-
- Forums
- Chatrooms
- Gallery
- Gameplay Videos
- Upload
- Articles
- Mod Reviews
- Shop SP: Games, Movies, Books
|
|
| Pillars of Eternity 2 Video-Based Walkthrough by David Milward |
Hauani O Whe
Hauani O Whe
The good party makes some preparation. Alliria sets up for Crushing Doom. She also crafts 20 Scrolls of Gaze of the Adragan and fills up her quick-item slots with them. Fassina creates 20 Scrolls of Embrace of the Earth Talon and fills up her quick-item slots with them.
Xoti also changes cloaks back to Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak. She also puts The Twin Eels in her personal stash, and keeps bare hands as one of her weapon sets. Although she starts the upcoming battle with Kitchen Stove.
I sail to the Murkwater Lagoon at #8 on the World Map.
Hauani O Whe is an enormous Black Ooze which has two basic attacks.
One is Corrosive Solvent. It's a ranged attack, but one that causes Corrosive Damage over a small area-of-effect emanating from its initial attack. It also reduces time from any buffs you may have in place. That and the sheer length of the fight itself pretty much rules out relying on any buffs to take it down.
Symbiote is its other ranged attack. The character affected by Symbiote will change color to a sickly purple-black kind of hue. The character will also suffer Raw Damage over time indefinitely, until the Symbiote itself is purged. Each time the character takes a step, a Lesser Black Ooze appears. Three steps and three Lesser Black Oozes means the character gets rid of the Raw Damage and the Symbiote effect. A reliable method of getting rid of Symbiote, assuming you can keep Hauani O Whe at bay (i.e., through summons), is take one step, kill the Lesser Black Ooze that appears, rinse and repeat two more times. Two Lesser Black Oozes will try to merge into a Greater Black Ooze.
That brings us back to the other core feature of this fight, and what makes it so gruelling. It's not just a matter of bringing Hauani O Whe down to 0 health. That's actually the easy part, especially as infinite summons like from a Chanter or the Monk's Dichotomous Soul can keep it at bay and eventually wear it down.
Bringing it to 0 Health causes it to split into two Gigantic Black Oozes. The Gigantic Black Oozes have the same Corrosive Solvent and Symbiote attacks, but with less Accuracy and Damage. They also have lower Defenses. As soon as one of the Gigantic Black Oozes reaches 50% Health, BOTH will try to merge with each other and become a fully reformed Hauani O Whe, at which point you may as well reload. You'll know when they're trying to merge when a pie or dial like icon appears over them, indicating that they're trying to use the "Divide and Conquer" power to make the merge happen. One of them reaching 50% means BOTH will make it their utmost priority to make the merge happen, ignoring Engagement and doing whatever they can to reach each other and make it happen. And only one of them needs to succeed in using the "Divide and Conquer" power to make the merge happen. That means you have to stop them both in their tracks, and on an ongoing basis (more on this later) to stop the merge from happening.
Bring a Gigantic Black Ooze down to 0 health, and it will split into Massive Black Oozes. Massive Black Oozes again have lower Defenses still, and even weaker versions of Corrosive Solvent and Symbiote. And again, bringing a Massive Black Ooze to 50% Health means both will try to merge with each other.
Bringing a Massive Black Ooze to 0 health means that it splits into two Greater Black Oozes. The Greater Black Oozes are the same as the ones you've encountered several times already, but with the difference that these ones will immediately try to merge back into a Massive Black Ooze.
Bring a Greater Black Ooze to 0 Health, and it splits into two Lesser Black Oozes. They will immediately try to merge back into a Greater Black Ooze. But reducing a Lesser Black Ooze to 0 Health will kill it for good without any further splits.
The good news is that only Oozes of the same size can merge with each other. The bad news is all of the Oozes, Lesser Black Oozes and larger, have the potential to merge back together and work their way up the ladder one stage at a time leading to a fully reformed Hauani O Whe.
It is when you've managed to successfully reduce all splits into Lesser Black Oozes, and killed all of them off for good, that you will have truly defeated Hauani O Whe.
It is when you've managed to bring it down to one Gigantic Black Ooze and one Massive Black Ooze that you can truly see a light at the tunnel, since a fully reformed Hauani O Whe will no longer be possible.
That is, assuming you don't let the Oozes' use of Symbiote run out of control. The Lesser Black Oozes that are spawned while trying to rid a character of Symbiote will immediately try to merge into a Greater Black Ooze. And yes, the spawns and merges have the potential to work their way up to lead to a second or even third Hauani O Whe forming. I play tested that just to confirm it. So care is also needed to immediately kill off any Lesser Black Oozes that spawn from trying to rid yourself of Symbiote.
I begin the battle by immediately summoning Dichotomous Souls with what Wounds Mirke and Xoti have to start. Pallegina also summons her Ogres. The party retreats and sends non-stop summons after Hauani O Whe. Mirke replenishes her Wounds with Enduring Dance while Xoti replenishes hers with Mortification of the Soul. The summons eventually wear down Hauani O Whe, which was the easy part. Alliria also casts Substantial Phantom followed by Blood Sacrifice.
It has now split into two Gigantic Black Oozes. Now I only have Pallegina summon her Ogres. The reason being I don't want to damage either Ooze too quickly, and the Ogres won't attack unless I command them too. The Dichotomous Souls would attack on their own AI and won't listen to any attempts on my part to stand pat. I only need the Ogres to provide alternative targets as a distraction. The party at this point has to be vigilant about getting rid of any Symbiote conditions and Lesser Black Oozes that now happen.
Xoti positions herself so that she's closer to one of the Gigantic Oozes, but distant from the other. She pecks at the nearest Ooze Kitchen Stove until it is close to 50%, and she's built up about 200 Resonance on it. She at that point unleashes Resonant Touch to instantly kill the first Gigantic Ooze, and without allowing it any attempt at merging. I'm partway there.
It now splits into two Massive Black Oozes. My initial plan was to kill off the other Gigantic Black Ooze and spit it as well, without any action against the Massive Black Oozes. I hit the Gigantic Black Ooze and now regularly summon Dichotomous Spirits against it. And for a while I kept the two Massive Black Oozes pinned down with Pallegina's Ogres, which don't attack. That plan falls apart at some point due to a lapse of attention on my part, and not renewing the Ogres on time. One of the Massive Black Oozes goes off and around the Gigantic Black Ooze, flanking it. This isn't the situation I wanted, but I adapt.
I persist with taking out the Gigantic Black Ooze, and carefully positioning the Dichotomous Souls and Phantom so that they'll tend to attack the Gigantic Black Ooze instead of the Massive Black Oozes. I manage to wear it down and force it to split as well.
I am now faced with four Massive Black Oozes. Alliria starts using Scrolls of Gaze of the Adragan on three of them, partly with the intention of stripping away their 2 points of Concentration. And Fassina starts using Scrolls of Embrace of the Earth Talon on at least two of them. Hauani O Whe, Gigantic Black Oozes and Massive Black Oozes all have Dexterity Affliction Resistance. But Gaze of the Adragan and Embrace of the Earth Talon both Petrify, which is a tier above Paralyzing, and thus both attacks will Paralyze the Oozes.
Xoti switches to her bare hands and starts using Whispers of the Wind. It will also Stun the Oozes on account of her wearing Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak. She'll also use Mortification of the Soul to replenish her Wounds if she needs to. The method is one of constantly keeping the Oozes under wraps to the extent that I can by using any abilities that can Interrupt, Prone, Stun or Petrify them until you can bring one of them down to 0 Health.
Unfortunately, two of them managed to merge. But I used Scrolls and Whispers of the Wind to stun-lock and wear down the other two.
At one point, as I'm sensing that one of the Massive Black Oozes is close to dying, I have Xoti wait and hold her Whispers of the Wind at the ready. The others continue with their Scroll attacks. Mirke fires with her guns at the one with the least Health, but doesn't use her activated powers, at least not yet.
One of the Massive Black Oozes splits into two Greater Black Oozes. That's when Xoti unleashes her Whispers in the Wind, to stop their merge attempt in its tracks. It kills one of them outright. After that, I get by with standard melee attacks to take down the remaining Greater Black Oozes, as well as any Lesser Black Oozes that show up, either by the Greater one splitting or because of one or two Symbiotes on my party members.
Now I send some summons after the Gigantic Black Ooze, while attacking the remaining Massive Black Ooze. At some point I again have Xoti stand down and keep at the ready. I wear down the remaining Massive Black Ooze and force a split. The split is the moment I unleash Whispers in the Wind, Gaze of the Adragan from Alliria as a spell (followed by Blood Sacrifice), and a Scroll of Embrace of the Earth Talon from Fassina.
I now wear down the remaining Gigantic Black Ooze with summons. But at some point I hold back from summoning Dichotomous Souls, and instead have Alliria wear it down with multiple castings of Concelhaut's Crushing Doom. It splits into two Massive Black Oozes.
I initially tried to have Xoti add as much Resonance to each Massive Black Ooze as I could with Kitchen Stove. I then unleashed Resonant Touch and then started with the scroll attacks, Mirke spamming Stunning Surges, and Xoti using Whispers in the Wind. Unfortunately, they managed to pull off the merge after one of them managed to defend against my attacks and use "Divide and Conquer".
But I don't give up. I bring the newly formed Gigantic Black Ooze down and force another split into two Massive Black Oozes.
I try a different approach this time. Alliria puts a Crushing Doom on one Ooze, uses Blood Sacrifice, puts a Crushing Doom on another, uses Blood Sacrifice. She rinses and repeats, left right, left right, putting as many Crushing Dooms on each one as she can. The intention is for multiple Crushing Dooms, and therefore multiple Proning attacks, acting on each Ooze and preventing them from merging.
Fassina helps out with the odd Scroll of Embrace of the Earth Talon. But she's starting to run out, so she keeps two in reserve for when they will most be needed.
Xoti holds back and keeps herself at the ready. I do manage to bring down one of the Massive Black Oozes. Maybe I should have tried the Crushing Doom approach earlier.
Now two Greater Black Oozes appear. I forgot to have Xoti build her Wounds back up to six. Whoops, I have her use Mortification of the Soul. So now Fassina uses a Scroll of Embrace of the Earth Talon and Alliria helps out with the odd Scroll of Gaze of the Adragan.
Fassina's scroll manages to kill one of the Greater Oozes outright. She follows up with a Relentless Storm spell (which can Stun its victims). By the way, she previously used her 5th-level Druid spells on Plague of Insects spells. But her Shroud of the Phantasm gives her a chance of recovering her spells when she takes Damage, which happened a LOT in this battle. So she had those spells back for this moment.
Xoti now unleashes her Whispers of the Wind, which also kills outright the two Lesser Black Oozes that just appeared. Xoti's Sister of the Reaping Moon allows her to replenish her Wounds when she lands a killing blow, which means her use of Whispers of the Wind at this point takes care of itself.
That means the remaining Greater Black Ooze gives way to two Lesser Black Oozes. Fassina uses her remaining Scroll of Embrace of the Earth Talon, and Alliria uses another Scroll of Gaze of the Adragan.
Now I only have Pallegina, Fassina and Mirke wear down the remaining Massive Black Ooze. Alliria stays at the ready, and Xoti builds her Wounds back up with Mortification of the Soul.
The Massive Black Ooze splits into two Greater Black Oozes. Alliria uses another Scroll of Gaze of the Adragan, Fassina casts another Relentless Storm, and Xoti uses Whispers in the Wind.
Both Greater Black Oozes die, and four Lesser Black Oozes take their place. Alliria uses another Scroll of Gaze of the Adragan, and Xoti kills them outright with Whispers in the Wind. Hauani O Whe has now been truly defeated for good.
It leaves behind a Mythical Adra Stone and the Mountainous Ooze Droppings. I have no use for the Droppings, but Alliria uses the Mythical Adra Stone to raise The Eye of Wael from Legendary to Mythic.
I leave the Lagoon and return to ship. Everybody goes back to their usual equipment, especially Xoti and Mirke, and I put my core party back together.
*Evil* Hauani O Whe
I switched out Mirke for Aloth. The reason being that his high Arcana score will enable him to use scrolls with interrupting attacks.
I enter the Murkwater Lagoon. Zarathos equips The Willbreaker. I load up on Scrolls of Embrace of the Earth Talon for Xoti, Scrolls of Gaze of the Adragan for Aloth (which plays into his Illusion Power Levels), and Stun Bombs for Tekehu. I was prepared to use them, but fortunately I didn't need to.
So I proceed with the battle, keeping the original form of Hauani O Whe pinned down under Xoti's Dichotomous Spirits and Tekehu's Skeletons.
If an Ooze of any size is reduced to 0 Health while also under the effects of a Cipher's Disintegrate, it will die for good without splitting. And that's what I did to Hauani O Whe in its original form. I wore it down to near death. Xoti cast Devotions of the Faithful to boost Ydwin's Accuracy. Xoti and Zarathos together step up to Hauani O Whe.
Zarathos hits it with The Willbreaker and with the Body Blows Modal active, which places a -25 penalty to Fortitude. I suspect he also got in a Critical Hit, with the result that it triggered Enervating Blows, with another -10 penalty to Fortitude (by reducing Constitution by -5).
Ydwin managed to land a Disintegration on it. But it won't last long. Xoti had to quickly switch to her secondary weapon set, and use the Worthy Sacrifice attack of Marux Amanth on it. Worthy Sacrifice scores an instant kill on Hauani O Whe because it is "near death". And because that killing blow landed while it was still under the effects of Disintegration (in the nick of time actually), it dies completely without ever splitting into Gigantic Black Oozes. One of the very rare circumstances where I can justify the use of a per Rest power during a no Rest run.
In theory it is always possible to kill Hauani O Whe in its original form in this way. And if you can pull it off, it will save you the trouble of bothering with the Gigantic, Massive, Greater and Lesser Oozes. But in practice it takes a lot of preparation, and some lucky bounces to roll your way, to come off because it will have a very high Fortitude.
Another idea is to break down a Gigantic Black Ooze into Massive Black Oozes through other methods. And then use Disintegrate on a "near death" Massive Black Ooze before finishing it off. This approach has two advantages. One is that the Massive Black Ooze will have substantially lower Fortitude than either a Gigantic Black Ooze or Hauani O Whe, and that makes a Disintegrate much more likely to land and for longer. The other advantage is that it wipes out a Massive Black Ooze to avoid two Greater Black Oozes that are going to try to merge with each other right away. And chances are your party members may not have made Recovery Time yet from their previous efforts to bring down the Massive Black Ooze before they can attack the Greater Black Oozes. Disintegrate successfully used can avoid that. I was in fact planning to work towards this if my earlier one-shot hadn't worked.
I return to my ship and switch Mirke back in for Aloth. I use the Mythical Adra Stone to upgrade the Akola's Apex Ward from Legendary to Mythic. I have already upgraded Rannig's Wrath, and Ydwin's weapons to Mythic. And Zarathos' Monk fists are uber-powerful already and can't be upgraded in that way. So I figure to enhance even further the items that will make Mirke an even more effective tank. Increasing her Deflection increases further still the probabilities of triggering instant Recovery through the Insistence power of Rannig's Wrath.
Belranga is next.
