Introduction
At the end of each world, each alliance fights a series of three bosses that squat on the alliance's Altar of Tears. The first two are essentially training wheels - albeit with significant rewards - but the third one, Xoggoth, determines the winner of the world; the alliance that scores the most damage on Xoggoth wins. At a personal level, there are rewards (gems etc.) up to 300 million damage, so you should always plan to achieve 300M where possible.
This article discusses strategy for beating up Xoggoth. The best players start thinking about this very early on in the world, particularly when it comes to thinking about what to buy in event shops, but it becomes really important in the last 30-40 days when your decisions about what to buy, what to upgrade and so on should be informed by "how am I going to do the most damage to Xoggoth".
How Xoggoth Works
Xoggoth is a single big monster. It has no stats, but changes its resistance and damage through the fight based on the amount of damage you've done to it. In the first round, it has no resistance and does almost no damage. By the time you reach 300M damage, however, 90% of all damage dealt is ignored, and it's dealing very significant damage to your army each round.
Xoggoth's resistance scales per player based on the amount of damage that player has done to Xoggoth. So even though all alliance members fight Xoggoth at once, in terms of damage, each player's attack and defense is calculated separately based on that player's own damage total. This is unlike normal mass attacks, where the whole alliance army is considered as a single "side".
Xoggoth has two attacks.
Explosion of Anger damage also scales per player with damage dealt, but importantly, Xoggoth deals damage *per unit of upkeep in the attacking army*. So if you have dealt 100M damage to Xoggoth and send 10 axe warriors against him, your army will take exactly twice as much damage as if you'd sent 20 axe warriors (having dealt 100M damage previously). In other words, sending more troops means Xoggoth deals more damage to them.
Xoggoth's damage will be a random type (fire, cold or normal), just like Keepers and Keeperlings. The type will be randomly selected each round. Defenses - HP, resistances and regeneration - work normally against Explosion of Anger.
Cloud of Death scales per player with damage dealt, but is a % chance of death for each unit in the attacking army. At 300M damage, Cloud has about a 6% chance of killing each unit in your army, each *round*. And it completely ignores HP, resistances and regeneration. So even without Explosion of Anger, this means a third of your troops are gonna die on each 5-round attack at 300M. Ouch.
There is one sort of defense against Cloud of Death... necromancy. While regeneration is ignored, necromancy works - so canny players stack up on as much necromancy as they can (with the Crown of Communion and the mythical frostguard and flamekin armours, even if not playing undead!). Necromancied troops are the only way to blunt Cloud of Death's effect.
Basic Principles of Xoggoth
Given Xoggoth's damage scales with your army size, does it matter how many troops you send? Is having a high max upkeep a good thing? The answer is a resounding YES. This is because you will deal more damage per round, so you will get to the same damage total in fewer rounds - and the damage Xoggoth deals in later rounds will be higher because of the damage you did in earlier rounds. So you take (a little) less damage on your army for the same damage to Xoggoth if you can do it in fewer rounds.
Early on, therefore, the goal is to do as much damage as possible. Later on, once its resistance and damage get higher, it becomes a war of attrition where you need to keep churning troops into the maw, each one of which is doing relatively little damage.
Success therefore means:
- starting with as big an army as possible
- having high damage, necromancy, resistance, regeneration and HP stats (upgrades on your units, hero skills and equipment)
- being able to rebuild your troops quickly
- being able to keep rebuilding and attacking for 3 days straight.
So for example while warrior skills help you with combat skills and training speed, mage skills can help you up magic up resources faster for rebuilding, while builder skills give you a larger army and better resource production (as well as getting your troop buildings upgraded more to build faster). [Magic can also be used to attack directly, but the damage from this is not usually significant compared to your troops' attacks.]
Army/Troop selection for Xoggoth
Each race has many different troops available to them, and various events give additional troop type options. This section attempts to compare them against each other.
Since there are many stats and abilities involved, I have tried to keep this very simple.
- I have assumed that you will get to 50% regeneration bonus (regeneration is capped at 50%). So the troop regeneration value does not matter. If you don't have 50%, then troops that are below the 50% cap will be less useful to you later in the fight.
- I have presented all stats per unit of upkeep (e.g. an archer is 1 upkeep, a grunt is 3 - so this way we compare 1 grunt with 3 archers, normalising for army capacity and Xoggoth's unique attack). This includes build speed, where the speeds compared are "speed to produce X units of upkeep" not X troops.
- I have produced a single defense score as HP plus one third of resistance, since each resistance will only work on 1/3 of attacks. A 2 upkeep unit with 50 HP and 30 fire Resistance would get a defense score of (50 + 30/10)/2 = 30.
- I have shown two values for each racial troop; its base value and its value with all upgrades (10 levels). Completing the Fighter tree and becoming a Guardian both increase troop upgrades by a further level, raising the numbers slightly (typically, +1 to each ranking for each level).
The guidance here is simple - early on (when you start the boss fight), you want troops with a high Attack rating. When you're rebuilding, you will care more about the Defense rating - i.e. how survivable the troop is. (But you will care most about build speed - where cheaper troops build faster - trying to get as many units of attack & defense per unit build time).
The Defense rating below only applies against Explosion of Anger. Cloud of Death ignores it.
During the fight you should be aiming to rebuild with all your barracks buildings at once.
Elf
| Elf troops | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Values | Fully Upgraded | ||||
| Name | Attack | Defense | Attack | Defense | Build Speed |
| Archer | 16 | 39 | 26 | 50 | 100% |
| Firefly | 17 | 47 | 23 | 59 | 96% |
| Archdruid | 16 | 57 | 24 | 76 | 52% |
| Griffin Rider | 20 | 55 | 26 | 70 | 46% |
| Ent | 13 | 77 | 18 | 108 | 33% |
| Almus | 19 | 59 | 25 | 86 | 29% |
This table shows that Archers and Griffin riders pack the most punch, closely followed by Almus. Almus has much better defense than either, however, and that's without factoring in its Blessed Vitality ability for +20% defense to your whole army.
Given these numbers, it would make sense to have an army primarily composed of Almus for the initial attack.
For rebuilds, Elves have to choose between Archer and Griffin Rider, and Archdruid and Almus.
- Griffin Rider has better defense, but Archers build twice as fast. Archers are therefore the best choice.
- Almus has slightly better stats than Archdruid, but again, Archdruid builds much faster, so Archdruid is correct for rebuilding.
Fireflies are cheap and effective - a little shy on damage compared to archers but more durable and build nearly as fast. They will be very valuable during rebuilds. Ents will likely have the least impact on the boss fight for you, but their very high defense offsets their slow build speed to some extent and means there will be plenty around in the later stages of day 3.
Orc
| Orc troops | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Values | Fully Upgraded | ||||
| Name | Attack | Defense | Attack | Defense | Build Speed |
| Grunt | 12 | 48 | 18 | 66 | 100% |
| Wolf Rider | 16 | 52 | 21 | 82 | 107% |
| Ice Fiend | 15 | 48 | 15 | 86 | 57% |
| Warlock | 19 | 51 | 27 | 75 | 43% |
| Arachnid | 22 | 50 | 29 | 72 | 37% |
| Behemoth | 17 | 71 | 25 | 80 | 29% |
Warlocks and Arachnids get the highest damage scores, even before factoring in a Warlock's Battle Rage ability for +15% to the attack of your army. They make good shock troops for the first attack.
For rebuilds, the choices Orcs have to make are between Grunt and Wolf Rider, and Arachnid and Behemoth.
- Wolf Riders have a better build time and better stats, so are the better choice over Grunts.
- Arachnid and Behemoth are pretty similar in stats, but the build time of the Arachnid makes it the superior choice.
Ice Fiends, due to the lack of upgraded attack, are going to contribute relatively little to the boss fight, but they're tough and will keep going to the end. Warlocks will continue to be useful for boosting damage, and are hardy enough to survive better than (say) the Archers and Fireflies that Elven players will be churning out.
Dwarf
| Dwarf troops | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Values | Fully Upgraded | ||||
| Name | Attack | Defense | Attack | Defense | Build Speed |
| Axe Warrior | 12 | 53 | 17 | 88 | 100% |
| Zeppelin | 15 | 50 | 20 | 71 | 98% |
| Alchemist | 17 | 51 | 17 | 91 | 53% |
| Runesmith | 16 | 67 | 25 | 75 | 41% |
| Frost Cannon | 20 | 52 | 28 | 70 | 33% |
| Golden Titan | 19 | 66 | 26 | 81 | 27.5% |
Frost Cannons and Golden Titans have the highest base damage, and Titans are much more durable, so an army full of Golden Titans is the right place to start - but having Frost Cannons in the mix won't hurt at all.
For rebuilds, Dwarves have to choose between Axe Warrior and Alchemist, and Frost Cannon/Golden Titan.
- Axe Warriors and Alchemists have almost identical stat efficiency but Axe Warriors train twice as fast. So build them.
- Frost Cannons build faster than Titans for slightly better damage and worse resiliency. The build speed edges it out, so build them.
Runesmiths are underwhelming (e.g. compare to Warlocks which are just better in every regard). Their fire resistance boon will only have a marginal effect. You'll train them as they have their own building, but shouldn't be excited by them. Zeppelins are a solid cheap troop for rebuilding, quick to build with decent stat return - they'll have roughly double the impact on Xoggoth than Runesmiths will, thanks to their much faster build speed.
Undead
| Undead troops | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Values | Fully Upgraded | ||||
| Name | Attack | Defense | Attack | Defense | Build Speed |
| Skeleton | 13 | 37 | 13 | 50 | 100% |
| Acolyte | 17 | 43 | 23 | 57 | 107% |
| Necromancer | 25 | 66 | 25 | 66 | - |
| Bone Golem | 14 | 53 | 20 | 77 | 55% |
| Succubus | 20 | 48 | 28 | 59 | 40% |
| Death Knight | 15 | 74 | 21 | 99 | 32% |
| Nightmare | 18 | 65 | 25 | 79 | 24% |
Highest damage here goes to the Succubus, so an army wholly of Succubi is a good place to start your boss fight. Necromancers and Nightmares also score well and are worth including.
For rebuilds, the choices are Skeleton vs Bone Golem and Succubus vs Death Knight. Unlike other races there isn't a clear winner in either case.
- The bone golem's stats are a lot better than the skeleton's, but it also builds a lot slower. The skeleton scores marginally better thanks to building almost twice as fast, but it's a close thing.
- The death knight is much more durable than the succubus, so despite its worse damage and slower build speed, it's worth rebuilding more of these as the boss fight drags on. It would be a reasonable choice to rebuild succubi for the first few rounds, however.
Acolytes make excellent fodder, building very efficiently and turning into necromancers which have solid stats, comparing well to your other troops even when they are fully upgraded. They will be the mainstay of your rebuild program. Nightmares build so slowly that they will have limited effect on your fight.
Event
| Event troops | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Attack | Defense | |||
| Gyrocopter | 15 | 60 | |||
| Stone Giant | 14 | 105 | |||
| Lizard Warchief | 21 | 142 | |||
| Hell Brute | 21 | 84 | |||
| Naga Siren | 40 | 128 | |||
| Frostbane | 27 | 64 | |||
| Saurian | 40 | 57 | |||
| Servant | 32 | 55 | |||
| Seraphim | 42 | 62 | |||
| Ifrit | 32 | 55 | |||
| Djinn | 34 | 60 | |||
| Goblin Mechanic | 20 | 70 | |||
| Stonegrinder | 50 | 60 | |||
| Lycanthrope | 33 | 55 | |||
| Medusa | 20 | 57 | |||
| Blazewing | 26 | 66 | |||
| Chimera | 53 | 44 | |||
| Lord of Darkness | 36 | 60 | |||
| Spider Queen | 31 | 59 | |||
| Exploder | 80 | 1 | |||
| Mastodon | 32 | 71 | |||
| Bone Dragon | 28 | 56 | |||
| Pirate Skeleton | 36 | 50 | |||
Given that for fully upgraded regular troops a "good" attack score is in the 20s, the only neutral troops that don't make the cut for an initial army are Gyrocopter, Stone Giant, Goblin Mechanic and Medusa. Lizard Warchief, Hellbrute, Frostbane, Blazewing and Bone Dragon aren't anything to write home about either. Pretty much everything else is above the curve and worth having as many of as you can.
The biggest value of many event troops (including Stone Giant, Lizard Warchief, Pirate Skeleton etc.) is the ability to instantly recruit more of them from your inventory. It's smart to go into Xoggoth with a pile of instant troops in your inventory ready to recruit.
For immortal units in particular this can get quite expensive. You will need to make a decision what to do with these troops as you prepare for the end battle.
- If you enter the Xoggoth fight with a large stockpile of resources - millions - then you can probably keep returning your immortal troops through the fight. However, you run the risk of being raided by another player before the fight starts and losing your stash.
- If you enter the Xoggoth fight with a relatively small stockpile, then you may find that immortals aren't worth the cost of reviving (free ones that take time, like Saurians, you can obviously still recruit, they just will only die for you three times in the three days). You will get more damage for your resources buying regular troops than immortals, and you can hit 300M damage without resurrecting immortals, but if you're trying for a very high damage score, you should budget on resurrecting them and stockpile accordingly.