Howling Pit Dungeon Guide

Through the savior's duty ended long ago, the proud demigod refused to accept it. Will you redeem the fallen one, or fall to his blade?

Note: Howling Pit was the end-game dungeon in the previous Closed Beta Test of Chrono Odyssey. As such, the contents of this guide may go through significant changes in upcoming tests.

The Howling Pit is one of the first dungeons players encounter while exploring Setera. As you progress deeper into the prayer hall you'll fight off mutated victims, undead heretics and halt sacrilegious rituals. Concluding with a dangerous battle with the undead cult leader, the demigod Bleth. This guide will be cover each objective that you'll have to complete, available loot and any secret treasures that you may miss!

1. "Look for traces of heresy."
2. "Defeat Cornelius"
3. "Find a way to the ritual"
4. "Stop the Sacrament of Destruction"
5. "Defeat the Deathless Cult Leader"

This section as a lot of Mutated Victims and only one large enemy, the Corpse Scavenger. It's recommended take down the Corpse Scavenger first on the first pack, as he has dangerously large physical swings that can be hard to dodge when also dealing with the small fry. You'll pull four Mutated Victims and the Corpse Scavenger first and then three more victims afterward. Right before the first boss, you'll encounter a swarm of Mutated Victims, but fear not as these are all unarmed and have less health than the ones prior.

This scythe wielding boss has a few basic patterns and an ability to summon four crawling Mutated Victims. All of the bosses attacks have a unique red glow on his scythe as a visual telegraph. The boss fight takes place in a pretty narrow corridor and some of his attacks have tracking on them making this a good entry fight on practicing dodging and managing your stamina bar. Below is a list of his patterns and how to best combat them.

• Giant Swing - A large horizontal swing telegraphed by Cornelius opening his scythe and pulling it behind his head. This attack swings from his right and has a good amount of reach. Facing him, you'll want to dodge left to avoid any lingering active frames.
• Triple Swing - A combo string consisting of an uppercut, low sweep into an overhead swing. This attack does have some soft tracking, especially on his overhead. For this pattern, he'll step forward to start the uppercut as the main telegraph. The uppercut can be safely backstepped or dodged to your right. The following sweep covers his front but ends on his right. If you backstep the uppercut, you'll want to stay away to dodge this; if you dodged right on the uppercut, then just keep going that direction. His overhead is where the tracking is felt the most but it has a pretty long telegraph, this can be avoided via normal movement.
• Overhead Swing - Not to be confused with his overhead from the combo string, this has pretty obvious tell and has a pretty narrow hitbox. Can be easily dodged left or right and you have some free DPS time as he pulls his scythe out of the ground.
• Charged Uppercut- This is the only attack that starts with his body turn as a telegraph. The scythe is held across his body before stepping into a massive one-handed swing. This does not track but does have pretty massive range.
• Mutated Summoning - Cornelius stabs his staff into the ground and conjures a blood orb that follows the player before exploding. Afterward, he'll summon Mutated Victims, dealing damage via blood bursts each time. You'll want to remain healthy when this happens, as the attack cannot always be avoided if you're playing a melee class. The summoned minions don't have much HP and should die in a few attacks. Be mindful that after the summon, Cornelius can still perform all his other patterns as well.

This section is split into two parts, both requiring you to activate a lever and clear the area of the Deathless Zealots patrolling the halls. A lot of the trash is similar to the armed Mutated Victims from the start of the dungeon. A new named elite enemy, Norleras is in the first room and it's advised you take him alone after dealing with the zealots before him. He doesn't have any notable attacks, but he's pretty chunky making him easier to burn down after you kill the little guys. Guarding the lever are two other Deathless Zealots but they're actually just armed Corpse Scavengers from the first area. Clearing this part allows you to activate the first lever.

The second lever has some more zealots and a new named elite, Cidhels. There are also two statues that guard the area surrounding the second lever; you may get hit by these but they're non-lethal. This are disarmed by a lever found next to each statue and there's some treasure loot nearby each statue. After disarming these, a group of Deathless Zealots and a new enemy, The Reckoned. Beware of the latter's flurry strikes as you can get trapped into it.

Although the second lever is activated, one more named enemy stands in your way, Sharkas. This is the only one that's a bit more agile and attacks a bit faster than the ones before him. After making quick work of him, you'll head down into the next area to start the next objective.

After killing Sharkas, you'll head into the next area and be tasked with halting three rituals. This is done by killing the Deathless Priests within the area. You may have encountered these priests before in the open world and their abilities here are the same. The main thing to take caution for are the priest's blood circle channel that causes damage over time to those standing within. These guys can also stun players and have super armor while performing the attack! Each Deathless Priest is aided by a few Deathless Zealots or Mutated Victims.

After killing the first priest, you'll head to the right and clear some trash before heading through a narrow doorway to the second priest. This one has a large Deathless Zealot accompanying him but there's less overall enemies guarding this ritual. If you're tanky enough or are with other players, you can easily mow down everything together. In the middle of the room is a swarm of Mutated Victims that are guarding some treasures. These are completely optional and won't aggro unless you engage them or get close enough to them. To skip them, jump onto the rocks directly to the right of where you defeated the second Deathless Priest and vault over the rocks next to the staircase. From there you can just simply walk to the third ritual location and defeat the Deathless Priest there.

Following a cutscene of a horrific blood sacrifice and quick trash section, you're face to face with Bleth. Fought in much larger room than Cornelius, Bleth also has much larger range on his attacks and introduces a new shield mechanic. Additionally, Mutated Victims will spawn while the shield is up. Thankfully most of his attacks are quite slow, so you just have to learn how to dodge them and avoid being combo'd to down him. Below is a list of his patterns and how best to combat them.

• Tail Swipe — Telegraphed by Bleth twisting his body, this has deceptively long range, further than what a backstep can offer you. It won't deal lethal damage and will only happen if you are in melee range of the boss.
• Demon Leap — The leap is quite slow and has a low impact range upon landing making it easy to sidestep. Mainly used to relocate to your position if you're too far away, but he can still use this in melee range.
• Lance Charge — Bleth takes and step back then flaps his wings before charging down with his lance. Very slow startup and his direction is locked after he's in the air, making this really easy to sidestep.
• Whirlwind Slam — A massive attack that can be dodged with good timing or avoided by standing point blank in the attack's deadzone. Afterward, tornadoes will follow each player and explode into a harmful area denial. These persist until Bleth's stagger bar is depleted.
• Overhead Combo — The overhead swing is fairly easy to dodge via sidestep, however the follow-up is a tracking charge that is much faster and has hard tracking. Expect him to 180 even if you are behind him! Best way to avoid the charge is to continue to strafe after dodging the overhead or sidestep again if you're a bit too close to him.
• Threefold Swing — Starts off with a large swing similar to Cornelius's into an upper then overhead swing. You'll know it's coming as it's the only pattern where his lance is to his side and you can dodge this by stepping to your left. For the follow-ups you can continue to sidestep or strafe around him. A special note is the boss can also just do the first swing and not the entire combo string, but you handle it all the same.
• Manifest Shield — Periodically, Bleth will kneel and conjure a shield that reduces damage taken and prevents you from lowering his stagger bar. While this is happening, Mutated Victims also spawn in the room. You can focus on the adds if you're alone or don't think you'll have damage for the shield. Breaking the shield does stun the boss for a few seconds making it a priority if you're able to DPS it down in time.

In addition to his patterns, Bleth also has a unique mechanic that gives him the "full power of salvation". Currently it's unknown what this all alters but it will not happen unless you're fighting him for quite a long time.

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Spin Cycle is a veteran player & writer for Phantasy Star Online 2 and FFXIV. He has been playing Lost Ark since the western release and mains Sharpshooter. He also plays Wardancer, Gunslinger & Soulfist.