Operation guide: Sands of Time

Operation

Guide

One of the two possible Dreadful Foes in the special floor of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar, added in its Expansion II, Sands of Time pits the player against two legendary figures from Terra's history: Kharanduu Khagan, the Scourge of the Land and Lugalszargus, the Overlord of Ages, as the final bosses. True to their legendary statuses, Kharanduu and Lugalszargus each boast a colossal 180,000 HP; with the former having 5000(!) DEF and the latter having 95(!) RES, rendering them almost untouchable to Physical and Arts damage, respectively. This is exacerbated by the fact that Kharanduu and Lugalzargus will periodically use a special attack called Conquest/Edict, which targets each other and dealing heavy Physical/Arts damage respectively, in an area around the target, which can affect both friendly and enemy units, with the cooldown shown as a meter on the HUD. Kharanduu will have his ATK and ASPD increased each time he damages a friendly unit (which fortunately will reset if he does not deal damage over a short period), while Lugalszargus can dash past friendly units in his way, dealing Arts damage to them. Be mindful that both Kharanduu and Lugalszargus will each deduct no less than 30 Life Points if either managed to enter a Protection Objective, resulting in an instant failure if the player have less than 31 LP at the moment; should the player somehow leaks both of them, the LP loss of 60 will almost be guaranteed to compromise the run! Things are not chilling out even if the either Kharanduu or Lugalszargus is dealt with, as the other will be enraged and gains massive boost to MSPD, ASPD, DEF, and RES, and will now use Conquest/Edict on friendlies!

Thanks to those, Sands of Time is worth being given the distinction as the most difficult final boss Dreadful Foes ever released, so a solid team, a good set of Collectibles, and a significant amount of luck when building the player's squad is a must to stand a chance against the legendary duo, with the preparations starting from the beginning of the Joklumarkar 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 Sands of Time.

General strategies

• It is extremely recommended to save up the required materials for the Reconstruction Prophecy preceding the boss fight (3 Anti-Interference Index, 50 , and 20 ) to avoid having to take the negative Collectibles ( Collapsal Seed, Fragment of Space, and Profound Scorchmarks, respectively). Although it will be difficult to save up such a large sum of resources, the debuffs you will be forced to take otherwise are extremely debilitating and may make the battle near-impossible.
  • If left with no other option, prioritize taking the debuffs that are least detrimental and paying off all the others.
  • The Treescar Helm and Boundless Gift can be used to skip the Ingot and Hope costs respectively, meaning that with a strong enough team and build, it is a viable option to face Eikthyrnir and/or Crazelyseon on top of Sands of Time to lessen the resource cost. Amma's Affection, if obtained prior, can also be used to skip any one of the steps, making it advisable to grab it if found.
• Keep in mind the two bosses' opposing weaknesses. Kharanduu should be targeted with Arts damage, while Lugalszargus should be targeted with Physical damage. True and Elemental damage can bypass this restriction, but will generally deal lower damage overall due to there being less ways to increase it with Collectibles and buffs.
  • Ceobe with her CCR-X Operator Module in particular is capable of dealing massive damage to Kharanduu due to his massive DEF and average RES.
• Attempting to fight either boss in close quarters is ill-advised due to Kharanduu's ramping ATK/ASPD and Lugalszargus' dash, so attacking from range (both from low and high ground units) is advised.
• Note that Lugalszargus has a longer range but generally lower damage output, while Kharanduu deals more damage at a shorter range.
• Keep an eye on the cooldown meter for Conquest/Edict and the bosses' position, as an ill-timed AoE can instantly wipe out your defensive line.
• Ensure that you are evenly damaging both bosses and that the other has low HP enough to be swiftly defeated right after their counterpart. If one of them is allowed to enrage with a good amount of HP left, it may become impossible to stop them.