World Bosses, a Five-Player Dungeon and an 18-Meter Dragon

In Valdoria Online, the free orcs vs. elves MMORPG, the best of the game is played in a group: a five-player dungeon with three bosses, a castle with its own crypt, six caves with a boss at the end and six world bosses from level 12 to 60. Here's what you'll find in each place, how the fights work and what loot you take home.

• 5 players per group
• 3 bosses in the dungeon
• 6 multi-chamber caves
• 6 world bosses
• 18 m: the size of Vorathar
• 60 is the level cap

The Dusk Fortress: The Five-Player Dungeon

The Dusk Fortress is Valdoria's group dungeon. Its gate stands in the southeast corner of Crossway, the neutral town in the Twin Roads Frontier: a gate “that leads nowhere in this valley”, guarded by the Dusk Watcher, who is looking for groups of five. Each group enters its own instance, so the bosses and the loot belong to your group alone.

Inside are eleven chambers spread over three levels and a lava river you cross by a bridge. They're guarded by elite enemies: skeletons, skeleton mages, magma skeletons, one-eyed ogres and young Scaleborn.

Its Three Bosses: Brokenbone, Gorm and Ignarion

Each boss has its own mechanic, and the Dusk Watcher's quests (“The Dusk Gate”, “The Fortress Sergeant” and “The Herald of Dusk”) explain it before you go in:

• Sergeant Brokenbone (level 14). He commands the fortress guard. When you see him raise his arms, interrupt his spell.
• Gorm the Wallbreaker (level 15). When he's about to explode, get away from him.
• Ignarion, Herald of Dusk (level 16). He waits at the very end. When he draws breath, get behind him.

According to the database, every boss always drops rare gear for the group, and Ignarion adds an epic piece on top. His title is no accident, either: Ignarion was Vorathar's herald.

Windrock Castle: Three Floors and a Crypt, with No Loading Screens

Above Windharbor, in the Eastern Lands, rises Windrock Castle, for characters of levels 29 to 33. Unlike the fortress, it's open to the sky and you explore it on foot, with no loading screens: the courtyard, the great hall with its empty throne, the library, the living quarters, two towers with spiral staircases, and the walls.

It's held by renegades from both sides and a garrison of restless dead: 31 enemies and five quests, from “Lights in Windrock” to “The Oathbreaker”. In the crypt below the hall waits Mordrec the Oathbreaker, the castellan who swore Windrock to both sides and sold it to the renegades. If he raises his sword, interrupt the blow or get clear. His loot includes the Oathbreaker's Blade, which “swore twice and kept neither oath”.

Six Multi-Chamber Caves, Each with a Boss at the End

Scattered across the map are six caves with chambers, ramps, balconies overlooking the hall below and darkness between one torch and the next. Each has its own entrance out in the world, its own inhabitants and a boss at the far end. They range from the Jackal Mine (level 6) to the Giant's Den (level 31):

• Jackal Mine, in the Fang Moors, the orcs' homeland.
• Trickster's Grotto, in Moonwood, the elves' homeland.
• Brigands' Mine, in the Twin Roads Frontier.
• Serpent Cave, Grayfang Den and Giant's Den, in the Eastern Lands.

Six World Bosses, from Level 12 to 60

World bosses are out in the open world, each in its own corner, and they're for groups from both sides: none of them is meant to be fought alone. Here are all six, from weakest to strongest:

• Magma Giant (level 12), in the Twin Roads Frontier. Its quest makes it clear: “No one beats it alone.”
• Scaleborn (level 15), lord of the frontier. Its quest tells you to “go with a full group”.
• Colossus of the Gales (level 35), a giant of pale stone in the standing-stone circle on the Dawn Peaks.
• Morvhal the Starless (level 48), on the cracked ice of the Frozen Lake. He pulls you toward him, bursts into a Void Nova and opens cracks in the ice beneath anyone who isn't holding his attention: when he lets you go, run.
• Kaldrath, the Ancient Wyrm (level 60), at the Wyrm's Throne, behind a guard that lets no one through. He was the Dusk's guardian.
• Vorathar, the Dusk (level 60), in the Dusk Caldera: the ultimate boss, with a section all his own.

Each one guards three epic pieces of its own, such as the Magma Giant's Blazing Gauntlets, the Colossus's Crown of the Winds or Morvhal's Voidedge, and always drops rare gear. Their levels, health and full loot tables are in the creature database.

Vorathar, the Dusk: The Dragon That Closes the World

Beneath the Ember Forge slept the Dusk, the dragon whose waking snuffs out the day. His lair is a rock caldera with a single entrance in the southeast of the map, as far as you can get from both capitals. At eighteen meters and level 60, he's built for five or six level 60 players in the best gear: with three or four, he won't go down. The database puts his health at about 503,000 points, five times Kaldrath's.

His quest, “The Dusk”, sums it up: you'll need “an unyielding shield, tireless healing hands and room in your bags, because whatever doesn't fit is lost”. Here's what awaits you inside:

• Seven mechanics, including Igneous Bellow, Magma Breath to the front, Tail Lash to the rear, a Wingbeat that knocks you back and pools of magma.
• Dusk Roar: a fear you can only escape by hiding behind one of the caldera's four stone fangs.
• Two flight phases: at 70% and 40% health he takes to the air; embers rain down, three whelps swoop in and the Doomfall comes down, with five runes on the ground and one player needed on each.
• The caldera seals shut: anyone who isn't inside within the first ten seconds burns if they try to enter, and after six minutes he unleashes his final fury.
• Four hours until he respawns after falling.

The Loot: Need or Greed, Epics and Weapons That Show in Your Hand

In the Dusk Fortress, loot is split by need or greed. With Vorathar, no one leaves empty-handed: every participant, even those who fell during the fight, gets an epic piece for their class, gold and a shot at one of his six epics: the weapon Dusk, the Last Light, the Heart of Vorathar, the Duskscale Breastplate, the Black-Horned Helm, the Dusk Talon and the Mantle of Living Ash.

The bosses' named weapons “take the shape of their wielder's weapon”, so they work for any class. And what you carry shows: each weapon type (sword, greatsword, dagger, crozier and staff) has eight models depending on its quality and level, and rare and epic ones glow in your hand.

Find Your Group: Five at a Time

Groups in Valdoria hold five players and share experience. There are guilds, a friends list, general and trade chat, and whispers. And to get to the meeting point, there are nineteen runestone portals: from any one you've already discovered, you can travel to the others in five seconds.

Short on players? Stop by the community forum, see how to play with your friends and pick your role in the class guide: Vorathar calls for a tank who can take the punishment and a healer who never stops.

All figures come from the game's catalog, version 0.35.0. Every creature, level and drop is in the database.

More Guides