This week's mutation is organically Overgrown.
This week is not just about the regular mutation rotation, my friends. These particular mutations have a much greater role – they will be the key content in AGS’s latest promotional idea – Faction Fest. This weekend, we can all earn rewards by completing Expeditions and competing to fulfil objectives as a faction. Well, except for Narok, who will be driving trains.
In the dev video, Tracy refers to a “big rework” of expedition rewards, so it will be exciting if this really means new loot and she’s not just talking about the damaged gorgon eyes in M3 caches. Either way, there will be titles and skins to win, and new items in the faction store and cash shop, as well as a twitch drop.
Such a pity we got a dud roll for the mutations, with no synergy between the mutation element and any of the native elemental damage in the three dungeons. Plus Frenzied, ugh. Ah well, I guess that just makes it more of a challenge!
Contents
Mutation
- Arboreal – 50% of all enemy damage is Nature.
- Bramble – Attacks cause damage on hit – M1: 20% Nature damage, M2 & M3: 40% Nature damage.
- Compost – Enemies with this title drop a healing circle on death, healing enemies for 3% per second.
- Toxic – Enemies with this title drop a poison spawn that deals Nature damage over time and seeks out the furthest player to cast root on them. M1: 20% Nature DoT, M2 & M3: 40% Nature DoT.
Promotion
- Vampiric – Enemies heal a percentage of damage done. M1: 20%, M2 & M3: 40%.
- Phalanx – Enemies cast a shield that blocks ranged attacks.
Curse
- Unstable – After dodging, players receive a stack of Nature damage over time dealing 1.5% max health every second for 10 seconds.
- Overcharged – If Unstable expires with 3 active stacks, it drops a 3m zone that lasts 15 seconds and applies 10% max health Nature damage per second. Entering the zone will consume all stacks of Unstable and deal 30% max HP damage.
Consumables
- Nature Protection Amulet
- Ambers in Armor/Jewelry
- Desert Sunrise
- Nature Absorption Potion
- Powerful Honing Stone
- Attribute bonus food
Gearing up
- M1 – Opals in your armor is fine
- M2 – Add the Nature Protection Amulet
- M3 – Swap most of your Opals for Ambers
- Enchanted Ward – Aim for 4 or 5 pieces with this perk
- For more detailed advice on gear, check out our Gear Guide.
Get out of the Compost
If a Compost mob drops while you are still fighting, the tank should reposition to get the mobs out of the compost healing circle. You can also use the Bile Bomb Heartrune, Plagued Strikes, or other disease to reduce the effectiveness of the healing.
Don't get caught
Toxic poison spawn will chase down the furthest player, so if you’re outside the clump playing range, keep moving. You can easily outmanoeuvre the little fella but watch out if you get caught as it’ll hold you down and DoT you to death. Perks like Relentless Freedom, Berserking Purge, or the 300 Dex milestone perk can help you escape if you get stuck.
M3 - Don't Poop on the Group
While fully geared and optimised groups can power through multiple Overcharged pools of pain, civilised dodgers might prefer to drop their load in a corner away from others. The other option is to use your dodges carefully and never allow the full three stacks to build up.
M2 - Melee and chunder
There’s a penalty for using ranged attacks once again, with Phalanx enemies putting up a deflecting shield, so make sure you have at least one melee weapon. Vampiric slows down the time to kill on mobs that have it, so slotting your Bile Bomb Heartrune can help.
The Ennead
Enemy Type: Ancient and Corrupted
Weaknesses: Ancient: 30% Lightning 20% Strike 15% Void. Corrupted: 30% Arcane 20% Thrust 15% Nature
Consumables
- Ancient Ward potion | Corrupted Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Ancient Coating | Corrupted Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Ancients Combat Trophy | Corrupted Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Strike damage – Hammer, Void damage – Void Gauntlet | Thrust damage – Spear, Rapier, Bow, Musket, Blunderbuss
- Topaz gem in weapon for Lightning damage* | Sapphire gem Arcane damage*
Note: *Elemental damage gems in your weapons are simply recommendations based on the elements your enemies are weakest to. Your playstyle may suit non-elemental gems better and you are encouraged to continue using those if so.
Artifact: The Wall Tower Shield
Dropped by Heru.
- Shield Wall: Gain 5% base damage reduction You cannot dodge, but have 33% more stamina. (While active or sheathed)
- Chromatic Ward: You take 25% less damage from all elemental sources.
- Sturdy: Receive 10% less Stamina damage while blocking.
- Keenly Fortified: Gain 10% Fortify for 3s on critical hit (10s cooldown).
- Cannot add Gem Setting Pin
Strategy and tips
The Ennead is a bit of a maze and there are many different ways you can go and still reach your final destination. The fastest way is to take the first left in the passageway after the first room, kill all the beetles, then hug the wall on the right, fight the two sphinx and then proceed up to the mini-boss guarding the door. This does skip a lot of mini-bosses though, so if you’re wanting to complete faction missions or collect Azoth Crystal items from M2+ then you’ll have to go the long way.
Beware the Horus Guardians, as they teleport backwards away from the fight. Try to position them so they have a wall behind them and cannot get too far away. Some of the mini-bosses have attacks that do high damage, including Shai in the first room. If you are dying to this, consider taking your Con up to 100. On top of the mutation elemental damage, many of the attacks here are Fire or Void, so if you need somewhere to put your resistance over the 50% cap, these are good choices.
After the first boss, the enemies become Corrupted instead of Ancient. In M2 and M3, you may consider rebuffing at this point or even changing weapons. After the second boss, we return to Ancient for the final section.
Main Damage Type: Fire
This giant beetle is the first boss you will face. When you first enter the arena, there is a chance Khepri will charge, so be ready for it. As well as the physical attacks, Khepri emits a Solar Blast that does Fire damage. Watch out when the beetle launches into the air, because it is going to land with a slam. This gives you plenty of time to prepare a dodge. In the early part of the fight, it will do one slam but as the fight progresses, it will do two and then three, which is harder to dodge successfully.
Periodically, a solar beam will be targeted at each player. In most cases, you should be able to just fight through this, with good heals. For M3, you may want to use one of the pillars in the room to hide behind, which will stop the beam from damaging you.
Main Damage Type: Void
The General is Corrupted, so most of the elemental attacks in this fight are Void, including the corrosion blobs on the floor. There are a couple of Fire attacks, from the Archer phase, so try to stay out of those. General Crassus takes three different forms in this fight, each with their own signature moves.
Legionnaire Phase
This is the opening form, where General Crassus uses a spear. He begins flanked by two Signifiers and some trash mobs. It’s always good to clear Signifiers first, as they have a large area of effect Rend debuff. Watch out for the Phantoms – a row of ghostly soldiers that can hit hard. If this phase takes too long, additional enemies will spawn from a plate at each end of the arena. This is too far for the tank to taunt both of them, so DPS will need to manage these mobs and kill them or bring them to the clump.
Sagittarii Phase
At about 70% health, Crassus will return to the centre of the arena and his weapon will transform into a bow. He’ll also summon 4 allies around him. The bow attacks do fire damage, so make sure you keep moving around. Adds will continue to spawn on the plates and need to be kept under control or the healer won’t be able to heal.
Signifier Phase
In the final phase, at about 40% health, Crassus transforms into a Signifier with a staff. Two cyclops are spawned at the same time. Rather than fight these, DPS should move on to the boss and allow the tank to kite the Cyclops around the arena. It’s important to kill Crassus as fast as you can to finish the fight.
Main Damage Type: Fire
So, you’ve probably already noticed that Ennead has an extra boss fight, and to top that off, the final battle is with not one but two bosses. First we fight Anpu and then Heru, but when Heru dies the first time, they both rise up and we have to fight them together. The final deaths need to be within 10 seconds of one another, or else they will both respawn. So when one gets down to 1-2 bars of health, change your target to the other one.
Anpu
The big guy is Anpu and he spawns at the back left corner of the arena. On entering, the whole team should run up and fight fairly close to the pillar he spawns near. The tank should keep him on the far side of the pillar, and the furthest player needs to keep the pillar between them and Anpu, so that when he charges the pillar blocks him.
- Fire circle – when Anpu lifts his leg, he will spin fire around himself. Step back until this is over.
- Fire charge – Anpu will charge at the furthest player. Use a pillar to block him. He will leave a trail of fire which causes a fire DoT, so it’s best to reduce this by making him hit the closest pillar rather than charging across the arena.
- Cleave – Anpu will slam the ground and cause a line of seismic damage to head toward a player.
- Bolt – Apnu will throw two fast projectiles at a ranged player. These can be dodged if you’re quick.
Heru
Once Anpu is killed the first time, Heru will spawn near the glyph at the back of the arena. At this point, players need to be prepared to move toward the four pillars in the arena, so a ranged weapon can be useful.
- Judgement of the Gods – you will get a beam on you that causes a stun – make sure you’re not standing in fire when it takes effect.
- Divine Doom – a beam of light targets each player, causing fire damage. Just move out of it.
- Sun Beam – circles of fire move around the arena, be careful not to stand in them.
- Pillars – Heru will teleport to the middle of the room and hover in the air. Each pillar will start glowing and need to be disabled via interacting with it. While there are any pillars that haven’t been disabled, a wave of damage will periodically sweep the room. There is enough time to disable a pillar before the wave, if you start as soon as its available, otherwise you will need to dodge the wave or heal through it. Group coordination is key here and it’s best to assign pillars before the fight begins.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Sun Lord’s Set – Light armour with Grit Ward and Refreshing, upgradeable.
- M3 – The Pharaoh’s weapon set for skins – split stat Con/Weapon scaling attribute, Keen/Desperate Prayer, Weapon Ability Perk.
- Legate’s Amulet – Health, Shirking DoT Cleanse + Random perk and attribute.
- Legate’s Ring – Keen Awareness, Enfeebling + Random perk and attribute.
- Legate’s Earring – Refreshing Toast, Nimble + Random perk and attribute.
Dynasty Shipyard
Enemy Type: Corrupted
Weaknesses: 30% Arcane 20% Thrust 15% Nature
Consumables
- Corrupted Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Corrupted Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Corrupted Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Thrust damage – Spear, Rapier, Bow, Musket, Blunderbuss
- Sapphire gem in weapon for Arcane damage*
Note: *Elemental damage gems in your weapons are simply recommendations based on the elements your enemies are weakest to. Your playstyle may suit non-elemental gems better and you are encouraged to continue using those if so.
Artifact: The Butcher
Dropped by Zhou Taiying.
- +38 Magnify (selectable attribute)
- Hemorrhage: Bleeds lasts 33% longer (Works on both weapons).
- Jagged Whirls: Whirling Blade inflicts bleed, dealing 10% weapon damage for 6s.
- Empowering Whirling Blade: If 2 or more enemies are within its radius while performing a Whirling Blade attack, gain 24% base damage for each nearby target (Max 5 Targets).
- Keenly Jagged: Inflicts Bleed on critical hit, dealing 10% weapon damage per second for 6s (7s cooldown).
Strategy and tips
Be careful of the pink elemental Void attacks from maidens and mages, and either block or dodge out. A ranged weapon can be useful in here. Enemy muskets are also quite annoying, so either bring the fight to them or stand out of their line of sight so they come to you.
Main Damage Type: Slash and Void
Isabella begins this fight, leaping around and running away as usual. She has a range of physical damage types, so the tank may be best off with some Onyx and a Slash protection shield, while everyone else needs to just stay out of her reach. She will also spawn three abominations, which are pretty easy to kill.
At about 75% health, Isabella will fly toward the boats and canons will shoot from the distance. The group can huddle up next to the eastern dog cage to prevent the canon fire from landing on them, then go and resume the fight. Canon fire will continue, so make sure you’re not standing in it.
Just before she gets to half health, Isabella gets tired of fighting and opens two of the cages in the room to reveal Oro and Joven, her pet tigers. There are a few strategies for this part of the fight, including allowing the tank to hold one dog while the rest fight the other, or having a DPS play an off-tank for the second dog. This can easily go wrong, however, so you may want to get the group to stand over by the west-side dog and get the tank to grab both of them. That way, AOE attacks will hit both enemies, killing them faster. The dogs do Slash damage and watch out for them jumping back and doing a Void breath attack, catching DP who had been standing safely behind.
Main Damage Type: Void
Empress Zhou’s moves are mostly telegraphed by particle effects, so once you get to know these, you can react in time to avoid them.
- Small particles rising from the floor = Dragon Breath – only hits in front, so just dodge to the side.
- Small particles on the floor radiating out from her = Corruption Wave – dodge into the wave.
- Small particles spinning in a small and wider circle around her = Dragon Circle – if you have grit, you can stand inside, otherwise block.
- Points to a player = Dragon Dive Solo – she will shoot a dragon at you, so move!
- Multiple perpendicular pink lines – Dragon Dive – Dragons will shoot out along those lines and follow players, just step to the side and avoid them.
At about 60% health, the Empress will take a break and summon two waves of trash mobs, plus two pillars. These pillars can also perform her magic spells. Kill the mobs only, then everyone should stack at the East wall of the arena. Zhou will throw 3 more pillars and we want these at this end. Do not kill the pillars. Once all pillars are thrown, everyone should run to the West end to finish the fight.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Empress Zhou’s Set – Light armour with Health and Refreshing, upgradeable.
- M3 – Harbinger weapon set for skins – split stat Con/Weapon scaling attribute, Enchanted/Purifying Breeze, Weapon Ability Perk.
- Shipyard’s Amulet – Health, Fortified + Random perk and attribute.
- Shipyard’s Ring – Hearty, Blood Letting + Random perk and attribute.
- Dynasty’s Earring – Refreshing Toast, Regenerating + Random perk and attribute.
Tempest's Heart
Enemy Type: Corrupted
Weaknesses: 30% Arcane 20% Thrust 15% Nature
Consumables
- Corrupted Ward potion – 10% damage absorption
- Corrupted Coating – 15% bonus damage
- Corrupted Combat Trophy – 3/4/5% bonus damage x3
- Thrust damage – Spear, Rapier, Bow, Musket, Blunderbuss
- Sapphire gem in weapon for Arcane damage*
Note: *Elemental damage gems in your weapons are simply recommendations based on the elements your enemies are weakest to. Your playstyle may suit non-elemental gems better and you are encouraged to continue using those if so.
Artifact: Magnetic Gauntlets
Dropped by Isabella.
- +32 Magnify (selectable attribute)
- Magnetic: Crit chance increased by 50%, but crit damage reduced by up to 30%.
- Empty Socket: Attach a gem to add its effect.
- Refreshing: Reduce max cooldowns by 4%.
- Physical Aversion: Receive 4.5% less damage from ranged, physical attacks.
Strategy and tips
The Tempest is a long dungeon, so players often like to run from one gate to another and fight whatever follows, when it catches up. This can be a little overwhelming for newer players, or in higher mutations. There are lots of resources to gather, and some of the mini-boss fights are quite challenging, especially Ekheke, the spriggan. DPS should clear the 2 musket enemies while the tank moves Ekheke either on or next to the stairs, to try and reduce his movement. You’ll also meet Isabella a few times. When she has her acolytes with her, make sure you kill them to reduce her power.
Main Damage Type: Void
Neishatun’s arena looks like it’s filled with fire but it actually does Void damage. Another of Aeternum’s snake-like bosses, Neishatun will slither away multiple times, leaving you with an arena full of fiery circles. Zoom your camera right out and look for a gap, because if you get caught in the fire when it pulses, you’ll get a Void DoT that can’t be cleansed until the fight is over. Trash mobs appear during this phase, and you can usually tell where a clear spot will be next by watching where they spawn.
Other moves to look for include a symbol above your head that means Neishatun is going to shoot at you – just move to the side to avoid it. An orb can also appear in the middle of the arena, which you need to destroy before it explodes and gives everyone a Void DoT. For those up close, be careful of the Tail Slam, Tail Swipe, Charge, and Charge Tail Whip, which all do Strike damage.
Main Damage Type: Void
At the end of this expedition, you can finally fight Isabella to the death – yours or hers. The shape of this boss arena is like a triangle, with 3 clearings on the corners. The space in the middle and on the edges is filled with a murky corrupted liquid that we call the spaghetti. Do not stand in the spaghetti, it does a fast DoT and will kill you quickly.
Isabella has really grown into her wings for this fight and uses them as a weapon, as well as to swoop down on players throughout the arena. If you get a symbol above your head, it means she is going to swoop you, so be ready to duck, dive, and roll. She also sends out tendrils of corruption along the ground, that cause a slow and DoT. You can avoid them by moving toward and to the side, but it’s difficult. Corruption Tinctures can help in here. Another attack is a wide slash of corruption that moves quite slowly and can be dodged forward into.
At about 40% health, she will put up a corrupted tower on one of the clearings. If you’re killing her quickly, you can just avoid this by fighting on another clearing. If it’s taking a bit longer, you can destroy the tower by pressing E. Beware of meteors – you can see if one is about to drop by a red circle outline on the ground. If the circle overlaps where you are standing, step out of the way and then resume destroying the tower.
Once Isabella is dead, you need to go to where she lands and use your Azoth Staff to make sure she stays dead. Otherwise, the fight starts over.
Interesting Loot
- M3 – Isabella’s Set – Light armour with Enchanted Ward and Void Harnessing, upgradeable.
- M3 – Befouled weapon set for skins – split stat Con/Weapon scaling attribute, Refreshing Move, Weapon Ability Perk.
- Myrkgard’s Amulet – Health, Empowered + Random perk and attribute.
- Myrkgard’s Ring – Hearty, Crippling + Random perk and attribute.
- Myrkgard’s Earring – Refreshing Toast, Healthy Toast + Random perk and attribute.
