Endless Tower – Fifth Attempt

The Overview:
Endless Tower is one of the greatest features that Ragnarok Online has developed for us adventurers. The tower consists of 102 floors where the top 2 floors houses the special MVPs Entweihen Crothen and Naught Sieger respectively. The tower promises an increasing difficulty as you go further up the tower. At every 5 levels, an MVP will test your capability of surviving further the tower. While in between these levels are regular monsters grouped according to a certain theme. For more detailed information regarding Endless Tower please refer to the iRO wiki site.

My guild mates and I enjoyed this feature so much that we have organized another attempt to conquer all floors of the tower. Previous attempts were not that successful in terms of conquering all floors of the tower but each attempt surpasses the previous records. Our first three attempts that could be found here were just experimental by nature since we lack manpower in going further the tower. Our fourth attempt that could be found here is one of our serious attempts but because we are not aware with the Endless Tower changes we ended up on the room of Fallen Bishop Hibram with some members unable to re-enter the tower upon disconnection.


The Cast:
Now our fifth attempt has blazed our spirits in going further in our quest to conquer the upper floors of Endless Tower. I personally invite everyone in our guild to join the adventure and find a schedule that will fit as many members as possible. From the available members, I tried to draft the best line up that we could come up with and presented them to the team so that we will have an optimized party consisting of a tankers, supports, mob controls and MVP killers. I wasn’t able to get the expected characters but still we have the core characters intact so I’m satisfied with that. And for this run our line up was:

• Rednegel a Paladin - tanker and devotion support
• Sybil Taleheart a Professor - support and our main SP filler
• Rich Kid Herbert a Biochemist - MVP killer, secondary HP SP healer and coater
• Ju-Pao a Champion - MVP killer and tanker thru Steel Body
• Blur a High Wizard - main Mob Control
• Angel Sweet a High Priest - main support primarily on Sanctuary
• Ang Tagaparusa a Gunslinger - mob control
• Ayano a Sniper - MVP killer for Hibram and mob killer
• Cef a Sniper - MVP killer for Hibram and mob killer
• SGV-417-L a Champion - MVP killer and tanker thru Steel Body
• Bitter Angel a High Priest - main support primarily on fast buffing
• Waffle a Gunslinger - mob control

The Adventure:
Getting Warmed Up
The party was pretty optimistic and excited on our Endless Tower adventure. We are more prepared this time. Most of us had stocked up a lot of potions, elite siege boxes, Kafra cards, Tokens and Food buffs plus spare ROK points for purchasing Purification Stone incase we got disconnected. With strong will and burning passion, my team entered the Endless Tower without any fear of being defeated.

5th Floor
MVP: Golden Thief Bug
Monsters: Female Thief Bug, Male Thief Bug, Thief Bug and Thief Bug Egg
Difficulty: Extremely Easy
Strategy: We don’t have any strategy for MVP Golden Thief Bug. The MVP is very easy that planning for a specific tactic is unnecessary. With a few Storm Gust, Acid Bomb and Extremity Fist we are able to knock out the MVP.

10th Floor
MVP: Mistress
Monster: Giant Hornet and Hornet
Difficulty: Super Easy
Strategy: Just like the fifth floor, we don’t have any specific strategy for MVP Mistress. We do have an instinct that if she cast Area Silence any damage dealers who have not been silenced will spam his skills until we defeat her.

15th Floor
MVP: Phreeoni and Maya
Monsters: Andre, Deniro, Piere and Ant Egg
Difficulty: Easy
Strategy: The 15th floor is the first floor which contains two MVPs. As we moved around this floor, MVP Maya greeted us first with her warm Heaven’s Drive. In return we bombard her with our mighty attacks until she was knocked out. As we move upwards on the same room, MVP Phreeoni surprised us with his Area Petrification. Same as our strategy in the tenth floor, any damager who has not been petrified will focus his attacks at Phreeoni. Any member who has been released from petrification will perform their role as designated. In a few attacks, Phreeoni was knocked out too.

20th Floor
MVP: Drake
Monster: Pirate Skeleton
Difficulty: Easy
Strategy: This floor has a pirate theme that houses the formidable MVP Drake. Because the mobs are manageable, our Paladin run head on and searched for Drake. The other members followed while clearing the mobs along. As our Paladin dragged Drake towards the team, we locked our attacks at Drake and defeating him in just a few seconds.

25th Floor
MVP: Moonlight
Monster: Cat O’ Nine Tails and Ninetails
Difficulty: Easy to kill, Hard to spot
Strategy: The floor of MVP Moonlight is composed of monsters from the upper floors of Payon Dungeon. The theme of this floor is extra special because it is designed for Moonlight to be able to camouflage with the rest of the mob. That is why our strategy for this map is to spot Moonlight as early as possible and lock our attacks at her. Our main mob control which is Storm Gust easily clears our way so clearing mob wouldn’t be a problem but if MVP Moonlight cast Land Protect then we change our strategy. Once Moonlight casts her Land Protect either our Professor will cast our counter Land Protect or our Snipers and Gunslingers will clear the mob for us. During our run, our Champions and Biochemist was able to spot Moonlight and killed her without seeing any sign of Land Protect. And yeah so much for the strategy planning.

30th Floor
MVP: White Lady
Monster: Evil Nymph
Difficulty: Easy to kill, Hard to spot
Strategy: Just like the 25th floor, this floor is also special because MVP White Lady blends well with her Evil Nymph mob. Believe me it’s hard to spot her because everything looked like a maiden dressed in white that is why our goal is to spot her immediately. There was even a time that we didn’t notice White Lady but we were able to clear her room. Our strategy for this map is more on clearing mobs and identifying White Lady. If the mob is too thick we will let our Snipers and Gunslingers focus on the thick mob while our High Wizard disables them through Storm Gust.  As expected, our run is similar with our previous run where in we are having hard time finding White Lady. Luckily, one of our Champions was able to spot her and warned the team. White Lady didn’t last long and has been knocked out.

35th Floor
MVP: Turtle General
Monster: Freezer, Heater, Permeter, Assaulter and Solider
Difficulty: Easy
Strategy: Even if the mobs here are composed of turtles, MVP Turtle General doesn’t blend well with the mobs thus spotting him is very easy. At this floor, clearing mobs has an increased difficulty because as we all know this turtles are tough to kill. Similar strategy to what we did with the 20th floor, our Paladin run head on to lure Turtle General towards the team. When the MVP arrived, all damage dealers bombard their skills on him and claiming his defeat.

40th Floor
MVP: Samurai Specter
Monster: Miyabi Doll, Shinobi, Tengu, Firelock Soldier and Karakasa
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Strategy: The challenge on improved strategies on MVP killing starts on this floor. MVP Samurai Specter is a tough opponent. He is an easy to kill MVP considering his low HP but taking into account his burst damage he will be a tough MVP to kill. From previous runs, our team has casualties whenever Samurai Specter launches his Brandish Spear and Soul Destroyer. Because of this reason our strategy that we have come up with is that our Paladin will tank the MVP while our damage dealers keep their distance while launching attacks. I am relieved that we were able to successfully execute this strategy without any casualties.

45th Floor
MVP: Osiris
Monster: Mummy, Ancient Mummy and Verit
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Strategy: The theme of this floor is about mummified monsters. Even if MVP Osiris has similar mummified look just like the other monsters, what defines him is his unique purple color so spotting him wouldn’t be a problem. We execute the same strategy that we did with the 40th floor where in our Paladin runs ahead while the rest of the team clears the mob while walking upward. We are also extra careful with Osiris even though we have a tank because he is still capable of dealing damage to nearby adventurers thru his Dark Breath and Meteor Assault. It can’t be helped but at this point there are casualties already because they haven’t kept distance from Osiris while launching their attacks. All in all, our strategy paid off because we have successfully defeat Osiris.

50th Floor
MVP: Amon Ra and Pharaoh
Monster: Anubis, Matyr and Marduk
Difficulty: Moderate
Strategy: The 50th floor is similar to the 15th floor where in it houses two MVPs. I have a positive outlook on this floor that even if there are two MVPs we will be able to take them down easily with the aid of our Paladin tank. Our Paladin is aware of the deadly Blood Drain from MVP Amon Ra and Energy Drain from MVP Pharoah but these skills are easily countered through spamming potions. Just like on the previous MVP floors, we let our Paladin head on while the team follows. By the time that our team and our tank met, our damage dealers started launching their attacks at Amon Ra. Suddenly Amon Ra changed target and launched attacks at our damage dealers one after the other. Our Paladin couldn’t lure Amon Ra back and to make it worse Pharaoh has joined the commotion. The angry Amon Ra killed some of our damage dealers but our High Priests were very alert in Resurrecting dead teammates while remaining damage dealers still launched their attacks while keeping distance with Amon Ra. Even if it’s a failed strategy we are able to defeat Amon Ra and Pharaoh.

55th Floor
MVP: Evil Snake Lord
Monster: Medusa, Isis and Sidewinder
Difficulty: Easy
Strategy: The MVP Dark Snake Lord is very easy to defeat because he lacks firepower. What is fearsome with this MVP is his ability to inflict various status ailments thru Dragon Fear plus the fact that he has the ability to break your shield. Our Biochemist casted Full Chemical Protection to our tank that ensures her equipments remains intact during the fight with Dark Snake Lord. Dark Snake Lord would be the first ghost type MVP that we have encountered on the tower so our damage dealer would rely on our Snipers and Gunslingers while our High Wizard remained as our mob control during the fight. So far so good, we have defeated the MVP without any casualties.

60th Floor
MVP: Doppelganger and Boss Enigem Cenia
Monster: Enigem Cenia, Errende Ebecee, Kavatch Icarus, Laurell Weinder, Whickebine Tres and Armeyer Dinze
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Strategy: I call this room as home of the Biolabs Family Kids Edition because the monsters found here were composed of first job Biolab monsters. Our strategy for this map is the same as the previous MVP where in our Paladin is used to tank the monsters. As a precaution, the Biochemist casts Full Chemical Protection to our tank because MVP Doppelganger could destroy armor while MVP Boss Enigem Cenia has the capability to destroy shields. Both MVPs has no significant strong area skill so our damage dealers are able to attack them freely thus killing them on the process.

65th Floor
MVP: Atroce
Monster: Galion
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult
Strategy: MVP Atroce is one of the hard-hitting MVPs of Ragnarok Online. At this point our tank strategy will evolve a little bit. One of our Champions will act as tank through steel body while our Paladin will serve as the Champions second life through the aid of Devotion. Our damage dealers and other supports were instructed to keep distance with Atroce so as not to be damaged with the deadly Meteor Assault. By the time that our Champion is about to tank the MVP, Atroce suddenly charged towards our damage dealers unleashed his powerful Meteor Assault. Some of our members were killed instantly while others are badly hurt. The failed start doesn’t hinder us from defeating Atroce. For a few minutes, we were able to let Atroce concentrate his attacks to our tank while our damage dealers are free to launch their attacks from a distance.

70th Floor
MVP: Orc Hero and Orc Lord
Monster: Orc Baby
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult
Strategy: When we finally stepped on the orcs room, my team is certain that from here on even regular rooms will have an increased difficulty. The strategy on this room reverts back on having our Paladin as tank while our Champions will participate on damage dealing. Not too far from the lowest part of the room, our Paladin has lured MVP Orc Hero and MVP Orc Lord towards the team. Just like the previous rooms all damage dealers are focused on killing the MVP however the Biochemist concentrated on bombarding Orc Hero. When Orc Hero has fallen, the team now has its full concentration towards Orc Lord. Orc Lord was still able to launch his deadly Earthquake before he has finally fallen but most of the team members were able to withstand that attack.

75th Floor
MVP: Dark Lord and Baphomet
Monster: Dark Illusion and Baphomet Jr
Difficulty: Difficult
Strategy: At this point, we are now careful with our movements. Both MVP Dark Lord and MVP Baphomet are fearsome MVPs so we tried our best not to lure them at the same time. We are somewhat lucky that we bump on Dark Lord first. As usual we are using a Champion tank on him because it is more durable. We also have Sanctuary and Pnuema in place to survive the Hell Judgement of Dark Lord. When we finally defeat Dark Lord, our Paladin carefully lured Baphomet to the team. The tank is then transferred from the Paladin to our Champion. The rest of the team still stayed at a distance and just like the strategy that we had with Dark Lord, our High Priest laid a Sanctuary with Pnuema to protect the party from Hell Judgement from Baphomet.

80th Floor
MVP: Fallen Bishop Hibram
Monster: Necromancer
Difficulty: Challenging
Strategy: The 80th floor is the make or break room for our team. From our previous run, we failed to defeat MVP Fallen Bishop Hibram. Our fifth attempt was specifically aim to surpass this floor that is why we made a point that we have a solid strategy to defeat Fallen Bishop Hibram. The strategy is to have a Champion tank that is being supported with a devotion type Paladin while the rest of the team are at a distance. Our High Wizards is advised not to cast damaging spells at Hibram because of Hibram’s Magic Mirror skill which reflects magic so his task is to cast Quagmire to slow down the Banshee mobs. Our High Priests play a big role on this task because they must maintain an area with constant Sanctuary for area healing and Pnuema to counter Hibram’s Hell Judgement. They will also maintain the buffs of all members while being alert on resurrecting fallen members. Our Professor will have a busy role because she is assigned to replenish our member’s SP. The rest of the members will be concentrating in damaging Fallen Bishop Hibram so that means remaining members will all be MVP killers. I can tell you that our Fallen Bishop Hibram run was not smooth. It is really hard to implement our plan because of the Banshee mobs keeps on diverting their attacks to our damage dealers. There are times that we need to regroup and arrange our formation to execute the plan as smooth at possible. With much damage done to Hibram, we are able to say that we have finally conquered the 80th floor.

85th Floor
MVP: Ifrit
Monster: none
Difficulty: Extra Challenging
Strategy: So we finally reached at our first MVP with Aura. Honestly, we don’t have a solid strategy for MVP Ifrit because we didn’t expect that we would reach his floor. Since we don’t have any specific strategy, we have decided to have the Champion tank with the Paladin as support. We assigned our High Wizard to be our main MVP killer for him because Ifrit is a fire type monster and Storm Gust is the perfect skill to deal large damage. Our High Priests will still be laying Sanctuary but this time without Pnuema. And then the rest of the team will serve as MVP killer just like our Hibram run.

At the moment we arrived at the room of Ifrit, we are optimistic that the same strategy that we have with Fallen Bishop Hibram will work with Ifrit. What we did not expect is the overwhelming power of Ifrit. Our plan that the High Wizard will be our main MVP killer did not work because Ifrit is laying his own Land Protect. At that time, our High Wizard doesn’t have any yellow gem to cast Ganbantein while our Professor has been disconnected and still walking her way up so our party was unable to counter the Land Protect. That leaves us with Snipers, Gunslingers, Biochemist and Champion as MVP killers. Ifrit is really powerful that his Earthquake simply wipes our party. Even our toughest Champion in Steel Body still falls from his Earthquake. We are having a hard time regrouping and rebuffing because at times our team is too far away from each other. By the time we have regrouped and ready to face Ifrit once again, our team suddenly wiped out by just a single Earthquake. For the duration of our pursuit to kill Ifrit, we looked so desperate to kill him by doing the same strategy but ended up in just throwing any skill that could to reduce his health.

Although we have not been successful with Ifrit, we were able to reduce his HP to 30%. Even at 30% health Ifrit seems more devastating during this time. In the end, we are all forced to leave the Endless Tower because our time is up thus crushing our hopes in going further up the tower. Seems like Ifrit has the last laugh this time but we will surely come back and have our revenge.

The Analysis:
"Our party’s aim even before we climb the tower for our fifth attempt was to surpass the floor of Fallen Bishop Hibram. As we have expected we are able to successfully defeat MVP Hibram through our planned strategy. So as we go up further regular monsters beyond Hibram’s floor were manageable and we finished them off with ease. The meeting with Ifrit was really unexpected that is why we are overwhelmed with his power. As for the party composition, I think we lack a core character that is the Clown, which will speed up our supports and killers casting time and reduce aftercast delay. Surely on our next run we will plan for strategies not only to defeat Hibram and Ifrit but also we will be considering strategies for the MVPs beyond the 85th floor."

The Credits:
I would like to personally thank all the participants of this run. Without them we will not be successful on conquering the upper floors of Endless Tower. Thank you also to the participating guilds for this run namely Bozanstvena Staratelje and Tropang Hagdan. I’m hoping to see an improved team on the next run. n_nU