Dragon Nest Red Dragon Strategy Guide (How to Survive & Finish the Red Dragon Nest)

Credits: Red Dragon Nest Guide w/ paint drawings by 2Gen

Since practice mode is coming out very soon on Kdn, everyone will have a chance to experience all the mechs, might as well compile a rough guide for RDN mechs to let people know what they're getting into. P.S. This originally started out as just a pastime for myself to understand the nest by drawing it out on Paint, but now I'm having too much fun writing the guide so I guess I'll finish the whole thing up.

This guide was drawn and written by Raiseur/2Gen from NA

Please note that this was written in T4 era, and there will be minor differences in T5 which is NOT covered.

Credits:

Friends who partied with me in Kdn to clear Memoria and Practice Mode

Exploration teams from Jdn, Kdn, Twdn, Cdn for uploading their videos

Stage 4 guide from Tw forums

Stage 5 guide from Tw forums

Stage 1: Fire Breathing Wyvern

Fire Resist: 15%

Ice Resist: 15%

Light Resist: 30%

Dark Resist: 30%

Very annoying boss that can cause burns on most of its skills. One of the few stages in the game where you'd actually find appreciation for Priests' Cure Relic. Also, unlike the same boss from Memoria Part 1, he does not follow provoke so you need to have everyone prepared to face aggro.

Rage Stomps: Periodically flies up for stomps that will team wipe if a total of 8 people get hit. There will be a rage bar visible on the screen at the start, and if it is filled it will cause a team wipe. Every time a person gets hit by the stomp it adds up 1/5. The rage bar does not decrease throughout the fight, it will stack up cumulatively as long as people get hit. This stage requires mechanical skills and reflexes from all 8 members in order to not wipe. Watch out for the red rings in the air and system message to time your jump.

Has 2 versions of said stomp, the first variation is where he flies up and does a stomp in that same spot a few seconds later. This version will be the only version that he does pre-bar mech.

His second version of Rage Stomp begins with him soaring up and flying around the stage and dropping 3 tracing daggers while following a person in the party, stomping after dropping the third dagger and spits out fireballs to the front after the stomp. After the first bar mechanic though, he will randomly use either the first variation of the stomp or the second variation.

Frontal Swipe: Swipes in front using its right hand. Simply side-step to dodge this attack.

Bite: Quickly bites person in front of him with his fangs. Simply side-step to dodge this attack.

3 Hit Spin Combo: Marches forward while doing a breath in front instantaneously, followed by a full body spin hitting everybody in front of him + throws bone spikes in a wide area. Causes burn if hit.

Frontal Charge: Flies up quickly and drops bone spikes forward in a column and charges in that direction. Causes heavy damage that can one shot most people if they are without buffs. Easy to predict to dodge to the side.

Split Flame Breath: Manifests a fire orb in its mouth and does a breath spanning a wide 3-part split-up area in front of him. Can be dodged by walking away from the faint red areas that will be signaled on the ground.

Side Breath + Tail Swipe: Does a breath on its left claw side along with smacking anybody behind him with his tail. Tail hit knocks back and does not burn, but the breath can cause burns. Tip: Stay on the Wyvern's right side. His side breath is programmed to only shoot on the its left, so his right hand side is a safe spot most of the fight.

Rain of Baby Wyverns: Goes invulnerable and summons baby wyverns all around the stage. A red lightning will signal the spot where baby wyverns will land, just move around and avoid them.

Bar Mech:

Suction + Fire Spit: Basically BDN Punisher's tornado but with added spitting fireballs. The wyvern will start by forming a fire tornado in its mouth, which creates a vortex in the middle pulling everyone in. All you have to do is keep running away from the suction and watch out for falling fireballs from the sky. Tip: The fireballs always land on the same spots, so try to stay at the same place if you haven't been hit by them.

Stage 2: Ice Fire Spirit King

Fire Resist: 30%

Ice Resist: 30%

Light Resist: 15%

Dark Resist: 15%

Same boss model as the Poison Spirit from Guardian Nest. Most of his animations are the same too. IMO the easiest boss in RDN as long as you know what to do. But that's mostly because he's the first boss in Memoria and people have had plenty of time to practice him and get used to his mechanics. Overall he's fairly straightforward though and the only thing that gets players is the Spacebar Pointer mechanic, but that can be gotten used to in a couple of tries.

Fire Charge: Cloaks itself with fire and charges forward leaving a trail of fire behind (Will burn if stepped onto it), then shoots 3 fireballs at the end of the charge.

Ice Charge: Cloaks itself with blue ice and charges forward leaving an ice trail (Will slow if stepped onto it), and ends with a map-wide suction at the end that silences and buff wipes and does huge damage.

Cross Chop: Frontal swipe using both hands. Easy to predict and can be i-framed.

Ice Beam: Shoots an icy field in the shape of a cone in front of him. You can dodge to the side or i-frame this skill.

Screwdriver: Uses its fire-coated arm to do a drill combo in front of him. Simply dodge to the side to avoid getting hit.

Grab + Spin Combo: Extends its hands and grabs anyone in front of him and spins its body in a combo. This is similar to BDN Punisher's grab combo, the initial grab does no damage, but if you get hit you should immediately tumble out/aerial evade since the spin combo does many hits.

Tracing Spikes/Fire: Summons ice spikes or fire beneath everyone's feet, if you stay for too long you will be slowed/burned. Keep moving around to avoid the attack. If you have a good latency you can cast quick skills in between the spikes/fire. He does this 3 times. Be careful not to run into other people.

Spacebar Pointer: Your character will be unable to move and a pointer will appear on your screen, you have to time it correctly by hitting space when the pointer moves to the middle region of the bar to be able to regain control. Allows 3-4 tries before fire engulfs you from underneath your feet. Has varying speeds on the pointer. After you get out of the bind be careful not to walk into others' spots, or else you'll be hit by their fire and be burned.

Bar Mech:

Golf Ball Combo: Happens after first bar mech. Will throw 3 ice balls + 3 fire balls at person with aggro. And he will shatter/ignite after that, dealing huge damage to anyone that got hit by the ballz.

This is actually a very good nuke/burn window as he is vulnerable from behind for a good 10 seconds. What you do is have the Crusader or Guardian maintain provoke on him, and when the boss starts this attack, the Crusader/Guardian will use HOG and nuke this boss as much as possible (Since it can't hit through i-frames) while the 7 other team members do the same from behind so that nobody will be hit by one of his fire/ice balls.

Ring Mark: At the last bar he has a new ring marking mechanic. This is only in the 8 man raid, not in Memoria. A system message will appear on screen to tell you that the boss is preparing the attack.

Stage 3: Hell Guardian

Fire Resist: 30%

Ice Resist: 15%

Light Resist: 30%

Dark Resist: 15%

Again a reused model from Guardian Nest. Most of his basic attacks are also the same and he moves around a lot. A lot of burns in this stage as well. Try to stay at his left and right sides since that's the safest spot to dps usually. Before entering the stage, it's a good idea to assign members to positions of the seeds and who's responsible for pushing them etc.

Spear Throw: Randomly targets a member of the party and throws his spear towards them. Tumble to the side to dodge.

Swipe + Stab Combo: Swipes with one hand and then stabs with his spear. Dodge to the right to avoid being stabbed by the spear.

Frontal Pounce: Stops for a second and then pounces forward stabbing his spear onto the ground, hitting a large orange area in front.

Short Distance Charge: Charges in front and stabs the ground several times with his spear.

Long Distance Charge: Spins his body once and charges towards a randomly selected party member. Unleashes Crescent Cleaves at the end of the charge. You can walk in between these to avoid being hit or tumble through them. Will cause burns.

Twin Spear Throw: Creates 2 large black orbs on his shoulders, and 2 spears fly out simultaneously from these orbs towards randomly targeted players. Tumble to the sides if you are the one being targeted.

Ground Stab: Raises his spear and stabs the ground either on his sides or in front. Pay attention to the orange markings on the ground and move away from them.

Onion Rings: Sends a hot delivery of onion rings onto someone in the party. The red orb will mark a randomly selected player and propagate rings on the ground. Move away from the center of the ring and stay in the safe areas in between the rings.

Tail Swipe: Near instantaneous tail swipe that spans a large cone area with propagating wave patterns on the ground. Don't stay at his tail, it's a very dangerous position to dps

Seeds: At half of the first bar, 3 seeds will spawn. You must place these seeds as far away from the fighting area as possible. People prefer to place them at 11, 12, and 1 o'clock positions.

He will periodically do straight line fire breaths aiming at the seeds. If it hits the seeds, team wipe. Someone must be assigned to push the seed out of the breath's way. (LB can do this quickly, or Warriors Triple Slash etc.)

The seeds on their own can do one of 3 types of attacks when commanded by the Guardian: Laser, fireballs, and lava. If you placed these seeds far away you shouldn't have to worry too much about them.

Seed - Laser: Raises his hand with a BLUE aura. After a countdown of 5 seconds the seeds will fire lasers that connect to other seeds. You can jump over these lasers.

Seed - Fireballs: Raises his hand with a PURPLE aura. After a countdown of 5 seconds each seed will fire off slow-traveling fireballs in random directions all over the stage. Will stagger + burn. Highly recommended to have cure relic nearby and play safe until it subsides.

Seed - Lava: Raises his hand with a RED aura. After a countdown of 5 seconds each seed will release lava in a small radius around itself. Stepping into this lava will cause heavy damage and burns.

Bar Mech:

Stomp Counting:

Stage 4: Central Hyper Core Jasmine

Fire Resist: 15%

Ice Resist: 15%

Light Resist: 30%

Dark Resist: 30%

You are limited to 20 minutes for this stage. After which she will turn berzerk mode and gain a team wipe skill. Provoke/aggro does not play a role in this stage, as she will target people randomly. One thing to keep in mind is you must always be aware of your position on the map. Knowing the 1-12 o'clock positions can immensely help in understanding this stage.

Electric Gate:

Tip: The number of electro balls is according to the number of party members alive. The order in positions of which they appear is 3 / 12 / 9 / 6 / 5 / 1 / 11 / 7, e.g. missing one person = no electro ball at 7.

Electro Ball 360:

Red Waves: Fills the ground in front with red electricity, after which a red cone-shaped propagating wave will persist. Causes heavy damage + electrocution to anyone inside. Can be jumped over e.g. Acrobats. The waves can trap people if they are sandwiched in between 2 waves. Recommended for the entire party to move together to a safer area.

Particle Beam: Several thin blue lasers aimed in front in a cone, line will be seen on the ground prior to firing. Low damage, causes electrocution.

Giga Beam: Single large blue laser that fires in front, line on the ground will be signaled. Low damage, causes electrocution.

Tracing Shells: Flies up and drops a flurry of tracing missile shells from the sky, similar to BDN Minotaur throwing his axes. Walk around in circles and avoid walking into other people.

Exploding Shells: Bombs will drop from the sky that will explode after a delay. 2 bombs will be dropped on each person, walk around in circles and be careful not to walk into your own or other people's bombs when they explode. Moderate damage.

Electric Mines: Closes the door on her machine and drops missile shells from the sky but these will emit electricity and persist in the area in a small radius. Will cause heavy damage if stepped into their circles. Recommended for the party to move together to a safer area. Always watch out for Jasmine to close the doors on her machine and make sure the party is together and NOT SCATTERED, or else you will have mines all over the place since they drop on top of where players were standing.

Tip: Recommended to stick together as a team and move in a unanimous direction (Can be either clockwise or anti-clockwise) to maximize buffs and not be separated or trapped in between Jasmine's skills by controlling where her Red Waves or Electric Mines will land.

Bar Mech:

Tracing Ground Drills:

Electro Ball 360 EX: After X2 bars she will no longer do the normal version of Electro Ball 360, instead it will always be this new Electro Ball 360 EX.

Stage 5: Death Knight Tacitus

Fire Resist: 30%

Ice Resist: 15%

Light Resist: 15%

Dark Resist: 30%

Really cool boss. He is quite tall at around the height of 2-3 Clerics, but not a very wide horizontal hitbox + he moves around a lot. Also has a lot of attacks that can cause burn status. Generally you will fight him mostly in the middle of the stage, so always remember to go back to the center if you've ventured too far off.

Charging Strike: Medium-long distance dash that ends with a slash at a randomly selected person. Ends with fire Crescent Cleaves around him. Causes burn. Tumble at the exact moment of his slash to evade.

Charging Strike V2: Same thing as above, except he jumps backwards first before dashing at a person with a slash that ends with fire Crescent Cleaves around him. Causes burn. Tumble at the exact moment of his slash to evade.

Omnislash: Charges up 1 second, then unleashes a flurry of slashes while teleporting around himself in a small area while being invulnerable.

Ground Smash: Large frontal cone-shaped area ground smash of angle 45 degrees. Does Dark Magical damage and knocks enemies back. Has orange cone on the ground showing the area prior to the hit.

Ground Smash EX: AKA "Come Mid", the Death Knight teleports to the center of the stage and unleashes multiple cone-shaped ground smashes propagating from the middle in different directions, an upgrade of his normal Ground Smash. Orange area can be seen to cue dodge.

Note: There are 4 safe cone areas and 4 dangerous cone areas of the same size and angle in alternating positions. 360/8 = 45 That means each cone is 45 degrees.

Flamethrower: Summons fire orbs from 8 directions that shoot fire towards himself. Lines will be shown on the ground before the attack. Will wipe buffs and cause burn.

Light Slash: Regular slash to the front. Fairly quick execution, doesn't cause burn but knocks you back.

Heavy Slash: Charges up for 1-2 seconds and fires 5 fast-traveling large fire Crescent Cleave waves to the front in a wide angle. Can inflict burn if hit by the sword waves.

Buff Wipe: Brings his hands in front of his chest and then does a shout/howl that buff-wipes people near him. Very dangerous if he decides to chain it with a high damaging skill afterwards because you will have no defensive buffs.

Roll Attack: Similar to Mercenary's Roll Attack, he rolls forward a couple of meters hitting anyone in the way.

Flame Pillars + Stomp Deadly Combo: Summons multiple fire pillars from the ground in random locations near himself, similar to Bishop Ignacio's Red Holy Burst. If you get hit by this itself it could already be fatal. Causes burn, wipes buffs, and knocks you in the air.

He then does several cartwheel somersaults before jumping and stomping the ground. After which he does an Omnislash around himself and then flies up like the Wyvern from the first stage and a system message will appear to tell you to get ready to jump his stomp that comes after ~5 seconds. The last stomp is similar to the Wyvern, he will indicate the area where he lands (With a circle and a skull marking within it) and there will be red rings in the air to signal the timing of your jump. Causes burn if hit.

This always happens in a combo, so whenever you see him do Flame Pillars, get ready to jump for his first cartwheeling stomp, move away from his Omnislash, then watch out for the system message and jump the final stomp. Overall a very dangerous series of attacks that can kill most people if they are not prepared.

Crescent Cleave Machinegun: Punches the ground with one hand and fires a ton of Crescent Cleaves around him in random directions in succession. Causes burn.

Gravity Well: Pulls everyone towards him, you will be buff wiped and suction-displaced for a couple seconds, then a system message "Dodge!!!" appears at the bottom to signal you to evade. If you fail to dodge in time (By either dodging too early or too late) he will levitate players in a small area around him before sending them flying, dealing 80% of their hp in damage.

Also known as "Big Suction" in overseas servers as it is the more dangerous of the 2 suction skills the Death Knight has up his sleeve. It is a very dangerous skill because he tends to chain it together with another skill quickly after sending players flying, and since they are at 20% HP they will almost certainly die if hit again.

A good way to let players get out easier is by having the Tinkerer place Wax or the LB place Tunnel to increase movement speed so that everyone can get out faster.

Death Drop: Jumps into the air and sucks/pulls everyone into a 5 meter radius orange area underneath him (Has a skull marking inside this circle to differentiate from his Gravity Well), after which he lands onto the circle dealing heavy damage to anyone inside. Move away from the area as quickly as possible.

Death Thrusts: Does a seal with his hand to summon a blade then does alternating thrusts with both his swords in front of him 4 times in quick succession. Very long range and if you are in front of him at all you will take all hits. Causes burn.

If you see him doing his hand seals, move quickly behind or to the side and use that opportunity to squeeze in some dps.

Sneak Attack: Flings his sword into the air and catches it, then does a very quick dash-slash at someone. System message will also appear saying that he is preparing his Sneak Attack. He then teleports to a random location and charges at a random person again (Could be the same person from before), repeats one more time for a total of 3 Sneak Attacks including the initial dash-slash. Causes very high damage if hit and applies a 50% defense reduction debuff.

This is one of the mechanics that can seriously cripple a team by killing off their members quickly. The trick is to always watch out for when the Death Knight prepares this attack. After dodging the first Sneak Attack by tumbling or i-framing, get ready to dodge his second and third Sneak Attacks by tumbling or i-framing at the exact moment he does his slashes. He will target 1 person at random for every Sneak Attack, so make sure to be on your toes in case he does target you.

Awakening: Map will fill up with fire at the edge, lines will appear randomly on the ground signaling dangerous areas where fire flashes, shadow clones of the Death Knight will also appear randomly attacking players. A blue hp bar will show up at the bottom of the screen and you have to burst this bar down as quickly as possible before the Death Knight is awakened. If you fail to nuke this bar down the Death Knight will be in a Berserk state for 1 minute, gaining higher damage and changes in pattern in some of his skills. (Berserk mode CANNOT be debuffed by ducks or howls!)

Bar Mech:

Shadow Assault: At the last bar he gains an extra skill.

Tip: As pointed out by the writer of another guide linked in the credits at the start, their discovery shows that the safest spot is to stay at the top left corner of the map, circled in blue in the figure below. The lines that appear are still random, however they will appear at a much lower rate at the top left corner compared to standing elsewhere.

Final Boss: King Pether

Phase 0: Black Dragon's Illusion

(HP Bars X20 - 0)

Fire Resist: 0%

Ice Resist: 0%

Light Resist: 0%

Dark Resist: 0%

Black Dragon's Illusion: You will fight the same Black Dragon from the Black Dragon Nest. Mechanics are exactly the same as where you fight the dragon's main body in Phase 2 BDN. Has level 80 stats but should not be a problem for veterans who are already familiar with BDN.

Note: I don't consider this phase as "Phase 1" of the Red Dragon Nest per se because you aren't really facing the Red Dragon yet, but simply a reincarnation of the Black Dragon from last cap's raid.

What's Next?

After killing the Black Dragon's Illusion, step forth up the stairs when ready to proceed. Your team will be transported to the stage where you will fight the Red Dragon.

Phase 1: Red Dragon's Upper Body

(HP Bars X20 - X16)

Fire Resist: 30%

Ice Resist: 30%

Light Resist: 30%

Dark Resist: 30%

The stage area is the shape of a square. The Red Dragon will appear at one side of the stage and your team will fight him on that edge. Occasionally he will fly away and randomly choose a side to appear on. When he does this, it is recommended for the party to always gather at the middle and prepare to move to the side he appears on.

Curse Mark + Breath:

Claw Swipe: Brings back one of his claws and charges for a few seconds, then swipes the area in front with his claw. Affects a wide area of one side (Depending on which claw he used to swipe), and causes moderate damage along with knock-back. Can be i-framed with tumble or skills.

Claw Slam: Raises one of his hands then brings it down slamming the stage floor, causing moderate damage and slowing whoever is standing on the ground. Jump at the exact moment he slams the ground to avoid being hit. He will rest his hand on the stage for a few more seconds, you can ride on top of his hand and dps him.

Spacebar Pointer: Similar to the Spirit King's Spacebar Mechanic skill, your character will be unable to move and a pointer will appear on your screen where you have to hit Space at the blue middle region when the pointer crosses over it. Unlike the one from the Spirit King however, the blue region for this version is actually much wider, so it is easy compared to the other one. Again, be careful not to step into other people's spots or you will take high damage.

Pushing Breath: After every bar, he will cast this skill. Starts off by breathing a slow pushing wind while he charges up for a strong breath attack. A blue bar will appear at the bottom and you have 15 seconds while he is charging the attack to burst this bar down as quickly as possible.

This is rather annoying because you will constantly be pushed backwards so you have to keep moving up to position the range of your skills. Save your hard hitting skills for this mechanic if your team isn't very strong. If you fail to burst the blue bar down within 15 seconds, he will fire off a breath that wipes the team.

What's Next?

Once you get him down to X16 bars, he will fly away and a portal will open at the center of the stage. You can rest for a few minutes for a bathroom/snack break before stepping into the portal. Once ready, gather everyone and you will be teleported to a larger stage where you will fight the Red Dragon in his complete form.

Phase 2: Red Dragon's Full Body

(HP Bars X16 - 0)

Fire Resist: 30%

Ice Resist: 30%

Light Resist: 30%

Dark Resist: 30%

Like the Desert Dragon and Black Dragon, the best positions to dps are the 2 claws. If you stay at the front, you risk getting hit by a quick bite. If you stay at the tail, you risk getting hit by tail swipes. As soon as you enter, your team should move quickly to one of its claws and begin chipping its health down.

Once you are in the stage, lava will fill up at the edge of the map. You will take damage if you stand here, so you should never walk too far away from the dragon.

Ground Skills

These are the skills the Red Dragon uses while he's on the ground

Frontal Breath: The dragon steps back and takes a deep breath for a few seconds, and breathes fire out of his mouth towards the front killing anybody who stands in the way. The charge-up time for this skill is very long and obvious so it is a great opportunity to burst all yours skills out to lower his health as much as possible. You will see red lines indicating the area of the breath before it fires.

Frontal Peck: Jabs its head onto the ground, leaving a marked circular area that deals high damage to whoever steps into it. This is one of the reasons why it's dangerous at the front.

Quick Bite: Quickly snaps his head forward and hitting anyone at the front. Deals very high damage usually enough to one-shot people.

Tail Swipe: Only does this when there are people at the back of the dragon. Swipes its tail in a wide area often enough to one-shot even at full health and defense buffs.

Claw Swipe: Draws his claw backwards and then swipes it damaging anyone near the claw. Like the Black Dragon, this attack can be i-framed. When he's about to swipe you will see a red aura on his hand, signalling that he's about to use this attack. If you get hit you will be burned which ticks for very high damage. The swipe also shoots out red waves that travel on the ground across the map which will also burn you if you get hit by these waves.

Howling Fear: Roars at the sky inflicting Fear debuff onto everybody in the party. Fear debuff is the debuff that causes your character to run outwards to the edge of the map where there will be lava. This is similar to Ruga in Volcano Nest except that to get out of the Fear you do not press AD, you will be given a Spacebar pointer mechanic. Once you correctly time your Spacebar to be free you should join your team and move to the nearest claw.

If he uses this skill below X8 bars, he will also launch tracing fireballs onto your characters, so be careful of those after you are free from the debuff.

AD Cyclones (Wipes party buffs): Raises his left arm, and stabs it into the ground rooting everyone in the party. After a few seconds fire cyclones will erupt under your feet dealing high damage and burns. You must press AD to get out of the cyclones before they erupt.

After you dodge the cyclones, a cursed monument will be erected near the party. You must burst this monument down as quickly as possible, otherwise it will start leaving a cursed area near itself that keeps on expanding as long as it is alive. You will be heavily damaged if you step into the area of the monument's curse. 

Air Skills

Air Skills are separated into 2 categories, one where he flies up slowly and the other where he flies up quickly

Slow Flight:

Raining Fire:

[img][/img]

Curse Mark + Breath:

[img][/img]

Hellfire:

[img][/img]

Quick Flight:

Gravity Ball:

[img][/img]

Summon 3 Guardian Spirits:

[img][/img]

Platform Jumping:

[img][/img]

This guide is a work-in-progress. More content will be coming soon.

Source: http://dragonnest.nexon.net/community/forum#%2Fshowthread.php%3F1420651-Red-Dragon-Nest-Guide-w-paint-drawings%26nxid%3D62

Share this post