Boss Guide - Viper Napuatzi

This boss in act 3 doesn’t really pressure your character’s stats very hard with her normal abilities. She has unremarkable hitpoints, and her basic attacks do little damage.

What she does pressure is your ability to dodge her special moves. Many of these will be ‘dodge or die’ if you have neglected chaos resistance.

It's typical to have little or no chaos resistance at this point of the game, as it is hard to come by early on.

Footage shows is from Act 6 (during Early Access, Act 6 is a second copy of Act 3) and on a character with 54% fire resist, 49% cold resist, 50% lightning resist, 21% chaos resist and negligible armor, evasion and block.

Viper poisons a lot.

Many of you might think ‘a perfect use for an Antidote Charm '.

Unfortunately – it really is not. Your charm charges will be used up on trivial hits and unavailable when you really need them.

If you can dodge all the hard to avoid tiny hits that will waste your charm charges, you can dodge all the big ones.

This is more dangerous at range than anything else.

It’s hard to dodge the initial hit and not necessary to try, you can endure it. It applies chaos damage over time as well, it’s not clear if this is poison or ‘bad ground’. It will be over soon.

Suggestion: Get out of the bad ground, use a life flask charge after being hit

This ability poses no threat on its own but it lasts for 40 seconds and denies a lot of area to you.

Suggestion: Don’t stand in it, otherwise ignore it for now. Viper conjures it on top of herself, so melee players will need to move out of it and let her come to you. She will follow you, slowly, in between her ranged skills.

Combo with other moves:

When Viper does her bombardment hell ability, keep in mind where the pool is located. If the pool splits the arena into a large area and a small area, try to be on the large side. If it splits closer to 50-50, just pick one side.

When the Spear Phalanx of Death move starts, also try to be on the far side of the arena from this pool, although this is less important.

Viper fires a projectile at the player that deals manageable damage. It can then split into five projectiles.

Whilst this ability isn't too deadly, it is much more dangerous to ranged than to melee.

Suggestion: Dodge if able, don’t worry if you fail this one.

Viper sacrifices a lot of movespeed to gain attackspeed, then makes many attacks.

This ability is much more dangerous to melee than ranged.

Suggestion: Dodge this no matter what (even melee should back off a bit). Frost Wall will hard counter this move, trapping Viper behind it, if that can be used in your build.

This is Viper's most dangerous move, for all combat styles. Stop attacking Viper during it, stop using visually distracting skills, and focus entirely on dodging.

It is a 'bullet hell' of sorts. Against a character with mediocre defenses, expect to die for sure in three hits and maybe in two.

The best approach to deal with this is to dodge using slow, methodical movements where possible, and use your dodge roll when necessary.

Use a life flask charge after EVERY mistake.

When the final phase comes and all the phalanxes light up, stay cool. It’s easier to dodge than it looks. Just use your dodge roll for invulnerability frames.

The video here shows the move being handled well enough, but not flawlessly. You will see that hits are suffered – and a life flask is used to correct them.

Important Note: This move becomes slightly harder each time Viper uses it, as you will have less space to maneuver as the phalanxes close in.

The more damage you have, the better.

The first part of this is a warmup.

Dodge the fire circles on the ground.

The second part is harder. Dodge the purple voltaxic (lightning/chaos) circles.

You will not be instantly slain by making one mistake here. Stay calm, dodge what you can, life flask after making a mistake.

You are most vulnerable after dodging, so use the dodge roll as a last resort. But do use it.

Remember the green goo on the ground? This is where it gets annoying.