Boss guide: keys, the four bosses, Typhon and the Ubers

This guide covers the road from your first boss key to Typhon and the four Pinnacle fights, and how to get the most from ten kills a day. It does not explain what any boss does in its fight. The move names are on each tile in /boss.

The ladder

Every fight is solo and every one is open from day 1. The /boss menu shows three difficulty steps.

The chain runs like this: Expedition bosses drop keys, the four bosses drop Etna Fragments, and four different Etna Fragments summon Typhon. Separately, Avatars on Sacred Maps drop Uber fragments.

Getting keys

Boss essence is gone and nothing forges keys.

• Expedition end bosses. This is the main source. Every Expedition boss can drop boss keys, each a random one of the four, and higher area levels pay more. See the PvE guide.
• /tribute shop. Each key costs 15,000 Tribute. You earn Tribute from monster and boss kills once you own a Siege base (level 30, see the Siege guide). See Drachma & Tribute.
• Mystery Boss Summoning Keys. Each opens into one of the four keys. The free Season Pass track gives them.
• The paid Season Pass track gives boss keys.
• The Boss Keys Found gang upgrade raises what Expedition bosses drop by up to 20%.

Every source is listed on Summoning a Boss.

Your first kill

1. Open /boss and click a boss to travel to its altar.
2. Right-click the altar and place one key.
3. Click Summon to enter your own arena. The boss spawns after 5 seconds. The Summon button names the fight's Omen before your key is spent. Omens are explained on Boss Fight Mechanics.

No boss has a level requirement. A first attempt costs one key, and if you die the practice run lets you learn the fight for free, so try one as soon as you hold a key.

Before your first fight:

• Wear a full set of your best armour. Armour cuts boss hits the same way it cuts monster hits. A full iron set blocks 77% and full diamond 84%. See Armour.
• Set an RNG Meter target. Open /rngmeter, pick the boss and click the drop you want. The meter guarantees that drop within the number of kills it shows, and raises its odds on the way. See RNG Meter.
• Spend your Hunter tree points (/hunter). Predation (damage), Ward (Armour) and Bloodthirst (life leech) all work on bosses. You can't respec or switch presets inside a boss arena.

If you die, you keep your inventory and your levels. The key is spent. The portal then reopens for you alone for 60 seconds: walk back in and the same fight restarts at full health as a practice run. It costs no key and pays nothing, so use it to learn the fight. A fight times out after 20 minutes, and /boss leave exits early.

The rules every fight shares are on Boss Fight Mechanics.

Which boss

Fight whichever boss you hold a key for. The menu labels all four Hard, and none of them is the easy one.

Kill each of the four once before you farm one. Every kill of a boss drops exactly one Etna Fragment of that boss, and Typhon's seal takes one of each.

Finish the First Expedition step of Beyond the Mines (start a map at Theron's table and kill its boss) before you kill bosses. It opens the Fire Under Etna quest line, whose first step asks for a kill of each boss, and kills from before the step opened do not count.

Ten kills a day

Your first 10 boss kills each day pay double: the pick from the boss's pool is rolled twice. Bonus drops are not doubled. Typhon counts toward the ten. Uber kills are not doubled and do not use one up.

• Spread your keys across days. Ten keys a day for three days pays more than thirty in one sitting.
• The count resets at 11 AM Pacific. See Daily Bonuses.

Each kill pays one Etna Fragment, one item from the boss's pool and bonus drops that roll on their own. Everything goes to the summoner. What each boss can drop is on Boss Loot & Drop Announcements.

Boss Mastery builds with your kills of one boss this map: at 25, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 kills you gain 2% increased damage and 1% less damage taken against that boss per step. It works on the four bosses and Typhon, not on Ubers. See Boss Leaderboard & Mastery.

Typhon

Typhon is the serpent titan sealed under Etna. His tile reads Brutal, one step above the four bosses.

1. Carry one Etna Fragment from each of Lamia, Echidna, Thanatos and Hephaestus.
2. Open /boss and click Typhon's tile to travel to his seal.
3. Click each fragment into its quarter of the seal, then click Summon Typhon.

The fight is solo, in his own arena, and moves through three arenas. You keep your inventory if you die. There is no practice run for Typhon and a lost fight does not return the fragments, so go in with your best gear. He has 4 trims, a bow trail and a unique jewel of his own.

The paid Season Pass track gives a Typhon summon at levels 22 and 44. More on Typhon.

Ubers

Each of the four bosses has a harder fight. Its tile in /boss reads Pinnacle, one step above Typhon.

1. Farm Ichor from fissures in Expeditions at area level 100 and up. /tribute shop also sells 16 Ichor for 3,000 Tribute.
2. Buy a Sacred Map from the Ichor Broker in the Lantern Harbour (the Expedition hub, /expedition), or with /sacredmaps, for 100 Ichor. Pick the bloodline of the Uber you want.
3. Close every fissure on the map. A crack opens at the boss arena: step in and kill the Avatar. A Sacred Map always runs at area level 103, and the Avatar is one chance: die and the map is gone.
4. An Avatar pays 2 fragments of its Uber. With 4 in your inventory, open /boss, travel to that Uber's altar, right-click it and press Combine Fragments. Plan on two Sacred Maps of one bloodline for each summon.

If you die to an Uber the portal reopens for 60 seconds for a free practice run, as with the four bosses. It pays nothing.

The paid Season Pass track also gives a Mystery Uber Boss Key at level 49. Uber kills do not get the daily bonus, have no RNG Meter and build no Boss Mastery. See Uber Bosses.

Talos

Talos runs the four bosses for you while you do something else. You load it with keys and Ancient Energy and it brings back loot.

• It costs $1,000,000 once. Each run also burns Ancient Energy on top of the key, from 250,000 for Lamia upward, and levelling Talos costs more money.
• It only hunts a boss you have already farmed by hand: 50 kills of Lamia or Echidna, 100 of Thanatos, 200 of Hephaestus. The unlock offer lists these before you pay.
• A Talos run can fail, and a failed run still uses the key and the energy.
• A Talos run pays no Etna Fragment and no bonus drops, and it does not fill your RNG Meter. It does not run Typhon or Ubers.

Unlock it when you have more keys than time. Until then your ten doubled kills a day are worth more done by hand. The Level 100 quest Wake the Bronze walks you through the unlock.

For where the rest of your time should go each day, see the farming guide.