Summary
The Bone Court is a wonderful refuge for all the lost undead left behind during the destruction of the first Necromancer's Guild. It's run by the charitable and kind General Krpana and Ambassador Khetah. They're often heard talking to eachother in hushed whispers. Perhaps a strong group of adventurers would be able to help the city?
Boss mechanics and quest info
These will almost certainly contain spoilers for the story and quest.
Krpana and Khetah first need a Fire Diamond. After you give them one they'll allow you to take a scout to a secret cave that has General Palos, the first boss in the Bone Court quest.
Palos
Protlist - Phys, Paladin charges (Sonic, Harm, Holy, Fire, Illus, Cold, Elec, Acid, Disint, Asphyx, Psionic), Protection from Holds/Liege of Gaia, Heavy Weight, Fearlessness.
I also did my runs with Solidity and Free Action up, but I'm not sure how needed they are.
General Palos is the first boss, and her mechanics are quite different than every other boss in Retro. The first trouble you'll have is getting to her.
Movement
The room with a circle in it is where you'll start. No skills or spells may be used or cast in that room. The next room with the green highlight is the 'safe' room. You should put a Zodiaque Mark in this room for the ability to get back without having to go to the Court and asking for a guide again. In this room you may "call out" to get any adds in any of the rooms that aren't the bright red one to instantly enter. You may also get party members back in the safe room this way.
The black rooms between the safe room and the antechamber are set to be ultra ultra dark and they require a stat check to get past. Party members can't follow you through ultra ultra dark rooms, so you'll need to find a way to get the party to the antechamber.
The room with a red outline is the antechamber to Palos' area. The best way to get your party to meet you there is by having someone with Dimensional Portal cast it on you while they're in the regen room, allowing your party to move between the areas without getting lost.
The room to the north of here is the boss arena. To reiterate, any enemies or clones or other things that are in the boss room when someone does 'call out' will not be dragged to the room with the green highlight.
Combat
Palos will summon adds which are paladins of random charges who follow. Remember that your party can not move with you through the ultra ultra dark areas of the cave, so a traditional midout will not work.
Palos will keep you silenced for nearly the entire fight, and she likes to hold and knock down people. You're best off with a second or third in command giving orders on when to midout while you're there and attempt to escape whenever you can yourself. Ideally you heavy weight only the tank and astral the party to safety. Other than the odd movement she's a simple enough boss, doing low damage but regularly attempting to lock down the tank.
After you take down Palos a note will be left at the entrance of the cave, and the Scout will take you back to the Court. It's likely a good idea to go back and report to the quest givers at this point.
The General and Ambassador
Protlist - Phys, Fire, Harm
I did the fight with Free Action, Heavy Weight, Solidity, and Protection from Holds up but I don't believe they're strictly needed.
If for some ungodly reason you decide you want to fight the quest givers who simply want to keep the Bone Court safe, now's the time to do it. The General and Ambassador are fairly simple bosses, who's mechanics I only vaguely understand. The Ambassador throws furniture at you, which weighs about 500kg each. They're saveable if you place them in a castle, and some are very rare. The safest plan is to simply drop it when he throws it at you, but you can't pick it up if you do that.
The General will switch your stats around with another stat. I'm not sure if this is always the same stats being swapped, or if it's just an occasional thing. Needs more testing to know for certain.
He'll call what he swaps your stats around to indirectly. The list I have so far is as follows:
- Charming Physique! ーー＞ Con and Cha swap
Now that you're done killing the two who started you on this quest, it's time for the real goal of the Bone Court.
Duke Ferdinand
Protlist - Party Ammo type, Party Phys, Sonic, Esong, Solidity, Antidrain (not Drain Resistance), Paladin charges, maybe more
Moving through the Siege
Movement to Ferdinand and through the Bone Court is a massive pain at this point. There are Paladins with random charges swarming the area. Not only are they tough and everywhere, they're also happy to dispel your prots if you're evil.
Moving through the area is the first problem you need to solve. If any of your party is evil or has a slayer, your options quickly turn to "take all day cleaving through paladins as you attempt to chase down Ferdinand" or "find a creative solution." The solution that Sera came up with and that I'll suggest in this guide is using a newbie to scout. There are a few pitfalls with this plan, a lot of communication is needed between the party and the newbie and it assumes and in fact requires you have a full Telemancer. However, it's also the easiest that I can think of.
Essentially, you use a newbie to scour the Bone Court to find Duke Ferdinand and beacon them. A telemancer puts down a dimensional-portal, and you all go through straight to the Duke and fight. It saves you the trouble of having to look for them each time he runs and allows an easier movement through the Court during regens as he passively moves.
NOTE: If you tank is evil and unwilling to change their alignment, I heavily suggest that you not only bring a source of Protection From Good to the kill, but also your party is aware that they'll need to AoE down the adds that Ferdinand summons. And despite this they will still spawn faster than you will kill them. The reason for this is they cast Dispel Evil Magic at the tank quite often and if the room gets overfull not only will you be taking massive damage each round, but you'll have all your prots stripped away in a matter of rounds.
Fight Mechanics
Ferdinand uses the Dual Rotating Chamber Thunders, and the special that comes with them is his main gimmick in combat. He'll pick a target and have a fairly decent chance of blasting them with multiple shots from them. Then again he also can fail lots, it's really up to him.
He seems to declare who he's going to target with his thunderstick as a room emote.
(Ferdinand sets his sights on Elthan)
Though this at the time of writing (April 22nd, 2018), seems to mean nothing. Neither his autos nor skills follow his 'sights'.
He's a Sharpshooter as well as a Bard, so be careful of Deadeye crits and suddenly being hit by a short, long, or full burst.
(Deadeye: Ferdinand has Leonia in their sights!)
(Bursts: Ferdinand unleashes a short/long/full burst at you!)
He can use Spray, so be aware that damage can hit the entire midrow at the same time.
(Ferdinand fires on every foe in the room!)
His adds at least don't seem to cast Wrath of God so there's nothing to worry about with room damage being stacked.
He has the ability to do an ep drain
(Ferdinand shoots Undead Wxyz in a pressure point!)
But he seems he doesn't even try it on someone if Antidrain or another of the prots we used is up.
He can summon more Paladins, and you'll need to be wary of yet more wandering in.
(Ferdinand calls for reinforcements!)
His mount has some kind of special? I'm unsure what it does but create more spam from all the Paladins in the room.
(Ferdinand's mount buoys him up!)
Eventually Ferdinand will be damaged enough that he'll flee combat. He has a few messages when he does this. In the order I've encountered them they are:
Ferdinand exclaims 'Soldiers! Cover my escape!'
Ferdinand leaves to the east.
Ferdinand exclaims 'Onward! Chaaaarge!'
Ferdinand leaves to the south.
Ferdinand asks 'Jolly good show! I'll just, ah, nip off, shall I?'
Ferdinand leaves to the east.
Ferdinand says 'Tactical retreat! No, not you. You stay here.'
Ferdinand leaves to the west.
Ferdinand exclaims 'This way! Onward!'
Ferdinand leaves to the east.
He seems to only flee seven times in the combat? At least, he only ended up fleeing seven times for me. It seems to happen between Hurt and Crippled, mostly. Needs more testing.
Once he's dead, that's it for the Bone Court! Enjoy the Level Quest and I hope you liked the story!
Key:
Gray - Streets and houses
Blue - Shops
Green - Adventurer's Guild
White - Temple
Black - Entrance to the Planetarium
Red - Changes from Red to Yellow as you go 'up' the spiral staircase. This is the office area of the Bone Court, where the General and Ambassador live. It's cramped so multiple colors are helpful for differentiate rooms.
There are at least 321 rooms in this area that are safely explorable at any level (three are newbie-only).
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