Esben the Unwilling (Rev. 54)

Last updated: Exalt Version 1.6.0.0 (May 2021)

Esben the Unwilling is the boss of the Ice Cave.

The Realm Eye says:
Esben was a shaman of a long forgotten frost tribe during the realm’s great ice age. He ventured into the Ice Cave to perform a traditional burial ceremony on the graves of fallen tribe members, but became lost as glacial movements distorted the cavern’s layout. Desperate for a way out, he used a forbidden ritual to summon a dark spirit. His feeble body was seized by the spirit as a vessel, denying him the mercy of death for eons.

Stats
Combat
Drops
Tips

Stats

HP: 45,000 (+10.8% [4,860] to 111.6% [50,220] per player in Dungeon)
DEF: 20
EXP: 30,000
Location: Ice Cave

Quest
Immune to Stasis
Immune to Stun
Immune to Paralyze
Immune to Daze

Combat

Attacks

Damage	Condition effects	Speed (tiles/sec)	Range (tiles)	Comments
70		6.5	39	Pierces Armor Pierces Players
70		5	30	Pierces Armor Pierces Players
120	Quiet for 2s Dazed for 4s	5.5	33
60	Unstable for 6s	6	36
100		6	36	Pierces Armor Pierces Players

Behavior

Activation:
“Welcome. Come closer to accept your reward.”
“Come in… come in.”

Esben the Unwilling has 4 phases.

Phase 1:

Taunt:
“The ice I throw is of my construction, but when it hits you it means destruction!”
“Ice is cold, blood is thick, you being alive makes me sick!”
“Bad puns I may use to cause offense, but the pain you will feel shall be immense!”
“Icicles, rend their flesh!”
“I will cut you to shreds!”
“Your soul will soon nourish me.”
“Your entrails will make a fine decorations!”
Esben stays in the center of the room, rapidly alternating between the following attacks:

A two-armed spiral of purple armor-piercing shots that will quickly sweep the room, punctuated by dense omnidirectional bursts of orange waves that inflict Unstable.
Rapid barrages of armor-piercing icicles aimed at the nearest player. Projectiles in the barrage move at different speeds, making it difficult to navigate out of this unpredictable attack without taking damage.
Spreads of Grey Boomerangs, each aimed randomly in one of eight directions, that inflict Quiet and Daze. (Despite their name, they do not return to Esben upon being fired.)

The eight Cursed Graves evenly spaced around the room will aim very slow-moving yellow paralyzing balls at nearby players while spawning Icy Whirlwinds that slowly but steadily pursue players. Assign a high priority to the Whirlwinds’ purple confusing shurikens to make sure you don’t land on the Whirlwind itself, which can kill you very quickly due to its powerful shotgun of armor-piercing projectiles.

The four ice walls around Esben will block all of his attacks, but are destructible and may not be present for long.

Phase 2:

Taunt:
“YOU FOOLSssSsss…”
“LOSING…CONTROL…NOOOO!”
“H…help…”
Esben will switch between his human and monstrous states, completely invulnerable the whole time, and deliver some taunts. He will suddenly disappear and the space in which he used to be will begin to shoot rings of purple armor-piercing bullets, each ring increasing the count of bullets in the ring by 1. After that 8 Creepy Weird Dark Spirit Mirror Image Monsters will spawn around the room and jiggle around in place, shooting silver bullets in 5 different directions. Once they are defeated, Esben moves on to phase 3.

Phase 3:

Taunt:
“Please, do not let him consume my soul…”
“End it… quickly! Before he returns.”
“You must destroy me. It is the only way to banish him.”
“I can barely hold on. Please. Do it.”
Esben will transform into a human, become vulnerable, and plead for you to kill him. Nothing can damage you in this phase; focus all your firepower on Esben. Once he reaches half of his HP, Phases 1 and 2 will repeat. The second time he reaches this phase, he will remain vulnerable until only a sliver of his health remains, and he will transition into Phase 4.
Repeat:
“Fools! You though it SO EASY!!”
“You will not have him. He is mine.”
“HAHAHAHA”

Phase 4:

Taunt:
“Noooo! Shades, come to me. Protect the corpus.”
“YOU’LL NOT HAVE ME! ESBEN IS MY VESSEL!”
Esben will become invulnerable again and encase himself in an ice barrier. 8 larger Creepy Weird Dark Spirit Mirror Image Monsters will spawn and orbit the outskirts of the room. They will aim their high-damage silver bullets at Esben, damaging any players standing in the way but blocked by any walls. Once they have been killed, Esben becomes vulnerable for the last time and flees from players, rendered defenseless and unable to attack.

Drops

Tips and Strategies

The destructible ice blocks serve as a shield offering protection against Esben’s otherwise hard-to-dodge attacks. Destroying them will make Esben’s attacks harder to avoid.
Do not let your guard down when you destroy the graves. If you move in to investigate the at-the-moment-stunned Esben, be aware that he will explode into lots of purple armor-piercing bullets.
Before he was reworked to make the fight more difficult, Esben was one of the easiest bosses to kill in a supposedly near-end-game dungeon. He was changed to force Phase 1 to occur twice in every fight, no matter the DPS of the players fighting him. In addition, the Creepy Weird Dark Spirit Mirror Image Monsters now deal more damage and the larger versions were given the ability to attack.
The Esben fight gives a large amount of EXP and fame.