Blade & Soul Online Comprehensive Black Skyscraper Raid Guide

Black Skyscraper is the first real 24-man raid in Blade & Soul Online. It is also the toughest instance ever released in the game, with extremely complicated boss mechanics. The dungeon consists of 4 stages, and the progress of the raid is automatically saved for 1 week (reset every Friday morning).

Unlike the easy mode, Twilight of Black Isle or Night of Wind Plain, this dungeon is extremely difficult to clear with random party, at least for now. It requires a good party leader and cooperative party members to handle the boss mechanics. However, if you are lucky or know some friends in big guilds, you might stand a chance to clear the first few stages. The rewards for clearing include new weapon (S2.8 or Flare Demon Weapon), new offensive elemental accessories, and various valuable crafting materials for these new gears.

Take note that ALL revive talismans (party or self) are not allowed in Black Skyscraper.

Table of Content

Stage 1 – Toxic Garden

Stage 2 – Hall of Chaos

Stage 3 – To be updated

Stage 4 – To be updated

Stage 1 – Toxic Garden

Boss: Poison Dragon, HP – 365.2 million

The party members can be divided into 4 distinct roles/groups: Tanker, Buff Transporter, Disabler, DPS (others). I will explain each role separately. If you are not the commander of the team, you need not know all the roles. Just read the roles you are interested in should be sufficient for you to join other established parties (typically Disabler and DPS).  However, all should know about the stage mechanics: Poison egg & buff.

Poison Eggs and Buffs

Once the battle starts, 2 poison eggs will be spawned at the edge of the area. The big one is at 1 o’clock, while the small one is at 7 o’clock.

DO NOT attack these eggs if you are not the Transporter or the Tanker. 

Small Egg

1. Reserved for Tanker only

2. Increase your attack by 200%

3. Grant a poison resist buff for 30sec and heal HP.

Big Egg

1. Reserved for Buff Transporter(s)

2. After the Transporter attacks the egg, a poison pool will be generated around the Transporter after 5 sec, with 6m AOE, granting whoever inside a poison resist buff and HP heal.

Big Egg Buff: Red & Blue

When the poison pool from the big egg is formed, all party members inside of the AOE will be randomly given one of the 2 types of buff: Red and Blue buff (check your buff icon).

The color of the poison pool is red at first, and will turn blue after 15sec.

Red Buff

First 15 sec: Red buff, increase your attack by 100% if you stand in Red Pool.

Next 15 sec: Turn into Blue buff, but the poison pool will turn into blue at the same time.

This means that if you get red buff, your buff color will always match the color of the poison pool. Therefore you only need to stay inside the pool and deal damage to the boss.

Blue Buff

First 15 sec:  Blue buff, decrease your attack by 50% if you stand in Red Pool

Next 15 sec: No buff

This means that if you get the blue buff, you will need to step outside of the red pool. Furthermore, after 15 sec, there won’t be any buff on you, and you will be poisoned until the new round of buff is transported. However, you can step into the poison pool (since you don’t have any blue buff now) and wait for the next round of buff transport.

Consume antidote if necessary, but the antidote merely resets the poison stacking and does not grant you immunity to poison.

The key points are:

If you have the same color of buff as the poison pool, stand inside the pool.

If you have a different color of buff or no buff at all, step outside of the pool. Gather without the group again for the next round of buff transport (~15sec after your buff expires).

See the videos on Black Skyscraper Stage 1 below to see how it works exactly:

Buff Transporter

Buff Transporter is typically the leader or commander of the group. He is in charge of hitting the big poison egg at 1 o’clock and transport the buff/pool to other party members.  After hitting the big egg, he has 5sec to move into the correct position (5 sec countdown on his head) and the poison pool will be created at the location of the Transporter.

An important consideration is, when to hit the egg?

When the battle starts, only attack the egg when you see the poison starts stacking on you. Subsequently, the timing to hit the egg can be determined by checking the buff duration or poison stack.

With Red Buff

If the Transporter has Red buff (red buff here means the initial red buff, which will turn into blue buff after 15 sec), attack the egg when the blue buff duration is 5 sec left. As the pool formation has a 5 sec delay, doing so will ensure the buff is applied seamlessly.

If you attack the eggs too early, when the poison pool is generated, party members who still have buff (from previous rounds) on them will die instantly.

With Blue Buff

If the Transporter has Blue buff (blue buff here means the initial blue buff, which expires after 15 sec, and you will be poisoned), attack the egg when the poison stacks up to 5. 1 poison is applied every 2 sec, after the Blue buff expires. 5 stacks poison = 10 sec has passed. As the pool formation has a 5 sec delay, doing so will ensure that the buff is applied seamlessly.

See the video on Black Skyscraper Stage 1 below from the POV of a buff transporter:

Flower (HP 78%, 48%, <20%)

At 78% and 48%, 8 green flowers will be generated at random positions on the field. When the boss HP < 20%, these flowers will be spawned continuously until the boss is dead.

Party members with red buff are required to step on these flowers to turn them into red flowers. The boss will absorb these green flowers to heal his HP after awhile .However, if these flowers are turned into red flowers, the boss will be damaged instead.

After stepping on the flower, the red buff on the party member will be dispelled. Without the red buff, you will lose the poison immunity (eat potion or antidote when necessary).

Party members with blue buff should not step on the flower because you will be binded (similar to Snow Jade Palace final boss).

Flower Rush for HP < 20%

After HP < 20%, since the green flower is spawned continuously, the buff transport frequency need to be increased as well to cope with the number of green flowers on the field. Typically, up to 3 -4 secondary buff transporters are required (see the advanced strategy section next page for more details ).

Instead of 30 sec interval, the transport interval is shorten to 15 sec. At 20%, gather for 1 round of buff transport. The subsequent actions depend on what buff you have and whether you step on the green flower.

With Red buff and have stepped on flower:  your buff is dispelled by the flower; gather on the right hind leg for the next buff transport in 15sec.

With Red buff and have NOT stepped on flower: you still have red/blue buff. Stay at the left hind legs of the boss for the next round of buff transport.

With Blue buff: Go to the gathering point at right hind leg and wait for the next round of buff transport in 15sec.

The advanced strategy section (end of next page) explains in detail how to set up this 15 sec interval buff transport throughout the whole battle.

Disable Adds (HP 90%, 60%, 30%)

The boss will spawn several adds around the field when its HP reaches 90% 60% and 30%. These adds need to be disabled/cc-ed immediately  or it will cause party wipe.

Each add has 4 x cc box/bar. The assigned disablers have to agree on using the same disabling effect x 4 on it.

The numbers and positions of adds for each stages are shown in the figures below:

HP 90%: 4 adds

HP 60%: 5 adds

HP 30%: 6 adds

Upon successful cc of all adds, the boss will be weakened for 10 sec.

To ensure that the poison stacking does not affect the survival of disablers, it is important to pause at 92%, 62%, 32% to get a fresh round of blue/red buff before proceeding to trigger the adds summoning. Alternatively, one can always use antidote to reset the poison stacking to minimize the damage from poison when you need to cc the adds.

Tanker

Typically, sword master or kungfu master is assigned as the tanker. The boss has a rather standard normal attack pattern, although part of the skill sequence is random.

Head Swing x 2 > Head butt > 3 x Tail Swipe / Tail Slam

Head Swing x 2 > Tongue Strike > 3 x Tail Swipe / Tail Slam

Head Swing x 2 > Jumping Stomp > 3 x Tail Swipe / Tail Slam

Take note that Tongue Strike cannot be blocked. Tail Swipe and Tail Slam will only hit the party members behind (not tanker).

At HP 91%, 80%, 61%, 50%, 31%, the boss will roar and do a Big Jumping Stomp before summoning adds or spitting poison pit. This stomp cannot be blocked; use resists skill instead.

Take note that the tanker will also be poisoned constantly. Therefore, he/she need to attack the small poison egg every 30 sec to get the poison resist buff. However, he needs to do so with a ranged skill or a quick charging skill + SS so that he can get back to the center of the area ASAP.

The boss need to be kept at the middle for a simple reason: so that other party members do not accidentally attack the small and big poison eggs.

Of course, as a tanker, you should not attack the egg before the poison resist buff expires; otherwise, you will die immediately (similar to the eggs in Twilight of Black Isle).

At HP 80% and 50%, the boss will jump to either 4, 8 or 12 o’clock and start spitting 7 x poison pit at the tanker.

Tanker has to keep moving, preferable along the edge of the map while the poison pit is tracing him/her, from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock. In between, the boss will stop spitting momentarily at HP 78% / 48% to spawn green flowers. After that, move from 9 o’clock back to 6 o’clock, and hit the small egg on the way.  After the 7th poison pit, the tanker goes back to the middle of the map and continue tanking it as per normal.

See the video on Black Skyscraper Stage 1 below from the POV of a tanker:

Advanced Strategy – Duo Poison Pool

For this strategy, normally at least 4 Buff Transporters are required at the start of the battle. Their transport priorities are determined in advanced. They will need to communicated with each other frequently for this to work. The buff transport interval is a 15 sec cycle instead of 30 sec one.

The first buff transport is the same as the conventional strategy: 1st buff transporter hits the egg and creates the red poison pool on the LEFT hind legs of the boss (~ 3 o’clock).

At this moment, there are 2 possibilities, the 1st buff transporter can get either red or blue buff.

If the 1st buff transporter gets red buff, he/she just stay inside the circle for the next 25sec. In the mean time, the other 3 buff transporters will need to check with each other to determine who get a blue buff (there could be more than 1)

There is a slight possibility that none of the 4 buff transporters get a blue buff at all ( less than ~6% chance, the chances goes down further if you increase the number of buff transporters).

All other party members with blue buff should step out of the red circle and gather at the RIGHT hind legs of the boss ( ~ 9 o’clock).

One of the buff transporter (with the higher agreed priority)  with blue buff should step out of the red circle as well. When the blue buff duration is < 2-3sec, he should hit the big egg and transport the buff to the RIGHT hind legs (~ 9 o’clock).

A 2nd RED poison pool will be created at 9 o’clock. At this moment, the 1st poison pool at 3 o’clock turns into BLUE.

Now, all the party members will have either the red or blue buff. Just move accordingly to the poison pool with the same color as the buff on you, to enjoy 100% attack buff !

This duo-poison pool method ensures that there are 2 pools: both red and blue on the field most of the time. The merits are obvious: higher attack for all party members, more HP heal and lesser poison damage.

However, to execute this, the poison transports will need to communicate with each other frequently to determine who should transport the poison and to where. Only 1 buff transporter should hit the egg every ~15sec.

See the video on Black Skyscraper Stage 1 below for a demonstration of the duo poison pool strategy:

The strategy can be simplified into the following rules:

For non-transporter:

– If you have red buff, stay put for the next 30 sec.

– If you have blue buff, move to the opposite hind leg.

– If you have no buff just gather at the designated leg (typically the leader will mark someone for you to follow).

For transporter:

– If you have red buff, you only need to transport buff again after 25sec. Check transport priority after 25sec; transport the buff to whichever hind legs without the circle

– If you have blue buff, you need to check with other transporters. If your transport priority is higher, you will need to transport the buff after ~12sec to whichever hind legs without the circle.

-If you have no buff (only possible when the battle start or after cc adds), just revert to the old transport strategy to re-initiate the cycle.

Stage 2 – Hall of Chaos

Boss:

White Star (main) , HP – 34.5 million

White Star’s Shadow, HP – 45.6 million

Purple Star (clone), HP – 50.3 million

Green Star (clone), HP – 50.3 million

Yellow Star (clone), HP – 50.3 million

The HP of  this boss is the lowest among the other bosses in Black Skyscraper. However, when the battle starts, White Star (the main boss) will hide himself in a different dimension. He will summon a Shadow of himself and generate 3 clones, namely Purple, Green and Yellow Star. He can only be killed after his other clones HP reach 1.

First, lets take a look at the field. There are 3 sets of circles on 12, 4 and 8 o’clock of the hall. Each circle corresponds to the color of the boss. The boss of corresponding color will only stand on the circle with the same color as itself.

Once the battle starts, the 3 clones will jump in 3 different directions, to the circle of the same color as itself.

Soul Separation

This stage mechanics is the weirdest among all the stages in Black Skyscraper in my opinion. Before explaining what should you do, I will explain briefly on how the mechanics work.

There are 2 different space or dimension in this battle: Real Space or Soul Space. Real Space is the usual area you see around you before the battle start, while Soul Space is a unique space created by White Star’s Shadow when the battle starts. Normal party members will not be able to see the boss at all, while he is hiding in Soul Space.

A few players will be marked by the clones and their souls will be separated and sent into this Soul Space. White Star’s Shadow can only be damaged by these players in the Soul Space, while other party members can only attack the 3 clones in the Real Space.

Marking Mechanics – Start of Battle

The party is divided into 3 groups, 8 person each. In each group, there will be 1 tanker, 3 assigned markers and 4 others. At the start of the battle, the clones will mark 2 persons each, whom they knock back when jumping over to the circle (see black dots in the figure below). The tanker (marked as red dots) should stay out of the circle and wait for the boss to jump over to knock back the 2 markers before engaging the boss.  The other party members should stay outside of the colored circles (can be in the grey circle or outside altogether).

After the marking animation (staring at the 2 markers with glowing eyes), other party members can now engage the clones and stand in the grey circles. Shortly after the staring animation, the 2 markers in each group will be transported into the Soul Space, disappearing from the sight of other party members.

See the video below for Black Skyscraper Stage 2 from the POV of a marker.

There is an alternative method to start the battle and perform the marking mechanics. The 6 markers must be put into the same sub-party. At the start of battle, all 6 markers stand near the middle of the area and 1 of them attack the boss 1st.  The 3 clones jump to their respective circle. Only the 3 tankers engage the 3 clones at this moment while other party members do not attack the boss.

After the battle starts, 3 of the markers at the middle will be sent into the Soul Space first, followed by another 3. When all 6 of the markers are sent into the Soul Space, other party members can start attacking the clones.

See the video below for Black Skyscraper Stage 2 from the POV of a marker with this alternative method.

Clones Switching Position

The clones constantly apply debuffs of the corresponding color to nearby party members. 1 stack of debuff reduces the Hp recovery by 2%, reduces pierce by 1% and inflicts damage over time. When you have 30  stacks of each color debuff, you will die instantly.

When the debuff of the same color reaches 10/20 stacks, the clones will try to cast a healing skill. At this moment, knockdown (need 4 x knock down) the clones and they will wake up and jump to the adjacent sets of circles, in clockwise direction (see Figure below). Another reason for knocking down the clones is to prevent them from healing themselves. In any case, do not grab or sit on the boss after cc.

After jumping over, the clones will pull their respective tankers along. When the tanker is pulled over, other party members should use weaken or stun (do NOT use knock down) to save the tanker. This is pretty similar to Stage 1 of Snow Jade Palace. Remember to wait for the tanker to be pulled over before using the cc.

In other words, the clones and their respective tankers both switch position together. Take note that, the defensive elemental ring might generate a protection shell to resist the pull. Therefore, tankers should remove the ring and do not resist the pulling of the clones.

Subsequent Marking Mechanics

After applying weaken or stun on the clones, all party members should step out of the colored circle and gather at the grey circle (the reason will be explained later).

Only 1 assigned marker in each group (the 3rd one in the group, 2 of them are in the Soul Space now), should stay inside the colored circle, in front of the boss and attack the clone. The clone will mark the one standing in front of him, aside from the tanker.  Shortly after that, the marker will be transported into the Soul Space with the initial markers inside.

Other party members should only attack the clones AFTER the staring animation is performed. Otherwise, it might mess up the marking mechanics and someone else might be mistakenly transported into Soul Space instead.

Healing from Soul Space 

The initial 6 markers who are transported into the Soul Space are given a Soul Separation debuff (2 min duration). When the buff expires, the marker will die.

Soul Separation buff

Those who are in the Soul Space cannot attack the clones which are in the Real Space, but can observe what is happening in the Real Space.

Furthermore, the initial 6 party members within the Soul Space need to get out before the Soul Separation buff expires.

Assign 3 person, 1 from each group to stand near the boss, within the middle circle. The boss will mark 3 person closest to him with Healing buff (transparent sphere on their heads).

When White Star’s Shadow tries to heal himself, 3 marked party members inside need to cc him with knock down, while the other 3 should stay outside of the middle circle.

Immediately after the knock down, the 3 marked party members need to SS and move back to the grey circle in their respective groups at 12, 4, 8 o’clock (see figure above).

Upon waking up from the knock down, the boss will start jumping to the 3 marked party members with healing spheres. The markers will go back to Real Space when White Star’s Shadow jumps onto them.

Shortly after exiting the Soul Space, the healing sphere on the 3 markers’ head will disperse a HP healing buff to surrounding party members, who are waiting in the grey circle.

The healing is critical because the tri-color debuffs from the clones reduces the efficiency of normal healing skills/potions.

At this moment, 3 new markers will be entering the Soul Space. The 3 remaining party members in the Soul Space who do not get the healing spheres, will now become the healing sphere markers.

If you want to stay inside Soul Space to fight the boss, use Stun or weaken to cc the boss instead of knock down.  White Star’s Shadow will only use triple jump to send you back to Real Space if it is knock down.

However, remember that, you will need to make sure you get yourself out of the Soul Space before the Soul Separation buff expires.

If more players are sent out of the Soul Space, the party in the Soul Space might lack DPS to kill the White Star’s Shadow (highest HP among the clones). The party will need to balance between the HP between bosses and decide how often should players be sent out of the Soul Space.

Typically, 6 players are maintained in the Soul Space at all times. When 3 new members are sent in, 3 will be sent out of the Soul Space.

If the DPS of the party is very high, the 6 initial markes can actually kill the White Star’s Shadow inside the Soul Space before the Soul Separation buff expires (<2 min).  Once the White Star’s Shadow is dead, all 6 of them will be sent back into the Real Space automatically and no members will be sent into the Soul Space anymore. In this case, there is no need to transport the healing buff at all.

Final Boss Rush

After all the 3 clones have been brought to 1 HP and White Star’s Shadow has been killed, the real boss, White Star will appear at the middle.

The party need to kill the boss within 1 minute.

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Credits: Special thanks to chaose5 for this guide.

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