EE:Phantom Citadel
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This feature is part of the Extreme Edition fan-made expansion. |
| This massive naga fortress stands in contrast to its surroundings. While snow stretches on forever in all directions, the citadel and its land appear completely untouched by its weather. | |
| Phantom Citadel | |
|---|---|
| Region | Extreme East |
| Difficulty | Vicious |
| Monster Stats | 140% |
| Population |  Naga Swampsoul,  Naga Fireweaver,  Naga Frostblade,  Sun Priestess,  Naga Shadowsire
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| Bosses | Elisssa Ahau (3 parts) |
| Suggested Classes |  Sorcerer
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| Quests | Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, Pt 2 |
| Unlock | |
This massive naga fortress stands in contrast to its surroundings. While snow stretches on forever in all directions, the citadel and its land appear completely untouched by its weather.
Contents
Special Rules
No special rules
Strategy
This is one of the toughest dungeons in the game. Most enemies here have high stats and powerful abilities - there is no easy prey. Additionally, the boss situation is pretty rough. Fortunately, you do get a lot of extra resources to work with towards the end.
For preps, 
Can of Whupaz is very useful here, and Quicksilver+Reflexes are quite handy as well - and probably a 
Schadenfreude Potion for later. Elisssa has a ton of health and high attack, so you want to use those potions (except Schadenfreude) to hurt her as much as possible.
You'll want to conserve as much blackspace on the main floor as possible, so you should fight Elisssa as soon as you have enough HP to take a hit from her, especially when you can level up catapult.
The second phase is tough but not too crazy. The hardest enemy here is the Naga Frostblade, so you should save it for later in and use a level up catapult on it and popcorn to pop the 
Death Protections. You can start with the easier ones, which are probably the Naga Swampsoul and the Naga Fireweaver. For the Naga Shadowsire, try to drain as much mana as you before you uncover it! If you need more blackspace, you can use 
LEMMISI and you can also use the blackspace in any subdungeons, but try not to use any of the blackspace on the main floor. You should have some mana resources left over for the second boss, which will be quite effective if you are out of non main floor blackspace.
After that, take the Shadow Heart, which gives +1 mana and health regeneration from tiles. At this point it is all down to how much blackspace and potions you saved. Start off with physical resources before Elisssa berserks, then use mana resources, and then finish again with physical resources once her attack drops a lot. You should be getting a fireball every 3 tiles with your Shadow Heart!
Boss
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115 | |
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888 |
Elisssa's first form has 
Magical attack, 
Magic resist 50%, 
Weakening blow, and 10 stacks of Death Protection. This form has the highest attack to health ratio and is generally fought at a lower level than later forms, so using Can of Whupaz is likely ideal here. Being able to tank 115 damage through health boosts and/or resists is key here.
At half health (444 without Vicious Token) she retreats into a subdungeon that is created beneath her.
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115 | |
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445 |
Elisssa's second form has 
Physical resist: 25%, Weakening blow, Death Protection: 10 (she runs after 5), and 20px Protective Blessing: 25%. She starts with 
Magic Immune but loses it by the time you are allowed to fight her. She can be fought after killing the four level 10s around her, which drop 10-20 gold each. Her subdungeon contains a 5x5 ring of tiles, with a level 10 naga at each corner. In the bottom left is a Naga Frostblade, in the bottom right a Naga Fireweaver, in the top right a Naga Swampsoul, and in the top left a Naga Shadowsire.
Elisssa is in the center surrounded by water - and since she has protective blessing all the nagas have boosted resistances. There is also a guaranteed LEMMISI glyph at the top of the ring and a good amount of blackspace in the dungeon that can only be explored with LEMMISI.
Once you remove 5 layers of Death Protection, she runs upstairs and turns into her third form and leaves behind her Shadow Heart. Make sure to grab it before following her! When you go upstairs, all dungeon features (stairs, enemies, altars, bloodpools, shops, items, etc) are removed and the dungeon is now a frozen wasteland, so all you will have left is any remaining main floor blackspace.
Elisssa's final form 
Berserks at 25% and has 10 layers of Death Protection.
Use any remaining resources to take her out, saving mana as needed for when she berserks.
Quests
Note: Some strategies are for vanilla balance, and may need to be adjusted slightly if using the EE:Rebalance option.
Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, Pt 2: Win with a 
Half-Dragon and earn 
Cheeky (first kill is a higher level). (Rewards 6666 gold and unlocks FFFF part 3)
Half-Dragon is not an ideal class here - he REALLY struggles with Elisssa in particular.
Preps are 
Dragon Shield, 
Avatar's Codex, Magnet: Fireball, Conjunction, Quest Items, Black Market, 
Compression Seal, Whupazz+Schadenfreude+Mana+Health potions.
Even though Avatar's Codex might seem like a weird choice for a Half-Dragon, considering the class has almost no synergy with it, it's surprisingly effective here. The codex is a strong item that lets you kill high level enemies while avoiding a bunch of stacks of debuffs, and most enemies here have pretty low health, making them ideal targets. Remember that fireballs always have first strike, so if the enemies die from the fireballs they will not retaliate! The real strength is at the end of the dungeon, when you have to take off effectively half her HP since she runs away at half HP.
You'll need some luck to win here, because the tools you enter with are not enough to win. Fortunately, there are a LOT of helpful things you can find and finding 1 or 2 of them should give you enough power to win. For gods, the ideal gods to worship are 
The Earthmother and 
Jehora Jeheyu. Both work quite well but have their own upsides and downsides, and the earlier you find them the better, so just go with whichever one you find first. If you can't find either of them, you can use 
Mystera Annur, but she is a bit lackluster here since 
Mystic Balance debuffs LEMMISI and you want that, so all you will get out of her are Mana buffs and 
Refreshment.
If you find JJ, you can use 
WEYTWUT to slow higher level enemies, giving you an opening shot they can't retaliate against, as well as piety. Grab 
Petition ASAP, and then get health+mana ups and save up for 
Chaos Avatar. If you joined later, you might have to forgo one or both of the buffs to afford Chaos Avatar. These buffs can help you fight enemies that are 2 levels higher if you slow them first! Ideal targets for this are Naga Swampsouls and Naga Shadowsire, but you can do it with anything but Naga Frostblades. You can use Chaos Form to level up catapult something whenever it is most convenient for you - Make sure to use it before the third phase, as the altar will disappear!
If you go with The Earthmother, an early 
Entanglement is EXTREMELY powerful, giving you a free fireball against everything as well as bonus experience. You can use 
IMAWAL to petrify Naga Frostblades for bonus XP and tons of piety, since you wont be killing Frostblades higher than level 1 or 2 anyways. After that, her strategy is pretty much normal, although you prefer to get stacks of 
Vine Form over 
Greenblood since Greenblood won't help . In the boss fight against Elisssa, if playing with vanilla balance, use Entanglement between every fireball to avoid letting Elissa ever retaliate, which means no need for health and no stacks of Weakening. This god is probably stronger here than Jehora but comes with the problem of plants cluttering the map. Getting some indulgences can really help you avoid getting boxed in.
As for glyphs, the best ones to find are WEYTWUT and IMAWAL. WEYTWUT lets you slow enemies, giving you free hits on them, and lets you get past the bridge guards without having to use Half-dragon's 
Knockback. IMAWAL lets you get bonus XP by petrifying mid or high level Frostblades, which you won't be fighting anyways.
There are a lot of good item options. As always, 
Gloves of Midas is a stellar early find. 
Platemail is AMAZING with this setup, since it makes it easier to clear 
Frostbite, helps you regen fight, and your fireballs have first strike anyways. Serpentine shield is also really good for the damage reduction and ability to resist the many stacks of Weakening, Corrosion, Frostbite, 
Ensnare, etc. 
Fire Heart is always good for a Codex build. 
Crystal Ball can help you refill mana but there isn't a TON of money here so don't go overboard. From the apothecary, you almost certainly want a Schadenfreude Potion.
Start the first boss fight as soon as you can take a hit from her, and try to set up a level up catapult. If you can slow her first, definitely do so, and it is a great use of extra mana! If she is slowed, open with a fireball. Either way, next you want to use Whupazz.
For the second phase, you can follow her into her den and start to fight her guards. The easiest one here is probably the Swampsoul, but make sure you can level up after fighting it to clear the poison and 
Mana Burn. After that, the cursed naga and unstable naga are about equally tough, and the Frostblade is by far the hardest, so if you can level up catapult against it do so. Remember that if it is burning and at very low HP, you can hit another enemy to pop the burning stack and remove a layer of DP! If you need to remove Frostbite you can fireball a monster or take a hit, but it might be hard to do that midfight.
After killing the guards, you can take on Elisssa again. Any resources you have leftover on the main dungeon (gods, XP, excess items, subdungeons) can be used on this phase since they will disappear during the final phase. This part is fairly standard and doesn't really require any special strategy. After she runs away, you can grab the Shadow Heart from her and follow her upstairs.
Hopefully you saved some blackspace. Her third phase has high HP but low attack and you have DOUBLED mana regen, so you can whittle her down very quickly. Remember to keep her 
Burning while you explore so she regens slower! If you have excess HP, you can physical attack her and use the knockback to deal extra damage and potentially reveal more blackspace. Remember that this takes off two layers of DP at once! This phase is pretty simple for a codex build and as long as you left some blackspace / potions for it you shouldn't have a problem with it!
