The Shroud of the Apocrea Event Guide

How to complete the mission for the Shroud of the Apocrea event most efficiently while gaining the most sigils and losing the least amount of health and lives.

Introduction

Maybe you've heard of the Shroud of the Apocrea event.[wiki.spiralknights.com] Do you want to collect enough sigils for an Obsidian weapon?[wiki.spiralknights.com] Or perhaps you're going after a Grasping Aura?[wiki.spiralknights.com] This guide will give the basic overview of the event and some tips on how to maximise your sigil collection.

This guide may contain minor plot spoilers for those who have never done the event before.

The Gear

Armor

In general, you should wear whatever your best armor is. I recommend wearing Skelly Armor[wiki.spiralknights.com] because it provides both shadow defense and freeze resistance. If you don't have that, wear something that provides shadow defense. If you have nothing that provides shadow defense, then wear your gear with the highest amount of defense.

Some people would recommend Chaos Armor[wiki.spiralknights.com] because of the Charge Time Reduction and Damage Bonus it gives. I'm not big on it because then you are sacrificing freeze resistance and shadow defense, which I think are both really important. If you would like to take the "Glass Cannon" approach, do it at your own risk.

For bombers, you may consider wearing Volcanic Demo Armor[wiki.spiralknights.com] or Mad Bomber Armor[wiki.spiralknights.com] to give Charge Time Reduction. You can also wear Chaos Armor as a replacement for Mad Bomber Armor. Again, if you wear Chaos or Mad Bomber, you do so at your own risk.

Weapons

• A Sword of Your Choosing

The enemies (Scarabs and Bombies) you will be killing are weak to elemental damage, so I recommend bringing your preferred elemental sword. Some people like the Warmaster Rocket Hammer[wiki.spiralknights.com] because it does high damage. Brandish Line swords like the Combuster[wiki.spiralknights.com] are good. A Glacius[wiki.spiralknights.com] can be nice for freezing the Lost Souls, but it won't be able to freeze the other enemies you face.
Other good sword options include a sword from the Floruish line.[wiki.spiralknights.com]

• A Bomb (if you have it)

If you have a Shivermist Buster[wiki.spiralknights.com], Electron Vortex[wiki.spiralknights.com], or Graviton Vortex[wiki.spiralknights.com], you should bring one of those. The Shivermist Buster works best.

• A Gun (if you don't have a bomb)

Bring your best gun, preferably a Blitz Needle[wiki.spiralknights.com] or one that does elemental damage. The Blitz Needle's charge attack can free a Lost Soul in one good shot. I don't recommend bringing a gun from the Pulsar line[wiki.spiralknights.com] because you don't want knockback. I recommend the Arcana[wiki.spiralknights.com] and Argent Peacemaker.[wiki.spiralknights.com]

Shield

• Dread Skelly Shield[wiki.spiralknights.com]
  
• Swiftstrike Buckler[wiki.spiralknights.com]
  
• Barbarous Thorn Shield[wiki.spiralknights.com]
  
• Or, the best shield you have

Any of those options will do. I personally like Dread Skelly, but the Swiftstrike (Attack Speed Increase High) and BTS (Sword Damage Increase Medium) can also be nice for their respective combat bonuses. Note that the Swiftstrike offers less shield health before breaking than the others.

Battle Sprite

I recommend bringing a Seraphynx[wiki.spiralknights.com] or Maskeraith[wiki.spiralknights.com] if you have one. Their abilities can be helpful in avoiding the Harvester, as I will explain later.

The Roles

"What are you talking about when you say roles?" you might ask. Similar to having a "water person" in the Firestorm Citadel, a "Bell person" in the Gloaming Wildwoods, or a "Switch Person" in the Ironclaw Munitions Factory, this mission is best accomplished if people stick with certain roles during the mission. You might think this is silly or unnecessary, but I believe this is the most important part of this guide.

The Bomber

Hey, you brought one of those bombs I recommended up above! Great! You will be utilizing your bomb a lot during this mission.

The Baiter/Kiter

This is the most important role. Your job is to "kite" or "bait" the Harvester in the Grasping Plateau. I will explain more below. There needs to be at least one person willing to do this, if not more.

The Striker

Not baiting or bombing? Then you're a striker. Your job is simple: kill stuff. Team up with a Bomber to wreak havoc!

Establish the Roles before you Step on the Elevator!

Before you start the mission, talk over who is going to do what. Make sure everyone knows their roles. You can switch roles in the middle of the mission or in between floors; sometimes you may find switching roles is both necessary and beneficial. The most important thing is that everyone knows what they are doing. Confusion is your worst enemy in this mission. You may find that doing this mission with friends or guild mates who know what they are doing is better than teaming up with a random group of players.

Role Versatility

A party can function even better if some of the members are prepared and willing to do different roles. For example, if two people bring Shivermist Busters and one of them becomes the target of the Apocrean Harvester, they can switch to the Baiter role and one person is still available to use their bomb.

Mission Overview

NOTICE: This is a limited time Holiday event!

This event happens once or twice a calendar year for about two weeks. There is no guarantee the event will be going on at the time you read this guide.

You can start the Shroud of the Apocrea mission by selecting it from the Missions tab.

The First Level

After the Mission Lobby, you always start the Mission with a Haunted Passage. Part ways through the level you will be captured by a bunch of strange grasping tentacles! The level fades to black and you progress to the next floor.

The Second Level

This level is called the Obsidian Nexus. You have a chance to talk to some Lost Souls to learn the backstory and there is also an Apocrean Item Trader and Obelisk of Creation. You can exchange your Apocrean Sigils with the Item Trader to obtain exclusive materials needed to craft weapons at the Obelisk of Creation.

The Third Level

This will always be one of two things:

• A Fiend or Undead themed arena
  
• A Fiend or Undead themed clockworks passage

Complete the level as normal and proceed to the elevator.

The Fourth and Fifth Levels

There are three possible results for these levels:

• A Fiend or Undead themed arena
  
• A Fiend themed clockworks passage (Infernal Passage)
  
• A Grasping Plateau

The Grasping Plateau is where you have an opportunity to earn Apocrean Sigils and will be explained below.

The Sixth Level

If you have made it this far, you are guaranteed to have a Grasping Plateau.

The Seventh Level

This is essentially an end mission lobby. You have a chance to see the Lost Souls you rescued escape. You can also vist the Apocrean Item Trader and Obelisk of Creation again if you'd like.

You don't get any reward for completing the mission itself. The Apocrean Sigils are the main reward. You don't lose your Apocrean sigils if you fail to complete the mission, similar to collecting materials or forge crystals in a normal mission or arcade level. If you die in the mission you will continue to obtain sigils your party members are collecting, even though you are knocked out. Please don't abuse this by freeloading; this can annoy your fellow party members.

The Grasping Plateau

When you enter a Grasping Plateau, you will notice a couple things.

• It's a really dark level similar to a "Graveyard: Where Monsters Fear to Tread."
  
• Your minimap is glitched out.
  
• There are gravestones everywhere.

The Gravestones

Some of these graves will have green cracks in them, similar to ones in a Graveyard level. These gravestones break when attacked with a weapon. When attacked, one of four things will happen:

• Three Freezing Bombies[wiki.spiralknights.com] will spawn.
  
• A number of Pale Scarabs[wiki.spiralknights.com] will spawn.
  
• Three purple Lost/Freed Souls[wiki.spiralknights.com] will spawn.
  
• Nothing will happen.

The Lost Souls

The Lost Souls are what you are here for. You want to free these by attacking them until their "hitpoints" run out at 0. The Lost Souls will move about after spawning. After a certain amount of time, they will despawn. If you fail to free them before they despawn, you do not get any sigils for them.

Depending on what Tier and what difficulty you are playing on, you will get either 2, 3, or 4 Apocrean Sigils for each freed soul.

Puzzles

There are some puzzles in the level that when completed, will give you up to 18 Apocrean Sigils. I decided not to cover the puzzles in depth in this guide. Some of them involve opening a gate with a key, putting a statue on a button, stepping on graves in a certain order, killing some enemies to obtain a key, following a purple trail on the ground to spawn a key, lighting up a candle with a fire ball, or other things. Communicate with your party to locate the different parts of the puzzle and solve them together.

The Harvester

Your biggest concern (in terms of enemies that can you hurt you) in this level is not the Scarabs or Bombies. It is the Apocrean Harvester.[wiki.spiralknights.com] The Harvester will stalk a player slowly until the player dies or moves out of its range. When a player steps within its gaze (pictured by a light shininng on the ground - see the next section), it makes a shrieking sound and begins a tentacle attack called the "Apocrean Grip". Tentacles come out of the ground and attempt to grab any nearby players. If a player is caught, they are unable to move for a certain period of time. Other players may attack the tentacles to free the trapped player, similar to breaking the ice that immobilizes a player in freeze-themed levels. If a Harvester comes within range of a trapped player, it will attack the player with the "Apocrean Gaze" and drain its soul. It is not possible to shield against this attack. The Harvester will do quite a bit of damage until the attack is over or the player is freed and escapes. A Harvester attack can drain over half of your health, depending on your tier, armor, and if you have a vitapod or trinkets.

The Harvester can be attacked and "killed" but instead of dying, he simply teleports away and stalks another player. It is highly recommended that you do not try to attack and kill the Harvester.

A Seraphynx's Angelic Aura will make the player unable to be grabbed by tentacles if they have it. A Maskeraith's Shadow Cloak will make that player invisible to the Harvester in emergencies. However, in most cases, the Harvester will then just sink away and attempt to stalk another player.

The Importance of Sound

I strongly recommend that you play this game with your sound on. You should have the Music, Effect, and UI Volume all on and turned up. The Harvester makes a certain humming noise when he is close to you. He also makes a sound effect when he teleports away from a player and starts his Grip attack. Suprisingly, he also makes a certain noise when you are close that is only heard through the music channel. If you want to listen to other music while playing, make sure it is turned down enough that it won't cover over any sounds in game you may need to hear.

How to Maximise your Sigil Count

Those roles mentioned above need to be understood and fulfilled in order to truly maximise the amount of sigils you can get. Ideally, in a party you should have:

• One person being the Baiter/Kiter
  
• One Bomber working with One Striker
  
• One Bomber/Striker working alone

Here's how you do it:

The Baiter

Your job as the Baiter or Kiter is to distract the Apocrean Harvester. As soon as you enter the Grasping Plateau, you should seek out the Harvester and have him follow you. Communicate with the other party members as to where he is. Use directions lke North/South/East/West or Left/Right/Upper/Lower. The Harvester will target a certain player, but if that player runs away and another player is closer, the Harvester will switch to target the closer player (you can use this to "steal" or distract the Harvester away from another player). You will know if the Harvester is targeting you if you see an image similar to the one to the right shimmer in your HUD.

Once the Harvester is found, you want to move slowly and let him follow you. You don't want him to get too close or too far away and out of sight. I like to keep his gaze on the screen at least a little bit, as pictured below.
I personally like moving in a left or right direction so I can see the harvester on my screen. Going south also allows you to see him (or her? do we know? do they have a gender? Anyways...), but heading north is a bit trickier to see the Harvester, so I prefer going left or right. When you eventually hit the boundary wall, you want to take a WIDE loop around the harvester and head back the other way. Make sure you don't walk into his gaze and trigger the Grip attack.

You should let your other teammates know where you are in the map (north, south, east, west) so that they can move away from you and clear othe parts of the map. You can also use objects on the map such as the locked gate or the elevator, if you have found them (e.g. I have the Harvester north-east of the elevator and I am moving to the West). The goal is to keep the Harvester away from your teammates so he doesn't interfere with them trying to kill free the Lost Souls. Once your teammates have cleared out a certain geographic area (e.g. "we cleared the West side"), move the Harvester towards that area so your teammates can clear out the other parts of the map. Again I want to emphasize, this is the most important role.

If you do accidentally trigger the Grip attack, run away from the Harvester. Use a dash and shield bash to get out of reach of the tentacles. Zig-zaging can help a bit. Once you are certain you are safe, move back towards where the Harvester was in order to continue to bait him.

If you lose track of the Harvester or he stops targeting you, communicate this to your party. You need to let your party know that the Harvester is elsewhere.The Harvester can teleport to another player. You don’t want the harvester to surprise a teammate who is in the process of trying to free Lost Souls. Work with your team to establish where he is and if possible, get back to him and lead him away from your other team members.

Sometimes it may be necessary for the Baiter to switch roles if the Harvester teleports away and starts stalking someone else. If you become the Baiter, try to move the Harvester away from your party members and into an area that has been cleared (all the graves have been destroyed).

Anyone has the ability to bait the Harvester, but some players may not be suited for other roles. If someone does not have a bomb or is considerably weaker than other players, they may be best suited to be the Baiter. You may think this is "discriminatory" against weaker players, but if done correctly, the Baiter may actually be the safest role because you generally don't have to deal with Scarabs or Bombies (if the other players do their jobs right!). I have been the Baiter for an Plateau level and come away without any damage being done, while my teammates who were freeing the Lost Souls used their automatic revive. Also, remember that the Baiter is the most important role in your party. It may not be the "most fun" and you may not free many souls, but it is the most important. You are enabling your party members to do their jobs with the most efficiency.

To draw from a sports anology, not everyone can play quarterback in American football. But the quarterback can't throw touchdown passes if he doesn't have an offensive line to protect him or a reciever to have the ball thrown to him. An offensive lineman has a skill the quarterback doesn't have, and the quarterback has a skill the offensive lineman doesn't have. Not everyone can be a pitcher in baseball, but what would happen if there was no catcher? What if there was no 1st basemen or outfielders? Those different play positions require different skills, but they are equally important despite being different. As they say, "Teamwork makes the dream work."

(continue to the next section to read more. This section was split up because of a character limit -_-)

How to Maximise Your Sigil Count (continued)

The Bomber

KABOOM! You've brought one of the bombs mentioned above. Your job is to attack the gravestones with your bomb in the hopes of finding Lost Souls to free. You want to set your bomb right next to a gravestone like in the picture below. This is the best and most efficient way to do this.

After you drop a bomb, start charging the next one so you can place it again if need be. When Lost Souls spawn, place your 2nd bomb, then start attacking the souls. I think the Shivermist Buster works best because it keeps the souls in place and prevents them from wandering off. Time is crucial once the souls spawn.

If you are working with a Striker, you can keep using your bombs while they attack the souls. If using a Shivermist Buster, this can help you maximise the amount of souls you free because you spend no time chasing the souls around. If time is running low on the souls, stop bombing and pull out a sword to help free them.

Did I mention that you should use a Shivermist Buster? You should use a Shivermist Buster. It's the best. It's so cool (pun intended).

The Striker

Your job is fairly simple. You should team up with a Bomber and follow them around as they clear out gravestones. If there is no bomber in your party, then team up with another Striker to clear the gravestones together. You should have at least two people working together in your party. You might think "divide and conquer" would be a good strategy, but I don't think that really works in this mission.

If the Harvester starts coming after you and a Bomber, and if one of you is going to take over the role of Baiter, then you should take that role over the Bomber, since he has a bomb.

It is important if you're working with a Bomber to let THEM destroy the gravestones, not you. That way, when their bomb goes off, it will affect whatever happens to spawn.

Thoroughness in Grave Destruction

You will notice in the image above that the graves are organized into columns and rows. To make sure I get every single grave possible, I like to clear them out in one of two ways:

• Going north and south and clearing 4 columns at a time
  
• Going east and west and clearing 3 rows at a time.

If you and your party members do this, you can be certain that you've gotten every single grave. It's a much better strategy than just wandering around and not keeping track of where you're going.

Be Aware of Where the Harvester Is

Is someone baiting the Harvester on the North side of the map? Then clear out the south side first. Is someone baiting it on the West side? Clear out the East side first. You don't want to deal with him right? Right! So stay away from him and clear the graves where the Harvester isn't.

More Tips

I'm a bit conflicted about calling this section 'tips', as if this section contained nuggets of information that could be accepted or not depending on how the reader felt about it. I think the following bits of advice are more like Rules instead. If you follow the proceeding advice, you will do much better at getting sigils than another party that doesn't.

Use a Baiter

Yeah, I'm writing to you. Yes, you, the person who skipped the Baiter section of this guide or read it but thought it wasn't necessary. Go back and read it again.

"Why?" you might ask. "That sounds dumb and I don't want to spend an hour walking around a graveyard not killing any thing." But have you thought of the consequences of not using a baiter?

I have experienced this so many times in parties where roles weren't established and people didn't know how to play well. What happens is players rush into a Plateau and start destroying graves without finding out where the Harvester is. Then they find a grave that releases Lost Souls and they start freeing them. All of a sudden, the Harvester comes out of nowhere and attacks them. They get caught and lose over half of their hitpoints, or they manage to escape his grasp. But worst of all, they didn't free any of the souls and lost out on 8-12 potential Apocrean Sigils. Then the Harvester moves on and attacks someone else, who also gets caught, and Lost Souls aren't freed to get sigils, and so on and so forth. This can happen many times in a single level, resulting in many souls not being freed and sigils being lost. This is also a good way to kill your party members faster.

This can all be avoided if someone is a designated Baiter and keeps the Harvester away from anyone else. This is an extremely important role.

Communicate!

You might think the Harvester is your biggest concern in this mission. A few people might differ and say it is the Scarabs. But both of those people are wrong. Your biggest cocerns in this level are chaos, confusion, and a lack of communication. You need to communicate in order to do the mission well.

• If you have found the Harvester and are baiting him, let your teammates know that. Let them know where you are geographically.
  
• If you lose track of the Harvester, let your teammates know so they can be prepared for the Harvester to appear.
  
• If you clear out a certain geographic area, let the Baiter know that they can move to that area.
  
• If you've found part of a puzzle, let others know where that part of the puzzle is geographically. You might have found a Candle that needs fire, a gate that needs a key, or a button that needs a statue.
  
• If you are looking for a Bomber or Striker to work with, let them know where you are on the map so you can join forces to work together.
  
• If you get ensnared by the Harvester and a teammate is nearby, call for help. They can attack the tentacles to free you.

Communication is essential in this mission. The more you communicate, the better off you will be.

Turn Auto-Target On

This can be done in the game menu by setting it to be on by default. Know which key or button toggles it in your controls. I find Auto-Target to be very helpful because the Lost Souls move around a lot and are somewhat twitchy.

Take it One Grave at a Time

Freeing the souls is difficult enough with their rapid, random movements and the time restraint. Make sure you take it one gravestone at a time so you don't accidentally have to deal with 6 souls at once instead of 3. And if the Harvester shows up, then you might lose more potential sigils...

Be Careful with Your Guns

It is very easy when using a gun to miss and accidentally hit another grave, which could potentially release more Bombies, Scarabs, or Lost Souls. You need to be very careful with your aim.

Kill All Scarabs

Many people would rather ignore the scarabs than spend time killing them. However, if you don't kill them and eliminate their threat, they may come back to bite you (quite literally). The last thing you want is to be trying to free Lost Souls when a Scarab attacks you, makes you die, and the Lost Souls escape without you getting sigils. If you spawn scarabs, take the time to kill them.

Plan Time Accordingly

It's really hard to complete one run in less than an hour. If you're going to do this mission, set aside ample time where you won't be interrupted. These tips will help you maximize your sigil count, but they don't necessarily decrease your time. I like to be patient and thorough, and that means my mission runs (and hopefully yours, if you follow my advice) take a bit longer.

Let the Bomber Break the Gravestones

If you're working with a bomber, let them break the gravestones with their bomb. It isn't helpful if you shoot the graves before or slightly after they place their bomb because the Lost Souls could potentially escape the Bomb's reach before it detonates.

Did I Mention You Need to Use a Baiter?

Yes, you need to use it. It will make it soooooo much easier. If I can't convince you, then perhaps the failure and frustration you experience when you don't use one will convince you.

If You're Having Trouble, Play on an Easier Difficulty

If you are Tier 3, you will get four sigils per soul freed on Elite difficulty, three sigils per soul on Advanced difficulty, and two sigils per soul on Normal difficulty.

If you are Tier 2, you will get 3 sigils per soul on Elite difficulty. Elite Difficulty on Tier 2 is much easier than Advanced difficulty on Tier 3. Find a friend or guild mate that is Tier 2 and ask them to start a party for you.

I find it hard to consistently free all three souls on Elite difficulty in Tier 3 unless you're working together with someone. If you can only free two souls on average, you're getting 8 sigils compared to easily getting 9 on tier 2.

Play with People Who Know What They Are Doing

It's great if you know how to do the Shroud of the Apocrea mission the best way, but it doesn't matter if your party members don't know as well. This is the most common way that runs go bad; someone just runs around breaking graves and not being careful, and then bad things happen. Make sure people know to use the previously mentioned strategies. Make sure it is clear who is doing what and working with whom. Again, confusion and lack of communication are the things you should fear more than the Harvester.

Go to the Elevator when things get Desperate

Are some of your teammates dead? Do you have low health and no automatic revive? Make your way to the elevator in order to keep the mission going for more sigils.

If You Have Low Health, Switch to be the Baiter

The Baiter, if done correctly, can be the safest role. This also assumes that the others are eliminating any spare scarabs that may pose a threat to you. If you're a striker or Bomber with low health, consider switching roles in order to stay alive. Role versatility is great asset to have in your party.


Remember, if you fail to follow these steps, your run will unravel quickly. But if you do follow these steps, you can clear all the graves and free all the souls with minimum damage to your party.

Feedback

Questions and comments are welcome on this guide. If you liked it, please rank it up so more people see it. I may edit this section to answer questions people have. You can also reach me in-game by messaging 'Flaminglemon'. However, if you solicit me for friend requests or free stuff, I will block you.

Thanks for reading!

[DownloadableContent]

a small error I found, although shielding does not keep you completely safe from the harvester, it does significantly reduce the damage taken, so it is worth keeping the shield up if your party-mates are not available to free you.

[Player]

Nice.Thank you for making this.