Welcome back, brave explorer! The Nightmare Conductor from Taedal’s Tower Floor 19 is back, however this time he is back even stronger for our weekly Time Trial in the Gate of Infinity – Reaching for Higher.
This boss fight features multiple new mechanics the players will need to work around, which mostly build on the core abilities that you can familiarize yourself with in our initial guide for the Nightmare Conductor fight in Taedal’s Tower Floor 19 – Reaching for Higher. The initial guide covers all the basics, including the recommended skills and gear breakdown to attempt the boss for the first time, while this guide will cover the new mechanics and additional tips for those who are looking to push their results in this new Time Trial and hopefully reap all the precious rewards!
Additionally, at the bottom of the article you can find a video guide showing the completion of Gate of Infinity Reaching for Higher with full buffs in under 1:30 minutes and a slower version without using the best buffs, which features the Jumping Puzzle intermission phase.
Requirements
- Character Lv. 50
Rewards
Objective Achievement Rewards:
- Killing the boss – 5 active and 5 passive books, 10K Solant, 20 Restoration coins
- Defeat within 3:00 – 3 active and 3 passive books, 20K Solant, 40 Restoration coins
- Defeat within 1:30 – 1 active and 1 passive book, 30K Solant, 60 Restoration coins
Rank Rewards:
- Rank 1-100 will get an Emote: Bored and varying amount of Solant (between 100,000 and 600,000) depending on their final rank at the time when the challenge ends.
Time Trial Mechanics and Tips
Once you have refreshed yourself with the basic mechanics of this fight from Taedal’s Tower Floor 19 – Reaching for Higher, we can start figuring out all the new upgraded mechanics and skills of this Gate of Infinity boss. Let’s start with some general tips and strategies on how to approach the overall fight first.
Class-Specific strategies
If you are a well-geared damage class – attempt a burst version of this fight to avoid the Jumping Puzzle mechanic. It is possible to burst the boss relatively quickly, so that it does not trigger the Jumping Puzzle intermission phase on a class like Crossbow Dagger or a similar DPS build. You can see this demonstrated in our video guide included below.
For this approach you are looking to buff up with your Rare Attack Remedies, high-quality Boss Damage food (Rare Quarba Sandwich) and select your high-damage Guardian – we recommend Shade Revenant Shteno for their sustained burst window that can be amplified by any attack speed and extra damage buffs that you have.
If you don’t have the required damage output to burst the boss before the Jumping Puzzle intermission phase, it is better to approach the fight with a sustain build that can dish out and effectively avoid damage at the same time – something like the Greatsword which can regenerate some health, perfect block attacks and utilize Stuns to avoid certain mechanics. This is demonstrated in the second part of our video guide below and later in the guide you will find more details on what boss mechanics to counter with your Stun to save time.
Now that we have covered some general tips and class-specific strategies you can utilize for this fight, lets look at the new mechanics of the Nightmare Conductor time trial.
Cone of Safety
This is a relatively new mechanic that was not present in the original fight of Taedal’s Tower Floor 19 but did briefly appear. The boss will point their staff forward for a few seconds charging up his attack and immediately after most of the floor will be covered in blue smoke damaging your character, unless you reposition yourself into the cone of safety directly in front of Nightmare Conductors’ staff.
You can survive a few of these attacks, so if you are going for a quick burst strategy mentioned above, prioritize dealing damage and healing your character up with health pots rather than spending time on repositioning into the cone of safety. The safest place to be is well in front of where his staff is facing (rather than close to the boss) because, naturally, the cone of safety is wider near the edge of the arena. Certain movement abilities such as Staff “blink” ability are more effective than Dagger Shadow Strike, because the latter puts you very close to the boss and you might still get damaged by the blue smoke.
Unlike the other mechanics later in this guide, this attack cannot be blocked or rolled, so for sustain builds we recommend stunning the boss as he is charging up this move. This way you will avoid spending time on repositioning your character and will have a short window to do some uninterrupted damage instead.
Timing the teleport
The next time trial mechanic builds on the original Nightmare Conductor attack where three magic orbs (blue and red) appear above the boss. This time however, the boss will glow purple indicating a Fury Attack as the orbs appear. The boss will go invisible for a second and teleport to another spot in the arena before shooting the orbs at your character.
To counter this mechanic effectively and avoid most of the damage, we need to block/roll just before the boss re-appears after his invisible teleport. To do this effectively, try to make sure you have a view of the whole arena as the boss is charging up this Fury Attack. Once the boss goes invisible, look out for his shadow appearing somewhere else on the arena floor. As soon as the shadow appears, press your block/roll key to perform a Perfect Parry and quickly walk out of any red puddles and towards the boss to initiate your counter-attack.
Perfect Block all basic Fury Attacks
In between the more challenging new mechanics mentioned above, Nightmare Conductor will perform a basic Fury Attack with the usual purple charge-up animation. To successfully parry this attack, you will need to time your block/roll skill and activate it slightly after the purple charge-up animation is finished. Perfect Blocking this Fury Attack is an easy and effective way to avoid losing health and getting some additional damage dealt to the boss.
If you Perfect Block this attack with the Greatsword sustain build we have mentioned above, you will get an extra stun on the boss allowing you to utilize your additional damage bonuses against stunned enemies.
Jumping Puzzle tips
If you reach the Jumping Puzzle intermission phase, the most important thing here is not to panic. You might be fighting against both your stamina and ping in this phase so make sure to take a deep breath and manage your stamina carefully. There are two variations of the Jumping Puzzle phase this time – one where you are jumping on the platforms sequentially in a clockwise direction and another, where the second platform takes you across the arena and you need to fly to the third one.
In both cases make sure to un-morph when you are waiting for the platforms to align – this will help with your stamina regen and ensure you have enough stamina to perform your next jump. As you are waiting for the platforms to align, try to position yourself at the far edge of the platform so you have enough room to morph and speed up before your next jump and avoid dealing with any ping issues that might occur if you are just launching from the front edge of the platform.
Finally, when you are required to fly to the third platform, start your approach before the platforms are stationary, so that you can land on the third platform when it stopped moving, rather than when it has started moving back.
Gate of Infinity Reaching for Higher Video Guide
Check out this useful video guide to see how these tips work in practice:
Now you should be ready to complete the time trial Gate of Infinity – Reaching for Higher! If you are still having trouble, make sure to double-check the basic mechanics and some Skills and Equipment recommendations in our Taedal’s Tower Floor 19 – Reaching for Higher guide. Good luck and enjoy your precious rewards!
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