Lord Vanaduke

Lord Vanaduke menaces a helpless Spiral Knight.

Lord Vanaduke is the Duke of the Almirian Empire, a world fractured and strewn across the Clockworks. His flag can be seen in the Royal Jelly Palace, and the Scarlet Fortress. He resides in the Throne Room of the Firestorm Citadel (see also: Mission 9-3 The King of Ashes), deep down near the Core.

He is intensely hostile to intruders into his kingdom, and assume all are after him. When you first step on the party button, a dialogue box will appear, with Lord Vanaduke saying, "What's this? More wolves hungry for the blood of Almire? Our great kingdom shall never fall to the likes of beasts!"

Note that while he is not actually undead, he is marked as one simply because of the fact that he 'died' according to the history of the Firestorm Citadel.

Battle

Vanaduke has five phases, alternating from body stage, to mask/bullet stage. His body has a slight weakness to piercing, and is slightly resistant to everything else. His mask, however, is resistant to any damage type besides Normal. Vanaduke does not appear to belong to any monster family.

PHASE 1) His first stage has two attacks. He will swing his mace overhead towards a player, which can cause fire and stun if it makes contact, and creates a mild quake that breaks overhead supports. Patches of ground will immediately light up to an orange hue at random, and debris will shortly hit those spots with a chance of causing fire and stun as well. He can also dash towards a player, and may immediately follow up with a mace. He summons four Slag Walkers to fight by his side, and will spawn more should all of them be killed.

PHASE 2) After taking enough damage, he will retreat to the back of the room, fall to his knees, and hide his face as his mask detaches from his armor and begins to float around in a blaze while shooting bullets all around. Two giant red bullets will also orbit around his mask. His mask will be immune to damage, as well as constantly shoot bullets, as long as it's on fire. Using the waterballs provided, the player must temporarily "put out" Vanaduke's mask to be able to damage it. Waterballs can also destroy bullets, including the large, orbiting ones. His mask will re-ignite in five seconds, and the orbiting bullets will re-appear in time. Any water orb striking the mask will cause a 360 degree knockback around the mask and inflict fire status on nearby knights, even if the mask was already wet.

PHASE 3) After dealing enough damage to the mask, the mask will return to Vanaduke's face. The first phase will resume, except with four large orbs of flame orbiting his body. Vanaduke's mace swing and debris can now spawn Shadow Fire around the area it lands.

PHASE 4) The mask stage will then repeat again, however with more and faster bullets. Agile Knights who get past this stage will have successfully destroyed Vanaduke's mask and move on to the final stage.

PHASE 5) The final phase is like phase 3, except Vanaduke will now have two waves of orbiting flame orbs, spawn Slag Guards instead of Slag Walkers, and can cast a fire stream attack, which causes no damage but can inflict fire if a Knight comes into contact with the flames. Although Vanaduke's flame orbs can block bullets, a gun is strongly recommended for the final stage (it should be noted that the fire balls that defend Vanaduke in his body stages can be temporarily extinguished with water balls)

Vanaduke Mask Bug

Every water orb striking the mask gets a separate countdown timer. When a timer expires, the mask lights on fire again, even if it has been watered again in the meantime.

For example, suppose you water the mask, triggering its five second vulnerable period. Someone throws water at the mask again with 2 seconds left. After those two seconds are up, the mask ignites, as if the second water hadn't been thrown. But there will also be a 3-2-1 countdown as if it were wet from the second orb.

If someone throws a third water orb to douse it right after the first one wears off, it will only stay wet for three seconds--after which the timer from the second orb will expire, causing it to reignite. And at this point, it will still have a timer from the third orb that will expire in another 2 seconds.

Thus, it is recommended not water the mask if it is already wet. If someone does, by accident, wait five seconds to reach a "clean" state before watering the mask again, or else it will be constantly reigniting early.

Strategy

Shadow Fire

The hardest part of the battle is dodging the Shadow Fire that spawns when Vanaduke strikes the ground. One tactic is to assign one or more party members to fire-fighting, extinguishing Shadow Fire every time it spawns in the active battle ground to prevent accidental run-ins with it later on.

Another option is prevention, which requires the player (who has Vanaduke's aggro) to stay out of his line of sight at all times. This can be done by freezing him or kiting around to stay behind him at all times throughout the battle. Note that his aggro does shift to the player dealing the most damage to him.

A third option is "lava gardening", which takes advantage of the maximum Shadow Fire tiles that can spawn on the playfield at one time (which appears to be 25.) Allow them to accumulate in less-trafficked areas, and "weed out" only tiles near the fountains or obstructing paths around the chamber. This strategy requires better coordination between teammates and greater precision when extinguishing the mask phases, as well as all but precluding sword attacks on the body after Phase 1 (as extinguishing Vanaduke's orbiting fireballs risks disrupting the "garden",) but it is ideal when fighting Vanaduke alone or if the party does not want to designate a dedicated firefighter.

Killing the beast

Vanaduke can be held (frozen) in place by a freezing bomb, so players can simply kite around him while he is frozen. Note that in the final stage, only a Shivermist Buster can reach him from outside the radius of his orbiting fire orbs. They can be extinguished so a lesser bomb can reach, but the orbs reignite periodically without warning.

The fire orbs surrounding Vanaduke can be constantly extinguished so he is reachable by sword in later stages. However, the orbs will often respawn without warning, making this method very dangerous. The main problem with using swords in the latter stages is navigating through the maze of Shadow Fire that no doubt surrounds him. Piercing swords are recommended, and it may be better to use piercing sword charge attacks instead of normal attacks if there is a Shivermist bomber, so that Vanaduke can stay frozen for longer.

Guns tend to be the preferred DPS weapon against Vanaduke for safety, with most players either using Blitz Needle charge attacks on an ideally frozen Vanaduke for maximum damage, or kiting around Vanaduke and gunning, usually with Valiance in this case (Argent Peacemaker was a popular choice for kiting when it dealt Piercing/Elemental damage.) Vanaduke is weak to Callahan's Piercing damage, but kiting is more difficult as the gun forces knights to stop briefly while firing. Other guns such as Polaris and the elemental Drivers are also fully viable, but tend to deal less damage.

Bombs can also be used on Vanaduke for damage, however these are usually used by knights who fully specialize in bombs. DPS bombs on Vanaduke would usually be Dark Briar Barrage to take full advantage of Vanaduke's Piercing weakness. Radiant Sun Shards deals neutral damage to Vanaduke (as he is weak to Piercing but resistant to Elemental) but can be worthwhile for a bomber adept at striking him with multiple shards from a single bomb. Status bombs can be used in combination with damage bombs to make the fight easier, such as using Voltaic Tempest to interrupt Vanaduke's attacks with shock (though Shock has the potential to release Vanaduke from Freeze at an inopportune moment.)

Keep in mind that while these methods may be preferred, there are other methods which are perfectly viable if used well, and there is no need to be restricted to the most preferred weapons for Vanaduke.

Dealing with monster spawns

Some parties will designate a player to handle the monster spawns while the rest focus on Vanaduke. This is done by controlling the monsters' aggro, freezing them in place, or simply shield-bumping them away from the battle. Be warned that Vanaduke will summon more monsters to replace the ones currently in battle no matter how many are still alive.

Tactics

Vanaduke is weak to piercing attacks in his body form (Phase 1, 3, and 5), slightly resists everything but Normal in his mask form (Phase 2 and 4), and gains a complete immunity to Shadow damage in Phase 5. For this reason, many players will bring a Leviathan Blade with them to the fight, as well as a Piercing gun to reach him in the later stages where he is surrounded by fiery orbs. Blitz Needle is the most popular choice for this battle (Argent Peacemaker was frequently used before its Piercing/Elemental damage was changed to pure Elemental.) Weapons are usually charged up while the player is kiting in order to release a stronger attack on him when ideally positioned.

In this battle, almost everything can and will inflict Fire on the player. Because of this, armor with a protection from Fire is highly recommended, though not a necessity. A shield with Fire or Elemental protection is also highly recommended. Vanaduke's mace and charge attacks deal Normal type damage, as do the Slag Guards' attacks; falling ceilings, shadow fire, and fireballs deal Elemental type damage, and the attacks of the Slag Walkers have a Shadow component.

Many parties choose to freeze Vanaduke in place for the duration of the battle, making the fight easier. For this reason, a Shivermist Buster with a higher Charge Time Reduction is recommended--one player will stand in place, continuously freezing Vanaduke, while the rest kite around and attack him.

For the mask phases, sometimes knights can assign one knight to douse the mask, and the other three to attack the mask, so that the mask is kept doused and will not fire any extra bullets. It is important to time the throwing of the water right, as too late and the mask will start shooting and breaking ally shields, and if too early the douser can set ally knights on fire. It is recommended for the water to douse the mask right when it reignites, or slightly after, to minimise damage done to ally shields.

Video

Spiral Knights - Lord Vanaduke

Warnings/Known Issues

Vanaduke currently has four broken elements to his fight that can instantly damage you without any warning or time to prepare or react appropriately. These are...

• Lava blocks spawning from falling debris. Lava blocks do not need to spawn exactly where debris has fallen, and if you're nearby, can spawn inside of you and keep you from moving at all if centered enough, even if reviving.
• Vanaduke can bodyblock you into a corner. If you are unlucky enough to get pushed by Vanaduke into a corner with him, it is just like lava spawning on you and keeping you from moving, but cannot simply be watered away.
• Slag Guards abusing the camera angle. Slag Guards, who only have a charging attack, can come up from the bottom of the screen and, due to their speed, hit the player in half a second of coming on screen.
• Stun will cause him to double-attack. If he is stunned in the middle of one of his moves, he will perform it instantly ahead of his animation, and again once his animation is completed. A mace swing will create double the ceiling debris and lava spawn, and a dash will hit you before he's even there. He will also double-summon slags, which will kill the first set and give a chance at free hearts.

While there are workarounds for the Slag Guards, and stunning him is easily avoidable; being trapped by Vanaduke, having lava blocks spawn on you, or even being stuck inside lava blocks can severely hamper your goal of defeating Vanaduke, so it is recommended to avoid Vanaduke's dash near corners, and debris at all costs, instead of blocking it.

Drops

• 1-4 Almirian Seals.

Notes

• A Recon Module can be obtained in front of the lift right after killing Vanaduke.
• Lord Vanaduke does not actually belong to any monster family, although his lore leads to the belief that he is an undead. He does not, however, share the same resistances or weaknesses as common undead, and even has more in common with that of a fiend in his body forms, as he is weak to piercing in these forms. In view of this and of his backstory, it is possible that Lord Vanaduke may be a trojan-estique fiend monster rather than a truly undead being.

• Vanaduke's backstory and even some of his battle strategies bear a striking resemblance to those of Arkus, a corrupted spiral knight encountered in mission 9-1, "The Silent legion":
  • Both started out as renowned, powerful beings that were known and respected by many
  • Both characters, due to some tragic loss, went insane and began to seek solace in some greater power
  • Both were transformed into monsters significantly stronger than their original forms
  • Both are vulnerable to piercing damage and have significant resistance to shadow damage
  • Both monsters are capable of summoning other enemies (Arkus can summon greavers, while Vanaduke summons Slag Walkers and Slag guards)
  • Both begin to be orbited by some sort of bullet in their later forms
  • Finally, Arkus's charge attack is very similar to a smaller version of Vanaduke's mace swing and, in later phases, can damage players not directly hit by the attack.

History

Spiral Knights - Vanaduke - Preview Event

See Also

Clockworks Bosses

• Snarbolax
• Roarmulus Twins
• Royal Jelly
• Lord Vanaduke

Shadow Lair Bosses

• Rabid Snarbolax
• Ice Queen
• Red Roarmulus Twins
• Darkfire Vanaduke

Expansion Bosses

• Warmaster Seerus