Herald of the Black Dawn

Boss · The Black Sun · band D, The Foundations

Where Herald of the Black Dawn waits

Herald of the Black Dawn holds the gates at depths 83,100, 83,700, 84,300, 84,900, 85,500 in The Black Sun, sharing the zone's 100-depth gate rhythm with The Eclipse Tyrant and The Gnomon and The Cinder Sovereign and The Black Idol and The Devourer of Noon.

What Herald of the Black Dawn is

Herald of the Black Dawn is a Herald: it swings a wand, and the body asks for Recoup and Life Steal, elemental defense — kill it first: its chant shields its pack from the elements. As a boss it wears the type's defences at 35%, carries no status of its own, and enrages below half health: it hits harder and moves faster.

Herald of the Black Dawn by the numbers

The card at each gate — health, damage per swing, armour and the modifiers it rolls — straight from the game's spawn table. On the floor the boss leads with 60% of the card's health and 60% of its damage, before the road's own pressure.

Depth 83,100 · boss

Health160,257,917,723

Hit · swing538,000,256 / 1.25s

Armor580,753,480

Fire res50%

Lightning res50%

Cold res50%

Chaos res30%

Dodge0%

Barrier14,022,567,801

MANGLINGOF FRENZYBURNINGOF THE EXECUTIONERREGENERATING

Depth 83,700 · boss

Health162,662,658,846

Hit · swing546,073,293 / 1.25s

Armor589,467,943

Fire res50%

Lightning res50%

Cold res50%

Chaos res30%

Dodge0%

Barrier54,898,647,361

RETALIATINGOF PRECISIONENRAGEDOF HASTEBARRIEREDOVERWHELMING

Depth 84,300 · boss

Health165,085,879,264

Hit · swing554,208,368 / 1.25s

Armor598,249,373

Fire res50%

Lightning res50%

Cold res50%

Chaos res30%

Dodge0%

Barrier14,445,014,436

OF HASTEDEADLYDENSEOF FLAMING DEATHOF PRECISION

Depth 84,900 · boss

Health167,527,587,371

Hit · swing562,405,509 / 1.25s

Armor607,097,800

Fire res50%

Lightning res50%

Cold res50%

Chaos res75%

Dodge0%

Barrier14,658,663,895

OF SHOCKING DEATHWITHERINGOF FRENZYROTPROOFLUCKY

What those modifiers do

MANGLING

+35% chance to cause bleeding

OF FRENZY

gains a Frenzy charge on every hit it lands: 4% more damage, +15% attack speed and +5% movement each, up to 3

BURNING

+35% ignite chance; a quarter of its physical damage becomes fire

OF THE EXECUTIONER

you recover half as much within 4.5 tiles of it

REGENERATING

Heals 1% of its maximum health every second

RETALIATING

strikes back at once when one blow takes more than 8% of its health and you stand within 2.5 tiles

OF PRECISION

the pack within 4.5 tiles crits 15% more often

ENRAGED

builds 2 Rage with every blow it lands, up to 50; each point is 1% more damage

OF HASTE

the pack within 4.5 tiles moves and swings 30% faster

BARRIERED

Opens behind a barrier worth 25% of its health

OVERWHELMING

ignores 30 points of your armor

DEADLY

+20% critical strike chance

DENSE

takes 60% less from damage over TIME, and double from hits

OF FLAMING DEATH

leaves a pool of fire where it falls

OF SHOCKING DEATH

leaves a pool of lightning where it falls

WITHERING

every blow leaves damage over time on you: 15% of the blow each second for 4 s

ROTPROOF

+75% chaos resistance (capped at 75%)

LUCKY

15% of its blows land twice over

Modifiers are rolled per depth and are the same for every player. Bosses always carry at least 3 and never a pace modifier (SWIFT, BRUTE), so a boss's swing rhythm is its own; of the seals only the walls — BLOODLESS, INERT, ASHEN, ETHEREAL, DENSE — ride a boss. The full list is in Enemy modifiers.

At its first gate Herald of the Black Dawn leads with 96,154,750,634 health, against 42,734,380,065 for the leader one floor above, and swings every 1.25s.

What a gate floor is

A gate is a floor like any other, with the boss leading its last pack. Nothing below it opens until the floor is cleared. A lost floor costs nothing; you can fight it again. How a floor is fought is under Combat.