High Mercury Guide: Standard & Expert

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Waters, heed my command!

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High Mercury's Trial is a challenge quest centered on a boss battle with High Mercury, unlocked upon the completion of Mercury's Trial (Master).

• Rewards from Stadard difficulty include , which can be traded for the 5 dragon or the , and can be used to upgrade the Fafnir Statue facility.
• Rewards from Expert additionally include , which alongside s can be used to craft Water-attuned High Dragon weapons with High Brunhilda's Bane.

Stat and Equipment Requirements

HP

• Melee units should have at least 2521 HP.
• Ranged units should have 2245 HP with equipped, or 3151 HP without it.

Weapons

All units should be equipped with a Tier 1 Wind-attuned High Dragon (HD) weapon with High Mercury's Bane, obtained from High Midgardsormr's Trial: Expert.

If a HD weaapon is unavailable, players can use a max-unbound 5 Void weapon with High Mercury's Bane, obtained from Void Poseidon. However, a Void weapon results in less dps and may make entering public rooms difficult.

Weapon Category	Sword	Blade	Dagger	Axe	Lance	Bow	Wand	Staff
High Dragon Tier 1
Void Bane

Dragons

Everyone should be equipped with a max-unbound 4 dragon for Standard, or max-unbound 5 dragon for Expert.

Adventurer	Dragon	Notes
		Victor very much prefers Vayu for the extra skill damage, which improves the power of his Bleeds. Victor could potentially run Garland at a slight dps loss, or Zephyr for a larger loss if the other dragons aren't available. Note however that Victor is the primary dps, so using a sub-optimal dragon may not sit well with public rooms.
		As a sword whose role largely includes Force Striking the boss, Welly prefers pure strength that can boost all of her damage including Force Strikes, rather than primarily skills. In this sense Garland provides the most strength at 80%, provided Welly can avoid getting hit most of the time. HMC has no forced damage beyond the initial blast, so this requirement isn't too difficult to meet and maintain. Welly is still able to run Vayu as a second choice or even Zephyr, for a bit less dps.
		Velody's contribution mostly comes from the supportive effects on her skills, and her skill damage mods aren't particularly high, so she prefers Garland for her dragon. Running Vayu or Zephyr instead is fine as well, same as with Welly.
		Noelle prefers Freyja, as she provides a large amount of Skill Haste to improve Noelle's buff uptime. She also grants HP, which Noelle appreciates in order to help her survive. Note that Noelle only needs Freyja at 0-unbinds for Expert. Budget survival alternatives include High Midgardsormr or Mini Mids, both of which give strength & hp. However, they don't offer Skill Haste, and Noelle's personal dps is not very notable, so Freyja does a much better job of improving overall team dps.

Wyrmprints

Melee units can equip their usual dps prints, however ranged units will need to equip to survive.

Adventurer	Wyrmprint 1	Wyrmprint 2	Notes
			Victor runs the standard RR + BN setup for blades, improving skill damage and crit rate - very important for his Bleeds. If a Valentine's Melody is on the team, Victor can consider running The Plaguebringer in his second slot instead of BN.
			Welly runs the fast-break setup for swords, increasing her overdrive bar damage and causing HMC to break twice throughout the fight. If Mega Friends is unavailable, Welly can run The Shining Overlord or Resounding Rendition instead. If Bubble & Wood is unavailable, Welly can run any strength print instead, such as Jewels of the Sun. JotS in particular also has just enough skill haste to hit a breakpoint on both of her skills. If a Valentine's Melody is on the team, Welly can consider running The Plaguebringer in her second slot.
			Velody runs the standard Kung Fu Masters for axes, but swaps out Flower in the Fray for The Plaguebringer, capitalizing on her own Poison affliction.
			Noelle runs A Dog's Day to improve her buffing potential, but her second print has to be Queen of the Blue Seas to ensure that she survives.

Party Roles

Ranged Bait

These units will be spending the majority of the match far away from Mercury, baiting her long-range "Water Shotguns" and Homing Bubble away from the rest of the party. They won't be doing much damage, so it's important that they support the party in some other way, such as buffs.

Adventurer	Notes
	Ranged baiter. Has low personal dps, but provides 25% strength buffs for the whole team.

Primary Melee DPS

These units will be doing the majority of the DPS, and are responsible for baiting Mercury's dashes to position her correctly for most of the match.

Adventurer	Notes
	Primary dps. Should be built as strong as possible.

Secondary Melee DPS

These units provide dps as well as other utility, such as debuff or affliction support.

Adventurer	Notes
	Provides: debuffs high Overdrive damage (due to being a sword) healing
	Provides: debuffs Poison affliction for enabling Poison Punisher, 10% strength buffs for the team whenever Poison lands.

Pseudo Healer

These units can offer healing, foregoing the need for a dedicated healer in exchange for more dps.

Adventurer	Notes
	Provides: debuffs high Overdrive damage (due to being a sword) healing

General Party Setup

The general setup includes 1 primary melee dps, 1 secondary melee dps, 1 pseudo healer, and 1 ranged baiter:

Primary DPS	Secondary DPS	Pseudo Healer	Ranged Baiter

Attacks and Patterns

Tidal Explosion

This is the fight's initial hp-check blast. You can't i-frame it, however if you are a melee character then you can hold down Force Strike to not get knocked back.

• Melee units should stand to the upper-left of HMC in preparation of the next attack.

"Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe"

HMC will target the closest player to her and do this 3-attack combo. Once she has stomped, the direction of her dash is locked in, and she will not change direction even if the player she targeted moves. After the dash, she will do a wide tail swipe behind her.

• Melee units should stand to the upper-left to bait the stomp, then move to HMC's side and continue to dps as she dashes. After the dash is complete, melee should move to HMC's front, against the wall. This positioning of HMC is important, as it is a consistent safe spot that applies to all 3 variations of the "Whirlpool attack"

"Water Shotguns"

HMC will target the furthest player and fire 2 or 3 "Water Shotgun" blasts of several balls of water.

• Ranged baiter should quickly roll a few times to dodge these, or use a skill for the invincibility frames.

"Whirlpools"

HMC will summon whirlpools in one of 3 possible patterns, decided at random. A consistent safe spot is in the upper-left of the map, which is why it was important for the melee units to bait HMC there earlier.

Spheres of Salvation

HMC will summon 4 bubbles that can be entered as safe zones. Standing inside a bubble will make the player invincible to all of HMC's attacks. However, if multiple players try to enter the same bubble, then it will be destroyed. Each player should make sure to indicate which bubble "belongs" to them, whether by discussing in a pre-made room or by using the arrow stickers.

HMC will continue to perform some of her previous moves while the bubbles are up. All players should be ready to enter the bubbles before HMC's screen-wide "Waterfall" move, which follows shortly afterwards.

"Waterfall"

HMC will summon a waterfall that hits the entire map. This cannot be avoided with skill invincibility frames - instead, players need to enter the safe bubbles that were summoned previously.

Aqueous Prison

Shortly after the Waterfall, HMC will target the furthest player and put them into an Aqueous Prison. The other players will then need to break the prison to free the trapped player, or they will die.

While the Ranged Baiter has been furthest from HMC up to now, they should instead roll toward HMC while a secondary dps moves further away to bait the prison. Once the purple circle appears below that player, they should roll back to the main party to be freed. The Ranged Baiter should return to a far distance for the next attack.

Homing Bubble

HMC will target the furthest player and set a Homing Bubble to follow them. The Ranged Baiter needs to direct this bubble away from the rest of the party - it will one-hit kill anyone it touches, and it cannot be avoided with skill invincibility frames. It just needs to be dodged until it explodes on its own.

• Note that the reason a melee took the prison earlier is so that the ranged baiter doesn't have to take both prison and homing bubble - which would absolutely kill them.

Bursting Bubbles

HMC will walk to the center of the map and summon a circle Bursting Bubbles around her. When hit, these bubbles will split into 4 smaller bubbles with the momentum of whatever attack hit them. The safest approach to this is to follow HMC to the center and hug her side, then use a skill to both pop the bubbles and i-frame them.

Anyone who ends up outside the circle will need to i-frame the bubbles when they expand outward. They also should not hit the bubbles, as doing so will launch the smaller bubbles into the circle and likely kill the players inside.

Summon Help + Spheres of Salvation + "Waterfall"

HMC will summon spheres of salvation again, but this time she will also summon rats that will try to destroy the bubbles. Attacking the rats is a dps loss - continue to fight HMC instead, however all players should have a dragon ready to "Dragon Tank" in case a bubble gets destroyed.

Players should transform into their dragon and time their dragon skill such that they are mid-skill when the Waterfall hits. The dragon's timer will become depleted by the hit, but they will continue their skill animation and not revert until that animation is over. Simply being in dragon form without using a skill is not enough, as the Waterfall is a multi-hit move that will revert the dragon and kill the player instantly if the dragon isn't animation-locked in a skill.