or your Berserker. Daystar Kills liches!
Haste up your Berskerer, make sure they're raging and then smack that lich up! Enjoy the ring!
Comments welcome, hope this helps with one of the toughest fights of the game.

Bonus: Right after I beat the demi-lich, Korgan bailed on the party! He killed the demi-lich then instantly quit the party! He did his job and left with the Daystar, but he earned it haha. I cannot really blame him since I sent him in there with no help and no armor or potions : )
Checkout the lich loot pile right as he leaves!

Bonus 2: Craft beer nerds, yeah that lich is grippin' and sippin' some westy 12 : ) He's aged right?

[CHERNO FRIENDLY]

I just beat him as a solo sorcerer kinda early with much difficulty, and the game changer for me was using potions of firebreath, bought from Adventurer's mart and the Sewers seller in the Temple district. A scroll of Mordekan's sword + haste helped me kill his first phase, and then the potions for demilich.

[dm]

The battle with Demi Lich is certainly difficult. Especially if it happened too early. I had to hide the entire party and kill him as a lone sorserer. Spell Immunity and lots and lots of Minute Meteor. This bastard is immune not only to weapons less than +4, but also to all spells below a certain level (I don’t remember now, but it’s something like 5 or 7). But MMM counts as a +5 weapon.

[Babbles]

You just knew the comment section would be full of 'just do this, just do that' comments from nerds ... seriously, this was a well written guide.

Nerds - just cannot help themselves in any social situation, even a virtual one!

[lrcj1988]

I just used scroll of magic protection and the Holy Avenger Sword. Too easy

[rhawes417]

Of all the tougher fights in the game and there can be more than a few if you're not ready for them or just don't know they are there. I've always had a harder time with this guy. I personally feel Irenicus is easier. Again, unless you know whats going on. There is only one fight ive never been able to win. The Demigorgon. Excellent story and build up to it and he, to me at least, lives up to all the dialogue about him being so powerful that he couldn't be killed and the only thing to do was trap him. Watcher's keep is great. Legit challenge, great loot if you can pull it off and a great ending. It was a good successor to durlag's tower.

[Zugrok]

I think most people don't have timestop and WW by chapter 2 mate. I mean alot of people run the cap in shadows of amn to avoid getting the game breaking abilities in shadows of amn.

[Smelly]

Change my pitch up, smack my lich up

[Hamish]

also you can duel wield day star and I think the burning earth on someone like Heir'Dalis and use protection from abjuration if you wanted

[Hamish]

for a stronger cheese, give minsc the mace of destruction +2, bezerk and whats him blow up

[RafaelElendil]

Or just solo every single lich, and the demi lich, with a level 1 char...


Just use a scroll of protection against undead, get daystar, kill everything with it, take 0 damage.