Maygi’s POTD 1-200 Handbook (Solo/Party)

~ Deep Dungeon Guidebook ~

~ Notice ~

Updated danger guides to the new format used in the EO guide!

~ INTRO ~

Looking to clear floor 200? You’ve come to the right place! In this guide, I will detail absolutely everything you need to know about mob/boss mechanics and strategies to deal with them to get past each floor set.

~ABOUT ME~

I enjoy deep dungeon more than any other content in this game and was the second person worldwide to solo floor 200!

Find me at…

Twitch (@Maygii)

Youtube (@Maygi)

Twitter / X (@MaybeMaygi)

 Discord (Community Server)

Ko-fi

I’m always open to questions!

If you have any POTD questions at all, or would like to discuss POTD solo strategies and whatnot, please send me a message at Maygi#4987 on Discord! I love messages and I love answering questions!

~ UPDATES ~

Maybe it’s a good time to start writing these? (4/10/2018)

4/10/2018: Added additional solo tips to most floor sets above 111. (121-130 is too easy!)

4/24/2018: Finally cleared 200 solo. Maybe that makes the guide a bit more credible c:

5/27/2018: Updated “Movement” aggro to “Proximity” (movement was technically not a good way to describe that aggro method, as you can still attract aggro without moving, so long the monster walks within range)

3/9/2020: 2020?? Updated some info. Added a tier list earlier :3

7/21/2021: Reorganized guide and updated pomander section with greater detail on when to use various items.

8/15/2021: Added a little solo preparation section.

11/24/2021: Updated some tier list comments.

12/4/2021: Starting making adjustments based on Endwalker.

4/21/2022: Updated the guide with some common terminology.

5/11/2022: Cleaned up some more stuff…

~Table of Contents~

Basics

        Solo Tier List

        Traps

        Mimics

        Pomanders

Dealing With Treasure Rooms

Dealing with Traps

Floor Guides

Floor 1-10

Floor 11-20

Floor 21-30

Floor 31-40

Floor 41-50

Floor 51-60

Floor 61-70

Floor 71-80

Floor 81-90

Floor 91-100

Floor 101-110

Floor 111-120

Floor 121-130

Floor 131-140

Floor 141-150

Floor 151-160

Floor 161-170

Floor 171-180

Floor 181-190

Floor 191-200

~Basics~

This section is going to go over basic POTD mechanics with a few neat tips/tricks you may have not known. If you are experienced with POTD, feel free to skip this section!

Overview

Palace of the Dead is a duty that can be entered with 1-4 players. There are two types of party you can enter with - Fixed party, and matched party. A fixed party means that you are progressing through the floor sets with the same, unchanging party members (on the same classes). A matched party randomly matches you with other players on the same floor set. Matched parties can only progress up to floor 100 (out of 200). Floors come in sets of 10, and you can take breaks between sets as necessary.

If your entire party is defeated on a particular floor, you will receive a party KO and the duty will end. When the duty ends in this way, no experience, aetherpool, pomanders, accursed hoard, etc are saved/gained. In addition to that, to enter Floors 101+ of Palace of the Dead (also known as the Challenge Floors), you need to have a party KO count of 0. While party KOs before floor 100 will still allow you to progress up to 100, any wipe either before or after 100 on a certain file will prevent any progress past floor 100. This means that if you wipe at any point - either floor 199 or floor 60 - you’re going all the way back to floor 51 (or floor 1 for the solo achievement). There’s a lot at risk in terms of time investment, so it’s good to make sure you’re ready for anything before tackling this duty - which is why you’re reading this guide! (good for you~)

Note that, if you resurrect with a Pomander of raising as the last (or only) person, it will not count as a wipe. If everything goes to hell in a party and you’re the last person alive, inevitably about to die to whatever everyone else died to - then pop a raising as soon as you can to try to save the run!

Why run POTD?

It’s a nice change from normal dungeons, in my opinion. It’s a place where party comps can be flexible, and yet still challenging even if you bring a tank. Unlike normal dungeons/trials/raids that will eventually become trivialized as newer gear and higher level caps come out, POTD will always be relevant and hard-capped at 60. Also, you get some nice loot that you can sell for gil!

~Looking to become a Necromancer?~

Are you looking to complete a solo clear? Then there’s a few things you need to know first!

The Rules

To qualify for the achievement for clearing floors 1-200 solo, you will need to:

• Complete floors 1-200 in a single save file.

• You MUST start from floor 1, and any death (without raising) means the run is over and you need to start from floor 1 again.
• You can take breaks every 10 floors (log out, leave the lobby, etc)
• If you want your score recorded on the Lodestone score rankings, you must be in your Home World.

Preparation

There are several things you can do to prepare yourself for success:

• Max out your aetherpool. While you can start a solo run at lower aetherpool, it’s recommended to be max, or close to it, to avoid being at a disadvantage at any point in the run. (you can level up your aetherpool in other save files by running with parties)
• Be prepared! Because you’re here reading the guide, that’s a great start. I would highly recommend watching some media of the higher floors to get familiar with them before you go in - remember, it takes hours to grind to the high floors, so you want to get the best run you can!
• Bring consumables. There are plenty of consumables out there that can help you in your run… (see next page)

~Solo Tier List~

The solo community has picked up a lot of steam. Every class CAN solo - but which ones are easier? This list is for Palace of the Dead specifically, rankings jobs in order of how easy it is to clear. Certain jobs have a lot more potential for speedclears/highscore runs, but are very technical. Check out the Heaven-on-high guide for another list…!

S+ Tier

Hands-down the easiest class to clear with at this point. Machinist can just kite everything, with good DPS to boot. Oh, they just got buffed too (again) because why not.

Machinist

S Tier

Also strong, but not as sturdy as MCH, especially because they either have to deal with pox or have lower DPS.

Pictomancer

Summoner

Reaper

Dark Knight

Gunbreaker

Warrior

Paladin

A Tier

Sturdy classes to solo on, but lack the survivability or DPS that the S tier classes have.

Red Mage

Dragoon

Ninja

Samurai

Monk

B Tier

Low DPS makes their 180 boss rotation extremely strict.

Dancer

Bard

C Tier

Actually not that bad, but definitely more time strained than casters like RDM and SMN.

Scholar

White Mage

Sage

D Tier

Just… don’t. BLM is essentially a scathe-mage half the time as it needs to kite to survive.

Black Mage

Astrologian Tier

Unless you have the godly blessings of YoshiP and get amazing RNG, you aren’t even going to get close with AST.

Astrologian

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 ~Traps~

Credits to this reddit thread for images. In order, these traps are:

Impeding - silences and applies pacification to anybody in the radius (including mobs). Both are removable with Esuna, and echo drops can remove the silence.

Toading - turns the person who stepped on it into a toad for 20 seconds, who has reduced HP and cannot use any skills/items. Your worst enemy when solo, and why you should NEVER run into a room when fighting.

Landmine - deals 80% current health damage to anything in the vicinity. Can be used to clear out a ton of mobs quickly.

Luring - summons 3 random monsters from the floor (including patrols). All of them will aggro onto whoever hit the trap, but will not move for a few seconds after being summoned.

Enfeebling - applies a 1 minute debuff to the person who stepped on it, increasing damage taken by 20% and reducing damage dealt by 20%. Not removable with esuna.

Traps will spawn randomly in any floor except the starting room. To minimize the chance of stepping on a trap, hug the walls and trace paths that your teammates take.

 ~Mimics~

Sometimes when opening chests, you’ll come across a mimic. These mobs autoattack extremely hard relative to other mobs on the floor, and can apply a nasty 10-minute debuff Accursed Pox on one random player on their aggro list. This debuff is only curable with the Pomander of Purity, and prevents HP from regenerating (even out of combat) while reducing damage dealt by roughly 10%. Here are ways to deal with them:

1. Avoid chests. When you don’t NEED items, especially solo, you can negate the risk of opening a mimic by simply not opening chests. Mimics appear from specific chests depending on the floor set:

1. Floors 1-30: Bronze chests only

1. It is possible to detect mimics from bronze chests. If you cast a spell and attempt to open a bronze chest mid cast and receive the message “Unable to execute command while casting”, that means that the bronze chest contains a mimic.

2. Floors 31-40: Silver chests only
3. Floors 41+: Gold chests only

2. Crowd control. Again, different colored mimics have different immunities:

1. Bronze mimic: Can interrupt pox cast with silence/stun/knockback/witching/interject
2. Silver mimic: Can interrupt pox cast with stun/witching/interject
3. Gold mimic: Can only interrupt pox cast with interject/witching

3. “Saccing” (sacrificing). This is very effective in both solo and in a group.

1. Solo: Only recommended on 191+ mimics, or 181+ mimics given the circumstances. Obviously, when solo, you must have a Pomander of Raising active to do this. You generally have to take the pox, because the only way to die fast enough otherwise is to stand in place (at which point you’ll raise on top of the mimic and get aggro again). As such, a strategy for higher floors is to save all the gold chests for last, and then make a mad run to open as many as possible, and if you happen to spawn multiple mimics, you can eventually die to them afterwards and not have to deal with them.

1. On these high-floor mimics, you would usually need to use some valuable items that you wouldn’t otherwise need to use, such as Pomander of Steel, double witching, or even a Rage. Giving up a raising is a strategy that can preserve these items - but that means you give up a safety net as well!
2. Skipping mimics is also a valuable time saver, especially if the passage is already open. Mimics might take a couple minutes to kill, and often you don’t have minutes to spare.

2. Party: Let whoever opened the mimic die. Raise them afterwards. If it’s a DPS/Healer, they can potentially die in 2 hits, and avoid getting pox.

4. Just don’t deal with them. Perhaps the floor effects were already ugly, the floor layout isn’t looking good, or you just see 500 patrols, and now a mimic as well, and it’s a fresh floor so you still need a ton of kills. Consider using a Rage!

 ~Pomanders~

Pomanders are valuable items that define the success of a run. Using them to the maximum benefit is crucial to clearing solo. So… when should you use a certain pomander?

As a general rule of thumb:

• Use what you need to in order to clear/survive in higher floors.

• It’s recommended, and most of the time optimal, to use some items to get past inconvenient floors easier, especially if you’re sitting at a full stack of said item. For example, if you have 3 rages, raging a no-abilities floor that would be very difficult to clear otherwise not only saves you a potential steel / a lot of time, but now if you were to pick up a rage near the end of a floor, it’s not wasted anymore

• Use poms willy nilly in early floors for convenience, giving yourself enough time to recover for the harder floors.

• Typically, you can feel free to use Strength/Steel/Witching/Sight/Safety, as well as Rage to a lesser extent, up to around floor ~140 for solo.

Safety

Removes all traps from a floor.

• Use when you want to clear a treasure room with Rage as walking inside a room with traps enabled is very dangerous

Sight

Reveals all traps from a floor, as well as the map.

• Use when you need to verify the location of an exit beyond treasure rooms and proximity aggro mobs
• Use when you need to do a large pull and find a landmine to blow them up quickly (a risky, advanced solo strategy to save time)
• Use when you really want to min-max your score but don’t have time to check some rooms

Strength

Increases damage/healing by 30% for 8 minutes.

• Use in conjunction with steel to get more mileage out of it
• Use when you need to catch up on time
• Use when you use witching against something you accidentally pulled and can’t fight, but need to kill quickly

Steel

Decreases damage taken by 40%. Does not apply to % health damage.

• Use when you have to pull something dangerous
• Use when you accidentally pull multiple mobs that you’d rather not sacrifice raising for (either because you have a free strength running, or because you already invested time into killing one of them) and you can’t survive otherwise

Affluence

Increases the amount of chests on the NEXT floor. Sometimes you may see 2-3 chests in a non-treasure room, sometimes none. It’s RNG.

• Use when you need to refill various items

Flight

Decreases the amount of enemies on the NEXT floor. This reduces the amount of kills to open the Cairn of Passage from roughly 6 to 3, speeding up the floor. Treasure rooms still may spawn on a flighted floor with the standard amount of mobs.

• Use when you need to save time

Alteration

Changes all the enemies in a random room on the NEXT floor to a mimic or mandragora. Mimics are hard-hitting mobs (described later in Purity), while mandragoras are passive mobs that die in 1 hit. Both mobs have a very high chest drop rate.

• Use when you need to refill various items, and want to save time as well (it’s still a gamble, but it can help!)

Purity

Removes the accursed pox status inflicted by mimics. This is a 10-minute debuff that removes natural healing, deals damage over time, and decreased damage dealt by 10%. Never underestimate the damage from pox. While pox may tick up to 300 damage per tick on higher floors, remember it also disables your natural regen, which is 1% of your max health per tick in combat. This means each tick you will have 500-600 less HP than you would otherwise.

• Use when you need extra survivability from not having accursed pox or you are short on time and need to cleanse the damage debuff

Fortune

Increases the rate at which mobs drop chests. Recommended to use when clearing treasure rooms/alteration rooms.

• Use when you plan to nuke a floor and are in need of items

Witching

Turns all mobs within a half-room radius into a chicken/toad/imp that cannot use skills and deals reduced damage. A very strong panic item, but not one that’ll save you from every scenario. Each witched mob deals a different amount of damage based on the form:

• Imp: 60% base autoattack damage
• Chicken: 30% base autoattack damage
• Frog: negligible (<1%) damage

Use cases:

• Use when you accidentally pull something you shouldn’t or pull multiple mobs
• Use when you are looking to landmine a group of mobs to save time in the higher floors
• Use when you are looking to AOE a large group of mobs to save time in the lower floors

Serenity

 Removes all floor buffs and debuffs.

• Use on any no items floors where you can’t sustain without potions
• Use on any no abilities floors if you aren’t ahead on time
• Use on any combination of gloom, damage down, or blind floors when you aren’t ahead on time
• Use on gloom + HP down floors when it makes the situation very dangerous and you do not want to use steel

Rage

Turns you into a manticore for 1 minute that kills all mobs (including boss adds) in 1 hit. DOES NOT WORK IF THE FLOOR HAS KNOCKBACK DISABLED.

• Use when you need to save a lot of time or clear your way through a treasure room without sacrificing raising

• Recommended to find a path to the exit and path towards it, as to be able to carry over the remaining rage timer into the next floor and get some more mileage out of it (“double dipping”)

• While rage can be used to kill the succubus add on floor 150 (effectively stopping the boss from regenerating up to 10% of its health), this is a poor use of rage and reflects poor planning earlier (you could have used rage to save much more time by clearing a previous floor instead of using it this way)

Lust

Turns you into a succubus for 1 minute and gives you access to Void Fire II, an AOE attack that applies a stack of vulnerability (+10% damage, up to 5 stacks) to any targets hit. The attack also has a potency of around 250, so it can be a DPS increase for many classes. Recommended to use on bosses for the huge +50% vulnerability debuff, or for massive AOE damage.

• Use when you are behind on time and need more DPS for the boss
• Use when you are behind on time and want to AOE multiple mobs down quickly (recommended to use steel and/or witching in conjunction with this for solo)

Intuition

Reveals the location of the accursed hoard with a golden beam. Note that not every floor has an accursed hoard, and the rate at which they appear on floors is roughly ⅓

• Unless you’re greedy, don’t use this in solo, or use them all in the early 70s if you can

• I’ve lost runs by seconds where I’ve greeded for hoards - every second counts! Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage in your solo runs!

• Use at the start of new bag “tiers” - bringing the count down to 1 or 0 - as to avoid potential overflow and loss of Intuition pomanders, and let the count climb back up to 3 by the next tier as to not miss any of the higher tier loot

• 1-50: Bronze
• 51-100: Iron
• 101-150: Silver
• 151+: Gold

• Don’t use past the 7th floor in a set in the off-chance that a hoard does not spawn and the intuition is wasted

Raising

Revives the first party member to be KOed. Works in solo and can be used to survive a luring trap - see more in the How to Survive Luring Trap section.

• Use at the start of dangerous floor sets (71+)  in solo or when death is imminent and you are the last one standing (especially relevant for parties, for the last survivor to save the run)

Resolution

• On the 100 boss (to clear out adds)
• On the 140 boss (in conjunction with strength) for an easy, cheesy kill
• On high 90 floors (to clear out undead quickly for fast score farming)
• On high 190 floors (to clear out undead quickly to save time) - if you’re crazy, you can pull multiple mobs with steel and clear them out with resolution
• Also can be used to clear out large groups of non-undead mobs due to high AOE damage (~420 potency) and stun (recommended to use steel and/or witching in conjunction with this for solo)

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~Deaggroing Mobs~

In general, when you pull a mob, you are committed to fight it. At least, that’s what it may seem like! If you’re playing a class that can Sleep, you have the power to deaggro certain mobs that are vulnerable to sleep, by putting the mob to sleep and then walking away roughly 2 and a half rooms away (2 rooms and one room to the side is adequate). If the mob is a patrol, it will continue to patrol, and if the mob is a normal mob, it will return to whence it came from after waking up - WITHOUT AGGRO!

Here’s an example of deaggroing mobs that would have otherwise been inconvenient to kill: Twitch Clip

Refer to Cloudburst#9963’s list of status vulnerabilities to understand which mobs can be slept.

~Dealing with Treasure Rooms~

Treasure rooms are rooms which can spawn on any floor (flighted or not) that include 4 chests as well as 10+ mobs. These can be taken advantage of to gain a ton of chests, but can be a huge hindrance as well.

Use a Pomander of Fortune if you plan on clearing out one of these rooms to receive chests. Also, consider using Safety or Sight if you are going to charge in - there can still be a landmine amongst all that which may catch you by surprise, but if you reveal it with sight, you can use it to (mostly) kill all the mobs!

One of the easiest ways to clear a treasure room is simply by using a Pomander of Rage. However, do not charge in with rage, especially on higher floors, even more so if you are solo. Be VERY CAREFUL of mobs that aggro by proximity rather than sight, as you may get 1 shot if you accidentally aggro 2 or more mobs on higher floors. If you are in a party, have somebody pull mobs out for you until you feel comfortable charging in.

The other way you can deal with a treasure room is with a Pomander of Witching. However, depending on how good your party is, the DPS may or may not be enough to clear everything out. On higher floors (171+), I would recommend using a Pomander of Lust or a Pomander of Resolution (or both!) in conjunction with witching, for massive AOE damage/vulnerability/stun. Or, you know… you could be safe and pull them out one at a time.

A mimic treasure room (used Pomander of Alteration)… gross!

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~Dealing with Traps~

Luring traps on high floors are what ultimately end many people’s solo or party runs. But, they are really not that bad if you know how to play around them!

Solo

If you hit a lethal luring trap while solo, you have a few options depending on how confident you are. If you know you can bind/sleep at least one of the mobs, consider using a Pomander of Steel, and then bind/sleep as many mobs as you can, then focus one down and kite the others. However, when in doubt, just use a Pomander of Raising and run away from the spawn location of the trap, and when you die, the mobs will reset. See this video for an example of dying with Raising, and this video for an example of kiting/binding.

Party

The best way to deal with a luring trap in a party is NOT to deal with it. Unless you know 100% that you can, LET WHOEVER STEP ON THE TRAP DIE. Do not try to help them, don’t try to bind/sleep any mobs or even heal them (you don’t want ANY aggro on these mobs) - basically make sure NOBODY TOUCHES THE THEM OR THE MOBS THEY JUST SPAWNED. Just run away from where the mobs spawned, and then they will simply reset after that one person dies. You can proceed to res them afterwards.

Wall Traps

The “Stonehenge” dead-end room is infamous for having a trap spawn along the right wall. Be careful of it and make sure to walk around the left side instead!

There is another dead-end room (the one with the large square panel at the back) which also has a trap spawn along the right wall. Be wary of this…!

~Floor Guides~

Now we will finally delve into the specifics of clearing each floor set! I recommend pulling up each relevant floor set guide and reviewing it quickly before you enter, so you know what you’re up against. Many mobs have a targeted skill that is often a cleave - I will refer to these as “double autoattacks” often.

I will detail all noteworthy mobs and assign them two danger levels - one for minimum risk (if you play around the mechanics properly) and one for maximum risk (if you do NOT perform mechanics properly, excluding easy-to-dodge telegraphs). If a mob has differing levels of risk, there are gimmicks that you should know before pulling them, and the mob’s description will include a ⚠Danger Note.

 I will use the following levels as a guide:

Danger Notes

There’s a fine line between mobs that just have an untelegraphed, small (but lethal) AOE, and one that instantly does a whole-room AOE. You can refer to the color of notes to know about the specifics.

Additionally, mobs have a few unique ways to aggro. Note that the detection radius from each mob extends from the closest edge of their circular hitbox to you. This means that large mobs effectively have a larger radius of detection.

Mobs that aggro by sight can only see in a small cone in front of them. These are easy to sneak around. Sometimes you will need to be a bit patient and wait for them to turn around so you can sneak behind them. Video example of how to be sneaky.

Mobs that aggro by sound will aggro if you run near them, regardless of where they are facing. However, if you don’t move or toggle walk mode on, you can literally sneak right past them. However, if a patrolling sound-aggro mob walks INTO you, it will aggro on you. They might be blind but they can still feel when they bump into you.

Mobs that aggro by proximity will simply aggro if you are within their radius of detection. These mobs are very hard to avoid, and some mobs have larger detection radiuses than others (mimics, for example, have a HUGE detection radius).

Quick and dirty tip to remembering which mobs aggro in which ways

If it’s a worm or if it’s headless, then it’s Sound. If it’s undead or a non-animal creature (Slime, Pudding), it’s probably Proximity. If neither, it’s probably Sight.

This is just a general way to remember. These are several animal creatures that can aggro by Proximity - Triceratops and Wivres for example. Specifics will be detailed in the floor set monster tables.

~Floor 1-10~

It all begins here!

Boss: Palace Deathgaze

This boss is very easy, but damage should not be underestimated when solo (consider popping a potion during the fight). It uses skills in this order:

Whipcrack - a “tank-buster” that can be used in conjunction with an auto-attack for a surprising amount of burst damage.

Stormwind - a conal AOE telegraph. Avoid this.

Bombination  a circular point-blank AOE telegraph that slows anybody hit.

Lumisphere - a targeted circular AOE telegraph. Avoid this.

Aeroblast - a global AOE that applies windburn, dealing light DoT damage.

General tactic - Lust on lower floors deals insane damage, as the potency of Void Fire II is much higher than low level skills. If your class can kite, you can run circles around the room and take literally 0 autoattack damage aside from the Whipcrack.

~Floor 11-20~

While still easy, there are a few mobs that you REALLY need to pay attention to, especially when you’re solo. BEWARE OF THE TOAD TRAPS!

Boss: Sporge

A simple boss, very similar to the floor 10 boss with its order of attacks. However, do not underestimate the damage of its cleave, Bloody Caress. The order of skills will be Bloody Caress (cleave), followed by two telegraphed AOEs and then a global AOE. After the global AOE, it will go to the top of the room and summon two hornets. These must be killed or they will cast an unavoidable final sting that will kill someone. Meanwhile, the boss will spam a line telegraph Rotten Stench that will deal a very high amount of damage.

General tactic - Use Lust to kill it, and the bees, quickly (stack on it when it summons the bees so you can hit them all with the AOE). However, consider popping a Sustaining Potion before you do so when solo, as the cleave damage is quite high.

~Floor 21-30~

This is the first “real” floor set, that has a normal amount of mobs per floor and rewards the normal amount of XP/tomestones.

Boss: Ningishzida

Tl;dr - start on the side, fire, ice, fire, ice, and then run to the center.

This boss, aside from having a basic cleave, will create lingering AOEs on random players in the following pattern - fire, ice, fire, ice. Because these AOEs linger on the floor, don’t stand in the center to start out, because you don’t want the goop in the center when you have to run there. After the second ice ball, it will run to the center of the room and cast Fear Itself. To avoid this attack, which does high damage and inflicts terror, run to the center with it.

~Floor 31-40~

The boss on this floor can be hard to solo if you aren’t farming for points/XP.

Boss: Ixtab

Tl;dr - kill the adds

This boss will cast 4 lingering AOEs, and then summon two Nightmare Bloots. These must be killed as fast as possible (all while avoiding the AOE telegraphs cast by the boss), or else when the boss uses its global AOE Scream, you will get targeted by prey and the adds will use Tornado, which will most likely one shot you, especially when coupled with the Shadow Flare global AOE which is cast right after Scream.

~Floor 41-50~

The end of the boring floors that nobody likes to do! Well… the boring floors really don’t end for a while, but you get what I mean...

Boss: Edda Blackbosom

Tl;dr - stay close to the boss to easily avoid the In Health telegraphs.

This boss is pretty easy if you avoid her mechanics properly. She will use In Health in two patterns - one will require you to run away from her, and one will cover the whole map except a small area next to her. As such, stay close to her to avoid this. Aside from doing damage, each person hit by this skill will light up a rune on the floor, which increases the damage of the global AoE Black Honeymoon. Aside from that, she will occasionally cast In Sickness, which instantly inflicts Disease on a target, but with the timing on her skills, you never have to worry about the slow from Disease making it hard to avoid a cast of In Health.

~Floor 51-60~

Obviously, everybody’s favorite floor set.

Boss: The Black Rider

In a nutshell - Make sure you don’t get knocked back into one of the exploding balls on the side.

~Floor 61-70~

Honestly, I don’t get why people grind 51-60, because this set, and others up to 100, are just as fast if not faster, because your gear starts to scale up.

Boss: Yaquaru

In a nutshell - when it casts Douse, walk away such that the boss is completely out of the AOE so it doesn’t get buffed with Haste.

~Floor 71-80~

More easy floors!

Boss: Gudanna

In a nutshell - stay away from the tornados, because they will pulse with an AOE larger than the tornados themselves, pulling you in. When it runs to the edge, run close to it, as it will use Trounce, a huge conal AOE that applies vulnerability. Burn it at 17% as it will use Ecliptic Meteor, which deals 80% of your max health as damage.

~Floor 81-90~

Time to be a little more careful now. Maybe. Not really.

Boss: The Godmother

Tl;dr - kill orange bombs when they spawn, push blue bomb into the boss (all skills/autos will knock it back) when it spawns.

This boss is a bit more tricky than the previous ones. It will sometimes spawn a Lava Bomb in the middle of a bunch of untargetable little bombs that will explode over time, and you must kill the Lava Bomb before it explodes (dealing 80% max HP to everyone in the party). It can also summon a Giddy Bomb while channeling Massive Burst. The Giddy Bomb must be pushed into the boss with any skill before it blows up. If it does, and you have to tank Massive Burst, top everyone off and get the heals ready, because it does 99% of everybody’s max HP (so, unaffected by any damage reduction - don’t you dare use tank LB!). For what it’s worth, you can stun both the Lava Bomb and the boss itself via conventional means, interrupting any skills.

~Floor 91-100~

The end of the basic floors!

Consider using Pomander of Resolution from floors 97-99, as all mobs are undead and you can one shot any of them (except dragons, they have too much health, and need two hits) with it.

Boss: Nybeth Obdilord

With max aetherpool, this boss shouldn’t be a problem for the most part - you don’t even need Resolution in a party setting. This is how I would recommend approaching it for solo/party.

Low Aetherpool Strategy

At certain HP thresholds in the fight, the boss will cast Summon darkness - three times in total, the first two times summoning two adds, and the last time summoning three. These adds do not do much autoattack damage initially, but when left alive for a small period of time, they will do tankbusters/cleaves that will be very hard hitting, especially on low aetherpool. When killed, these adds will respawn after a short duration if their corpses aren’t removed from the ground with Resolution, and may use their cleaves immediately.

If your party has three Resolutions, the safest play is to have someone transform and use Heavenly Judge to permanently kill each set of adds as they spawn (at least two attacks - one attack to kill the adds, the one attack on their dead bodies to delete them for good). If you have have two Resolutions, you can save one for after the second set of adds spawn - either single target or AOE down the adds and respawns. If you have one, you have no choice but to wait for after the final set spawns at 50% HP. If you have to have adds alive, make sure whoever is tanking them is adequately prepared (either have Steel on, or be a tank)!

Below 50% HP, after the final Summon Darkness cast, the boss will cast Doom (and add this to his rotation), a roomwide conal ability. Make sure to stay close to the boss so you don’t get caught out in this.

Max Aetherpool Strategy

Solo

Use strength, steel, and then lower the boss down to 90% HP (first add phase). Use  Sustaining Potion and lust. Spam Void Fire II for the entire duration - don’t worry, it will melt the adds as they spawn/respawn.

As soon as the transformation wears off, use another Sustaining Potion, optionally unload some burst, and then use Resolution. You can spam Heavenly Judge for a decent amount of damage for the entire duration, while removing all those corpses from the ground - if done correctly, this will last to the third phase of adds, allowing you to clear all the adds out with a single Resolution.

Party

Have everybody stack on the boss, and one person use Lust and spam Void Fire II for the full duration. The Void Fire will kill all the adds and the boss should be dead within a minute.

~Floor 101-110~

The start of the silver bag floors! ...I hate 101-150 the most, honestly, though. Like, they’re not easy enough to cheese them super hard with huge pulls, and not hard enough to be hard, if that makes any sense…

Note that all these floors, as well as their bosses, are similar to their counterparts from 1-100! E.g. floor 10 boss = floor 110 boss. The mobs on each floor are also similar for the most part, although some patrols are swapped around, and some mobs have additional skills.

Of course, mobs all hit a bit harder now...

Boss: Alicanto

This boss is similar to the 1-10 boss mechanically, it just hits a little harder. Just tank and spank!

~Floor 111-120~

These floors can actually be pretty scary, for solo especially. Beware the toads - both the traps and the patrols!

Solo Tips

Be very careful of patrols. Multiple Gigantoads are difficult to avoid the stun for (if you aren’t facing them, you’ll be stunned and hit for very hard), and Labored Leap crits can burst you for over half your HP. If you aggro a Gigantoad while you’re fighting something else, immediately use a sustain potion, and consider using witching/steel. Also, the Brackish Drop from the Deep Palace Nanka can one-shot you if it crits, so be VERY RESPECTFUL of that random AOE.

Boss: Kirtimukha

Tl;dr - avoid AOEs, kill bees.

This boss is mechanically similar to that of floor 20. Rotten Stench will now be a one-shot, so make sure you avoid those telegraphed AOEs. The easiest way to deal with the bee adds is to stack on the boss and have somebody spam Lust autoattacks. If not killed, the bees will cast Final Sting, which cannot be avoided. Witching does not work on bees. It will deal 70% max HP damage for each bee (so you can survive one if healthy).

~Floor 121-130~

The most boring floors ever IMO. They’re not hard enough to be exciting, but at the same time, not easy enough to be on 100% cruise control - mobs are hitting harder, but it’s still nothing unmanageable, even for a solo DPS.

Boss: Alfard

Tl;dr - stand on side, fire, ice, fire, ice, then run to center.

Similar to the F30 boss, except this time it casts Fear Itself way faster. Run to the center immediately after the second ice ball, and make sure nobody is standing in the center prior to that, so you don’t get goop there.

~Floor 131-140~

If you thought the last set was a drag, well, these are even worse. At least the boss is fast, though!

Solo Tips

Be very mindful of patrols here - getting petrified by an ahriman when you are busy with other mobs can lead to a death.

Boss: Ah Puch (Solo Video)

Pomander of Resolution’s Heavenly Judge skill will deal 30K damage (with Strength) to this boss. If solo, recommended to use Strength + Steel + Resolution. You don’t have to use Steel, but it makes it a lot safer, and if you don’t Steel you may have to leave mid-transformation to pop a quick sustain potion before popping another Resolution.

~Floor 141-150~

Things will start to get more intense here. You can stop the big pulls, now…

Solo Tips

Gargoyles hurt. Seriously. Usually you will have to kite like crazy or use a sustaining potion to deal with their damage. It can be even worse with gloom, but since they are sight-based, you can avoid them when necessary. Also, patrols are getting scarier. Especially if you already have a mob on you, such as a Gargoyle, you don’t want a Manticore jumping you as well. They buff themselves with damage up, making their auto-attacks hit over 3K, and have a non-telegraphed Ripper Claw AOE that can nearly one shot you with a crit. If you pull more than one demon for any reason, consider using a witching pomander so they don’t enrage.

Boss: Tisiphone (Solo Video)

This boss can be quite difficult for melee, but a lot easier for ranged classes.

Tl;dr - kite and kill zombie adds (don’t let them touch you), succubus add is optional (dotting it is worth it though)

Aside from avoiding telegraphs, there are a few things to look out for on this boss. After the second “Darkness, to me” call, she will summon 4 Fanatic Zombies in each corner of the room, each aggroing on one person. These will slowly crawl up to you, and grab on to you if they get close enough. If you get grabbed, you will be rooted until that zombie is dead, which might get you caught in some lethal AOEs. These zombies are weak to air magic, and can be one shot with a single Veraero from a red mage. This boss will also summon a Fanatic Succubus towards the end of the rotation, which does a fair amount of damage with its cleave and autoattack. If you don’t kill it, the boss will “eat” it, restoring health equal to the HP of the add. As such, it is efficient to consider any damage dealt to the add as indirect damage to the boss, so it is worth putting DOTS on the add, and using AOE skills on the add for healers. Shortly afterwards, the boss will cast a global AOE Blood Rain, which deals 6-7K damage without Steel. Heal through it as necessary, and then the attack pattern starts all over.

~Floor 151-160~

You’ve made it to the promised land, which drops gold-trimmed sacks (and it’s really pretty!).

There aren’t many noteworthy mobs here, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t hurt.

If you haven’t checked How to Survive Luring Traps, this is the time to do so.

Also, now is about the time where soloing mimics on a non-healing class (aka non-RDM/healer) will get scary unless you kite like crazy (consider using a Steel if you find one).

Solo Tips

This is about the time where I’d start making an effort to walk on the side of rooms (if you’ve always been doing that, good for you!). But, be sure to be aware of wall trap locations. Most mobs are killable without sustain potions, but always be mindful of those that can pack a punch (Puddings, Pots, etc). Be very careful of patrols - Maroliths can be quite scary with their double auto burst. Also, careful with your autoattacks when a Devilet uses Ice Spikes, because each one will hurt you for like 6K damage.

Also, now it REALLY helps to stop facetanking! Kite mobs whenever you can to significantly reduce their damage output, tracing back your steps into hallways or the starting room. Be very careful not to aggro other mobs as you kite back, though! See this video for an example on how to kite high damage mobs.

Food

Are you not using food yet? Now is a good time to start! Look for HQ food that has +10% Vitality (any SHB food). Secondary stats don’t matter as much, especially because crit/DH are base values, so technically DET is better, but through my experience, I didn’t really notice a difference. THE HEALTH REALLY HELPS, THOUGH!

Boss: Totesritter (Solo Video)

While mechanically similar to the F60 boss, this one can hit like a truck. While you can solo it without steel (on RDM at least), I really, really would recommend using steel for this boss and beyond.

The bleed puddles created by the Hail of Sorrow instant AOE hurt like crazy, dealing over 5K damage if you eat a tick. Other than that, make sure you don’t get knocked into an exploding ball on the edge or you will be nearly one shot.

~Floor 161-170~

Again, not many noteworthy mobs, but certainly plenty that hit like a truck. Also, now is a good time to start remember which mobs aggro by movement verses sight…

Solo Tips

Nothing too hard here, but remember the mobs that aggro by movement (e.g. no sneaking around them). Wivres, Triceratops, and Crocs are the most threatening mobs here in terms of DPS - DEFINITELY use a sustain potion if you pull one of them, and again, watch out for those patrols! If you are playing RDM/healer, I would recommend Surecast to secure your heals, because their double autoattack can frequently interrupt your casts. Sustaining potion won’t always save you - remember about those no-item floors! Speaking of floor debuffs, Gloom floors become quite scary here as well. I would avoid those double-auto mobs (Wivre, Triceratops, etc) under Gloom, but in the event you have to kill them, be very on-point with your heals or consider using a Steel if you really want to be safe.

Boss: Yulunggu (Solo Video)

This boss is similar to the F70 boss, except the water puddle from Douse will buff it with haste and physical damage up. The tank should pull this boss slowly in a circle around the map, making sure to move it out of every Douse puddle it creates.

Solo tips:

Save sprint/backstep abilities for the first Heavy effect applied with diminishing returns, as you will need it to avoid the upcoming Electrogenesis AOE. (sprint when the Heavy has around 7 seconds left).

~Floor 171-180~

This is where you’ll start to find some scary mobs, and a boss that many new parties wipe to.

Solo Tips

This is the first set of floors where time starts becoming a real constraint when conserving items. That being said, the next set is INCREDIBLY difficult, so saving a full load of items is highly recommended. You may need to use a Steel to get past some unavoidable Sasquatches - while they are killable without it, a single crit from Browbeat and you’ll get close to 1-shot. If you choose to save your steel, DEFINITELY have a raising active and be extremely on-point with heals/kiting. Also, please be mindful of floor effects. HP Down Debuff is very scary here, as it will make it that much easier to get one shot by something like a Sasquatch. If there is HP Debuff + Gloom, stay FAR away from any double-autoattack mobs, or consider using a Steel or Rage to get through the floor - or of course, Serenity.

If you’re really pushing for 190+, it is very important that you go into 181+ with as many steels as possible. As such, you may want to consider saving Steel for only the boss. However, sometimes there may be a Sasquatch sitting in your way that must be killed - this is where you use an Infusion of Vitality. Warning: this will put your Max potion on cooldown for 4.5 minutes. However, for the next 30 seconds, you will have roughly 2K more health, which is enough to survive a browbeat crit + auto combo (unless the auto crits too!). You still need to be very careful with heals, and again, I would have a Raising active in the event you get double-crit.

You REALLY want to enter 181+ with all 3 Rages, but depending on time constraints, you may find yourself using one earlier. Judge the situation and determine if you need it!

Most of the mobs on this set, especially towards the first half, are susceptive to all CC, including stun, sleep, and heavy. Use this to your advantage.

The first few floors have a high chance to spawn a landmine trap, and also has plenty of easier enemies (bears and giraffes, in particular). Use this to your advantage, and use Sight to reveal the landmines, which you can use to speed up your kills massively!

Boss: Dendainsonne (Solo Video)

This boss is similar to that of F80, with a few key differences. First, it will cast Charybdis much more often, and twice in a row in many points in the rotation, so tornados will be everywhere. Trounce will not be a one-shot but will deal around 7K damage without Steel (it CAN crit! Watch out!). However, Lightningbolt (frontal conal telegraph) will one shot a DPS without Steel, but… what is a DPS without Steel doing standing in front of the boss?

Note that Trounce is ALWAYS cast from the top or bottom of the map, alternating between the two, starting from the bottom.

The hardest part of this boss is when it drops under 15%. It will spam Ecliptic Meteor over and over again, and the cast time is much faster than that of F80 - meteors will strike down 80% of everybody’s maximum health every 9 seconds. As such, it is smart to use Lust around 50% to make sure the Lust debuff will be up for the burn phase (wait until ~20% for solo). Save your LB2 for this (TANKS, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TANK LB BECAUSE IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING).

If you have no faith in your party’s DPS, RDM/Healers get ready for an intense solo! Simply use a sustain potion and heal yourself twice between meteors, while squeezing in as much DPS as possible.

Never stand in melee range in FRONT of the boss while it spams meteors, as it is allowed to autoattack you between meteors if you do so, thus one-shotting you! (video example)

Solo tips

Lust at ~20-21%, and then slow push into 15%. After the boss is 15%, use autoattacks or a couple weak abilities to push it from like 15.9% to as close to 15.0% as possible (you can’t actually see this number, so you need to play it a bit safe). Wait for the boss to use a skill (commonly wait for the double Charybdis cast after Trounce), then use your burst rotation. Healers and RDM have this easy, but other classes need to have their heals (Second Wind, Super Potion, Bloodbath, etc) ready and the burst rotation on-point.

~Floor 181-190~

This is probably the scariest set of floors, in terms of the skills that mobs use. Do not even try to deal with a luring trap on these floors - let whoever hit it die!

This set is where positioning and awareness are key. With Chimeras (“Garms”) on patrol, you and your whole party need to be on point with positioning as to avoid unwanted patrols when fighting other mobs. Pulling two dangerous mobs at the same time will quickly lead to a wipe!

Solo Tips

Luckily, especially for solo, a lot of the scary mobs aggro by sound only, meaning if you turn on walk, you can literally walk through them/right in front of them and not aggro them.

Floors 187-189 will have a lot of mobs that are impossible/scary to kill (the best option being worms, claws, archeosaurs, and garms, the first two only being killable with Steel), so consider saving flight/rage to pass those floors. Also, consider using alteration to generate some more killable mobs (mimics are killable without Steel if you kite and play carefully).

For worms, treat them like the Wisents on the previous set - except the draw-in CANNOT BE PREVENTED, so kite away, as the suck-in cast Bottomless Desert happens at 30 seconds.

Watch out for treasure rooms that have high amounts of worms in them as you can just instantly die.

Serenity? (and other floor effects)

No items? No thanks!

When you get a no-items floor, REALLY CONSIDER using a Serenity. Even easy mobs, such as a Wamoura (the patrol one that has a telegraph), will require a lot of self-healing, which will in turn drag the floor on for many more valuable minutes (time is an EXTREME constraint for this set).

181-183 no items or gloom: You can survive probably, it’s not that bad, just pick off those Grenades/Wamouras (NOT Wamouracampa!!). I would stay away from Sprites.

184-186: no items or gloom: Gauge your remaining time and determine if it’s really necessary to use an item to bypass this

187-189: no items/gloom/HP down: NOPE NOPE NOPE. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND having a Flight active for these floors (e.g. use flight on 186/187/188) - the later, the better (or all 3 if you have to). See the section below.

187-189

These floors need their own special mention because of how disgusting they are. You literally have next to no mobs that you can solo without poms, except the Garm. This is how I would deal with these floors:

Floor 186: Use Affluence ahead of time if you still have some, as well as Alteration (mimics/mandragoras drop more chests)

Floor 187: If there are bad floor effects and you didn’t get mandragoras, use Sight/Safety (optional, but safer), and Rage. Plan out your pathing carefully, such that you will arrive at the exit by the time you get enough kills to open it - that way, you can take the remaining ~30 seconds of rage and get kills on the next floor. Otherwise, try to get enough kills from mimics and chimeras. Use another Alteration.

Floor 188: Same as 187. Still have another Rage? You can consider double-raging 188 and 189. If not, use a Flight/Alteration.

Floor 189: If you have Rage, good for you! Your life is easy. If you don’t, then your other option is to take advantage of the Flight and find 3 mobs to kill. With Alteration, your options are Garms/Mimics/Mandragora (as if you would ever get Mandragora knowing the RNG in here). If you HAVE to, then use a Steel - ONLY if you have more than one - the leftover time on the Steel will bleed over to the boss, which will require 2 Steels for certain low DPS classes.

Depending on time, you may or may not need to use your Rages. Judge the situation and conserve as best as you can!

Boss: The Godfather (Solo Video)

This boss is similar mechanically to the 90 boss, except with colors flipped around. This means that you kill the BLUE bomb when it spawns (Remedy Bomb) and you push the RED bomb into the boss (Lava Bomb). Note that if you get hit by a blue bomb explosion or Sap, you will be inflicted with Deep Freeze and will most likely die if you do not have Steel.

This boss’s cleave Scalding Scoulding can hit extremely hard (12K with no steel), so if you are tanking on a non-tank class or soloing, you need to have very good timing on your heals to keep yourself peaked up for the incoming cleaves.

Solo Tips

DO NOT OPEN WITH LUST. The boss will cleave right away and you may die before you get the stacks off. There is a window in the boss’s rotation where he will cast 3 Saps in a row (during Remedy Bomb cycle) - this is a good time to lust. See the solo video for reference. Another option (that requires a bit of planning) is to take advantage of the static spawns to position the boss on top of where the Remedy Bomb spawns, and use Lust to kill the bomb while getting stacks on the boss. The boss will be casting Saps during this time, so you should be able to survive.

Boss rotation is as follows:

Cleave

Remedy Bomb spawn (1, 3, 5 spawns for Lust: Top, Middle, Bottom Right)

Sap (3x)

Cleave

Sap

Lava Bomb spawn (Right, Middle, Top Right, Left, Middle, Upper Middle)

[Repeat]

Image credits to @toto#5123

~Floor 191-200~

The home stretch!

These mobs aren’t as scary as the 180 ones, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt, because some of them really pack a punch. However, you can use Resolution to kill most of the mobs on this set in just 3 hits!

Note that almost every mob on this set aggros by proximity, so there’s no way to sneak around any of them. Keeper patrols aggro by sound, so you can stand still or walk to avoid them. This is critical, because they hit like a truck.

Again - while the mobs aren’t mechanically difficult - they hit really hard. You will need to be on your toes and look out for patrols all the time to make sure you don’t fight two at the same time.

Solo tips

If you have affluence, pop it ASAP. The idea to clear is this:

191-193: Use no poms. Pick off mummies, traps, and dragons.

• Note: Be VERY CAREFUL when fighting mummies/dragons, or anything else for that matter, with no room to kite. You will need to be very on-point with your healing if you are forced to stand still and fight them (e.g. if Iron Corse patrols are roaming nearby)
• Pay close attention to the Iron Corse patrols, which can instantly one shot you if you aggro them. If you pull one by accident, you have to Steel/witch/pray to RNGesus that you don’t get crit.

194-196: Pick off dragons and fachans. There may be mobs that you can’t sneak around. If you have to fight some, use Strength and Steel. You always want to have Strength running if you are going to pop a Steel, in order to maximize its effectiveness. Clearing 194+ depends very closely on how many steels you have.

197+: If you have flights, use them before this set. You can cheese mobs with Resolution (takes around 3 hits - Gourmands and Wraiths can be stunned), though this may be dangerous if you don’t have Steel active. Killing mobs quickly with Resolution can help make better use of your precious steel time - and of course, don’t forget the timer! Even though there’s no boss, time will be short. These final 3 floors can never have Knockback Disabled. Use this to your advantage with double-dipping Rage.

Refer to the solo video link below for a visual reference!

191-200 Solo Video

And the final boss is… the firecrest/glass pumpkin!

Congratulations on making it to the end! I hope this guide was helpful in guiding you or your friends to clear 200. ^^