Talk:Pantheon of Hallownest/@comment-36029834-20181112215447

I just managed to get to Absolute Radiance the other day (lost ofc, haven't fought Radiance in months); but it was hell trying to figure out how to get that far, so I thought I'd share what worked for me.

White Defender is the final easy peasy boss that doesn't really matter how careful you are. That next bench is where you reeeealy need to scrutinize your charms and playstyle. There's 5 bosses in a row; Tyrant, Markoth, Zote, Failed Champion and finally Nightmare King (NKG). The tough ones are Markoth and NKG. Markoth is the first hurdle; so I built charms around him, and found they worked ok for NKG too. Try Unb. Strength, Quickslash, Unb. Health and Mark of Pride.

To beat Markoth; the fight starts at Tyrant. You /cannot/ afford to fight Markoth with missing health and low soul. Nine times out of ten, unless you happen to be a living god or just super lucky; you will die. Tyrant isn't hard, but still bring your A-game to make sure you have full health and as much soul as possible when you start Markoth (getting the lifeblood bonuses from earlier pantheons will help with this). Markoth himself is much easier to dodge and attack during stage one; so don't waste any soul there; only attack using your nail (this is where Mark of Pride is useful; more reach makes avoiding the dreamshield much easier. But only up to a point; if you switch out another charm to add longnail's bonus too, Zote and Champ get much harder). Protect your health at all costs, and fill up on soul. Once Markoth summons his second shield and starts phase two; use spells. If you're really lucky, a Shade Soul will hit twice, but Abyss Shriek will usually hit at least twice; so on average it'll do more damage- if you can position yourself properly. See what suits you best. I found just dodging till he was at the top half of the map, then Abyss Shreiking him was simplest for me (but if he spends to much time on the bottom and his spikes are slowly wittling away your health... maybe don't wait forever).

Zote is just someone you have to get used to. Unless you left him to die; then you don't need to worry. But for those who do, its the same as every Zote fight. Dodge, kill the minions the instant they appear, strength+quickslash like a madman whenever you get the chance; and hope his flying body doesn't BS away your health when you stagger him in the middle of pogoing over his ninny sword attack.

Failed Champion is actually kinda like an easy recovery boss if you know him well. Charge your nail arts as soon as you enter the arena, and Cyclone Slash him the second he drops down, before he can attack. Get in a few rapid hits and he staggers. Dream nail him (the shell; not the maggot head- the maggot doesn't give soul) twice, then hit the maggot only juust before her gets up. Then hit him as much as you can even when he jumps to the middle; right up till the hammer is coming down on your head (if you pull this off well, you'll only need another 4-5 hits till his next stagger). Then dash to a corner and get in those two heals. Rinse and repeat. If Zote got you to super low health, and you're comfortable with Champ; try just dream nailing him 3 times instead of attacking the maggot to extend the fight and recover more health before you have to face NKG.

For NKG... you know how it is. If you haven't practiced much; you probably hate him to the depths of your soul. If you've practiced enough, he's predictable and not that hard - but don't get lazy, cuz he still does double damage and will absolutely punish you if you get sloppy for even a second. Heal during the stagger (and/or spikes, if your reaction to that is like 5x more accurate than mine ;-; ), charge nail arts after every attack (at least, that works best for me - are there ppl who manage to dodge the fire dash without great slashing him? Never works for me...), yadda yadda yadda really its just practice.

Beating NKG gets you a heal bench. Switch your charms to whatever you find works best vs Pure Vessel, and you're good to go.

In general; I don't recommend jumping right into the pantheon as soon as you start playing. Practice against Markoth, NKG and Vessel at least once before you try the pantheon. gl hf