Here’s a link to a Video Guide for the Parasite Chambers in case you don’t have time to read the entire Guide below: link
There is really no perfect group composition for the Parasite Chambers. Because of the scaling HP, it doesn’t really matter how many players you bring. However, there are a couple of things that you may want to consider.
Rushing the dungeon is highly unadvised. Not only does it lead to higher possibilities of enemies breaking into the boss room during the fight, taking down the Colonies actually weakens the boss. In addition, all the enemies give absurd amounts of XP: meaning that clearing is extremely profitable.
Remember that due to the HP Scaling in effect, the Parasite Chambers values individual power over numbers. A small number of maxed players will run over the relatively weak enemies with no problem, while a large group of moderately-powerful players may struggle with the buffed enemies. It is not recommended to enter a Parasite with a huge group: limit the group size to a maximum of 20.
The dungeon drops some pretty nice gear for your troubles. The Colony-type enemies have a small chance to drop Attack Potions, and both of the bosses drop Mana for several players. Of course, the real deal are the Untiered Items: a Spell with uniquely lingering shots, a Scepter with incredible single-target damage, and a Tome with damaging properties, all of which drop at surprisingly high rates. Also found here are a number of powerful ST items, which are parts of the Flesh Collector and Horrific Sorcerer Sets - it’s the only dungeon to drop ST items from multiple sets.
Loot aside, this dungeon has one of the highest XP rates of any dungeon in the game, with the majority of the enemies giving more XP than Gods and the boss itself giving more XP than nearly any other boss. So, anybody that either wants a quick (if risky) leveling or just wants to get more Fame is advised to consider doing this dungeon.
Entrances to the Parasite Chambers are sometimes dropped by Scout Colonies, relatively uncommon enemies that are scattered throughout the Highlands. There are only a limited amount of them per Realm and they can be found in unique, infected setpieces.
The Scout Colonies are moderately powerful and are protected by a number of Parasite enemies. Once the actual Colony is defeated, it has a chance to drop a portal to the Chambers.
The Dungeon has a rather simple layout, consisting of rooms linked by hallways blocked off by destructible walls. There will always be exactly 3 dead ends in any Chambers (not counting the spawn room and sometimes the boss room), each of which could possibly be a Treasure Room. Beware: the enemies can detect you through and fire through the walls!
The majority of the enemies in the dungeon have HP Scaling properties. This means that they gain HP depending on how many players there are in the dungeon. As mentioned above, keep this in mind before you call a massive horde of players to it.
One of the most unique mechanics in the dungeon are the inclusion of Exploding Barrels. There are a number of respawning barrels scattered throughout the dungeon, marked by orange dots on the minimap. Except for the spawn and Treasure Rooms, each room will have at least 1 barrel in it. When a player bumps into a barrel, it is sent flying in the opposite direction of the player that pushed it, exploding after it strikes a wall, an enemy, or simply upon reaching its maximum range. The explosion is deadly to enemies: anything hit will take 900-1100 Armor-Piercing damage and be Armor Broken for 3 seconds, while having their invulnerability removed. However, if a player gets hit, they are the ones that will get Armor Broken for 3 seconds (but not take damage). After being launched, they will respawn in several seconds.
Using the barrels effectively is key to beating this dungeon. A number of the enemies have absurdly high defense and indefinite invulnerability, so the barrels are the only way to take them down. However, if used incorrectly the Armor Break could spell death for your entire party. Since there will always be people that either dont know how to use them properly, people that try to troll by launching them into players, or simply people that launch them by accident, keep an eye on all barrels at all times.
Typical run-of-the-mill enemies you will encounter in the dungeon.
Difficulty: Medium
Typical close-range units that will try to run at you and clobber you with short-ranged shots. They can easily be beaten by backpedaling, but don’t try to tank them: they can hurt.
Difficulty: Low
Ranged attackers that will pepper you with rapid spreads of arrows, much like a real Archer or Huntress would. While it does look intimidating, the arrows do little damage: the only time you should watch out for them is if you are not maxed in defense or are Armor Broken.
Difficulty: Low
These guys have much longer range than the majority of the enemies and will try to snipe you with single, high-speed bullets. Their shots are hard to dodge but don’t hit hard, so don’t mind too much if you’re hit by several.
Difficulty: Low
The in-between of the Hosts that attack with rapid mid-ranged shots. Still not really a threat due to the below-average damage of their shots.
Difficulty: Low
A long-distance attacker with extremely fast shots. They churn out a ton of bullets in a short time, but like their bow-wielding brethren do low damage per shot. If you have maxed defense, don’t worry. If you’re Armor Broken, stay away from them.
Difficulty: Low
A mid-ranged attacker with moderately powerful piercing slashes. They move quickly and dodge your shots by circling you. Blocking this using a wall is the fastest way to put them to rest.
Difficulty: Medium-Very High
Extremely fast enemies that will run at you and explode in your face. Their shots slow and inflict substantial damage: enough that they can instantly kill lightly armored characters should they explode on them. Since they have deceptively high health, don’t bother trying to kill them: just try to avoid their blast. Be very careful when clearing the path between rooms as these pests can move through the obstacles, leaving you with very little time to react. Tanking all their shots can mean instant death for an unmaxed character.
Difficulty: Low
More of a hazard than anything, these things are scattered everwhere. When killed, they will explode into a ring of Quieting waves. Since their blast is rather spread out, it is easily avoided, but never stand directly on one: their waves deal rather high damage per hit.
Difficulty: Medium
These enemies are liberally scattered throughout the dungeon and are summoned by the Blob Colony. They have different health values (from least to most HP: Scout, Normal, Guardian) but all do the same damage and have the same attack: a shotgun of Sickening bullets. They are not a threat individually, but will swarm you without hesitation, at which point their damage begins to stack up due to your disabled healing. Don’t let them pile too much damage on you and you should be fine.
Difficulty: Medium-High
These guys are significantly more threatening than the previous couple of foes. They pack decent health and use highly damaging pairs of shots while chasing you down. From medium range, they can’t even hit you and you can just fire away. But at point-blank range, their shots hurt a lot. Simply backpedal and don’t let them get too close, and you should be able to kill it.
Larger, more powerful enemies that are more liable to kill you. Approach with more caution.
Difficulty: Very High
These nasty enemies attack with nonstop shotguns of blue bullets that shred right through players. Each bullet deals extremely high damage - 140 base each - so eating the shotgun will spell a swift death for even melees. Because it’s piercing, don’t even try hiding behind teammates. Fortunately, its shotgun is far less dangerous at long range, so feel free to engage it from there.
Difficulty: High
A deadly enemy that aggressively chases down players while rapidly firing single shots that deal extremely high damage. Despite only having one shot, its firepower is immense and must not be underestimated. In addition, it constantly detonates deadly explosions around itself to make sure nobody can get close to it. Melees, stay out of this: each explosion hits for 110 base damage, and it detonates about 2 per second. Since it only has 1 shot, zigzagging backwards is highly effective in deterring them.
Difficulty: Very High
The appropriately-named Horror Maw is arguably the deadliest normal enemy in the dungeon. Packing the highest HP of a normal enemy (4000), this beast utilizes one of the oddest shot patterns the game has to offer: namely, firing a 4-round burst of red bolts that curve outwards before converging on a single point. Needless to say, this attack is rather hard to dodge and incurs massive damage, especially if you are unlucky enough to be at the intersection of the shots. Fortunately, it has a blind spot in front of it. Unfortunately, it has an extremely dangerous shotgun that it fires to ward people away from said blind spot. Their shot is so complex, however, that the Horror Maw itself seems to struggle with it: simply standing still will result in you being too close to get hit by the curving shots, and too far away to trigger the shotgun. For those unwilling to commit to this stressful strategy, the easiest way to deal with them is still from far away, while retreating.
Stationary enemies that have a variety of abilities. They all have a couple things in common thought: they have high HP, immense defense and permanent invulnerability. In other words, the main reason to use the Explosive Barrels.
The more colonies you kill, the easier the boss fight is, so kill any one you see!
Difficulty: Medium-High
These enemies will attack with aimed Red Bombs that deal relatively high damage. That’s not the main threat, however: that would be the swarms of Parasitic Blobs and Blob Guardians they spawn in periodically. Since they are thrown out in such large numbers, it is easy to get bombarded by their Sickening shots and chunked for a huge amount of health. Don’t assume that they will just circle idly around it: the Blobs will occasionally give chase to the nearest player. Nonetheless, piercing weapons are great for clearing out the Blobs, and the Explosive Barrels are especially effective against the Blob Colony since it will heavily damage its swarm of minions as well. Melees are not recommended to attack this, as the swarm of Blobs will rapidly shred players that get close enough.
Difficulty: Medium-High
These things do not have any actual attacks. Instead, they rely on a small squad of invincible Pterasites to defend itself. The Pterasites carry bombs, and will fly at players attempting to drop the bombs on them. Once dropped, the bombs will have a priming time of about half a second before exploding into a ring of Slowing shots, and the Pterasite will return to the Colony to retrieve another bomb. The Pterasites are not too dangerous, but the explosions from their bombs will inflict serious damage if stood on. Stay wary: the Colony itself can manually lob Pterasite Bombs at players. Also make sure to go straight for the Colony: the Pterasites and their bombs are invulnerable.
Once the Colony is destroyed, the remaining Pterasites will idly hover while firing Bleeding shots in all directions, but they do so little damage that they can be safely ignored. Just wait a few seconds and they will despawn on their own.
Difficulty: Medium-High
This is likely the deadliest of the Colonies due to the fact that it can physically attack you. When it sees a player, it will begin firing parametric bullets in all directions, forming a swarm of Quieting, highly damaging shots around it. It will then begin targeting the nearest player with directed shotguns. These colonies are extremely difficult to take down with melees, so ranged characters should step in and snipe it from afar: the actual range its swarm can hit from is rather low. Simply sidestepping will be sufficient enough to avoid its directed attacks.
This massive, grotesque beast is the resident Dungeon Boss. While it is not extremely hard, per se, it’s still not a boss to be underestimated. Packing 100,000 base HP, several unique attacks, and a whopping 5000 DEF, this boss punishes those who don’t know how to deal with it but rewards those who have knowledge about its various exploitable flaws.
Before even attempting to fight the Colony, make sure there are no enemies in the vicinity, especially if someone has rushed the dungeon. Enemies breaking into the boss room while the fight is in progress can be disastrous and lead to a quick death.
The Colony is immobile and is found at the top of a large room with 2 Explosive Barrels in it. It is flashing blue, invulnerable, and will not attack until it is first hit by a barrel. In between attacks, the Colony will go invulnerable, meaning it will be have to be hit with more barrels. Since the Colony boasts 5000 DEF, using the barrels to Armor-Break it is the main way to make it take reasonable damage. However, be extremely careful: the Barrels can break your armor as well, so keep an eye on them at all times!
Once the fight begins, a invincible maw in the center of the room will begin firing radial bursts of Pet Stasising bullets and aimed greyish bombs that inflict Quiet. The shots only inflict 10 damage apiece but inflict detrimental status effects. However, there is a way to alleviate this: the maw fires slower depending on how many of the smaller Colonies you have killed. Thus, clearing out all the enemies will reduce the rate at which the maw fires, and as such will decrease the frequency of the status effects.
When first activated, the Nightmare Colony will fire wide spreads of pink bullets as an opening attack. These are easy to dodge but inflict very high damage apiece, so be careful. After taking enough damage, it will begin using several other attacks in a predetermined order.
The Colony fires spreads of pink shots at a faster pace and a higher density than before. Because there are so many bullets, dodging becomes much harder. If you can micrododge through them, this phase should not be a problem. Don’t hesitate to move out of the boss room to heal if the fight gets too intense at this point.
The Colony will fire 4 streams of whitish shots that sweep the area, along with directed spreads of Red Bombs. The bombs can be avoided through vertical movement, but the streams are extremely dangerous, especially if you get Armor Broken as it will incur almost-instant death. Just move with the streams and try to avoid the bombs: if you can’t, don’t worry since they don’t do too much damage. Moving out of the boss room in this phase is harder, as you should not attempt to cross the bone streams. If you are not confident you can survive the whole phase, you can do one sweep of the room before stepping out, then stepping back in once the the streams have completed a whole back and forth again.
The maws on the wall open and begin firing rows of spinner-like shots that inflict high damage and Weak. The shots are fired in a way that there are always openings in the rows moving in a zigzag pattern, so players can dodge through those. Never tank the walls though: they hurt a lot. In this phase, dodging the quiet and pet stasis is not so important: focus on staying in the gaps and nothing bad can happen to you.
After the opening attack, the Colony will use the attacks in this order as it loses health:
If you know how to dodge its 3 main patterns, then you should be set for the fight. Eventually, the Colony will perish and leave your loot in tow. All that’s left to do is to hope for the best!
Note: It is possible to do the boss completely using barrels, shown as per this video: link
Each of the dead ends of a Parasite Chambers has a chance to contain an Infested Chest. They are found in small circular rooms which bear an uncanny resemblance to a Guild Hall. In the center of the room resides an Infested Chest. The Chest has above-average base HP, cannot attack, and has a chance to drop anything the Nightmare Colony could have dropped, so it is in essence a pinata for loot.
However, the main danger comes from the group of Blood Slurps that surround the Chest. Once they see a player, they will immediately attack with a combination of radial and directed bursts of shots that inflict deceptively high damage. Be careful around them, and don’t tank anything they fire. Obviously, it is advised to clear them out before attacking the Chest, but in larger groups some may not wait for that. If you feel it is necessary, then stay at a distance from the Blood Slurps and attack the Chest.
There can be a maximum of 3 Treasure Rooms per Chambers, so it is worth it to hunt for them after the boss is defeated.
Overall a challenging, rewarding dungeon that’s not extremely hard but is a ton of fun.Always watch out for enemies when clearing corridors, as they can move through the obstacles and rip you apart in seconds. If you’re not prepared, especially for the Barrels, expect the dungeon to tear you a new one for the first few times. But once you’ve gotten the hang of it, it’s not as hard as you think. Bring an averagely large group, clear out the dungeon for the insane XP rates, kill the boss and hope to get loot!
