Within Dark and Darker’s deep, dangerous dungeons lies a powerful threat. Upon reaching the Inferno floor of the map, you’re faced with two potential dungeon bosses. One of the bosses is the Lich, and in this boss fight guide – we will show you how to defeat it!
Lich Boss Fight Location
Luckily, the Lich boss fight location is quite hard to miss. By using a red portal known as the “Down Portal”, you can reach the floor map “Inferno”. In the very center of this map, either the Lich or the Ghost King awaits you. In this case however, we will guide you through the Lich boss fight!
The Lich wields several abilities and mechanics that need to be watched out for, unless you wish to suffer a quick death. With a bit of preparation and patience however, this fight is very doable. The boss fight starts whenever a player would enter one of the 8 entrances. This fight requires the players to be aware of skeleton mobs, curses, debuffs and homing projectiles.
Attacks
- Resurrection, the Lich will raise it’s staff, reviving up to 6 skeletons from the skeleton army
- Normal Attack, a launched magic projectile at the targeted player
- Close Attack, a fairly hard hitting melee attack that pushes back players
- Strong Attack, the Lich launches a powerful homing projectile that continuously follows a player until it collides with something
- Soul Steal, player deaths provide the Lich with a soul to convert into a protective barrier on itself, this absorbs 250 damage
The Lich boss fight also has two major mechanics to watch out for alongside the usual attacks:
Curse of Gathering
The Curse of Gathering spawns a bright purple circle underneath the target player. The circle will detonate 5 seconds after cast and deals less damage based on the amount of players and monsters inside:
- 1 person, 650 Magic Damage
- 2 people, 350 Magic Damage
- 3 people, 100 Magic Damage
- 4 people, 35 Magic Damage
- 5 people, 15 Magic Damage
Curse of Isolation
The Curse of Isolation spawns a bright blue circle underneath the target player. The circle will detonate 5 seconds after cast and deals more damage based on the amount of players and monsters inside:
- 1 person, 35 Magic Damage
- 2 people, 50 Magic Damage
- 3 people, 60 Magic Damage
- 4 people, 100 Magic Damage
- 5 people, 170 Magic Damage
High Roller additions
There are also a couple of additions to the Elite Lich in the High Roller variant of the boss fight:
- Elite lich, deals 50% increased damage
- Frenzy, a buff that applies to all skeletons – increases movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 25%. Finally, also increases skeletons damage by 20 physical damage
- Death Swarm, the Lich casts a purple circle zone in the arena, with a safe zone in the center. Being outside of the zone deals 4 Magic Damage per second and buffs all living skeletons with Frenzy
Strategy
Unlike the Cave Troll boss, team composition and some preparation is required for taking on the Lich or any major dungeon boss. However the Lich in particular is flexible in terms of composition, but we recommend a standard of Cleric, Ranger and Barbarian.
Firstly, make sure to bring a hefty amount of healing potions and protection potions. It should be noted however that protection potions do not help you against the Lich, as the Lich is almost exclusively Magic Damage. You can use protection potions to tank some skeleton hits however. Also, another healthy addition is to bring campfires with you to prepare your Cleric and ensure everyone is full health with max charges of any ability or spell.
Once you and your party enter the boss arena, the Lich will immediately resurrect 3 Skeleton Guardsman and 3 Skeleton Archers – the fight begins.
Lich Boss Fight Guide
It is essential that you and your party members assign a direction to move in throughout the boss fight. This is required as a result of the constant mob spawns and arrows from the Skeleton Archers and to dodge various Lich attacks – while remaining close enough to help with mechanics. For the purpose of this guide, we suggest to rotate clockwise.
Secondly, once you have assigned the movements, begin to have one of your party members take out the Skeletons, usually the Archers are the priority targets. As a result of this, you can have your second DPS either a ranged or melee player chip away at the boss as the other deals with the mobs. Once the mobs are down, you can begin to fully focus damage on the Lich.
Something very important to note is the power of the Cleric in this fight, should you be planning to go down to Inferno to fight bosses, make sure the Cleric brings the AoE skill Holy Purification. Having Holy Purification helps you clear the Skeleton Army as quickly as possible to begin focusing on moving clockwise, and DPSing the boss down.
Curses
At a certain health threshold the Lich will cast one of the two Curses; Isolation or Gathering. As mentioned previously in the guide, not adhering to the mechanics demands will quickly wipe your entire party. Should you see a blue circle appear, this is the Curse of Isolation. Ideally the player targeted needs to have no additional players or mobs within the circle.
The Curse will still deal a small chunk of damage however having no additional bodies in the circle will allow you to take the least damage possible from the mechanic. As a result, make sure to stay far away from mob aggro or players.
Alternatively however, if you are targeted with the purple circle, this is the Curse of Gathering. Which as suggested in the name, requires the player to gather as many players and/or mobs inside it as possible. As soon as you see the purple circle appear, it is recommended to keep a few Skeleton Guardsman alive. As a result of doing so, you can get maximum bodies in the circle and have your party take nearly no damage. It is also worth noting that you can use the Lich in this mechanic too.
Homing Projectile
Additionally, another important spell to look out for is the targeted projectile that has homing properties. It can be quite a panic to have a dangerously strong missile chasing you, however it is easy to deal with. Simply bring the projectile to the nearest corner wall of the boss room to you and it will collide with the wall and you will be safe! Another safe option is to have a Ranger or Fighter bring a Pavise to install on the ground. As a result this acts as a useful wall to bait the projectile into. Failing that however – bait it into a Skeleton!
Finally, a smaller and melee focused attack to watch out for is the Lich’s melee attack. All that has to be done is to not be too greedy with melee attacks and you should be safe!
Solo Methods
Soloing the Bosses in the Inferno is no easy task. However, there is a couple of methods that are class dependent. Currently, the Warlock can comfortably solo the Lich. Simply keep your HP up by applying curses to Skeletons or the Lich itself, and spam Hellfire. It will take some time to get used to executing this strategy, but once you have it down – it’s free loot!
Loot
Congratulations! You and your party have defeated the Lich and the spoils of the dungeon are yours! The Lich drops 3 items from the standard drop table and 1 item from the miscellaneous table. However, as expected loot quality will improve in the High Roller version of the fight. Also, there is some chests scattered throughout the room but most importantly a Treasure Hoard shall spawn! Treasure Hoards are infinite loot spots so long as your inventory can hold it all!
We hope our Lich boss fight guide has successfully helped you claim all the glory and loot within the dungeon!
Dark and Darker is now in Early Access! Check out our updated guides for more information!