
Eparch Evader
Follow the Midnight King up the Spire of Dreams. Meet with your allies. Completing the Into the Spider's Lair meta-event before proceeding is recommended. (Secure the Council of Houses chamber.) Clear out the Council of Houses chamber. (Stand your ground against the Kryptis swarm.) Defeat the swarming Kryptis. (Defeat the King's Nighthunters.) The King's Nighthunters Take the portal out of the Council of Houses. Clear out the Zakiros Royal Study. Seal the Kryptis rifts.: x/3 Continue up the Spire of Dreams. Open the door with the Heart of the Obscure. Enter the chamber–be ready for anything. (Use the Heart of the Obscure to release Kryptis essence.) Use the Heart of the Obscure to release Kryptis essence from the reliquaries. Continue ascending the Spire of Dreams. Proceed with caution. Use the Heart of the Obscure to access the throne room. Defeat Eparch's guards. (Defeat Eparch.) Eparch Retreat! Channel the Heart of the Obscure at Eparch! (Defeat Eparch.) Eparch Convene with your allies.
After an initial dialogue and bidding farewell to Dagda and Frode (salute Frode when he salutes for the Astral Salute achievement), the group is faced with one small wave of Murk Scavengers followed by a massive one, then a group of King's Nighthunters. Grab the memory for contribution #1 to Voracious Reader. The portal to the next room is now open. Immediately upon entering the next room is an ambush. After clearing out the marked foes it should be safe to make the rounds to the 3 portals and close them, though some Kryptis will occasionally appear from them. Interact with all six bookshelves for contributions #2 to #7 for Voracious Reader. After the three portals are closed, proceed up the stairs to the south (avoid the initial burning floor effect by standing at the side) and deal with several groups of Kryptis, with the elite Master of Reliquaries at the end. Behind the door the Master was guarding is a room full of reliquaries, use the Heart of the Obscure to open the door. Grab the memory at the south side of the room for #8 of Voracious Reader whilst waiting. After a lengthy dialogue, the kryptis essence in the reliquaries has to be released to proceed, optionally viewing their memories beforehand (reading the memory text with the more icon credits the Essential Experiences achievement for each, for a total of 6). There is further dialogue before the exit stairway to the east becomes within bounds. The first flight of the stair is blocked by some Kryptis, with only the exploding Avatars of Spite being notable. On the second stairs the enemies quickly turn friendly as Eparch invites the group up to the throne room. Grab the final memory #9 for Voracious Reader prior to entering the throne room. Open the door with the Heart and walk towards Eparch to trigger an in-game cutscene confronting him. Just after the cutscene ends, use the /kneel emote when Eparch says so ("You will kneel. ..." - the chat interface is hidden but it will still function) to gain credit for the Your Midnight King Says... achievement. Defeat his guards to start the fight against him. The following fight initially proves hopeless, as Eparch turns invincible upon reaching 75%. Reach the door while struggling against Eparch's grasp (awards credit for Eparch Evader) to be rescued by Isgarren and be able to break the shield with the Heart of the Obscure (the spot from which this can be done is to the left of the door/Eparch). For the actual fight, Eparch's health is refilled to the maximum, shielding himself every 25% (requiring standing inside a white circle and using the Heart to break it, the shield is easier to break if standing still or if the additional mobs around the king are killed) and occasionally letting out small orbs of various emotional attunements that provide a combination of positive and negative effects. Purple/Malice Attunement: longer lasting Crowd Control effects and additional damage against defiance bars. This is the only attunement without an accompanying negative effect, and also the only one that doesn't increase in intensity with additional stacks. Red/Rage Attunement: deal increased power damage, but also take more power damage. Green/Envy Attunement: deal increased condition damage and improve the effect of boons, but also take more condition damage. Orange/Regret Attunement: decrease activation and recharge time for skills, but also take a small amount of damage every time a skill is used. Blue/Despair Attunement: take decreased damage, but also deal less damage. Yellow/Gluttony Attunement: all attacks deal a small amount of Lifesteal, dealing extra damage and healing the user but the users also takes a small amount of damage over time. Malice orbs are always good to pick up if possible since they provide no negative effect and can make it easier to deal with the Kryptis minions during the fight by disabling them for longer periods of time. Generally, Rage orbs should only be picked up by power damage builds, while Envy orbs can strengthen any build reliant on condition damage or that provides an ample amount of boons since condition damage from enemies is easier to avoid (though Eparch's flame wave can be a problem). The 3 remaining orbs are more mixed, as the survivability boost from Despair orbs is negligible though it can be used to counter Rage and Envy orbs if too many were picked up, while Regret orbs forces builds without good self-healing or Barriers to pace themselves, and Gluttony orbs forces constant attacks to counteract the lifedrain. After Eparch is reduced to 5% health he flees, and the main fight and the episode ends (awarding credit for Eparch's Early End if under 8 minutes). All remaining group members can be spoken to shortly, and some additional friendly Kryptis will enter the room after a short time - there are no further achievements for observing the Kryptis courtiers. Remember to grab The Midnight Throne Point of Interest, as it is inaccessible outside of this mission.