Defeated Fader - Full Mage

[Darren Daulton]

Three of us fought him the first time last night. I went full mage , 2 eitr food , 1 stam. All the meads, eitr regen, eitr, med stam, major health, fire resist. Bonemass special, queen special.

I used skellies, protection, trolstav, tried vines. It was a long battle, many deaths before we figured out all the moves.

In the end it was the frost staff that consistently and reliably burned him down.

[Tom]

Congratulations. We just gave up on our first try with 2 player co-op. He's frustrating, incredible difficulty spike, and once you start dying you're on a downward spiral because lower skills reduce your already low chances further. It's... a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ending to an amazing game.

We'll probably try again, but I think we need a break from the game after today. If the devs ever read this: Re-think this boss. He can be difficult, but it's not even that he's hard to beat, it's that it's a pure excercise in attrition and frustration and grit. In other words: The opposite of fun gameplay.

It really is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ end-point for a game otherwise so great.

[electricdawn]

Congratulations as well.

Edit: This was done on default difficulty.

I defeated Vader solo on full melee on my third attempt. First attempt I died, because I didn't know what to expect. So business as usual. Second attempt I almost nailed him, but ran out of potions and food when he was down to, say, 15%, and I had to give up. Third attempt, I was fully stocked with everything I needed and killed him in one go, no death.

Equipment used:
Asksvin set, lvl 3
Ashen cape, lvl 3
Flametal round shield, lvl 3
Niddhög Primal, lvl 2 (can't get higher than that)

Potions used:
Major health,
Fire protection,
Lingering stamina,
Rattatosk.

Food used:
This asksvin pie thingy (105HP health)
Mashed Meat
Mistlands Feast

The trick is to stay on the move and keep away from his AoE attack. You don't need to sprint, just steadily jog away from it. Otherwise block his attacks with your shield. Once he starts summoning his army, try to defeat them, but remember who's your main target. The adds are very weak and can be defeated with one hit, but they do pack the punch of the regular variety. Stay out of their way and destroy them, when you get the chance.

The most important thing in this fight is, as always, stamina and potion management. You have to watch when your fire protection, lingering stamina and Rattatosk are running out and apply them again immediately.

I'd wager a guess that without these potions the fight is exponentially harder.

[crazy.monkey]

Congratz! We made askvin farm on Fader spawn, basicaly made arena fully closed (with hoe and lots of time).

[OctoberSky]

Originally posted by crazy.monkey:

Congratz! We made askvin farm on Fader spawn, basicaly made arena fully closed (with hoe and lots of time).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3324933453

Hoping to find the elusive 2-star in next play-through.

[Tom]

Originally posted by OctoberSky:

Originally posted by crazy.monkey:

Congratz! We made askvin farm on Fader spawn, basicaly made arena fully closed (with hoe and lots of time).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3324933453

Hoping to find the elusive 2-star in next play-through.

Something like this is what I'm planning for the next attempt, and I feel dumb doing it. Box him in with earth walls, put half a dozen ballistas on one side, never go there (so they don't get attacked), and litter the world around it with campfires for miles so no additional mobs get drawn in.

I hate having to game a game like that, but I don't feel that Fader can be beaten without resorting to some kind of hack. And I don't think dying a hundred times to figure out the small details on how to manage him is my definition of fun. I think the devs were blinded by Elden Ring's success when they created Fader, and didn't understand that that game has a different targert audience.

[electricdawn]

Originally posted by Tom:

<snip> I hate having to game a game like that, but I don't feel that Fader can be beaten without resorting to some kind of hack. <snip>

Did you read my post above? Fader may be a difficult boss, but he's not THAT hard to kill. I killed him solo on default difficulty and would've almost succeeded on my SECOND attempt, dying only once in the first.

Edit: And no, I'm no "chad", "1337" or have "mad skillz" or anything like that. I'm an elderly man with arguably too much time on my hands. ;)

Edit II: I always wonder where people get the impression from that this is a cozy farm and home building simulator with some light combat sprinkled in. Certainly not from the store page.

[OctoberSky]

Originally posted by Tom:

I hate having to game a game like that, but I don't feel that Fader can be beaten without resorting to some kind of hack.

Plenty of good players have defeated Fader in solo using simple sword-and-board technique and with very few, if any, fatalities. I'm just grateful that the game provides another non-console path for those of us who don't have that skill. This isn't a fault in the game. It's a strength.

[JimmyEatSquirrel]

I have always played solo, been playing a while and pretty good at parry and dodge rolling which is pretty much required. Beat Fader 1st try with 2 deaths. I did dig a moat around the arena to prevent mobs from the surrounding woods adding in on the battle (which they did) and it allowed me to retreat from the fight and take them out and then go back in for more. Also towards the end when he had about 10% health he somehow fell into the moat trench and got stuck there and I was able to just stand ground level and wail on his head. He died face down in a ditch...

I died mostly to the meteors and running too much not understanding his moves. Used Nidhog lightening sword, full heavy, and FM shield with every buff available. Bog Witch was not out at the time... but if I had to go again, I would use Ratatosk or possibly even Bezerkir mead. Also consider tasty mead.

oah and turn off auto pickup or recovering your corpse with a death will be difficult because of the destroyed area grausten and you will over encumber. This probably saved me even more problems.

Congratz OP

GL All on your fights. Sure lots of effective ways to do this... which makes this game great.

Skol

[B the Self]

The first time we fought him (months ago) as 3 players the spike floor attacks made us lag and reach singe digits fps like 2-3 fps while the attack was going on.
Then I decided to it solo and the skeletons spawning (the one from outside the arena) were just a pain in the ass, so I tried in pacifist world (mobs only aggro if ypybattack them) and could kill the boss,
with shield and lightning mace. (the bone mass buff is just 10/10 for this fight, while taking burn protect potion)

Then i made an arena and fought without peaceful options and did it again.

Just keep going and going you will figure him out, it's mostly running the spikes, rolling the meteors and then just defend and attack like a dark souls game until he goes to spike attack and so on, I'm not that good at the game like others mentioned.

The worst thing on this was the Ashland map kept on spawning skeleton mobs around and the slimes and now those are a pain, because the skeleton the boss spawns he usually just end up killing his own minions if you run around them with the spike attack that the boss does