Velganos is the final Guardian Raid available in Punika and considered one of the most difficult bosses to fight so far. Let’s take a look at what makes this Guardian so challenging and how players can beat this encounter.
Velganos is the last Tier 3 Guardian Raid of Punika and will require players to be Item Level 1385 to access. Players can obtain Tier 3 Accessories, Ability Stones, and Honing Materials, as well as chances at Legendary Engraving Books, Epic Galewind Runes, and Cards. This Guardian is quite challenging and will require players to know the core mechanics in order to beat it. In addition to the difficult mechanics, the fight is made even tougher due to its location, Foggy Ridge. This guide will point out all the important mechanics and the best ways to deal with them.
Veganos is a three phase fight, transitioning and escaping around 65% and 35% health. At the start of the first and second phase, Velganos will begin in his normal state before shortly transforming into his dark state. During his dark state, he will use a range of abilities containing the dark attribute, while taking severely reduced damage from players. The encounter will focus primarily on gaining and maintaining stacks of Power of Light, while avoiding stacks of Power of Darkness. Due to the many narrow spaces in Foggy Ridge, it is recommended that players bring Pheromone Bombs to keep the boss from potentially escaping to an undesirable location. Fighting in tight spaces increases the difficulty of this fight significantly, especially for the last phase.
Power of Light is a buff that increases players’ attack power and decreases their damage taken from Velganos. This buff can be stacked up to five times with the first three stacks increasing attack power and the last two stacks lowering damage taken. It is important that each player maintains at least three stacks in order to deal damage normally to Velganos through his dark state. This buff will last the entirety of each phase and be completely reset whenever the boss transitions to the next phase.
Power of Darkness is a debuff that increases damage taken by Velganos with each stack, stacking up to five times. A stack of this debuff is gained each time a player is hit by a dark attribute attack. Similar to Power of Light, this debuff does not have a duration and will only be reset when transitioning phases.
Velganos will periodically glow and roar, summoning light and dark circles around the area. Touching a light circle is a way to gain a stack of Power of Light in the first two phases. The dark circles will continuously grow in size for a few seconds before exploding and dealing dark damage, adding a stack of Power of Darkness. Occasionally, a few dark circles will become dark bubble zones that pulse dark damage continuously for a few seconds.
Surrounded by a yellow glow, Velganos will slowly walk around on top of an expanding yellow magic circle. The players must stagger Velganos before he finishes channeling this ability or be wiped by the AoE. Upon successfully staggering Velganos, he will be incapacitated, and light circles will appear allowing players to pick up Power of Light stacks.
Velganos will briefly flash yellow, pulsing out a yellow circle around him and summoning an orb in front of him. At the same time, a yellow hexagonal symbol will appear above each players’ head. After a brief moment, one player’s symbol will turn black, designating them as the bite target. That player must quickly move to the yellow circle below the orb in order to get bitten by Velganos. If successful, the Guardian is incapacitated, allowing free time for players to damage him. Consequently, if the wrong player, or no player, is standing under the orb, Velganos will deal an AoE that wipes the entire party.
In the third phase, Velganos will turn red and Enrage around 30% health, gaining two key abilities, Dark Roar and Pizza Stomp. During Enrage, light circles will no longer spawn, forcing players to do Pizza Stomp correctly for Power of Light.
A giant dark AoE swirls instantly around Velganos, removing a stack of Power of Light and adding a stack of Power of Darkness to all players hit. This ability is incredibly hard to avoid and will most certainly hit the majority of players. Following Dark Roar, Pizza Stomp will happen a few seconds later, so players should take this chance to ensure Velganos is not against a wall.
Similar to Dark Roar, a giant dark AoE will swirl around Velganos before he stomps four times. The only safe spot will appear in the form of a yellow pizza slice for each stomp, granting players the only source of Power of Light during Enrage. The safe slice will rotate clockwise or counterclockwise after each stomp, with the first one always starting behind him. The swirl of darkness beneath his feet will indicate the direction the safe slice will rotate, so pay close attention to which way the darkness is swirling before the stomps start. This ability is incredibly dangerous because getting hit by more than one stomp will instantly kill a player.
Velganos will turn blue and hop in place towards a player to breathe an AoE cone of dark damage. This is a high damaging ability that hits multiple times and adds a stack of Power of Darkness. Each hit will push players back, interrupting any possible action from the player.
Velganos will rain down dark puddles that damage and apply Power of Darkness. This can get very chaotic, especially when he does it right after summoning Dark Circles. It is advised that players wait out the bombardment before returning to damage the boss.
Velganos will charge up four dark orbs and shoot them out in each ordinal direction; two from his front and two from his back. This is quickly followed by six yellow orbs, three in front and three behind him. After a short distance, the dark orbs will create dark bubble zones (same as ones from Dark Circles) upon arriving at their destination.
Velganos turns towards a player and vanishes in a cloud of yellow before swiftly returning to charge towards the direction the player was in.
Velganos glows and hops in place before shooting out a barrage of yellow feathers from his sides. This is a good opportunity to get some damage on him so stand in front or behind him during this ability.
Velganos flashes yellow and does a quick backflip before slamming down a yellow AoE around him three times. Each slam will be bigger in size and higher in damage than the previous.
Velganos will glow blue before performing a charge towards a player. This ability can also be countered.
Velganos jumps high into the sky before landing and knocking down any players that are hit. His target location will be indicated by a giant yellow area on the ground. Once landed, Velganos will proceed to shoot out four light beams in each cardinal direction.
Velganos is a very challenging fight and will take quite a bit of practice before players can comfortably beat him. Fighting on Foggy Ridge can be incredibly frustrating when the boss randomly spawns at narrow locations. Positioning is key for this fight as players must find enough space to navigate the variety of abilities. Many players may prefer to attempt this solo or in duos due to the limited spawns of light circles. The more people competing for Power of Light the less room there is for error. Hopefully this guide has brought some clarity to this encounter. Good luck and have fun!
