Backpack Hero – How to Beat the Final Boss

This guide explains how to reach Disorder, the last boss, what you’ll encounter in his two stages, and suggestions for defeating him.

Keep in mind, this is still a draft, and I plan to add more information in the future.

The Journey

Let’s make this easy. First, play Story Mode. Do all the quests, unlock all the levels, and characters.

Then, build the beacon and finish a run with each character, reaching level 9.

Now, start a Standard Run with Purse. Reach level 9, and there will be a second staircase.

I tried special runs; they didn’t have the extra staircase. However, Hard Mode did, so quests from defeating Disorder or those quests might give access to him.

Using the special staircase triggers an in-game animation. Your friends show up, unlock the door, and you get a few levels with only a preview of Disorder. No vendors, monsters, chests, etc. Disorder is on floor 12.

Important: After defeating the boss on level 9, there’s no place to increase HP or send items to town. However, your items will arrive in town when you defeat Disorder.

The Fight

Phase 1

In the initial stage, Disorder has 250 health points. During this phase, he uses different attacks:

1. He deals 21 damage and puts a Hex on you. The Hex is a 2×2 area, and it takes 3 energy to remove. The removal cost decreases by 1 energy each turn.
2. Disorder inflicts 27 damage and causes 13 points of poison damage.
3. Another attack in this phase is a 21 damage hit along with two Lil Hexes. The Lil Hexes are 1×1 in size, and it costs 3 energy to remove them. The removal cost reduces by 1 energy each turn.

Phase 2

In the second phase, Disorder’s health increases to 999. In this phase, he uses the following attacks:

1. A single hit dealing 35 damage.
2. Two consecutive hits of 21 damage each.

Disorder possesses a special ability in Phase 2. If he takes more than 300 damage in one turn, he gains a shield with 999 points.

It’s important to note that the first attack of Phase 2 initiates immediately after defeating Phase 1, so you need to be prepared for a 35-point hit.

These are the damages observed in the early rounds, and they may increase over time with some variability. I’ll update if I encounter more attacks, and please let me know if you notice any additional ones.

Tips

His moves are quite simple, especially in the initial stage. In the first phase, he mirrors creatures you’ve encountered before, like the Corrupted Sage, but hits harder and inflicts more poison.

Let’s break down the crucial elements of this battle:

• Auto-shield every 300 damage
• Hexes
• High damage/turn
• Poison stacks

Poison is a major threat. While it’s the first challenge you face, we’ll discuss it last as it requires special attention to mitigate.

Auto-Shield

This task is pretty simple. You get to choose your preferred method.

• Choose your favorite way to reduce the damage from poison (I explain various options below) and gradually defeat him.
• Use attacks that go through shields, like poison, burn, or piercing (there’s at least one lance with this capability).
• Land the final blow with a significant hit (just below 300, then strike hard).

Refer to the “Burn Disorder Down Fast” for an illustration of handling both poison and auto-shields.

Keep in mind: Burn technically doesn’t penetrate shields, but it might work due to the timing. I haven’t personally tested Damage over Time effects on him. Additionally, it might be considered part of your next turn’s 300 damage. Again, it’s a work in progress.

Dealing with the Hexes

I usually don’t think they cancel out things behind them, but I’m careful just in case. When dealing with items, especially those with activation, I cover up only part of what I need. For example, if there are two 2×2 items side by side, I cover half of each with a larger one. If it’s anything larger than 2×1, I use a Lil Hex to cover part of it. This includes keys, pouches, loot (even that arrow you found that you won’t use right away), things that you don’t need in the middle of a fight.

Some items, like the catapult, can clear hazards, but I’ve never bothered with it. Your way of playing might be different from mine, though.

High Damage

In Phase 2, things get going at 35 and then kick up a notch at 42. Blocking this is crucial, and while there are many methods, explaining them is more about basic gameplay than specific fight advice, so it’s a bit beyond our focus.

However, here are a few ways:

• Equip several armors and get +2 haste/round. This not only aids with the damage scaling in a prolonged battle but may require early blocking or using consumables. The minimum +2 haste is mentioned because it helps increase armor gradually.
• Have plenty of energy and a shield, possibly with +haste forged into it. This can be an effective strategy.
• Find a reliable way to gain 2 dodge every other round, like wearing 2x Ninja clothes.
• Utilize a combination of armor and regen to endure the damage over time.
• Swiftly deal with Burn Disorder to mitigate its impact. More details below.

Poison Damage

13 poison is quite potent. Assuming you’ve reached 40-50 HP, it will still take you down in 4-5 turns, regardless of your armor. In Phase 2, he generates 999 shields each time you deal 300 damage in a turn, extending a conventional fight to at least 4-5 rounds. Hence, we might need an unconventional strategy. Here are a few suggestions:

Cleanse the Poison

There are a lot of items that can remove the poison.

Clean Burn

• I usually save these for their curse-removal ability, but they also cleanse your statuses. Not that this will also wipe out all your rage, haste, and dodge too. This also requires that you have another item to sacrifice. If you’re relying on this, make sure you wait until the end of Phase 1, since it only works once (unless you have more candles and items to destroy).

Cleansing Rag

• Pro: Only removes poison
• Con: Only 1 stack/swing.

I’m not saying this is the best approach, but if you have enough energy (you picked up an Ore, right?), it’ll do the job. If not, it’ll at least mitigate the poison enough to survive it. At 2 attacks/round, 13 poison will only deal 26 damage. If you think you’ll have to spend most of your energy blocking, pick up a dagger or two and make sure they’re adjacent.

Swamp Buckler

• Only removes poison, turns it into much-needed block. What’s the downside? Oh yeah, it’s hard to find and completely useless in most fights up until now. But I suppose not everyone avoids the Brambles and the Swamp. Still, not a lot of poison in act 3… Unless you also have the vampiric halberd. Great combo. Anyway, if you have this against Disorder, then the poison won’t matter. Good job, this fight turned easy. Note that the Venom Sword also derives its stats from your stacks of poison, but does NOT cleanse them.

Cleansing Potion

• Heal through the Poison
• Unmitigated, 13 stacks is a lot of damage to heal through (91).
• Assuming you have 50 hp (40 to start, +5 at the end of acts 2 and 3), you’ll need 42 healing or 9 stacks of regen to survive. If you’re building up regen each turn, you’ll need at least 2/turn. Two forges of +1 regen to rings should barely do it.
• There’s a lot of ways to heal, and having just the minimum means you better block every point of incoming damage.

Prevent the Poison

• Stopwatch or Bolas will put Disorder to sleep for 1 round. Use them when he poisons you.

Burn Disorder Down Fast

• Only have 4-5 rounds to kill Disorder? Then do that. In my last two runs, I was lucky enough to find my favorite relic, Ore. By “lucky”, I mean i horded a ton of dice and rerolled to get it. Then I sold every Legendary or Relic I didn’t need (along with a few rares) until each shopkeeper told me he wouldn’t buy anything else (3/shopkeeper). Then I put a few forges of +1 rage on my favorite weapon (30 gold a piece is hard to do when every 40 is an energy, but it’s worth it). By the time the fight ended, I’m dealing over 100/swing with a dozen swings per round. If you have a few different weapons with different damage values, you can make sure you get close to the 300 limit in phase 2, then hit him hard.
• Alternatively, weapons that pierce shields (there’s a lance that does it) or stacking poison on him will also work. Forging poison on weapons is much cheaper than rage anyway.
• You may have luck with alternative methods of burning down (cleavers come to mind). This wouldn’t be much of a game if there were only one way. Still, I find Ore to be a particularly reliable way to win. Even if you don’t have rage, it still ensures you have the energy you need to shield the incoming damage.