The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker – How to Beat the Temple of Etherlight Guardian

Before we start, if you’re stuck in the room before the guardian with all the demons fighting, you need to get an item from each type of demon along with 1 pyramid-looking rock, and combine all 5 together to a trinket that dissolves the purple wall when you wear it!

Guide to Beat the Temple of Etherlight Guardian

Hit a brick wall on the boss in the Temple of Etherlight? Feel like you have to go grind your combat for hours? This guide is for you. Please read through it and do a bit of prep work. Trust me, you’ll waste way more time dying and recovering your items than you’d spend going through this guide.

Prepare for the Fight

• Spell Resistance armor is key for this dungeon. Plate Armor and Copper Shields all give negative spell resistance. Put on some Studded Sheepskin Armor. Don’t have the tailoring skill to make it? Go to the bat cave just north of Haywind, and you’ll find a set just inside to the left! I can’t find a free studded sheepskin helmet anywhere, but a Sheepskin Hood is sufficient to kill the guardian. Snag a few sheepskin from the sheep just outside this cave and craft one up (you can craft it from skill level 1). Wear a Spruce Shield instead of your copper one. You can either make this with 8 crafting skill or wander back to the introduction crypt and snag another. This should all put you at around 48 spell resistance. Bonus: you’ll see the difference with this gear well before you reach the boss, as the lvl 16 Ancient Undeads spamming Malevolent Gale will become pushovers now!
• I’d make sure you’re using a Haywoods Sickle Sword so you can quick strike. If you sold yours, you can buy it for 300g at the Haywinds Weapon vendor.
• Just south of that bat cave, you’ll find a priest on the beach near a healing shrine. Check the altar right next to the priest with the cloth and book on it, and you will learn Rayne’s Mending. Make sure you keep a stack of acorns on you to be able to cast it.
• You’ll need 3 magic skill to cast that healing spell, but you’ll really want to get up to 5 magic so you can cast Lord Oberon’s Spellscreen. I think it’s a default spell. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. It also wouldn’t hurt to get 8 magic so that you can cast Quenna’s Reinvigoration, which you can buy from the north-most Haywind Magic Store for 1200g. This spell uses Mistypine Needles as a component, so bring a stack of those if you are going to use this spell.
• The skeletons and ghosts leading to the guardian will drop Mild Dampening Potions. These have 2 uses and last about 30 seconds. 1 potion should be enough for the boss fight, but bring another just in case.
• If you sided with the druid in Mistywood, make sure you put the Mistywood Talisman on your hotbar.
• Bring as many healing potions as you can, and and hotkey both the full version of the potion as well as the 1/2 version of it!
• Food will help a lot as well, but takes up inventory space (unless you’re using Mistwater Herring, which is better than nothing, but takes 15 cooking to cook up. I didn’t use any food, personally.

Things to know before you enter the final room:

• Frame rate is important. This game has some weird memory issues if you’ve been playing for a bit. Close the game and re-open it before you enter the boss chamber. Update your graphics card if you haven’t in a while.
• You will unlock the bridge by disabling 3 of the 4 purple shrines in his room. You disable them by going up to them and using them. Note: the disabling is about a 1-second channel, so don’t move too quickly to the next one. Wait for a gap between his spells (see the next point).
• The boss has 3 spells he will use in a relatively random order (I’ve made up the spell names):
• Lightning Bolt – his standard spam cast. It’ll always hit you. Will generally miss you if you have followed this guide. BLOCKABLE.
• Carpet Bomb – he’ll yeet about 5 or 6 bombs into the air, and even with a ton of spell resistance, this can 1-shot you. It is AVOIDABLE! When he casts it, you’ll see red spots appear on the ground. Move out of them above all else.
• Death Beam – He will put a rune up in front of him, say a voice line, and then launch a massive, stunning beam at you. If this hits you, you are VERY likely to die from the beam or the followup spells that you won’t be able to avoid. He’ll launch it where you were standing when he started to cast it, so don’t run AWAY from him, run to the side. It’s easy to avoid if you are always aware of where the boss is and know where to move when you hear the voiceline. You have a few second to react.

Fight Time!

• Enter the boss room, and after the cut scene, immediately drink a Mild Dampening Potion, cast Lord Oberon’s Spellscreen, and use your Mistywood Talisman if you have it. Try your best to keep the Mistywood Talisman rolling full time for extra healing.
• Avoid spells at all times. It doesn’t matter if you spend 10 minutes deactivating the shrines. No rush. Avoid damage above all else. If he spams the carpet bombs, and you have to dodge red spots for 30 seconds in a row, just do it.
• Deactivation order doesn’t matter, but I recommend doing the back two first (the ones closes to you, not the ones up front near the boss). The carpet bombs have a longer time to reach you, so you will have more time to react to them before they hit the ground.
• Once you’ve activated the 3rd shrine, the bridge will raise. Keep avoiding spells, and run up to the boss to engage him.
• Drink another Mild Dampening Potion if your first one has fallen off.
• You’ll be able to see his spell casts, so if you see a lightning bolt, go ahead and shield block it for an extra hit on the boss, and make sure you’re quick striking on cooldown.
• Carpet bomb will be difficult to dodge at this range, so just make sure you’re only getting hit by 1 or 2 if you have to get hit.
• If you do get hit by something, make sure you’re healing up immediately. Quenna’s Reinvigoration is pretty clutch here as it continues to heal while you are stunned. Healing potions don’t really have a cooldown, so spam them (and the 1/2 ones you have on your hotbar) as needed to stay topped off.
• The boss should go down within 15-20 seconds. Stay alive by avoiding carpet bombs and death beams, block lightning bolts, and quick strike in that order of priority.