High Mercury Guide: Standard & Expert

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“

Waters, heed my command!

„

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 Standard 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

• Standard
  • Melee units should have at least 1740 HP.
  • Ranged units should have 1550 HP with equipped, or 2175 HP without it.
• Expert
  • Melee units should have at least 2521 HP.
  • Ranged units should have 2245 HP with equipped, or 3151 HP without it.

Weapons

For Expert, 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 weapon is unavailable, of if playing Standard, players can use a max-unbound 5 Void weapon with High Mercury's Bane, obtained from Void Poseidon. While a team using only mub Void weapons can feasibly clear Expert HMC, the execution needed to meet the dps requirements will be more demanding.

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 and Addis play largely the same role, so they end up using the same dragons. These units much prefer Vayu for the extra skill damage, which improves the power of Bleeds. These two 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 their role is to be the primary dps, so using a sub-optimal dragon may not sit well when finding groups.
		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 or Addis runs the standard RR + BN setup for blades, improving skill damage and crit rate - very important for Bleeds. If a Valentine's Melody is on the team, The Plaguebringer may be considered for the second slot instead of BN.
			Welly runs the fast-break setup for swords, Mega Friends + Bubble & Wood, 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

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 with access to Bleed. Has a straightforward skill-and-kill playstyle
	Addis does comparable dps to Victor, however his rotation is irregular as he needs to use Skill 2 first in order for Skill 1 to be able to Bleed. His play style can be tricky to learn.

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.

Wedding Elisanne

This role can currently only be filled by Wedding Elisanne. The healing field on her Skill 1 can get the team healthy again, 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

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.

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	Wedding Elisanne	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. 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 the top corner is a safe spot that applies to all 3 variations of the "Whirlpool" attack.

"Water Shotguns x2"

HMC will target the farthest player and fire 2 "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 + Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe + Water Shotguns

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.

While the bubbles are up. HMC will perform her Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe combo again, followed by another set of Water Shotguns. 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 farthest 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 farthest from HMC up to now, they should instead roll toward HMC while a secondary dps moves farther 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 farthest 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.

"Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe" + Water Shotguns + Whirlpools

HMC will do her stomp + dash + tail swipe combo again, with the Homing Bubble from earlier exploding around the time of the Tail Swipe. She will follow up with another set of Water Shotguns and Whirlpools.

• The ranged baiter needs to be prepared to dodge the shotgun after the homing bubble ends, while also moving up towards the top-left of the map to dodge the Whirlpools.

Bursting Bubbles + Water Shotguns x3 + Whirlpools

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. Shortly after Bursting Bubbles, HMC will fire Water Shotguns again, but this time she shoots 3 rounds instead of 2. Then she'll cast Whirlpools again.

• 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.
• The Ranged Baiter needs to retreat asap once the Bursting Bubbles are dealt with, so they can bait away the shotguns. Remember that 3 rounds need to be dodged this time, not the usual 2. HMC will go back to using 2 shotguns for any future uses of the move.
  • During the 3 shotgun phase, the Ranged Bait also needs to make their way around to the top-left in order to dodge Whirlpools again.

Spheres of Salvation + Summon Help + "Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe" + Water Shotguns x2 + "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 in case a bubble gets destroyed.
• Players should now "Dragon Tank" - that is, 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.
  • The timing for transforming is right after the Tail Swipe, during Water Shotguns. Then, the timing for using the dragon skill is when HMC spins around, shortly after she calls out "Waters, Heed my command!".

Loop A

If HMC is broken during any of the moves above, she will enter this loop of attacks until she is broken once more.

Bursting Bubbles + Homing Bubble + Water Shotguns

HMC will go to the center for Bursting Bubbles again, but will then cast Homing Bubble shortly afterwards, followed by a set of Water Shotguns.

• The Melee players should approach Bursting Bubbles the same as before: hug HMC's side and pop the bubbles with a skill.
• The Ranged Bait actually should not approach HMC for this phase, but instead make sure they have a skill ready. Once the bubbles are popped, they need to use the skill to i-frame the incoming Bubbles, then be prepared to bait the Homing Bubble and Shotguns away from the party.

Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe + Water Shotguns + Whirlpools

HMC will do her usual Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe combo towards the closest players, followed by Shotguns toward the farthest and another round of Whirlpools.

• This is the same drill as before. Melee needs to bait the 3-hit combo to top-left, while Ranged Bait needs to dodge shotguns and approach the top-left to dodge whirlpools.

Loop B

If HMC is broken during Loop A, she will enter Loop B. Once Loop B finishes, she will move back to doing Loop A.

Spheres of Salvation + Summon Help + Aqueous Prison + Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe + Waterfall

HMC will do a similar set of moves to the Summon Help section before, but this time she throws in an Aqueous Prison.

• The Ranged unit should actually take the prison this time, and 2 of the Melee units need to be ready to free them asap. The 3rd Melee player should instead bait HMC away from the prison and other melee players - going for top-left this time actually doesn't matter.
• The team should be ready to Dragon Tank the Waterfall again, transforming during either the Dash or Tail Swipe.

Bursting Bubbles + Whirlpools + Aqueous Prison

HMC will walk to the center of the map, followed by Whirlpools, followed by Prison.

• Since HMC does Whirlpools right after Bubbles this time, there's no opportunity to bait her to the top-left. Due to this, it is not safe to continue attacking HMC until the Whirlpools are done. The team should retreat according to the Whirlpool pattern, then needs to regroup to deal with the Prison quickly.
• HMC will then resume Loop A, which starts with Bursting Bubbles again. The Melee units need to hug HMC's side after the prison is broken, while Ranged Bait should keep some distance and have a skill ready to i-frame the bubbles.