Shadowflame Hoyan and Rengokatsu Boss Preview

The Final Test of Etheria: Restart brings two brand new bosses, each packed with mechanics that will test your team-building and strategy.

Let’s dive into the full breakdown of Shadowflame Hoyan and Rengokatsu, covering their mechanics, tips for clearing Inferno difficulty, and key team-building advice.

Core Mechanics

• Three Difficulty Modes: Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno.
• Inferno Penalty: In Inferno difficulty, Shadowflame Hoyan and her Duran minions deal 200% extra damage to Constant-aligned (Light element) Animus.
• Shell Farming: Defeating Hoyan in Inferno allows you to farm Shells with three Matrix lines, crucial for late-game builds.

Key Boss Mechanics

• Control Immunity: Immune to all control effects except Taunt.
• Vicious Protection: When Hoyan takes direct damage, Duran minions share the damage and counterattack. This triggers Corrode stacking.
• Vengeful: Each direct hit builds stacks; at 7 stacks, Hoyan unleashes Corrode.
• Corrode: Deals AoE damage, inflicts Corruption (decreasing defense by 12% per stack), and can Silence.
• Durans’ Wound Attack: Durans inflict Wound (HP Block) and grant Hoyan buffs if not controlled.

Battle Strategy

• Control is Everything:You must stun or freeze both Duran minions to prevent counterattacks and the rapid buildup of Vengeful stacks.
• Cleanse and Sustain:Bring a cleanser for Silence and a strong healer to survive heavy bursts.
• DOT and Detonate Strategy:Poison stacking combined with detonation is an effective strategy, but direct DPS with Defense Break also works if you control the ads.
• Adaptable DPS:Both standard nuke comps and poison/detonation comps are viable. Obol, Kraken, and similar crowd controllers are critical picks.

Fast Inferno Clear Times: With optimized control and burst setups, you can achieve clears in around 1 minute.

Core Mechanics

• No Affinity Targeting in Inferno:Unlike Shadowflame Hoyan, Rengokatsu has no direct 200% damage increase stipulation based on your alignment.
• Shell Farming:Clearing Inferno yields Shells with three Matrix lines just like Shadowflame Hoyan.

Key Boss Mechanics

• Affinity Manipulation:Rengokatsu constantly changes affinities during battle (Reason → Odd → Hollow → Disorder → Constant).
• Turn Punishment:If four actions are taken by Animus of the same affinity, Rengokatsu unleashes devastating AoE damage.
• Ascending Flame:Massive AoE damage ignoring defense, resetting enemy turn meters if you are countered.
• Evil Fire:Inflicts stacking damage amplification and potential debuffs (Attack Down and Defense Down) based on affinity countering.

Battle Strategy

• Mixed Affinity Teams:Build a diverse team across different attributes. Limit duplicates to avoid stacking Evil Fire damage.
• Turn Meter Control:Bring units that can manipulate or push back turn meters to limit boss turns.
• DOT-Based Clears:DOT stacking and detonation is highly effective, but standard defense break + AoE DPS can also work.
• Survivability:Watch for silent debuffs and Evil Fire stacks. Cleanse where possible and rotate debuffs carefully.

Effective Clears: With attribute balancing and strong rotation, you can achieve clears in just over 1 minute.

Both Shadowflame Hoyan and Rengokatsu demand strategic team-building, strong control elements, and smart resource management. Hoyan rewards pure CC lockdown, while Ringo Kazu punishes monotone team builds and requires affinity diversity.

If you’re prepping for the Final Test beta or official launch, mastering these mechanics early will give you a major edge — and help you farm critical Shell upgrades faster than your competition.