December 2, 2017 May 27, 2023

Brainstorm: A Storm Solo of Medulla

Ah, Medulla, the final boss of Empyrea Part 1 and the first real challenge since Sycorax. He sports an impressive 125,000 hp and 3 of our closest allies as his confused minions. Being the challenge he is, I decided to try my hand at soloing him and these are the results.

Boss Breakdown

Since this article was released, Medulla has been updated with new stats and Standard/Challenge Mode. For the complete breakdown, check our guide here.

Medulla

125,000 Health
Myth and Shadow School
High Damage+Critical
15% base pierce
Shadow Pip capable

Confusion Cheat: Forces your cards to select random targets. Activates every 10 rounds when solo, much more often when in a team

Beans

18,000 Health
Life School
High Heal Boost+Critical
Role is to heal the enemy team and Medulla

Cheat: Removes any traps placed on Medulla
Cheat once defeated: Casts Pigsie on your team (trigger unknown)

Sparck

20,000 Health
Balance School
High Critical+Damage
Role is to support the enemy team by buffing them while limiting and debuffing enemy.
Has many, many annoying spells: AoE availing hands, Loremaster, Aoe Weakness, AoE Tower shield, mana burn, supernova etc

Cheat: Casts Essence Cannon: An AoE shadow spell that removes 1 shadow pip from everyone on your team. Activates Every 5 rounds.
Cheat once defeated: Casts Essence Cannon on the enemy once every 5 rounds.

Pork

25,000 Health
Fire School
High Damage+Critical
10% pierce
Role is to attack, attack, attack

Cheat once defeated: Casts Smokescreen on Medulla. Trigger is unknown.

The Stats and Gear

Hat: Jade Hood of Mystery
Robes: Diviners Deep Rolling Vest
Boots: Diviners Deep Rolling Waders
Wand: Iones Sword
Athame: Blade of the Shadow Palace
Amulet: Chillvenoms Maelstrom Charm
Ring: Hopper Ring of Visions
Deck: Rasputin’s Hand of Tumult
Pet: Babydactyl with: Spell Proof, Spell Defy, Myth Proof, Fire Ward, Storm Dealer, Pain Giver

The Deck

The Strategy

Step 1

The first step to take out Medulla revolved around 2 main tenets: 1) Limit the amount of incoming damage and 2) Limit the effectiveness of Confusion. As such, aura of Fortification and Aura of Brace served both those functions. With 100%+ resist to fire and myth- these 2 auras would counteract the innate pierce of Medulla and Pork allowing me immunity for their duration. They would also make damage from Sparck, Beans and the Essence Cannon less painful. Secondly, the auras offered a convenient way to avoid Medulla’s confusion mechanics. Since auras are self only- they offer a free cast when confused (although you may need to select/deselect a few times for them to trigger). Once I had my aura established I could safely focus on defeating my enemies while utilizing heals to keep my health up.

Step 2

When soloing I realized I would have to defeat the enemies one by one to have a chance. My first priority was Sparck who dealt significant damage due to my low balance resist and the essence cannon. Sparck also has a large variety of annoying utility options which made him the ideal first target.

Step 3

My next target was Beans whose healing would make it virtually impossible to take out Medulla with him alive. Beans could also deal somewhat significant damage to me due to my low Life resist.

Step 4

With Beans and Sparck out of the way the battle became significantly easier. All I had to do was ensure I had an aura to become immune to both Pork and Medulla’s damage types. As such it then became a matter of stacking enough feints and blades (ensuring I timed it between Sparck’s essence cannon firing). I took out Pork before moving on to Medulla, but really order doesn’t matter at this point.