Twilight Archmage

The Twilight Archmage is the second boss of The Shatters.

A more difficult version of the boss named Nox the Wild Shadow can be fought if specific conditions are met before beginning the boss fight.

Contents

• Stats
• Combat
• Drops
• Tips
• History

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Stats

Base HP: 300,000 ( Boss Adaptive HP Scaling)
DEF: 45
EXP: 75,000
Location: The Shatters

Quest Enemy

Immune to Stasis
Immune to Stunned
Immune to Paralyzed
Immune to Dazed

Counts towards God Kills
Counts towards Humanoid Kills

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Combat

Attacks

Attacks (Fire Portals)

Attacks (Ice Portals)

Behavior

The Twilight Archmage is found in a dormant puddle-like state in the center of a large carpeted room in the center of the Castle, standing atop a platform surrounded by four walkways to make up a larger platform. The larger platform’s quadrants will have invincible Magi-Generators on them, three of which must be activated by carrying Untempered Magic from 3 of the 4 castle wings to them. When 3 Generators are activated, he will fully appear, provide a taunt, and seal off the edges of his boss room before starting the fight.
“Eheh…heh…eheheheheh! Oh, it must have taken you quite some power to bring me back here!”
“But if you got yourself here…then that spiteful doorman has dropped his post! SPLENDID!”
“Yes yes, that is just grand! Allow me to show my thanks. After all, you’ve already brought me the tools.”

Afterwards, the Archmage teleports all players within all the castle wings to the carpeted room he’s in, beginning the fight. He will also despawn all Accursed graves and enemies within a large radius.

Phase 1

Taunts: “Ahhhhh yes…let’s see what fate chose for you.”
“Stay put now, you’ll love this next spell!”
“Now, what shall I conjure up with this?”
“Eeeheheheheh! It has been too long since I’ve felt this!”
“You’ll find that it was…unwise…to wake me.”
“Ohh yes, this will more than suffice.”
“Hmm, how best to end this…”
“Yesss…more, MORE!”

The Twilight Archmage raises his orb and draws power from the three generators around him. Each of the three generators will be orange or blue at random, representing fire or ice, and each one will randomize when the Archmage starts charging an attack. Depending on which element holds a majority, the Archmage will launch a fire attack or an ice attack, signified by his eyes and orb glowing the respective color. He will remain still for all of his attacks, and will only be vulnerable while one is in progress.

After a charging period, he will choose from one of 4 possible attacks for each element, with each one having its own unique incantation that can help predict it. Two of these are regular “Majority” attacks, but if all three generators choose the same element, he will instead use one of two stronger “Nuke” attacks that have the Archmage spread his arms and elevate his orb as an additional telegraph. Each attack is time-based, with the Archmage immediately charging up another once one finishes; alternatively, he will prematurely end the attack and choose another if he takes excessive damage (~10% of his max HP).
The Archmage will always alternate between his two possible attacks for each attack type (Fire Majority, Ice Majority, Fire Nuke, Ice Nuke), meaning he will not repeat the attack he used the last time he got that attack condition. The first attack of each type is chosen at random.

All portals summoned in these attacks are invincible and disappear either on contact with a surface or after the attack ends.

Fire Attacks

Fire Majority 1

Taunt: “Firos Xiflis’TOh Dristatiks Quantinoftus!”
The Archmage summons five Fire Portals rotating along the room’s edges that shoot streams of fire shots inwards to form a 5-armed clockwise spiral. The Archmage himself will periodically fire two 6-shot rings of flame vortexes that inflict Sick and Bleeding, while also throwing out Fire Bombs in rings of 8, which detonate into short-range explosions after a brief fuse time. The Fire Bombs are thrown at close, medium, and far distances on a cycle.

Fire Majority 2

Taunt: “Firos Xiflis’TOh Gantsualo Quantinoftus!”
The Archmage summons three fire portals that rotate clockwise closer to him, periodically pulsing rings of accelerating fire waves and regular small fire blasts. He will also be sporadically launching Fire Bombs randomly all over the arena while firing small shotguns of flaming blasts in a clockwise pattern.

Fire Nuke 1

Taunt: “Firos Xiflis’TOh Wavunwavun Quantinoftus!”
The Archmage releases a chaotic barrage of small fireballs in all directions, which follow turning trajectories. He will also be firing periodic 3-way flame vortexes and summoning 3-shot “rows” of Slowing blue spinners from the walls of the arena, and there will also be 8 invincible fire portals rotating counterclockwise around the arena, pulsing short-ranged fire shots.

Fire Nuke 2

Taunt: “Firos Xiflis’TOh Pridigioc Quantinoftus!”
The Archmage fires two streams of fire waves along the horizontal or vertical axis and summons Slowing blue spinners from the outsides of the arena, as 8 fire portals rotate counterclockwise on the edges of the arena and pulse short-ranged fire bursts to trap players within them. Dense rows of Armor Piercing fire waves then fly across the arena from both sides (matching the two sides that his initial streams were pointed towards), which have gaps to dodge through. These rows alternate between coming from either side and perfectly cover each other’s safe spots, forcing players to weave between the alternating “walls” of shots. The bullet rows will terminate with the Archmage throwing out a large number of Fire Bombs around him. This attack will alternate between firing along the horizontal and vertical directions, or vice versa.

Ice Attacks

Ice Majority 1

Taunt: “Toahc Xifls’TOh Rigroatah Qualtinoc!”
The Archmage starts summoning ice portals in groups of 2 or 4, which fly out in opposite directions while periodically firing 4-way shotguns of Armor Piercing ice waves along the cardinal or diagonal directions. The Archmage himself will periodically fire three faster rings of Silencing icy twirls that rotate in opposite directions.

Ice Majority 2

Taunt: “Toahc Xifls’TOh Puroktis Qualtinoc!”
The Archmage summons a large number of ice portals that start off in a cross shape, but start rotating in alternating directions to form a dense network. The portals will pulse Silencing AoE attacks and periodically fire small bolts and more damaging frost waves in two directions, both of which pierce armor and Silence; the outer portals will fire them in 4 directions instead. The Archmage himself will be periodically firing slow blue stars in random directions.

Ice Nuke 1

Taunt: “Toahc Xifls’TOh Nohsdrol Qualtinoc!”
The Archmage traps all players inside a ring of stationary icy spinners while maintaining a second ring near him, made of three clockwise-rotating “streaks” of spinners. Six ice portals along the room’s edges rotate counterclockwise, firing short-ranged ice blasts in all directions while firing single accelerating purple spinners in unison to create converging rings of shots. The Archmage himself will rapidly fire various “beams” of shots in multiple directions: one type made of an ice wave and several small bolts, and the other made of a larger ice wave and several ice blasts. These beams of shots can be fired in 3, 6, and 8 directions at once.

Ice Nuke 2

Taunt: “Toahc Xifls’TOh Merilmeril Qualtinoc!”
The Archmage summons 6 ice portals that pulse AoE attacks while firing slow clusters of icy twirls aimed at the player, alternating between rotating counterclockwise around the edges of the room and rotating clockwise near the center. The Archmage will also be spawning special invincible Ice Spheres around the map, which grow in size before exploding into directed shotguns of icicles.

Phase 2

Taunt: “Oooh, admirable indeed! You’ve put up more fight than those pompous lords ever did. Let’s put that to good use…”
“BEHOLD! Your new place in my king’s forces!”

At 70% HP, the Archmage goes invulnerable and the screen darkens as the three Magi-Generators around him become vulnerable (but retain their previous colors), attacking with rings of purple spinners that fly in an overlapping pattern. Until one of the generators is defeated, all players will be permanently inflicted with Sick and Bleeding, putting a soft time limit on the phase.

Whichever of the generators was destroyed will retreat into the ground and become sealed, locking in whichever element it had before (signified by colored particles) and rendering it unable to be changed during the Archmage’s attack selection sequence (eg. if the generator was sealed in a fire state, it will then always contribute one fire element during the attack selection for the remainder of the fight). This allows players to slightly influence which element will have a majority, and thus which attacks the Archmage is more likely to use (as well as completely preventing Nuke attacks of one element from occurring).

After one generator has been sealed, the others go invulnerable and the Archmage proceeds to his next phase with a taunt.
“Ehehehhh…huh?”
“You…you impetuous oaf, you sealed the generator! Fine then, let us do this the slow way…”

Phase 3

Taunt: “Inferno, incinerate them!” / “Freeze the life from our guests, Blizzard!”
The Archmage resumes attacking, but during every attack after this point, the Archmage will summon either Inferno or Blizzard, depending on the element of the attack. The bird can’t attack and will either circle the room, circle the Generators while periodically flying between them, idle near a random Generator, or traverse the four walkways depending on the pattern; if a Nuke attack is currently occuring, the bird will also be Armored. The birds are marked by either an orange or blue dot on the minimap.

While Inferno or Blizzard are alive, the Archmage cannot be harmed. Instead of attacking him normally, players will have to seek out and defeat the bird; this will cause the Archmage to stagger, stopping his attack and opening him up to damage for about 20 seconds; players will have a 3 second grace period between the stagger and the Archmage going vulnerable, letting most of the bullets from the previous attack disperse.
“…”
However, when the Archmage becomes vulnerable, the defeated bird will also regenerate, go invulnerable, and defend its master while he’s staggered, forcing players to avoid the circling bird while piling damage onto the Archmage. Blizzard attacks with 4-way streams of ice blasts and shotguns of ice waves, while Inferno attacks with dense shotguns of fireballs and fire waves fired in opposite directions. Both birds will aim their attacks at the Archmage himself.

If excessive damage is dealt in the stagger (15% of his max HP) or he is pushed to a phase transition threshold, the Archmage will prematurely recover.

Inferno and Blizzard respawn every time the Archmage chooses a new attack pattern, meaning that players will have to kill the active bird once per attack in order to deal damage to the boss. If he uses two of the same elemental attack in a row, damage dealt to the bird carries over to the next attack if players failed to kill it in the last attack.

Phase 4

Taunt: “Hmph, you would have made a more competent force than the royal guard!”
But it’s never too late to change that, wouldn’t you say?”
At 40% HP, the Archmage repeats Phase 2, but also summons the elemental bird present in the last phase, which remains invulnerable and circles the map while firing alongside the Generators. Like before, sealing a generator will end the phase; in particular, sealing one generator from each element will completely stop all Nuke attacks from occurring.
“You really are dragging this out, you know. So much for making it painless! Eheheeeeh!”

Phase 5

Taunt: “Inferno, Blizzard, to me!”
The Archmage keeps the bird summoned in the previous phase and summons the other one as well, resulting in them both being active at once during any of his attacks. He resumes his attack pattern with both of the birds, meaning that for every attack, both Inferno and Blizzard must be downed to stagger him. Both birds will also defend him when he’s staggered, although their fire rate will be reduced to compensate.

Note, however, that whichever bird has the elemental disadvantage (ie. is the opposite element as the attack the Archmage is currently using) will be Exposed for the entire phase, making them weaker; if the Archmage is using a Nuke attack (causing the bird matching its element to become Armored), then the weakened bird will become Armor Broken instead.

If players fail to kill the birds before the Archmage’s attack naturally ends, all damage dealt to them is carried over to the next phase. However, if a bird is killed and players fail to kill the other one in time, the survivor will have its damage carry over, but the killed bird will respawn with full HP.

Phase 6

Taunt: “You have far overstayed your welcome! My master can wait no longer…”
“My lord, these souls are yours to reap! COME TO ME!”
At 10% HP, the last Magi-Generator goes vulnerable and the Archmage repeats Phase 2/4, but this time both Inferno and Blizzard will be active to provide supporting fire while invulnerable. Once the last Generator is sealed, the Archmage proceeds with the fight.
“NO!”

Phase 7

Taunt: “I leave the rest to you, my undying hosts. Time is short!”
The Archmage heals to 20% HP, goes invulnerable, raises his orb, and starts channeling as his eyes glow both orange and blue. The two birds will attend him and use one of two attack patterns depending on how many Generators of each type were locked in, during which one bird will be invulnerable and the other must be killed to dispel the invulnerability.

• If two or more ice Generators were locked in, Inferno becomes vulnerable. Blizzard circles the Archmage closely, firing 8-way “chains” of ice shots, while Inferno circles the outer perimeter with dense rings of small fireballs, occasionally wandering into the center of the room while firing rings of larger fireballs and pulses of short ranged fire waves. When Inferno is downed, Blizzard becomes Armored, becomes vulnerable and start chasing players with 3-way shotguns of shot chains, while periodically stopping to unleash a spiralling barrage of ice twirls.
• If two or more fire Generators were locked in, Blizzard becomes vulnerable. Inferno circles the Archmage closely, firing dense multilayered rings of armor piercing fire blasts at the player. Blizzard chases players, firing wavy bolts and periodic ice twirls to its sides, aimed shotguns of ice blasts, and rings of icy spinners. When Blizzard is downed, Inferno becomes Armored, becomes vulnerable and start throwing Fire Bombs in a spiral pattern across the entire arena alongside its regular attack.

Both birds must be defeated to make the Archmage vulnerable.

Phase 8

Taunt: “That’s IT! You brought this fate upon yourselves!”
The Twilight Archmage launches one of two “Finale” desperation attacks, selected depending on which bird was the last one slain in the previous phase, and thus which element the Generators hold a majority of. For either phase, he will be Invulnerable for the first 10 seconds and Armored for 10 seconds afterwards.

Fire Finale

The Archmage divides the room vertically with a line of fire waves as 8 fire portals rotate counterclockwise around the edges of the room, firing short-ranged shots to make staying at the edges fatal. Each of the lines of fire waves then splits into a large number of smaller segments which start traveling around the room in circular patterns, with each segment circling at a different distance from the middle, forming a dense network of rotating shots that players must weave through. The Archmage will also periodically be throwing Fire Bombs, and will also pulse with short-ranged fire waves.

Ice Finale

The Archmage spawns eight ice portals that rotate counterclockwise around the perimeter, firing an extremely dense, randomized barrage of ice twirls and icy vortexes inwards. The portals also fire out spreads of ice bolts behind them to stop players from hiding behind them. The Archmage himself will also be periodically launching Ice Spheres that explode into directed spreads of ice shards shortly upon landing.

Death

When the Archmage is defeated, he will crumple over and stop attacking. He looks up in horror as his orb turns into a dark purple vortex, sucking him into it and sending him to an uncertain fate as his loot drops where he used to stand and the way to the Grand Hall opens.
“Im…impossible.”
“…? What is…no, it’s too soon!”
“Wait, there’s still time! I JUST NEED MORE POWER! WAIT!”

Nox the Wild Shadow

If The Source has been found and destroyed, one additional Magi-Generator must be activated in addition to the original 3 in order to activate the boss, for a total of 4. When the Archmage awakens, his dialogue will change slightly as he assumes his true name - Nox the Wild Shadow - before beginning an upgraded version of his fight.

“Eheh…heh…eheheheheh! Oh, it must have taken you quite some power to bring me back here!”
“I apologize, I would have come greeted you sooner had you not tampered with my reserve generator.”
“Ahhh, no matter. In fact, you’ve done me a service! With the power of four generators here at my fingertips, we can make up for lost time.”
“…and I’m ever the gracious host.”

Phase 1

Nox retains all of the elemental attacks from the original fight, but due to there now being four Generators, he gains 3 additional attacks - two for when all 4 Generators choose Fire/Ice respectively, and one more used if 2 of each Generator are chosen. Note that he will always immediately begin the fight by choosing four Fire or Ice Generators.

Fire Apocalypse

Taunt: “Firos Xiflis’TOh Oolarin Quantinoftus!”
Nox fires two streams of fire waves along the diagonal axis and summons Slowing blue spinners from the outsides of the arena, as 8 fire portals rotate counterclockwise on the edges of the arena and pulse short-ranged fire bursts to trap players within them. Dense diagonal rows of Armor Piercing fire waves then fly across the arena from both sides (matching the two sides that his initial streams were pointed towards), which have gaps to dodge through. These rows alternate between coming from either side and perfectly cover each other’s safe spots, forcing players to weave between the alternating “walls” of shots. The bullet rows will terminate with the Nox throwing out a large number of Fire Bombs around him, with Nox also throwing additional rings of bombs while the attack is progressing. This attack will alternate between the two diagonal axes each time it’s fired.

Notably, this is virtually identical to the original Fire Nuke 2 attack, but with the bullet rows rotated 45 degrees and additional bomb rings being thrown out whilst the bullet rows are still ongoing.

Ice Apocalypse

Taunt: “Toahc Xifls’TOh Londovuk Qualtinoc!”
Nox summons four ice portals that revolve around the perimeter of the arena, firing dense spreads of bullets outwards, firing frost vortexes inwards to create a converging spiral, and leaving behind trails of shots to trap players in a ring. He also repeatedly fires streams of wavy shots in two directions, and periodically throws out invincible Ice Spheres that explode into directed spreads of ice shards. The portals will periodically contract their orbit to trap players in a small circle around him, before returning to their original positions; when in the contracted state, the portals will not fire frost vortexes.

Balance

Taunt: “Equim Xiflis’TOh Twamik Qualtinefin!”
Nox fires two spreads of Silencing purple spinners on either side of himself as a telegraph, then extends two massive bars of flame bursts outwards, which stagnate before rotating in a random direction. 16 portals orbit in opposite directions near the edges of the room - 8 fire portals that spray flames outwards, and 8 ice portals that fire a messy barrage of icy fireballs and frost vortexes inwards. Nox himself will also be periodically releasing short-ranged shockwaves of fire while throwing out both Fire Bombs and Ice Spheres; periodically, he will “refresh” the rotating flame bars by firing another pair when the first one despawns, changing the direction they rotate in each time.

Note that during this attack, since neither element has an advantage, any elemental birds present will not be buffed or debuffed.

Phase 2

Identical to Archmage’s regular Phase 2, but occurs at 80% HP instead of 70%.

Phase 3

Identical to Archmage’s regular Phase 3.

Phase 4

Identical to Archmage’s regular Phase 3, but occurs at 60% HP instead of 40%.

Phase 5

Identical to Archmage’s regular Phase 5.

Phase 6

Initially appears identical to Archmage’s regular Phase 6, but occurs at 40% HP instead of 10%. However, after the third Magi-Generator is destroyed, Nox will say a new line of dialogue before transitioning into a new phase.
“Oohoh, you’re in for it now… Allow me to grant a death only possible by your own intervention!”

Phase 7

Taunt: “Tempest, come forth!”
Nox resumes attacking, but summons a third elemental bird: Tempest, who is marked on the minimap by a purple dot. Tempest follows behavior similar to the two birds before it, but now all 3 birds must be killed in order to stagger Nox. Compared to the other two birds, Tempest has lower HP and is unaffected by their elemental buff/debuff system.

When Nox is staggered, Tempest will appear, go invulnerable, and chase after players while firing rings of stagnating stars that inflict Paralyzed.

Phase 8

Taunts: “I have had just about ENOUGH of you!”
“Won’t you join us? EHEHEHEHEHEEEE!”
At 20% HP, Nox goes invulnerable and the last Generator goes vulnerable, repeating Phase 2/4/6 one last time. All three elemental birds will be attacking the player during this time. Once the last Generator is sealed, the fight will proceed.
“…very well.”

Phase 9

Similar to Phase 7 of his original fight (down to sharing a taunt), Nox goes invulnerable and summons his birds to help him. However, regardless of the combination of generators locked in, the birds will now use a fixed attack formation:

• Both Inferno and Blizzard will be vulnerable, while Tempest is invulnerable and only becomes damageable once the other two birds are slain. The phase ends when Tempest is killed.
• Inferno circles the room, alternating between circling close or far from the Archmage. It repeatedly fires rings of slow fireballs while circling.
• Blizzard chases players while firing spreads of ice blasts, icy fireballs and bolts perpendicular to its flight, and large ice spinners in random directions. Every once in a while, it will circle in place and fire a spiral of icy fireballs before resuming its chase.
• Tempest circles the Archmage while firing 3-way “beams” of Slowing purple shots that stagnate after a delay. When the other two birds are dead, Tempest will become Armored and chase down players, upgrading its attack to a 5-way spread and adding in rings of stagnating Paralyze stars.

Phase 10

If there is an uneven number of Generators of each element locked in, this phase will play out identically to the Archmage’s usual final phase, with the majority determining which Finale attack he uses. However, if two of each are locked in, Nox will instead use a new, special final attack.

Balance Finale

Taunt: “Balance, that’s it! I’VE DONE IT, MY LORD!”
Nox divides the room with a line of fire waves as 8 ice portals rotate counterclockwise around the edges of the room, firing short-ranged shots outwards to make staying at the edges fatal. Each of the lines of fire waves then splits into a large number of smaller segments which start traveling around the room in circular patterns, with each segment circling at a different distance from the middle, forming a dense network of rotating shots that players must weave through. At the same time, Nox will alternate between summoning a dense ring of ice stars at the edge of the arena that converges inwards to trap players close to him, and firing a similar dense ring outwards to push players away. Nox will also periodically be throwing Fire Bombs and pulsing short-ranged fire waves.

Note that this attack must occur as the last attack in order to trigger the “Hard Mode” version of the Forgotten King.

Death

If Nox has not used his Balance Finale attack, his dying animation and dialogue will be similar to regular Archmage, albeit with a different message at the end.
“But the power is all here! What went wrong?! HOW CAN THIS BE?!”

However, if he has used Balance Finale, Nox collapses in a heap, but unlike in the regular Archmage fight, his eye flashes and he simply melts into nothingness while giving players a final warning.
“Ehehuuurgh…”
“…terribly sorry, but I must excuse myself early. I’ve no need to entertain further, a thousand pardons!”
“Unworthy as you are to know what hides beyond, I’ve had…an epiphany. So in case you’ve failed to realize…”
“…I’m not the one returning to a prison…”

Defeating Nox will drop an extra loot bag in addition to the one the Archmage would have originally dropped. Defeating Nox will cause significantly more Accursed enemies to appear in the Grand Hall, and unlock the Hard Mode version of the final fight if he managed to use his Balance Finale attack.

Reproduction

Defended by:
Magi-Generator x3 (x4 in Hard Mode)

Summons:
Inferno
Blizzard
Tempest (Hard Mode only)
Fire Bomb
Ice Sphere (invincible, unique variant)
Fire Portal (invincible, number varies)
Ice Portal (invincible, number varies)

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Drops

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Tips and Strategies

Swaying the ratio of his elemental attacks in your favor is key to defeating him, although which attacks are considered more difficult than others may depend on player preference. In general, Fire attacks are more intense but end faster, while Ice attacks are slower-paced but last longer - meaning that in general, players will have to choose if they prefer “rush” or “endurance” style attacks.

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History

Until Patch X.32.4.1 (Jan 2020), the Twilight Archmage spawned a Test Chest which, when destroyed, provided a chance at loot. The chest has since been removed and any loot will drop directly from the boss upon its death.

Before Exalt Version 2.0.2.0 (Aug 2021), the Twilight Archmage had a vastly different fight and the following sprite:

The Hard Mode version of the fight was added in Exalt Version 2.3.0.0 (Mar 2022).

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Trivia

The Twilight Archmage’s real name, Nox, means “night/darkness” in Latin. In addition. his title as the “Wild Shadow” is a reference to Wild Shadow Studios, the original creators and developers of Realm of the Mad God.
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