How in God's earth does anyone beat "The Ancient Lantern" on Cruel difficulty?

[BetterCallCharles]

I know the answer is probably that I need to get good, but I have tried this quest more than 40 times and can't do it. I have completed every other quest except "Sign of the Blue Wolf (for obvious reasons). I have all level fours with all of the max gear, to my knowledge, available. It feels like it doesn't matter what kind of armor I have, these beetles are still gonna crit my squire and kill him in 1-2 rounds. Perhaps I just have a bad team comp, as I have a charmer who is next to useless in this fight (aside from her frost armor buff).

I would love any advice from those who have beaten or attempted this on Cruel difficulty.

P.S. This is not a request or a complaint about balance or anything of the sort. I love the challenge that Cruel offers.

Edit: (Clarification) I am mostly referring to the 'not killing the mechanism' route of this quest; however, I am also interested how anyone on any difficulty decided to approach this fight, and which ending they went with.

 

[Alan_SP]

Answer from developer on Steam:

I won't go into detail in the thread, nor going career by career, just a few observations:

-Using/Equipping items by just two AP is broken and will be raised to 4. Talents might reduce this.
-Some spells and talents are still being adjusted.
-It is ok that, in early levels, some careers don't excel. And while it can be played for many hours, current Archaelund EA is still a prologue, not a complete game. Lantern fight (difficult option) is probably appropiate for a level 5 party, or even 6 if you're not an expert player with a robust group. Of course I put it in the EA so you could achieve it at 4 with some strategy and suffering, but it's ok if some groups just can't.

Very few useful builds :: Archaelund General Discussions

I have done I think 5 play through. Sadly I feel there is a large imbalance in the game, Apprentice/Bodyguard/Barbarian are legit. I have not tried the Pikeman but I have a feeling it would be strong. Here are my thought on balance: Whatever role someone does they must do it extremely well, or...

steamcommunity.com

 

[Sir Squirrelsalot]

You need either CC (mainly root spells or stunning strike with high str) or lots of damage particularly fire damage (static burst, fire arrow, nosom's axe, lance of the envoy)
Charmers are in a rather poor situation against 83 mind resist. But they can still try to disrupt. With 21 enchantment they still have a 38% chance of landing a spell, and 61% with the spell that triggers mind bender.
Alternatively with force barrier and truewood shield, precognition, lvl 4, and defense action they can have 96+ dex and awa bonus avoidance against the first two attacks. Which brings the spiders hit chance down to -5(so long as they are only attacked twice per turn, so it only takes care of one spider).
It REALLY helps to focus fire the engineers, taking out the device also is a pretty big help.

 

[BetterCallCharles]

Lantern fight (difficult option) is probably appropiate for a level 5 party, or even 6 if you're not an expert player with a robust group.

*Sighs* Yeah thanks for linking me this. I ended up just beating it on the "non-difficult option" after reading the thread linked. I apparently, unknowingly chose some inferior build choices (for instance having a hunter as my dps because I didn't know about the 2nd companion when I made it), which is totally fine because I am more interested in the role-play aspect of the game anyway. Knowing David intended the hardmode of that fight for level 5-6 is great, so now I don't feel that bad for not being able to take it on. I was happy to beat it knowing this even though I didn't get the true quest ending, so now I can start my second Cruel party (I still won't be playing wizzy haha).

The potion chugging AP builds are pretty funny to read too. I am glad David seems to want to make this exploit into more of a career option then remove it.

 

[Sir Squirrelsalot]

The potion chugging AP builds are pretty funny to read too. I am glad David seems to want to make this exploit into more of a career option then remove it.

What builds are you talking about?

 

[BetterCallCharles]

What builds are you talking about?

I read that thread that @Alan_SP linked. Looks like some people found that it is strong to play with no heals and to just get lots of AP and buy lots of potions or something like that; it seems pretty interesting especially considering that one would have to farm extensively to be rewarded for it. Exiled Kingdoms had a similar mechanic.

 

[BattleLord]

I know the answer is probably that I need to get good, but I have tried this quest more than 40 times and can't do it. I have completed every other quest except "Sign of the Blue Wolf (for obvious reasons).

Small spoiler but you don't need to complete The Ancient lantern to complete Sign of the Blue wolf

Perhaps I just have a bad team comp, as I have a charmer who is next to useless in this fight (aside from her frost armor buff).

Charmer is indeed less useful in that fight.
It's a very strong class in terms of disabling enemies, but a bit weaker against lifeless enemies.
I did complete this fight with a Charmer in my team on cruel, but that's only because I multicareered her to Initiate so she could be my secondary healer in that fight.

 

[Khargal]

I know the answer is probably that I need to get good, but I have tried this quest more than 40 times and can't do it. I have completed every other quest except "Sign of the Blue Wolf (for obvious reasons). I have all level fours with all of the max gear, to my knowledge, available. It feels like it doesn't matter what kind of armor I have, these beetles are still gonna crit my squire and kill him in 1-2 rounds. Perhaps I just have a bad team comp, as I have a charmer who is next to useless in this fight (aside from her frost armor buff).

I would love any advice from those who have beaten or attempted this on Cruel difficulty.

P.S. This is not a request or a complaint about balance or anything of the sort. I love the challenge that Cruel offers.

Does breaking Machine not help? Also, Apprentice with fire arrow can twoshot any mechaspider, this might be wwhat ya seek

 

[Sir Squirrelsalot]

Apprentice with fire arrow not initiate. Also that requires the fire arrows to roll decently well on cruel.

 

[BetterCallCharles]

Does breaking Machine not help? Also, Initiate with fire arrow can twoshot any mechaspider, this might be wwhat ya seek

You are right breaking the machine does help. I should have specified this, but I was trying to get the true/alternative ending where you don't break it. The logic being that because I made it all the way on cruel, I might as well get the true ending. Also something a mod said led me to believe it might be significant later on (which is important because I wanted to keep that party for when there is more content).

Apprentice with fire arrow not initiate. Also that requires the fire arrows to roll decently well on cruel.

This is also true. Before the engineers are downed on Cruel, the mechaspiders are damn impossible to hit (aka 45% haha).

Small spoiler but you don't need to complete The Ancient lantern to complete Sign of the Blue wolf

Yeah, but I wanted the extra frost resist from the neck for the Lantern fight. I don't believe you can get the neck back after you turn it in.