As part of the Clear Skies update, Dauntless recently delivered major changes to the free-to-play monster-hunting video game. The game felt fresh with a newly designed Ramsgate, offering better utilized real estate and the means to get around quicker with aether vents. Last week, the Untamed Wilds update was dropped as the anticipated new Terra Escalation.
In Escalations, players compete against and hunt several behemoths in stages of 1 or 2 at a time. If the full escalation is chosen and you are successful, the escalation is capped by a boss.
In the past, the Malkarion, Torgadoro, and Thrax have defended the shock, blaze, and umbral escalations. New to the fray is Agarus, a fungal Behemoth. Flanking its sides are a few new Sporestruck variants of familiar Behemoths.
A few months ago, we ranked all of the Behemoths. Let’s discuss and rate the new ones!
Sporestruck Charogg
Previously, I ranked the Firebrand Charrogg in the D tier. While I like its design, it’s simply not a threat.
Essentially, it’s a pinata with a few blow torches in its armpits. Not very fast, and outclassed by its blaze Behemoth brethren, the Charrogg doesn’t have enough versatility to earn a higher rank.
The Sporestruck Charrogg is better in some ways and worse in others. Let me state an obvious and, at the same time, a disappointing fact first. The Sporestruck variant is unfortunately just a palette and element swap.
Most of the fire moves have been replaced by poison moves. The aforementioned fire-armpit move is now a poison-armpit move. Instead of creating rage-filled fire pools, rage-filled poison pools are created. Underwhelmingly, all of the physical moves have been carried over.
All except my favorite move from the Firebrand! The Sporestruck Charrogg doesn’t belch out a slow-moving, heat-seeking ball of destruction. Seeing a poison form of this would have been great. Instead, the designers opted to have him throw a large poison ball.
It simply doesn’t move the meter enough. But the aesthetic design is top-notch! Just look at it!
Grade: D Tier
Sporestruck Embermane
The Bloodfire Embermane garnered a C tier before. The spammy, charging rhino-lion is a fairly polarizing Behemoth. If you can’t interrupt it, you are in for a long and frustrating fight. If you can, it’s basically a walk in the park.
Let’s talk about the look first. The Sporestruck Embermane is brilliantly designed. At first, it was difficult to even know it was an Embermane variant. Some users on Reddit discussed thinking it was a Riftstalker, at first. Once the charging started, I’m sure that confusion was cleared up!
The moveset of the Sporestruck Embermane is highlighted by an above-the-head, earth-bending staircase ascension concluded by a slam back to the ground. My entire squad ooo-ed and ahh-ed during the initial execution of this move. Regardless of its effectiveness, it’s one of the most spectacular moves in all of Dauntless.
Similar to the Sporestruck Charrogg, the Sporestruck Embermane is missing one of the feature moves. The long-distance sprinkler-motioned fire breathing attack has not been ported over to a poison variant. Still, this version of the Embermane just feels better to me.
Grade: B Tier
Agarus
Some wanted a spider. Others wanted a frog or chameleon.
We got… Agarus.
Agarus is a spore-spawning, mushroom/tree hybrid thingy. Outside of all of that, Agarus is a threat!
Attack Phase
While not completely immobile, Agarus is the most stationary Behemoth in Dauntless to date. Rooted in the center, hilariously and unfortunately, over the aether vent, Agarus doesn’t move his position much.
Don’t think that means you can grab some Repeaters and shoot at it from a safe distance. Agarus has a myriad of ranged attacks.
At times he’ll expand his roots and spin them around the entire battle arena. It also spawns green, heat-seeking balls of destruction.
If you decide to close the distance expect to be fighting in pools of poison while dodging heavy slams from the arborous monster. During the battle, mushrooms will spawn that, when destroyed, reveal aether vents to shoot you on top of Agarus. Otherwise, good luck!
Summary
Overall, Agarus provides a unique challenge, and it’s great that the developer are trying new things. When I first played against the Thrax I thought he had the potential to be the most difficult Behemoth yet. The Malkarion must have been laughing when he read that article. Being away from Dauntless, combined with the newness of Agarus and not yet fully figuring out its attack patterns, are obvious factors here.
However, I do think Agarus belongs among the top tier of Behemoths. It may end up being #2 or #3 as time passes but I’m loving the challenge!
Grade: S Tier
Terra Escalation
The Umbral Escalation really upped the ante as far as world design for Dauntless. It was beautiful.
The purples and pinks were stunning and created an epic atmosphere as you dove your way through the caves to the Thrax. I didn’t think it could get better.
They did it again
Upon my first trip into the Terra Escalation, I was awed. Again, my first impression was admiration at the beauty of the level design. All the shades of greens, the giant mushrooms, the swamps, the giant trees, the treetop bridges worked so well!
Something about fighting a giant Agarus on a much larger tree is the perfect amount of Dauntless inception! My favorite stage aesthetically, ironically my least favorite for its challenges, is the 3rd stage of the 10-50 Escalation where you fight in the swamp. The pools of poison, paired with the right Behemoth, can make this a beautiful mess!
I can say with confidence, start to finish, this is my favorite Escalation to look at.
The Meta
In the Umbral Escalation, wounding was the meta. Seeing a full squad of Godhand wielding slayers wasn’t uncommon. Elemental Summoner, my favorite amp from the Umbral escalation, returns in Terra-form, being summoned through shield development.
There are other amps to look at in the Terra Escalation. Shield Sphere and Shrapnel which support the Shield Elemental Summoner. Outside of that Pact of Hunger is a great way to boost your life-stealing abilities for the following round.
Grade: S Tier
How are you enjoying the Terra Escalation?
What do you think? How does the Terra Escalation stack up against the other escalations in Dauntless?
Where do you rank the Agarus amongst the other bosses? Did they hit the mark? What escalation would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!
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