Dark Golem

Dark Golem
Group	Golem
Roles	Foe
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 3

The Dark Golem is a foe that appears in Epic Battle Fantasy 3. It is mostly found in Volcano Peak, but a few specimens can be encountered in The Rift.

Appearance

The Dark Golem is a vaguely humanoid being composed of jagged black rocks; based on its volcanic surroundings, it may be made of basalt or obsidian. Its main body is either a single, multifaceted stone, or multiple smaller rocks fused together; either way, it is supported by two legs made of four smaller rocks, two of which act as toe-like protrusions. Its head is a slightly sloped block with a simple red symbol for a "face" (two intersecting perpendicular lines with a small dot above them) and a pair of long grey horns curving upwards.

Unlike the Light Golem, the Dark Golem's equipment are not made of the same stone as its body; instead, they appear to be pieces of metal or bone embedded in its arms. Its right arm carries a large axe made of grey metal and a skull; the thin blades protrude from the skull's eyeholes, and a pointed tip pierces its top. Its left arm carries a shield resembling a reptilian skull, with what appear to be ribs embedded in a protrusion on its "elbow".

Overview

The Dark Golem is fundamentally similar to the Light Golem of the Kitten Kingdom Ruins; a powerful, durable enemy that loses its limbs as it takes damage. However, it has a few more tricks than its lighter counterpart; namely, its physical attacks can trigger additional skills (especially on Epic, when all of them can do this). As a result, it can use Dark and Bio attacks in addition to a plethora of Earth-based moves; they generally have high elemental degrees, so resistance will greatly dampen their damage output. Most of its moves are also somewhat inaccurate, so debuffing its Accuracy and buffing the party's Evade is another option to reduce its offensive threat.

Aside from enabling a Rockslide-summoning Shield Bash attack, the Dark Golem's shield also halves incoming damage; fortunately, it's also the first limb to be destroyed. Its axe attacks aren't too bad on their own, but the single-target strike has a good chance to debuff Defence; more problematic still, it unleashes Haunt to obliterate the victim's stats or afflict them with Doom. Its multi-target Earthquake Hammer is its weakest move, but it can unleash The Dead to hit everyone with some Bio damage and a light Poison effect; alternatively, it gives the Dark Golem a chance to buff its magical stats. The Magic Attack buff isn't very important (and downright useless on any difficulty below Epic), but the Magic Defence buff can be problematic for Natalie or Lance's assaults.

As with the Light Golem, the best way to neutralize a Dark Golem is to hit it hard and fast to destroy its arms; once it loses both, it'll be left with nothing but a mediocre part-Earth physical attack with poor Accuracy and no special effects. Water attacks are supremely effective, but Holy, Bomb, and Ice will also inflict massive damage. On the other hand, any other element (besides Wind) won't do a thing to a Dark Golem; it's also immune to Poison and Berserk, very resistant to Stun, and quite resistant to Doom and Death.

Statistics

	Dark Golem	Earthen Knight	EBF3
	Gets weaker as it takes damage and loses limbs.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	Gold
	400	4	4	4	4	4	4	99	8	70
Elemental Resistance
	100%	100%	-70%	-120%	-	200%	100%	200%	-100%	-90%
Status Resistance
	100%	-	-	-	100%	70%	50%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon				-	-	-	-
Name	Dark Rune	Sad Statue	Darkmatter	-	-	-	-
Chance	40%	20%	5%	-	-	-	-

• The arms are damaged simultaneously with the Golem. However, both arms ignore elemental resistances and Defence/Magic Defence (de)buffs.
• Shield's maximum health equals 1/3 of Golem's maximum health, both benefit from shield's 50% damage resistance.
• Hammer's maximum health equals 1/4 of Golem's maximum health. It cannot be harmed until the shield is destroyed.
• Since the arms ignore Golem's elemental resistances, they still get damaged by attacks that heal the Golem.
  • Thus, it's possible to completely drain shield's health without taking a single health point off the Golem. However, in this case the shield will not break until the Golem takes actual damage and plays the "damage taken" animation (instead of the heal one), which forces the arm health check.

Attacks and Abilities

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Hammer Strike	Single	60		70%	50%	30%		90%	10%	10%
Notes: Cannot be used without the hammer. On Epic difficulty, is immediately followed by casting Haunt on the same player.
Haunt	Single	35/5		100%	80%	300% 300% 300% 300% 3x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Each hit inflicts one ailment, selected at random, Doom is twice as likely to be selected. Is used only in conjunction with Hammer Strike.
Shield Bash	Single	50		70%	--	--	--	90%	10%	10%
Notes: Cannot be used without the shield. On Epic difficulty, is immediately followed by casting Rockslide on the same player.
Rockslide	Single	40/3		80%	--	--	--	90%	20%	50%
Notes: Is used only in conjunction with Shield Bash.
Earthquake Hammer	All	12		70%	--	--	--	90%	10%	10%
Notes: Cannot be used without the hammer. Is immediately followed by either The Dead or Buff.
The Dead	All	33		60%	70%	2x		110%	10%	10%
Notes: Is used only in conjunction with Earthquake Hammer.
Buff	Self	--	--	----	--	50% 50%		--	--	--
Notes: Is used only in conjunction with Earthquake Hammer.
Horn Stab	Single	33		70%	--	--	--	80%	10%	10%
Notes: Can be used only after losing both arms.

Battle Logic

The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.

• No arms → Horn Stab;
• No shield → Hammer Strike (1/2), Earthquake Hammer (1/2);
• Both arms intact → Hammer Strike (1/3), Shield Bash (1/3), Earthquake Hammer (1/3).