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Last updated: Exalt Version 2.1.0.0 (Oct 2021) |
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The dungeon is a guaranteed drop from the Avatar of the Forgotten King, an event that spawns once per realm.
The Shatters Key (
) can also be purchased in the Nexus for 200 
.
This optional encounter has extremely strong attacks, 125,000 base HP, 90 defense, and is 
Armored most of the time, in addition to having multiple invincibility phases that divert players’ attention to groups of dangerous minions. A decently sized group of maxed characters is required to kill the Avatar in a timely manner.
This dungeon is by far the longest dungeon in the game, and arguably the most dangerous (competing with Oryx’s Sanctuary). Even the strongest and most skilled players being at risk of a swift death. Accordingly, there are also vast riches to be gained.
There are a grand total of 22 unique and powerful drops found here: 15 Untiered items, 6 ST items (including the Twilight Archmage ST Set) and a reskin of the Ring of Decades. The Shatters is the only dungeon to drop T14 alternate weapons, and one of two to drop T15 armor.
Most “minion” enemies and objectives have a chance to drop 3 UT armors, some exclusive consumables, and the Ring of Decades reskin, meaning that you have a chance at loot just by clearing. If you can manage to solo the Forgotten King, you will guarantee a T14 alternate weapon and T15 armor.
An even more difficult version of the dungeon named the “Hard Mode” route can be unlocked which can net you greater rewards. In Hard Mode, not only do all the bosses drop double loot bags, but the final boss has the chance to drop the Chrysalis of Eternity - an even more powerful version of The Forgotten Crown.
Completing The Shatters consistently is also required to obtain Attack Exaltations, which are rather valuable due to the importance of ATT as a stat. You will get one exaltation when beating the Twilight Archmage, and another when defeating the Forgotten King.
When you enter the Shatters, you will start in the Derelict Village.
Invulnerable to nearby players, so get to them as soon as possible for safety.
The Bridge Sentinel
The Bridge Sentinel activates once a player gets close enough to it. Most of this fight consists of two “chains”:
Sweeps -> Slow Spins -> Swords
Sweeps - Boss stands in the middle of the room and fires lines of large bullets, along with petrifying flames. Avoid petrify at all costs. There is a gap in the top right that is mostly clear of the larger bullets.
Slow Spins - Boss bounces between the horizontal edges of the arena, firing circular bursts of bullets over time. After this ends, the boss either slowly circles the arena or slowly chases a player.
Swords - Boss creates massive swords in a pre-defined pattern. It is always better to take the “hilt” over the blade of the sword. Pattern can be viewed here.
Jumps -> Pencils -> Fast Spins
Jumps - Boss walks, then jumps on the nearest player, spraying a lot of bullets in the process. The best way to deal with this phase is to count the jumps (11 in total).
** Jump 3 will be predictive, aimed at the nearest player’s future position. The boss can correct itself mid-jump during this jump.
** Jump 6 and 9 can also be predictive, acting like jump 3.
** Jump 5 and 11 will be in an upwards direction, and only be a half burst.
Pencils - Boss stands in the center of the room, and creates swords in a cross and ring around him. These swords are aimed at players.
Fast Spins - Boss bounces between the horizontal edges of the arena, firing circular bursts of bullets over time. After this ends, the boss either slowly circles the arena or slowly chases a player.
For every 20% of its HP, the boss will go invinicible and you must target one of the four towers on the map. It is often preferred to target the bottom towers first, as a destroyed tower will continously spawn Blobombs.
Blobombs are similar to the Avatar setpiece fight. They can be triggered by running over them or by damaging them enough. They will flash before exploding. Watch out, since if you stand on them they will instantly kill you.
When below 40% of its HP, the boss will enter its rage phase, with its own separate set of attacks.
The boss repeats this 2 more times.
The boss will only enter Rage after completing one of the two “chains” as listed above. It is possible to “skip” rage, by not damaging the boss once it hits 40%, until a new chain has started.
After the first rage phase, it can rarely repeat (replacing a phase chain).
Twilight Archmage
The vast majority of the fight revolves around the now-active Magi-Generators. At the start of the battle, they will randomize between Fire (red) and Ice (blue). The amount of generators of 1 element determines the attack the boss uses (e.g. 2 fire, 1 ice has different attacks than 3 fire).
These attacks remain consistent throughout the battle, until you enter the finale phases (at 10% HP).
3 Fire
Popcorns - Creates a spew of bullets in no consistent pattern, which require micrododging. Big shots armor break.
Fire Walls - Fires horizontal / vertical lines of high damage, armor-piercing flames. There are gaps within each line that you will have to dodge. After a while, the walls stop, the boss will fire bombs that will insta-pop if you stand on them, and new walls will come from the other axis.
2 Fire
Fire Spits - Boss fires bombs semi-randomly on the arena, these bombs still insta-pop. All the while, fire portals rotate around the room and fire sickening shots.
Safest spot is in the green carpet in the edges of the room, where bombs will rarely (if ever) land. Stay here for bird phases.
Fire Rotates - Boss creates tentacles of flames, which will force you to rotate around the arena. The boss will fire bombs going one of (Outer, Middle, Inner). It will also fire big shots from time to time, which sicken.
2 Ice
Portals - The boss throws out either 2 or 4 ice portals, which will fire shots in the 4 directions (either cardinal, +, or diagonal, x). Standing on the portals will insta-pop you. The Archmage himself will periodically fire three faster rings of Silencing icy twirls that rotate in opposite directions.
Portal Rotates - Ice portals spawn and rotate around the map. They can still insta-pop you. Weave in-between the portals to win.
There is a psuedo-safe-spot. You can stand near but not on top of the Archmage, of the bottomright area of the green carpet. You will only have to dodge the large, but slow, 250 HP shots the boss fires.
3 Ice
Ice Arenas - A massive circle of shots surrounds the boss and the outside arena, leaving a small gap in the middle. The boss then fires straight lines of shots. It is nearly impossible for melee / close range classes to attack the archmage in this phase.
Ice Nuke 2 - Creates a barrage of bullets you have to micrododge. The boss will fire ice spheres on players, which can insta-pop if you stand on them (plus you also have to dodge those bullets too).
For a given combination, the boss will always use a different attack. For example, if you had Fire Walls previously, you will always get Popcorns given that you have 3 fire generators.
At 70%, 40%, and 10% of HP, the archmage will go invicible, and your main target will be the Magi-generators.
During this phase, you will be Sickened and Bleeding, so end it quickly. Attacking one will cause it to “lock in”, so attacking a fire generator means that the generator will always be fire for the rest of the fight. These phases are not safe - the generators will fire shots, and so will the birds (see below for details).
Many organized groups will prefer the Fire Finale (also detailed below), so they will desire to shoot fire generators.
Each time you destroy a generator, the fight changes.
After destroying the 3rd magi-generator, the fight changes.
The boss heals to 20% HP, and is invulnerable. You will have to kill both birds The bird that is not the element will be attackable first (e.g. you will Blizzard if you have 3 fire generators). The bird that is the element will circle around the boss and fire many bullets. An important thing to note is that Inferno can be stunned (but not slowed), and Blizzard can be slowed (but not stunned).
After both birds are defeated, the finale phase begins:
Fire Finale: Like Fire Walls, but with waves of shots that travel in a circular rotation. These shots will also sicken you. In addition, the archmage will fire bombs during the phase.
Ice Finale: Like Ice Nuke 2, but with more stuff. Ice portals fire extremely dense shots you will have to micrododge, and the boss will fire ice spheres during the phase.
Once the boss reaches 0.1% HP, the death animation plays, and the boss is defeated.
Invulnerable for every 25% of their HP.Phase 1 has a massive variety of attacks, consisting of 4 “stances” and 8 “arenas”.
In addition, the king may teleport. He uses this occasionally to reposition during attacks, or sometimes after a phase ends.
There are 8 arenas that the king can change from time to time. Within each arena, each stance has its own attack assigned to it. For the studious, you can read up on the The Forgotten King page. (Some attacks repeat between arenas, but its still a lot of information to take in).
The most important pointers about the arenas:
This phase lasts until 50% HP.
Taunt: “TRAITOR! FIEND! I treat him as though he were my…own……?”
“ENOUGH! I…I shall not deign to let you vagrants provoke me further!”
After reaching 50% HP, the skull phase starts.
A “Hard Mode” version of The Shatters can be unlocked, which allows more chances for loot and greatly buffs the bosses. However, the steps required are heavily dependent on RNG, making this a very exclusive route.
The first step to unlocking the Hard Mode version of The Shatters is to find the elusive Void Phantasm. It is a small purple minion that will appear very transparent at first, and can be found anywhere in the Derelict Village outside of the Stone Idol’s patrol territory. It has set spawns in places where it would be difficult to spot, such as forests, as well as a tiny chance to spawn among other minions. It is not guaranteed to spawn, so finding it can be tedious. However, once you approach the Void Phantasm, it will begin attacking. Its shots don’t do too much damage and are easy to sidestep. Once it takes enough damage, the Void Phantasm will teleport away, this time rotating along a set path within the area where the Stone Idol patrols. After taking more damage, the Void Phantasm will teleport straight to the Stone Idol, circling it while attacking. After taking even more damage, the Void Phantasm will possess the Stone Idol, transforming it into its accursed variant. Its shots will do more damage, but the Stone Idol will finally be vulnerable. It must be defeated in order to unlock the Hard Mode variant of the Bridge Sentinel. Note that destroying all the Derelict Monuments before killing the Stone Idol will cause the Void Phantasm to disappear. Also, doing this while the Stone Idol is possessed will cause the Stone Idol to be permanently Invulnerable and no longer attack. Both of these outcomes lock you out of the Hard Mode route, so if you are pursuing, avoid destroying the Derelict Monuments before destroying the Stone Idol.
With the Stone Idol and Void Phantasm defeated, you will now fight the Bridge Sentinel’s hard mode variant, Valen the Unbreakable. The fight is mostly the same, with the only difference being that the Paladin Obelisks can continue spawning claymore blades after being destroyed, allowing both swords and Blobombs to spawn.
Upon defeat, the Bridge Sentinel’s true name will be revealed, and he will drop double loot bags along with a few new dialogue lines. This defeat will cause more accursed minions to spawn within the next and will also cause The Source to appear in the Alchemy Lab wing.
The next step to progressing the Hard Mode route of The Shatters is by finding and destroying The Source, a large purple generator found within the Alchemy Lab wing of the Royal Castle. The Alchemy Lab is guaranteed to spawn if the map has a Void Phantasm, so do not worry about the wing not spawning. Look for a poster with The Source’s likeness drawn on it. Behind the poster will be a room containing the actual Source, along with a readable research note on the floor next to it. Destroying The Source will make it so that you now have to activate all four Magi-Generators in the Central Chamber in order to summon the Twilight Archmage, forcing you to explore all four wings. Entering The Shatters with the Magi Generator dungeon modifier is highly recommended, especially in Hard Mode, as this will greatly reduce the time needed to clear.
After all four Magi-Generators have been activated, the Twilight Archmage will appear. However, this time, he will reveal his true name, Nox the Wild Shadow, and use much harder attacks than his normal variant. If all four Magi-Generators use fire or ice, a new attack known officially as a Fire/Ice Apocalypse will be used. Also, since there is an even number of Magi-Generators, a new Balance attack can be used. Note that the very first attack will always be an Apocalypse attack. The majority of the fight is still the same.
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.
The first thing to prepare for this attack is to rotate your camera at a 45 degree angle in order to more easily dodge the walls of shots. Pay very close attention to the Fire Bombs, as they can now appear in the middle of the attack instead of at the end of a series of walls.
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.
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.
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.
This attack is pure bullet hell. Avoid Fire Bombs and Ice Spheres at all costs. Also pay attention to the purple spinner shots in order to know when the next rotating fire walls will spawn.
The best strategy is to rotate with the spirals and pay close attention to Ice Spheres. Do not sit on them as usual. Just rotate with the spirals, avoid the Ice Spheres, and weave in between the shots from portals.
Once three generators have been sealed, Nox will summon a new bird known as Tempest. It is unaffected by the elemental buff/debuff system unlike Blizzard and Inferno, and majorly uses attacks inflicting 
Slowed and 
Paralyzed. During staggers, it will not circle the boss and instead chase nearby players. A few players should try to decoy Tempest away from Nox during staggers as to allow the rest of the group to push in and deal damage. If solo, drag Tempest away from the boss and push in for bursts of damage before dragging Tempest away again and repeating the process.
In order to unlock the Hard Mode variant of the Forgotten King, two Ice and Fire Generators must be sealed, meaning that the final attack must be Balance Finale.
Similar to Phases 2, 4, and 6. Simply seal the last Magi-Generator.
If three of either element of the Magi-Generators were sealed, Fire or Ice Finale will occur as normal. However, if half of each element of the Magi-Generators is sealed, a new finale attack is used.
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.
This phase essentially combines Fire Finale and Ice Finale, as you have to dodge both the rings of ice shots and the spiraling walls of fire shots. Since the rings alternate, it is best to push in and out towards and away from the boss to dodge. Also pay close attention to Fire Bombs, as they can still instantly kill you.
Once Nox is defeated, he will collapse into nothingness after giving the players a final warning. He will drop double loot bags along with a guaranteed drop of The Twilight Gemstone to one player. If two Fire and two Ice Magi-Generators were sealed, the Grand Hall will spawn more accursed minions and the Forgotten King’s Hard Mode fight is unlocked.
There are no more steps needed to progress Hard Mode other than simply defeating enemies, so with a balance of fire and ice generators, you are now locked into Hard Mode. The Grand Hall will be harder due to having more accursed enemies, but otherwise you just have to beat the dungeon normally.
The first half of the fight with The Forgotten King is exactly the same.
If two ice and fire Magi-Generators were sealed at the end of the fight with Nox the Wild Shadow, things change after Phase 2. Instead of the King reappearing, a large crystal will appear in the middle of the room and break open, revealing The Shattered Queen. She will then use a unique attack where all players will be 
Sick for the entirety of the phase.
The Shattered Queen will chase players while firing 5-round shotguns of accelerating crystal shards. At the same time, several Twilight Crystals will appear; one will spawn in the center of the room and generate diamond formations of purple spinners that revolve around itself at different distances, while two will rotate counterclockwise around the room while firing dense rings of purple waves that inflict 
Armor Broken. Large numbers of Helpless Souls will also be periodically spawning from the edges of the room. As The Shattered Queen’s HP diminishes, the Twilight Crystals will begin to despawn, and her shotgun will be reduced.
The first and foremost goal is to of course defeat The Shattered Queen as quickly as possible in order to avoid taking more damage. This makes DPS extremely important. Also, avoid getting Armor Broken as much as possible, as it can cause you to die very quickly if you’re not careful. Drag the Queen around the room and rotate with the rows of shots. The faster The Shattered Queen dies, the faster the phase ends, and the safer you are.
With The Shattered Queen defeated, The Forgotten King will reappear as normal, this time with new taunts and his true name revealed, King Azamoth. His attacks in his Accursed form are mostly the same, with only the taunts changing. The change in taunts can make recognizing phases more diffcult than usual, so it is recommended to learn the Hard Mode variants of these taunts in order to prepare yourself for the upcoming phases.
3A: “They vowed… she cannot be…”
3B: “An immortal name…an immortal name…an immortal name…”
3C: “None of this…none of this can be real…”
3D: “How… how can this be?!”
3E: “Those demons…true demons…”
3F: “Remembered…exalted…unbreakable…everlasting…”
Taunt: “What…is…happening…?! EEAAAGGGHH!”
Azamoth clutches his head and writhes in pain as he performs his usual desperation attack alongside the Shades of the King. However, the phase will now apply 
Exposed for its duration alongside the Sicken and Silence, making all of the shots deal increased damage. Moreover, the phase now lasts for 40 seconds instead of 30.
In addition, he will perodically taunt as the phase is progressing.
“It was never for her to know…”
“…or never for me to have…”
(phase end) “…what have I done?”
You essentially have to employ the same strat as before. Tank blue shots over red shots as they do less damage in the long-term. The only difference is that the phase is harder and longer, but you can still survive this phase the same way as before.
Azamoth goes through his same death sequence as before on reaching 1 HP, with noticeably altered taunts. On death, he will drop two loot bags, along with a very high chance of dropping the Chrysalis of Eternity, a more powerful version of the Forgotten Crown.
The Shatters is a long and difficult dungeon with many rewards to compensate, and an even harder version which can give even greater loot than normal. A true test of bullet hell awaits in this long forgotten kingdom.
