After the recent news that we’d be receiving Hard Mode Dungeons in Raid Shadow Legends, the wait is thankfully not a long one, as the patch is today!
We now have access to Hard Mode Dungeons, expanding the Fire Knight, Ice Golem, Dragon and Spider by another 10 stages, separately known as Hard Mode, with the core mechanics for each dungeon being enhanced and tweaked to make them a much tougher challenge!
Let’s take a look at what has changed for each of the dungeons, and over the coming days, you can expect lots of content on how to approach these dungeons and who you should be investing in!
Obviously, the release of this is perfectly in time with the 100% Silver Cost reduction when it comes to removing/moving around Artifacts, so gearing Champions for this new content will be significantly cheaper!
The changes to Dragon’s Lair are as follows on Hard Mode:
A2 Ability (Wall of Fire vs Mephitic Fire) – This ability no longer places 2 [Poison] and a [Weaken], it will now place 4 [Poison] debuffs alongside [Weaken].
The Dragon will still unlock its secret skill, where you’ll have to deplete the bosses health to prevent it from triggering, but if Tainted Hellrazor manages to get this skill off it’s significantly stronger on Hard Mode, instead of just being a strong AOE attack with a [Stun] debuff, this ability will now deal PURE damage, place an unresistible [Stun], and instantly activate ALL [Poison] Debuffs on your team, of course, you are able to negate this by dealing enough damage to the boss before it triggers, but be mindful that if this activates you will be in big trouble if you are not managing your [Poison] debuffs.
Hard Mode Dragon retains all of the existing passive skills from what we’re used to on Normal Dragon’s Lair, but alongside this, it shares the unique passive that all of the Hard Mode Dungeons have, where Awakened Champions will both deal more damage, and take less damage based on their awakening level.
The changes to Spider’s Den are as follows in Hard Mode:
A2 Ability (Enfeeble vs Torpefy) – This ability now has a 100% chance to decrease the Turn Meter by 30% instead of a 70% chance, and still places a [Sleep] Debuff if your turn meter is fully depleted, however, this can no longer be resisted.
Hard Mode will still spawn the same amount of Spiderlings as it would in Normal, with 6 being active at the start of the fight, a further 2 at the start of each enemy turn, maxing out at 10, and 4 spiderlings at the end of Tainted Skavag’s turn, and will continue to heal and boost her attack every time she consumes Spiderlings.
On top of the Passive Ability on Normal Mode that grants immunity to Heal Reduction, Tainted Skavag is also immune to Decrease SPD and HP Burn, and all Turn Meter reduction, but not only is Tainted Skavag immune to HP Burn, our old trusty friend for Spider, she will also heal by 1% for each HP Burn that activates on Spiderlings – But this passive skill actually enables our new method of killing this boss, as each time a Spiderling is killed, it will deal 3% Max HP damage to Tainted Skavag.
Hard Mode Spider retains all of the existing passive skills from what we’re used to on Normal Spiders Den, but alongside this, it shares the unique passive that all of the Hard Mode Dungeons have, where Awakened Champions will both deal more damage, and take less damage based on their awakening level.
The changes to Ice Golem are as follows in Hard Mode:
A2 Ability (Numbing Chill vs Debilitating Frost) – This ability now also decreases all Enemy Turn Meter by 30% as well as placing a 50% [Decrease ACC] debuff for 2 turns.
The Retaliation Passive was previously known as Frigid Vengeance but is called Frozen Reckoning on Hard Mode, but these abilities do not change, this will do the exact same by hitting back when Tainted Klyssus drops below 80%, 60%, 45%, 30% and 15% Health.
Ice Golem does gain a new passive skill on Hard Mode, making him completely immune to Poison and Poison Sensitivity debuffs, but increasing the damage he takes from HP Burn by 10%.
Whenever an HP Burn debuff is activated on Tainted Klyssus or his minions – it will destroy 10% of the minions’ MAX HP by 5%, and similarly, if a Smite Debuff from the Brimstone Awakening is triggered, it will destroy the minions’ MAX HP by 10% – These HP Reductions will cap out at 50%.
Hard Mode Ice Golem retains all of the existing passive skills from what we’re used to on Normal Ice Golem, but alongside this, it shares the unique passive that all of the Hard Mode Dungeons have, where Awakened Champions will both deal more damage, and take less damage based on their awakening level.
The changes to Fire Knight are as follows in Hard Mode:
The first change to Fire Knight is on the A1 ability, whilst still Destroying Enemy Max HP, it will now also ignore Shield Buffs, which is a minor change but may massively impact your survival.
The A2 ability which places Decrease SPD on Normal mode is still around, but not only does it drop your speed, it will also place a 60% [Decrease DEF] AND Destroy your MAX HP by 15% of the damage dealt.
The lovely shield mechanic remains intact with Fire Knight, however, it gets worse! The hard mode shield will now cap out at 21 stacks of the shield, which is a huge leap, but on top of this, every time you attack Tainted Fyro whilst the shield is active, you will destroy 1% of your MAX HP.
Tainted Fyro gains a brand new passive skill, which is the core mechanic around being able to beat this boss (outside of running lots of multi-hitting champions to deal with the initial shield) – Quell the Flames instantly removes any [Freeze] debuffs placed on Tainted Fyro and then decreases Tainted Fyro’s Turn Meter by 15% for each [Freeze] debuff placed on him, this is the new way to handle Tainted Fyro’s Turn meter due to him being IMMUNE to any other form of Turn Meter control, so you will want to bring multiple champions who can regularly place Freeze debuffs to prevent the shield going back up.
Hard Mode Fire Knight retains all of the existing passive skills from what we’re used to on Normal Fire Knight, but alongside this, there’s the addition of Turn Meter Control Immunity, and it shares the unique passive that all of the Hard Mode Dungeons have, where Awakened Champions will both deal more damage, and take less damage based on their awakening level.
