Necromancer's Helmet
- "This hat isn't my style at all. I'm a gentleman - not a savage!"
- ―Lance, Epic Battle Fantasy 5
The Necromancer's Helmet, also known as the Demon Skull in EBF4, is a male hat found in Epic Battle Fantasy 4 and 5. Its armor counterpart is the Bone Armor in EBF4, although its EBF5 counterpart has aesthetic and statistical similarities to the Coat of Teeth as well.
It reappears in the Epic Battle Fantasy Collection version of Adventure Story, being one of the new equipment pieces that can be earned from a bonus level.
Description
The Necromancer's Helmet is a grisly helmet formed from a large, horned skull. It offers huge stat boosts, but its defensive applications are hampered by the severe weaknesses (always including Holy) and detrimental status effects it forces upon its wearer.
Epic Battle Fantasy 4
The Demon Skull is a large, irregularly-shaped skull with a reddish-brown tint. It has a pair of slightly curved horns on the back - with the left horn being broken off near the base - two round eye holes, a pair of small nostrils, and a row of blunt teeth that stick out at odd angles.
The Demon Skull gives a great boost to Attack, Defence, Magic Attack, and Magic Defence, as well as smaller boosts to HP and MP. However, it also inflicts Curse on the wearer to slowly reduce his defenses, which is particularly worrisome when combined with two large elemental weaknesses (one of which is further amplified by Curse). If its fragility can be mitigated via support from teammates or other gear, it can be used as a solid offensive hat for either Matt or Lance.
The Demon Skull resists Dark, up to 50% at Level 5. It also has significant weaknesses to Fire and Holy that remain constant at all levels.
Epic Battle Fantasy 5
The Necromancer's Helmet resembles a large human skull with a pale reddish-brown tint to the bone. It also has a few brown spots on the back and curly horns on the sides, colored the same shade of pale yellow-orange as its teeth. The pitch-black eye sockets have tiny red "pupils" of light similar to the Death Mask or the Human Skull, which look around in three directions (diagonally down, diagonally up, and behind the wearer) during the wearer's idle animation. If NoLegs wears the helmet, it completely obscures his eyes and gains two small holes to let his ears poke out of it.
Equipping the Dark Stalker, the Spine Snapper, or the Human Skull changes the color of the Necromancer's Helmet; the skull becomes off-white and the horns become brown.
Normal
The Necromancer's Helmet grants good Attack, Defence, Magic Attack, and Magic Defence, but its bulk is undercut by two elemental weaknesses, no resistances, and a fair chance to Curse its wearer between turns. This makes it primarily useful for an all-out attacker build; it's especially effective with Lance, who has a good balance of physical and magical skills, but it also has synergy with NoLegs, who generally can't take many hits anyway. Conversely, Matt appreciates the hat's Attack boost and immediate bulk, but its penalties can undermine long-term tanking and he lacks much in the way of magic attacks.
The Necromancer's Helmet is fairly vulnerable to Fire and Holy, with the degree of its weaknesses remaining constant at all levels. Keep in mind that its auto-Curse will further increase incoming Holy damage.
Equip Remix
The Alt Necromancer's Helmet remains a "high-risk, high-reward" headgear, but with a greater focus on magic than its normal version. In exchange for a modest Attack decrease, it offers an impressive Magic Attack stat and the ability to boost it even further with Defend. While it has solid defenses, the combination of three weaknesses (including to instant-kill statuses) and a tendency to Shroud its wearer between turns means that it's primarily useful for its offensive prowess.
While Matt and NoLegs can utilize the Alt Necromancer's Helmet with the right builds, Lance is generally the best character to take advantage of its abilities, especially with his powerful magic-based guns. In particular, he can pair it with the Alt Heartstopper for a "glass cannon" build that inflicts extreme magical damage while being horribly vulnerable to Doom and Instant Death (especially with the Alt Necromancer's Helmet hiding the Doom timer with its auto-Shroud). In this role, it competes with the Alt Death Mask, which has even more Magic Attack and no auto-Shroud in exchange for different weaknesses, no defensive stats, and massive penalties to Accuracy and Evade. On the other hand, the Alt Wizard Hat is a weaker but less risky option for magically offensive builds.
The Alt Necromancer's Helmet is fairly weak to Holy and significantly weak to Doom and Instant Death; none of these weaknesses change at any forging level. It also resists Dark, which doesn't become an immunity at Level 5.
Epic Battle Fantasy 4
The Demon Skull is found in the right tomb of Graybone Cemetery, in one of the four chests that fall after activating the switches.
|
Demon Skull |
|---|---|
| Randomly curses the player. |
| Statistics | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stat Bonus | Resistance | ||||||||||||||||
| LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | |||
|
- | 5% | 5% | 10% | 10% | 
|
- | 5% | 5% | 10% | 10% | 
|
-50% | -50% | -50% | -50% | -50% |
|
20% | 25% | 30% | 35% | 40% | 
|
20% | 25% | 30% | 35% | 40% | 
|
-50% | -50% | -50% | -50% | -50% |
|
20% | 25% | 30% | 35% | 40% | 
|
20% | 25% | 30% | 35% | 40% | 
|
10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% |
|
- | - | - | - | - | 
|
- | - | - | - | - | ||||||
| Spells & Statuses | |||||||||||||||||
| Power | Chance Modifier | ||||||||||||||||
| Auto Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Bonus Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Auto Status | 2x [3x] 
|
(100%) [(50%)] | |||||||||||||||
| -- | |||||||||||||||||
| Forging Information | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lvl | Requirements | Lvl | Requirements | ||||
| 2 |  x 1 |
-- | -- | 3 | x 2 |
-- | -- |
| 4 | x 5 |
 x 2 |
-- | 5 | x 7 |
x 5 |
-- |
Pre-Battle Mountain update version.
|
|
Demon Skull |
|---|---|
| Randomly curses the player. |
| Statistics | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stat Bonus | Resistance | ||||||||||||||||
| LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | |||
|
|
- | 5% | 5% | 5% | 10% |
|
- | 5% | 5% | 5% | 10% |
|
-50% | -50% | -50% | -50% | -50% |
|
|
5% | 5% | 10% | 10% | 15% |
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% |
|
-50% | -50% | -50% | -50% | -50% |
|
|
5% | 5% | 10% | 10% | 15% |
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% |
|
10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% |
|
|
-10% | -10% | -10% | -10% | -10% |
|
-10% | -10% | -10% | -10% | -10% | ||||||
| Spells & Statuses | |||||||||||||||||
| Power | Chance Modifier | ||||||||||||||||
| Auto Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Bonus Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Auto Status | 2x [3x]
|
(100%) [(50%)] | |||||||||||||||
| -- | |||||||||||||||||
| Forging Information | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lvl | Requirements | Lvl | Requirements | ||||
| 2 | x 1 |
-- | -- | 3 | x 2 |
-- | -- |
| 4 | x 5 |
x 2 |
-- | 5 | x 7 |
x 5 |
-- |
Epic Battle Fantasy 5
The Necromancer's Helmet is found inside the upper-right chest in the Forgotten Temple of the Forgotten Ruins. The chest is behind a Diamond Block, which requires a Diamond Key to be unlocked.
|
Necromancer's Helmet |
|---|---|
A cursed item with intense power.
|
| Statistics | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stat Bonus | Resistance | ||||||||||||||||
| LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | |||
|
|
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 
|
-30% | -30% | -30% | -30% | -30% |
|
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% |
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% | 
|
-30% | -30% | -30% | -30% | -30% |
|
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% |
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
|
|
- | - | - | - | - |
|
- | - | - | - | - | ||||||
| Spells & Statuses | |||||||||||||||||
| Power | Chance Modifier | ||||||||||||||||
| Auto Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Bonus Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Auto Status | 2x 
|
(50%) | |||||||||||||||
| Defend Status | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Forging Information | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lvl | Requirements | Lvl | Requirements | ||||
| 2 |  x 1 |
-- | -- | 3 |  x 1 |
-- | -- |
| 4 |  x 2 |
 x 2 |
-- | 5 | x 5 |
 x 1 |
-- |
Statistics with Equip Remix enabled.
|
|
Necromancer's Helmet |
|---|---|
A cursed item with intense power.
|
| Statistics | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stat Bonus | Resistance | ||||||||||||||||
| LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | LV1 | LV2 | LV3 | LV4 | LV5 | |||
|
|
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
|
-30% | -30% | -30% | -30% | -30% |
|
|
-10% | -10% | -10% | -10% | -10% |
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% | 
|
10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% |
|
|
15% | 20% | 25% | 30% | 35% |
|
10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% | 
|
-50% | -50% | -50% | -50% | -50% |
|
|
- | - | - | - | - |
|
- | - | - | - | - | ||||||
| Spells & Statuses | |||||||||||||||||
| Power | Chance Modifier | ||||||||||||||||
| Auto Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Bonus Skill | -- | -- | |||||||||||||||
| Auto Status | 2x 
|
(100%) | |||||||||||||||
| Defend Status | 80%
|
-- | |||||||||||||||
| Forging Information | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lvl | Requirements | Lvl | Requirements | ||||
| 2 | x 1 |
-- | -- | 3 | x 1 |
-- | -- |
| 4 | x 2 |
x 2 |
-- | 5 | x 5 |
x 1 |
-- |
Trivia
- In Epic Battle Fantasy 4, the Demon Skull bears a passing resemblance to the upper half of The Destroyer.
- The Necromancer's Helmet is one of three pieces of Equipment in Epic Battle Fantasy 5 to include a skull with tiny red lights in its empty eye sockets; the others include the Human Skull and the Dark Stalker.