Necropolis Formula

FOR L/D ONLY

December 10th 2020

My goal with this guide is that by the time you are done reading this your understanding for this dungeon will be somewhat to significantly improved as well as you knowing all your options to use as of today. Now since one of the last updates, they made every boss do the exact same skills on every level, aka Necro B1 through B12 use all the same skills, same AI, same everything. Of course the stats go up as well as resistance which can get tricky. As your rune quality goes up, so does your floor level but the strategy never changes EXCEPT that in Necropolis, the number of hits required to break through his shield increases as the levels get higher. Every dungeon basically has a formula to have the best chance of beating it safely. NOTE: I recommend ignoring mini boss adds in this dungeon as they are not very threatening just focus down dark lich (Grego).

Necro boss gains a shield that cannot be stripped or bypassed in any way that refreshes every turn that he takes so you need multi hit monsters to break through it before you can even start doing damage. Turn order is very important here. There is a speed cap in this boss fight (not the rest of the dungeon however) of 120 speed so ruening your monsters pass 120 speed is literally a waste of stats vs the boss only, it doesn’t mean the speed isn’t useful to GET to the boss though (I still recommend 170 speed+ for B12 so your whole team gets a turn before any trash monsters). The other mechanic he does is on his 3rd turn, he will steal your highest damage monster and use it against you, so now you need to choose to kill it to get it back on your team or ignore it and try to finish off boss. The longer the boss fight takes, the more turns he takes, the stronger he gets, beware. Also, when you kill him, he will rez with 50% hp, then you have 6 turns to kill him again before his auto rez comes off cool down. It's sort of a race to kill him twice asap. He also heals himself based on damage done so hp disrupt and attack break can be important here until you can speed run him down.

Note: It is popular belief that the speed cap for this boss is 130 speed but in reality it is 120 speed. Here is a link to support this fact with extensive testing done:

https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerswar/comments/jy933b/necropolis_nb12_speed_cap_120/

There is a basic formula for almost literally every aspect of the game

You need 1-2 Damage dealers, 1-2 support monsters may that be healers or buffers or cleansers and you need some kind of crowd control monster that can preferably AOE control to keep your team alive and of course hopefully there is a good leader skill in there to further buff your stats. So, how does one counter this as LD only? Lets go through it step by step with the most viable monsters available to most.

(I won’t be going over every monsters entire skillsets, just what is relevant for each section.)

For his shield we have a long list of multi hit monsters:

Arkajan (Light Yeti) x2 hits on s1-s2 and 50% to counter when allies hit.
Jansson(Light Viking) x3 hit s2
Kabilla (Light Harpy) multi hit s1-s2
Elpuria (Light Serpent) x3 hit s2
Sia (Light Harpu) x2 hit s1 and x6 hit s3
Eshir (Light Werewolf) x4 hit s3
Darion (Light Vagabond) x2 hit s2
Silver (Light Living Armor) x3 hit s2
Tien Quin (Light Drunken Master) x3 hit s3 plus chance to proc s1 with any skill.
Glidodon(Light Lizardman) x2 hit s1
Baekdu (Light Beast Hunter) x3 hit s3
Dona (Light Penguin Knight) x2 hit s2
Neal (Light Fairy) x3 hit s1
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) x3 hit s1
Loren (Light Cowgirl) x3 hit s1 and x2 hit s2
Hiro (Light Martial Artist) x3 hit s2
Sahara (Light Mummy) x2 hit s1
Driller (Light Frankenstein) x2 hit s1 and x6 hit s3 (You wont get x8 hits since his hp will always be lower than bosses)
Lucien (Light Elven Ranger) x2 hit s1
Walkers (Light Bounty Hunter) x2 hit s1
Elsharion (Light Ifrit) x3 hit s2
Hommunculus x3 hit s1 and potential other skills.
Sorin (Dark Fairy) x3 hit s1 and x2 hit s2
Camaryn (Dark Pixie) x2 hit s3
Cassie (Dark Cow Girl) x3 hit s1, x2 hit s2 and x2 hit s3
Kumae (Dark Yeti) x2 hit s1
Hellea (Dark Harpy) x2 hit s1 and x2 hit s2
Kro (Dark Inugami) s2 is a team up skill so inherently a multi hit x2+
Seren (Dark Harpu) x2 hit s1, multi hit s2 and x4 hit s3 (I 6* her for necro specifically and cleared it on the first day it came out on old meta account in 2015)
Haken (Dark Bearman) x2 hit s3
Jultan (Dark Werewolf) x2 hit s2
Mara (Dark Amazon) x2 hit s2
Miho (Dark Martial Car) x2 hit s2
Rasheed (Dark Epikion Priest) x3 hit s3
Jaime (Dark Bounty Hunter) x2 hit s1 and x2+ hits s2 RNG depending
Loque (Dark Imp Champion) x5 hit s3
Gina (Dark Witch) x4 hit s3
Zinc (Dark Living Armor) x3 hit s3
Wei Shin (Dark Drunken Master) x3 hit s2 and x3 hit s3 and chance to proc s1
Karakum (Dark Mummy) x2 hit s1
Crawler (Dark Frankenstein) x2 hit s1
Eirgar (Dark Vampire Lord) x2 hit s1 and x3 hit s2
Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

How to deal with boss shield:

I’ve shown you all your options for multi hitters above. What you need is 2-4 multi hitters that will strip his shield and hopefully have defense break/ branding applied to open the way for your BIG damage to happen. Having a slow applied to boss and speed buff on your team gives you a significant advantage during this fight as well. As you can imagine, turn order is very important here. You don’t want Kro or Shamann wasting their attacks against a shield and doing no damage. Instead, you want units like Loren, fran and light homunculus that don’t really do any damage to begin with to break the shield and open the way for the hard hitters. Choose wisely as there are obviously monsters that are better and more consistent than others. I recommend using monsters that have multi hits on more than one skill as well as have debuffs like defense break, slow, hp disrupt and branding. Violent runes, revenge runes and team up skills are invaluable here.

Healers:

Shushu (Light Howl) can actually single and AOE heal quite nicely and bring situational immunity but has low stats since she is a Nat 2. Immunity not really required in this dungeon and no Multi hits.
Jansson (Light Viking) has a poor AOE healing but bring excellent attack bar increase (Budget Verdehile) His S2 is a triple hit.
Teon (Light Garuda) now here is an underrated monster if I've ever seen one. Good AOE healing, can rez, turn cycling, stuns, what can't this birdy do. Oh wait nvm, he dosen't multi hit.
Ahman (Light Bearman) excellent healing every single turn if built correctly, solid choice as a healer but does not multi hit so not recommended here.
Tien Quin (Light Drunken Master) Between his S2 and S3 healing he is a good healer as well but built for more aggressive team and better rune quality. He does a triple hit with S3 which could prove useful with a chance to proc S1 which could be great with proper turn order.
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) Everyone's favorite. AOE healing, single target healing, AOE attack buff, attack break, this queen can be used literally everywhere in the game AND she has a triple hit S1. Solid choice.
Belladeon (Light Inugami) great AOE healing, great attack bar boosting, very good choice as a healer overall but unfortunately will not help us much in Necro since no multi hit.
Eshir (Light Werewolf) Moderate AOE healing with AOE speed buff. He has multi hit S3 but long cooldown, not terrible but not ideal here ether.
Rasheed (Dark Epikion Priest) Is now a reasonable choice as a healer/cleanse/buff extender since her rescent buff. She also has a triple hit S3 so could be used here under the right turn order.
Basalt (Dark Battle Mammoth) Good AOE healing and AOE defence buffer but no multi hit.
Light homunculus is a good secondary healer with a variety of buffs depending on skills chosen. Rock on S3 is very good here, as well as S1 is a triple hit, highly recommended.
Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

Leaders:

When it comes to leaders in Cairos you want more Speed/ Attack Power/ Critical Rate/Health Points or Defense. You should be ruening accuracy into your monsters and don’t waste your time with resistance.

Attack power leaders:

Prom (Light Grim Reaper) 30% attack power to light only.
Loren (Light Cow Girl)18% attack power to all.
Elsharion (Light Ifrit) 33% attack power to all.
Shamman (Light Griffon) 30% attack power to light only.
Hellea (Dark Harpy) 30% attack power to dark only.
Thrain (Dark Grim Reaper) 30% attack power to dark only.
Cassie (Dark Cow Girl) 18% attack power to all.
Eirgar (Dark Vampire Lord) 38% attack power in dungeons.

Speed leaders:

Walkers (Light Bounty Hunter) 23% speed to light only.
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) 10% speed to all.
Rumicus (Light Charger Shark) 23% speed to light only.
Lucien (Light Elven Ranger) 15% speed to all.
Janssen (Dark Viking) 10% speed to all.
Calicus (Dark Charger Shark) 23% speed to dark only.

Health points leaders:

Teon (Light Garuda) 17% health points to dungeons.
Groggo (Light Golem) 30% health points to light only.
Grotau (Light Minotaur) 30%health points to light only.
Baekdu (Light Beast Hunter) 21% health points to dungeons.
Dona (Light Penguin Knight) 30%health points to light only.
Lusha (Light Warbear) 15% health points to all.
Kumae (Dark Yeti) 25% health points to dark only.
Kamatau (Dark Minotaur) 30% health points to dark only.
Kuna (Dark Penguin Knight) 30% health points to dark only.
Veromos (Dark Ifrit) 33% health points to all.

Defense leaders:

Sia (Light Harpu) 25% defense to light only.
Ahman (Light Bearman) 30% defense to light only.
Marble (Light Battle Mammoth) 30% defense to light only.
Seren (Dark Harpu) 25%defenceto dark only.
Haken (Dark Bearman) 30% defense to dark only.
Basalt (Dark Battle Mammoth) 30% defense to dark only.

Critical rate leaders:

Eludain (Light Inferno) 23% critical rate to light only.
Shren (Light High Elemental) 23% critical rate to light only.
Drogan (Dark Inferno) 23% critical rate to dark only.
Jumaline (Dark High Elemental) 23% critical rate to dark only.

Note: These are all the leaders available for F2P but some are definitely better than others. I just don’t want to limit your creativity :)

Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

Crowd control:

In my opinion there is no specific crowd control needed for this dungeon. The crystal towers don’t apply defense break or slow but they can stun but it’s very RNG reliant and the odds are that you will kill them much sooner than they will kill you. Plus you will have a healer with you keeping you safe. However I do recommend the following stats for things to run smoothly.

General stat requirements:

These requirements are so your units can all take a few hits from ether the trash monsters or the boss in case your healer/ sustain derps or the boss fight goes on much longer as he gets stronger with every turn. These are the stats required for the other dungeons and you might be using the same units in all the dungeons so best to keep it consistent however, in my opinion you can get by with less defensive stats here. NOTE: There is one thing to take into consideration in this dungeon, the fact that units that can nuke can one shot themselves against the trash monster that have reflect damage. What you need to do here is test your monsters nuking capability against the trash, and increase defensive stats/ reduce offensive stats until they no longer one shot themselves. In any case, these are the stats you should have at the BARE minimum for Necro B12 for things to go well. Keep in mind these calculations are WITH MAX Glory towers/ MAX Guild bonuses but NO Leader skills.

• 17000 Health points (If you have more HP then this then you can have a bit less defense)

• 1000 Defense (If you have more defense than this then you can have a bit less hp)

• 170 Speed (To ensure you get a turn before the 169 speed enemy monsters)

• 54% Accuracy needed on monsters that apply (Like Loren for attack bar control and strip)

Due to popular demand, I also have rough calculations on required stats WITHOUT ANY towers/ guild bonuses or leader skills.

19500 - 21500 Health points (Depends how high the monsters base Health points are)
1200 - 1350 Defense (Depends how high the monsters base defense is)
185 - 195 Speed (Depends how high the monsters base speed is)
Note: These calculations are without a leader skill as calculating all leader skill potentials would take forever. So if you just can't match the health points requirement then use a HP leader to close the gap as an example.

If all your towers and guild bonuses are about half way then you need about half way in between the two stat requirements I previously mentioned. The most important thing is that all your monsters move before any of the enemies then during the boss that you have the right turn order.

Yup, those are the only stats you really need to know for now. Obviously, your support units and healers are at least this tanky but probably tankier by the time you are ready for B12. Your damage dealers however, are a bit more tricky to rune since you want to squeeze every ounce of damage stats in as you can. SO, for damage dealers, meet the above requirements then everything else is damage stats! IF you just cant seem to get those tankier stats on your damage dealers, consider using an HP/ Def leader, having a unit on shield runes or equipping artifacts that have a minus dark damage reduction sub stat. IF you have just tried everything and it just seems a bit out of your league, I recommend staying in B11 a bit longer till you find a few more rune upgrades on your current team as the stat requirements (including speed for trash only) are roughly 10%- 15% less overall). Damage dealers should have at least 1500 Attack/Defense, 70% crit rate and 150% crit damage at the bare minimum although you may need to fine adjust your nukers specifically.

Summary:

Now that you see what you need and your options are laid before you, now you get to pick what you want to use. Yes, there are a lot of options, yes there are overall better options than others and yes with good enough runes literally any combination is possible to beat it with as long as you follow the formula. Just remember that you need multi hitters followed by hard hitters for success and its extra helpful if thay are on violent runes and even better if they are on revenge!

There are many nat 4 and 5 monsters I did not touch on since you ether need to have gotten the Hall of Heroes or need to have summoned it. I will leave it to your digression to look at your uncommon monsters skill sets and see if they fit better than any of the F2P options. I will however answer questions, do more focused guides, advanced guides and expand on the options as time goes on. This is mostly so you understand the dungeon without me telling you exactly what you should be doing, more like just guiding you, thus this GUIDE ;)

Theory Crafting:

Now, lets go over some of the most commonly used monsters, this applies to ALL levels depending on rune quality.

Lets say your trying a more aggressive team to start. Note: I did not go over damage dealers as the sky is the limit since anyone can really be runed to deal descent damage. I will let you experiment but I will give advice of course :) When building a team in almost every situation you want your Attack bar controls/ Defense breakers/ Buffers/ Strippers to move before any damage dealers and in this dungeons case, your multi hitters need to move first. Keep that in mind. NOTE: Attack bar reducers and increasers are ineffective during this dungeon boss fight and strips are useless.

Eirgar (L) (one of best offence dungeon leaders possible with attack buff and vampire buff for sustain as well as epic single target debuffs and lots of multi hits!)
2A Kro (not rivalled by many in the single target damage output department with team up multi hit skill)
Loren (defense break setup almost guaranteed and insane attack bar reducer (not effective vs this boss unfortunately), both her skills provide multi hits!
Belladeon (Great AOE healing and attack bar increase (not effective vs this boss unfortunately).
2A Gorgo (Good AOE damage plus crowd control and AOE attack break with minor attack bar reduction which has no effect on boss sadly)

The turn order should be: Loren, Eirgar, Belladeon, Gorgo then Kro.

On paper this team makeup looks good! Now, lets say you keep getting to final boss but are not consistently getting through shield to deal damage. Now that means you need more multi hitting to happen or to tune your turn order better. Well, lets look at your turn order just in case: Loren goes first because she is used everywhere else and is runed fast, Eirgar moves second to setup attack buff, Belladeon moves third, Gorgo 4th and lastly Kro for big damage. Well that turn order works well but do we really need Belladeon and Gorgo? What if we added more multi hitters? Let’s try:

Loren
Eirgar
Cassie (Good Multi Hitting and big damage)
Seren (Excellent Multi Hitting and defense break setup potential)
2A Kro

The turn order should be: Loren, Eirgar, Cassie, Seren then Kro.

Now this team should wrek stuff right? Well let’s say when you get to boss, your sustain from vampire buff isn’t cutting it because half your monsters are hitting the shield and not actually healing anything back but it looks like you really fixed your multi hitting problem. Let’s try one more time:

Loren
Fran (better sustain for this particular boss fight)
Cassie
Seren
2AKro

Turn order should be: Loren, Fran, Cassie, Seren then Kro.

Ahh, now with Fran, things are going smoothly. Still room for progress but it’s a solid start for farming and your happy overall with the success rate and speed for now. Notice it has 1-2 Damage dealers, 1-2 supports/healers and crowd control was not really required here so we have a bonus damage dealer instead. If you are still failing you are too high on the levels and need to go down a notch and increase rune quality once more. You do need to deal a certain amount of damage to boss here or eventually he will overwhelm you since he gets stronger and stronger with each turn he gets!

If you look at the last 3 pictures you can see that his damage is increasing with each turn he takes, looking at Kro specifically. Also looking at the 2 pictures below, he has a self rez which if you cant kill him gain within 6 turns, he will continue to self rez and his power continues to increase. So in theory there is a time limit on this fight before you cannot keep up with his damage anymore.

Eventually with my help I have no doubt you will end up victorious! This Lich dosen't stand a chance.

I hope this all somewhat makes sense and that it helped, if it helped at least one person then it was worth it! In the future I will be making speed team guides!

Here is a what a smooth run should roughly look like