How to fight Monolith?

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

I have no clue how it supposed to work. They always just wipe my team without any problem.

[laveley]

Back in the days I cleaned it by using the Perma indom strategy with 2h bros.

Since they nerfed that strategy to the point it's no longer possible, I don't think there's a feasible way to do it without loosing at the very least one brother, if not more.

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

Guides at least 1 year old and does not represent current game.
I'm ready to loose 11 of 12 bros, but it is not enough.

[laveley]

Originally posted by Crystal meth enthusiast:

Guides at least 1 year old and does not represent current game.
I'm ready to loose 11 of 12 bros, but it is not enough.

Problem with this game is that the devs nerfed numerous times the best builds available but "forgot" about this big challenge areas, being the monolith the oldest, that remained the same strength.

I don't know if I could beat it nowadays.

I think you may beat it more easyli if you have all the special items that you can get by beating the other special areas and a LOT of grind, like high lvl bros with stacked stats until the limits of the 95%/5% hit/avoyd chances.

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

Originally posted by laveley:

Originally posted by Crystal meth enthusiast:

Guides at least 1 year old and does not represent current game.
I'm ready to loose 11 of 12 bros, but it is not enough.

I think you may beat it more easyli if you have all the special items that you can get by beating the other special areas and a LOT of grind, like high lvl bros with stacked stats until the limits of the 95%/5% hit/avoyd chances.

You do not understand my lvl of desperation. We are lvls 18-20 on day 600+ with all dressed only in Mastercrafts and Few Legendaries from other Areas. Insane grind already invested.
And on EASY difficulty.

[laveley]

Originally posted by Crystal meth enthusiast:

Originally posted by laveley:

I think you may beat it more easyli if you have all the special items that you can get by beating the other special areas and a LOT of grind, like high lvl bros with stacked stats until the limits of the 95%/5% hit/avoyd chances.

You do not understand my lvl of desperation. We are lvls 18-20 on day 600+ with all dressed only in Mastercrafts and Few Legendaries from other Areas. Insane grind already invested.
And on EASY difficulty.

I do understand and I already told you that is a big problem with this game that made this location much more difficult than it was once upon a time.

There's too much enemies that deal too much damage and no reliable "easy" way to outdamage them.

People will probably say you to use cc, but I don't think that will suffice because there's simply too many enemies, cc will only delay your demise. It's different from encounters that have a couple or just one really tough enemy because than cc and strategies like tanks+damage dealers specialist can succeed.

Black monolith is a damage race and unfortunately the devs simply removed the ways to outdamage all the enemies from the game.

I don't have any other suggestions than to try to grind even more and push to the limits. If you are already at the limits than I can't help you, sorry.

[Heron]

I've done it several times in the current meta without casualties.

Most important thing is to have a super tank that can stall the "northern" group with the emperor by himself. He needs the undead trophy, exceptional resolve and mdef.

The rest of the team needs great stats, preferably famed armor and builds / weapons that can one-shot 1-2 ancient legionnaires per round to do well. Backline should be capable to dispose of necrosavants on its own. Clear the east first, then mop up the north in an attempt to save your tank.

Edit: Guides from after the release of Blazing Deserts should be fine. That includes 1 year old guides. Some details have changed since the Blazing Deserts patch, but nothing major.

[suejak]

Monolith has actually been indirectly nerfed by player powercreep relative to the old days. There are OP armour attachments, potions that last the entire battle (!), free guaranteed named items, so many free sources of resolve, even reworked Nimble making way more brothers endgame viable - the list goes on.

You also have the free holy water (https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Flask_of_Blessed_Water#:~:text=Where%20Can%20They%20Be%20Found,the%20Ancient%20Temple%20legendary%20location.) from the Ancient Temple legendary location that will singlehandedly blow up a huge chunk of the first wave of Black Monolith.

BM has never been easier, as players have powercreeped through the DLCs for 6 years while Black Monolith has stayed the same.

[laveley]

Originally posted by suejak:

BM has never been easier, as players have powercreeped through the DLCs for 6 years while Black Monolith has stayed the same.

Not all players have all the DLCs M8, neither the base game balance should be aimed towards them.

[suejak]

I don't know of any games that balance around vanilla while having three DLCs.

[turtle225]

Originally posted by suejak:

Monolith has actually been indirectly nerfed by player powercreep relative to the old days. There are OP armour attachments, potions that last the entire battle (!), free guaranteed named items, so many free sources of resolve, even reworked Nimble making way more brothers endgame viable - the list goes on.

You also have the free holy water (https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Flask_of_Blessed_Water#:~:text=Where%20Can%20They%20Be%20Found,the%20Ancient%20Temple%20legendary%20location.) from the Ancient Temple legendary location that will singlehandedly blow up a huge chunk of the first wave of Black Monolith.

BM has never been easier, as players have powercreeped through the DLCs for 6 years while Black Monolith has stayed the same.

I agree with this. Monolith is easier now than in the past. The only buff Ancient Dead have gotten is buff to Fearsome and buff to Polearm Mastery (which the player also benefits from moreso than they do).

The Conqueror was added at some point though which is probably the biggest buff Monolith has gotten. He's pretty scary.

Meanwhile, the player has gotten tons of new weapons and tools to work with.

Originally posted by laveley:

Back in the days I cleaned it by using the Perma indom strategy with 2h bros.

Since they nerfed that strategy to the point it's no longer possible, I don't think there's a feasible way to do it without loosing at the very least one brother, if not more.

I don't think this was ever the best way to beat Monolith. It worked sure, but the nerf to Indom didn't really change things that much except making your tank more likely to die. I don't think Indom 2Handers were ever needed here.

With second wind potions and a famed shield that has -Fat cost, or iron lungs on your tank, you can still do infinite Indom on your tank anyway, who in my opinion was the only bro on the team who cared about that in Monolith.

[laveley]

Originally posted by turtle225:

Originally posted by laveley:

Back in the days I cleaned it by using the Perma indom strategy with 2h bros.

Since they nerfed that strategy to the point it's no longer possible, I don't think there's a feasible way to do it without loosing at the very least one brother, if not more.

I don't think this was ever the best way to beat Monolith. It worked sure, but the nerf to Indom didn't really change things that much except making your tank more likely to die. I don't think Indom 2Handers were ever needed here.

With second wind potions and a famed shield that has -Fat cost, or iron lungs on your tank, you can still do infinite Indom on your tank anyway, who in my opinion was the only bro on the team who cared about that in Monolith.

Wtf are you talking about? Perma indom 2h were never dedicated tanks to begin with just because they used one perk that tanks also use. The build was efficient because it made bros that could deal a lot of damage (biggest AOE damage of the game) while still having a really good survival because indom and reach stacks.

And if you don't think it was the best build to beat it, good for you. I'm certain it was. It was the only build you could beat without risk loosing a bro and without a huge grind for lvls and famed/special items. OP experience is a testimony to that.

But hey, if you are so certain it's easier than do the OP a favor and give him the tips to beat it.

[99Random]

Originally posted by laveley:

Back in the days I cleaned it by using the Perma indom strategy with 2h bros.

Since they nerfed that strategy to the point it's no longer possible, I don't think there's a feasible way to do it without loosing at the very least one brother, if not more.

This right there is the issue. Monolith is designed to be the ultimate battle in a game with the design philosophy of team members not surviving a battle being a normal thing.

No one likes losing a favorite bro, but that is core to the game design.

[Heron]

Originally posted by laveley:

Wtf are you talking about? Perma indom 2h were never dedicated tanks to begin with just because they used one perk that tanks also use. The build was efficient because it made bros that could deal a lot of damage (biggest AOE damage of the game) while still having a really good survival because indom and reach stacks.

And if you don't think it was the best build to beat it, good for you. I'm certain it was. It was the only build you could beat without risk loosing a bro and without a huge grind for lvls and famed/special items. OP experience is a testimony to that.

But hey, if you are so certain it's easier than do the OP a favor and give him the tips to beat it.

Turtle wrote the in-depth perks guide, one of the most referenced guides in BB, and beat Monolith with nothing but beggars and cripples. You can rest assured that he very much does know what he's talking about, though that doesn't invalidate your own opinion of course. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001196860

[Tlewnipla]

The current record is beating Monolith at day 37 with a group of lvl 3 to 14 (lonewolf) mercenaries. Most were around lvl 9. Brothers were lost, though.

With your roster, it should be possible to beat with no losses. Divide and conquer and get rid of the Necrosavants asap. A tank with the Sunken Library shield and a Ijirok armor part can hold up 10 to 12 skellies on his own...

[suejak]

Last I heard, the current Monolith speedrun record is day 23: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znNmjw-MKKM