Confronting the Level 3 Dung Beetle Knight: Part 1 (Patreon)

OK, so today, while I am working on custom monster, I thought I’d share with you guys everything I know about beating the Level 3 DBK, which is quite rightly considered to be the hardest non-legendary monster in the game (It is genuinely harder than the L3 Lion God who has some very exploitable weaknesses).  This should give you some idea about how to approach the fight, because it’s the most straightforward way to completely empty the DBK resource deck and gain a Juggernaut Blade.  The Juggernaut Blade is the second best non-rare Grand Weapon in the game (behind the Skleaver), it is also one of the more grid efficient weapons because it has Block 1 Built in (so you don’t need a shield to gain access to Block, the only other weapon that currently does this is the Blast Sword) and it is the weapon that is turned into Griswaldo.   

That’s a ton of reasons to learn to do this. Now this fight never, ever gets easy, it’s never quick and you’re never, ever safe while doing it. So this is a true test of skill, strategy, tactics and above all else patience. Possibly the greatest one in the game, because you can’t just rock up to this fight unprepared, the L3 DBK will just tear you to pieces. By the end of this however you should understand how I plan, consider and prepare myself for the tougher fights in this game. You should also get a handle on the shorthand I internalise that allows me to “appear” almost encyclopaedic at times, yes I do have an eidetic memory, but I also don’t memorise everything, I instead process via key points that revolve around the strategy and tactics which I will provide in length here.  Quick, snappy rules that remind me of the long form versions. 

If there is anything you want expanded on, please just ask.

The Monster: 

The best way to start is by understanding the monster itself. Once you know how a given monster acts (AI/Traits) and reacts (HL Reactions/Trap) then you will be a long way towards understanding how to beat it.  The DBK is a very powerful and nasty foe if left to its own devices, and it is one of the harshest reaction based monsters in the game (It’s more dangerous than the Sunstalker and Dragon King who are both quite strongly reaction based).  The DBK will punish you both for attacking it and for not managing its AI properly, it’s a real test of everything you’ve learnt from fighting other monsters and in my opinion it’s the monster that responds best to skilled play   (Note: The Sunstalker is easier, the Phoenix is both easier and more erratic in its punishment, the Dragon King is very straightforward and the Lion God is highly exploitable in its weaknesses – in particular the Lion God leans very heavily on the Rampaging mechanic to make it difficult, a mechanic which originally the Dung Beetle Knight had in early testing by the KD:M design team. – Thanks to TWIST for that fact) So, with all of that written, let’s look at the conclusions I’ve drawn from my time spent fighting this monster. 

AI: 

The first thing to consider about the L3 DBK is how it behaves, now you would not be going into a level 3 fight against any monster without getting to grips with the level 1 and level 2 versions. So the first thing to always remember is that a L3 version of a monster is not that different from the L1 and L2 versions apart from the higher amount of advanced actions it will undertake and the increased chance that it will drop Legendary actions that can completely change the experience. Rawhide is such a potent part of this fight and there is a lot of benefit to taking one to two Rawhide Headbands along.  The really cool thing about the Dung Beetle Knight is that Rolling Armor and its pieces work really well at either improving Rawhide (Century Carapace + Legs on Rawhide is amazing at protecting your support character) or providing a full platform to carry a rawhide headband into the late game (Full Rolling Armor + Rawhide Headband).    

Apart from that AI Manipulation is the same as it always is, you do it at the end of the survivor's turn and pick one of the two AI cards. If they are both awful you should consider Surging to remove them via wounds.

The Dung Ball: 

The Dung Ball is the single largest part of the fight against any DBK, as the DBK is far more powerful and dangerous if it is adjacent to its ball rather than separated.  Not only are its attacks and reactions powered up, but it will also crush anyone within two squares of the ball via its ‘baller’ AI action.  

Being hit by the Dung Ball is a horrific experience that even the most heavily armoured non-Immortals (Specifically Gambler and the King of a 1000 Lifetimes) cannot ride through multiple times.  This is why Dash is so helpful, you can try to get clear of that first push and avoid too much   It’s a pretty awful job, but someone needs to push the ball away from the DBK before it starts its turn.  (This goes out of the window when you fight the L4 DBK aka TOM – The Old Master, but that is for another time).  This is generally the job of the second DPS/Bruiser character but just about everyone needs to be ready to chip in on this, the person who goes last needs to be able to at least Surge to push the ball one square clear after they have attacked.   Fortunately for everyone involved, there is no change between ball control at level 1 and level 3, so you can practice this part of the dance against the softer opponents and the rules are very simple.  Never let the Dung Beetle Knight start its turn adjacent to the Dung Ball. If you can’t do this, remember to Dash during the flow step.  

Reactions: 

The DBK is one of the ‘reaction based monsters’ - that is a lot of the punishment it deals out are weighted heavily into its reactions.  These monsters tend to shred you when you attack them, responding with a mix of attacks and just straight up punishment. Now, it can be one heck of an eye opener when you move from the relatively tame monsters in the core came and get onto these reaction heavy expansion monsters like the DBK, Sunstalker, Lion God and Co.  This is one of the things that causes this split in the community, the players who have spent a lot of time with the Lion, Antelope and Time Chicken tend to be forgiving of high speed attackers because their reactions are so tame.  Not so here with the DBK. Lucky for us, we already have plenty of ways to get around the problem of facing a monster that can be so problematic when attacking it and I’m going to list a few of them.  Critical Hits     So critical hits have that joyous bonus of cancelling any reactions and also at times providing a lot of other benefits and bonuses.  Resources being one of the biggest ones as the DBK is a very generous monster if you crit it a lot.  One of the ways to get your hands on a Juggernaut Blade is via a critical hit on the DBK’s sword for example and overall very few of the Critical Hit results are punishing in the way that the Manhunter’s can be.

Katars:  

Katar Specialisation is one of those weapon masteries that I’ve written about before, it’s perfect for fighting the Dung Beetle Knight.  In particular the Digging Claws you can get from beating the Dung Beetle Knight are perfect for the job, they are low speed (1), high strength, Katars and Pickaxes.  This means that they are one of the ideal weapons to use against the Dung Beetle Knight.   

This is all without considering the benefit that you get from a Katar Master being a part of your group.  They are able to build evasion tokens during the fight as long as they are intelligent in their positioning. 

Knockdown:  

Knockdown cancels reactions, this is an absolutely huge mechanic that is often overlooked.  In part this is because monster Knockdowns can feel like rare occasions that are hard to trigger.  But there are two very simple methods to use and when you start employing them you will find not just your DBK fights are easier, but that all fights in the game are more straightforward. 

The first of these is Grand Weapon Specialisation, on a successful critical wound a Grand Weapon Master will cause a knockdown and this is a huge opportunity for the hunting party to take advantage of.  This is why Grand Weapons are my top priority for mastery, even ahead of Shields and Fist and Tooth, because I want anyone who is training Shield and Fist and Tooth to be wielding a Grand Weapon for most of their attacks and if they have access to the specialisation then they are going to be very effective in the fights because the combination of Grand Weapon + Specialisation is so powerful. 

The other, more direct option is the Pulse Lantern from the Gorm expansion, this item is easy to overlook because of the downside that it has (-1 accuracy token for everyone), but in truth it’s absolutely worth that drawback, in part because you can turn one round of pulse lantern attacks into 4+ wounds with a great deal of ease. But there is also another trick you can do with it.  Rolling Armor’s ‘Rubber Bone Harness’ allows you to turn all negative tokens into positive ones.  So you can chain a set of Pulse Lantern attacks (which always score hits on a 3+ even with the tokens) and then afterwards you can convert all of these tokens into +Accuracy ones.  Suddenly your entire party is hitting on 2+s, which is ridiculous. 

Axe Masters:  

Axe Masters are surprisingly effective vs the Dung Beetle Knight, while they cannot help deal with the Century Carapace Plates a good Axe Master can all but guarantee the critical hit on many essential locations.  It’s my third choice Mastery if I am Dung Beetle Knight Hunting and one of the (many) reasons why I think the Gorm is an amazing complimentary expansion for the Dung Beetle Knight because the Greater Gaxe is a superb weapon to start training Axe Mastery on from as early as lantern year 2. 

Hit Location Manipulation:

Last up we have the part of the game which you are all going to be most familiar with, Hit Location control.  Now the usual suspects apply here, there is a reason why the Cat’s Eye Circlet and Wisdom Potion are so beloved by the community.  Being able to aim your critical hits at the right locations can change everything about a fight, especially when you hit locations that will break the AI of the Dung Beetle Knight by disabling certain AI cards. 

I’m not going to go into huge details about those two items, they are not worth discussing because that is something for a future article (and also everyone knows about them).  Instead I want to highlight two lesser known items.  The Phoenix Crest and the Trash Crown.  The Phoenix Crest comes from the Level 3 Phoenix, and is rare because most people never bother to learn how to beat the L3 Phoenix.  I recommend learning how to do that, because it’s the only version of the Phoenix actually worth beating.  The Crest Crown allows you to reshuffle the Hit Location deck, which is an ability that is ridiculous, now I’ve been unable to secure clarification if you shuffle everything back together and redraw, or if you just shuffle the remaining cards. But either way this allows you to try and move the trap away from the top of the deck and ensure that you score more wounds per trap triggered.  You should be able to figure out the % benefits from doing that. 

The Trash Crown however is the HL item I think that sees the least use and gets the least respect.  It will ‘mill’ 3 of the top 4 cards of the AI deck (it cannot mill the Trap) by moving them into the discard pile, but you get to choose which one to keep (you MUST keep the trap).  This on the surface might seem a little counter to how I have suggested people play (which is avoid the trap for as long as possible) but the thing is, the Level 3 DBK has horrific reactions that cannot be cancelled or avoided (see the entry Century Carapace Plates and Burrow below) and if these land on top of the deck you might not be able to deal with them.  Especially if the DBK starts healing and sticks those plates back into its HL deck.    

Our good friend the Trash Crown (which is made by ‘failing’ to calcify gear, I recommend making Zanbatos and calcifying them to make this) allows us to trash dump these reactions and get back to the good stuff.  This can really help and while it is not the primary way you should deal with the HL deck it is an option that you do not want to pass up on. 

Also, the Trash Crown makes a complete joke of the King’s Man, he has no protection to you trash dumping his Battle Pressure Cards at the start of each survivor phase. None what so ever, and without those Battle Pressures he’s an absolute joke. 

Next time we will look at The Trap, The Century Carapace Hit Location, Burrow and pull everything together when I discuss some of the builds I like to use and a few other bits and pieces which I have not covered here.