____ ___ _ ____ __ __ _____ _ ____ _____ ___ _____ _____ | __ \ / _ \ | | | _ \ | || || ___ \|// __| | ___| / _ \ |_ _|| ___ | | __ <| _ || |__ | |_> || -- || / \__ \ | |__--| _ | | | | ___| |____/|_| |_||____||____/ \____/ |_|\__\ |____/ |_____||_| |_| |_| |_____| BALDUR'S GATE: DARK ALLIANCE--NINTENDO GAMECUBE Baulder's Gate Dark Alliance Boss FAQ by Kevin Zhu (nucleargamer12) Visit my site for more walkthroughs and guides: http://www.g-cubed.co.nr =============================== ***1: Introduction--About Me*** =============================== My Email Adress is nucleargamer12@gmail.com. Please send me feedback and stuff regarding the document. This is a short FAQ, so I will not get into details. To find specific bosses within the guide, type Ctrl+F and type the entire name of the boss you are looking for. ===================== ***Version History*** ===================== V. 1.2 10/28/04 Updates: My Email no longer works, so I have an alternate address. Added my website URL, where you can find this guide and more. V. 1.0 5/22/04 Initial release: Everything is completed. ======================= ***Legal Information*** ======================= The text you're reading is my own work. Therefore, it is copyrighted 2004-2005 by nucleargamer12. It may not be reproduced in any way without my permission. This FAQ is designed for personal use only. If you'd like to use this FAQ on your site, email me. ===================== ***About the Guide*** ===================== This is a boss FAQ on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. It is not intended for use as a walkthrough, and I will be referring to terms that should be known by those having trouble with fighting the Bosses of the game. Please note that the guide will contain spoilers, and people wishing to find the plot out themselves are not encouraged to read the guide. Thank you. Enjoy my FAQ, and if you have any questions, please send an email. To search for a particular boss, type Ctrl+F and type in the name of the character. Baldur's Gate is copyrighted by its creators and licensed to Nintendo. ================ ***The Bosses*** ================ All the bosses of the game will be explained below. Refer to the next section for skills and abilities that will help with defeating them. *** Act I *** Name: Bugbear Chieftain Appearance: Tall figure with ox-like features Location: The Sewers Level 1 Strategy: This is one intimidating boss, towering over his Kobold army of about twenty. The strategy here is to lure some of the Kobolds out of the room. This will make it easier to pick them off little by little. Repeat this until only the Chieftain is left. Killing the boss alone will be relatively easier, so be careful of your health and watch the Bugbear's lifebar on the bottom of the screen. Be careful of his powerful mace swing. Learn to block right before he attacks to avoid damage. *** Name: Orb of the Undead Appearance: Glowing bluish sphere on a pedestal Location: The Crypts Level 2 Strategy: You will finish the journey through the Crypts in the chamber of the Orb of the Undead, which is the force that has been raising all of those undead monsters. When the Orb floats up into the air, he cannot be reached and will summon many undead to attack you. Try not to get mobbed by the monsters as you fight them, and the Repulsion, Whirlwind Attack, and Fire Shield feats are useful abilities. After you kill them off, the Orb will come back down. This is when you can attack it. Repeat this strategy until the boss explodes. Pick up the treasure the undead may have left behind. *** Name: Karne Appearance: Masked thief with dark armor Location: Thieves' Guild Level 2 Strategy: Upon leaving the Thieves' Guild, you meet with Karne and engage in a conversation, and a battle will begin. Karne throws an unlimited amount of knives, and you'll have to block or dodge them from time to time. Approach him carefully and start hacking at his backside. Karne can teleport when he is in danger. As his lifebar goes down, the boss will start throwing many knives at a time, so it is important for you to block. When he is defeated, Karne will throw one last dagger at you and drop. *** Name: Xantam Appearance: Purple one-eyed Beholder with long tongue Location: Throne Room Strategy: You will be stopped by Xantam the Beholder as you approach the the Throne Room, and a fight will commence. Xantam is a tough boss, since he has many hit points and takes half damage from magical attacks, so the Sorceress will be at a disadvantage. Get right in front of the Beholder and start attacking with your best weapon. Xantam's melee attack is weaker, so you are better off fighting close. Once destroyed, Jherek will come and reward you. *** Act II *** Name: Ilivarra Appearance: Female Drow sorceress with staff Location: Drow Underworld Strategy: Ilivara is a magic caster, like many other Drow females. She is resistant to many forms of magic and can cast a multitude of spells of her own. She can also summon undead warriors to help her. If you have a good weapon of Disruption, you might want to equip it for this battle. Ilivara can also teleport across the room, making hitting her a pain. If attacking her close-up is giving you trouble, switch to a powerful bow and start firing. It might be hard to see her dark figure in the dark underground cave. *** Name: Ciraxis Appearance: Icy-colored gigantic dragon Location: Ciraxis' Lair Strategy: A huge, mean-looking wyrm, Ciraxis has a multitude of attacks to cause damage to your character. Save before entering his lair, as there is no save pedestal to help you here. Equip a strong Flaming Bow on your character, or use the Fireball technique with the sorceress. Ciraxis is vulnerable to fire attacks, and that is how you should take him down. If you are not in range of his damaging icy breath, the dragon will shake the field and make ice boulders fall down and hit you. Your best bet is long-range, since his melee attacks are even more damaging. *** Act III *** Name: Sess'sth Appearance: Big, armored lizard man king Location: Inner Keep Strategy: A believer in brute strength, Sess'sth dons a huge mace and will attack you upon coming in range for very heavy damage. Electric attacks will only do half damage to Sess'sth. The strategy here is to run around and around the boss in tight circles. When you see an opportunity to attack his backside, get a couple of quick hits in and start running in circles again. This can take a while because Sess'sth runs pretty fast, but eventually you can succeed. *** Name: Eldrith the Betrayer Appearance: Brave-looking female warrior with large sword Location: Eldrith's Watch Strategy: Eldrith will engage in a conversation upon your entrance to her watch, and some plot holes will be filled. Your final battle will start right after. Eldrith is a powerful sword-wielder, and one or two blows from her blade can end your game fast. Melee combat, therefore, is usually not a good idea. Instead, try to attack her with arrows; I usually bring a good shortbow and about 300 or more arrows to the battle. The sorceress' lightning spells will not do a single point of damage to Eldrith. So, equip a good bow or use Melf's Acid Arrow to attack away. Eldrith will throw her sword like a boomerang to attack you far away, but those attacks cause less damage. The good thing is how she stands still for the entire battle, giving you an accurate shot every time. Eldrith will grow in size when her health gets low. At her growing stage, she is invincible, so focus on not getting hit by the various lightning bolts from the sky. Her attacks will become more powerful, but she will become a bigger target for your arrows. So, keep on attacking while healing yourself when needed, and the ending will commence. ====================== ***Useful Abilities*** ====================== Useful abilities to defeat each boss will be listed here. *** Bugbear Chieftain Because you have not gained many ability points, there is not a particular feat that will get you through the battle. Burning Hands is somewhat useful for Adrianna, and Repulsion can be good if you get it on Vahn. *** Orb of the Undead Repulsion for the archer is good for scattering the undead. Fire Shield is also a good spell to have, if you've gotten enough points. The same goes for the dwarf's Whirlwind Attack. For the orb itself, your weapon is good enough. *** Karne This is really a mano-to-mano fight, but if you want to turn the tides, use Hail of Arrows and Flaming Arrows for Vahn, or Melf's Acid Arrow and Fireball for Adrianna. Kromlech doesn't have any long-range feats, but Bull Rush can help moderately against him. *** Xantam the Beholder For this battle, the best thing to do is melee combat. So don't worry about active feats and such. However, you may find abilities like Repulsion more useful in harder difficulties, when Xantam's attack does more damage. *** Ilivara Arrows are a help in this battle, so Hail of Arrows and Shock/Ice Arrows are both very good for the archer, if you have sufficient points. I find Accuracy and Targeting musts for accuracy. Ball Lightning can do lots of damage even though Ilivara is resistant, and Icy Sphere is pretty good too. *** Cyraxis Fire Arrows, and Fireball are pretty useful for their respective castors. For Kromlech, you can use Clangeddin's fist for knockback. I find Meteor Swarm and Ball Lightning effective too. *** Sess'sth Simply use melee combat for this battle; you won't have time to cast many spells at long range since the lizard is pretty fast. Repulsion is useful. *** Eldrith Normal arrows will affect Eldrith little by little, but you can use Hail of Arrows for more at a time. Whirlwind Attack is useful for melee combat (which isn't a good idea). The sorceress can use Fire Shield and run over Eldrith a couple of times and damage her a little bit. ================ ***Sub-Bosses*** ================ These enemies below are not really bosses since they do not have visible lifemeters as you engage them. However, they are large and have lots of HP. Plus, they can kill you just as easily as a boss can. Here is a listing of the sub-bosses in the game. *** Ogre Act II Tall, ugly-looking beasts, you'll first meet up with Ogres in Wind's Walk, the start of Act II. Ogres can do a variety of things. If you are being mobbed by other enemies, they will stand back and hurl mud and ice at you, depending on the environment. They have heavy clubs and will use them when up close. Ogres have large HP and should be killed using projectile spells from long range before they can start doing any real damage. *** Frost Giant Act II In an Ice Cave of the Sunset Mountains, you'll encounter three of these bluish enemies with Viking hats. The Frost Giants tower over your head, and must be dealt with effectively for you to avoid large pain. These monsters never move, so try and attack quickly and avoid being stomped on the foot. Ball Lightning and Shock Arrows usually kill one of these in about 3 hits, but rapid normal attacks and arrows also work. *** Umber Hulk Act II/III These purple monsters are found in the cave environments of further levels in the game. They attack hard, and can kill you quickly. Use a tactic of blocking to efficiently defeat these enemies. Anticipate the attack and block as soon as the Umber Hulk raises his arms to hit. As he is recovering from his attack, slash him a couple of times and then block again. If you are good, you can defeat the entire thing without taking any damage. There are instances where two Umber Hulks will surround you. Avoid doing this; one-on-one is more safe. *** Guardian Bulette Act III At the end of the Rotting Bog, you'll face a gigantic anteater-like monster that comes out from the ground. You don't really have much space to fight this huge enemy, but the best way to go is to run circles around him. The Bulette won't attack if you are not in front of it, so he'll just try and turn around all the time. Attack the side or back of the monster to avoid getting hit by its attack. *** Onyx Golem Act III This is a massive, cylinder-shaped metal guardian you'll meet at the end of the Black Forge of the Onyx Tower. The Onyx Golem is slow but hits very hard, so you'll be much better off shooting projectiles than trying to get melee hits in. Take advantage of the slow-moving monster, and attack with all the power you've got. You could also try the strategy for the Guardian Bulette and run circles around the enemy. The golem, when taken down, will drop an incredibly powerful sword forged from the tower itself. ============ ***Cheats*** ============ If a boss is giving you too much trouble, use this cheat to make short work of him/her/it. During gameplay, press and hold L, R, Y, and press Left on the control pad. You'll enter a cheat menu, and select Invulnerability. This will render all of the boss' attacks useless and you will surely prevail. Also, using the same menu mentioned above, you can skip the level with the frustrating boss completely by selecting Warp To... and highlighting the level right after the one you're currently on. *** You can also use boss fights to your advantage and gain lots and lots of experience by fighting it over and over again. Using the Warp To... option, warp to the lair of a boss who gives lots of experience. Even if you've already fought him/her/it, the boss will reappear upon visiting the lair. You can get experience fast by killing the boss over and over. NIFTY LEVEL UP TRICK: Using the method above, as a level 1 character, warp to the Hall of Remembrnace and go down the stairs to the Black Forge. You'll fight the Onyx Golem there. Defeat it (it's not an easy fight at level 1), and you'll instantly gain so much experience you'll grow to level 40. No hassle, use it! ===================================== ***FAQ--Frequently Asked Questions*** ===================================== This section answers questions you might have about the bosses. Emailed questions can be posted here. I will be adding on to it when more questions are received from readers. Q: I am playing with Drizzt. Do you have any suggestions for bosses? A: Drizzt is a melee type of guy, since he cannot have a bow. You need to learn and master the block-attack strategy to be good with him, and anticipating an enemy attack by watching its movements is very useful. Q: What is the highest level obtainable? A: 40, but it's very hard to get there. ================= ***Credits/End*** ================= Contributors to this FAQ will be listed here. ~ Nucleargamer12--that would be me; I created this FAQ. ~ Gamefaqs.com--for creating a wonderful site and posting the guide. ~ Nintendo and the makers of Baldur's Gate--for obvious reasons. Thanks for reading this document, and have a nice day. ~~nucleargamer12~~ The world revolves around gaming...