Hydra Guide: The Head of Mischief

Since introduced, Hydra Clan Boss has been one of the toughest forms of content added to Raid Shadow Legends. However, with a little understanding and practice, you may find it’s easier than you think. Each head brings a unique challenge to the battle and finding the balance to counteract each of them is the real challenge. Let’s break it down one head at a time. Next up: the Head of Mischief

The A1 is what makes this head one of the hardest to deal with but once understood, it can actually be the easiest to counteract and have in the lineup. It steals the buffs of whichever champion has the most buffs up at that moment. There are a few ways to deal with this.

1. Use a champion with Block Buffs debuff. Making sure the Head of Mischief always has Block Buffs on them is probably the easiest way to avoid the buff steal. Using a champion with that skill in a Reflex or Relentless set to come back to using it more often can be very beneficial. (Or having a champion that extends debuffs can help keep it up!)
2. Have a “Mischief target.” This strategy is based upon having enough Resistance on 1 champion that will always have the most buffs to resist the buff steal attempt. It’s really hard to get an entire team to have enough resistance to avoid buffs getting stolen (500+ resist for Nightmare Hydra), but often focusing on 1 champion hitting the required stats who does one or multiple self-buffs isn’t too hard. Just be sure that you’re not pairing them with people that use the same buffs on the team to all allies. For example, Lord Champfort always puts a Shield buff on himself every turn and makes a great Mischief target. However, if you use another champion that places Shield buffs on the team or Bloodshield accessories, you would negate his purpose.
3. Use a buff-stripper. This is a bit harder to keep up with because this head so frequently steals buffs. But if you have multiple champions that Remove or Steal Buffs, it’s a strategy that can work to keep him at bay.

After you decapitate the head, all of the heads turn meters are depleted! This can be great to start stacking up important debuffs on the other heads, buffs on your team, revive dead champions, healing, etc., and overall just have a nice reset to get things on track or keep them rolling in your favor.

For the A2, the best strategy is avoidance: Don’t let him get buffs to spread in the first place. This can be done by using the methods stated above. Also, as stated previously, you can also prepare by having champions that Remove or Steal Buffs on the team. Champions that decrease the duration of buffs can be helpful for cleanup, though keep in mind the spread increases the duration to 2 turns so decreasing duration by only 1 turn as most champions do might not be enough to prevent things from getting quite messy.

As for the passive, this head is not fun to deal with when it devours your only AoE damage dealer! It redirects attacks randomly when you try to attack if it is not under a Hex debuff. Obviously, you can counteract this by having a champion that applies Hex on your team. Also, you can try to avoid letting your AoE smackers like Royal Guard and Husk get devoured in the first place by letting them die and then reviving if they’re close on the Mark counter. You also can use Geomancer’s A3 to place HP burn and let that help tick away damage.

While this head is up, it decreases the damage all hydra heads take from AoE hits. This does not mean avoiding using them entirely. The same goes for Enemy Max HP champions. Even though the damage is limited due to the passive, they still do great damage overall (so use those Royal Guards & Husks anyway)! Lastly, as the skill states, it is immune to many debuffs, turn meter manipulation, etc. so please keep those abilities in mind before you head into your hydra battle.

Uugo – Not only does she bring Block Buffs debuffs but she also brings Decrease DEF, Leech, cleanses, heals and even has a conditional revive. She is particularly strong in a Reflex or Relentless set to help keep Block Buffs up all of the time.

*Some other champions that are strong for keeping up Block Buffs are Umbral Enchantress (but avoid using her A3), Kantra (though very random), and Deliana.

Skull Lord Var-Gall & Bivald the Thorn – Both of these champions make great “Mischief Targets” as they have an A2 that places Provoke and then puts a Strengthen buff on themselves. Be sure not to have another champion that places Strengthen in the team (Like Lydia, Ursula, etc)

*Some other notable champions that make great targets for the Head of Mischief are: Krisk, Oboro, Wuji, Lord Champfort, Mother Cybele and Khoronar.

Important: Ultimate Deathknight does have some interesting utility to force Mischief to target him with his Passive, Too Awesome to Die. However, it is 50% chance to apply on Bosses so you should not rely on this as a suitable strategy to manage the boss. It can be used as a secondary method but you will be far better to ensure you setup a good mischief tank or utilise one of the above MVP/Strategies.