Bosses

In short: six bosses wait in lairs further and further from Oakhaven, one every five levels. You must beat them in order. Each one drops a unique item and unlocks better loot, and the last is Ashvarr the Ashen Dragon, the goal of every season. As you climb, the dragon writes to you. Once it has fallen, you may begin again at level 1, keeping your name and your honour.

How it works

The ladder

The traits work as they do on ordinary monsters, and so do the stances that counter them; see Combat.

Each lair is a single fixed tile. The first sits just inside the first distance ring from Oakhaven, and each lair after it sits one ring further out, so the ladder is also a journey. The lairs are the same for every player in a season, but each new season moves them to new places at the same distances, so every season's road to the dragon runs a different way. Season 0 keeps the lairs it launched with.

Fighting in order

A lair can be in one of three states, and the lair panel tells you which:

• Open: this is your next boss, named with its level and trait. A "Challenge" button appears, with an honest reading of the fight (below). With fewer than 5 turns left in the day the button stays greyed out (below).
• Sealed: you have not beaten the boss before it yet. "A presence here is beyond you."
• Beaten: you have already slain its master. The lair is empty (until you begin again: see After the dragon below).

The honest reading

An open lair tells you how the fight would likely go for you as you stand now: your level, your best gear, your current health, today's blessing, your stance and the day's omen all count. Change your stance at the lair and the reading changes with it. It gives words, not numbers:

• "Grimtooth the Goblin King outmatches you. Come back stronger: a level, better gear, full health or a blessing." (Or try the stance that counters it.) Your chance of winning is below 40%.
• "… would be a close fight. It could go either way." From 40% up to 65%.
• "… is within your measure, as you stand." 65% or better.

The game works it out by playing the fight out many times with your numbers, so it is an estimate, and near the edge of a band it can change from one look to the next. It exists because a level alone cannot tell you whether you are ready: gear, health, a blessing and your stance matter as much, and the dragon waits at the level cap. A quest's foe gets the same reading (see Quests).

The fight

Challenging a boss costs one turn, just like a hunt, but you can only do it with at least 5 turns left in the day. With fewer, the lair turns you away ("The day is too far gone…") and nothing is spent: make camp and face it tomorrow, when the overnight rest has patched you up and a full day lies ahead. The rule is there so a boss attempt is never a free lottery ticket at the end of a day: losing ends your day, so a loss always costs you the turns you had left. Plan the walk: a far lair can take most of a day to reach, and the turn bank lets you start the next one with a few more (see The daily loop).

A boss is far tougher than a monster of its level: it has 3× the HP, 1.2× the attack and 1.1× the defence, before its trait. On a day when the Dragon Stirs every boss fights with 90% of its health, and the evening before foretells it (see Omens). The fight is decided the same way as any other, in your stance (see Combat), except that there is no slipping away from a boss: Warily still takes a swift boss's first strike away, but you fight to the end.

Your stance matters far more at a boss than in a hunt, because a boss fight is long and close. At your own level, with the best gear the ladder allows, a boss fought in the stance that counters it falls about three times in four; in either other stance, about half the time or less:

(Measured at full health and with no blessing.)

Losing

Losing to a boss is a death like any other: you lose 15% of the gold you carry (not what is in the bank), your turns for the day are gone, a cairn marks the lair where you fell, and at the daily reset you wake at the inn nearest the lair: never on the lair itself, and in Season 0 never more than five steps from it (see The daily loop). The boss is never weakened by your losses: instead, the lair tells you honestly when you are not ready. Come back stronger and try again. A boss that proves too hard for everyone is retuned for everybody at once.

Rewards

Beating a boss gives you:

• Gold and XP worth 6× a normal monster of the boss's level;
• A unique item that no shop or ruin sells;
• A higher loot cap: every boss you beat lets one more tier of equipment drop (see Levels and gear);
• the usual after-fight heal of 10% of your maximum HP.

Ashvarr, the season's goal

Ashvarr the Ashen Dragon waits on its mountain at level 30, the level cap. Its scales are the grey of cold ash, with embers glowing in their seams, and its fire leaves nothing but ash. Slaying it is what a season is about: it earns the title "Dragonslayer" when the season ends, and how far up the ladder you climb decides your honour (see Seasons). Every dragon you slay is counted, for the hall of heroes and your honour.

After the dragon: Rebirth

When the dragon falls, the moment of your victory offers a choice. You can stay at the summit and keep playing as you are, at the level cap with everything you won, for as long as you like; or you can begin again: a new climb from level 1, in the same season, with the same hero. Nothing forces you, and the offer waits on the Hero tab (Begin again…) until you take it. The game asks twice, because nothing of the old climb comes back.

A second climb is a climb like the first: the same curve, no bonus (a late joiner's catch-up XP is not kept: it was there to get you to the dragon once), and no power carried over. What you carry is knowledge. Slay the dragon again and you may be reborn once more; the hall of heroes ranks heroes by dragons slain first, so a second dragon puts you above everyone who slew one (see Seasons). Your rival hero can no longer win the race: once the dragon has fallen to you, the race is yours (see Rival heroes).

Letters from the dragon

Ashvarr is watching you climb. The dawn after you slay each boss below it, a letter from the dragon is waiting for you, sealed in ash-grey wax, under yesterday's chronicle. The first letters are amused; by the middle of the ladder the dragon is irritated; after the fifth boss falls, it is afraid. When the dragon falls, there are no more letters, ever: if you begin again, you climb the second time in its silence, and the letters of the first stay on your Hero tab.

For each boss the dragon has a few letters, and which one you get is yours for good, so another hero may have had a different one: compare them. When the dragon's own voice is recorded, Listen plays it reading the letter, colder than the narrator; until then you read it. Every letter you have had stays on the Hero tab under Letters from the dragon, and in your journal.

Finding the next boss

You always know where to go next. One of the rumours on your board each day names your next boss, its level and its lair's coordinates (it comes first, unless another rumour is the one you chose the evening before; see Sites and rumours), and the Hero tab lists it as your "Next quarry". Standing on the lair shows the boss's name and level before you commit. In the evening you can make the boss tomorrow's intention: it heads the next day's board as Your word, and reaching the lair (or challenging the boss there, if you camped at it) keeps that word (see Sites and rumours).

Tips

• Challenge a boss at full HP. Drink a potion first if you have to; drinking is free.
• A boss at your own level with the gear you can have by then falls about three times in four in the stance that counters it, and about half the time or less in the others; a blessing on top makes it nine in ten or better. A level or two above it is much safer.
• Set the stance for the boss before you challenge it: Boldly for the brutal (Grimtooth, Ashvarr), Warily for the swift (Morwen, Skarn), Steadily for the armoured (Ser Valdric, Azhar). It is the biggest single thing you can change at the lair, and it is free.
• Swift bosses (Morwen, Skarn) hit before you every round unless you fight them Warily, so bring more HP than you think.
• Armoured bosses (Ser Valdric, Azhar) punish a weak weapon. Upgrade your weapon at the blacksmith before you go.
• Read the lair before you challenge. "Outmatches you" means another level, better gear, a potion or a blessing first.
• A temple blessing counts in a boss fight, and in the lair's reading. In the right stance Might and Warding help about equally, so buy the one you like (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold).
• Spend or bank your gold before a boss attempt. A loss costs a share of what you carry.
• Walking to a far lair takes turns. Arrive with at least 5 turns left, or you will have to camp there until tomorrow.
• Ask another hero what the dragon wrote to them: their letter for the same boss may not be yours.
• Before you begin again, spend what you would lose: a Rebirth leaves your gold, your gear and the bank behind. Your turns for the day stay, so the rest of the day is a fresh start from Oakhaven.
• There is no hurry to begin again: every dragon counts in your honour whether or not you do, and a hero at the summit ranks with any other hero who has slain one dragon.