[Spoilers] Master Skull Smasher - what a fight!

[.//slayer]

Got back into the game after a long break, started a new run with a melee build and discovered that Styg added new random locations and bosses, including the three arena masters. Stumbled upon them by chance, and oh boy, I haven't had this much fun with Underrail since my first playthrough!

Loved everything about this little encounter - the set-up, the little bits of lore in the form of the manifest, the "idle" animations as the masters work on their plan while you observe from afar. And, of course, the enemies themselves - they really make you take care and employ all the tools in the arsenal. Also, I might be wrong but I think the Time Slicer is the only enemy temporal manipulator in the game, or at least the only one who uses temporal distortion?

Either way, took me about an hour of trial and error with various weapons I had in my inventory at the time, and I had an absolute blast - fantastic job on Styg's part!

[Serendipitous]

What level you were and what build did you use? Just a curiosity.

Btw, when you start the game on Dom, you can use computer and check the mail. If there is a mail about Smasher, you get them, if it is about Ice T, you get... something else. You may wanna try another run if you are in the mood.

[.//slayer]

I was level 25 at the time, sporting a glove-focused build with Versatility (to farm achievements), so I had no problem infinitely stun-locking any of the three enemies individually, but the trick was to separate them from each other, since any of the three could easily one-shot my 3 CON brawler with 180 health points.

I read that if you leave the location, the bosses despawn, so first, I tried to approach them head-on (didn't work), then applied a generous amount of caltrops (steel boots, duh), blew up the napalm barrels (blast suits too strong), took pot shots from around the corner (but inevitably got caught).

In the end, I was lucky to have a dozen traps as a left-over from my previous deep dungeon dive - it's funny because I was debating with myself about leaving them all in the stash at the base just before descending into the sewers, but decided to keep them just in case. So ultimately, I waited until one of the trio got stuck in a trap, then burst them down with Implosion + Chemical Pistol that I kept on me to get the relevant achievement.

The AI was hesitant to pursue me because of other traps lying around on the ground, and it would have certainly been impossible to win otherwise.

Btw, when you start the game on Dom, you can use computer and check the mail. If there is a mail about Smasher, you get them, if it is about Ice T, you get... something else. You may wanna try another run if you are in the mood.

Indeed, I learnt about this afterwards and went out to check the tower - the environment was hella impressive, but I did not particularly like the nature of the challenge itself. Maybe the boss would have made it different if it had spawned - something to leave for the next playthrough.

[tinglepan]

The room in the north west corner can be used to cheese those guys. Just place a bunch of bear traps along the bridge to that room. You stand at the east side of the bridge and then wait for the patroll to spot you. When they get trapped, you start abusing gas grenade. They are pretty fragile with 20 stacks of gas debuff. I beat them with a knife and I believe it would be easier with a ranged attack build. Just remember to kill the last two of them in the same turn as the last of them get immune to immoblization.