Grey Prince Zote

Hunter's Journal
A Dream Boss version of of Zote the Mighty, made muscular and powerful through the power of Dreams.

To access the boss, the player must have saved both Bretta and Zote and have defeated him in the Colosseum of Fools. The player also needs to have the Monarch Wings in order for the basement to open. The fight starts by striking the statue in Bretta's basement with the Dream Nail.

He can be fought up to a maximum number of ten times from the statue, but each successive time he will obtain more health (Max. 4 fights to 1500), and his attacks deal more damage with consecutive fights: 1 mask on the first 3 fights, 2 masks on the 4th fight, and one additional mask each fight after that (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 for fights 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 respectively).

He only grants 300 Essence on the first victory, and none after that.

Behaviour and Tactics

 * Flail: Grey Prince Zote will charge at the Knight, flailing his Nail before him. Grey Prince Zote will flail his Nail for about 2.5 to 3.5 seconds. Once Grey Prince Zote is exhausted, he falls to the ground, sending out a shockwave in each direction. While Grey Prince Zote is flailing, he moves with momentum, like he's on ice. There is a variation to this attack where Grey Prince Zote will prepare to flail but just falls over, sending out the shockwaves immediately


 * Zoteling: Grey Prince Zote will produce Zotelings that will attack the Knight independently of Grey Prince Zote. The first Zoteling Grey Prince Zote can spit is the Winged Zoteling. These Zotelings can show up with any version of Grey Prince Zote. The other Zoteling Grey Prince Zote can spit is the Hopping Zoteling. These Zotelings don't show up until Zote 2 and later. Grey Prince Zote produces these Zotelings by spitting them from his mouth. Grey Prince Zote will produce one to three Zotelings in rapid succession per attack. The Zotelings do half of the damage scaled with each version of Grey Prince Zote on rounded down to a minimum of 1. These Zotelings will remain in the arena until they are killed.


 * Shadow Slam: Grey Prince Zote will leap into the air and as he lands, he transmutes into a pillar of shadows, launching himself high above the arena. Moments later, he slams down, sending two large shockwaves across the arena in opposite directions. Grey Prince Zote appears to land where he believes the Knight is going to be rather than where the Knight was. Grey Prince Zote can link into this attack after a Leap Attack.


 * Nail Slam: Grey Prince Zote will leap into the air and slam his Nail down. This attack targets the Knight. Grey Prince Zote will slam his Nail down where the Knight was when he reaches the apex of his leap, just before he flips. When he slams his Nail, two shockwaves will erupt from the impact point and travel across the arena. The one in front of Grey Prince Zote is larger than the one traveling behind him. There is a variation to this attack which involves Grey Prince Zote reaching the apex of his leap and instead of slamming down then, he'll pirouette in the air to readjust his targeting and then slam down.


 * Leap: Grey Prince Zote will leap around the arena. Grey Prince Zote can string together multiple leaps up to 3 times in a row. He can chain this attack into a Shadow Slam Attack. Every time Grey Prince Zote lands, he sends out two small shockwaves in either direction that cross the arena.


 * Ghost: Grey Prince Zote exclaims an anger cry and summons 3 to 4 Volatile Zotelings around the arena. This attack happens at first in his 3rd fight and later. The Volatile Zotelings spawn anywhere within a wide band of space in the air. Much like the Zoteling Attack, these Volatile Zotelings can persist while Grey Prince Zote uses other attacks. Unlike the other summoned types of Zotelings in the fight, the damage from the Volatile Zotelings and their explosions scale higher with each Grey Prince Zote fight.

This section will focus on strategies that work against the 10th version of Grey Prince Zote since any strategies that work against him will also work on earlier versions.

There are some safe times to heal, particularly when Grey Prince Zote is staggered or during the Zoteling and Ghost Attacks (depending on how close Grey Prince Zote is for the attacks). However, healing is not a great tactic past Grey Prince Zote 8 because healing 6+ damage requires a lot of time and/or many opportunities to heal. Charms like Quick Focus, Deep Focus, and Shape of Unn can be most helpful.

It is important to defeat Grey Prince Zote as quickly as possible because the longer the fight draws on, the more opportunities Zote has to win. For damage output, Nail-based Charms work very well; Fragile Strength/Unbreakable Strength, Quick Slash and Mark of Pride/Longnail are helpful. Spells are a valid strategy too. Desolate Dive/Descending Dark is a great spell for its damage and invincibility frames. Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul is also useful, especially for damaging Zote and his Zotelings at the same time. It is recommended to have Shade Soul and Descending Dark for this fight. And to maximize Spell efficacy and damage, bring the charms Spell Twister and Shaman Stone, respectively. A lot of damage can be dealt to Zote when he's spitting Zotelings during the Zoteling Attack, when he's summoning Volatile Zotelings during the Ghost Attack, and during the Flail Attack.

The Shade Cloak is very useful for dodging a lot of Grey Prince Zote's (and his Zotelings) attacks. The Monarch Wings are useful for avoiding the shockwaves and navigating the sometimes crowded airspace of the arena.

A challenging but viable tactic is to combine Grubberfly's Elegy, Quick Slash, Fragile/Unbreakable Strength, and Fury of the Fallen to maximize Nail damage and range even at 1 hp.

As with the other Dream Bosses, the Knight does not die when they lose all their health during this battle, but simply wakes up next to the statue. This means that Fragile Strength and Fragile Heart can be used continually without breaking.

Location
In the basement of Bretta's house after she is rescued from a room in Fungal Wastes and Zote is defeated in the Colosseum.

Trivia

 * Some of the attacks Grey Prince Zote uses are similar to some of Zote's "attacks" in his fight against the Knight in the Colosseum of Fools. The Flail and Leap are specifically referenced in the battle in stronger forms.
 * Bretta 's Dream Nail dialogue will change the 1st and 3rd times Grey Prince Zote is defeated, and for the 4th time, Bretta leaves Dirtmouth entirely, and is nowhere to be found in the entirety of Hallownest again in-game.


 * Each time Grey Prince Zote is defeated, one additional candle will light up around his statue until he is defeated at least 4 times, as there are 4 candles for those defeats.
 * Prior to the Lifeblood Update, Zote had 10 candles for each successful victory of the knight. It is unknown why this was reduced to 4 candles, but it was likely to mark when Bretta will depart Dirtmouth.
 * After defeating him all 10 times, his statue will turn gold, presumably symbolizing the player's achievement of defeating Grey Prince Zote from the statue the 10th time.
 * The Volatile Zoteling doesn't deal explosion damage to him.

"(lvl 10) Invincible,"
 * Each time he is defeated, he earns a new adjective listed, stacking on top of the other titles:

"(lvl 9) Fearless," "(lvl 8) Sensual,""(lvl 7) Mysterious,""(lvl 6) Enchanting,""(lvl 5) Vigorous,""(lvl 4) Diligent,""(lvl 3) Overwhelming,""(lvl 2) Gorgeous, Passionate,""(lvl 1) Terrifying, Beautiful, Powerful, Grey Prince Zote"