Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."
This isn't exactly a Hengband boss, but it is still an artifact in that game so it still counts as a reference? Though this would be the last Hengband reference regardless.
Anyways, this thing is mostly just a huge chore to fight. Its main gimmick is that it'll use Great Darkness at the start, then at 90%, 80%, 70% and 60% HP to inflict a debuff of the same name on your entire frontline, then every four (of its normal) turns, it'll use Great Darkness envelops everything! to deal lethal damage to everyone on the frontline with the debuff active. (Your cue to start switching people out is when you see Gates of Hell.) Then, at 50%, 30% and 10% it will use Ruinbringer to inflict a nasty 48% EX debuff on all stats on everyone in the frontline. It has huge defense stats, is immune to SIL and resistant to HVY, and is only weak to FIR, so it's a bitch to actually hurt, but it has pathetic damage output and only tries to inflict TRR and single target PAR, so its strategy essentially relies on itself being a fatass and making you so frustrated that you eventually mess up your switching and lose your attacker to a Great Darkness envelops everything or Ruinbrniger. At the very least it doesn't seem to have any resistance to DEF/MND debuffs so you have SOME avenue to opening its defenses up by a bit.
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."
This isn't exactly a Hengband boss, but it is still an artifact in that game so it still counts as a reference? Though this would be the last Hengband reference regardless.
Anyways, this thing is mostly just a huge chore to fight. Its main gimmick is that it'll use Great Darkness at the start, then at 90%, 80%, 70% and 60% HP to inflict a debuff of the same name on your entire frontline, then every four (of its normal) turns, it'll use Great Darkness envelops everything! to deal lethal damage to everyone on the frontline with the debuff active. (Your cue to start switching people out is when you see Gates of Hell.) Then, at 50%, 30% and 10% it will use Ruinbringer to inflict a nasty 48% EX debuff on all stats on everyone in the frontline. It has huge defense stats, is immune to SIL and resistant to HVY, and is only weak to FIR, so it's a bitch to actually hurt, but it has pathetic damage output and only tries to inflict TRR and single target PAR, so its strategy essentially relies on itself being a fatass and making you so frustrated that you eventually mess up your switching and lose your attacker to a Great Darkness envelops everything or Ruinbrniger. At the very least it doesn't seem to have any resistance to DEF/MND debuffs so you have SOME avenue to opening its defenses up by a bit.
