Oh boy, reforging them needs enigmatic gems? I mean, at least we can beat up the forest-grove bosses for them, but even then the drop rate on them is so abysmally low it's scraping the bedrock.

I haven't gotten any tomes yet, but I do have one Enigmatic Gem. I got it from Oakface. So at least we can get them from forest named too, but yeah - super low drop rate and the nameds don't come out all that often to begin with.

Also, as more people start getting tomes... Each tome only unlocks one piece of equipment, yeah? So I wonder if people would be interested in setting up trades. Example:

Player A unlocks Equipment A
Player B unlocks Equipment B
They each make one piece of equipment and trade

So long as the number of supplies is the same for each, anyways. That way people could get more legendary equipment without needing to find more tomes.

That's a good idea Somn, though I am pretty slow about getting the ores needed! I've unlocked pyromancer bracers...

Just took down Kowlla with a Light / Air / Fire team. I use Ent flasks of Dexterity, Int, and Str, plus the Trailing Grounds 3 and +4 gear. Max stats, rank4.

She went down pretty easy, actually. XD I think you can do it with +3 gear, flasks, and Training 3. I very nearly did it twice with that last night (and only had +2 hear on the Fire). I'd have taken her if I hadn't gotten the order off.

Cheers!
C4.

Took down Kowlla the Ancient with Light tank, Fire DPS, and an Air DPS that only had decimate rank 3.

Kowlla seems scripted to queue up the summons once she's knocked down to 80% health, and it seems to be an ability with a long cooldown that she'll use whenever possible, rather than at hp thresholds below 80%. If she's not going to use her Infected Slash, she'll use this once she'd down to 80%.

Here's what I do. Try to have your number 3 skill buffs up before pushing her to 80%. It's important to note that the wisps appear at the start of the turn she starts summoning them, so you can have your fire pet use conflagrate to do AoE damage to them. If your light pet has fairy light ready, use that too for more AoE damage on them. Next up, in the first turn you actually see the wisps, have the air pet decimate one of them, and the other two pets use Finishing Blow on the other one. If you're lucky you might nuke both the wisps before they can act. I had full training grounds buffs and some lesser ent flasks up when I was doing this.

On the attempt where I won, I took her down before she had the chance to summon wisps a 2nd time. When she was around 75k health left I just went for Decimate and she exploded. The rest of the fight is trying to keep mana high in case you need to repeat wisp nuking, and keeping buffs up in case you need them for unleashing nukes on wisps. You should also try blocking her full mana move. Be careful if she is at 145/150 mana, as she'll generate 5 mana and unleash her full mana attack anyway.

SPOILERS for post-Kowlla.


The grinding of stone echoes throughout the cavern as you hear a door open nearby.

This message can occur after defeating Kowlla. A tunnel opens right next to her spawn point and leads into a small room. Blank space for the room is visible on Bunne's map.

Inside are three "Hidden Grove Stash" objects. These can be interacted with and function like chests.

Mine, when opened, gave me:
Exceptional Grove Draught x2,
Exceptional Grove Trap x3,
and Reaver's Vinethorn Relic.

Interestingly, the tunnel stays open after exiting the room. I'll have to watch it closely for any respawns. o3o (or to see if it closes after the next cave shift. I feel like that's very possible.)

Unsure if this is a guaranteed thing or not - I know at least Jdavidc has gotten it, thanks to a bug report forum. And if chat rumor is right, my win might be only the 5th time Kowlla has been defeated. O.o

For anyone curious, I managed it with lv70, all-rank-4 light and air max stat pets and a nearly-all-rank-4 semi-super air pet. I also used the Training Grounds bonus (third upgrade) and Blessed my party in the temple of light.
Light pet used all +2 lightbringer VT equipment.
Air pet #1 used storm caller equipment: stoneweave relic, +2 VT helm and bracers.
Air pet #2 used storm caller VT equipment: +3 relic and bracers, +2 helm.

I referenced some of Jdavidc's strategies as listed in the previous post - especially using Fairy Light for some wisp damage and using Finishing Blow with the light pet. Using air instead of fire, I did use double-decimate. Killed one wisp but not both; managed to survive and beat the other wisp the next turn. It might be wise to toss Divine Balance up before using Finishing Blow, but that would also make Finishing Blow less effective. I don't know. Something to experiment with.

Edit: Yes, unfortunately the Kowlla door does close. :\ Seems to be after the next cave shift occurs.

@Bunne

I know you've beaten Kowlla (apparently we're now two of ~five people who have done it). So I'm curious, did the Kowlla door open for you? (see above for description)

Hi Som! Congrats on beating Kowlla! Yup, she opens a secret area when you beat her. Is it every time, or just the first time? I've only beaten her the one time so far. I was hoping the other bosses did the same, but it was only Kowlla that has the secret area. And I think you are right, the area closes when the map changes (also maybe if you summon her again without exiting the deep caves?).

Interesting note from JD about using an ability that hits all 3 enemies when she is summoning her wisps. I didn't realize the wisps popped up before your attacks hit. That is great info and will help :)

I'm also super glad you guys were able to use Light instead of Water. I really didn't want to rank my new Water tank xD

I'm not sure, I've only beaten her once as well. So we can probably assume it always opens on the first victory, but until someone beats her twice, we won't know if it happens every time. I hope it happens every time. I like free purple draughts.

Yep, so it looks like we have some party options on this fight:
Water-air-air (Bunne)
Light-air-air (Som)
Light-fire-air (Jdavidc)
Water-fire-air? (inference)

It's still a pretty limited stack of elements, but at least it opens the door to people who don't have a ranked water, or two ranked airs.

Edit: think Cyradis just beat Kowlla a second time, and didn't see the door message. Wasn't sure if the message happened the first time; however, on investigation, the door was open. (All three boxes gave a total of 6 elixirs.)

This is /very very tentative/, but it looks like the door might stay open until the contents inside are picked up...? Unless Cyradis just didn't see the message, which is possible. Unsure.

Edit again: Aye just checked a while after beating Kowlla - got a cave shift on the way down to look, and the door was not open. Hadn't been "raided" before - the message went unnoticed, if it showed up at all.

I'm curious about the amounts needed for Stage 8 completion, gonna post updates:

Tree Moss: 21 = %
Metallic Shavings: 41 = %
Leather Straps: 7 = %
Myconid Glands: 6 = %

[waiting for % to update]

Ah nevermind, this stage is still community bound. I thought it might be individual. Ah well xD