Astranyx — guide

In short

Dark Fae (Astranyx) is the Doom Tower boss of floors 30, 50 and 100, with separate versions for Normal and Hard. Clearing a floor gives a Doom Tower chest: artefacts, silver, gems, and on the top floors shards and tomes. You farm her for the guaranteed floor chest and for rotation resources you rarely get elsewhere — and she is one of the few fights that punishes full auto.

Mechanics

• Dark Rays. Hits your whole team and has a 100% chance to place [Parasite] for 2 turns — constant chip damage you want to cleanse.
• Magic Bonds. Steals random buffs from your champions (one per Magic champion on your team), drops turn meter (10% per Force champion), has a chance to place [True Fear] that grows with each Void champion on your side, and heals herself for every Spirit champion you bring. Your affinity spread literally feeds her.
• Feeria. AoE on your whole team, and every living ally of hers joins the attack; damage scales with the number of her living allies. This is the skill that wipes runs.
• Steal Enemy. Banishes one of your champions and puts a copy of it on her side, then places [True Fear] on your team.
• Mirror of the Fae (passive). At the start of the battle she copies your entire team and hides under [Veil]. Every 5 charges of [Dark Energy] she makes fresh copies and veils herself again.
• Immunities. Immune to Stun, Freeze, Sleep, Provoke, Fear and True Fear, and to HP exchange, HP equalisation and cooldown increase.
• Almighty. Skills that deal damage based on MAX HP cannot take more than 10% of her MAX HP per hit.
• Inertia. Turn meter reduction works on her at half strength — but it still works, and it is your main tool.

What your team needs

• Speed: roughly 220+ for Normal and 280+ for Hard, otherwise she cycles faster than you.
• Accuracy scaled to the floor's Resistance (around 105 on Normal 50, up to 330 on Hard 100) — mainly for turn meter reduction and Decrease DEF.
• Two or three champions with turn meter reduction so the boss simply never takes a turn.
• One hard-hitting single-target nuker: your own copied champion has to die the turn it appears.
• Decrease DEF and Weaken on the boss, a cleanse for [Parasite] and [True Fear], and Block Revive helps keep copies down.
• Not needed: crowd control (she is immune), MAX HP damage (capped), and stacking buffs (she steals them).

Teams

• Starter/budget: Deacon Armstrong (speed and turn meter control), Stag Knight (Decrease DEF and ACC), Kael (damage and poisons), Whisper (kills your copy), Doompriest (cleanse and healing). Cheap, fast and focused on deleting the copy.
• Mid-game: Rector Drath (heals and revives), Stag Knight, Geomancer (boss damage), Whisper, Fahrakin the Fat (ally attack — the copy dies in one round). Survives on healing, kills through ally attacks.
• Endgame: Duchess Lilitu (Speed aura, Block Debuffs, revive), Mithrala Lifebane (ACC, cleanse, poisons), Gnut (main damage), Marius the Gallant (second nuker for copy and boss), Yumeko (cooldown reset means more frequent turn meter drops). She barely gets a turn and copies die instantly.

Common mistakes

• Bringing a full five of your tankiest champions: more living targets means a stronger Feeria and more copies.
• Building around MAX HP damage — the 10% cap per hit means you never get there.
• Stacking buffs before her turn; Magic Bonds hands them straight to her.
• Leaving a copy of your own nuker alive — it hits with your own stats.

Tips

• Play it manually: turn one is setup, turn two is turn meter reduction plus killing the copy. Auto AI dumps skills at the wrong moment.
• The Whirlwind of Death mastery (extra turn on kill) is excellent here: kill the copy, get a turn, immediately drop her turn meter.
• Gear: Lifesteal on your nuker, Speed and Accuracy on your turn meter control, Savage or Merciless for boss damage.
• On easier floors run four champions instead of five — fewer copies and a much weaker Feeria.
• Hard floor 100 sits at 330 Resistance: without high Accuracy your turn meter reduction will simply miss.