Corporal Tenni’syn is a Gold Skeleton Key boss found inside the Zanadu Sewers, Empyrea. He drops the best offensive robes for every school, except Storm. Storm wizards will still want to use the Malistaire robe even at level 130.
Initially, this boss seems difficult, but with enough knowledge and game sense, he is actually incredibly easy! So, here is how I killed Corporal Tenni’syn in 4 rounds!
The Cheats
Tenni’syn uses a couple of important cheats to note. They can be annoying, but there’s no way to avoid them.
Only Feint once per round
If you feint Tenni’syn more than once, you’ll activate a cheat that removes every single trap that the team has placed on him.
Natural attacks lead to random Wild Bolt spam
Whenever he uses his natural attack he will shout about how it is “time to finish this!” Now, this sounds rather silly, but what follows isn’t.
He will spam up to 7 wild bolts on a random member of the team each time this attack occurs. Be careful because he’s packing a lot of damage and pierce!
Gains 3 Pips after every turn
After every round, no matter what, Tenni’syn will gain 3 power pips. This gives him the power to spam spells such as Glow Bug Squall, Sirens and Storm Lord.
Don’t Dispel
Other sources may claim that using dispel is ok if it is only used once per round. In my experience this will trigger a cheat that clears all negative charms. A better defensive strategy is to use Juju or storm shields.
The Strategy
Now that you know the cheats, lets find out how to deal 80,000 damage in 4 turns every time. Even when blades are cleared by Glow Bug Squall, Sirens and Catch of the Day, it’s still guaranteed to work. Here are the key points.
Jade gear and Storm resist
Having a wizard that can tank all the storm hits is important. Send someone in first who has high storm resist. The battle order is decided by the order in which your team enters the key room.
Scion
When you hit use Scion of Storm with a prism, or Scion of Myth with 2 stun blocks up. Scion will allow you to one shot Tenni’syn on the 4th round.
Feint
Have the team member with storm resist feint using Potent, regular, and a Treasure Card to make the Scion kill guaranteed, even if he clears all blades.
Critical block
In my experience, he must not have much critical block. He has never blocked a single one of my critical hits!
The only additional note is that he may use blades, so your team will want to carry enfeeble in order to get that Scion damage doubled.
That’s it! It’s honestly that simple. I wish you the best of luck while farming!
Lambent Fire is a Stone Skeleton Key Boss that is found in Crystal Caves – Avalon. He drops the Burning Rampage spell, which is highly sought-after by many fire wizards. Unfortunately, his cheats work conveniently well to make the battle harder specifically for fire.
Main Cheats & Common Strategies
He cheat-casts steal charm on all fireblades, elemental blades, and universal blades. Aegis can be used to prevent this cheat, but many people don’t have that spell yet. If Bladestorm is used, only the caster will have their blade stolen. A common strategy is to have someone spam quench (fire dispel) on the boss so that someone else can blade. Hitters of other schools often don’t worry about this cheat (other than balance), but it’s mainly fire wizards that are farming this boss.
He also cheat-casts Immolate on any universal traps. That’s right – no feints, even if protected with Indemnity. You would need someone to spam quench for that, too. The only exceptions to this cheat are Mass Feint and Malediction (mass universal traps). Regular traps (like Fire Trap, Elemental Trap, Fuel, and Backdraft) all work fine. Fire Prism and Mass Fire Prism are both allowed.
A minion will also cheat-cast Bad Juju at the end of the 3rd turn to whoever has the most pips, which is usually the hitter. That always has to be cleared using a wand spell or Cleanse Charm before hitting. This cheat is part of a cheat-cycle and repeats every 3rd turn.
So if you’re fire, it’s hard to blade and hard to trap. Farming is all about efficiency; regardless of the drop rate, you have a higher chance of getting what you want if you get more runs in. But with all of the cheats against buffs, how could 4 average fire wizards ever hope to beat Lambent Fire in 2 turns?
Here’s The Strategy
Person 1: Minion Killer
You need one person to kill the minions. If you’re a fire wizard with a +1 pip deck, use Mass Fire Prism followed by an enchanted Scald.
Yeah, I said Scald. Trust me on this.
How high your damage is won’t matter, the minions will die regardless. If you don’t get a power pip on the 1st and 2nd turn, no worries; it will just take 3 turns to kill.
If the minion killer ends up not being a fire wizard, just find someone that can kill the minions by the 2nd turn. Having a spell that is both AoE and DoT (like Deer Knight or Reindeer Knight) would be ideal, but anyone else that can one-shot minions by the 2nd round is fine.
(Ex: Stormblade + Tempest/Storm Lord)
Person 2: Main Hitter
Here’s another surprise for you fire wizards: if you’re the hitter, use Fire Prism (single) on the boss, followed by an enchanted Heckhound. Even if you have a shadow hit ready.
Another “useless” spell, I know. Just go with it.
If your main hitter is not fire, then just have someone blade and hit with any DoT spell. Frostbite, Poison, or Thunderstorm (Rain Core pet spell) are all great options. Even if you have a stronger spell, please stick to DoT.
Person 3: Secret Weapon
This is where the strategy comes together. Most of the people farming this boss are fire, right? Someone probably has Dalia’s Smoldering Hairdo, the fire hat from the Professor’s Hoard Pack. Congratulations, you have been selected to use Incindiate.
Does it make sense yet?
This will detonate all of the previously used DoT spells AND double their damage. To put this in perspective: Assuming a fire wizard was the main hitter and used what I said above, it would end up being a 5-7 pip Heckhound with a prism. If you include a Colossal enchantment and the double damage from Incindiate, you’re looking at a 1900-2440 base damage attack. That’s more base damage than any spell in the game. And that’s still without the 30% ice boost (from prism), stat damage, or even a possible critical.
The Scald works similarly; with Colossal and Incindiate, it would have 1540 base damage, which is still more damage than Raging Bull. That alone with the 30% ice boost is guaranteed to kill minions (and land a solid hit on the boss as well), not to mention your stat damage.
If you’re a non-fire wizard but you have the hat, you can still make it work. If you have a fire mastery amulet, great. If you have a +1 pip deck, using empower on the 1st turn will give you enough pips to cast Incindiate on the 2nd turn
f you are balance, you could go first and use bladestorms (cheat will only steal blade from you) to boost the other 2 hitters, or use Donate Power to boost the Heckhound, or both.
If you have Dworgyn’s Havoc Hood (the death hat from the Professor’s Hoard Pack), Mass Feint would also help.
If you are not fire but you are still a strong hitter, then you can blade and hit with whatever you got; just keep in mind DoT will do double damage.
If you have none of these, you could always buy Donate Power tc from the bazaar and use that on the main hitter before they use Heckhound, or buy Fire Trap/Elemental Trap/Fuel tc. Just find some way to be helpful.
Person 4: Backup
There is no specific role for this person, just help somehow. If you are fire/ice/death, I recommend doing the same thing as the main hitter. I’m specifically including ice and death because they both have solid, low-pip DoT spells they can use, and they each have a 30% damage boost against Lambent Fire.
If you’re fire but have really low accuracy/damage, use traps for the hitters. (Traps have to be after prisms, so enter battle after the hitters.)
If you are balance, you could go first and use bladestorms (cheat will only steal blade from you) to boost the other 2 hitters, or use Donate Power to boost the Heckhound or both.
If you have Dworgyn’s Havoc Hood (the death hat from the Professor’s Hoard Pack), Mass Feint would also help.
If you are not fire but you are still a strong hitter, then you can blade and hit with whatever you got; just keep in mind DoT will do double damage.
If you have none of these, you could always buy Donate Power TC from the bazaar and use that on the main hitter before they use Heckhound, or buy Fire Trap/Elemental Trap/Fuel tc. Just find some way to be helpful.
(If you’re a high level and wanna get fancy, a death wizard could use Empower then Wrath of Hades, or a myth wizard could use Empower tc then King Artorius (which both have a big 1000+ damage DoT). If you’re hitting minions, an ice wizard use Empower TC/Snow Angel, or a myth wizard could use Mythblade/Noble Humongofrog. Feel free to get creative!
Putting It All Together
If your backup person is not hitting or trapping, have them go first, followed by the 2 hitters (in any order). If the backup person is hitting, then all 3 hitters go in any order. Most importantly, have the person using Incindiate go last.
If anyone on the team doesn’t have enough pips to do their part by the 2nd turn (due to lack of power pips, entering late, etc.), everyone needs to wait until the 3rd turn to hit.
If your hitters aren’t very strong, or you don’t have a backup person, hitting on the 3rd turn can also give everyone an extra turn to trap, and increases Heckhound’s base damage (by gaining an extra pip). This would ensure a kill, although most full teams can manage it in 2 turns.
Preventing Fails
One of the unpredictable things in this battle that can cause a fail is Lambent Fire using Efreet. But with this strategy since the person using Incindiate is going last, the Efreet will always target them (since they will always be across from him) as long as you have a full team.
The Bad Juju cheat is another thing people worry about,
but hitting by the 3rd turn avoids this completely.
The minions CAN use Immolate, which can clear some of their prisms. If the minion killer is fire and has low damage, the Scald might not kill. Have a backup AoE hit in to clean up. Lambent Fire will not use Immolate.
Aside from that, watch your accuracy and power pips. Incindiate needs 15% accuracy to ensure no fizzles. Raise your power pip stat too, especially if you don’t have a +1 pip deck. Other than that, make sure your hitters all have 100% accuracy for their school. If your accuracy isn’t high enough, taking an extra turn to use Infallible is well worth your time. Accuracy and power pips are much more important than critical for this strategy.
Deck Setup
Minion Killer
If you are fire, this is the setup you wanna have. Keeping a maximum of 7 cards ensures that you will draw exactly what you need. the plan is to use Mass Fire Prism, then an enchanted Scald. If you get a pip fail can’t use Scald on the 2nd turn, use a trap while waiting for a pip. If your fire accuracy isn’t perfect, use Infallible tc regardless of pips.
If some minions clear their prism and end up surviving, then you have a backup enchanted Meteor Strike. In the rare case that it goes past the 3rd round, you may need a wand to for the Bad Juju cheat.
If you’re not fire, just replace the trap/prism with blades, and the attacks with your AoE spells.
Main Hitter/Backup Hitter
Same simple setup: Fire Prism then Enchanted Heckhound. Pip fails don’t really matter with Heckhound, but use a trap if someone else on your team needs to wait for pips. Just like before, you have an enchanted Meteor Strike and a wand hit for emergencies, but probably won’t end up using them.
If you aren’t fire, just replace the trap/prism with blades, and the Heckhound with your DoT spell. Backup hit is optional.
***All hitters NEED perfect accuracy, more than anything else. If you fizzle, you miss out on the Incindiate. If someone on your team needs to use Infallible tc, just hit on the 3rd turn.
Secret Weapon
It’s pretty simple for this person: enter the battle last and be ready to use Incindiate by the 2nd turn. if you have a +1 pip deck and at least 90% power pips, you’re solid. You can use a Fire Trap or anything else that would be helpful while you wait. If you don’t have a deck pip, increase your power pips as much as possible and use Empower tc on the 1st turn. Regardless, 15% fire accuracy is a must. Backup hit is optional.
Other Backup
If the Backup is a fire wizard with low damage/accuracy and doesn’t want to hit, this is also a possible setup. Pack whatever traps you have, and go after the hitters so that your traps go after their prisms.
If the backup isn’t fire, then go first and support in any way possible. An easy way is by using Donate Power tc to boost Heckhound on the 2nd turn.
While I do agree that this strategy is a bit particular by requiring a spell like Incindiate, also consider that you’re more likely to run into fire wizards with this boss than anywhere else. The chance that someone on your team has it is pretty decent. All the current guides and strategies advise against having too many fire wizards (which is terrible since fire wizards farm it the most), but this one encourages it. This is also the only current strategy that can be done in 2-3 turns with a team of average Archmage fire wizards.