Archer Bossing Bowmaster Quick-Reference Guide

Preface
There's currently a lack of good Bowmaster-specific guides and references to learn for late game content. Skar has some good guides here (horntail) and here (momentum buffering) that I highly recommend reading (the momentum buffering one is required reading for any bossing Bowmaster that wants to increase their DPM) but there's room for more that I hope to address here. This will be a short and simple quick-reference guide for positioning and simple tricks BMs can use to increase their effectiveness in various late game bosses. I'll try to avoid going too in-depth on most of them, both for the sake of readability as well as my own sanity in writing this as quickly and effortlessly as possible, but any Bowmaster looking to learn more is more than welcome to ask questions in the comments or reach out to me in-game.

Lastly, I won't claim to be any kind of BM expert - I'm always learning and always trying to improve, and I know of several BMs that I can definitively say are much more skilled players than I am - but I nevertheless do know a decent amount of tricks that can help Bowmasters who are new to endgame content pick things up quickly that I'd like to share. One thing to note is guide is not meant to be a how-to but rather an add-on for tips and tricks that help improve performance for runners who already have a general idea of how to play in a given boss fight. For things like Horntail and Pink Bean, I'd recommend looking at more generalized guides first before referencing this one.

You'll notice in this guide I define positions by the placement of the Hurricane animation. This is generally easier than looking for your character model, as Hurricane is both very big as well as shows on a sprite layer closer to the front than the character model, making it easier to consistently position yourself. I recommend Bowmasters get used to looking for their Hurricane animation rather than their character model, especially in content without other BMs. The references I use in this guide were taken using the HD2 client; it's entirely possible the reference points are different for smaller client sizes, but I haven't tested it myself. These are merely meant to just be used as references so don't be worried if things don't line up for you. Find whatever points-of-reference work best for you, and just use the ones mentioned here as a starting point!

Let's start simple!

Spoiler: Nameless

Minimum HP Required: none
Recommended HP: 19k reduced by WDef (Nameless Claw)

Simple, straightforward content. There's really not much to do in Nameless except keep Hamstring up and hold Hurricane. If you can't tank Nameless Claw (19k reduced by WDef), make sure to keep an eye when he walks up closer to you and drop Hurricane and move away when he jumps up. Otherwise, as long as pin is solid, you can stay put even if he casts Claw.
Left Pin

I line up the top of my Hurricane animation to the right side of the big black rune. From here, you can hit Nameless while outranging his Claw unless he walks up.

Right Pin

I line up the swirly circle front to be centered on this small blue rune. Again, from here you can hit Nameless while outranging the claw attack.

After the NT QoL changes, make sure to also dodge lightning strikes since they will Stun you. Otherwise, the fight is the same.

Spoiler: Nibergen

-TODO: Add picture here-
Minimum HP Required: none
Recommended HP: none

BMs can stand on the far bottom left of the map against the wall and attack left with Hurricane. Initially, they'll only fire Mortal Blow arrows, so keep Booster on and have SI if available. However, once you hit the 100 attack limit, you'll begin to just fire Hurricane arrows, and you can just hold down Hurricane the entire fight in the corner, making it incredibly AFK. Just make sure that if you're soloing it you have another character parked on the far left so Nib doesn't bug out and stop casting spells. As long as Nib is casting abilities, you're good to go.

This section is irrelevant with the NT QoL changes. BMs should not be running this boss.

Spoiler: Core Blaze

Minimum HP Required: none
Recommended HP: 17k reduced by WDef (Royal Guard Touch)
Notable HP Thresholds: 7k (Elevators Lasers), 19k (Elevator Top Pink Lasers), 24k (CB Unbuffed Touch), 27k (CB WAtk Up Touch)

More positioning tips.
Royal Guard

As long as you're above this red line, Royal Guard cannot touch you and you're safe to attack. From this step, Hurricane won't hit the floor at most angles. If you're one step higher, Hurricane will have a tendency to either go over the Boss's head or hit the escalator due to the awkward angle. That being said, you can make it up to the top to hit the chandelier in one jump, although the loss in Hurricane DPM doesn't make it worth it.

There is also a hidden two-way teleporter on the pillar on the right. This is super useful for using Puppet to lure the clones on the right and keep them out of the fight without having to tank Royal Guard on your way back.

Alternatively, the BM can lure/pin the Guards to the left of the map and Puppet the top left of the map using the teleporter on top of the Phone booth (shoutout to Paxill for this strat), as well as teleporting up for the Chandelier instantly. If the BM has 18k+ HP and can tank touch, they can also do the computer.


Finally, for Core Blaze itself, make sure you're standing on the far right side of the middle platform. As long as you're not farther left than the rope, you'll get yeeted through Core Blaze while you have iframes and emerge safely at the entrance to the map. (Don't stand farther left than the rope, and don't be on the cleave platform). Stun bird here can be useful but do yourself a favor and just get an actual cleave to deal with the Imperial Guards. Heroes and Paladins are your best friends. Make sure to tell your Paladin friends they can jump+HH to avoid hitting the bottom Guards; they can make life so much easier by "killing" many of the Mavericks as soon as they spawn and putting them in range to be one-tapped by Phoenix.

Spoiler: BGA

Minimum HP Required: none
Recommended HP: none
Notable HP Thresholds: 27k (BGA Kick)

I haven't run BGA very much so I can't give super precise positioning help here but you can out range all of Body 1's attacks as a BM whereas a Night Lord cannot, similar to Nameless.


I used this line on the stack of gold bars to align the left edge of my Hurricane and was able to outrange and not reposition the entire Body 1 from here, but there's also some great lines underneath the floor you can use to align as well if you prefer. Left pin is preferred over right pin due to the fact that Male Boss spawns on the right side, who has a lot of Hp and tends to be disruptive. Remember to keep Hamstring up.

Spoiler: Toad

Minimum HP Required: 14.5k reduced by MDef (multiple map-wide attacks)
Recommended HP: 18k reduced by WDef (Toad Tongue)

Toad's attacks will always KB left, so make sure you momentum buffer right. Phoenix damage is impactful in this fight so try to generally stay in Phoenix range as much as possible for the boost in DPM.


The red lines here show the approximate range you can stand to outrange the tongue attack which hits for 18k.

Spoiler: CWKPQ

Minimum HP Required: none
Recommended HP: none

First trick is actually just a general trick for all classes, not just Bowmasters, but it's incredibly helpful. Shoutout to Santi for showing me this.

The idea is that you jump up into the fire blocks, which ignore avoidability and knock you left. Use the iframes afterwards to jump up to the next fire block. Rinse and repeat.



Bowmasters' job during the Boss stage is quite simple: Pin the Pirate and keep him from casting too many Sharks and disrupting the Mage pinners. The technique for doing so is simple, but the timing can make a big difference in the effectiveness of the pin. When your puppet is running out, hit up on the teleporter and quickly re-cast Puppet below, where Pirate cannot hit it. If you're able to execute this quickly enough, Pirate won't have enough time to re-target, and will be stuck walking towards the puppet, as none of his attacking spells can reach it. If you drop down before the previous puppet expires, you can actually re-Puppet before he even gets a single shark cast off, but the timing is tight. If you go down too early, he'll retarget the Mage pinner and start spamming Sharks. As long as you stay on the teleporter and keep Pirate pinned on the far right, you'll be outside of Dispel range. If you decide to pin the Pirate left, he'll frequently walk into range to Dispel you, so it's recommended you pin right.

Precise guide on how to re-puppet without sharks.

Spoiler: Puppet Mechanics

For those unaware of how Puppet works and why this technique works, there's an interaction between two different mechanics. The first is the tendency for bosses to stop attacking when their target is outside the hitbox of any of their damage dealing abilities, and the second is the redirection of boss aggro to the puppet location as long as only the Bowmaster is hitting the target. This means the Bowmaster can hit the boss, redirecting aggro to the puppet which is outside of the boss's range, forcing the boss to do nothing but walk and occasionally cast Dispel.

Puppet can also be highly effective when used against Samurai and Papulatus, as well as Dunas 2 and Nameless to a degree if you're insane enough to try to solo them.

Spoiler: Horntail

Minimum HP Required: 7k (Empowered Map Attacks)
Recommended HP: 10k (Leg Stomp, Wing Flap)

Skar covers BM DPM optimizations very well in his guide, so I won't go over most of them. Rather, I'll go over some positioning tricks I use to help execute the techniques outlined in his guide.
Right Head


While hitting Right Head, I try to align the left edge of my Hurricane to be in line with the rope. This places you right enough to be outside of the range of Wing Flap, meaning you'll continue to fire even when the wings are up without any interruption, while also left enough to not be hit by the falling rock on the right edge of the platform. Remember to momentum buffer!

Mid Head, Right Side


When momentum buffering on the Mid Head platform, I try to align the left edge of the platform to the center of the Hurricane swirl. You can stand here or slightly more to the right, but any more left and you'll be knocked off the platform even when momentum buffering. Again, due to Hurricane's animation's tendency to appear at a higher layer than other sprites, it's easier to position yourself using Hurricane rather than your character model.
Another small tip for lower level BMs is to watch the heads and right arm for when an attack is going to hit you before jumping to the platform, as well as watching the right arm while you're on the platform for incoming status effects. If you see right arm casting status, be prepared to release your momentum buffer or else you'll walk off if sealed.

Mid Head, Left Side

After Left Head goes down, but Mid Head and Wings are still up, there's a small area (known as the mardi spot), similar to the right side, where you'll be too far left to be interrupted by the wing flap but too far right to be hit by the falling rock. The references I use are a little more confusing for this spot, but I drew two lines of reference here. The first is the rope; you want the back edge of your Hurricane to be offset from this line by a decent amount. If it's too close to the rope, you'll be hit by the falling rock. The second is just a line along the background art, that again you want the back edge of the top of your Hurricane animation to be offset from slightly. In this picture, the position I'm standing is about as far left as you want to be. You can be slightly more right and still not interrupted by the wings. Once the wings die, you can move forward closer to Mid Head to get extra DPM from Phoenix; don't bother using Phoenix on left side until Wings die though because Phoenix will prioritize Wings over everything else and only attack when Wings flap.

Alternatively, you can align your back foot with the rope on the lower platform (ty joe for this tip too)



Right Arm

Using the rope as a reference, you can either position the center of your character here or the back edge of the bottom of your Hurricane animation. Any more to the right and Phoenix will only attack when arm extends, any more to the left and you'll get knocked to the lower platform when hit by MP drain.

Arrow Rain
Left Side Wing Flap

Right Side, MH Cancel, RH Duck

Left Side, MH Cancel, LH Duck


Arrow Rain is a useful tool to be used for filler DPM when you otherwise have no targets to hit. The three notable scenarios in which this is the case is when Mid Head cancels and either of the side heads duck (Right Head becomes too low to target, Left Head arrows will go into the floor) and when Wings flap into your face on the left side. Arrow Rain can still hit the ducked heads meaning you can still output a bit of DPM in these situations. With SI and Booster both active, you can squeeze in 3 Arrow Rains during head ducks if timed well. Alternatively, you can rebuff the party and yourself during this time, as covered in Skar's guide. During left side wing flap, you can also attempt the MattNL walk back (walk to the left before Wings Flap then continue attacking) but I honestly have no idea if this is a DPM increase or not.

Left Side Wings


When hitting wings on the left side, try to position above the rope. Too far right and the wing flap will interrupt your Hurricane, too far left and you'll be knocked off the platform.

Left Side Mid Head


Try to avoid standing too far right on this platform when hitting Mid Head, as if you're too far right your arrows will miss going past the head when it ducks. Just step back from the edge slightly and you'll be fine. (ty mard for the callout) You can also momentum buffer right while hitting MH so you only get KBed down 1 platform, making repositioning quicker. Without momentum buffering, you'll get knocked down two platforms, requiring two jumps. Make sure to watch right arm while doing this because if you get sealed you'll walk into MH.

Jump Casting
Jumping when positioning between platforms or dodging tail slam can be useful time to rebuff, casting quick buffs like booster, but if one is skilled enough, can also be used as DPM uptime through Strafe jump casting. Depending on your keyboard this can be easier / harder to execute, but if you press your jump key (first) and Strafe (second) in extremely rapid succession, your character will jump during the Strafe animation allowing you to reposition and dodge the tail slam.

Spoiler: Pink Bean

Minimum HP Required: 19k reduced by MDef (PB Big Bang, PB Genesis)
Recommended HP: 30k (RB Mass Sed)

I will level with you and be the first to admit that I'm not the best candidate for writing this section. There's other BMs who seem to have no issues getting far higher DPMs than what I can put out in Pink Bean with similar gear. Whether this is due to my shitty mechanics, conservative playstyle, or lack of game knowledge, I'm not sure, but regardless, nobody else is writing a guide on this so I'll share what I can.

Left Man
At the start of the fight, attackers generally prefer to start on the top platform to hit Left Man as it puts you out of range of some attacks. After the start of the fight, though, it's usually not worth it to climb up the rope again, and you'll want to attack from the bottom left corner, as knock back will generally push left meaning you don't have to waste time repositioning and you get full Phoenix up time.

Eye Drops + Holy Water
This tip is a general tip rather than Bowmaster specific, but useful nonetheless. Whereas most players pot up for PB using exclusively ACPs, it's helpful to instead bring 2 stacks each of Eye Drops and Holy Water for Darkness and Seal, respectively. What this allows you to do is keep less disruptive status effects on your character that would normally be cleared by an ACP, notably Weakness. As there is a hard limit of two negative status effects that can be present on a character at a given time, any combination of Weakness, Undead, Slow, and Reverse is a huge boon to your character, as this does not impact your ability to hold Hurricane, and more notably, PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING SEDUCED. The amount of times that these debuffs align with a seduce to actually save your life will be uncommon at best, but every little bit helps. At the very least, it'll help you save Apples by not dying.

Left Man > Left Bird
This one might be kind of controversial for some people but it's important Bowmasters are aware of their options. Follow your host's directions first and foremost, but when left to your own discretion, it's acceptable in many cases for Bowmasters, especially those who are either new, high ping, or multiclienting, to attack Left Man instead of Left Bird. This allows you to hold Hurricane without risk of dying to DR. Keep in mind that if too many people do this, LM has a tendency to die too early leading to a DPM loss when there's nothing to hit during LB DR, but a couple BMs freefiring on LM usually is fine. Coordinate with your run host and other BMs to see what's best for your squad.

Left Bird Damage Reflect
When attacking Left Bird, and any target that can potentially cast Damage Reflect at any time, prioritize watching the target for the DR animation above everything else. If you have to look away for whatever reason, just stop attacking or switch to Strafe. This will seem obvious to many of you, but deaths to DR are incredibly common. If you have a high ping (Asia players most notably) I'd recommend just using Strafe at close range instead of Hurricane. Keep in mind the distance from the target affects your window to react as projectiles have a travel time.

Pillar Duck
There are two attacks during Statue Phase that you can duck.
Right Bird's Wing Attack

and Ariel's Rock Slam

(credit for these gifs goes to xiao's Pink Bean Animations Guide, another fantastic resource)
These attacks, like Sed Notes during body phase, can be ducked when standing underneath any of these platforms highlighted in red boxes.

Whenever you see the animation appear that signals an impending drop attack (Small winged boxes for wing attack, hovering boulders for boulder slam, small notes for sed notes) get ready to cancel your Hurricane and duck. Skilled BMs will wait until the last second to duck, but if you're a little bitch like me it's ok to duck early. You lose a second of DPM, but the biggest priority for most of the fight is staying alive, and it means you're not stunned/Sed for an eternity.

After the animation has finished, you can stand back up and resume attacking. Because of these attacks, it's useful to position underneath platforms as much as possible while Right Bird or Ariel is alive (as well as during body stage). Remember to keep an eye if you're Reversed, as you'll have to hit Up to duck.

Rope Climbing Tricks
Again, I'm the worst person to write this section as I'm absolutely terrible at this, but I figured I'd mention some stuff that I didn't know when I first started running PB. The first, and probably most obvious to many people is that Mounts ignore the Slow status. I didn't know this, and it makes a world of difference when Slowed. The Second is trying to use iframes as much as possible, similar to HT rope climbing. At the bottom level, you can jump to the right of the rope and let yourself be knocked on to the rope and climb using iframes.

Climbing while under the Reverse status is a learned skill. There's no trick to it besides practice. Don't be frustrated if it takes you a while to get it, but hopefully by your 3rd or 4th run you start to get the hang of it. As with many niche PB mechanics, this is something you can practice in Nameless if you really want.

Amorian Baskets / Heartstoppers during Stage 4/5
Pretty simple. Whenever Right Bird is alive, just keep an Amorian Basket or Heartstopper up. Seduce can and will destroy you and dying and losing your Apple sucks, not to mention the loss of DPM from being dead and a Bishop having to Resurrect you. Do yourself a favor and give yourself the best odds of staying alive any way you can. If you get Banished, you're generally free to re-apple as you're now safe from the Sed order for a while, but otherwise Heartstoppers will lead to a less painful loss if you die.

Dismount Leaving Banish
I believe this was covered somewhere else but can't remember where, but when you exit Banish it puts you under Left Man, meaning if you're mounted when you leave Banish, you'll immediately take touch damage. Just dismount before you leave the Banish map.

Pot Settings
There's no one pot setting that'll work for everyone during statue phase, but during Body I recommend removing your HP pot and only equipping PEs to the MP slot set to 5%, then keeping PEs on a manual pot button for when you're Undead. Pretty much every single hit you'll take during Body Stage will be for huge damage, so there's very little waste from just chugging only PEs.

Sed Note Duck
After DR ends, you have a 40 second window of freefire time when you don't have to worry about another DR; usually this time will be called out in chat as well as VC, but if not, make sure to watch the timer when a DR happens, and you'll know you're safe for 1 minute after that time. During this window, you can more or less ignore looking at PB (assuming the Buccs are doing their job) and just focus on your own character's positioning, meaning you can have more precise ducks from sed notes. Skilled BMs will wait until the very last second to duck to maximize DPM output, but again, just like with pillars, it's ok to duck early and play conservatively. When DR is off cooldown, prioritize watching PB for the DR animation and use your peripheral vision to watch for sed notes. Try to make sure you're fully buffed up and nothing is expiring soon during DR so you don't have to worry about looking at your buffs during attack windows.

Body Momentum Buffer
Body 1/1s will always knock you to the right, so make sure you're momentum buffering left if you're too close to the Bean and ready to ACP. If you're far enough left, you can skip repositioning and just resume attacking immediately, so try to position as far left as possible during DR windows.

Inferno Minibeans
I am still unconvinced this is nothing but DPM padding, but when PB blows his whistle get ready to throw a few Infernos out. If you lack Archmages, this can be useful to clear the minibeans but honestly this is just DPM padding and I'm convinced this is a huge meme.

Ty to mard and Paxill for helping with additional tips and feedback <3

 

Guide has been updated at the request of xiaoyaoz with an in-depth tutorial on how to pin Pirate without any sharks.

Video will be linked in this comment as well for visibility.

https://youtu.be/BD6oR1uTKUY

 

I was notified the embedded GIFs in the guide broke recently. If anyone notices this happening again please let me know so I can re-upload and fix them. The guide should be fixed now. If this happens again I'll include the raw links to the gifs as well to future-proof the guide.

 

It has come to my attention that this is due to Discord's policy change last year of no longer supporting externally linked hosted content, including the GIFs that were previously on this guide as well as others (such as the PB animation guide).

I have re-uploaded all of the GIFs and reference images larger than 1 MB to Google drive and re-embedded them into the guide, so this should fix things going forward albeit with some slight delays on some of the images rendering. To anyone I previously recommended to upload GIFs to Discord, I'm sorry, it's no longer supported. Also GIFs are just... the fucking worst. Absolute dogshit tier file format.