Oryx the Mad God 3

For Oryx the Mad God 1, see this page.

For Oryx the Mad God 2, see this page.

Oryx the Mad God 3, referred in-game as Oryx the Mad God (same as his previous incarnations), or colloquially as Oryx 3 or O3, is the boss of Oryx’s Sanctuary, an endgame dungeon, and Oryx’s strongest incarnation. Oryx 3 can be considered the “final boss” and the most difficult enemy in Realm of the Mad God.

Oryx 3 is the only source of the highest-tier equipment in the game: Tier 14 Weapons, Tier 7 Abilities, and Tier 15 Armor.

(Note that the Realm Eye will only give this unique response when specifically prompted with “Oryx the Exalted God”)

Contents

• Stats
• Combat
• Drops
• Tips
• Trivia

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Stats

Base HP: 562,500 ( Boss Adaptive HP Scaling)
DEF: 75
EXP: 200,000
Location: Oryx’s Sanctuary

Immune to Stunned
Immune to Stasis
Immune to Dazed
Immune to Paralyzed
Immune to Slowed
Immune to Armor Break

Level 1 Quest

Counts towards Oryx Kills
Counts towards God Kills

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Combat

Attacks

Behavior

Standard

Oryx the Mad God is found at the end of Oryx’s Sanctuary in a large, circular room. The room is locked until the miniboss of the present Sanctuary wing is defeated. When approached, he will have his back to the players, his cape billowing as he holds a glass of wine.
”So the chancellor/treasurer/archbishop/chief has fallen… No matter. He will return. YOU will not.”
“Your pointless efforts have taken you horde of blights far, just to die by my sword.”
“You have trampled my minions for the last time! A personal demonstration of my own might is long overdue!”
At the end of his monologue, he will turn around and prepare for battle, throwing the glass at the nearby player as an AoE bomb. On impact, the glass will inflict all players hit with 20 seconds of Drunk. The room will also soon be closed off with a large spiked gate from the single open entrance.

Oryx is protected by three stationary Messengers (the Messengers of Pride, Envy, and Wrath) that are initially passive. They cast a protective spell on Oryx that greatly bolsters his defenses, but they can be temporarily disabled by damaging them enough. Depending on how many Messengers are active at once, Oryx’s defensive ability will vary.

• If all three Messengers are active, Oryx will be Invulnerable.
• If two Messengers are active, Oryx will be Armored (112 DEF).
• If one Messenger is active, Oryx’s defense will be normal.
• If all the Messengers are deactivated, Oryx will be Armor Broken. This is the only way to Armor Break him besides staggering him (see below), as he is immune to Armor Break from all player-based sources.

As Oryx loses HP, the Messengers will start to fire back with radial bursts of black bolts that inflict Weaken. The density and damage of the bolts increases as their lord nears death.

Much like his first incarnation, Oryx cycles through an extremely wide variety of attacks in a psuedo-random order, with additional gimmicks and abilities added in as he loses HP. The order in which he goes through his attacks are known as phase chains, and it is possible to predict his next attack by learning these (see below). All of his attacks have visual telegraphs and are preceded by a specific taunt, which will be noted in their sections. He will also go temporarily invulnerable in between attacks. Paying attention to his taunts is crucial for knowing what he will be doing. No matter what he is currently doing, he will always instantly go invulnerable, move to the center of the room, and transition to a new phase if he is brought to that HP threshold.

However, his fight also uniquely features staggers and counters as mechanics.

• During certain attacks (particularly those that make it hard to approach him), dealing enough damage to him (~5% of his max HP) will stagger him. This is signified by him saying “NO! This cannot be…” in the chat and crumpling over. Staggering Oryx stuns him for 5 seconds, stopping all his current attacks while rendering him immobile, vulnerable, and Armor Broken for the duration, making this the best opportunity to pile damage on him. There is a limit on how much damage can be dealt in a stagger (~5% of his max HP), however, and exceeding it will make him prematurely recover and immediately guard himself (see below).
• However, during his other attacks (particularly ones where he’s easier to hit), dealing enough damage to Oryx (~2.5% of his max HP) will cause him to stop his attack and guard himself by raising his shield as a warning. He will turn invulnerable for one second when beginning to guard, then turn vulnerable for 2 seconds while continuing to guard, and then turn invulnerable again before transitioning to his next attack (if a counter was not triggered). If excessive damage is still dealt to him while he’s guarding (~1% of his max HP), he will release a counter in the form of a global, unavoidable status effect that lasts for a significant amount of time (~30 seconds), which can easily cripple parties who aren’t careful. Additionally, Oryx will instantly launch a random new attack without the corresponding taunt (with the counter taunt overriding it) and remain invulnerable during this attack, regardless of the amount of Messengers active. His counter inflicts one of four preset debuffs at random, cannot be purified, and is signified by a respective taunt, as well as a color that overlays the screen.
  • Quiet: “You are unfit to speak in my presence!” (Blue overlay)
  • Sick: “Carry an everlasting plague like the locusts you are!” (Green overlay)
  • Armor Broken: “Go frail in awe of my galactic strength!” (Red overlay)
  • Weak: “Feeble ants! Your strikes are unworthy to even tear my cape!” (Blue overlay)
• Damage required for staggers, guards, and counters is based on a percent of his max HP, meaning that the more players that are in a group, the more damage is required to trigger them. Due to his HP scaling non-linearly, triggering these mechanics is actually often easier in smaller groups, for better or for worse.
• The attacks where these mechanics are present will be noted in their individual sections.

Each of Oryx’s attacks can transition into two possible attacks afterwards, depending on if Oryx does or does not guard/stagger (for example, the Inner Rotation phase will lead into either Outer Rotation or Slashes if he does not guard himself). If Oryx guards himself during an attack, the two next possible attacks he can perform will be different from if he is not guarded. Staggering Oryx causes him to select a random attack to perform next. An infographic depicting his possible phase chains can be found here.

Oryx can perform between anywhere 2 and 5 attacks in a row before needing to “reset”, where he simply walks back into the center of the room and pauses for a bit before beginning a new chain with a random attack. Note that causing Oryx to guard or staggering him counts as one of the “attacks” in a chain and may cause him to reset sooner than usual. It is recommended to anticipate when Oryx is about to reset to the center of the room as it is an opportunity for players to get in some free damage on Oryx.

The attacks he can use are as follows. Their names are unofficial, and the common community slang for each one is included in brackets:

Chase 1 (Armor Crumples)

Taunt: “Your armor will crumple before me!”
(if Exalted) ”Foul insects! Your armor will crumple before me!”
Oryx crouches slightly and chases the nearest player, firing powerful 3-shot bursts of slash projectiles. He will also be throwing 3-round volleys of bombs on either side of him about every second.

Oryx will guard himself if he takes enough damage during this phase.

Chase 2 (Nowhere to Run)

Taunt: “There is nowhere to run!”
(if Exalted) ”Belligerent creatures! There is nowhere to run!”
Oryx levels his sword and chases players while firing rapid shotgun blasts of large white bullets. He will also periodically release a dense ring of smaller white arrowheads, and occasionally lunge at the nearest player.

Oryx will guard himself if he takes enough damage during this phase.

Chase 3 (Fate)

Taunt: “Accept your fate!”
(if Exalted) ”Defiant scoundrels! Accept your fate!”
Oryx raises his sword and chases players while firing a barrage of spears around himself. He will also be sporadically firing Quieting white orbs around himself while using a directed spread of large arrowheads.

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Chase 4 (Fleeing)

Taunt: “Fleeing is futile!”
(if Exalted) ”Lowly pigs! Fleeing is futile!”
Oryx wraps himself in a purple tornado (gold in Exalted phase) and circles rapidly while chasing players with 8-directional lines of severely damaging crescent projectiles that pierce armor.

Oryx will guard himself if he takes enough damage during this phase.

Shield Chase (Shield Bashes)

Taunt: “My shield is enough to smash you to pieces!”
(if Exalted) ”Miserable mutts! My shield is enough to smash you to pieces!”
Oryx’s shield glows blue (gold in his Exalted phase) as he charges in a straight line at the nearest player, firing Stunning bullets in a cone in front of him. He will also fire large bullets perpendicular to his movement while leaving a trail of stationary spinners behind him. Note that he will frequently and sharply change the direction of his charge to try and ram the nearest player.

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Fireball Chase (Control)

Taunt: “You cannot escape from my control!”
(if Exalted) ”Meaningless whelps! You cannot escape from my control!”
Oryx braces himself, slightly raises his shield, and releases a large number of lingering fireball projectiles that inflict Weak. He then chases players with pairs of slashes and shotguns of arrowheads.

Oryx will guard himself if damaged enough during this phase.

Explosive Charge (Melts/Fury Jumps)

Taunt: “Melt before my fury!”
(if Exalted) ”Mindless brutes! Melt before my fury!”
Oryx wreaths himself in flames and lunges at players while detonating Dazing AoE blasts on himself. Every time he finishes a lunge, he will stop to release two dense rings of white arrowheads.

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Barrage (Stationary Tornado)

Taunt: “Stand back in cowardice, but you will find no safety!”
(if Exalted) ”Disgusting creatures! Stand back in cowardice, but you will find no safety!”
Oryx wraps himself in a black tornado (silver in Exalted phase) and circles in place while firing dense, overlapping spirals of small and large white arrowheads that rotate in different directions.

Oryx will guard himself if he takes enough damage during this phase.

Inner Rotation

Taunt: “There is nowhere to hide!”
(if Exalted): ”Worthless scullions! There is nowhere to hide!”
Oryx spins and circles counterclockwise around the middle of the room (right outside the center carpet), firing rapid overlapping spirals of small and large white arrowheads. This is effectively the same as his Barrage phase, but with added movement.

Oryx will guard himself if he takes enough damage during this phase.

Outer Rotation

Taunt: “I will strike you down!”
(if Exalted) ”Abominable knaves! I will strike you down!”
Oryx twirls and circles counterclockwise around the edge of the map, firing rings of Exposing white spinners while firing shotguns of large arrowheads towards the center of the room.

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Slashes

Taunt: “Every slash shall slice through your pathetic defenses!”
(if Exalted) ”Wretched slime! Every slash shall slice through your pathetic defenses!”
Oryx raises his sword, remains still and repeatedly detonates red AoE blasts on himself while swinging his sword, sending large waves of slash projectiles towards players as well as in the opposite direction. These waves have some gaps in them that players can weave through.

Oryx will guard himself if he takes enough damage during this phase.

Gaze

Taunt: “Gaze at my power, for it shall be your last sight!”
(if Exalted) ”Rebellious wretches! Gaze at my power, for it shall be your last sight!”
Oryx holds his sword in a two-handed position and remains still while rapidly firing gradually widening shotguns of extremely powerful arrowheads at the nearest player. He will also be sporadically firing Quieting white orbs around him.

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Bomb Artifacts (Panic and Scream)

Taunt: “Panic and scream, moments before you are blasted into oblivion!”
(if Exalted) ”Incompetent fools! Panic and scream, moments before you are blasted into oblivion!”
Oryx pulls out a Bomb Artifact and chases the nearest player, while rapidly spawning invincible Bomb Artifacts in groups of 4. These will repeatedly detonate AoE blasts on themselves while moving away from him in a cross pattern (alternating between along the cardinal or intermediate directions). Bomb Artifacts self-terminate after travelling a certain distance.

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Bomb Rain (Splendor)

Taunt: “The ground quakes from my splendor!”
(if Exalted) ”Deplorable slugs! The ground quakes from my splendor!”
Oryx repeatedly stabs his sword into the ground and throws out a massive amount of Sick bombs around him, four times. He will always throw red, blue, yellow, and green bombs, but they are functionally identical. Each burst of bombs has a “safe spot” depending on its color (see the Tips section for more details).

Oryx can be staggered in this phase.

Meteor Shower (Cosmos)

Taunt: “The cosmos shall rain down my wrath upon you!”
(if Exalted) ”Loathsome worms! The cosmos shall rain down my wrath upon you!”
Oryx points his sword at the sky, remains still, repeatedly detonates red AoE blasts on himself, and calls down meteors from the sky, telegraphed by red circles marking their landing spots. Upon landing, meteors will explode into a ring of 6 fire bullets.

Oryx will guard himself if damaged enough during this phase.

Portal Summoning (80% HP)

Taunt: “My dominance extends throughout the universe!”
Oryx summons 4 invincible Portals of Oryx to assist his attacks. They have 3 different orbit distances depending on what attack Oryx is currently using, and attack with single shots, streams, pairs, or spreads of normal or wavy fire bullets that inflict Pet Stasis, depending on Oryx’s current attack. The Portals fire outwards if they’re close to the center, inwards if they’re close to the edges, and both ways if they’re midway. The Portals will temporarily vanish between attacks and whenever Oryx is successfully staggered.

The Portals will persist for the rest of the fight, and are marked on the minimap by white dots. In addition, the Messengers will start firing their radial Weaken bolts.

Dance (60% HP)

Taunt: “Dance, you helpless creatures! DANCE!”
Oryx summons special Bomb Artifacts around the room’s perimeter, which quickly form an inner and outer ring - 12 black ones on the outer ring, and 4 white ones on the inner ring. The Artifacts then start rotating clockwise while detonating red AoEs on themselves, dealing heavy damage to anyone caught by them.

Oryx continues attacking as usual, and the Bomb Artifacts will occasionally switch positions so that the black ones are on the inner ring and the white ones on the outer (although their AoE radii will decrease during the transition to minimize cheap hits), before returning to their standard position some time afterwards. The Bomb Artifacts will persist until Oryx is pushed into his Exalted phase. Note that unlike the portals, the artifacts will not vanish in between attacks or when Oryx is staggered, so some extra caution is advised during this phase.

Oryx, the Exalted God

Taunt: “Before crushing the life out of you, I will show you why my power is utterly beyond question!”
At 50% HP, Oryx will go invulnerable and move to the center of the room before transforming, the tiles in the arena also turning bright to signify this change. His armor becomes silver and gold, and his sword ignites with flame as the Mad God ascends to a new level of power - Oryx the Exalted God.
”Behold, the glory of a god above all others! I am absolute! I am…EXALTED!”

From this point on, all of Oryx’s attacks will visually turn golden, deal significantly higher damage, and most have their patterns buffed as well.

Non-damage Attack Changes

• Portals: The bullets from his Portals are larger and significantly more damaging.
• Chase 1: Shotguns are wider, many more bombs fired at once.
• Chase 2: Bullets are fired more often and in larger numbers, arrowheads boomerang.
• Chase 3: Debuffs from the orbs last twice as long. More bullets.
• Chase 4: Movement is more aggressive, shots are denser.
• Shield Chase: Fires faster, Stun lasts longer, fires 4 side bullets that now boomerang.
• Fireball Chase: Fires faster, more fireballs that cover a far wider area, shoots more shots in wider arcs.
• Explosive Charge: Now also fires smaller rings of bullets while lunging, fires one more ring of shots whenever still for a total of 3.
• Barrage: More shots.
• Inner Rotation: More shots.
• Outer Rotation: Debuffs from the orbs last twice as long, shotguns are wider.
• Slashes: Every slash now fires an additional wave of bullets in each direction, slightly diagonally offset from the original.
• Gaze: Shotguns are wider and fired in two directions.
• Bomb Artifacts: Artifacts are created roughly twice as fast, twice the amount of artifacts are fired before initial movement.
• Bomb Rain: Bombs are more numerous, longer ranged, land faster, and Oryx fires one additional spread.
• Meteor Shower: Meteors are faster, more numerous, and explode into 8 bullets each, but the bullets are slower.

Desperation Move/Celestial Phase (40% HP)

Taunts:
First hitting HP threshold: ”Kneel to your ruler! My strength is without equal!”
Using attack: ”FALL BEFORE MY CELESTIAL STRENGTH!”

Oryx’s armor turns a brilliant whitish-gold, the screen darkens, and he moves into the center of the room, wrapping himself in a pale tornado before Silencing all players for the duration of his attack. He then deactivates all of his Messengers (regardless of their previous status) and starts circling the room counterclockwise starting from the top right, rapidly firing 8-way lines of densely packed crescents which deal severe armor piercing damage (though he will only begin firing when he reaches the bottom left side of the room). At the same time, the Portals of Oryx will rotate counterclockwise around the perimeter of the room, firing streams of Pet Stasis inflicting fireballs inwards to form a spiral pattern (although there are periodic and predictable gaps in the spiral). The portals will also rapidly shoot dense spreads of fireballs outwards, towards the walls. In addition, roughly every 2 seconds, a large number of Holy Beams (telegraphed by red circles) will rain from the sky, dealing armor-piercing AoE damage to targets they land on.

After Oryx has circled the room roughly four times, Oryx will disable his Portals and circle the center of the room closely while firing his radial barrage 6 more times, before moving completely into the center. When the attack ends, Oryx will always be staggered, allowing players to either rest or pile damage onto him.
”You taint the flawless glory of my powers! As I exalt, you shall wither!”

Oryx will always use this attack when he hits 40% HP. If he was in the middle of an attack when reaching the threshold, his previous attack will end prematurely and he will initiate this attack. After he uses it once, he is able to use it as a regular attack for the remainder of the fight, albeit far less commonly than his other attacks. Unlike his other attacks, Celestial does not have any phase chains, instead randomly replacing any of his attacks at a low rate.

Teleportation and Holy Beams (40% HP)

Once his first desperation attack finishes, Oryx will now vanish in a beam of light and teleport near the closest player every time he launches an attack. In addition, roughly every 2 seconds, he will call down a randomized barrage of massively damaging and Silencing Holy Beams to further limit movement.

In addition to his teleportation and Holy Beams, a couple more things will change:

• The Messengers of Oryx will fire denser, more damaging rings of shots that inflict Weak for longer, but appear to activate slightly less frequently. Note that since the Messengers are all simultaneously deactivated at the start of the Celestial Phase, they will also all reactivate simultaneously soon after it ends (15 seconds after the point where Oryx becomes staggered).
• Oryx will be Invulnerable with 2-3 Messengers active, Armored with 1, and will have normal DEF with 0. He can no longer be Armor Broken except when staggered, although that alone makes it harder to stagger him.

Heaven Beams (20% HP)

Taunt: “The heavens are mine to command!”
Oryx’s Holy Beams are now upgraded. Every three Holy Beam strikes (and immediately upon hitting this HP threshold), he will horizontally sweep the map with sequential rows of Holy Beams - either one row that sweeps in one direction (either from left-to-right or right-to-left), or two rows that sweep the room in opposite directions (starting from the middle and sweeping outwards, or starting from the edges and sweeping inwards). These beam walls will do significant damage to players caught in them due to the overlapping AoEs, but can be crossed with good timing. Note that beam walls travelling in only one direction will travel slightly faster than those travelling in two directions.

Death (5% HP)

Taunt: “Despicable mortals! A single realm freed is meaningless! Millions more remain in my grasp!”
Oryx teleports to the center of the room as all Portals and Messengers despawn. Holy Beams strike the edges of each of his arena’s 4 quadrants in order, destroying them and sending them plummeting into a dark void (the beams will do damage, but the vanishing ground can be safely stood on) - eventually reducing the arena to only the cross of carpeted ground. The four carpets will be destroyed by Holy Rays, leaving only the central platform that Oryx stands on - and even the central platform will soon be destroyed (although it can still be stood on), leaving the whole arena as an empty, starry void with planets revolving within.

With a final Holy Beam on top of him, Oryx’s armor becomes dark again as he collapses, completely helpless.
”You will never…be through with me…”
Nothing else can hurt players in this stage. Deal the finishing blow to the Mad God, and he will finally perish, leaving your hard-earned loot behind - but not without a final boast.
”THE REALMS ARE FOREVER MINE!”

Like his second incarnation, Oryx will publicly announce the player that did the most damage to him during the fight.
”(Player Name) has vanquished the Exalted Mad God with X (Y%) damage!”

If that player is not present when Oryx is defeated, they will be anonymously referred to as “A hero of the Nexus” instead of their name.

Reproduction

Defended by:
Messenger of Oryx (x3)

Summons:
Bomb Artifact (number varies, invincible)
Portal of Oryx (x4, invincible)
Inner Dance Artifact (x4, invincible)
Outer Dance Artifact (x12, invincible)

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Drops

Note: One Greater Potion of Life and one Greater Potion of Mana are guaranteed drops for all players that achieved soulbound damage, although there is a non-guaranteed chance for one additional greater potion of each to drop.

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Tips and Strategies

Fitting for the “final boss” of the game, Oryx 3 is by far the hardest boss in the game, making the Void Entity look like Dreadstump the Pirate King. The fight against Oryx’s strongest form is long and grueling, usually taking at least 10-15 minutes and requiring careful concentration throught the entire ordeal.

Initial form

Oryx’s initial form is not that difficult even when compared to the “minibosses” in the Sanctuary, although it is still important to be cautious because Oryx still does a large amount of damage and can easily kill careless players. Keep an eye on the Portals of Oryx in particular, as they can deal significant damage if you sit on one.

With regards to weapon choice, weapons with long range should be prioritized if you are not confident in your dodging skill, as Oryx can get very difficult to approach especially in his second phase. Because of his very high HP and DEF, as well as the high DEF of the Messengers, weapons with high damage per shot and/or Armor Piercing properties are valuable against him. However it is also useful to bring weapons that are good against Armor Broken targets, since the top priority during the fight is deactivating his Messengers, and until he finishes his first Celestial Phase he will be permanently Armor Broken if all three are deactivated and is also Armor Broken during staggers. In addition, since Oryx is immune to most serious status effects, abilities with high damage or passive stat bonuses should be considered.

Filling one’s inventory with a large number of restorative items such as Health Potions and other HP-recovery items is highly recommended for the fight; this applies to all bosses, but particularly Oryx 3, as his fight can quickly become a painful test of endurance due to the difficulty and length of the battle. The abundance of Pet Stasis from his Portals, as well as the Silence on his Celestial attack (see below) both make sources of instant healing very valuable, especially if players find themselves in a situation where they simply cannot avoid incoming shots.

Exaltation

The difficulty of the fight increases dramatically once Oryx becomes Exalted, which significantly increases the damage and number of shots in his attacks, including those from the Oryx Portals and Messengers. Even though Oryx’s Exalted form comprises the last 50% of his health, this part of the fight will usually take up more than 75% of the total fight time, due to the difficulty of dealing damage to Oryx in most of his enhanced phases and the fact that he can no longer be Armor Broken after performing his first Celestial Phase.

In this phase, every single one of Oryx’s attacks can result in an instant death if players are not well prepared to deal with them, due to the sheer damage and bullet density of his enhanced attacks. For maximum survivability, it is critical to have a solid knowledge of Oryx’s movement during each phase in order to not be caught off-guard, especially for his chasing phases. Like with before, each of Oryx’s phases is preceded by a specific taunt, so paying attention to Oryx’s taunts is the best way of predicting what attack he is about to do.

Oryx’s Bomb Rain (“ground quakes”) phase is an excellent opportunity to damage him because he stands still for this attack - if players do enough damage, they can even stagger him for a huge opening. Like with his pre-Exalt form, Oryx will throw clusters of colored balls that act as Sickening area-of-effect bombs, directly surrounding him. These do significantly more damage (180 vs 150) compared to his first form, and the Sick effect prevents healing, so getting hit with multiple sequential bombs will lead to a quick death during his Exalted attack. There are predictable gaps in each bomb cluster that will assist in dodging and allow players (especially melee classes) to do damage relatively safely. If the player’s camera angle is set to 0°, the gaps will be right (red bombs) -> left (blue) -> below (orange) - > above (green) of Oryx. The color of the bombs and location of gaps are in the same sequence every time.

If he performs his Meteor Shower (“cosmos shall rain”) phase when Exalted, it is critical to avoid standing on the red targeting circles when they expire, as taking a direct hit from a meteor is instant death for most characters. It is advantageous to avoid going near the walls, as they could partially obscure targeting circles due to being two blocks tall. The targeting circles from the meteors are smaller than those from the Holy Rays despite being more dangerous. Because Oryx stands still during this phase, this is an excellent opportunity to deal damage to him, although avoid standing too close as he will be detonating highly damaging AoE attacks on himself. Beware of overdamaging - he’ll guard and potentially counter if he takes too much damage in this state.

When Oryx performs his Shield Chase attack, he can be stalled in place by invulnerable Knights using the Crystal Shield or well-timed decoys, which often leads to a stagger. However, this means that the stationary shots he leaves behind will stack up in place. Walking over these stacked spinners will instantly kill characters that are not invulnerable. This is especially noticeable when he is staggered, as many players have attempted to sit on the seemingly-incapacitated Oryx with weapons such as the Staff of Extreme Prejudice to maximize damage, only to instantly die to a stacked shot beneath him - be careful when walking over Oryx if he is immobilized like this.

The Holy Beams that being appearing during exaltation have a larger attack radius than indicated by their targeting circles, so it is important to not stand next to one when they strike.

During exaltation, the Portals of Oryx and even the Messengers can instantly kill characters who accidentally stand on them when they use a wide shotgun attack, so it’s important to be aware of their positions at all times. The portals will change their location and attack pattern each time Oryx uses a new attack.

Even when he dies, you’re not out of the woods yet. Make sure to avoid being hit by the dense walls of holy rays striking down parts of the floor, as they can and will instantly kill unwary players. It’d be more than a little infuriating if you died during Oryx’s death animation, after all.

Desperation Move

His most infamous attack is his Desperation Move (DM) or Celestial Phase, which has been responsible for mass graveyards of maxed players. Oryx is guaranteed to use this attack at least once during the fight when he gets sufficiently low on HP, and can sometimes use it afterwards as well. Players can attempt to weave in between the densely packed, inwards spiraling, Pet Stasising shots from the Portals of Oryx. However, this is difficult to do without getting hit due to the tight gaps, while also having to dodge the extremely damaging shots from Oryx himself - while the Portal shots and Holy Beams are devastating, absolute priority must be given to avoiding Oryx’s slashes in this attack, as taking a single “line” of slashes alone will inflict 645 armor-piercing damage. Getting directly hit by Oryx can often be fatal (especially if combined with the high damage from the ambient attacks), since the Pet Stasis shots from the Portals and the global Silence greatly limit healing options.

Importantly, there are periodic and predictable large gaps between the spiraling shots from the portals (see diagram, WIP). Each portal will circle the room a total of 8 times and leave a large gap of shots with each rotation. The location of the gap is initially slightly counterclockwise of each carpet (in the four cardinal directions). With each rotation, the gaps appear in a slightly counterclockwise position compared to the previous location, until reaching the carpet 90 degrees counterclockwise of where they began, after which the attack ends and Oryx becomes staggered. Players should therefore move with the expected location of each gap, by starting slightly counterclockwise of each carpet, and moving 90 degrees counterclockwise by the end of the attack. For example, if a player starts on the eastern side of the room, they should be at the northern side by the end. By anticipating where the gaps will be, players will not need to worry about being Pet Stasised and can instead focus more on dodging the highly damaging, but fairly predictable, shots from Oryx himself. The most common rotations for consistently completing this phase are starting at the west (left) side and moving to the bottom, or starting at the bottom and moving to the right.

Note that Oryx’s starting position is slightly randomized, so it is possible that he will shoot his damaging shots straight into the gap created by the Pet Stasis shots. In that case it is best to tank a Pet Stasis shot or two instead of an entire shotgun from Oryx.

Do not attempt to move behind the portals, close to the walls, because in addition to shooting a spiralling pattern of shots inwards, the portals will also shoot dense spreads of shots outwards, toward the walls. These are difficult to dodge in that area and deal extreme damage, potentially instantly killing characters who take a full shotgun. They will not shoot these outer shotguns when pausing their inner shots however, so with good timing one can move behind them for a moment to dodge other shots before moving back inwards.

Oryx will always be staggered after a Celestial Phase, providing the best opportunity to do damage to him during his Exalted form. Players can benefit the group as much as possible by using Warrior and Paladin buffs, Effusions of Attack/Dexterity, and switching to damage-boosting equipment (including normally impractical weapons such as the Staff of Extreme Prejudice). He will also not guard himself after recovering, and instead move slightly up to the center of the room and pause for a moment (just like with a phase chain reset). Since all Messengers will still be deactivated at this point, players can keep dealing damage to him for a bit longer, potentially pushing him straight into his Heavens phase.

Ironically, the use of a Celestial Phase is often welcomed those who have mastered its pattern, since his stagger at the end of the phase is one of the few times he’ll be completely safe to approach, making this therefore the best chance for players to do large amounts of damage to him.

Also worth noting is that Oryx is not invincible during this attack, nor will he attack for the first few seconds of the phase. Particularly daring players can actually attack him during his preparation for cheap damage, or even score potshots on him while he’s attacking.

After First Desperation Move

After his first Celestial Phase, Oryx will begin teleporting to the closest player before launching an attack. While he will (almost?) never teleport directly on top of a player, this can easily catch people off-guard due to the swiftness of his teleportation, which may result in a swift death if he happens to use a dangerous attack right after teleporting. His taunts preceding his current attack will come before he teleports, so the importance of being able to identify his upcoming attacks is even more significant past this point, as it will give players an advantage in evading the incoming attack, even if Oryx teleports near them. High speed classes such as Tricksters and Warriors have the advantage of quickly moving away from Oryx if they are not immediately prepared to get close to him.

Holy Beam Walls

When Oryx’s HP gets sufficiently low, walls of Holy Beams will being periodically sweeping across the entire room, as signified by a taunt (see behavior section). Players can be easily put in a bad spot if Oryx begins chasing them in the direction of a moving wall of Holy Beams. Unfortunately, there is not a foolproof strategy for getting past these situations aside from always having a very good sense of Oryx’s position relative to yours, the general location of other players (to predict where Oryx may teleport), Oryx’s forthcoming attack based on his taunt, and immediately reacting appropriately if Oryx happens to teleport to your current location. Very skillful dodging can get you out of a bad situation, but in most cases it is better to Nexus than to risk death.

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Trivia

• If Oryx is spawned in unusual circumstances (ex. from an admin), he will say they following for his opening line instead of the relevant miniboss: “So they have fallen… No matter. They will return. YOU will not.
• Oryx 3 has the highest HP of any enemy in the game. However, he does not actually require the most damage to be dealt to die. With the release of reworked Shatters, the Forgotten King now holds this distinction despite having less base HP, due to Oryx entering his death animation at 5% HP instead of 0%.
• It is possible, albeit rare, to “instakill” Oryx if enough DPS is dealt to him in a non-guard phase when he is already at critical HP (typically a stagger). If this happens, Oryx’s death animation will not play, and the room will remain as usual; the Messengers will also remain alive, but inactive.
• Alongside the Void Entity, Oryx 3 is one of two bosses that are immune to Armor Broken. However, he is specifically immune to Armor Break from players, as he can still become Armor Broken for other reasons during the fight.
• Oryx 3 was the first boss to use a 32x32 sprite.
• Oryx notably “inherits” certain attack patterns from his four confidants fought before him. He inherits portal summoning from Dammah, Holy Rays from Leucoryx, teleportation from Gemsbok, and exaltation/self-buffing from Beisa.
• Oryx’s wine glass attack at the beginning is a reference to the encounter between Richter Belmont and Dracula in the intro of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, in which Dracula throws his wine glass at the ground before engaging in battle.
• Oryx is an interpretation of three of the Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath, Pride, and Envy, as implied by the names of the three Messengers of Oryx.
  • Wrath: Oryx is called the “Mad God” and is often furious at players, having a tendency to insult them in many different ways, both during his boss fights and in the Realm.
  • Pride: Oryx considers himself the most powerful god, as seen in his taunt when becomes Exalted: “Behold, the glory of a god above all others!” According to the Realm Eye, even before his takeover of the Realms, his prowess as a gladiator led to much praise from others, which made him increasingly arrogant.
  • Envy: Oryx cannot tolerate others having what he could lack, such as more power and respect, so he became dictator of the Realms and introduced the curse of permanent death to all his adverseries, out of fear of being usurped by a more powerful being.