Puppet Master's Encore Guide

(Suggested: Level 20 and 4/8)

Last updated: Release 27.7.X6.2
Puppet Master's Encore Portal
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The Puppet Master’s Encore is the second mini-dungeon released. It is a sequel to the Puppet Master’s Theatre and is fairly dangerous.


Contents


Why & How

Why

Thousand ShotPrism of Dire Instability
The Puppet Master’s Encore can drop two unique and valuabable UT items. The Thousand Shot has a high 200% rate of fire, rapidly shooting single fire shots. While not having as much DPS as other UT bows, it’s quite versatile given it retains the ability to pierce multiple targets. Also, its DPS is not bad, so it can see use in both crowd clearing and boss fights. Meanwhile, the Prism of Dire Instability does not teleport the user, but instead sends out a short lived decoy that explodes into shots, making it more controllable than the Ghostly Prism.

Magic WandLightshow Scepter
This dungeon can drop half of the pieces of the Court Magician Sorcerer Set, specifically, the weapon and ability. The Magic Wand has low damage, but has shots that boomerang. This may seem impractical, but could see use in crowd clearing for accuracy. The Lightshow Scepter can be seen as an upgrade to tiered scepters in terms of crowd clearing, as the scepter does the same amount of damage as the T6 Scepter of Storms, but doesn’t decrease per target.

Potion of AttackPotion of DefensePotion of Mana
This dungeon can also serve as a source of Potions of Attack, Potions of Defense, and Potions of Mana. Although not the main reason it should be run, the potions are still nice loot to get.

Jaco Pet Stone
The boss has a rare chance of dropping the rare Jaco Pet Skin.

How

Janus the Doorwarden

The Puppet Master’s Encore is a mini-dungeon, which can be accessed via the Court of Oryx. The court is dropped by Janus the Doorwarden. To fight him, one must clear all of the Suits of Armor in Oryx’s Castle (all located in the hallways before the courtyard room). Inside, the friendly NPC Craig will spawn a portal to 4 Court-exclusive dungeons, including the Encore.

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Best Classes to use

Wizard

Wizard
The wizard excels in this dungeon. His range combined with high damage output allow him to gain soulbound with ease.

Priest

Priest
Although not as powerful as the wizard, the priest can heal himself, which allows him some much needed survivability during the Pain and Chaos puppet phases.

Necromancer

Necromancer
With decent staff damage you can run the Encore fairly well. The only clusters of enemies will be the Trickster’s clones so a high tiered skull is preferable. A Skullish Remains of Esben can also help by slowing Pain and Chaos.

Assassin

Assassin
The assassin is able to do decent damage to the boss with his 5.2 range and can use his poison ability, which is especially helpful during the Trickster, Pain, and Chaos puppet phases.

Archer/Huntress

ArcherHuntress
With a Doom Bow you will be able to get soulbound easily. Without, you’ll have a slightly more difficult time. Slow and Paralyze the Pain and Chaos puppets to make the phases a bit easier for everybody.

Knight

Knight
If you can dodge well Knight is a good choice as always. In small groups you will not be able to do as much on the Puppet of Pain but you can stun the Puppet of Chaos. High Def and fast regeneration can definitely help, particularly during the Pain and Chaos phase.

No class sucks at the Encore, a slowing ability like Scepter of Fulmination or Orb of Sweet Demise/Orb of Aether definitely reduces the danger presented by the fast-circling minions. Piercing weapons are not necessary - they are mostly single targets except for the Trickster clones. If you can dodge and circle you should mostly be fine.

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Layout of The Puppet Master's Encore

Like all mini dungeons, there is only one room. The boss is in the center.

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Boss

The Puppet Master (Encore)

The Puppet Master (Encore)

He swore that he would return in an encore when we defeated him in his theater. Now he’s back, less colorful, extra angry, and extra deadly.

  • He has a towering 110,000 HP and 60 DEF.
  • He is immune to Stun and Stasis.
  • He shoots a lot of bullets. A LOT.
  • And he’s back to turn you into a puppet.

Get ready to experience the true bullet hell.

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The Fight

The fight is organized into six phases. All of them will hurt if you don’t dodge bullets. Try not to be one of those many so-called heroes who became lifeless slaves of the Puppet Master.

Phase One: Awakening Phase

Upon entering the dungeon, the Puppet Master will introduce himself to you and spawn four puppets which won’t really do anything for a while. Then, he will rapidly aim and shoot out pulses of 16 fast moving, omnidirectional green bullets, which don’t do much damage to a character with maxed def, but inflict Pet Stasis Pet Stasis. Try to avoid these shots, as they can slowly whittle down your health. He also periodically spawns Cursed Blasts that throw themselves at the nearest player and inflict 90 armor-piercing damage, as well as Yellow Swirl Dazed for 2 seconds.

If damage is not dealt quickly enough, he fires a pattern of widening blue bolts that do 80 dmg, alternating between the north and south poles of the room. These bolts can be dodged if you back up far enough. An easy way to dodge these with ease and hit him is to stay to his left/right and simply strafe upwards or downwards, the only thing he is aiming at you is the Cursed Blast. In a large group, this blue bolts phase is usually skipped over, as damage is dealt to him very quickly. He is vulnerable throughout this entire phase, and will move onto the next phase once sufficient damage has been dealt to him.

Phase Two: Huntress

The Puppet Master will continue firing his pet-stasis green shots, but they now move in a slow, spiraling clockwise pattern and do less damage (55 instead of 70 to a character with 0 def). He also continues spawining Cursed Blasts. He becomes invulnerable and activates the Huntress Puppet (bottom left), and stays Mithril Shield Invulnerable until the Huntress Puppet has been killed. The Huntress’s warning of activation is when she begins flashing yellow. It is highly advised not to stay right next to her, as she can pack a powerful punch without warning. She will begin to slowly chase the nearest player while quickly firing arrows similar to the shots of a Coral Bow (they’re even purple!). These arrows can be dodged with ease by simply strafing side to side or even circling, although you should continue to avoid the Puppet Master’s green spiral bullets as well. However, when you’re in a group, she may turn to aim at another player next to you, causing you to run into her arrows. In general her shots become harder to predict in a group. You can’t even try to hide from her shots in a crowd because they pierce; this is problematic when the crowd is so big you can’t see them. The player closest to her controls her aim. She also periodically spawns stationary traps that explode into a ring of 8 bullets after a delay when walked over (similar to Blobombs) These bullets inflict Red Down Arrow Slowed, which can put you at the mercy of the Huntress’s rapid firing bow if you have the bad luck to be sitting next to her. As she becomes closer to death, she enters her rage phase, firing 4 omnidirectional large “Doom Bow” shots in addition to her arrows, which are fired less frequently but do 150 armor-piercing damage (which HURTS). If you can’t pay attention to anything else, make sure to AVOID THESE SHOTS AT ALL COSTS. Carefully circle the edges of the room while avoiding the green bullets and any lingering traps. Once she is killed, the Puppet Master moves on to his next Angered phase.

Angered Phase

This phase is identical to the awakening phase and similar to later angered phases, which are all activated after the puppet(s) of the previous phase are killed; rapid pulses of harder hitting green bullets are fired alongside Cursed Blasts. However, this time the “blue bolts” phase seems to be unskippable, unlike during the Awakening phase.The Puppet Master is once again vulnerable in this phase, and will move onto the next phase after taking sufficient damage.

Phase Three: Tricksters

The Trickster Puppet also flashes yellow, signaling its activation. It then spawns several (max# unknown, around 4?) puppet clones, “decoys”, if you will, which he will replace if you kill one. The puppet clones are much slower than the huntress, so it’s easier to dodge their short ranged shotguns, but try not to get pinned to a wall. The Trickster itself packs a whopping 40,000 HP, and in the beginning, it dances around sporadically, seeming to chase the player while firing a rather painful piercing 150 dagger shot and throwing similarly hurtful grenades, making it unwise to keep still. Once his health drops low, he also flashes red and enters a rage phase in which he seems to attempt to disguise himself among his puppet clones while firing the same type of 4-directional shotguns as them. However, he can be distinguished from his clones as his shotgun shots are smaller lighter blue, and he continues throwing that grenade. It’s like seeing a trickster with a skin spawn a decoy, except the decoy and the character look hilariously different. In a large group with high DPS, all the puppets usually get shot down anyways. Once you successfully kill the real Trickster Puppet, The Puppet Master will enter his Angered Phase .

Phase 5: Angered Phase

Identical to the previous angered phase.

Phase Four: Pain and Chaos Puppets

This phase is most famous for killing many players. This deadly duo will circle the room; slowly at first, but going faster bit by bit as they take more damage. These puppets fire some of the most painful attacks in this dungeon. The Puppet of Pain fires spiky red shots that do 150 base damage and inflict Blood Drop Bleeding for 2 seconds, while the Puppet of Chaos fires 2 shots: a pink bolt that does an armor piercing, painful 150 damage and a purple tornado like shot that inflicts Swirl Confused for 2 seconds. So Pain=bleeding, and Chaos=confusion. Great names, huh? Another thing to note is that Pain is immune to Gold Five Pointed Star Stunned, but not Paralyzed Icon Paralyzed, while Chaos is immune to Paralyzed, but not Stunned. This means that Knights and Archers/Huntresses are very helpful for debuffing these puppets. Just remember to Paralyze Pain and Stun Chaos. When fighting them, it is preferable for many to stay in one corner and shoot at them as they race by. Some brave people try to run alongside them as long as they can, as by keeping up with the puppets they can land more shots. This is very dangerous, as when you do this, you sacrifice your ability to dodge many of their painful bullets, and confuse can be DEADLY when running that fast. Also, they will definitely outrun you in the later phases (unless you have the Green Up Arrow Speedy buff). The Chaos puppet also runs in a larger and larger circle until by the time he’s almost dead, he’s hugging the walls, making trying to hide in the corners useless. For this reason, try to focus him down first. Once you’ve killed both puppets, the Puppet Master enters his final rage phase.

Rage Phase

The Puppet Master will begin to fire, like always, his pulses of pet stasis and his cursed blasts. However, this time he fires blue bolts that do less damage but cover a very wide area, and he adds a grenade that makes it difficult to stay still if you’re soloing. He is also vulnerable here. Burn him down until he explodes and leaves behind your loot, then exit.

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Conclusion

The Puppet Master’s Encore is a source of unique items and a true bullet hell.

Have fun trying not to become a puppet slave and good luck on the whites.

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