Difficulty: ★★★★★★★ Tier 3
The Xmas Surprise is the 6th and last boss currently featured in Star Warfare.
Introduction:[]
Xmas Surprise is the newest boss added to the game. It was added to the game in the update 2.70 (the 2013 Christmas update). As with all other bosses, it begins with a long alien wave that must be completed before fighting the actual boss. Keep in mind, for every additional player in your party, the health of the aliens and the boss goes up.
The aliens are fought in the new Crazy Carnival level, which is a wide open, snowy carnival map. Although the alien wave is similar in length to that of Serpent, it is much harder. Not only do the aliens have significantly more health, but there are three Mambulls, and each of them have about the same HP as Wrath of Mantis'. Each of these takes enormous amounts of damage to destroy. Once the initial wave is completed, the player will be teleported to the boss arena, which is where the real battle begins.
Xmas Surprise design from Freyr's Facebook page.
Loot[]
The boss itself drops a surprisingly small amount of loot relative to its difficulty. With the amount of health it has, one would expect it to drop significantly more than Serpent, but the base cash drop is only slightly greater.
- Mithril
- Drop: 2-4 Mithril
- Gold
- If you enter the boss stage with just yourself, the base amount you will get is: 639,998 gold.
- If you enter the boss stage with one other player, the base amount you will get is: 767,998 gold. (This is 20% more gold than just killing him by yourself)
- If you enter the boss stage with two other players, the base amount you will get is: 959,998 gold. (This is 50% more gold than just killing him by yourself)
Now multiply those numbers by 1.xx and replace the xx with the amount of "% gold" you have on your armor and backpack combined, which will give you how much gold you will earn for killing that boss with that amount of players.
The Boss:[]
Upon arriving at the arena, the player will find himself facing a robotic, hovering Santa Claus. In each hand, he has a weapon that looks like a cross between rotor blades and a rocket launcher. He has a phenomenal amount of health, which takes ages to chew down even with a maxed M27/MZ7 and a Hyperclip.
Xmas Surprise's Attacks:[]
Note that the attacks for the bosses are purely conjectural. These names will not be replaced until they are given official names.
Homing Missile Barrage: Xmas Surprise loads up his twin arm cannon and aims at the sky or horizon sight. Several missiles are fired (4 rockets per player) that move extremely fast; they also home in on its target (similar to the White Drill), making it extremely difficult to dodge without speed greater than 9. When he uses this attack, stop firing and run away, these rockets can take out a ton of HP per rocket. Each rocket deals approximately 4,000 damage each. The homing missiles appear to be rockets that are also fired from RPG-21, RPG-24, and RPG-31. When he uses this attack, run in one direction. If you run near another person while the missiles are fired, they won't home in on you, so don't worry. Just run directly away from the missiles. However, beware of running into the missiles that are targeted at another person, as they will still do damage, as will the splash damage.
Laser Sweep: Robo-Santa fires a bright orange laser beam that sweeps back and forth quickly across a 160° field of range. He usually does this right after Hover Drop. This laser attack deals high damage (about 10,000 per hit) and can hit players multiple times as it sweeps past. The beam itself travels much faster than the similar Double Rages attack. One way to dodge this attack is by moving backward, and it can be anticipated when Robo-Santa raises its arms and charges up. Another way is to run forwards, right underneath the laser, where Robo-Santa cannot hit you. However, the second option requires high speed to complete. Though not reliable, it is still possible to dodge this move while shooting. When it is aimed at another person, run as fast as you can out of the range of the sweep, preferably behind Robo-Santa.
Circus Ball Bombs: Robo-Santa rolls circus balls that roll along the ground and bounce off the walls, and will deal significant damage to the player. It is a fairly easy attack to avoid, providing the player is not too close to the boss. After the bombs explode purple gas remains for a few seconds and can damage the player. After this attack, he will perform the Spinning Strike.
Minefield: Xmas Surprise launches several spiky mines on the ground near him, which blow up after a short while and damage any players nearby. Note that the "smoke" left from the explosions deal damage to players, though only around 5,000. These mines also drop gold and energy after explosions, which makes Robo-Santa the only boss to drop items directly on the ground.
Hover Drop: Xmas Surprise will hover towards one player until he reaches attacking distance, then drops and exerts an invisible pulse which damages you and stuns you. It is easily dodged by running backward with a no-speed-penalty weapon (i.e Light Sword or Laser Gun). Each attack deals 10,000 HP damage.
Spinning Strike: The dreaded and infamous Spinning Strike is signaled when Robo-Santa swaps his robotic head for a clown face and laughs maniacally, turning into Maniac Surprise. This attack will be initiated after the boss loses a certain amount of health and has used Circus Ball Bombs. After tossing a few Circus Ball Bombs, the boss begins spinning and hurtles towards a chosen target. It tends to travel to each player in succession until it hits them or pauses for a new attack. The Spinning Strike attack travels extremely quickly: a set-up with a speed of at least 10 is necessary to reliably outrun it. However, if you run in circles and get lucky, it is possible to avoid the attack with just 10 speed. To outrun the boss, use a weapon with no speed penalty and run directly away from the boss (not backward.) If the boss targets you with the Spinning Strike, don't hug the walls while running; there are niches and crannies that you can get stuck in and get crushed by this attack. Rather, run in the open and cut close corners to avoid damage. Getting completely squashed by the Spinning Strike will result in instantaneous death, though if you only get knocked over once, it will only take off around 10,000 HP. Each spin lasts about 8-10 seconds. Usually, the boss will go towards another player after you've been hit, but will also sometimes continuously hit you even after you've been hit, so watch out!
Attack Strategies[]
Star Warfare Alien Invasion -- Flawless Xmas Surprise!
Soloing Xmas Surprise flawlessly (Faulty Blue)
- Bring Hyperclips and health packs/aid kits. Wear a strong armor, (Perseus and above), but the Thunder set is still effective for seasoned players. For weapons, bring a light weapon with no speed penalty, as dodging attacks is necessary to survive.
- If the boss starts the "Spinning Strike" attack and is aimed directly at you, start running immediately and don't stop to fire back unless you have at least speed of eleven (Cygni, X-Field, R.O.M.E Armor with 2+ SPD backpack, or Thunder Ability). Try to get not too large of a distance, Xmas Surprise will try to move directly in front of you. This would also prove a situational moment for the Thunder ability to be viable.
- NOS boosters definitely help in this battle, as they grant a significant +2 speed to dodge any oncoming attacks especially Spinning Strike.
- F.L.O.A.T. and D-wings are good backpacks to bring to Xmas Surprise as both of them provide additional speed and health regeneration ability (D-wings only) which come in handy.
- If you have SHIELD backpack and your HP is low ("low" being about 20000-30000), use the ability immediately or you will die from laser beams or a homing missile barrage that can easily wipe you out in a few hits, even at full health.
- When Xmas Surprise is using its homing missile attack, the best strategy that you could employ in order not to get hit (or minimize damage taken) is running towards the boss in a circle or running towards Xmas Surprise to get behind it. As soon as it is about to fire the missiles, run around the boss, but don't get too close, or you will get hit and take damage.
Recommend Equipment[]
Armors[]
- Thunder Armor (For increased power and speed)
- R.O.M.E Armor (Well-rounded HP, power and speed)
- Knight Armor (Very similar performance to the R.O.M.E., but slightly slower)
- X-Field Armor (HP, speed, and a recovery ability that effectively makes you temporarily invulnerable)
Weapons[]
- Machine Guns (Power and DPS, particularly the M-Z7B2)
- Assault Rifles (Mainly the AST-KK; for speed when dodging Robo-Santa's attacks)
- Laser Guns (For speed when dodging Robo-Santa's attacks)