The Cursed Farm

The Cursed Farm is a dungeon located in Saliko, within Jack's Farmhouse. Like the name suggests, the farmhouse has a darker side to it, with demons and ghosts living in a parallel, nightmarish reality. Such inhabitants involve the spirit of Aeris, the soul of a knight doomed to walk among the graves for eternity and the alter ego of the farmhand herself.

The recommended level for The Cursed Farm is 29-33, and adventurers above level 34 will be scaled down to that level for the dungeon. It is also recommended that you have at least 3 or more adventurers before starting the dungeon. Like other dungeons, the set-up should comprise of one tank, healer and damage dealer.

There are no varying modes of difficulty in The Cursed Farm. However, the level that you choose to scale at and the amount of members in your group can still prove to be a challenge, even for seasoned adventurers.

Shade of Aeris

Name	Shade of Aeris
Level	33+
Classification	Brute
Element	Wind 1
Health	168,000
Resistances	Immune to stun, freeze, silence, sleep and charm.

In order to enter the Cursed Farm, you must defeat Shade of Aeris. First, talk to Curly in the Farmhouse Dining Room, located two maps east of the stairs on the bottom floor, and select the dialogue option "Okay, I will put them near the stove". This causes an event to trigger, having Curly prompt you to check the second floor for the suspicious sound. Then, go to the Closet on the second floor, and walk towards the bed on the right of the room. Shade of Aeris will then appear, engaging you immediately in battle.

Shade of Aeris is the first boss in the Cursed Farm, and consists of a two-part battle. The first part of the fight is in the closet, where you are fighting in a limited space. The second part happens when Aeris's health reaches 50%. He will immediately escape from the closet into the hallway outside (to the right), where there is much more space. After reaching the first part of the battle, adventurers should use this opportunity to restore their health and mana back to full, before re-engaging him. Because Aeris's defending element is Wind 1, you should use Fire.

Phase One: The Closet

The main abilities during the first part of the battle are:

• Lightning: It is an AoE spell that hits the player who has aggro and any allies near them. The spell is stronger when there are less allies stacked on top of each other. Aeris will constantly spam Lightning at 2-3 second intervals, adding up to serious amounts of damage taken over time. Note that pets count as a stackable ally, therefore pets can reduce the damage taken.

• Lightning Chain: It is an AoE spell that hits the player with aggro and every ally in sight, dealing more damage the further an ally is away. If your group likes to split up a lot instead of stacking together, the damage dealt from this ability can be very serious. Every 10 seconds or so, Aeris will use Lightning Chain.

Make sure that your allies are stacked together, to reduce the damage taken from Lightning (more allies will be hit this way, but the damage taken is weaker) and Lightning Chain. Due to Shade of Aeris's position in the closet, he can be easily cornered by the use of AoE spells, especially Fire Wall. The knockback effect from some AoE spells does not matter here, maximizing the damage dealt (since he is being pinned to a wall, he cannot move any further to the right). This place is a good spot for a healer to use Healing Springs, in order to keep your allies health up.

Phase Two: The Hallway

The main abilities during the second part of the battle are:

• Lightning: See above for details.
• Lightning Chain: Also see above for details.
• Overload: A random ally will be targeted by Overload, as noted by an electric charge on the character, and yellow text on the screen saying who received it. All allies standing near the player who received Overload including themselves will constantly get hit for several seconds. Make sure they unstack (move away from the rest of the group) while Overload is still active on them. If they refuse to unstack, make sure you and the rest of your unaffected allies move away instead.
• Summon: During the course of the fight, Shade of Aeris will summon an energy cloud from either side. If this cloud reaches the boss, he will power up.

The second part of this fight introduces a few new mechanics, in addition to the abilities from the first while Shade of Aeris is at half of his health. Continue to stack among your allies to reduce the damage from Lightning and Lightning Chain. When someone receives Overload, make sure the affected ally moves out of the way, or all unaffected allies move away from the affected ally. While Shade of Aeris is in the hallway, he can be knocked back. Do not use your AoE spells (that causes knockback) on him, but rather on the energy cloud's path when it shows up.

Entering the Cursed Farm

After defeating Shade of Aeris, return to Curly in the Farmhouse Dining Room. After a bit of dialogue, a portal should open up to the right of the dining room. You should be back outside the farmhouse again, but this time during a thunderstorm. You need to round up all of the fliffies into their pen by using your mouse to click on them first, then enter the fliffies pen.

In order to unlock the trophy Good Shepherd, you have to lead all of the fliffies into their pen before the first lightning sound strikes. You have roughly 30 seconds to a minute in order to get all of the fliffies in. They can be difficult to move in the direction you want them to, therefore you want several people to enter the portal leading to outside at the same time, and each to tackle a different side.

To continue on with the dungeon, interact with the bucket of water. A lightning strike will commence, blinding the room momentarily until you see those same exact fliffies with a question mark now become Nightmare Fliffies (in red) and attack you. Get rid of them quickly with an AoE spell, but don't let all of them attack you at once (they can inflict several different poison stacks at once, dealing a lot of damage over time). Once you leave the pen, you'll see that the entire farm has turned black, and the setting has become night.

Clear the demons and ghosts en route to the bosses. Darneus can be found outside of the farmhouse. Shade of Curly can be found in the dining room. Aeris can be found in the map beyond the closet. Note that outside of the farmhouse has a forced level scaling of 36, while the rest of the dungeon will apply level scaling depending on the option you selected from the warp stone.

Darneus (Optional)

Name	Darneus the Cursed
Level	38
Classification	Brute
Element	Ghost 1
Health	220,000
Resistances	Immune to stun, freeze, silence, sleep and charm.

In order to summon Darneus, you have to interact with the tombstone outside of the farmhouse. If you cannot see the tombstone, that means you haven't unlocked Darneus. See Halloween for more details on how to unlock him.

Darneus is an optional boss in the Cursed Farm, having a forced level scaling of 36. It is recommended that you face Darneus at level 36+ (not under), while having at least a full set of equipment from the Moonlight Monastery. Due to Darneus's defending element of Ghost 1, any of the four elements can be used, but preferably Fire to deal with the minions summoned.

Darneus alone is the toughest boss in the Cursed Farm, unless you come into the fight with a plan. Each role will equally have to respond to the situation accordingly, or else one slip-up could jeopardize the battle. Darneus will have three summoning phases during the fight.

The main abilities that you should watch out for from Darneus are:

• Swipe: The tank should have Darneus facing away from the rest of the group, or else the group will take additional damage from Darneus, easily knocking them out in seconds.
• Sword Bash: Causes the player in Darneus's direction (the tank) to be dealt damage, as well as knocked back. The ability can interfere with the tank's positioning, so you have to be careful.
• Earth Spike: Inflicts earth damage to a random player.
• Spike Trap: Occasionally, Darneus will try to aim Spike Trap behind to hit your damage dealers and healers. Use Smite or Disrupt Magic to counter this, or if mana is a problem, move away from the targeted location quickly.
• Dark Mist: Some time after the summoning phase, Darneus will cast Dark Mist. This is an AoE that covers more than half the map, terrifying all allies for several seconds. Use Smite or Disrupt Magic to counter this (moving away from the area is a bad idea, since you'll likely get hit before you get out of the AoE's radius).

Randomly, Darneus will also summon a wooden stake on the ground. Then after some time, the wooden stake will float out of the ground, and gets flung off to a direction that reaches the other side of the map. It is almost impossible to avoid this attack when caught in the stake's direction, unless your character is laying down (then it has a 10% chance to hit), or the entire group (following the tank) moves to behind the stake's flinging direction. Laying down can also be a bad idea, because it increases the damage taken from Darneus's next hit. Inflicts about 1k damage.

Sometimes, the direction of the stake can be changed, reducing the damage received by your group. When a player is standing on the opposite side of where the wooden stake is planted, the wooden stake has a 50/50 chance of flinging left or right.

Summoning Phases

Name	Pumpkin Lasher
Level	37
Classification	Plant
Element	Earth 2
Health	11,500/12,225
Resistances	Immune to charm.

• Raise: Occurs during all summoning phases. Summons several small Pumpkin Lashlings and a few big Pumpkin Lashers, each of them equipped with deadly abilities. Some of these abilities can only be used when affected by Shadow Explosion.
  • Pumpkin Lasher
    • Infectious Bite (level 3): The affected target receives a debuff, taking more damage from attacks.
    • Poison Bolt Volley (level 8): Hits all players, poisoning them. Uses it when affected by Shadow Explosion.
    • Terrify (level 3): Causes a player to become terrified for a long period of time.
    • Earth Spike (level 3)
    • Pummel (level 2)
  • Pumpkin Lashling
    • Slime Bolt (level 6): Hits a player, dealing moderate damage.
    • Slime Bolt Volley (level 10): Hits all players. Uses it when affected by Shadow Explosion.
    • Corrosive Slime (level 1)
    • Fixate (level 1)

Name	Pumpkin Lashling
Level	36
Classification	Plant
Element	Earth 2
Health	4,075
Resistances	None

• Shadow Explosion: Occurs during the 2nd and 3rd summoning phases only. It is an AoE that occurs across the map, leaving an empty space in between each small circle of explosions. When a Pumpkin Lasher summoned by Raise is hit by this ability, their appearance turns purple, and their damage increases significantly, easily shredding the health of all allies in mere seconds. In order to avoid this, have the Pumpkin Lasher stand in the empty spaces, not the circles during when the explosion is cast.

Strategy

The tank should stay in front of Darneus (pull him to somewhere center of the map), while the rest of the group stays behind. Because the map has a tree blocking the view on the right side, you want to avoid pulling and fighting him in that area. This is to ensure that you have enough space to watch for Shadow Explosion, and the wooden stakes.

The damage dealers should take care of Spike Trap and Dark Mist (if the tank cannot smite it), once it comes up. Optionally, you might want to have one or more players stand on the opposite side, to bait the wooden stake away from the rest of the group. However, if it is too much of a hassle, then you should just let the wooden stake hit the group anyway.

During the first summoning phase, the damage dealers should take care of the Lashers quickly with AoE spells. However, during the second and third summoning phases, DO NOT use an AoE spell BEFORE Shadow Explosion. ONLY use an AoE spell AFTER Shadow Explosion occurs. This is to ensure that the tank can growl all of the Pumpkin Lashers on the field, and lure them to the empty spaces in time before Shadow Explosion hits.

• Sometimes there will be a few Pumpkin Lashers/Lashlings still on the field that got hit by Shadow Explosion. If you leave them out any longer, they pose a serious risk to your group. Quickly get rid of them, and if possible, use Nightfall/Flash Freeze if the damage dealers cannot get rid of them in time.

Shade of Curly (Optional)

Name	Shade of Curly
Level	34
Classification	Demon
Element	Dark 2
Health	160,000
Resistances	Extrasensory.

Shade of Curly is an optional boss, representing the second boss fight in the dungeon (excluding Darneus). She can be found wandering around on the platform right below the kitchen table in the dining room. She also has a very small aggro range, therefore one can get close to her without starting the fight by accident. During the course of the battle, she will summon invincible demons one at a time to attack the group. Shade of Curly's defending element is Dark, meaning that Fire and Light attacks are most effective against her.

There are two vines in the map that you can safely get rid of without pulling her or changing the difficulty. An active stove on fire can be found on the top-left corner of the kitchen table. Standing in the stove will cause you or the boss to constantly take fire damage over time.

The main abilities that Shade of Curly will use are:

• Dark Barrage: An attack that hits the player with aggro (the tank) every second for several seconds. The tank should use Smite to counter this.
• Dark Blessing: A debuff lasting several seconds that hits every player besides the player with aggro (the tank). Causes you to have your health temporarily set to 1, meaning that a single hit can finish you off. Once the debuff expires, the affected players will have their health returned back to normal.
• Dark Bolt: Shade of Curly often uses Dark Bolt right after Dark Blessing to target a damage dealer (if successful, it will knock them out in 1 hit due to Dark Blessing's effect). A damage dealer should use Smite or Disrupt to counter this.
• Curse of Slowness (level 3): A random player will be hit with Curse of Slowness. This can be bad if it hits the damage dealer that is currently kiting.
• Curse of Roots: Often hits a random player closest to Curly, never the one that is kiting. Quickly get rid of the roots if you were targeted by this spell.
• Poison Dust: A weak AoE spell. The other abilities are more important to worry about.
• Consume: During the course of the battle, there will be a countdown timer for Dark Ritual above the berserk timer set for three minutes. If Curly isn't defeated, the summoned demons will stop at their current position, and constantly be absorbed by Curly, restoring her health. While the demons are being absorbed, they are vulnerable. At this point, quickly get rid of the demons with an AoE spell.
  • The trophy No Time to Spare requires you to defeat Shade of Curly before she can use Dark Ritual. This means that you have to defeat her within 3 minutes. In order to be able to defeat her given that time restriction, you'll have to get Shade of Curly on the stove, as it deals additional damage to her over time.

Strategy

A typical set-up consists of one player that will kite, while the rest of the group focuses on Curly. The tank should drag Curly over to the stove fire so that she constantly takes damage from it while the tank is safely standing right beside it. The tank should avoid using Growl at all during the fight. The damage dealers should avoid using AoE's in this fight, since Shade of Curly can be knocked back (she would be knocked off from the stove fire). The only time when a damage dealer should use an AoE is during the Dark Ritual phase when Curly uses Consume to absorb the demons.

Kiting

The player that is kiting will have to run away from the demons while avoiding from being hit by them. To be safe, a healer can use Emerald Shield on the kiting player. The map is designed in such a way that you can run around the dining table in a rectangle (located in the middle), as well as being able to jump onto the dining table itself. You can imagine this as a time trial in a racing game where you are trying to be faster than your ghost. Same logic applies here, with the portal being the starting/finish line for the next lap. Avoid having to go onto the dining table in the middle (because the demon will follow you on the shortcut in the middle), and let the demons chase you on the track.

The first demon will spawn seconds after the first Dark Blessing is used by Curly. Each time a demon appears, you want to pull them by using a simple ranged attack or AoE next to the portal. In order to properly time when the next demon appears, remember two things:

• Pace yourself. Don't be too fast when running around the dining table, or else the demon will go backwards on the track to reach you. You don't want to be too slow either, or else a Curse of Slow might let the demons catch up to you.

• If you've been correctly pacing yourself, the next demon should appear on every 2nd lap around the track (this also means 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc.).

Aeris

Name	Aeris
Level	34
Classification	Demon
Element	Wind 1
Health	225,000
Resistances	Immune to stun, freeze, silence, sleep and charm.

Aeris is the third and final boss (not including Darneus) of the dungeon. He retains some of his abilities from his shade form, while introducing new abilities at the same time. Since Aeris's defending element stays the same, Fire attacks are recommended. The spirits that he will summon are mainly Earth with one of them being Fire element in the mix. Optionally, you can also bring anything that inflicts Water damage just in case (either from a spirit bottle or one-use items such as Icicle, Snowball, scrolls, etc.).

He can be summoned once a player walks over to the right side of the cave. A few candles will light up, causing him to spawn afterwards.

The main abilities from Aeris that you should watch out for are:

• Lightning: An AoE spell that hits the player who has aggro, as well as any allies near them. Like from Shade of Aeris, the spell is stronger when there are less allies stacked on top of each other. Aeris will constantly spam Lightning at 2-3 second intervals. However, pets do not last long when stacked, making them less viable against this ability.
• Lightning Bolt: Aeris will attempt to use Lightning Bolt on the damage dealers or the healer's position. If pets are out in the battle, Aeris will sometimes use Lightning Bolt on them instead.
• Overcharge: Overcharge is basically Overload, but under a slightly different name. The affected player should separate themselves away from the rest of the group (preferably to the right, since the spirits come from the left).
• Earthquake: Periodically, Aeris will use Earthquake, an AoE that constantly hits all players for several seconds. The attack will hit every player regardless of their position (if they try to move away, the radius of the AoE gets larger to reach them). Instead of splitting up, the group should stack in one spot, while the healer uses Healing Springs.
• Meditate: At each indicator of Aeris's health bar, he will undergo a summoning phase. At this time, Aeris does not attack, and any attacks dealt to him at this time deal double the damage. However, several waves of spirits will come from the left, consisting of Rock Spirits, Earth Spirits and Fiery Spirits (the first wave has no Fiery Spirits).

There are three types of spirits that spawn during Aeris's meditation phases:

• Fiery Spirits are kamikaze spirits, exploding when they are near a player. In most cases, a direct blast will instantly knock out a player, or 2-hit KO them. Any earth spirits that were standing near the Fiery Spirit during the time of the explosion will get wiped out. Only one spawns for each wave after the first.
  • The trophy Breakneck Barbecue requires you to force a Fiery Spirit into destroying a Hellroot in the Cursed Farm. In order to complete this trophy, do not defeat one of the Hellroots while clearing out the demons in Aeris's cave. Then, proceed with the run as normal until you reach Aeris's summoning phase. After the first wave, lure the Fiery Spirit over to the Hellroot and cause it to explode. A pet or water spells may be required.
• Earth Spirits have low health, but can heal a large portion of Aeris's health if they reach him. They are wiped out when caught by the Fiery Spirit's explosion. Several of them spawn in each wave, including the first. Use an AoE to immediately take them out.
• Rock Spirits have a large amount of health (about 50k health), but serve no other purpose than to constantly annoy healers as well as damage dealers. While they cannot deal as much damage on their own, the damage can accumulate the more there are. Several AoEs cannot get rid of a single rock spirit. The tank should use Growl to attract their attention. A few spawn in each wave after the first.
  • The quest A Gem in the Rough requires you to obtain a splinter from a Rock Spirit. This quest is part of the quest line needed to unlock Class Stones.

A damage dealer should be designated to deal with the waves of spirits, while the rest of the group focuses on Aeris. While dealing with the spirits, you want to use AoEs to take out the spirits, as well as sending in pets or using a water spell to trigger the Fiery Spirit's explosion. The best time to deal damage is during Aeris's meditation phases, where the damage dealt to him is doubled. Avoid Lightning Bolts whenever it comes up, and the player with Overcharge should stay away from the group. Finally, stack during when Aeris uses Earthquake.

A first time clear of the dungeon will reward you with the trophy The Cursed Farm.