In Last Epoch, the Shade of Orobyss is considered the ultimate endgame boss. He can be found in the Monoliths of Fate on a node called the Echo of a World. These nodes can only be found at the edges of a timeline and will be the biggest test of your skills and your build. As the last boss, the Shade of Orobyss has access to some of the most powerful Uniques in the game, like Apathy’s Maw, Omnis, Siphon of Anguish, Stymied Fate, and Shattered Chains. For this specific encounter, we will talk about some mechanics, tips, and tricks to overcome the Void’s veritable vanquisher.
Echo of A World Mechanics
This node is unique in that when completing a Shade of Orobyss fight, this will add a value called Corruption to the timeline you’re in. Corruption adds more health and damage values to all monsters in the timeline and buffs up your item rarity quality and experience gains. Corruption is also important to the Shade as the Uniques Apathy’s Maw and Omnis only drop on 50 Corruption and above. Of course, the Shade will get stronger at higher Corruption, so make sure you have your build and gear sorted before challenging him
Shade of Orobyss Combat Mechanics
As a creature born from the Void, the Shade of Orobyss has an extensive list of Void abilities that you need to watch out for. He will use the following skills based on the element that he has chosen:
- Physical
- The Shade will place Blood Orbs on the ground that will track you and chase you around. Should you come into contact with a Blood Orb, it will deal a massive burst of physical damage.
- The Shade summons a Blood Effigy in the center of the arena, which will continuously drain health from you and will ramp up in damage the longer it stays on the field. The Blood Effigy is vulnerable to melee attacks and should be prioritized first.
- Fire
- The Shade will place a ball of fire in front of him. After a short wind-up animation, he will blast out a cone of fire in the direction he’s facing.
- The Shade places 3 fireballs in the arena. After a short delay, they will explode. The blast radius is shown as a dark circular outline surrounding the fireball.
- Cold
- Ice comets will begin circling around the arena and deal damage proportionate to the duration that the comets stay in the arena. These comets will never be in melee range with the Shade.
- The Shade will launch an ice nova that expands and deals more damage the further it travels.
- Lightning
- The Shade winds up for a moment and shoots out a single line of lightning that deals moderate damage.
- The Shade will release 3 lightning projectiles that will travel in random directions, which can shred lightning resistance and deal more damage the longer it travels.
- Poison
- The Shade will spew a continuous cone of poison in front of him for a short duration.
- The Shade will cast a line of poisonous pools with damage that ramps up proportionate to the duration.
- Void
- The Shade will release Void AoEs around him. After a short delay, the covered areas will explode, which deals damage that ramps up.
- The Shade can fire a small Void projectile for low damage.
- Cascading circular AoEs will explode, starting from the outer rim of the arena that gets closer until it reaches the Shade.
- The Shade summons a massive Void crystal above him and will smash it on top of the player with a large AoE.
- The Shade will place an AoE blast under the player’s feet, briefly following them;keep moving to avoid the blast.
- Three lines of black holes will project from the Shade’s body, which can deal lethal Void damage.
- The Shade turns into a black hole, spawning meteors off-screen that will be sucked into the black hole. Avoid engaging him in melee while this mechanic is in effect.
- Multiple mini-black holes will spawn in the arena, which will slowly track the player.
- The Shade has a basic melee attack with relatively low Physical and Void damage, so feel free to facetank it if you need to squeeze in more DPS.
- A meteor will spawn in a specific area and will deal consistent damage over time.
- Three black holes are created at random places in the arena that increase in size and damage over their duration. They explode and fire projectiles in a star pattern once they expire.
- The Shade launches a single Void projectile at the player. If the projectile misses and reaches the edge of the arena, it will be teleported back into the arena in a different direction but still targeting the player.
- Three tentacle minions will be summoned into the arena and slam any player closest to them.
- Five eye minions will spawn and shoot out a continuous beam of Void energy.
- A massive meteor will fly from the edge of the arena after the Shade says, “The end comes!”. This attack is lethal even for tank builds.
- Traversal Spells
- The Shade can teleport directly point blank to your position.
- The Shade will leap from the air and do a slam attack on your position upon landing.
- The Shade dashes and attempts to collide with you for Void damage.
- The Shade will teleport, creating a Void explosion around him on departure and arrival.
- The Shade conjures a large barrier in front of him and will slowly charge towards your position for heavier damage than the dash move mentioned above.
Monolith Modifiers to Bring and Avoid
The Shade of Orobyss can also be affected by the modifiers affecting the Monoliths of Fate. Some modifiers can make the boss fight more manageable (but still not easier), while others can make it borderline impossible to clear. If you ever have these modifiers on, run a few nodes to change the modifiers:
- Modifier: Enemies heal if they have not taken damage after a while
- Since much of the fight is spent dodging attacks on your own, giving the Shade some leeway in damage will undo any progress you’ve made during the lull in boss mechanics. Avoid this modifier as much as you can.
- Modifier: Enemies have an increased critical chance
- The Shade’s moveset is lethal enough as it is, but if he gains more critical chance, this leaves you with very little room left since even his weakest attacks may potentially leave you at too low health.
- Modifier: Enemies have Frenzy, Haste, and/or Enrage
- These statuses lets the boss cast his skills quickly by default, making the fight exponentially harder to clear. You are more likely to be hit by overlapping mechanics, which will easily melt your health bar even with all capped resistances and armor.
- Modifier: Enemies have a chance to dodge hits
- Regardless of the build you have chosen, rapidly DPSing the Shade of Orobyss is vital to making this fight easier and that means reliably hitting the boss. With this modifier, it will only drag out the fight.
- Modifier: Enemies have increased damage
- Like the increased critical chance modifier, giving more damage to the hardest boss in the game will only make your runs harder to deal with.
For modifiers that you should take if you ever find them, take anything that affects “rare enemies” since those will only buff overworld mobs with affixes in their name. Bosses are not affected by that modifier, which leaves the Shade of Orobyss unaffected by these buffs. It is integral that you clear a node that has that modifier before taking on the boss.
The modifier “chance to receive a Glancing Blow when hit” is alright for facing this boss, but if your DPS is lacking, it’s best to avoid this if you think you can’t kill The Shade quickly.
The critical chance avoidance mechanic is a 50/50 recommendation, depending on whether your build hinges on a massive critical damage multiplier with a somewhat low base damage setup. If your build has a high enough base damage or is reliant on damage over time abilities, you may bring this modifier to the fight, as this will not affect your fight in any significant way. Otherwise, avoid this one like the plague.
Shade of Orobyss Tips
Before setting off, be sure to have all your resistances at the 75% cap since this boss can cover all elemental damage types. However, one damage type you must prioritize resisting is Void damage, as The Shade will always have Void spells.
To avoid his moves, starting with his Physical spells, the Blood Orbs should be avoided. You should take the time to dodge these before going in to damage the Shade. They will explode on their own after a given time, so focus on preventing them from reaching you. If the boss says, “Flesh is temporary,” this is the signal to immediately kill the Blood Effigy that will spawn at the center of the arena as you cannot avoid the damage that it deals to you. The longer it stays, the more unnecessary damage you will take.
For the boss’ Fire spells, you can facetank the conical flame attack. However, the fireball attack should be avoided. Keep track of the black outline to know if you’re clear of the blast radius or not.
For the Cold spells, the orbiting ice comets can be easily dodged, but the random pattern that they travel will throw many players off. Always stay mobile when faced with this attack. The same advice applies to the ice nova attack, as strafing will make him miss his more straightforward attacks.
With Lightning spells, the lightning bolt attack can be face-tanked. The lightning balls can also be tanked initially but become more powerful over their duration while simultaneously dealing multiple hits.
The Poison skills can be easily dodged with enough movement speed, but to dodge both the poison line and cone attacks, circling around the Shade will increase your chances of survival.
Lastly, for the extensive list of Void abilities, do the following to avoid them:
- If he says, “The end comes”, watch the edges of the arena and be ready to dodge an incoming meteor. Having a traversal skill will help greatly with avoiding this attack.
- The multiple conical attacks will cover around 80% of the arena, leaving you with small slices of safe areas to avoid this attack. Remember that this ability is like a snapshot, which means it only deals damage once you see those cones explode, so don’t panic if you’re still in the danger zone before it explodes as you have enough leeway to get to safety.
- The line of black holes that he can create are easily telegraphed and can be avoided with enough time to spare.
- If the Shade becomes a black hole, get some distance away from him and focus on the meteors coming from the edges of the arena as staying too close to him will make you more likely to get hit by those meteors.
- If the mini black holes appear, ease off from DPSing the Shade and keep away from them until almost all of them have exploded on their own.
- Like the fire and poison cone attacks, the giant Void crystal that he summons above him can be avoided by circling around the boss.
- Should the tentacles or Void eyes appear in the arena, kill them immediately to ease up the pressure on you. They will also count towards your kill-based passives and ability synergies, so there is a bigger incentive to prioritizing them.
If you’re a melee class, bring at least one ranged damage skill to ensure that you deal consistent damage to him while avoiding his myriad spells. Something like the Sentinel’s Smite or Javelin skill will give you some breathing space without worrying about staying within range.
