Empyrean and Tempest, Nature and Ice
We have a new expedition to explore this week and it is already mutated. The Empyrean Forge is located in Great Cleave, not too far from Cleave’s Point Outpost. You’ll be travelling that way when you follow the Silver Crows storyline, so be sure to pick up the Fast Travel shrine and quests for the dungeon. Along with Empyrean’s Nature mutation, we have Tempest Heart as Ice. This may be the start of more random mutation pairings, as the amount of expeditions has increased to an odd number. With only two mutations per week, it might be a long time before your favorites come back around, so if you’re looking for named drops, gathering Mutation materia and expedition-specific materia separately might be your best option.
This mutation rotation article is a little late, due to us wanting to wait for the patch as we didn’t want to misdirect anyone to gear up for mutations that were going to last less than a day. Very sorry for anyone who prepared for Laz or Barney on Tuesday. Additionally, once the Season I update dropped, we have been distracted by following the storyline, playing with our Season passes and finally getting into the Forge to see what it’s like. Hopefully you’re enjoying the new content as much as we are and have a chance to try the expedition soon – you won’t be disappointed!
Expedition specific
- Human Ward armour
- Human Bane weapon
- Any non-elemental weapon gem
- Human Ward potion
- Human coating
- Flame protection amulet
- Slash damage – Hatchet, Axe, Great/Sword
General buffs
- Honing Stone
- Attribute bonus food
- Topaz gypsum attunement potion
Mutation specific
- Nature protection amulet
- Amber in armour
- Desert sunrise
- Nature Absorption potion
The Empyrean Forge is a fire-themed mountain stronghold, with mechanical puzzles and giant gears and pistons. The majority of enemies are Human Varangians, but there are also quite a few Lost ghosties around. Our advice is to stick with Human Ward, the Lost are not significant or alone. Slash weapons are strong, but with the changes adding a 10% bonus to ranged Banes, there is scope for a wide range of character builds here. An interesting feature of the humans is they use weapons just like us and have similar moves. However, they don’t seem to be governed by the same cooldowns!
As you might expect from a Forge, there is quite a lot of fire around so you might either consider splitting your elemental protection between Nature and Fire, or using the new gear sets to swap out your setup for the boss fights. At the very least, a Fire Proection amulet will come in handy.
The first boss, Ifrit, is a fiery scythe-wielding worm-type boss who likes to throw his flames about. There are a few mechanics to watch out for, but once you have these down he’s not too bad. He stays in the middle of the room, rather than burrowing like some other worms we know. You can avoid the fiery space invaders by going prone, just make sure the floor is clear when you do. When he starts to project lines of flames, run anti-clockwise around him with them. The closer you are to him, the easier this is. Just don’t get burnt!
Commander Marius is the final boss and he also likes his fiery tortures. At some points during the fight, the floor is literally lava. Thankfully, there are some safety platforms provided in the corners of the room, just watch out if he joins you on them or drops a giant fiery meatball. For the DPS, ranged attacks allow you to stay out of a lot of the fire, so it might be worth considering a bow or magic weapon.
Overgrown means those mobs are going to be healing one another, which really should be a privilege exclusive to us. Compost mobs drop a healing circle that works like a Sacred Ground for them and looks a bit like one too. This is one of the rare times that disease perks are useful in PVE, so pull out your Hatchet with Infected Throw, or slot a weapon with Plagued Strikes or Plagued Crits. Your Bile Bomb heartrune will also spread disease around, so vomit away to your heart’s content.
Toxic mobs spawn THE most annoyingly friendly little green blob that follows you around, does pretty intense DOTs (20-40%), and casts an area root. We just love not being able to move and getting damaged at the same time. Best bet is to try and stay out of its way. If you get stuck, it might be worth it to have Nature Absorption potions slotted and chug one down. Arboreal enemies are dealing 50% of damage as Nature, and Bramble enemies deal 20-40% base damage as Nature when hit, so Amber slotted in your gear will protect you.
When you get to M3, Festering enemies start to appear, dealing disease against you so your incoming healing will be reduced. Remember, debuffs can be Purified in a number of ways. Slicer enemies also turn up, adding 30% base Void damage, which works well with your protective gems in this mutation.
The first of our Fiendish curses is Weary, which starts at M6 and slows down player movement as well as increasing damage taken by 20%. This is on a timer and while you’re meant to be able to delay it by using abilities, it’s been glitchy in game so don’t rely on that.
The other curse is Blood Offering. Using abilities causes a 4.5% Nature DoT, which can stack up to 3 times, however while under the influence of Offering players also get a 25% life leech. So as long as you’re doing damage, this curse has little effect. The main person it impacts is the healer, so they may need to focus on healing themselves. Drinking some Desert Sunrise before you start the expedition should help reduce the effect.
Expedition specific
- Corrupted Ward armour
- Corrupted Bane weapon
- Sapphire gem Arcane damage
- Corrupted Ward potion
- Corrupted Coating
- Thrust damage – Spear, Rapier, Bow
General buffs
- Honing Stone
- Attribute bonus food
- Topaz gypsum attunement potion
Mutation specific
- Frozen protection amulet
- Aquamarine in armour
- Desert sunrise
Tempest’s Heart is the longest expedition, with a generous hour allowed to complete it. Thrust weapons really penetrate through Corruption, so you’ll be likely to carry at least one. Spears not only have that damage bonus but also provide some strong debuffs like Perforate and if you have Enfeebling Skewer you can seriously reduce the damage to your team. Rapier offers fast damage with the bonus of constant bleeds and you can use Leeching Flurry to quickly regain your own health while robbing the enemy of theirs. If you prefer to stay out of reach, the Bow provides ranged damage and added DOT damage.
Isabella taunts us throughout this dungeon, finally remaining to finish the fight at the end. Remember to use your Azoth Staff on her once she falls, or she’ll rise up and you’ll have to repeat the fight. Before you make it to the final battle, you have to go through the fires of Neishatun. It might be worth putting on a Flame Protection amulet for this fight, or be very careful to stay out of the fire.
Ice, Ice, Isabella Baby! Everything slows down in the cold and this mutation is no exception. At M1 level we start with Icebound, which means all enemies are dealing Ice Damage, so pull out your Aquamarines and Frozen Protection amulet. Most annoying is Shiver, a zone of exclusion that bites anyone who is outside of it, which keeps the group huddled up together. Be careful of enemies with Glacial, as they will drop a crystal that can root you in place. To prevent this, you need to destroy or run away from the crystal, depending on where it is positioned.
At M3, some enemies start being Barbarically buffed. Shattering is annoying for your tank, dealing 40-75% increased stamina damage! It might even be worth stacking more of the stamina perks to keep up. Watch out for those large Enraged enemies, who deal 50% more damage once they get 20 stacks of Fury.
The Curse of the Icebound Heart is Desiccated, which is your basic dip and nae-nae. When a player gets an ice ring around them, they need to dip all team members in order to remove their Shrivel. But make sure they nae-nae away before the timer ends to avoid spiking others with a chain Ice for 50% of their max health. If you’re unlucky enough to be left shrivelled, damage and healing will be reduced by 50% until the debuff wears off.
