Silent Surf

Introduction

You start this fractal investigation with your new best friend, Captain Thess. Rummage in the crate near him to pick up some Survey Gear, with a limited number of charges of each ability:

Grappling Hook - a grappling hook that launches you toward the location you select.

Parachute - a temporary parachute that prevents you from taking fall damage and can be slightly steered.

Black Powder Charge - a big explosion that launches you in the air - good in case of emergencies.

Flare - an unlimited-use ability that fires a small light orb, allowing you to see better. Only one orb can be active per player.

For now, all you have is a single parachute and a big hole to fall into, so take a leap of faith and make sure to deploy your parachute before you become a pancake. Should you die to fall damage, Captain Thess will helpfully teleport you back to him to allow you to try again.

Once you safely reach the platform below, Captain Thess will join you and you can rummage in a new crate to gain Grappling Hook. Aim it at the platform across from you to grapple there. Here you will find two zip lines taking you further down. The second zipline terminates in a wall that drops you down, so be ready with your Parachute!

Captain Thess will be unable to join you until two-four players have reached this next platform (two in t1, three in t2-3 and four in t4). When all are standing in the white circle, Captain Thess will be able to portal in. This also allows the last player(s) to join the rest of the group if they have been struggling to spelunk.

There is a Mistlock Singularity here, suggesting a fight is ahead. Sure enough, you are ambushed by a group of Bats and Spiders. Dispatch them and Captain Thess will activate another supply crate for you.

At this point, the spelunking becomes significantly more challenging. To progress, you'll need to jump down below, landing on one of the large mushrooms beneath you (it doesn't matter which one). This will launch you forward, but not far enough. Near the apex of your path, activate the Parachute and drift towards the far platform, and grapple onto the stalactite with a swirling wind effect around it. If you aren't going to make it, you can use Black Powder Charge to give yourself a boost.

On the next platform, look for a small vent (Wind Cannon) indicated by a red cog icon. Hopping into it will take you to another platform, where there is another white circle to stand in to bring Captain Thess forward.

As before, the Mistlock Singularity indicates an ambush - this time a group of Naga. Upon defeating them, you can access another supply crate and a new Wind Cannon becomes available. The Wind Cannon fires you up and you will automatically activate a zipline midair. The zipline ends at another stalactite, dropping you down below. You should be able to land on the bouncing mushrooms below, but if in doubt you can use your Parachute. It is also easier if you use your mount button to disengage from the zipline slightly early.

The bouncing mushrooms will launch you into another Wind Cannon that in turn deposits you on a small platform.

To progress, you will need to reach the next cluster of bouncing mushrooms in the distance. This can be achieved in a number of ways, but the intended way is likely to use the two stalactites with swirling wind effects to grapple across. The first stalactite is slightly out of reach, so you will need to jump towards it and activate your Grappling Hook before you fall too far. You are briefly very close to the stalactites as you emerge from the Wind Cannon, so with good timing you can grapple to them as soon as you emerge, so this may be a more reliable approach.

As you fly through the air, aim for the second stalactite and grapple to it as soon as you can. This should launch you towards the mushrooms, but it's quite likely that you won't land directly on them. Use either your last Grappling Hook charge, or one of your Parachute charges to ensure you get there.

Once you reach the mushrooms, they will launch you into yet another Wind Cannon, which fires you onto a zipline, then finally terminates at a wall, dropping you down to the final platform. To survive this final drop you will need your Parachute, or alternatively you can fire a Grappling Hook at the ground which saves you for some reason. Black Powder Charge will also work.

Once the minimum number of players players have made it through, you can summon Captain Thess once more and prepare for the next ambush. This time it is a corrupted Naga with some Corrupted Luxon Sailors. Be ready, as a miniboss will spawn shortly after they are defeated.

Corrupted First Mate Dolus

Corrupted First Mate Dolus appears and immediately charges up Dread Visage - a Fear attack indicated by a large eye above his head. This sends Captain Thess off the platform into the void below. Players should be sure not to look at him lest they suffer the same fate (he is invulnerable until this attack ends regardless).

Shortly, First Mate Dolus will prepare an attack called Frightening Speed - all players receive a medium-sized AoE and a Roman numeral above their head. After a short delay, the boss will shadowstep to each player in turn, leaving behind a damaging vortex for two seconds. There will be a sixth AoE at the boss's starting location, that he will leap back to at the end. Be aware that vortices other than yours hurt significantly more.

Otherwise, the boss doesn't do much else.

After defeating Corrupted First Mate Dolus, a shadow portal opens up that takes you back to previous platforms. You can use this to resupply your Survey Gear, as the earlier crates contain more ammo. This will be useful for the upcoming fight.

All that is left to do is jump down into the void below. Here you will find that Captain Thess didn't actually survive the fall, and you've fallen into a trap.

Unknown Demon

Recommended Sigils: Sigil of Superior Sigil of Force, Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact

Condition builds should use their standard sigils and enhancements.

Note: This encounter punishes melee builds almost to the point of rendering them unviable. Ranged DPS is strongly recommended.

Recommended Utility: Boon Removal (CM only), Condition cleanse and Crowd Control

Interacting with Captain Thess's body will trigger the final boss - an Unknown Demon. Shortly after appearing, three smaller Aspects of the demon will also appear at the platform edge, but they cannot be targeted or attacked.

Challenge Mode
There are several changes that immediately come into effect in the Challenge Mode of this encounter:

• The Unknown Demon begins the encounter with instead (see Phase 2) and uses it throughout the phase.
• The ability for the boss to steal Quickness and Alacrity from players can significantly alter the timings of this encounter.
• Falling off the platform will result in instant death, making the Fear particularly deadly.

- As the fight starts, the Unknown Demon will use its own version of the fear attack you saw earlier but all three Aspects are using it too. This means that you need to move towards the platform edge so you can safely look away. You can use Resistance, Stability or a stunbreak to prevent the Fear, but for each eye you are looking at, you will take 35% of your max health as damage in addition to Blind and three stacks of Torment. occurs every ~50s.

Challenge Mode only: Getting hit by Kanaxai's will apply Extreme Vulnerability. This will cause you to be killed instantly if you are also hit by one of the Aspect's s.

Rending Storm - As you return from the , a random player is targeted by a small AoE as the Demon throws a spinning axe in their direction. This creates a ticking damage AoE that lasts for 30 seconds, ticking for a small amount of damage and applying five stacks of Bleeding per tick. This attack repeats every ~30s, and an additional player will be targeted each time after the first occurence within a phase. Players in the path of the axe when it is thrown can also be hit even if they aren't in the AoE.

Challenge Mode only: All other Rending Storm AoEs apply a stack of Exposed to you with each tick. Your own AoE can be identified by a thicker "targeted" indicator around the storm (similar to that applied by scouts in WvW).

Otherwise, the Unknown Demon will use basic attacks that inflict Bleeding and Torment. The Aspects have their own basic ranged attacks that are unthreatening, but every 30 seconds or so they will launch an AoE attack called Harrowshot that applies Agony and a condition depending on the aspect that fired it.

Challenge Mode only: Being hit by this attack will cause the Unknown Demon to steal all of a player's boons.

Gathering Shadows - Every 10% health, the Demon gains a defiance bar and attempts to summon another Aspect onto the platform. Breaking it will Stun the Demon and leave it Exposed for five seconds, but give it a stack of Dread Defiance - a buff that makes the next Stun duration shorter and the defiance bar larger (technically it reduces the strength of incoming CC). If you fail to break the bar, an additional smaller demon is summoned on the platform, and the next time the defiance bar appears it will resume from the strength it was at. Breaking the bar will slightly increase the cooldown of his other mechanics.

Note: It is possible that additional Aspects summoned in this way are able to use Phantasmagoria (see Split Phase 1).

Other mechanics will not happen until after the defiance bar finishes, and appears to take priority over Rending Storm. This means that depending on your group's DPS these mechanics might "queue", resulting in them happening less frequently.

Split Phase 1

At 66% health, the Demon goes invulnerable and reveals its true identity: Kanaxai! It teleports to the middle of the platform and prepares . Players will be targeted by each of the smaller demons with a beam attack called Phantasmagoria. This applies an effect to the player (indicated on their buff bar) that reduces outgoing and incoming damage. Shortly after, the Aspect will relocate to one of five smaller platforms surrounding the main one, providing you with two Grappling Hook charges as well as leaving behind a glowing blue orb with a bag icon inside that provides more. Then, the ghostly figure of Captain Thess appears in the middle of the platform and fires a beam of light towards the platform the Aspect retreated to. There is also see a red crossed sword icon on the minimap indicating the location. Only the affected player can see the Aspect, the ghostly figure, or the crossed swords icon.

The player should use their special action key to switch to their Survey Gear, grapple across to the small platform, and kill the demon (they have very low health). The Unknown Demon's attack will be canceled if all Aspects are killed, otherwise everyone takes heavy damage and Agony for each remaining Aspect.

Challenge Mode only: Failing to kill all aspects will cause an instant wipe.

Notes

• In some cases, people will be able to see others' Aspects and attack them. If they kill someone else's Aspect, then the targeted player will be unable to remove Phantasmagoria, so this is not recommended.
• If you are slow, the next phase can start before you get back to the platform. The bouncing mushroom will land you directly in the middle of the arena, which can make it impossible to avoid . You may be better off waiting on the platform until it is over (you will eventually be teleported back).

Phase 2

Now the fight resumes with another attack, but this time there are four Aspects on the platform.

Challenge Mode only: From Phase 2, rather than remain on the platform, Kanaxai will teleport to one of the outer platforms and use from there - this reduces the directions that are safe to look in, but looking east will always be safe.

- Immediately after ends, all players will be targeted by a large AoE and a Roman numeral, as at First Mate Dolus. Each attack will hit eight times, each dealing 6.25% of the player's max health (for 50% total). These attacks cannot be avoided by invulnerability or dodging, but they can be blocked.

has the same cooldown as , so one will typically follow the other, but they can become desynced over time.

Challenge Mode only: Getting hit more than once by an AoE other than your own will kill you (preventable by invulnerability or damage inversion).

Kanaxai's version of this attack is far more dangerous than Dolus's, so players should be particularly wary of the final vortex when the boss returns to its starting location.

Challenge Mode only: Between 50-10%, Kanaxai will use Gathering Shadows at 5% intervals instead of 10%.

Split Phase 2

This Split Phase is identical to the first, except that there are now four Aspects to deal with.

Phase 3

In addition to there being five Aspects on the platform, they are now able to use Phantasmagoria. One player will be targeted every 40 seconds, and the effect will end automatically if it is not dealt with within 30 seconds (with the Aspect returning to the platform).

In addition to the effects of the debuff, the Aspect being on a platform will make significantly more dangerous (facing east will remain safe). An Aspect that is in the middle of applying Phantasmagoria will not gain the eye over their head and so is safe to look at.

It seems that Phantasmagoria will not overlap with certain mechanics, which means a fast team may end up not getting this attack at all in the final phase. Per the earlier note, it may also be that only Aspects summoned by failing to break Gathering Shadows are able to use this attack.

Challenge Mode only: In this last phase, is combined with . Shortly after teleportation, Kanaxai will fear any player looking at him. To prevent your character automatically turning during this attack, you can stand facing out of the platform and take a series of small steps towards the edge until the attack is complete.