Ra-akar is a ♥♥♥♥♥ pls help :(

[Plasmawario]

OK SO it's my first time playing the game, and i've progressed all the way to the sand titan boss. I'm kinda losing my mind because i've fought him like 3 times thus far and every time has been a miserable failure. Here's how things went:

First time i fought him, i died literally a minute into the fight because he spat out these weird triangle things. Tried to run away from em, they're faster than me and insta-killed me.
Second time, i tried shooting at them to kill them, didn't work, they insta-killed me

By this point i was really not a fan of the fight cuz there was 0 indication on what i was supposed to do with these triangle things, so i did something i almost haven't done at all while playing this game, and i searched online for answers. Apparently, you're supposed to make them hit a wall to make them go away. Well, there used to be quite a few pillars around the arena, until ra-akar broke all of them except for the 2 pillars at the very bottom, so i would'nt have guessed that by myself. I also stumbled upon some people suggesting to use the arcane staff, cuz apparently that's supposed to be better than the scholars staff, what i have, so i was like "aight i'll try it", despite me using mostly the scholars staff at this point cuz of its really good damage output on normal enemies

Here goes attempt number 3, i upgraded the arcane staff to lvl 15 or so, and gave it a shot. Yeah, my damage output was so pathetic i barely made a dent while using it, and you guessed it, i got recked.

So now i'm completely lost on what to do. I have, what i thought, was pretty solid gear for this point in the game, and that's still not good enough apparently. I wanted to try running the magic build for this playthrough, so i got mostly magic stuff. Here's a quick run-down:
sorcerer armor set
pearl lantern
octarine bag
blue leather tomb
boundary ring
arcane staff / scholars staff
flame necklace
flame ring

i really need help to fight this guy, i wanna progress into being able to craft stuff with pandorium but i'm gatekeeped by this bug ♥♥♥♥ to do it and it's honestly really demoralizing when i have to spend resources to make another summon item each time (i'm running low on ancient gemstones and mechanic parts pls help) and then die to a fail of a loadout that does nothing to help me. And this is all while playing on the normal difficulty too, so i don't want to imagine the hell that is the higher difficulties

EDIT (copied from replies): Dang, ok wow. I followed some of ya'll's advice and yeah, the bug ♥♥♥♥♥ is finally dead.

Made a bunch of food buffs, swapped the tomb for an octarine shield, stuck with the arcane wand, and i cranked ranged and magic skills to max through some exhausting grinding. Guess that was enough to knock the guy out in one attempt. Appreciate everyone who helped me!

[Tanyon]

We put up walls up with gaps so we can avoid the projectiles.. that's the only tip I really have.. I'm sure there are YT videos..?

[Pi is exactly 3]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Plasmawario:

i wanna progress into being able to craft stuff with pandorium but i'm gatekeeped by this bug ♥♥♥♥

Good news! If you want to craft Pandorum items you don't need ol' whatsisface McBug-jerk. You just dig out into the fossil area and wander around until you find a weird altar thingy with a ghostly pair of eyes floating above it. That's the crafting station for Pandorum and you can dig it up with a pickaxe and take it back to base!


As for the boss himself I would strongly recommend ditching the blue tome in favor of a strong shield, perhaps the Sentry one? I found that the best way to survive him while dealing damage was to get a gearset with decent armor + whatever stats suit your combat style. Don't forget food buffs.

[Doktor Diesel]

I'd recommend you switch the tome for a shield. I used the lava shield. works well against those homing projectiles...takes damage down by 70%.

[Taker]

Ez just get move speed & off hand dash.
Avoid the boss missiles (they despawn), kill scarab>dps boss.
Speed food can help.

[Zapato13]

you can always place blocks for protection :)

[Plasmawario]

As for the boss himself I would strongly recommend ditching the blue tome in favor of a strong shield, perhaps the Sentry one? I found that the best way to survive him while dealing damage was to get a gearset with decent armor + whatever stats suit your combat style. Don't forget food buffs.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von DoktorDiesel:

I'd recommend you switch the tome for a shield. I used the lava shield. works well against those homing projectiles...takes damage down by 70%.

Yeah i tried swapping it for a shield, and while it does help, it eats away my magic barrier and a chunk of my health with it. I'm debating on trying to get a second boundary ring as well for the extra magic barrier to help even more.

If i can manage that, then my only other problem is my dps, which sucks for this boss. Trying both the arcane staff and the scholars staff both don't seem to do a lot, and i've upgraded the arcane staff to lvl 14 or so. I really don't know what else i can do to buff my damage

[AquaX]

There are multiple ways to deal with it but are you willing to lvl up the ranged and summon tree too? There is a magic build that abused perks from range and summon tree to literally melt bosses even in a cheaply buffed state.

[Plasmawario]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von AquaX:

There are multiple ways to deal with it but are you willing to lvl up the ranged and summon tree too? There is a magic build that abused perks from range and summon tree to literally melt bosses even in a cheaply buffed state.

I'm more interested in ranged, and it's been something i've been looking into. For whatever reason, the game has not been leveling up my ranged skill at all despite using the magic staffs plenty throughout my run. I might have to grind that separately somehow

[AquaX]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Plasmawario:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von AquaX:

There are multiple ways to deal with it but are you willing to lvl up the ranged and summon tree too? There is a magic build that abused perks from range and summon tree to literally melt bosses even in a cheaply buffed state.

I'm more interested in ranged, and it's been something i've been looking into. For whatever reason, the game has not been leveling up my ranged skill at all despite using the magic staffs plenty throughout my run. I might have to grind that separately somehow

Its because a staff isn't registered as ranged wep for xp lvling, Only the bows are. But it does take perks from the range tree.

[Plasmawario]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von AquaX:

Its because a staff isn't registered as ranged wep for xp lvling, Only the bows are. But it does take perks from the range tree.

that is a bit confusing but alright, guess i gotta start making bows then

[Trabad2]

You can outrun those triangle things. First time I fought this guy, I died the same way. I had the parrot pet and used the feather from Azeos to outrun those projectiles. If not, you can just build a few walls and stand behind them, but you need to keep on running from other things in the arena.

Also, ranged levels up when using ranged physical weapons, magic doesn't count for leveling up ranged

[Plasmawario]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Trabad2:

You can outrun those triangle things. First time I fought this guy, I died the same way. I had the parrot pet and used the feather from Azeos to outrun those projectiles. If not, you can just build a few walls and stand behind them, but you need to keep on running from other things in the arena.

Also, ranged levels up when using ranged physical weapons, magic doesn't count for leveling up ranged

Yeah it's something i'm looking at currently. I did spent a good several hours yesterday on a friends server with an auto-clicker just endlessly attacking some giant mushroom brutes to level up my ranged and magic to max level, so if that doesn't increase my damage enough to make fighting ra-akar even feasible, then i don't know what will.

Personally, i think needing to spend THAT much time doing nothing but grinding levels just to progress is ridiculous, since i was able to get this far with magic lvl 58 and almost 0 ranged levels, but i guess it is what it is.

[Plasmawario]

Dang, ok wow. I followed some of ya'll's advice and yeah, the bug ♥♥♥♥♥ is finally dead.

Made a bunch of food buffs, swapped the tomb for an octarine shield, stuck with the arcane wand, and i cranked ranged and magic skills to max through some exhausting grinding. Guess that was enough to knock the guy out in one attempt. Appreciate everyone who helped me!

[SCamp]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Plasmawario:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von AquaX:

Its because a staff isn't registered as ranged wep for xp lvling, Only the bows are. But it does take perks from the range tree.

that is a bit confusing but alright, guess i gotta start making bows then

Bat summons and pets attacking enemies you are far away from also count for ranged XP.

I never touched ranged weapons except for flintlocking a dozen enemies in the early game. Just using bat summons has gotten me about 50 levels in ranged.

EDIT: That was bad info. Apparently using a flintlock early game adds up.

[Skull One]

For other people having this problem - use a scarab mortar weapon. the explosion damage it does as it hits the boss will delete the triangles as they come out from him.