Fused Sprenger

Fused Sprenger is the boss of the second area of Katib Forest in chapter 5, the Church overseer Johann Sprenger after he has merged with the dark. The first phase is a staff duelist that mixes slow two-hit swings with a teleport that vanishes and reappears at your position. When you become Lunatic he transforms: his melee hits turn dark and leave extra hazards on the ground, and he gains ranged sweeping shots, a dark circle, a lobbed shot and, at 30% HP or less, a wail that stuns you for 7 s. The one thing the game never explains is his glowing weak point: hitting it hard enough breaks it, and while it is broken he cannot teleport.

Overview#

Stats#

Computed from ES_HeroData 20034, ES_HeroPropertyData, ES_EnemyAttributeData and ES_StoryMonsterProperty (story 5, monster 5038, grades 1 and 2).

• Phase 2 adds +120 physical defence and +120 to every elemental resistance (poison too) at every journey. It is the only change in the grade row.
• His Poise is 100 and his Resilience 160, with slow recovery (30 per second for both), so hits to the weak point (Poise x3) are the quickest way to stagger him.
• His single attack stat is used for both phases, but phase 2 moves are labelled dark damage, so they are reduced by your dark resistance instead of your defence (Damage types and resistances).

How the fight works#

Phase 1: the staff duelist#

• A mix of short two-hit staff combos (LL1, HH1, NLL1), two heavier swings (NH1, HP1), a side slap (NLP), a forward rush (D), and a turning sweep (NO1, 120 degree arc, 65% chance, 3 s cooldown).
• All of phase 1 is physical except the turning sweep, which deals dark damage (this is how the move table labels it).
• The combos have a 2 s cooldown and long animations (4.8 to 6.0 s clips), so the openings are the recoveries at the end of each combo.

Phase 2: the transformed form#

When you turn Lunatic the standard phase change runs (Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change): the fade-out, the grade 2 stats and, because BossFinal is 1, a heal to at least 50% of his maximum HP (animalbase.lua:1537-1545). The transformed set replaces the staff moves with dark versions (LL2, HH2, NLL2, NHHH2, HP2, NO2) and adds:

• Sweeping shots (S2 and the enhanced SP2): a line of dark bolts that travel slowly (speed 8) and are fired from 2 to 20 m.
• Dark circle (NSP2): opens a dark ground hazard around him, 20 s cooldown, the biggest area attack of the fight.
• Lobbed shot (NS2): a dark ball thrown in an arc (speed 60 at 30 degrees) that lands near you from 2 to 20 m.
• Wail (O2): only used at 30% HP or less. Its hit deals only his bare attack stat (232 at journey 1, no flat power), but it applies Stun status 10028 for 7 s with 200 guard break, with a 45% chance every 18 s when you are within 9 m. The stun is the danger: you stand helpless for 7 s while the phase 2 moves keep coming.

The extra hazards of phase 2#

Almost every phase 2 melee move spawns a dark hazard (a "trick") as well as its own hit. The hazard uses the hazard formula in Damage formula (damage x (1 - resistance / (resistance + 100)) with your dark resistance) and adds 100 Poise damage and 10 Resilience damage to you.

The hazards are what make phase 2 hurt: a single NHHH2 can open three 500+ hazards on top of its own 482-1,462 hits. Dodging out of the staff's reach is not enough; step away from where the staff landed.

The teleport (DP)#

The teleport is available in both phases (65% chance when you are behind him and outside his 120 degree cone, 30% when you are in front, 8 s cooldown, up to 20 m). It has three parts:

1. Vanish. He disappears: his body collider is switched off, he is made movement-invincible, and his Poise and Resilience are locked at a minimum of 1 so he cannot be staggered.
2. Travel. The target position is where you stood when the move started, clamped to a 20 x 20 m square around the arena centre (SetSkillTargetPos). He reappears there and turns to face you.
3. Strike. After he reappears, the last part hits for 100 flat physical power with 150 guard break (the first two parts carry 30 guard break each; all three have 100 flat power in the data).

The AI only starts the teleport if his weak point is intact (see below); if you have broken it, the teleport is off for the duration.

The glowing weak point (hidden)#

One piece of his equipment glows purple and pulses. It is a weak point: hits on it do 2.1 times damage, 3 times Poise damage and 2.1 times Resilience damage. There is a hidden health pool for it:

• Every point of HP he actually loses to a hit on the glow is also subtracted from the pool. When the pool reaches 0 the glow is broken (a burst effect plays).
• The weak point stays broken for 20 s, then the pool refills to full and the glow comes back.
• While it is broken he never uses the teleport (the AI checks GetWeakEnable() before the DP branch). Breaking it is the only way to stop the vanishing attack.
• In the normal story the glow and the weak collider exist only after you own the Sand Glass (item 10012, quest 52201, WeakShowQuestId). Without it, the glow is hidden and its collider is off, so the pool cannot be drained and the teleport stays on (inferred from characterColliderWeak). In the maze and in the boss time challenge the weak point is always present.

Moves#

All internal move names are button codes: L Light, H Heavy, S Special, O Option, P hold, D jump/dash, N second variant (see Bosses for the reading guide). Moves marked P2 are only used in the transformed phase.

Damage#

attack = his attack x BaseRate / 1000 + flat power, with BaseRate 1000 for every move. The table shows the strongest hit of each move before defence.

• The wail hit deals only his bare attack stat, plus the stun. Every hit takes 51 Poise and 27 Resilience from you.
• The hazards listed above are in addition to these numbers.

Strategy#

• Break the weak point first. If you own the Sand Glass, keep hitting the glowing part (190 HP of pool at journey 1): you lose his teleport for 20 s and a Poise x3 hit makes him stagger quickly.
• Do not trust distance against the teleport. He lands where you were when the move started, and the strike has only 100 flat power. Moving away from that spot once he vanishes should be enough (inferred from the target-position code).
• Phase 2 is a ground-hazard fight. After each NHHH2 or HP2, check the floor before attacking.
• Below 30% HP, watch for the wail. It only triggers within 9 m, so being farther away or already dodging when it starts avoids the 7 s stun. Its 200 guard break suggests blocking will not hold it (inferred).
• Mind the sanity. With SanDamage 120, every 1% of his HP you remove costs 1.2 sanity: from 100 you are Abnormal after about 25% of his HP and Lunatic after about 42%, so phase 2 begins around 58% HP. Restore sanity with Consumables if you want to stay in phase 1. If he is already below 50% HP when you turn Lunatic, he is healed back to 50%.

Rewards#

• Sanity: killing him restores sanity (SanKill 200).
• Flags: chapter boss kill flag 91205 (plus quests 51001 and 51005); if he dies in phase 2, also 91005 and 91105 (the later NPC line, see Maddened Ascetic).

Hidden mechanics#

• The weak point is a separate, hidden health bar. 4% of his maximum HP, refilled after 20 s. It only counts damage taken through the weak collider.
• In a normal story run the weak point only exists after you have the Sand Glass. His script switches the glowing weak-point equipment and its collider off unless quest 52201 is complete (data comment: obtaining the sand glass; see the tip below); it is always on in the maze boss and in boss time challenge versions (hero20034.lua:33-48; hero20034_define.lua:43). Before that quest, hits cannot register on the weak point at all (inferred from the collider flag).
• Breaking it switches off one of his best attacks. The teleport branch of the AI is skipped while the weak point is broken (inferred from GetWeakEnable() in attack20034.lua).
• The teleport cannot be interrupted. During the vanish his Poise and Resilience are locked at 1, so there is nothing to break.
• Phase 2 heals to 50% (BossFinal 1, Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change). From 100 sanity you turn Lunatic at about 58% HP, so the heal normally does nothing here (unlike the Maddened Ascetic). It only matters if you restore sanity with Consumables and push him below half before you turn Lunatic.
• The wail is HP-gated, not time-gated. It exists in the AI from the moment of the transformation but is only chosen below 30% HP.
• His phase 2 melee leaves extra hazards at every journey whose damage scales 300 to 525 (or 500 to 925) between journey 1 and journey 4+, a smaller increase than his attack stat (232 to 1,130).
• Data check: the move table marks the turning sweep NO1 as dark damage in phase 1, while the rest of his phase 1 set is physical.

Sources#

• Weak point gating: luascript/logic/player/hero20034.lua:26-62; ES_StoryQuest quest 52201.
• reports/bosses_and_enemies.md section 8; reports/data/boss_moves.json (hero 20034).
• ES_StoryMonster story 5 monster 5038 (levels 11/45/65/89, SanDamage 120, SanKill 200, SanDropId 50018, CompleteQuestId "91205;51001;51005", CompleteQuestId2 "91005;91105", BossFinal 1); ES_StoryMonsterProperty story 5 / monster 5038 grades 1-2; ES_HeroData 20034 (WeakDamageMultiplier 1.1, WeakToughnessMultiplier 2, WeakWeaknessMultiplier 1.1).
• ES_TrickData 10009-10017 and 10040; ES_StatusData 10028 (stun, 7 s); ES_ItemData 10012 (Sand Glass, CompleteQuestId 52201); ES_StoryQuest 52201.
• luascript/logic/player/hero20034.lua:26-66 (weak point set-up), :209-331 (move triggers, hazards and shots), :333-385 (teleport states), :387-428 (teleport target clamp, weak point on/off); luascript/logic/playervalue/hero20034_value.lua:7-73 (weak pool); gamedata/playerdefine/hero20034_define.lua (WeakHpPercent 0.04, WeakHpRecoveryTime 20, trick ids).
• AI: luascript/logic/ai/behaviour/attack/attack20034.lua:111-125 (chances), :174 (wail at 30% HP), :528-552 and :774-792 (teleport conditions), :718-735 (wail condition).
• Phase change and heal: luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua:1497-1567; weak multipliers: luascript/logic/playervalue/animalbase_value.lua:2336-2341, 2646.