Fragment's Moonrise V1.3: Nightdrake's Grotto

Welcome to V1.3!

Continuing on with the Nightforest from V1.2 is the addition of the Nightdrake’s Grotto, an area home to a quite terrifying and powerful new boss known as the Nightdrake.

Teased in the previous patch notes, the Nightdrake is an invisible boss that stalks the forest.

When it sees the player, it ambushes them, wherever they may be in the forest.

Therefore, stealth will be your best friend for traversing this new map. And there is plenty of invisibility grass strewn around the map.

Added alongside this update are new spells, more lore, the start of the Nightdrake questline, and a major expansion upon the Ulia questline. Let’s take a look into what is entailed below.

You can access the Nightdrake’s Grotto from Nightdrake’s Folly, which can be found if you take the Pathway to the Nightforest passageway from the Meadow of the Waternymphs (near where you defeated Arunaiya).

New spells include the following:

Conjure Light: this spell allows you to summon light at a targeted location, allowing you to see further in this environment (among many others) to determine the path you want to take going forward. Very useful for remaining in stealth and steering clear of the Nightdrake! It also gives you the ability to disable an enemy’s invisibility, to help you see invisible foes much more clearly. The Nightforest is home to the Nightchildren, whom are completely invisible, so you will either need a keen eye or this spell in order to find them!

Rain of Fire: this spell allows you to conjure fire to rain down from the skies, inflicting a burning effect on anything that touches it. This is a fire alternative to the cloud of poison, and encompasses a much larger radius despite not lasting as long.

Gust of Wind: this utility spell invokes the same effect the Nightchildren could invoke upon you, and that is to force you away. Hitting anything with a gust of wind causes them to tumble out of control and fly backwards, which is very useful for zoning and moving foes out of your way.

Wisp Energy: while Ulia gave you a decent mana-healing spell, this new Wisp Energy is a much more powerful variant. While Lesser Mana Heal is a spell you can directly cast on your allies to restore their Mana, Wisp Energy is a spell you can use to steal mana from your foes and restore your own. It has a much shorter cooldown, is quick to cast, and has a very long range, making it suitable for restoring mana in the heat of battle (and you’ll need it should you go up against the Nightdrake!).

Lore:

Hidden throughout the Grotto are various tidbits of lore about the area. While exploring, you’ll encounter some Nightchildren having a conversation with one another. One of these gives you an indirect hint as to how you could fight against the Nightdrake itself...

Ulia, Part 3:

Where you find the Wisp Energy spell is also where you’ll advance the Ulia questline; upon entering the area, you are greeted with a cutscene containing a great deal of lore about Ulia’s capturing. This cutscene plays a pivotal role heading into one of the biggest pieces of completely optional content being added into the game, so its well worth not skipping over!

Nightdrake:

Upon entering the Nightforest, the Nightdrake locks onto you, poised to strike. Its only with the help of the invisibility grass are you able to sneak your way through the area and avoid the wrath of the Nightdrake.

Those daring enough to face this boss should know that this boss has been designed to be a late-game opponent. This is a boss that will quite literally require usage of all the spells available to your Apprentices, alongside your own cunning and tactics. Its highly recommended to avoid this boss until you have much stronger Units in the future, but those seeking a challenge will be greatly pleased with the difficulty spike of this boss. The only recommendation is to pay attention to his resistances, and formulate a strategy based on that alongside the mana pool you have available to your Apprentices. And, of course, don’t forget about the terrain at your disposal... (for reference, defeating this boss with your Apprentice’s current DPS took me approximately 1 hour of straight fighting to pull off).

The Nightdrake has been designed as a 4-phase boss.

Phase 1 is its starting phase, which consists of 2 spells. The first is Life Siphon, which has the ability to steal health from your Units. This is the first homing spell put into the game, meaning the spell will follow and chase your Units, only losing track when it gets too close (so dodging at the last second is a must). The second spell is a cloud of miasma, which will limit your movement on the battlefield. If you are faced with a scenario where you either have to take damage from the Miasma or take a hit from Life Siphon, it will always be better to take damage from the Miasma, as Life Siphon will restore a lot of health back to the Nightdrake!

Phase 2 involves the Nightdrake’s first iteration of summoning its ghostly minions. Between 60% and 50% HP is when this phase starts, and on a somewhat short cooldown will the Nightdrake begin summoning ghosts designed at chasing you away from the fight. These Ghost Nightchildren will inflict Miasma upon your Units if they get too close, and will cast an Entangling spell upon you if you don’t avoid them. Losing your ability to move while fighting the Nightdrake will almost certainly spell an instant defeat.

Oh, and did I mention- both the Nightdrake’s Life Siphon alongside the Miasma will remove your ability to go invisible? So attempting to escape will become a lot more perilous should you take a hit from either of them...

Phase 3 involves the Nightdrake summoning more ghostly minions. This time, it will summon twin Ghost Nightdrakes, whom are capable of casting Life Siphon alongside summoning Ghost Nightchildren. Just as the Nightdrake can ambush your Units from anywhere, so do the Ghost Nightdrakes, so be careful when you are suddenly surrounded by 3 enemies!

Phase 4 is simple: the Nightdrake just gains a short boost to its already quick cast-time, making his spells fire off much quicker. This means if you’re already used to dodging the Nightdrake’s attacks, you’ll just need to continue to do so... but faster.

Defeating the Nightdrake yields a great reward and begins the Nightdrake Questline, which will take place much later on in the game. The Nightforest leads into the Nightdrake’s Despair, an area locked away currently.

So what about the reward?

The first is a new spell, Ghostform. This spell allows you to turn your Units invisible, much like getting near the invisibility grass. Invisibility is going to be a critical component to stealthing around the world alongside the Nightdrake questline going forward, and this will be on of the few very rare spells allowing you to go invisible.

The second reward is the first Scripture you can acquire. Scriptures, like Pages, are used for upgrades... and such a rare and vital component will be made incredibly useful going forward.

Finally, for those following the YouTube channel, I'll be doing a deep-dive into the design philosophy behind this boss on my channel, so look forward to that!

This ends the blog, best wishes checking out what the Nightforest has to offer!

Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!