ggFTW - [Guide] Secret Base of Cobolt, AKA Cobolt/Ep3 Raid

Introduction to the Secret Base of Cobolt

Secret Base of Cobolt is an raid stage (8-player maximum) intended for characters levels 50 to 63. It generally takes 15 to 45 minutes to complete and offers good repeatable EXP and various good items. This guide is meant to show new players how to gain entry and describe the various tactics used to complete this stage quickly and safely.

Accessing the stage

To unlock this stage, you need to complete Legend Cobolt Field. Save either the Injured Cobolt or Injured Land Spirit, then complete all of their quests to unlock Secret Base of Cobolt.

To access the stage, you will also need Cobolt King's Secret Key (obtained by defeating the boss at Legend 3-4 or as a common drop from the Cobolt Captains inside the raid, used up when you pass the raid's door) or "Key to a heavy duty secret base" (obtained as a rare drop from the Cobolt Captains inside the raid, lasts forever). It may sometimes be possible to obtain keys through events or the Cash Shop, as well.

Special tactics

Today, these tactics apply to far more than this stage, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded of some tricks, techs, and habits that any serious stage player should be aware of.

Blocking
This is when someone stands in front of a mob while the rest of the party attacks from a distance. Because the mob will be targeting someone who is far away, it will attempt to chase them, but not be able to move due to the blocker. This tactic only works against enemies that will not attack when someone is on the edge of their range. Due to the addition of boss counters, this technique is no longer particularly useful here and remains only as a reminder of the past.

Mobbing
No matter how fast you can kill something, things go faster when you kill more things at once. As long as stacking mobs isn't going to get you killed, you should always be trying to push everything together so you can kill everything all at once. It's easiest to take everything to a wall, as that prevents things from being pushed past it.

Provoke chaining
This refers to having two knights, both with Provoke 5 (max), alternating their provokes on a target or group of targets in order to allow the rest of the party to attack safely. As long the knights can hide behind something or a healer can be spared to watch them, this is better than an Ice Barrier when dealing many of the enemies because they will destroy the barrier quickly from so many hits. Due to the addition of boss counters, this technique is only particular effective against trapped Adamans.

Trapping
Here, trapping usually refers to wall trapping the Adamans. Basically, there are small glitchy areas on the wall on which players and monsters can both get stuck when trying to run along the wall. Trapping is luring the Adaman to run into the wall, then along it so that it gets stuck on one of these areas, and standing at a sufficient distance so that the Adaman constantly tries to do its dashing punch attack but misses due to the range. After that, it can be sniped, or a provoke chain or damage aggro can be used to allow other players to go behind it and attack.

The stage itself

Secret Base of Cobolt can be loosely divided into several sections, which is how I'll be organizing this guide. These are the following:

Outside the base
Cobolt barricades
Secret base hallway
Cobolt army
Scorpion army
Golem army
Cactus army
pre-Adaman guards
the Adamans

Dialogue Variation Chart

The stage has several minor variations, which can be identified by what Eir says at the beginning of the stage. The stage cycles through these variants once an hour; each one lasts 12 minutes.

Here is the chart with the various dialogues and what they mean.

Code:

                 spirits reavers scorpions golem cactus 1 2 3 buff

morning sunshine            2       1/4       4     3   X   X protective fortitude

too hot                     2       2/4       4     4       X rage explosion

getting dark        X       2       2/4       4     1       X protective fortitude

so sleepy           X       1       2/2       2     1     X X magic defense

hardly awake                1       1/2       2     1   X X X magic defense

spirits: X means there are land spirits present after the antlion pits.
reavers: number of reavers initially present before barricades.
scorpions: first number is number of scorpion kings, second is number of catapulters.
golem: number of catapulters initially present at golems.
cactus: number of catapulters present at cactus.
1 2 3: an X under these means that Jewel of Life will be present.
buff: the buff given by using Magic Concentration Stones.

Section 1: Outside the base

You start off in a small room with 2 quests available; pick those up, as they provide a decent amount of experience. Once someone opens the door, their key is used up and no more people can enter the stage, so be careful not to open the door until you're sure everyone is ready.

The initial area is filled with land spirits of various sizes. The smaller ones should be gathered together, then killed with AOE attacks. The medium ones should be pushed to a wall and killed with normal attacks, as they are far more deadly. For a speed run, you can also bring all the medium spirits together and AOE them as well, but be warned that this is significantly more dangerous as they tend to spam ranged attacks that make them hard to approach.

You'll also be introduced to the "hand" here; an invisible enemy that continually reaches up with an earthen hand, grabbing you, knocking you down and causing minor damage as long as you're within range. It can be provoked or induced to attack a Moon Barrier, and will appear in various places throughout the stage. It mostly serves to make it difficult to hide in "safe" spots, except for at the boss.

After the initial section, head south--you can get reagents, sometimes a Jewel of Life, and a special stage buff if someone has brought 3 Magic Concentration Stones. If you have stones, walk into the orb near the reagents to buff the party; make sure you wait for everyone to come into the room before you do this.

In the next section, there will be large numbers of Antlion Pits and Baby Dragons. Use skills that move you forward to get through the slowing effect, and AOE knockdowns to clear paths through the dragons. Try to protect FS-build Healers and Wizards as they generally have the hardest time getting through if the dragons go after them. Once you reach the end of this area, there will be a gate you need to break down; one or two people should keep the dragons off everyone while the party breaks though.

In the final outdoors section, you will face a few Raptors, another pack of Baby Dragons, and possibly some Medium Land Spirits. Kill all of the raptors and dragons to proceed. There may be another Jewel of Life before you enter the tunnel.

Section 2: Cobolt barricades

As soon as the first person enters the tunnel, a Cobolt Warrior will spawn and begin running to the end. If he reaches the Reavers, you'll have to fight twice as many--obviously this is a bad thing, so the first person should immediately rush over and juggle the warrior toward the entrance so this doesn't happen. One or two people can stay there to help and make sure the warrior doesn't escape and that other cobolts don't mob and kill anyone. The rest of the party should head to the right and begin fighting the reaver(s) (either 1 or 2). Once the back reaver is killed, an additional reaver will spawn. If the reavers are killed before the warrior, do not go any further. Doing so will glitch the stage, and you will not be able to complete it.

After the reavers, you will be faced with several barricades loaded with Cobolt Catapulters, Warriors, and Trappers, as well as their High-Ranked counterparts. For speed runs, one person should go ahead, lure all of the High Ranking Cobolt Warriors back to the beginning so they can be killed all at once. Clear your way through the barricade carefully, and do not get ahead of your healers; the arrows can deplete your health very quickly, at which point stray bombs and boomerangs tend to find you.

Healers can use SSA and Wizards can use Bitter Cold Breath to move enemies onto their side of the barricade for easier killing; you can also go behind the barricades and knock cobolts over if you're careful about it. While this is a fairly safe section of the run, there are two High Ranking Cobolt Catapulters as well as a Medic and Trapper at the back, so don't get too careless.

Section 3: Secret base hallway

You won't be spending much time here, but it does deserve a mention. All of the following rooms (which must be cleared in order) are connected to this hallway, which has three Chariots patrolling it, just like the one in 3-3. However, these chariots leave bombs behind them as they move which do about 1000 damage if stepped on. Because of this, someone should lure or Ice Barrier them to prevent them from blocking the hall completely with bombs.

Should the hall become filled with bombs, the following skills can allow you to detonate the bombs safely and pass through without waiting for the bombs to explode naturally:

Light Shield
Moon Barrier
Magic Defense
Destruction Fist
Flying Dragon Sword
Surprise Attack
Fake Tears

Section 4: Cobolt army

This room is the first on the north side of the hallway. It features a large number of normal Cobolt Catapulters and Warriors, as well as quite a few of their High Ranking counterparts.

The common strategy here is to push everything to the top wall and AOE them down. If you break the Sleep Pumps here, additional reinforcements will spawn; you can avoid them for a speed run or kill them for more EXP. The only real danger here is being trapped by multiple High Ranking Warriors or a stray High Ranking Catapulter's boomerang, so make sure to keep an eye on them and this room should be fairly easy.

Section 5: Scorpion army

This room is the second on the south side of the hallway. It features a large number of Poison Sting Scorpions, several Sand Scorpions and Sand Scorpion Solders, two to four High Ranking Cobolt Catapulters, and one or two Black Sand Scorpion Kings.

The Scorpion Kings' counterattacks alone aren't too big of a deal; tails can be dodged by staying in front or in back of the King, while the ground slam has an extremely long charge time and a fairly small range. The main danger here is if you get two Scorpion Kings and they use the 12-tail attack in different directions, which can decimate most of the room. To avoid this, you should try to keep the Scorpion Kings together and facing in the same direction. Don't forget to take out the Catapulters when you get a chance, as their boomerangs and bombs always complicate even the simplest things.

The small room at the bottom right corner always contains a Jewel of Life and two chests with health/mana restoration items, and sometimes reagents. Don't forget to grab the Jewel, and don't be afraid to retreat to here if you need a chance to heal up without interruptions.

After the Scorpion Kings and Catapulters are killed, mob and kill the rest of the small scorpions, and move on.

Section 6: Golem army

This room is the first on the south side of the hallway. It features miniature Golems with two to four High Ranking Cobolt Catapulters, plus a reinforcement wave of more Golems plus four more Catapulters.

Golems are basically small Rotem Guardians--they have all the same melee attacks, just missing the AOE ground slam and the rock pillar attack. They still do stun with many of their attacks, so getting hit can make you an easy target for the Catapulters. However, most of their attacks do relatively low damage--you are only likely to be killed by Golems if they manage to trap you in a corner and stunkill you. They also do flinch and move on normal hits and their counterattack has no actual attack, so as long as someone's hitting them they're completely harmless.

Each Catapulter should be isolated and killed quickly while the rest of the party mobs and kills the Golems; the second wave is exactly the same as the first and should be handled in the same way.

Section 7: Cactus army

This room is the third on the north side of the hallway. It features a Thorny Captain, numerous smaller cacti, and one to four High Ranking Cobolt Catapulters.

As always, Catapulters should be the first target, with one person going for each catapulter if at all possible. They are always around the center, so rush in and knock them to the bottom left corner, where the rest of the party should be clearing the cacti to make a "safe" corner from which to clear the rest of the room.

The Thorny Captain should be moved to a wall and kept flinching; its counter can be interrupted and so the Captain is helpless as long as someone's beating on it.

Clear all of the smaller enemies first, then heal up and kill the Thorny Captain. Once it dies, 8 Thorny Cacti will spawn around the room. Make sure any Cacti that are close enough to attack are kept in constant hitstun; it'd be a terrible shame if there were any accidental deaths to stationary, flinchable enemies.

Section 8: pre-Adaman guards

This room is the second on the north side of the hallway. It features a small pack of Cobolt Catapulters, Warriors, Medics, and Trappers, along with 3 Cobolt Captains, a Black Sand Scorpion King, and a Reaver.

Upon entering this room, kill the 3 Cobolt Captains. There's not a whole lot to say about this other than to be careful, as all of their attacks can drain your HP extremely quickly. After the first Captain dies, a Black Sand Scorpion King spawns; kill that, then go back to the Captains. After the last Captain dies, a Reaver will spawn; finish it off along with any other small cobolts still around.

Once all enemies in this room are cleared, the north barrier will disappear and the Adaman room will be open.

Section 9: the Adamans [Boss battle!]

This room features Adaman Tera (blue), Adaman Akun (yellow), and Adaman Titan (red). They look just like and behave similarly to Rotem Guardian, with a few minor differences.

A Knight's Magic Defense skill makes him completely immune to everything here.
(Possibly a glitch, as I don't think being punched is very magical.)

Adaman Tera (blue)

has a slow dashing attack
AOE quake skill has no knockdown/stun, high range
summons ice pillars and snowballs instead of earth pillars and boulders
spawns a Reaver upon being destroyed

Adaman Akun (yellow)

has a medium speed dashing attack
AOE quake skill has short range, stuns
summons fire instead of earth pillars that leaves a strong burn effect (~20 damage per second)
spawns a pack of Cobolt Warriors and High Ranking Cobolt Warriors upon being destroyed

Adaman Titan (red)

has a very fast dashing attack
AOE quake skill has high damage, short range, launches
has a spinning attack that deals extremely high damage at moderate range in front
spawns a pack of Golems upon being destroyed

The hand is very active throughout this room except on the very edges, unlike most of the stage where it serves to prevent you from hiding near a door; this tends to make standing still anywhere in the middle of the room while Adamans are loose very dangerous, especially if one (or more) is actively chasing you at the moment.

Trapping tips
- Assuming you have someone who knows how to do it, trapping the Adamans is currently the safest and fastest method we have for killing them. See the "Special Tactics" section above for an explanation.

While it's difficult to explain how a skilled trapper works, there are some general tips and principles you should be aware of.

While trapping Titan, be very aware of the range of his spin attack. If you're not expecting it, it can easily cost you a life.
Akun and Tera dash too short of a distance to easily get them to run straight into the wall--it's much easier to bring them in at a diagonal.

If Akun or Tera are too close to the wall to bring it in, even diagonally to the wall, bring it directly away, then diagonal toward the wall twice. Titan is handled similarly, although you can bring it in vertically or horizontally.
Be very careful not to move out of range of your Adaman, especially if yours is not the only one loose. Many people won't be able to survive for long if they end up with two Adamans chasing them.
Provoke is a last resort--use damage to get an Adaman to follow you if at all possible.
Do your best not to need heals. Use potions, and if you must call for a heal, unload some high-damage attacks into your Adaman to make sure you don't lose it to healing aggro.

Here are three screenshots, showing the three most common trap spots.
http://xs224.xs.to/xs224/08071/1126143356645.png.xs.jpg http://xs224.xs.to/xs224/08071/1120212601480.png.xs.jpg http://xs224.xs.to/xs224/08071/0203130236659.png.xs.jpg

"kStyle" strategy
- One to three people lure and trap all of the Adamans in the same place on the right wall, where they are killed simultaneously either by sniping or from behind with the help of a Provoke chain

Generally requires three competent lures to do safely, as a missed trap can kill another lurer and there are currently only a few players on global Soldin who are capable of reliably trapping two or three Adamans at the same time by themselves.

"old/gLunia" strategy
- One person lures Adaman Titan and traps it at the top left; one person lures Adaman Akun and traps it at the top right. The rest of the party kills Adaman Tera at the bottom of the map, kills the Reaver, and then synchronizes killing Titan and Akun. You can also trap Tera at the right side, if you so choose, and kill all three Adamans at the same time.

This tactic is good if you find yourself in a party where there are not enough players confident that they can trap all of the Adamans in the same spot.

the really old strategy
- run in there, split up the party, and fight all three Adamans without trapping.

Perfectly fine idea if your party is at least halfway competent. Just try not to lure the Adamans into smashing people who are fighting a different Adaman.

Rewards

Well, aside from the experience [around 160k at appropriate levels, plus 220k from stage quests], you'll receive a Glowing Piece of Stone when each Adaman is defeated. Open them to receive Adaman Tera's Piece, Adaman Akun's Piece, and Adaman Titan's Piece. You can take these Adaman Pieces to Cobolt Battlefield and deliver them to either the Cobolt or Land Spirit who gave you the quests, and receive Seal Boxes in return. These Seal Boxes can contain Item Boxes or various trash.

Cobolt's Friendship equipment has a violet color scheme.
Land Spirit's Blessing equipment has an orange color scheme.

Tera's Item Box may contain gloves, legs, and necklaces for any class.
Akun's Item Box may contain weapons, specials (book/rune/cloak), and shoes for any class.
Titan's Item Box may contain chests, hats, earrings, and rings for any class.

Final stuff
- If there's anything I missed, please let me know by posting here or PM.
- Thanks to many of the current and past members of Fusion, LOLI, and Trinium for the many, many raids I did with them to learn all this stuff; particularly Kreig, Ultimaga, and Aegis.

Edits:
- added some new formatting to clearly separate sections
- added "Special Tactics" to explain things that are more complicated than "hit enemies"
- added tips for Adaman trapping in the boss section
- cleaned up some grammar and diction
- added screenshots showing trap spots
- updated to latest changes