Hard Ice Golem guide: HP Burn, Frozen Reckoning and Artak solo

Hard Mode Ice Golem is now a proper Artifact farming target, but Klyssus plays very differently from the Normal fight. He is completely immune to Poison, so the usual Poison teams are out. HP Burn takes over, and the whole fight revolves around one passive.

What changes from Normal

Klyssus is immune to Poison and Poison Sensitivity, but takes 10% more damage from HP Burn. He is also immune to most crowd control, including Stun, Freeze, Sleep, Provoke, Fear and Block Active Skills. Across Stages 1-10 he gains extra Turn Meter manipulation and debuff removal, and a new Awakening-based passive means your Champions' Awakening Levels reduce the damage they take from him and raise the damage they deal.

The reward is better too. Hard Mode gives improved chances of higher rarity Artifacts than Normal, and Mythical Artifacts can drop.

The skills that matter

Debilitating Frost hits everyone, places 50% Decrease ACC for 2 turns and cuts every hero's Turn Meter by 30%. Klyssus also removes all debuffs from himself when he uses it, so your setup can vanish. High RES or Block Debuffs stops the ACC drop, and Remove Debuffs cleans it up.

Frozen Reckoning is the danger. It triggers when he drops below 80%, 60%, 45%, 30% and 15% HP, attacking your whole team. Dead minions come back at full HP, and each surviving minion makes the hit ignore an extra 50% DEF and adds 40% to the Freeze chance.

Enemy MAX HP skills cannot deal more than 10% of his MAX HP per hit.

Minions: kill them or farm them

If you bring Block Revive, wearing the minions down and finishing them removes them permanently and makes Frozen Reckoning much safer. Otherwise, keep them alive as extra targets. Every HP Burn activation on Klyssus or a minion destroys 5% of the minions' MAX HP, or 10% if it is a Smite activation, capped at 50% destroyed.

Be careful with big direct hits. An attack that shoves Klyssus across a threshold at the wrong moment sets Frozen Reckoning off. Low-damage activation skills are safer.

A fast Stage 10 team

The example build clears the waves with support Champions who are built to die on the boss, then leaves Artak to solo Klyssus.

• Artak: places HP Burn on all enemies, activates the Burns and applies Decrease ATK with his A2. Built in Regeneration with 74K HP, 3.7K DEF, 268 SPD, 510 RES and 425 ACC, with the Golden Elixir Relic and Soul Reap Blessing.
• Seer: here for her Karma Burn A3 to melt the waves. Her active skills are disabled against the boss.
• Deacon: a budget pick that boosts ally Turn Meters, places Decrease DEF and brings an All Battles SPD Aura.
• Archmage: puts three buffs on all allies with his A3 to fuel Karma Burn.
• Kymar: resets ally skill cooldowns on Wave 2 so the team can repeat its setup.

Artak's passive raises his SPD and RES as his MAX HP is destroyed, which helps him outpace and resist the boss.

Building for it

Champions placing HP Burn and Decrease ATK need enough ACC to land them reliably, plus the SPD to keep cycling. Perception, Speed and Feral sets help there. For survivability, Defiant and Stalwart reduce AoE damage. Solo Champions want a high RES Regeneration build; Artak and Pelops both suit it. Maneater is a useful pick for teams built around Unkillable to sit through the retaliation.

What to do

If your account already clears the higher stages reliably, Hard Ice Golem is worth the Energy. Check which of your HP Burn Champions can solo with Regeneration, and keep a Block Revive option in mind for the minions.