Operation guide: Sami's Entropy

Operation

Guide

The alternate Dreadful Foe in the 5th floor of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar which replaces Lofty Silverfrost when the player has the Treescar Helm and had chosen "Put on the helmet" in the "Crossing Sami's Arm" Prophecy, Sami's Entropy pits the player against Eikthyrnir who unfortunately had been consumed by the Andskotarnir taint following his hunt on the Black Mark as the final boss with the title Scar of the Shattered, who notably has massive HP and DEF, and periodically unleashes a frigid blast that inflicts Cold on friendlies too close to him, as well as doing so in his attacks, potentially leaving melee Operators Frozen and unable to retaliate against him. This is exacerbated by Eikthrynir's ability to enter a short-lasting Self-Destruction state whenever he loses 30% of his maximum HP where he cannot be blocked (and thus won't attack friendlies in his path) but takes greatly reduced Physical and Arts damage, moves at a frighteningly speedy pace — one of the fastest enemies in the game, can neither be Bound nor Slowed, (but can still be Levitated and affected by MSPD reductions, fortunately) and will make a beeline straight into the Protection Objective! Be wary that Eikthyrnir will release a frigid blast that inflicts Cold to nearby friendlies whenever he enters or exits the Self-Destruction state, whose duration will stack if his HP is reduced quickly enough. Should the player fails to stop him cold in his tracks, Eikthyrnir will deduct no less than 30 Life Points upon entering the Objective, resulting in an instant failure if one has less than 31 at the moment.

Eikthyrnir is escorted by strong enemies, most notably Tainted Carcasses and Shattered Champions who has an above-average speed and might keep up with Eikthyrnir when given the chance, along with Yeti Icecleaver Leaders whose attacks deal critical damage against Frozen targets, so be on the lookout for Eikthyrnir's frigid blasts and Infused Glacial Originium Slugs α that will show up, as well as Frost drones that reduces the ASPD of friendlies.

A solid team, a good set of Collectibles, and a significant amount of luck when building said lineup is required to stand a chance against Eikthyrnir. As with other final boss Dreadful Foes, the preparations start from the beginning of the run, as it is imperative to build up a solid defensive lineup and coherent strategy over the course of the entire run before taking on Sami's Entropy.

Strategies

• Attempting to burst down Eikthyrnir with most conventional means will just lead to him activating Self-Destruction and sprinting straight through the map, potentially compromising the run before the player realizes what happened. A more patient approach is needed to deal with him.
• The easiest way to deal with Eikthyrnir is to block him with a bulky Protector Defender with healing support as soon as he spawns (along with two Tainted Carcasses), stall him until all of the other enemies have been defeated, and then deal with him later. Eikthyrnir has relatively low ATK and does not deal more damage against Frozen targets, allowing him to be stalled almost indefinitely this way.
  • Make sure there are no damage dealers around the Defender. Even if they cannot harm Eikthyrnir, they may potentially defeat the Tainted Carcasses and free up the blocker's Block count. This will potentially allow them to block a Yeti Icecleaver Leader, which will swiftly cut them down and free Eikthyrnir.
• If Eikthyrnir is blocked once at the beginning, and then once more every time he exits Self-Destruction, he will be physically unable to make it to the end of the map. Although this requires multiple tanky blockers and sources of healing, his relatively manageable damage output means that provided all other enemies on the stage are gone, each time he's blocked, the player can take their time retreating and redeploying their units.
• Sources of Arts damage, especially AoE, are great for taking out Eikthyrnir's support, who tend to be physically bulky. Eikthyrnir himself is also extremely physically bulky but relatively weak to Arts, making it good against him when the time comes to attack; Ceobe in particular can deal massive damage to him due to her Thresher talent taking full advantage of his lopsided defenses.
  • More consistent or fast-charging sources of Arts damage tend to be more effective than one-time burst due to Self-Destruction granting him brief periods of near-invulnerability to attack.
• In spite of his immunity and damage resistance in Self-Destruction, there are still multiple ways to disable Eikthyrnir in this state:
  • As mentioned above, sources of Levitate such as Irene, Qanipalaat, or Ho'olheyak can waste Self-Destruction's timer, with Ho'olheyak can even keep Eikthyrnir in the air indefinitely with enough ASPD buffs.
  • With a fully upgraded SPC-Y Module, Mostima's Subjective Time Dilation talent inflicts a grand 90% (99% at Potential 5) MSPD debuff to Eikthyrnir while Key of Chronology is active, slowing him down quite significantly over a good duration. If the player has the means to burst Eikthyrnir down, a single blocker and Mostima can potentially waste all of his uses of Self-Destruction.
  • Shu's Samsara which warps enemies back to a sowed tile whenever they move too far from it will prevent Eikthyrnir from going anywhere so long as she sows the tile he is on before he enters Self-Destruction.