# Hard mode strategies for Arch-Glacor

## Starting off at Hard Mode Arch-Glacor

In Hard Mode, the Arch-Glacor becomes much stronger now that Azzanadra is not restraining the creature's raw power. As such, players will have to deal with all of the mechanics themselves. The boss can only be fought alone, and works similarly to Telos, the Warden - it possesses enrage that modifies its attacks and mechanics and a streaking system. Due to this, players cannot teleport out, making it a fight to the death. It is recommended to start hard mode after unlocking the pontifex shadow ring's tier 4 effects, which causes prayers to be 60% effective against non-flurry attacks and 75% against.

In order to access hard mode, the player must defeat the Arch-Glacor at least once in normal mode, with all mechanics active in a solo encounter with the instance set at 1 player.

Like Telos, hard mode Arch-Glacor mostly relies on streaking in order to get the best rewards and requires use of defensives as its enrage increases. The enrage at the Arch-Glacor is significantly disproportionate to Telos at lower enrages (at least below 1000%), but inverses and becomes far more challenging than Telos past 2000%. The Arch-Glacor's stats remain the same as in normal mode.

### Enrage

The Arch-Glacor's life points scale with enrage. It starts off with 370,000 health and gains 3,700 additional health for every 5% of enrage accumulated. Unlike Telos, the Arch-Glacor's life points do not have a cap. At 4000% enrage, it has 3,330,000 life points. Likewise, the damage dealt from most mechanics is also increased.

The Arch-Glacor's attacks are modified to be more powerful than its equivalents in normal mode:

• The Frost Cannon attack deals three rapid magic hits and also applies a six second stun and bind if not protected against by using Freedom or Anticipate beforehand.
• The Flurry attack also adds melee attacks to the fray, in which the boss sweeps the platform with its arm. This attack hits the entire platform.
• The Pillars of Ice attack adds an additional third beam appearing after the second, which spawns at a random spot west of the platform. The third beam will despawn with the other two. Getting hit by the beams also drains 1-2% adrenaline for every hit inflicted.
• The four glacytes' health is increased to 13,500. Their life points do not scale with enrage until 2500% enrage. Additionally, starting at 250% enrage, a Bolstered Glacyte spawns in addition to the others, which attacks using melee. The spawn points are still the same as in normal mode.
• The Arch-Glacor's arms' health for the Exposed Core mechanic increases from 17,500 to 32,500. At 2500% enrage, the arms' life points begin to increase with enrage.

While no new mechanics or phases appear to be added with enrage, they do begin to be modified at specific enrages as listed below.

Enrage New/Modified mechanic
250% Glacyte minions will now cause a Bolstered Glacyte to appear if the boss has been damaged. This Glacyte has a combat level of 131 and possesses double the health of the normal glacytes.
2500% The life points of Glacyte minions and Glacor's arm begin to increase with enrage.

### Life points

The life points of the Arch Glacor, Icy Arm (right) and (left), Glacytes, and Bolstered Glacyte scale with enrage. All but the life points of the Arch-Glacor remain constant up until 2,500% enrage. Above 2,500% enrage, they too will have increased life points. The relation of their life points, ${\displaystyle {\text{LP}}}$, as a function of enrage, ${\displaystyle {\text{E}}}$ can be expressed in the following way:

• ${\displaystyle {\text{LP}}_{\text{Arch-Glacor}}=370{,}000+3{,}700\cdot \left\lfloor {\text{E}}/5\right\rfloor }$
• ${\displaystyle {\text{LP}}_{\text{Icy Arm}}={\begin{cases}32{,}500&{\text{if E}}\leq 2{,}500\\32{,}500+325\cdot \left\lfloor \left({\text{E}}-2{,}500\right)/3.33\right\rfloor &{\text{if E}}>2{,}500\end{cases}}}$
• ${\displaystyle {\text{LP}}_{\text{Glacytes}}={\begin{cases}13{,}500&{\text{if E}}\leq 2{,}500\\13{,}500+135\cdot \left\lfloor \left({\text{E}}-2{,}500\right)/2.50\right\rfloor &{\text{if E}}>2{,}500\end{cases}}}$
• ${\displaystyle {\text{LP}}_{\text{Bolstered Glacyte}}={\begin{cases}{\text{N/A}}&{\text{if E}}<250\\27{,}000&{\text{if 250}}\leq {\text{E}}\leq 2{,}500\\27{,}000+270\cdot \left\lfloor \left({\text{E}}-2{,}500\right)/2.50\right\rfloor &{\text{if E}}>2{,}500\end{cases}}}$

Below is a table of life point values at (mostly) incremental enrage values of 500%.

Life point values for the Arch-Glacor, Icy arm (right) and (left), Glacytes, and Bolstered Glacyte
Enrage Life points
Arch-Glacor Icy Arm (right)
Icy Arm (left)
Glacyte (melee)
Glacyte (magic)
Bolstered Glacyte
0% 370,000 32,500 13,500 N/A
100% 444,000 32,500 13,500 N/A
250% 555,000 32,500 13,500 27,000
500% 740,000 32,500 13,500 27,000
1,000% 1,110,000 32,500 13,500 27,000
1,500% 1,480,000 32,500 13,500 27,000
2,000% 1,850,000 32,500 13,500 27,000
2,500% 2,220,000 32,500 13,500 27,000
3,000% 2,590,000 81,250 40,500 81,000
3,500% 2,960,000 130,000 67,500 135,000
4,000% 3,330,000 178,750 94,500 189,000

## Strategy

### Overview

The boss performs special attacks at random as in normal mode and will not repeat mechanics until all available ones have been used. Once all of its mechanics have been performed at least once, the special attack mechanic pool resets, which allows it to potentially use the same ability consecutively. It takes roughly 1 minute and 45 seconds to 2 minutes for the Arch-Glacor to exhaust all of its special attacks at least once.

Due to the boss's increased health, killing the boss on higher enrages requires the player to be experienced in both DPS and survivability. It is more common to mage or range the boss in hard mode, but melee is viable. At low enrages, the only major threats to the player will be the Frost Cannon and Pillars of Ice attacks. At higher enrages, Flurry becomes the greater threat.

Due to the boss' low defence, berserker auras are not particularly needed for any enrage level, although they can speed up kills slightly. At higher enrages, using these auras will likely end up killing the player for minimal return. Vampryism and Inspiration auras are extremely useful at this boss.

### Flurry

It is extremely important to flick all attacks in Flurry as they will deal extremely high, if not outright fatal damage. Depending on enrage and mechanics on hand, there are a variety of methods that may be used to get through Flurry safely. It is typically the most common cause of death on the lower end of enrage due to the increased damage incurred from flurried attacks, especially at higher enrages where these often turn into instant-kill hits. Therefore, it is important to watch the boss' attacks - if the arm points towards the platform with green particles, the attack is Ranged. If the arm points away from the platform, the attack is Magic. If the boss sweeps the platform, the attack is Melee.

Consecutive flurries are not problematic on low enrages, and are actually more beneficial despite the increased damage, as it gives more time to damage the boss.

### Minions

Minions can be particularly problematic depending on mechanic used beforehand - the damage immunity wastes adrenaline and is often infamous for interrupting large amounts of damage against the boss. Quickly dispose of them using all AoE sources available. At encounters of 250% enrage and higher, a bolstered glacyte will appear among them if the boss has been damaged. If it is used as the first mechanic at the start of the encounter, this glacyte will not appear. This minion always spawns in the center of the platform. The minion spawning can override the boss's attack animation, so watch the boss carefully.

As with normal mode, stack and clear the minions out with AoE abilities. In encounters of 250+ enrage, if the bolstered glacyte appears, it is advantageous to lure it to the other four glacytes so all five can be hit with AoE. It is important to keep damaging or let the melee glacytes, including the bolstering, attack the player to ensure they don't heal themselves to full as a result of getting out of combat (10 seconds).

The mechanic itself is not much of a threat below 2500% enrage, as their health only starts scaling above it, and at higher enrages, a different method is required to kill them. However, consecutive minions can severely impede DPS.

### Pillars of Ice

For the Pillars of Ice attack, it is important not to get hit by the pillars as they will begin dealing serious damage at higher enrage, and getting hit by one will often result in instant death. Move to the north or south-western corner (from the compass) and wait for the pillar to spawn. The pillar will prioritize aiming the player based on row rather than column, so the longer the player can stay on their current row, the more space there will be to dodge when moving across. After the pillar gets close enough, run north and then east. The second pillar that appears after the ice will likely need to be surged past. The third pillar that appears has an erratic spawn like the first so it is important to not get pinned by this one especially if the second pillar is very close. Do not run too far east as the boss will waste no time in immediately performing a special attack, most of which will spawn icicles to push the player back and potentially into a pillar. Like the minions mechanic, the summoning animation will override the boss' attack animation, so watch the boss closely to make sure it does not attack.

Consecutive pillars of ice are not particularly a problem on any enrage.

### Frost Cannon

Like in normal mode with all mechanics on, Frost Cannon will deal fatal damage if not protected against. In order to protect against this attack, the player has multiple options at their disposal, based on the situation at hand. Freedom/Anticipation must be used before the damage registers to prevent the stun and bind, the latter being preferable because it also reduces damage taken by 10%.

• The ideal and easiest method is to simply Protect/Deflect Magic with Devotion. Each reflected hit tends to rebound at least 2,000-2,800 damage back to the boss for a total of 2,000-8,100 damage if all three reflect back.
• If Devotion is unavailable, which it often will be at higher enrages, the player may use Protect/Deflect Magic and Reflect/Shield Dome against the first two hits, then drop the prayer and Resonance or Divert the last hit. This requires very quick reflexes due to the extremely short time between the hitsplats, but essentially nullifies the first two hits unless using a 3+ piece trimmed masterwork set. The player will need roughly 5,500 (6,000+ is more than enough) health to tank the first two hits.
• While this can be done the opposite way (Resonance the first hit and tank the other two), it is not recommended as it leaves the player on low health, which can be problematic on higher enrages.
• A less common method is to Barricade or Immortality, but this is only recommended as a last resort and if the player is able to build to 100% adrenaline in time.
• You can also eat to full health and use a Powerburst of vitality; using Anticipation is highly recommended if you use this method, to avoid being killed by an attack after the Frost Cannon.

In the event of double Frost Cannons, a mix of the above will be required to survive. Frost Cannon's damage is unaffected by enrage and is consistent on all levels.

### Exposed Core

It is required to destroy one of the arms as quickly as possible. Below 2500% enrage, this mechanic does not pose much of a threat, even when used consecutively. However, it does significantly impede kill times like the minions. After 2500% enrage, the mechanic will need to be handled differently as the arms will begin to gain more health, leaving the player at risk of being frozen to death by the core. The core's damage is consistent on all enrage levels.

Depending on enrage and time, the player can apply a vulnerability bomb to both the boss and the targeted arm at the same time. Aim for the square of the aqueduct forming the corner between the arm and the Arch-Glacor. This is far easier and more consistent with its right arm compared to the left.