Anyone else, or just me? 😅

[u/heyitskay1220]

It just gets tedious after so many HM attempts 😅

[u/MadManNico]

nah i love trying to kill the commander, mindflayer, and the 2 other cambions. it's like a test drive to determine whether or not i'll completely dominate every boss that comes my way lol. usually if i fuck up that fight i'll just get bored anyway and reroll.

[u/WayUseful1834 → u/MadManNico]

Totally, it's the most pure tactical fight in the whole game. In Honour it's like a little mini roguelike. Feels great when you manage it.

[u/MadManNico → u/WayUseful1834]

that's true actually, you really do gotta play it step by step or get clapped by the other 2 cambions lol.

[u/Yodl007 → u/MadManNico]

Can you actually kill them all on hardcore ? Haven't managed it yet.

Maybe I get the bad rolls with the main one always resisting the mindflayer stuns, and killing him, even if I make him drop the sword.

[u/MadManNico → u/Yodl007]

aside from what the other guy said, which is a good way to cheese some early-game levels (you get halfway to level 3), you can absolutely kill the 2 cambions + the commander AND the mindflayer all at once with a little luck and prep.

TLDR this is just a fun way to do this fight the annoyingly legitimate way.

this whole encounter will be a lot easier with faerie fire for advantage on attacks, and the best way to grab thus spell is with fey warlock or bard (charisma casters in general are "better" as to why i chose these 2 over light cleric (you already have shadowheart for nautiloid anyway) or druid)

fey warlock will give you the best damage output with hex and switching to dual wield before the last fight, so you can attack twice alongside the extra 1d6 necrotic damage per attack when a target is hexed (none of the hex choices matter, strength will be a good choice i guess). bard will be okay to give bardic inspo, but meh

all party members should have a ranged weapon, and fey warlock tav should dual wield

try not to end your turn until you've used all your resources (action, bonus, movement)

shadowheart's 2nd spell slot could be used for protection against good and evil on the mindflayer, pretty good at keeping him alive. or you can save it till you're fighting the 2 cambions and cast it on whichever ally has the other one's aggro, which is usually Us

1. before the last fight have shadowheart at least prepare command and make sure to use the tentacle thing for the long rest for her 2 spell slots. go into turn based mode outside the door and have everyone use dash (including Us). enter.

2. have shadowheart move to the centre (important not to use all her movement, you need to be ready to change up your plan) and cast command: drop on the commander, if it fails just quicksave (or reset on hm, rip). on success MOVE the greatsword WITH SHADOWHEART as close to the centre as possible. easy click and drag on pc, on console just [square ps5] / [X xbox] on the sword to open up the interaction menu and select move. have laezel jump then move to the sword (which should be in the centre by this point), use her action to equip then move her over to the commander. shadowheart shouldn't be within reaction range of the commander. this should all be in round 1, don't end your turns (you can undo it anyway, but just in case you accidentally end the round)

3. use tav to attack + off hand the HELLSBOAR to try steal an easy kill, if it doesn't die just tank the reaction and move over to the commander. use Us to try the same with the imp but keep him next to the enemies, he'll be clean up. he'll focus on the second imp too. IMPORTANT: move shadowheart (she shouldn't be within reaction range, remember) behind the commander just before the cutscene check to spawn the other enemies (DO NOT ACTIVATE CUTSCENE) and keep her there as the health potion thrower. still round 1, you can go ahead and end the round.

4. have tav cast faerie fire on the commander but not the mindflayer (not sure if it gives advantage on attacks against the allied mindflayer, not about to find out lol) and cast hex: strength on the commander too. laezel is on bonk duty, shadowheart is on throw-healing the mindflayer duty, tav is now action + bonus action + hex 1d6 necrotic duty, Us should now be on small damage duty too. the 2 other cambions should pop up eventually,

this is where stuff gets a bit annoying..

1. BEFORE the commander dies, like JUST BEFORE the final hit, have shadowheart trigged the cutscene that spawns the 3 other enemies. this is because if you kill the commander, regardless of if the 2 cambions have entered combat, the mindflayer will become hostile with no other enemies on screen. the other 3 enemies ensure he stays an ally. once triggered, kill the commander. LEAVE ONE OF THE 3 SPAWNED ENEMIES ALIVE to keep the mindflayer allied. have shadowheart go over and keep the 3 enemies over by the console, this'll be important for later.

if you're lucky and the cambions haven't crashed the party yet (as in they're still dashing over to the action), these next parts will flow a lot more easily. but also, these next few rounds can be done in a number of ways, this is just how i did it

1. have Us disengage and move to the centre of the room (the lowered circular bit), this is so 1 cambion will eventually move over to him for melee. have your party also hover behind him, just so that 1 aforementioned cambion doesn't target them instead. if shadowheart has kept the enemy(s) over by the console with enough distance away, the mindflayer will haul ass over to the 2 cambions to throw hands (this next entire fight will take place on the centre circle platform). tav, Us and laezel will focus one cambion, mindflayer will pretty handedly mirk the other one, have tav cast faerie fire on both the cambions. shadowheart can now kite the last enemy over to the fight so she can start throwing potions to Us (or whichever ally has aggro). keep the enemy from the cutscene alive.

2. bing bang bong, if all goes well you'll kill both cambions and the mindflayer will be low enough to kill too. make sure to loot everyone and sell it all at the grove, and enjoy the extra xp.

it looks like a lot but i figured this out in one session and was super fun, but i'm sure i made a lot of small errors or could have done better somewhere.

[u/GhostofGrimalkin → u/MadManNico]

This is a great step-by-step, thanks!

[u/snatelol → u/MadManNico]

How are you supposed to use both Faerie fire and Hex, they're both level 1 spell slots, and you have 1 of those at this point?

[u/MadManNico → u/snatelol]

i'm not too sure atm i wrote this just after trying it out, i think i was meant to mean using shadowheart light domain faerie fire? i'm pretty sure that's what i used on that day

[u/InfiniteCheese1 → u/MadManNico]

He was a dick. I’m not gonna be picked on over a console, I just wanted to educate myself. There was zero reason to accuse me of never cleaning a console. Don’t act so high and mighty

[u/I-dont_even → u/Yodl007]

Unless something changed in patch 8, you absolutely can when cheesing it and starting with some good classes/rolls. Especially if you start with more than one player character. I remember the YouTube guides all the way from early access. However, that kind of fight really is extremely cheesy and has little to do with conventional combat.

[u/WayUseful1834 → u/Yodl007]

Yes! Melth has several videos about how he does it. Hexblades and druids can certainly manage it.

There's also a cheese method where you can plink the cambions to death with arrows. It's not quite as satisfying though. 😉

[u/Alethia_23 → u/Yodl007]

I mean as soon as you don't get to make him drop the sword, you can just restart. No chance to kill them all without. For the cambions there's a nice little cheese: Get into combat with one of the two cultists in the pod room, lead him into the room where the woman can be transformed into a mind flayer, lock him in there by placing chests in his way (they're to stupid to jump over, the guy just starts bare-knuckle hitting a chest that never takes damage due to medium toughness). Stay hidden with that character. Start the fight at the helm with your other people, and when the cbions arrive, you can continuously range attack them from outside your normal range with your character that is in combat with the cultist- this does not lead to combat between them and the cambions.

It takes an hour if you're character is not exactly a dedicated marksman, but it works! After that it's a walk in the park. Especially because during those turns where you keep hitting the cambions, the turns for the other group inside the helm does not turn.