Viking Monolith

Viking Monolith
Group	Monoliths
Roles	Foe, Summon
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 3 Epic Battle Fantasy 4 Epic Battle Fantasy 5 Adventure Story

"A giant rock? Well, that's not very threatening at all. Is it gonna fall over on us or something?"

―Matt, Epic Battle Fantasy 3

The Viking Monolith is a recurring foe in the Epic Battle Fantasy series, appearing in Epic Battle Fantasy 3, 4 and 5, as well as Adventure Story. It also becomes a summon in EBF5. It mostly appears around cold areas, such as Glacier Valley (EBF3), the Crystal Caverns (EBF4), and the Frozen Valley (EBF5). It is typically the first type of Monolith to be encountered.

Appearance

The Viking Monolith is a large, vaguely triangular rock formation consisting of two layers of gray stone separated by a brown inner layer. The front layer is larger than the other two and marked with a variety of strange carvings, including a sword, two trinity knots, and letters of an unknown (presumably ancient) language. A few cracks are visible near the base of the Monolith.

In EBF5, the Viking Monolith's carvings are redesigned significantly from its previous appearances. Its trinity knots are equally sized and placed along the center axis of its "face", with a single line of runes between them. The sword carving is much smaller and moved to the left side of its "face", positioned above a carving of three connected spirals similar to the marking on the Sacred Rune item. Additionally, two small grey stones hover near it, presumably having broken off of the main Monolith or simply being levitated by its residual magic energy.

In Adventure Story, the Viking Monolith's appearance is heavily simplified, being a single triangular chunk of grey stone. Its markings are light blue and consist of a few runes at its base, a snowflake-like design at the center, and a small star or cross near its tip.

Overview

The Viking Monolith is a powerful Ice-based foe with deadly magic attacks. Its signature attack is a massive blue laser that deals severe damage on top of a dangerous Ice-based status effect, but it can also cast lesser Ice spells (often including a physical skill to circumvent players with high Magic Defence) or boost the stats of the entire enemy wave. It's also as durable as you'd expect a giant rock to be, with substantial HP and a plethora of resistances (including Fire, Thunder, and Bio).

Fortunately, the Viking Monolith also has a few exploitable flaws. Its Evade tends to be very low, its laser attack is highly telegraphed, and a few elements will still deal massive damage to it (usually Earth and/or Bomb). Inflicting Syphon will greatly reduce its options or leave it completely helpless, but keep in mind that it tends to be very resistant to the status.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

The Viking Monolith might lack fists (or anything resembling limbs, for that matter), but it definitely comes out swinging. Its first attack will be an enormous, highly accurate laser that hits the entire party for significant magical Ice damage and a decent chance of Freeze; if you're particularly unlucky or unprepared, all three players will be left Frozen or dead, giving the enemies a huge advantage. Fortunately, the laser can only be used every three turns after that, but the Viking Monolith has other Ice attacks to fall back on; the physical, part-elemental Ice Spike has a small chance of Instant Death (and slightly below-average Accuracy), while the magical Frost is all but guaranteed to Freeze its victim unless they have resistance to the status. It can also buff the offenses of every enemy at once; while it boosts Magic Attack much higher than Attack, the buff is significant enough to make all foes much more threatening, especially if they can hit a Frozen player.

The Viking Monolith can easily catch players off-guard, especially beginners, but strong resistances to Ice and Freeze can reduce its threat level. Regen is another option to mitigate the risk of Freeze while simultaneously healing from its attacks. Although it resists Syphon and Stun, either status can shut it down for a while; use the opportunity to take it down.

The Viking Monolith is weak to Bomb and especially Earth, takes neutral damage from Holy and Dark, and is immune to all other elements. It's also immune to Poison and highly resistant to Instant Death, Syphon and Stun.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

The Viking Monolith can support the enemy wave with a powerful offensive buff or assault the party with several different Ice attacks. It can cast Iceberg to hit one player hard or Ice Storm to assault the whole party at once; the latter has a Freeze chance, but it's low enough to be a non-issue unless you're astoundingly unlucky. The same cannot be said of its Blue Beam attack, which has a very high chance of inflicting a long-lasting Freeze...assuming the players survive the magical Ice damage. Fortunately, the laser is telegraphed by the Monolith gaining Charge status on its turn, giving the party a turn to prepare themselves or take it out.

High Magic Defence and Ice/Freeze resistance helps greatly against a Viking Monolith, but keep in mind that Iceberg is physical and only 50% elemental. Syphon is a better option, as it locks down all of its moves; use skills with a high infliction chance to circumvent its high resistance to the status. On the offensive side of things, hitting it won't be much of a problem thanks to its low base Evade; skills like Quake and Air Strike will have the most impact. For more prolonged battles, Weaken, Curse, and Tired can be used to reduce its stats or maintain the effect of other debuffs.

The Viking Monolith is immune to most elements, but it's extremely weak to Bomb and Earth while lacking resistance to Holy and Dark. In terms of status effects, it's resistant to Syphon, extremely resistant to Doom and Instant Death, and immune to Burn, Freeze, Stun, Poison, and Stagger. Activating "More Foe Resistance" makes it immune to Tired and Accuracy debuffs while enabling it to absorb Earth and Wind.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

When a Viking Monolith appears on the battlefield, you'll need more than a warm coat to endure the storm it'll send your way. Between Bubble Blast, Hurricane, and Ice Storm, it has plenty of options for magical pain that are only worsened by its high base Magic Attack. Its spells can inflict Light, Wet, and (rarely) Freeze on top of Evade and Magic Defence debuffs, enabling it to boost its own damage quite effectively. Its magic can also be used to buff the Attack of its allies or to give itself a Charge; the latter is a warning for its strongest spell, a powerful multi-target Wind laser with a great Chill chance. This attack is especially dangerous if the party is Wet from Bubble Blast; even without the risk of Freezing, it'll still let the Viking Monolith's Water and Ice attacks hit that much harder.

Higher difficulty levels only amplify the Viking Monolith's threat level by giving it several new tricks. Its laser gets an even higher Chill chance, it automatically casts Whirlwind on a random player when it Charges up, its buffing skill also grants Good Luck to all enemies, and it gains Reflex as an option to make all foes harder to hit. Worst of all, however, is its new countermeasure to having its magic sealed; hitting it with Syphon or Berserk will enable it to smash a player for significant, slightly Earth-based physical damage and a small chance of Stagger.

The Viking Monolith is noteworthy for being the only foe to drop Turnips, albeit with a 2% drop rate. It also has a very small chance to drop a Diamond, but it's a great source of Sacred Runes, being able to drop up to three at a time when defeated.

The Viking Monolith is weak to Ice and especially Bomb, and a pitiful Evade stat means that it won't be dodging much. On the other hand, it's got a lot of HP, a Wind absorption, and an immunity to Fire, Thunder, Earth, and Bio. It is also immune to many status effects and resistant to Syphon, but Wet, Dry, Bad Luck, Curse, Light, Heavy, and Dispel will work normally. Finally, it has a good amount of resistance to having its offenses, defenses, and Accuracy debuffed.

If "More Foe Resistance" is enabled, the Viking Monolith loses its Ice weakness and slightly reduces its Bomb weakness. Additionally, it's even more resistant to Syphon and immune to Bad Luck, Curse, Dispel, and Accuracy debuffs.

Adventure Story

The Viking Monolith's appearance in Adventure Story

The Viking Monolith appears in the later levels of the Snowy Mountain Range (the third world). It sits in place and fires off spreads of ice spikes in Matt's direction when he approaches it - the spikes can be deflected, but deal around 12 points of damage to Matt when they hit him. One of the safest ways to defeat it is to jump at its upper half and use Matt's aerial attack repeatedly; if done correctly, Matt will bounce in place, damaging the Monolith and deflecting most of its ice spikes.

The Golem boss summons Viking Monoliths with its burrowing attack in the final phase of its battle.

Statistics

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

	Viking Monolith	Unmovable Stone	EBF3
	Uses extremely powerful attacks and has much HP.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	Gold
	450	4	4	4	4	4	4	150	15	80
Elemental Resistance
	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	-70%	100%	-	-	-60%
Status Resistance
	100%	70%	-	-	-	70%	80%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon				-	-	-	-
Name	Ice Crystal	Amethyst	Light Rune	-	-	-	-
Chance	80%	60%	20%	-	-	-	-

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

	Viking Monolith	EBF4
	A monolith carved by viking explorers. Uses extremely powerful ice attacks and can buff itself.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	440	4	4	4	4	4	2	120	16	16	80	25
Elemental Resistance
	100%	100%	200%	-80%	100%	-80%	100%	100%	-	-
Status Resistance
	100%	100%	100%	-	100%	-	100%	50%	-	-	-	80%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon						-	-
Name	Mythril Shards	Concrete	Paper Talisman	Liquid Ice	Amethyst	-	-
Chance	5%	60%	50%	80%	50%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
Immune	Immune	12.5%	-16.(6)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Prior to the Battle Mountain update, no Monoliths had any Syphon resistance.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Viking Monolith	EBF4
	A monolith carved by viking explorers. Uses extremely powerful ice attacks and can buff itself.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	440	4	4	4	4	4	2	120	16	16	80	25
Elemental Resistance
	100%	100%	200%	200%	100%	-80%	200%	100%	-	-
Status Resistance
	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	-	100%	50%	-	-	-	80%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	100%	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon						-	-
Name	Mythril Shards	Concrete	Paper Talisman	Liquid Ice	Amethyst	-	-
Chance	5%	60%	50%	80%	50%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
Immune	Immune	12.5%	-16.(6)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

	Viking Monolith	EBF5
	A rock that's been here for a very long time. It uses wind, water and ice magic. Watch out for its chilling wind beam!

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	460	4	4	6	4	4	2	200	19	19	150	25	5
Elemental Resistance
	100%	100%	-50%	100%	100%	-80%	-	200%	-	-
Status Resistance
	100%	100%	100%	100%	50%	-	100%	-	-	100%	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	40%	40%	40%	40%	40%	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon
Name	Sacred Rune	Sacred Rune	Sacred Rune	Diamond	Turnip
Chance	50%	50%	50%	5%	2%

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
Immune	Immune	Immune	Immune	Immune	-16.(6)%
Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Viking Monolith	EBF5
	A rock that's been here for a very long time. It uses wind, water and ice magic. Watch out for its chilling wind beam!

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	460	4	4	6	4	4	2	200	19	19	150	25	5
Elemental Resistance
	100%	100%	-	100%	100%	-50%	-	200%	-	-
Status Resistance
	100%	100%	100%	100%	70%	100%	100%	-	-	100%	100%	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	40%	40%	40%	40%	80%	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon
Name	Sacred Rune	Sacred Rune	Sacred Rune	Diamond	Turnip
Chance	50%	50%	50%	5%	2%

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
Immune	Immune	Immune	Immune	Immune	-16.(6)%
Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Attacks and Abilities

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Ice Spike	Single	40		60%	10%	--		95%	20%	10%
Frost	Single	40		100%	90%	--		100%	10%	10%
Blue Beam	All	70		100%	40%	--		130%	10%	10%
Notes: Used the first turn, and then each third turn. On Epic difficulty, status chance is increased to 200%. Prior to the 2016 update, the attack instead had 70% status chance on all difficulties besides Epic.
Buff	Self Allies	--	--	----	--	70% 35%		--	--	--

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Iceberg	Single	75		50%	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Icestorm	All	26/3		100%	1.66%	2x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Prior to the v2 update, this attack had 1% status chance per hit. Prior to the Battle Mountain update, this attack instead had 78/3 power.
Charge	Self	--	--	----	--	2x		--	--	--
Notes: Charges to fire Blue Beam.
Blue Beam	All	90		100%	50%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Used every three turns if able, indicated by the Charge status the turn prior. Prior to the Battle Mountain update, the attack instead had 70 power, 33% status chance and 2x status strength.
Buff	Self Allies	--	--	----	--	70% 30%		--	--	--

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Slam	Single	100		25%	20%	1x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Can only be used when Syphoned or Berserked on Hard or Epic difficulties. After the v2 update, also removes Invisible from the target (this effect ignores Bless).
Whirlwind	Single	36/3		100%	60% 50%	2x 20%		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Is only used immediately after Charge on Hard or Epic difficulties. Before the v2 update, didn't inflict a Magic Defence debuff.
Bubble Blast	All	80/2		100%	50% 60%	2x 15%		100%	10%	10%
Hurricane	All	50		100%	60% 50%	2x 15%		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Before the v2 update, didn't inflict a Magic Defence debuff.
Ice Storm	All	45/3		100%	10%	2x		100%	10%	10%
Reflex	Allies	--	--	----	100%	25%		--	--	--
Notes: Can only be used on Hard or Epic difficulties.
Charge	Self	--	--	----	--	3x		--	--	--
Notes: Will cast Whirlwind immediately after using this attack on Hard or Epic difficulties (unless catch score >55 and all players are Lovable)
Chilling Wind Beam	All	100		100%	66%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Requires and expends Charge. Status chance increased to 133% on Hard or Epic difficulties.
Buff	Allies	--	--	----	--	30%		--	--	--
Notes: Also gives 3x Good Luck on Hard or Epic difficulties.

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.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

• Syphoned → Nothing;
• First turn and then each 3rd turn or/and Berserked → Blue Beam;
• Otherwise → Ice Spike (1/3), Frost (1/3), Buff (1/3).

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

• Spent 2 turns without Charge status → Charge on the same turn;
• Syphoned → Nothing;
• Charged → Blue Beam;
• Otherwise → Iceberg (1/3), Icestorm (1/3), Buff (1/3).

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Action

• If Syphoned or Berserked, <49% HP, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Surrender;
• If Syphoned or Berserked, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Nothing;
• If Syphoned or Berserked and playing on Hard/Epic → Slam;
• If Syphoned or Berserked → Nothing;
• If Charged → Chilling Wind Beam;
• Otherwise → Charge (1/4);
  • If a randomly selected ally has at least a 10% Attack buff;
    • If playing on Hard/Epic and a randomly selected ally has less than a 10% Evade buff → Reflex (3/16), Ice Storm (3/16), Hurricane (3/16), Bubble Blast (3/16);
    • Otherwise → Ice Storm (1/4), Hurricane (1/4), Bubble Blast (1/4);
  • Otherwise → Buff (1/4);
    • If playing on Hard/Epic and a randomly selected ally has less than a 10% Evade buff → Reflex (1/8), Ice Storm (1/8), Hurricane (1/8), Bubble Blast (1/8);
    • Otherwise → Ice Storm (1/6), Hurricane (1/6), Bubble Blast (1/6).

*Charge will immediately be followed by Whirlwind on Hard/Epic, unless catch score >55 and all players are Lovable.

Counter (only if Counter-Attacking Foes is enabled)

• 100% and <32% HP → Slam.

Summon

In EBF5, the Viking Monolith can be captured and used as a summon; it also has a small chance to be randomly summoned between turns by the Fur Dress. It uses its Buff spell to give Haste to all active players; while costly, being able to grant three extra actions to the party is extremely valuable and a key component of several "One-Turn Kill" strategies.

	Viking Monolith							SP
	Gives haste status to all allies, basically giving them an extra turn each.							135	Kept
Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Allies	--	--	----	--	1x		--	--	--
Note: Before the v2 update, cost 100 SP instead.

Trivia

• The Viking Monolith's runes appear to be slightly inspired by Celtic culture.