Archon Boreal

Hotfix 36.0.8 (2024-07-25)

• Fixed Archons in Archon Hunts not using their proper Narmer Weaknesses/Resistances.
  • As a refresher, here are the Narmer vulnerabilities/resistances:
    • Vulnerable to Slash and Toxin
    • Resistant to Magnetic
  • The Archons in The New War Quest remain neutral since you don’t know what the “Narmer” faction is until the near end of the Quest, and therefore wouldn’t be able to plan for them given that you are locked into the Quest once started.

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

• Fixed certain multishot alt-fire attacks, namely from the Arum Spinosa and Quassus, dealing unintentionally high damage to Archons.
  • Maximum Damage Per Instance was incorrectly using these weapons’ Primary (single instance) attack instead of its alt-fire (multi-instance) attack in the damage attenuation calculation - which resulted in higher than intended damage numbers for each instance.

Update 34.0 (2023-10-18)

Archon Hunt Damage Attenuation Changes

Speaking of earning Archon Shards, Damage Attenuation (or “damage pillows”) may be a familiar mechanic for those who frequent Archon Hunts each week.

This was a hot topic, especially near the end of 2022. Since then, we’ve taken our time to assess player feedback and devise a plan to address it -- and we’re finally at a place where we can execute it.

Damage Attenuation is one tool of many to increase enemy difficulty by limiting how much damage they take from player weapons, etc. Our current form of Damage Attenuation has resulted in many weapons feeling lackluster due to the high attenuation values, and damage output was reduced significantly to balance out the post-attenuation modifiers -- meaning that Archon fights felt like a slog if players did not use a limited set of optimal builds.

This is not a favorable outcome, so we have made the following changes:

1 - Maximum Damage Caps have increased

• Maximum Damage per Damage Instance has been increased
• Maximum Damage Per Second has been increased

Our goal is to make big hits still feel like big hits, especially for low-rate-of-fire weapons. We’re able to reduce the damage cap significantly because of the next change:

2 - Modifiers now apply before Damage Attenuation

Critical Multipliers (and other modifiers) applying post-damage-cap allowed for many of the One Shot builds to function, and for full transparency, we want to prevent One Shot Archon builds as much as possible. By changing where these modifiers apply, we can increase the Damage Caps to a much less punishing level for players.

Our goals with these changes are to:

• Increase player damage output, thereby reducing the overall time to kill for Archons
• Make “big hits” feel impactful by no longer throttling them to such an extreme degree
• Encourage overall build diversity for Archon Hunts
• Reduce the ability to use one-shot builds

We’re excited to see what Archon Hunts look like for players with these changes in the live build! Now that these changes have been released, we'll be keeping a close eye on player feedback and the resulting time-to-kill for Archons to see if further iteration is needed.

Hotfix 33.5.5 (2023-07-06)

• Fixed Archon Boreal at times being fully invincible during his screeching ability (even if you are within the sphere) in Archon Hunts.

Hotfix 32.0.2 (2022-09-08)

• Added complete Status Effect immunity to abilities that grant invulnerability to Archons.
  • Fixes Archons being vulnerable to Status Effects in their invulnerable phase and presenting opportunities to potentially one-shot the Archon.
• Fixed Archon Boreal's Shard taking reduced damage when it should be taking more.

Hotfix 32.0.1 (2022-09-07)

• Made the following changes to Boreal:
  • Added decay on scaling of Boreal’s invulnerability.
  • Added Overguard protection on Boreal’s AoE attack.
    • Both of these are to address the Archons sometimes taking exorbitant amounts of damage.
  • Improved the pillar sound FX in the Boreal fight.

Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)

NEW WEEKLY MISSION: ARCHON HUNTS (AVAILABLE NOW)

Upon completion of the Veilbreaker Quest, you will unlock Archon Hunts. Archon Hunts are a new class of weekly Mission that are available each week. Now, you can tackle these Narmer experiments with a full squad at your side!

Archon Hunts can be started from the tracking console in Kahl’s Garrison (releasing next week), or through navigation. Equip your Arsenal for a true test of your formidable power as Old foes re-join the fray.

Archon Changes

The final mission of the ARCHON HUNT will always be an Assasination - or ‘Archon Hunt’ mission - Tenno must take up arms against an Archon to complete the Hunt and earn themselves a great reward. Each weekly rotation of an Archon Hunt will feature a new Archon to defeat - Boreal, Amar, or Nira.

The Archons are not how you remember them, Tenno. Since your time fighting them solo in The New War, they have grown stronger. Each of the three Archons have received a rework to increase their difficulty level.

Their greater resistance to damage, harder-hitting attacks, and new methods of trickery make them a formidable foe - a well-equipped loadout and/or a resourceful squad are necessities to defeating these reworked Archons.

Update 31.0 (2021-12-15)

• Introduced.