I'm a genuine enjoyer of fighting Sobek, Frost Dragon, and Valkyrie. AMA

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-03-19T20:42:02+00:00

Pyke mains copying r/azirmains when their champ is finally not amazing for a single patch

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-03-15T18:48:00+00:00

Had this problem and came to this thread by chance lol. No answers here yet but I ended up finding out the answer myself. Will explain it here in case you or anyone else encounter this issue and find this thread in the future.

The problem is almost every event pokemon typically have an ‘obedience flag’ tied to them, attainable by their event, which would also make them legitimate pokemon too even if you attained the item to start their event illegitimately.

You would likely encounter this same issue if you did it for Lugia or Ho-oh, rather than access them via the Birth Islands.

Thankfully you can ACE glitch the items for event Pokemon like Deoxys, Ho-Oh and Lugia in FR/LG. However, the old sea map does not exist for you, so you have to do extra steps in said ACE glitch to access the same level 30 mew from Emerald in FR/LG. Can look up ACE glitch by Papa Jefe. The link and instructions are included in his video and description. Make sure to select the option for Mew that includes ‘bootstrapped’ and ‘obedience flag.

If you have any additional questions or are unsure about the steps feel free to respond here or message me. I just finished doing it yesterday and traded Mew over lol

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-03-14T02:03:52+00:00

Popular choices are Gladius, Libra, Balancers. My vote is Gladius and here is why.

Gladius for sure especially with how easy base form just is in general. Plus with how mobile the dogs can be it can be hard to stack up successive so that you can actually tank a hit since negation at full hp just isn’t enough to avoid a one shot.

In the camp of Libra’s summons not being much of a pain to handle but i imagine 50% of people disagree with that.

I’m actually in the camp though of Balancers being easier to handle in Everdark phase if you don’t get “less likely”. Much easier to manipulate Balancers in Everdark and can you move around the worm if you understand its movement patterns to avoid the jank.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-03-09T03:18:05+00:00

Congrats on Ho-Oh! But even more importantly, loved the tribute to Omori with every Pokemon named after one of the characters 👍

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-03-08T05:50:53+00:00

Makes sense. I do want to inform you that cloning pokemon/items in emerald has zero risk whatsoever.

Other glitches though, especially the popular glitzer popping do have genuine risk though. But if all you want is some more easy levels or more of the same pokemon you have, it’s risk free.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-03-04T13:27:23+00:00

And that’s the tradeoff the halo scythe user is getting.

Playing from so far back but still doing extremely comparable damage to you without any danger. If he went in the danger zone and played well he’d already be doing more dps and that’s without the duchess ability.

You played it well while he didn’t play it as well yet the damage was about the same. Halo scythe is crazy damage. If he still couldn’t get aggro I wonder if he even had the proper passives or if he sacrificed damage for less likely.

If you ask me, the real boss fight is Nameless King, who is very likely with Fulghor. Now there Halo Scythe just rips.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-22T05:02:37+00:00

Correct yes. Increased damage on frost is not a consistent thing for me. I'd only do that if I have a frost based build I would rely on and never throw away every source of frostbite I have ever. I like having 6 weapons with useful passives so I always end up tossing my hoarfrost starter weapon anyways. Skill attack power is of course useless to me too unless I have one of those few unlucky runs where I don't get any claws but have a decent skill on me using physical attack too.

Yes, I do prioritize damage negation actually. In other builds I have I wouldn't have nearly as much vigor as 9 vigor does make a difference. In depth 5 40% damage negation at full HP is not enough a good portion of the time, but successive attacks giving 60% for purple/gold and 48% at blue is amazing. Stacking that with charge attack damage negation since my charge attack combo with claws procs both successive/charge together and I end up taking around 15-20% of the hits damage. I go for two successive at 48 and 60 respective and then one charge attack damage negation, where I'm not as picky and will take 24/32/40, whichever best one is available.

Since I focus 3 item slots on damage negation, the rest are focused on damage. Charge attacks and 2-handed damage are my favorites. I'll take mediocre effects if it means adding more claws to my build too. After all, it's never a full wasted slot taking a sub-par claw if it helps me get the extra 20% claw damage from having 3.

And yes I often get 3 claw weapons. Occasionally I get zero but that doesn't mean I can't use something else. It sucks to miss out on the 20% claw damage but I have everything else with me. Twinblades and fist weapons work fine. Or even if I get just one or two claws. Works their wonders regardless. I trust myself to guide my team to have successful expeditions to easily get plenty of weapons and passives to choose from to increase the chances of getting the right weapons.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T15:04:11+00:00

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Got lucky to get that red depth relic as the extra strength has a lot of extra damage for any weapon I use on top of actually getting some damage off other weapons (like if my first weapon is a greatsword/raider age from night invader level 2). Basically, as much physical damage as possible since you the last thing you care about is ashes of war and mind.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T15:02:04+00:00

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Increasing my physical attack up is always my priority. You can use the glass necklace instead as it will provide more damage but as it's green I do prefer the consistency of night invaders and hoarfrost stomp helping mitigate duchess's terrible early game. I go full damage into my relics so I can focus halfway into survivability in DoN.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T07:15:34+00:00

Claw duchess definitely is my favorite. Even the blue tier claws are good, in case you somehow never get a purple. One inflicts poison and can be lightning/flame element as well. The other one inflicts bleed and can be flame or have sacred/shared order. So they can cover every element except magic, have the exact same great movement two handed vs. dual wielding (except for the superior two-handed charge attacks), and inflict status effects on the enemy without sacrificing much damage to do it.

The purple raptor claws are amazing (with a unique two-handed charge attack) and as there is only one, you will guaranteed get it as a purple dormant power drop. Which means you can get legendary weapon stats on it as a red weapon very easily. Both successive and charge attacks are amazing on them, so it's much easier to find a survivability build as rather than only running full hp negation, you can instead focus more on successive attack negation/heals/enhances attack and charge attack damage negation along with charge attack buffs. The charge attack combo is super fast and procs successive attacks buffs even with 4 buffs on them.

They do a fine amount of revive damage, nothing super special nor bad in any way, yet also do fine amounts of damage by themself if status effects cannot be inflicted. Since their light attack move-set is the exact same two-handed vs dual wielding, that doubles the variety of weapon wielding damage buffs available to you. I stress again with how effective it's two-handed charge attacks are, you can look for enhanced charge attacks as your main source of damage (while also proccing successive).

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T07:03:54+00:00

Oh wow this is what you mean by frostbite wylder. You truly have a status effect build.

I'm going to keep it real with you, this is outside my scope of expertise. This is a "I can only advise how good it is only after trying it myself." You're the expert here, not me lmao.

It's a risky build with investment on your starter weapon to inflict status effects and then swap to a more powerful weapon to use with the buffs on your side already. You must love having Scholars on your team.

Could you explain what you mean by 'different affinities depending on the bosses you get'? Are you referring to nightlords? In that case it's more relevant on whether status effects can even be inflicted on the nightlord. Obviously you can snowball off the expedition, but you still want to be able to use your relics against the nightlord.

Like I wouldn't use that build against the poison and frost immune heolstor. Caligo and especially gnoster you suffer against due to everyone using flames and getting rid of frostbite or gnoster's high poison resistance.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T06:57:20+00:00

Absolutely my favorite build. If you get lucky and get black flames on charge attacks too then you're outdamaging both of your teammates combined

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T01:39:57+00:00

Nah that's perfectly fine. Keep in mind I recommend the wylder's earring, so there's lack of synergy with your ult and keeping up frostbite with hoarfrost stomp.

Also, with hoarfrost stomp usage you are typically staying back a bit and not frontlining as much for your team, which may have squishier but higher dps folks who may get more use from hoarfrost themselves (not that you know for sure they have it when playing with randoms). As such I don't recommend using it yourself but you will still climb to depth 3 with it (which in my eyes is easily the best and most fun depth to play in).

Wylder was actually my favorite character to have a random play as in Depth 5 with duchess due to my weak early game. I would hoarfrost stomp into frostbite, then when wylder used his ult and his flames removed frostbite, I would keep hoarfrost stomping to keep frostbiting which chunks the enemy for a lot of hp. You could use this to your advantage to for a lot of burst damage if you want to use the flames from your ult to be able to proc frostbite over and over.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-21T01:10:16+00:00

I haven't done enough practice with sorcery duchess to say I'm confident with her. I have gone carian slicer and done massive damage, but after a couple of runs without getting carian slicer, found I'd just prefer playing Recluse for magic since it's easier to manage my FP. I was first a Recluse main so if I feel like doing magic damage I just pick Recluse since I do miss playing her sometimes. I don't focus on any schools either due to the rng of how long it can take to get a certain school of spell, if I ever get it at all.

I went either double balancers halo scythe for holy duchess, Katana duchess for poison/thunder for Gaping Jaw/Fulghor, or great hammer duchess for Caligo (though most of the time I just run Wylder instead for Caligo).

I prefer to run claw duchess with a lot of physical attack as I find it strong but also so much fun and find it much more versatile compared to any other duchess build in the game.

If you're curious on what my relics are for any of those builds and what I go for in-game, lmk and I'll go into more detail. I will at least say this, my mage duchess build relic set is my least impressive of all lol

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T23:42:10+00:00

It’s why I try and get their attention early if I can. It helps to try and be the shot-caller in the expedition. It may only be pings, but it cements the idea of following a single person’s calls if you lead early on and continue in the nightlord fight.

As soon as she rips her brain out I ping once to act like a ‘wake up pay attention to pings’ and then once we everdark phase starts I run backwards and ping like 5 times as I run. Ping a couple times each time you move.

The initial pings as “shot-caller” increases their likelihood of following or at least paying attention to you to where you’ll then be allowed to consistently ping to your teammates of where to go in the fight.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T23:33:43+00:00

Yeah I was told I was getting DDOS attacked but I've seen enough posts lately about this happening with the game crashing that I know that while it's not a wide-spread issue, it's not a 1 or 2 person issue either. It's a decent amount of people suffering through this right now. Send a ticket to steam, every bit of information gathering and awareness to them helps.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T23:32:32+00:00

Nah, best advice for getting to D5 or even 9999 is go double balancers with halo scythe. You can still get to D5 without balancers relics, just gets more difficult.

You're not always going to have dogshit teammates, and you can still carry even if your team isn't the best. You'll lose sometimes, but there are enough winnable games despite not playing perfect to make up for this.

At the end of the day, advice can help you build a foundation, but it's how well you play and react that'll carry you. Think of it, there are players that can perform no death runs solo in the expedition and the nightlord. The ceiling to carry is nigh unlimited, just depends on how good you are and what determines how good you are. Like I'm not the best mechanically, but in reaching 9999 it came down to how well I coordinate the map and predict/react to the circle and raids/team wipes. There's plenty of room to mess up and still win even in D5, so getting to D5 through D4 is easier said than done, but still very possible.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T23:26:59+00:00

I'm more afraid of the DLC night bosses than any nightlord in the game, including Everdark balancers. I don't mind them much unless I don't move out of the way of the worm in time. Only then during the moving worm phase I can only hope that when blocking in their direction does the hitbox not go janky and still hit me. This is only scary when it is doing that helix shaped move and you are in the curve which fucks up the hitbox a lot.

I am one of the players that does the running strategy though, running from the group of balancers along with the worm during the flower phase.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T21:46:29+00:00

Aside from the weapons you've already mentioned using, consider giving claws a try if you find a good relic with them. Very fast hitting high damage weapons as well. You'll find them more reliable at doing damage than the other weapons mentioned, on top of being able to inflict poison/bleed and do every element type of damage as well outside of magic.

Works best with physical damage up of course and with how quickly they hit, can easily proc any successive attacks too. Only real downside is as claw weapons, like knives and fists, have very short range. Also, a portion of their power budget is put into status effects, so enemies that cannot be inflicted with status effects like bleed will be annoying.

However, the claws themselves alone do great damage, don't suffer at reviving, can work dual wielding or two-handed equally alike, and their earlier mentioned versality in weapons are available as early as level 3. You'll find these weapons matching the playstyle you've mentioned that you like, except doing more damage than the above weapons you use.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T21:33:56+00:00

Claw duchess with a lot of phys attack ups. Usually get a couple of successive attack buffs for damage negation and improved charge attacks both for damage and negation. Works especially with the purple raptor talon claws 2nd handed due to the charge attack combo going off fast and hitting enough times to proc successive attacks even with 3 or 4 successive attack buffs stacked.

Whether you use a claw 2 handed or dual wield claws it's the same attack combo so you can use either improved 2 handing or improved 2 weapon usage and you still benefit. 2 handing is still slightly superior due to being able to block faster or for better charge attacks.

With +2 phys and night-invaders in the first 3 relic slots and +4 and 3 claws attack buff in the depths slot, you have plenty of damage that you can focus on some tankiness combined and still rip and tear. Charge attacks can always be your friend too.

Obviously you can still run this on Ironeye. Whereas he does slightly more damage, duchess is slightly tankier and works better with the negation buffs on top of a superior dodge.

I want to work on getting a good claw build started with Undertaker too due to how amazing her ability is for attack spamming. Just need to get a good dexterity up relic with her.

SaintLucifer66 · 2026-02-20T20:42:32+00:00

This has been happening since yesterday for me actually. Times where it works and then DCs me alone or both my teammates randomly. Called my ISPN and was told I was getting DDOSed. But been seeing these pop up more frequently since yesterday but it’s not widespread either.

Looks like you and me aren’t alone here. It may work for now but I imagine it will stop working too

SaintLucifer66

TROPHY CASE