The Final Nail

The Final Nail dungeon is the  Transmuter gold challenge. The level follows the Shifting Passages tileset, however the layout is less maze-like and there are no scripted wall spawns.

Preparations

None allowed.

Resources Available

The dungeon always seems to spawn the same five glyphs:  IMAWAL,  ENDISWAL,  WONAFYT,  BYSSEPS and  BURNDAYRAZ. There are regular shops. There are no subdungeons. There is one fixed altar, dedicated to  Taurog.

Special Rules

None.

Monsters

This dungeon will host all unlocked monsters. The monsters on this level have high stats (roughly 40% above nominal Attack and Health, which puts difficulty just above Vicious).

Boss

The boss is Crusher ( Golem icon, Attack 300, Health 222, Fast Regen, Cowardly, Retaliate: Fireball, Death Protection (3) ).

Strategy

Recommended race:  Human or  Orc

Initially Crusher looks quite intimidating thanks to his high damage, coupled with his Retaliate:Fireball and 3 layers of death protection. However, his weakness is his low health. Luckily, Taurog offers Death Protections, which circumvent his high damage, as well as boosts damage, which reduces the number of hits needed. Crusher is best taken on when his health can be depleted in two strikes, which makes the  Human Transmuter the best candidate to win this challenge. The recommended approach breaks down the level into 3 parts:

1. Pre-Taurog: the objective is to gain as much bonus experience as possible, while trigger as many conversions as possible. Try to kill as few monsters as possible (stay clear of those monsters with magical attacks), and do not convert any glyphs. Feel free to explore as much as 75% of the map via LEMMISI or regular exploration. Rack up as much experience as possible by using WONAFYT, IMAWAL and going for higher-level kills. It is entirely possible to kill less than 10 monsters to reach level 6. It is fine to leave glyphs on the floor if not yet needed. Finish this phase when you are level 6 and you have slowed every monster alive who is at or below level 6.

2. Taurog, pre-boss: start worshipping Taurog and use your initial piety to grab Skullpicker. Additional SPIRIT SWORD uses can be triggered by glyph conversions. Use up all of your glyphs, except BURNDAYRAZ and ENDISWAL, for this purpose, continuing to go for higher-level kills. Objective is to reach at least level 9 before beginning the boss fight. Ask for Taurog's remaining boons, even if you leave some of them on the floor for the time being. The 5% bonus damage from each boon offsets the loss of SPIRIT SWORD base damage.

3. Boss fight get 65% resistance for the first strike. Make sure to have the at least one layer of Death Protection. (You will most likely have to convert ENDISWAL at this point to make room for picking up Taurog's last equipment, which is required for the Unstoppable Fury.) It should not take more than 2 hits to deplete Crusher's health. Strike him twice, the second one should remove your death protection as well as Crusher's first layer. Use up your potions to get back to sufficient health. Cast BURNDAYRAZ, survive the retaliation and then strike another monster to take out both remaining layers of death protection. Ask for a second Unstoppable Fury from Taurog and use it to finish Crusher. Crusher's damage progresses as follows: 300->255->217->184, so without significant resistances you will not survive even his last form's attack. However, as of the second form, a retaliation should be survivable.

The same approach also works with an  Orc Transmuter. The slightly lower high-level damage afforded by the Orc should still be sufficient to deplete Crusher's health in two strikes, which arguably makes the Orc even better than the Human due to his higher early-game damage.

The level should be winnable also with a  Dwarf if you can rack up enough damage to deplete Crusher's health in 2 hits. As a  Dwarf Transmuter, most likely both BYSSEPS and SPIRIT SWORT will be needed for both initial hits, however the Dwarf should have enough health to begin this fight as early as level 8. This can allow for a mid-fight level-up, and possibly even shift the tactic from BURNDAYRAZ to ENDISWAL resistance rack-up between hits.

Map