Thief Shadower Bossing Guide

Shadower Bossing Guide

(last updated 4/9/23)​

Hi! I'm Sky (ign Sedentarily)!



A while ago when I hit 4th job as a shadower, I was excited to join all those Krexel, Zakum, JC etc. runs that everyone was smega'ing about.

As soon as I got in there, I had so many questions: Where do I stand? Which attack do I use? Who do I smoke? I looked around for a shadower bossing guide and could never find one so I ended up doing most of it by trial and error. Now that I'm confident in a lot of the bosses that lvl ~130-180 players run, I decided to just write my own guide.

All of the below is based on my own experiences and opinions! Feel free to comment, and I will also be updating the guide over time. Thank you.

Note: I’m not including many bosses in Neo Tokyo, Toad etc. since I like to know them inside-out before I'm writing guides about them. I’ll update when appropriate and I have time.

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Table of Contents
1. Attacking Basics
2. Bossing Level Requirements
3. Ravana
4. Papulatus
5. Crimsonwood Keep Party Quest (CWKPQ)
6. Zakum
7. Krexel
8. Scarlion/Targa
9. Jiaoceng (JC)
10. Horntail
11. Bergamot (in progress)

Spoiler: Attacking Basics

Attacking Basics

If you haven’t already, please read Tim’s Shadower Guide : https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/blus-full-guide-for-shadowers.26735/

It’s just all-around amazing and covers a lot of useful information that you will want to be thinking about while bossing.

In general, if the boss is in weapon cancel, you should be in dark sight charging assassinate. If the weapon cancel is long enough that your meso guard might run out, consider rebuffing first before you start charging.

Our MAIN bossing attacks are Boomerang Step and Assassinate with the former hitting up to 4 targets, and the latter being single-target only. Shadowers should be using both skills + Band of Thieves separately or macro’d together, depending on the number of targets and their positioning. That means that, as parts of different bosses die or weapon cancel, you need to evaluate where your remaining targets are and move/change skills accordingly. I’ll get into where to stand and what attacks to use in the each boss-specific section.

There are many helpful strategies from experienced shadowers in the comments. For the sake of brevity and matching my own playstyle, I haven't included all of them in the guide itself, but if you are interested in maximizing your DPM in all situations, please check the comments.

Bossing Macros

Here’s your bread-and-butter attacking sequences. When to use which macro in which boss will be discussed in detail later in the guide.

1. Dark Sight --> Assassinate. This is your basic, simple, single-target macro. Limited application as opposed to just spamming assassinate, see update below.
UPDATE: With the recent changes to shadowers from the balance team, dark sight is no longer required for assassinate, so just holding assassinate will net you higher damage long-term in most cases. This macro may still be somewhat helpful in instances when you're at risk of being seduced into something that will kill you with touch damage - Horntail and Core Blaze as examples. I find that the damage lost to Dark Sight is balanced by the benefit of the chance that I am in Dark Sight in case I am caught off guard by a sed. Note that there are still many situations in which you should utilize dark sight and assassinate separately (not macro'd) in order to charge up damage.

2. Assassinate --> Boomerang Step. Macro for hitting 1-2 targets. It does slightly lower DPM, but it gives the added bonus of invincibility frames (I-frames) from B-step. If there are 2 targets I will always use this macro for the added cleave damage. On single targets, I use this when I don’t feel like taking body damage as often*, or when the boss summons mobs (so I can cleave).

*Additional details
In general, the more time you spend using Assassinate, the more time you spend touching body. This is because the last, critical hit of Assassinate is activated when the player presses a button at certain times during the skill. The critical 5th hit of Assassinate will rush you forward and into the body of most bosses (as long as there is ground/platform to “rush” onto). Even if you can tank 1 or more hits of touch damage, this could still be dangerous. If autopot does not work (which is VERY often) or you look away – you can die, plus you spend more time repositioning.

Of course as you are more comfortable/experienced with bossing, you will get better at paying attention, potting, and getting off body faster. I didn’t feel fully comfortable switching from this macro to just Assassinate until level 16x. But by then you probably won’t need this guide anymore.


Your classic, assassinated-into-body death screenshot.

3. Boomerang Step --> Band of Thieves. Does more damage than straight spamming Boomerang Step in situations where the targets are close enough to hit with BoT. Applications: Zakum Arms, Horntail when wings are still up, CWK cleave bosses when all 3 are still up etc.)

General rules for Smokescreen: Put the skill on a hotkey that you can see so you know what the cooldown is looking like. If you frequently forget to smoke, consider a timer. Jump smoking is a helpful skill to practice and comes in handy in certain bosses (Zak, Horntail, etc.) In general, put smoke down ASAP during magic cancel and try to smoke the most people possible, but if you have to choose, smoke ranged attackers/DPM. It is helpful to wait for corsairs to have their boat up before you smoke them. If anyone with low HP is dead on body, save your Smokescreen so you can smoke them right before res. There are occasions when you are waiting longer than 5 minutes for a magic cancel in order to smoke. It's up to your discretion whether to just pop it or not. I've seen shadowers criticized for smoking and then the boss weapon cancels, but I've also seen shadowers criticized for waiting too long for a magic cancel to smoke. Since there's haters either way just do whatever floats your boat.

*Special Mention: You can and should use Assaulter to reposition yourself quickly in many bosses!*

Are your attacking skills not maxed yet and you want to test your DPM on different numbers of targets? Talk to Spinel and go to Shaolin Temple. You will drop into Mount Song; take the portal on the right to access the dummy map! Here, there are immobile, immortal training dummies placed in different groupings. Depending on where you stand, you can test your damage on different #s of mobs, so if you’re ever uncertain about which skills will net higher DPM, come here and and test away to your heart’s content.


Slap that training dummy! Punish that training dummy.

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Spoiler: Level Requirements

Bossing Level Requirements

These are the levels that you can receive EXP from bosses.

Ravana: 115+
Papulatus: 120+
CWK: 125+
Zakum: 135+
Krexel: 135+
Scarlion/Targa: 135+
JC: 145+
Horntail: 155+

You can run each of these twice a day (reset at server reset time). It counts as “before” reset as long as the boss was summoned before reset. So, if you summoned Zakum at 11:59 PM server time, you can immediately run twice afterwards.

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Spoiler: Ravana

Ravana

Location: Golden Temple, Thailand
Minimum Level for EXP: 115
Total HP: 35mil
Total EXP: 3mil
Ranged Attack Damage: <6k
Touch Damage: <5.2k
Time Estimate: ~10 minutes

Prequest:

Please see Zooploop’s amazing guide for this.

https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/ravana-prequest-guide.24853/

You need a minimum of two people in a party to face Ravana. Although it may be less EXP, I like to go with a group of friends! You can go in with just an attacker and a HS mule though.

The party leader MUST have a Magical Stone Piece in order to enter Ravana’s Cavern. In addition, you have to drop one Sunburst to summon Ravana.

If you are here just for the EXP, you can hold the Magical Stone Piece in your inventory and buy sunbursts for about 400k in the FM (as of right now).

If you are turning in dolls for helms, you’ll have to redo the etc. quest "The Unfinished Battle" which gives you 1 Magical Stone Piece and 2 Sunbursts. This quest will not activate until you are no longer holding a Magical Stone Piece (so either drop it or turn in a doll and it’ll disappear).

Attacking:

Enter and drop your sunburst at the shrine to summon the boss.

Around level 150+ with average gear, this boss is solo-able in 10 minutes. With maximum Assassinate or Boomerang Step (and probably before maxing those skills), you should be doing consistent 10k+ lines which is enough to knockback. Without a warrior or buccaneer to rush, pinning takes a bit longer but is still very doable within a few seconds. It does not matter which side you pin it (under investigation, for now just pin left). Ravana used to have a tendency to ignore knockback, unpin itself, and go on a stroll every few minutes but it seems this feature has been fixed. Either way, make sure your mule's Magic Guard is always up.

This is single-target so use your Assassinate! I like using Assassinate and then switching to Assassinate --> Boomerang Step as Ravana’s HP drops because it will summon mobs.

No weapon cancels, just smoke ASAP.

Drops:

See https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=9420014 for full drops list. No card/chair. Usually drops an average of 1-1.5 mil of NPC-able equip equips per run. For a 10-minute run, that’s fast, easy money.

Has a chance of dropping: Sparta (max attack is 103), and Golden Nisrock (max attack is 100) that may be sellable to other players for more than NPC price if max attack. Everything else is NPC immediate.

For scrolls, Overall Dex 60 and Spear 60 are the only ones worth any money at all.

Dolls/Helms:

Drops around 0-4 Ravana dolls per boss. You can only have one of these at a time, and if you talk to the guard outside of the cave and the old monk, you can exchange the doll for a random chance at obtaining one of the following helms:

1. Ravana Helmet
2. Ravana Helmet (I)
3. Ravana Helmet (II)
4. Ravana Helmet (III)

Of these four, #1 is the only helm that is relevant. I usually get it once about every 10 trade-ins or so. It’s a lvl 70 helm that gives 16-20 in all four stats, with 7 slots. The other three are pretty useless and not even NPC-able so I just throw them away. Although a Scarlion helm is usually the helm of choice for shadowers due to it having 10 slots, Ravana is easily solo-able and you can farm its helms for free. Ravana helms are untradeable but NOT one-of-a-kind, so you can stack multiple in your inventory if you wanted to scroll them or something, although IMO it’s probably a waste of scrolls. I did it anyway HEHE. Here’s what a below-avg Ravana helm with one 30 and and six 70’s/60’s looks like.


Note: Once you turn in a doll, your stone gets taken away, which means you will have to redo the quest to farm etc items before you can enter again. When running with a crew, it may be helpful to get double the etc items needed before running, and slip out for a few seconds in between runs to turn in the doll and get a new stone.

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Spoiler: Papulatus

Papulatus

Location: Deep Inside the Clocktower (Deep Ludibrium)
Minimum Level for Exp: 120
HP: 2 bodies, 1.6mil total (?)
EXP: 2 bodies, ~2m total (?)
Ranged Attack Dmg: <2k
Touch Dmg: <5.5k
Time Estimate: ~10 minutes

Prequest:

Please refer to the lovely guide by thedgafclub: https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/guide-papulatus-pre-quest.34643/

Attacking:

Alright, this one is tricky and I personally avoid going to Papulatus whenever possible.

In theory, Dark Sight --> Assassinate would be the way to go, especially because Papulatus 1st body tends to hide and become immune to attacks for periods of time, so this is the ideal situation to charge up your assassinate. But Papulatus also dispels like every 5 seconds which I find very annoying. I spend just as much time rebuffing in Papulatus as I do attacking....

You can go on an upper platform and attack from there (Assassinate does land from that ledge) and Pap cannot dispel you up there. However, despite Shifter + avoid I fall off the ledge constantly. You can Avenger to get back up on the ledge but this is tricky, at least for me. Forum username Holp recommends just holding Boomerang Step (apart from charged 'Nates) up there on that ledge to have the I-Frames to try to avoid being knocked down; with the time saved from rebuffing and being knocked off, the DPM is apparently around the same. This strategy works well from my experience since then but I haven't done the DPM/time testing on it because I hate it there so there's that

Once first body dies, second body appears and flies around, so sometimes I just use Boomerang Step for greater maneuverability while I’m pinning. Second body can KO some of the squishier teammates if not pinned but also dies very quickly.

Soloing Papulatus is do-able perhaps at lvl 160+ but it will be pretty painful. Do not recommend.

Drops

See https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=8500002 for full drops list.

Notables: Card/Chair. Osfa Suits, Neos Top/Bottom, Lucida Top, Red Belly Duke, Katinas can sell for slightly above NPC if max stat.

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Spoiler: Crimsonwood Keep Party Quest

Crimsonwood Keep Party Quest

Please see the amazing and complete guide by Siao:

https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/guide-crimsonwood-keep-party-quest.24194/

If you want to host, there’s a separate questline for that. Otherwise, there's no prequest.

Assaulter is very important in helping you finish the first few stages so use it generously!

Location: Deep Masteria
Minimum Level for EXP: 125
Time Estimate: 60-90 minutes per run

Red Nirg (Warrior Boss)
HP: 255mil
EXP: 9mil
Touch Damage: 9k

Rellik (Archer Boss)
HP: 231mil
EXP: 9mil
Touch Damage: idk low

Hsalf (Thief Boss)
HP: 233mil
EXP: 9mil
Touch Damage: idk low

Attacking:

Buff and then charge Assassinate while you wait for someone to Rush/Corkscrew all 3 cleave bosses (shown above) to a corner. Try to stay away until you're about to land the Assassinate or you will most likely get sealed and if there's no bishop around to dispel you then the 'nate will be wasted~
Stand on top of bosses and tank touch damage to avoid getting sealed/stunned/yeeted. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns hehe – with 2-3 targets shadowers have the lowest DPM of all cleave jobs. Just make sure you smoke cleave attackers whenever it’s up and try not to let any mob summons get away to knock the ranged attackers/mules/buyers around.

With time and experience you will know which party makeups will clear and which will not. You will probably need 3 or 4 cleavers from level 13x to level 15x. At lvl 16x and even 17x, duoing cleave bosses with even a hero can get hairy just because of our lower-end DPM so I normally run 3-man cleave.

If any of the cleave bosses (usually Warrior boss) wanders away from the others, it helps the person pinning if you do not hit that boss so they can get aggro. This is where you try to stay away and not use BoT for a few seconds.

The thief boss has an attack where he will jump up and float out of reach. This is a situation where it may be helpful to use Dark Sight and Assassinate separately to make sure your Assassinate is not missing.

3 or more targets: Boomerang Step --> Band of Thieves
2 targets: Assassinate --> Boomerang Step
1 target: Assassinate

Drops:

Mark of Naricain, a level 110 pendant that’s max 5 weapon attack. You can sell these or keep them for backup but shadowers should be using a Horntail Pendant.

Bonus stage has many excellent drops – depending on how many people are running I get an average of three weapon attack 30% scrolls per run, with a chance at a white seal cushion, Blackfist/Crimsonheart Cloak, Spectrum Goggles. You can chaos 5 att Blackfist Cloaks and 2 str/2dex Spectrum Goggles for endgame gear.

Since cleave is usually standing directly on bosses, you will burn HP pots but bonus stage profits usually more than make up for it.

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Spoiler: Zakum

Zakum

Location: Deep El Nath
Minimum Level for Exp: 135
HP: Arms (8) 33M each Bodies (3) 264M total
EXP: 2.6M each arm, 14M total from bodies
Ranged Attack Dmg: <3k
Touch Dmg: <8.2k
Time Estimate: ~30 minutes

Prequest:

TYVM to Pepsi for this great guide.

https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/zakum-prequest-guide.2738/

I am also linking a video guide for the jump quest that I found incredibly helpful. Courtesy of YouTube user CG!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nv6lWpe9fo

Attacking:

On arms, I usually smoke ranged attackers first thing (usually top right corner, if you jump smoke from the platform below that you can cover both platforms) , then start bottom left and stand around the level of the arm joint closest to the body. You could also do right but there’s usually poison cloud there. Then, you jump and cast either Boomerang-Step or the B-Step --> BoT macro. The second has slightly higher DPM, the first has slightly higher maneuvrability and I-frames. This allows you to cleave at least four arms (!)*

There are three bodies, all of which magic and weapon cancel, and only the third body gives EXP. Here, stand on the left, and you can Assassinate --> B-Step during mob summons or just in general to play it safe (see Attacking Basics section for explanation). I use hold Assassinate almost exclusively now but it took me a while to feel very comfortable about not dying (and a lot of washing, let's be honest).

When Zakum weapon cancels, I recommend refreshing Meso Guard before going into Dark Sight to charge your Assassinate. There’s still plenty of time to hit max Nate lines and this way you don’t have to worry about tanking body without Meso Guard. I also hold down the right arrow key during Assassinate so I rush forward and do the critical 5th hit. Since it’s fully charged, it’s worth the time to execute!

When Zakum magic cancels, move left and put down Smokescreen for your party to maximize their damage.

*With the ability to cleave at least four arms, the highest single-target DPM of all cleave classes, and frequent cancels to smoke/charge assassinate, Shadowers are undoubtedly the highest-DPM cleave to recruit for Zakum. On some occasions, I have been rejected from parties because there is a concept that Shadowers do little damage and are pepega. No, they are wrong. It is not that black-and-white; different classes have different strengths depending on the situation. Especially with most ranged attackers washing, it is not uncommon for me to white 5 arms (the four bottom arms and the one directly above where I'm jumping) AND body when running with a party of people of comparable level. I will die on this hill and thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Drops:

See https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=8800002 for full drops list.

Notables: Card/Chair. Zakum Helm (13-17 all stats, 18-22 Acc/Avoid), Pinaka, Craven, Genesis 20, and the untradeable skills (Advanced Combo Attack, Advanced Charge, Angel Ray, Triple Throw).
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Spoiler: Krexel

Krexel

Location: Ulu (Singapore/Malaysia region)
Minimum Level for Exp: 135
HP: 2 eyes, 500M total
EXP: ~28M total
Ranged Attack Dmg: <3k
Touch Dmg: <7.5k
Time Estimate: ~30 minutes

So, generally the same HP/EXP as Zakum but more braindead + less profitable. Sometimes I like my braindead, hold-down-one-button, do-something-else-on-the-side bosses though.

Prequest:

Thanks again thedgafclub

https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/guide-krexel-pre-quest.35014/

Attacking:

Usually you will start on left eye and then move to right eye.

Single-target DPM = Assassinate.

You can stand on either side of the left eye, but I prefer the left side to avoid tanking touch damage since Krexel’s ranged attack will always knock you to the left. If you stand on the very right edge of that platform, the ranged attack will knock you back but not off the platform. If you do fall off, use Assaulter to help you reposition faster. Charge Assassinate during weapon cancels and smoke during magic cancels. With max smoke and proper positioning (you’ll get used to it), you can reach both the ranged attackers and anyone standing on the right side of the eye.

For the right eye, I usually stand on the left side also. You can just hold down your macro. The right eye does not cancel. I can and do regularly eat entire meals in this boss. I once pulled off fried chicken too. Once this eye gets low health it will summon mobs that can push your squishy ranged attackers onto the eye. There's a summon animation at the top of the screen that you can look for. I would include it but I have a 10-picture maximum lol. When you see it, you can drop down and B-step to clear those mobs.

Just like Zakum, when left eye cancels it might be a good idea to refresh Meso Guard before going into Dark Sight to charge your Assassinate. This way you don’t have to worry about tanking eye damage without Meso Guard. Remember to do the critical 5th hit. Your 'nate will NOT be fully charged by the time weapon cancel is finished, however I DO recommend staying that extra 1-2 seconds in dark sight to finish charging to max Assassinate because the damage payoff is worth it.

*Again, shadowers are highest single-target DPM cleave class and with washing ranged attackers you can white both eyes. Ignore pepega haters that refuse to take shadowers on runs. I will die on this hill and thank you for coming to my TED talk.*

Drops:

https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=9420522

Notables: Card. Sparta, GDK, Pinaka, Nisrocks/Neschere, Craven but I feel like the drop rates on this boss are fairly low and it’s not uncommon to see no equip drops.

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Spoiler: Scarlion/Targa

Scarlion/Targa

Scarlion:
Location: Amusement Park (Malaysia)
Minimum Level for EXP: 135
HP: 3 bodies, 300M total
EXP: ~12mil total
Ranged Attack Damage: <3k
Touch DamageL <8.3k
Time Estimate: ~30 minutes

Targa:
All info same as Scarlion above, except ranged damage is also <8.3k, it will take 10-15 minutes longer and there will probably be more deaths in the party

Despite recent buffs, do not run these bosses for EXP. The time to EXP ratio is not worth it. You can also summon both bosses at once.

Prequest:

Couldn’t find a guide but this is one of the longer ones – talk to Lam in Kampung Village, Malaysia to start the quest “Lam Wants To See The World.” It will probably take at least an hour to kill all the Amusement Park mobs and collect their etcs. After finishing that, Lam also has a quick repeatable quest (“Off to the Fantasy Theme Park”) which will take you a minute to do and gives you two teddy bears (ETC item name: Spirit of Fantasy Theme Park). Every party member needs to have one in order to enter, and you drop one to summon a boss.

Attacking:

Assassinate OR Assassinate --> B-step if you don’t want to get touch damage as often (see Attacking Basics section for explanation).

The 3rd body touch damage is comparable to most of the above bosses I’ve written about but they also walk/jump around so I die in here the most often of all bosses preceding Neo Tokyo, including Horntail

Charge Assassinate during weapon cancels, smoke during magic cancels.

Targa frequently uses an attack where it hops forward a few times. You can follow it by holding the appropriate arrow key, which will allow you to use the critical hit of Assassinate to rush behind it. A second Assassinate can be used to rush back to the starting position. You can also use Assaulter to help you reposition. This takes some practice!

Drops:

Quite poopoo.

Scarlion: https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=9420549

Targa: https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=9420544

No equips other than helms, Claw ATT 60%, and card. The helms sell for a good amount if you don’t mind the pain of chasing Targa around and the lack of EXP payoff.

Get a crew of friends together who don’t mind running multiple times and rolling for the Scarlion helm. Either the STR or DEX scarlion helm is good for shadowers, although it can be hard to get a helm decent enough to scroll.

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Spoiler: Jiaoceng

Jiaoceng

Location: Shaolin Temple, 7F
Minimum Level for Exp: 145
HP: 125mil total (summons 3 clones)
EXP: 11.2mil total
Ranged Attack Damage: <5.5k
Touch Attack Damage: ? Spear thrust around 10 mil?
Time Estimate: 10 mins per run

Prequest:

Pretty fast/simple involving talking to the monks/janitors inside Shaolin Tower and killing the mobs/collecting their drops.

Attacking:

Best exp/time ratio in the game. You only have 10 minutes to clear JC so party composition is important. A few scuffed runs helps you learn what will or will not work. Aim for 4-5 attackers very early on and eventually move to trios (ballpark lvl 17x) and duos (a bit later).

Charge up a full Assassinate just before going in, and if someone is rushing, don’t attack the boss until it’s pinned or they will have trouble getting aggro. No weapon/magic cancel so smoke ASAP and whenever it's up. A few minutes in, JC will summon 3 clones wearing blue clothes instead of red.

Huge thanks to BananaPie and CoolDavid for changes to this section:
Assassinate will target JC preferentially even if his clones are up, because he spawns on the map first. This helps A LOT with clearing in time! Therefore you should Assassinate before his clones are summoned and switch to Assassinate --> Boomerang Step after they are summoned to help cleave. To be honest at lower levels, in duos I sometimes did not finish the clones but finishing JC should be the main objective since most of the EXP will come from the boss itself. You can watch the clones' HP bars and Taunt when they are very low for that extra EXP.

Jiaoceng has an attack where he jumps up and we cannot reach him, so it may be helpful to use Dark Sight and Assassinate separately to make sure the Assassinate is not missing. I usually do this extra bit of sweating if the time is not looking great but I have my doubts over whether it actually makes a difference in DPM (too lazy to do DPM testing, maybe one day if I'm really bored).

Drops:

https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=9600025

Both the clones and Jiaoceng himself drop cards pretty frequently. Easy two sets if you’re not Tier 10 yet.

Notable equips: Green Neos, Blue Katina Shoes, Sparta, GDK, Pinaka, White Nisrock/Neschere, Red Craven.

Notable Scrolls: Mostly Earring INT 10% and Overall INT/LUK 60% methinks

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Spoiler: Horntail

Horntail

Location: Deep Leafre
Minimum Level for EXP: 155
HP: About 2 Bil total (?)
EXP: About 190 mil total (?)
Time Estimate: ~90 minutes per run

You’ll start off with two preheads, one at a time. Then, you will move to a main map where Horntail lives. Each of the following is its own “mob” with its own HP/exp/behavior:

· Legs
· Tail (Touch damage can hit over 30K)
· Wings (Ranged damage, can hit up to 12K)
· Left Head (Touch damage 20K+)
· Middle Head (Touch damage 20K+)
· Right Head (Touch damage 20K+)
· Right Arm
· Left Arm

Shadowers are good cleave damage in Horntail (we can cleave 4 body parts with Boomerang Step) and due to our high avoidability + Meso Guard, usually used as the Seduce Target.

Please refer to FeroxAnima’s very useful guide on Horntail for Bishops, especially the “Seduce” and "Dispel" section which explains those game mechanics.

https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?posts/188883/

Prehead Seduce Animation, courtesy of FeroxAnima:


Arm Seduce Animation, courtesy of FeroxAnima:


Left Arm Dispel Animation, courtesy of FeroxAnima:


Mid Head Dispel Animation, courtesy of FeroxAnima:


Abridged intro: In addition to touch damage and ranged attacks, Horntail will Seduce and Dispel you. Seduce comes from the arms; Dispel comes from middle head and left arm. The former makes you walk left, right, or jump for a few seconds and you cannot use potions. Dispel will remove all of your buffs except Echo and consumables (cider, Apple etc.) Dark Wyverns will also dispel you if they get close enough.

Animations can and will be covered by damage lines/heads. Even if the animation is NOT visible, the seduce WILL happen and you can die. Even if you cannot see the hand itself, with experience you can identify a seduce animation from just the elbow movement.

With attention and experience, the only situation that will really kill you is getting seduced + dispelled + 1/1’d all at once and then taking a hit (Shadower perfect frame, RIP). This happens only once about every 2 dozen runs for me so definitely not a normal thing, and if things are spaced out enough you can Hero’s Will and survive.

Just as in all bosses, Meso Guard should be up at all times. I err on the side of caution and refresh my Meso Guard quite early because of the chance that I will be seduced and it will run out.

Attacking:

If you are sed target, it helps to put up a chalkboard so the bishop has an easier job finding you.

Preheads:
If you are seduce target, make sure you are the first player to enter all maps.
Fully buff and Dark Sight to charge Assassinate until the prehead is summoned. It is helpful to "rope trick" -- climb up on the rope near the end of the platform and then come down -- to make sure you are directly under the rope.

Single target = Assassinate

Smoke ASAP when you see a magic cancel. This subtle animation is the same as the weapon cancel animation and may take some practice to see. Towards the end of second prehead, I would think about saving smokescreen for legs/tail if your group doesn't plan on taking a break before body.

Whenever you see the sed animation, it is either a seduce or a wyvern summon. It's difficult to tell which until after the first second has passed so treat both the same -- Dark Sight and get on the rope ASAP. If nothing happens after a second, it's safe to come down. The rope helps keep you in one place for the bishop to see and heal; the Dark Sight helps keep you alive if you end up walking into prehead. If the bishop has cast Holy Shield on you, you will not be seduced. You can see this buff in the upper right corner and keep in mind whether or not you need to react to seduce animations. Early on, it is good practice to Dark Sight and rope every seduce animation.

I usually rebuff, Dark Sight, and then rope when I see weapon cancels to save myself the effort for upcoming seduces.

Onto main body!
While everyone else is killing legs and tail, you can jump and cleave the…

Left side:


Screenshot credits to TheJKIK on YouTube

Standing on this platform (circled in red), Jump and use B-Step to cleave the left head, middle head, wings, and left arm. If you are sed target, keep an eye on the arms for seduce animation, and immediately Dark Sight and walk left off the platform holding the up arrow key so you land on the rope right before you are seduced. If the attackers are crossing Horntail’s midline you will need to watch both arms. Being on the rope helps your bishop locate and heal you; being in Dark Sight prevents you from dying if you are walking right and touch the tail. If you miss a sed animation, you will most likely still be fine unless it is a right walk and you are not in Dark Sight. If you see this happening, use Hero’s Will immediately if it’s available. If it’s not up, pray that your Shifter + avoid doesn’t fail you.


Right side:


Image credits to Elem8100's Maplestory Map Simulator

Stand here (red circle) and use your B-step --> BoT macro while wings are up. Once wings are down, just hold Boomerang Step. If you are seduced, drop down to the platform below or try to reach the rope. At this point, legs and tail will be down so Dark Sight is no longer mandatory.

Pro of Dark Sight: It’s helpful in jump seds where you are taking a good amount of damage and your sed bishop is busy/hasn’t noticed you.

Con of Dark Sight: You cannot use Hero’s Will without first right-clicking Dark Sight so you do not have a quick bailout in risky situations (dispel/Meso Guard runs out, 1/1’s).

With everything taken into account I usually do not Dark Sight once legs and tail are down, except for the rare occasion when I am on a top platform putting down Smokescreen or Assassinating heads.

If heads are canceled, you can jump B-step from the ground directly below the elbow to hit both arms, but towards late run you have to be aware of the chance of being seduced or knocked into the left side of the map. This may trigger a left arm dispel if the HP on left arm is low enough and the timer is up. It is often useful to will any left walks at this point. If heads are weapon canceled, I am worried about anyone dying from left arm dispel, and my Hero’s Will is down, I will not risk being so close to midline. On those occasions, I just stay on the platform and B-step the right arm.

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If you ever fall off a platform onto the ground, jump and use Assaulter on wings/arm to get back up quickly without having to climb a rope.

On rare instances, your host may ask you to go up and focus your attacks on the heads. If you are sed target, this is pretty risky because you are more likely to touch head when seduced, so make sure you are watching the arms like a hawk to Dark Sight ASAP. Up here you can only hit two heads so you'll want to use Assassinate --> +/- Boomerang Step depending on the cancels.

When everything else is dead and everyone is killing left arm, you can stand on the very edge of the platform and use Assassinate. Note that our stubby little shadower arms are too short to reach right arm with Assassinate so you'll just have to hold down B-step.

As for Smokescreen, just try your best to smoke as much DPM as possible. Try to put down smoke ASAP when legs/tails are up, while being extra careful to watch for sed animations. The rest of the time, I personally don’t always wait until a magic cancel, especially if my party members are on the opposite side of the screen. On the upper left side, smoking from the first little floating platform will cover all attackers. On the right side, you can jump-smoke from your attacking platform and it will reach all shadowers, cleave, and ranged attackers. The technique is tricky – jump and try to lay down smoke the exact moment you land; any later and it will just be a regular smoke.

If your run is looking spicy and your party is trying to die to mass sed, consider saving Hero's Will + Smokescreen. Use Will during mass sed and put smoke down in whichever corner everyone is in so they don't take damage and die.

If this is all very overwhelming, don’t worry. Most of this is just learned with time and experience; everyone starts somewhere! Before going into your first Horntail, I would just recommend having some familiarity with the seduce and dispel animations. Look for a friendly squad that hosts 12 mans and is open to teaching! Horntail is very learn-by-doing.

Drops:

https://maplelegends.com/lib/monster?id=8810018

Card/Chair. Horntail has too many profitable drops to count. There’s a variety of sellable equips and scrolls but the bulk of the money will come from selling Maple Warrior 20 and Genesis 30 skill books, as well as Horntail Pendant + egg service.

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Spoiler: Conclusion

Conclusion

Shadowers are a flexible, enjoyable class to boss with. Like every job, we have our strengths and weaknesses. Don’t let anyone tell you that shadowers are pepega or one-trick pony; that’s simply not true. Just like the other cleave classes, we excel in some bosses and are less DPM in others. I hope by writing this guide I may have helped people like me that like to know what they’re getting into before they jump in. I tried to edit for brevity but I apologize for any errors or longwindedness. I will try to keep the guide updated with edits and more bosses in the future, as life allows.

Many thanks to everyone in Nimbus for always supporting me in everything I do and inspiring me to be a better person in so many ways. The members + leadership actively work their butts off to to make it a supportive community for new and old players alike to learn and thrive. You guys are the best and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Thank you to all the friends I have met in-game that have made my mushroom game journey so enjoyable.

Thank you to all the shadowers that came before me, wrote guides, and taught me how to shadower. Thanks again to Tim (Blu301) and Marty for writing shadower guides that I've read an embarrassing amount of times tbh. Special shout out to Jason (Stratus), Jackie (Codiacs), Moses (babyfather), and Joy (xJoyful) for teaching me so much.

Finally, thank you to Kimmy and all the staff who work so hard to make MapleLegends what it is today.

 

Should be working now!

 

Thanks for the comment! I believeeeeeeee the main problem is you can't hit Papulatus with Assassinate from that platform but tbh I ran Pap like 5 times bc I don't like it there so I definitely need to double check that.

 

Hi! This was actually fixed in the most recent patch, along with the inappropriate mob summons (used to summon PPQ mobs). Now, it will still attack when pinned left.

-CORRECTION- not fixed? I probably wasn't paying enough attention, will re-investigate and update guide soon

 

Wow! I never knew this, thanks so much time to smack some JC and edit my guide

 

I'm actually learning so much from the comments! Thank you so much for chiming in, everyone