Overview
The aim of this guide is to help people improve at FSC and learn advanced tricks about rooms, so you will get through faster and easier. The guide will thoroughly take you through what to do at each place in the Citadel. Including gear recommendations.
Armor/Shield Recommendations
Recommended Armor Set & Shield
Chaos Cowl, Black Kat Cowl (BKC), Divine Veil, Sacred Firefly Ghost/Shade/Sentinel Helm, Grey Feather Cowl, Perfect Mask of Seerus, Shadowsun Stetson, Volcanic Plate Helm, Volcanic Demo Helm or Vog Cub Cap
Chaos Cloak, Black Kat Raiment (BKR), Divine Mantle or Sacred Firefly Ghost/Shade/Sentinel Armor, Grey Feather Mantle, Shadowsun Slicker, Volcanic Plate Mail, Volcanic Demo Suit or Vog Cub Coat
Swiftstrike Buckler, Crest of Almire (CoA), Omegaward, Volcanic Plate Shield, Dread Skelly Shield, Grey Owlite Shield, Power Mitt or Barbarous Thorn Shield (BTS)
Weapon Recommendations
Recommended Weapons
Combuster, Warmaster Rocket Hammer (WRH), Overcharged Mixmaster, Celestial Orbitgun, Iron Slug, Callahan or Voltedge
Blitz Needle or Plague Needle
Umbra Driver
Nova Driver or Storm Driver
Arcana
Polaris or Wildfire
Electron Vortex/Graviton Vortex/Obsidian Crusher/Celestial Vortex
Voltaic Tempest, Venom Veiler or Torpor Tantrum
Other working weapons
I (I personally) do not recommend freezing weapons like the Glacius, Hail Driver, or Shivermist Buster.
Freezing enemies can be handy, but with the lots of slags in FSC can get you surrounded and unable to escape if the slags are frozen. They cannot be Shieldbumped but they can still attack you. Frozen Slags cannot be dragged around by Vortex type bombs.
AND
Glacius’ DPS is significantly lower than the Combuster’s or Voltedge’s. This is because the slags cannot ‘ride the wave’ and will not suffer from all the explosions that way. (Though they cannot ride the wave good even with the Voltedge, they suffer from a DoT effect and they can be shieldbumped and collected with Vortices.) Shivermist Buster is a great bomb to aid in the bossfight as Vanaduke can take the freeze status, unlike Sleep, but in other areas using it is often just useless or it can even be harmful. The sleep bomb on the other hand can aid well outside the bossfight too. Monsters wont attack when theyre asleep.
Though these weapons have lower Dps than some of the gear mentioned earlier. It doesnt mean they can’t be used. In fact, these weapons can make dealing with groups of enemies trivially easy if careful with not freezing them around players.
Glacius
Divine Avenger
Shivermist Buster
Sprite Perk & Ultimate Recommendations
For Drakon:
Crystal Harness
Frenzied Firestorm
This ability is useful as u can give yourself an attack buff at will, and even pull of a Flash Charge
(I will talk about it later in the guide)
Backfire Barrier
This ability gives an extreme speed boost and a defense buff, and will also damage anything that comes in contact with the fireballs.
For Maskeraith:
Golden Harness
Deadly Shadow Cloak
This ability is useful for dropping enemy target locks, and can also pull off a Flash Charge, even easier than with the Frenzied Firestorm.
Also The cloak in general is good for easily replacing yourself on the battlefield and easily cleaning rooms like the Rocket puppy room.
Both of the other abilities are very useful: Quills will get you some extra damage on your target and they will inflict a poison lowering target’s defense. While using a Maskeraith I would recommend a Blitz Needle over the Plague Needle, as you already have the means to poison a target and Blitz has more base damage than the Plague Needle.
For Seraphynx
Crystal Harness
Disintegration Ray
Disintegration Ray lowers targets’ defense and affects bosses.
Sera’s Heart Attack and Angelic Aura are great abilities to stay alive and save time not needing to wait for traps to turn off. Remember to take advantage of them!
And Perks:
Trueshot,
Swift Steps,
Ghostbuster,
Healthy Boost
Combuster / Voltedge / Glacius ?
Watch this video and read the description.
Mechanics to know
These are mechanics good to know in Vanadukes Citadel – You can do well without the advanced ones, but the basic ones I recommend to try and master 😀 Take a good look at this section anyway.
Basics
Shieldbumping
You can bump enemies away from you by quickly clicking your shield, this proves very useful if slags are surrounding you (and in many parts of FSC this is very usual), remember though, it will not work if your shield is broken so bump enemies away before they break the shield.
Dashing
Even though this ability is very basic, some people dont use it and im telling you, it is so useful, not only it gives you a quick escape from a bad place, it will also prevent enemies from seeing you or drop aggro if an enemy has seen you already. Dashing can also be used to pass through orbital chains without taking damage, this can prove useful in the bottom right corner of D25.
Shield Canceling
This is a technique that is very useful and easy and will improve your dps a lot.
Basically, after you strike/fire,shield right away so a bit of the attack animation gets cancelled.
This makes striking/firing a lot faster and will improve movement aswell with guns, which stop or slow you down when firing.
Advanced
Shield Charging
This technique is used to get rid of that one extra shot when beginning to charge your weapon.
You do it by holding down the shield button, then holding down the attack button, and then releasing your shield button. Your weapon will start charging right away. This will prove useful with weapons like Blitz Needle, that stop your character completely when firing.
Double/Single Switching
This is a difficult technique to learn as it is very mechanically intensive but its worth it after the practice, as the dps boost that ensues is a lot higher than just Shield Cancelling normally.
So this is how you do it:
1. Fire/Strike
2. Shield Cancel
3. Switch your weapon (Single Switching) – and also switch back if want to use the same weapon. (Double Switching)
4. Repeat
It is hard to learn to do fast, but with enough practice it can be done.
Flash Charging
This is a mechanic that can only be pulled off with either the Deadly Shadow Cloak or the Frenzied Firestorm. The mechanic is explained more thoroughly in this forum post:
[link]
Its basically a double charge attack that can will be done when a buff is given or when one ends,
it only works with the buffs from the said Sprite Abilities.
A Flash Charge can kill Vanaduke’s Mask in one Charge with the Blitz Needle as over 8000 dmg is dealt.
Read before going into the guide!
Red lines = Do this!
Yellow lines = Helpful, but optional.
Purple Lines = Enemy Spawn Locations & Places that when walked over will trigger enemy spawns. (Marked for certain enemies/places)
Blue Lines = Dash Here!
Green Lines = If this is blocked, use Lime lines.
Lime Lines = Alternatives in case of different spawn of shadow flames.
Depth 24 – Blackstone Bridge
Part 1
Navigate through the fire and destroy the wheel launchers, 300hp so they will be struck down with 1 hit.
Most of the slags along the way will die to the wheels so just clean out the leftovers.
Part 2
5 Grim Totems will spawn: 2 to the left, 3 to the right. Move the totems from the right to the left so that you can kill the Slags. Block wheel launchers on the right side with totems, and the one on the left with a statue, replace it with a totem aswell, after you have taken care of slags.
Part 3
4 buttons spawn under Timed Bomb blocks, they are random so you will have to search them all, also 2 totems spawn which you should move back down.
Part 4
Again go around the Shadow fire, to destroy wheel launchers, This part spawns 3 oilers aswell so beware for them,
Part 5
Now comes the final part of D24, an arena. 3 Waves like usually: First spawning 6 slags and 2 bomb cubes, Second spawning 7 slags and 2 Red Rovers, and the last spawning 2 trojans and 2 red rovers.
Wave #1
Wave #2
Wave #3 – Final Wave
Depth 25 – Charred Court
The goal in D25 is to complete rooms and save 6 sprites, there are a total of 8 rooms, each containing a sprite, i will teach how to do all of the rooms, and give tricks that will make them easier.
Here’s the Map of the Area and the Path to complete it. Circles = Sprites – Rectangles = Loot
Room #1 Left – Bottom
This room only spawns 3 slags in front of the gate at the sprite. The main source of danger in this room are the traps(Wheel Launchers, Spike Floor, Shadow Fire) that spawn after reaching the sprite, traps can be dodged easily with some patience, making this room the easiest one.
Slags spawn here:
Path to the sprite, and back.
Room #2 Left – Bottom Left Corner
4 Untouchable Grim Totems are in place covering most of the room. After killing the trojan that spawns at the top left corner, gates to the sprite open, giving access to 1 of the Grim Totems, making Slags easier to kill. The Backfire Barrier Ultimate ability for the Drakon Sprite can be used here to get behind the trojan fast right after pressing the button. If the player has atleast CTR Ultra, a Blitz Needle can be charged in time so that the trojan wont aggro until you are behind it.
Backfire Barrier must be activated a bit before the player has pressed the button, as the effect occurs a bit after the key has been pressed. The Blitz must be shield charged, otherwise shooting the first shot will take so much time that this will not work at all.
Room #3 Left – Left
Here there are 3 sealed rooms that open, when the button in the middle is pressed. 2 of the rooms contain a Trojan and 2 Slags with boosted Defense. The third room contains 3 Bomb Cubes. A 4th room, containing the sprite, will open when everything is killed.
Room #4 Left – Up
This room contains 3 sealed rooms that are opened separately by pressing buttons in each open room. All of the rooms contain a Slag, An Oiler and A Red Rover.
The Middle
3 Slags spawn in the middle open area for each room that you’ve completed. (Meaning these slags trigger when you walk into the room with the sprite). A total of 3 x 8 = 24 Slags spawn here, you can either kill half of them when passing through to go to the other side or leave them gather and strike them all at once when you’ve done all the rooms.
Room #5 Right – Down
In the middle theres a timed switch. Wait for flame traps to turn off and as soon as that happens, hit the switch and run through the flame traps. Make sure to go fast or the door will close on you and you will catch fire.
Behind the door 3 Slags spawn and below a Trojan aided by two Silkwings.
Kill the Slags and after that shoot the stone blocks to release the Trojan. It is gotten rid of easily by waiting for it to charge at you and then releasing a Blitz Needle charge at it.
Then exit below over 2 spike traps and kill 5 Slags guarding the exit.
Room #6 Right – Bottom Right Corner
Arena with an orbital chain inflicting fire. Dash through to avoid taking a hit. 3 Waves:
1st Wave – 6 Slags
2st Wave – 7 Slags
3rd Wave – 5 Slags & 1 Trojan
Room #7 Right – Up Right Corner
A circle divided into 4 parts by one-way walls opened by ghost blocks. A quickly respawning Rocket Puppy spawns in the middle. It is facing down and will get aggro from the bottom if you dont dash at the three stone blocks. Aggro can also be avoided or lost with the (Deadly) Shadow Cloak. 3 Slags spawn in all 4 sections, when stepping on the tile marked in the picture.
After killing the slags the door to the sprite room will open.
Room #8 Right – Up
An arena with 6 Slags and 2 Bomb Cubes. A Trojan with 2 more Slags will spawn at the top of the room when walking through the middle. Exact tile marked in the picture. Because of this, fire the ghost block with a gun – make the room a slight bit easier.
After killing everything you are done. Now to face the Slags in the middle.
Then carry 6 sprites to the middle and be sure to get the loot from the left and right before continuing forward and down to the Ashen Armory.
Depth 26 – Ashen Armory
Now having access to the Water Wells, you continue to extinguish the flames in your way and progress down the Firestorm Citadel.
Ashen Armory consists of multiple arenas and sections, in which water is again used to clear path. You come across even larger hordes of Slag Walkers.
Part 1
Extinguish Shadow Flames, locate the Heavy Statue and place it on the button that you’ll find once you have extinguish flames and gone upward.
Part 2
Arena: 3 Waves:
1st Wave – About 10 Slags
2nd Wave – About 10 more Slags
3rd Wave – About 10 more Slags and a Trojan
Enemy mobs spawn here:
Part 3
Make your choice!
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Left Side
– More Loot
– Easier
Right Side
– Faster
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Part 3 – Left
4 Rooms blocked by Shadow Flame. Extinguish Flames and move Heavy Statues as shown in this picture. (Yes, you dont need to water the fire surrounding the statue in the top left room, you can, but you can also pick it up without extinguishing that.)
After this is loot: 6 Boxes and several Mineral Deposits.
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Arena – Not waves like usual, but buttons which when pressed will trigger Slags like so:
6 on the bottom left,
6 on the both top buttons,
7 on the bottom right button.
A total of 25 Slags.
After all buttons have been pressed – no matter have the slags been killed – the doors in the middle will open and you can move forward through the locked door at the back.
Next up is an arena aswell. The path leading right at the party button is the exit from the other side of the choice. And about that..
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Part 3 – Right
Like said earlier, this way is faster to go through but has less monsters. There is also a trojan and some Fire puppies.
First is a section with no mobs. Instead the path is covered in Flame Traps, Spike Traps and Shadow Fire.
Water/Destroy these targets:
(Yes, throw water at the wall in the middle, right at the flame on the other side, it will extinguish it so you can run through.)
After cleaning these spots move carefully and patiently to the next Water Well. Once again I suggest cleaning the marked spots:
You’re past the traps now. Next up: Arena.
First, by stepping on the Party Button, 6 Slags and 3 Red Rovers spawn – one pup and 2 Slags in front of every gate on the sides.
Goal of the arena is to go step on all 3 buttons that are behind the gates. These gates are opened, once the pup in front of the specific gate has been destroyed. Each pressed button spawns 4 Slag Walkers onto the Flame Traps.
After all the buttons have been pressed, the gates in the middle open. The key in the middle must be taken to the locked door at the far end of the arena. Once you step onto the golden plate the key stands on, a Trojan spawns.
After the arena there are once again 6 Treasure Boxes just like on the left side of this part.
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Part 4
Arena:
7 waves – Each wave spawns 5 Slag Walkers
Total 35 Slag Walkers
If necessary – take advantage of infinite health supplied on the arena.
There are 4 boxes of Health after the arena aswell as 6 boxes of loot that conclude Depth 26.
One more depth and we’re at the throne. Let’s do this!
Depth 27 – Smoldering Steps
After fending off the Slags in the Armory, you progress further down and start climbing up the fiery steps toward the Throne Room.
Smoldering Steps is the last depth before reaching Vanaduke’s throne and taking the fight to him.
Depth 27 challenges the player with more Trojans, difficult arenas and as any can already expect: lots of Fire.
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Part 1
Water these marked spots. You can throw a ball of water at the wall in front and the splash will hit the flames up at the marked spot.
Again clear the marked areas. Destroy the wooden block to uncover a secret button and gain access to some extra loot at the end of the depth.
In this section a Trojan will spawn behind you once you walk forward onto the marked tiles. Beware!
After shooting the Ghost Block take out the Red Rovers. These Red Rovers have very low health and should go down in one to two swings on Solo and Elite.
There is a box behind each Red Rover. Under two random boxes there is a button. Both of these must be pressed to progress. Two Slag Walkers spawn after stepping near each box. (Each box spawns two Slags.) 6×2=12 Slags.
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Part 2
Arena: 3 Waves
Wave #1: 4 Bomb Cubes, 8 Slag Walkers, 1 Grim Totem
Wave #2: 9 Slag Walkers, 2 Grim Totems
Wave #3: 3 Ash Tails, 4 Red Rovers (2 with less Health), 2 Trojans
Take the Grim Totems down at waves 1 and 2.
Pups that spawn toward the top of the arena on wave 3 have normal Health and the pups that spawn at the bottom have much less health and can be destroyed as quickly as the ones in the last part of this depth. While fighting Trojans beware the Flame Traps in the corners and keep a look at your placement.
Health boxes after the arena.
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Part 3
Make your way upward from the party button. Once you’re at the Wheel Launchers you can destroy them with a Pulsar by shooting to the side. The Pulsar shot will Expand and deal damage to the launcher from behind. You can also destroy it with a charge attack from any brandish type sword. (Combuster, Voltedge, Glacius, Acheron, Amputator). Also a Blitz Needle can take them out, though being slower than the other methods.
From this Water Well, turn right and from there go up. There you will face two more Wheel Launchers. Take water and throw it to the left from where the Wheel Launchers stood.
There is a possibility that a Heavy Statue is standing at the marked spot. If it is there, take it with you as shown in the picture.
If the Statue is not there, it will be on the other side. Backtrack to the last Well and get an orb of water and extinguish the flame blocking the path to the other side. (Extinguish the flames up at the Pressure Plate and not the ones at the Water Well.)
Place the Statue on the pressure plate and continue to the last arena.
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Part 4
Arena: 3 Waves.
Firstly, once you step on the party button, two low Health Red Rovers spawn on the sides accompanied with a Trojan that will hit the Ghost Blocks as it spawns.
After the Trojan has been killed. The first wave spawns.
Wave #1: 10 Slag Walkers.
Wave #2: 10 Slag Walkers, 1 Trojan.
Warning! Next wave starts right after all Slag Walkers have been killed.
Wave #3: 10 Slag Walkers, 2 Trojans.
After the last fight there are 4 Health Boxes and 6 Treasure Boxes.
If you have pressed the button at the start of the depth, there is a Ghost Block hidden behind the wall. Shoot it and a pathway is cleared, leading to 3 Red Treasure Boxes.
After getting your loot you can proceed to Vanaduke’s Throne.
Depth 28 – Throne Room
Before stepping on the Party Button, be sure to heal up.
This fight has 5 Phases. Each phase are easiest cleared with a Blitz Needle. Piercing is suggested, as Vanaduke takes more damage from piercing weapons.
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Phase #1
First after the flames vanish, Vanaduke summons 4 Slag Walkers. Be wary though, sometimes this does not happen and he starts attacking right away. Vanaduke will summon all the slags again from time to time if the Phase is not killed quickly enough.
Vanaduke has two attacks: A slam with his giant mace and a dash that deals damage also if you get hit.
In the first phase the goal is to deal damage to Vana himself, best dealt with Blitz Needle’s charge attack after Vana has slammed his mace and it is safe to attack.
Main source of danger in this phase is his mace slam attack. This attack will drain out most of your health right away and it will also inflict strong Fire and Stun Status Effects. A player will easily die to a single slam if one is taken.
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Phase #2
Players view is flipped up nearly to a bird’s eye -view. Vanaduke’s Mask pops off and starts firing fireballs while levitating around the arena.
Goal is to destroy the mask, once again best done with a Blitz Needle.
The mask is invulnerable and must be extinguished by hitting it with a ball of water, that can be taken from any of the four wells in each corner of the arena. Once hit, the mask stops, the aura around the mask turns blue-ish and a 3 Second timer comes on top of it, indicating the time it will stay vulnerable until igniting in a harmful blaze again.
Red orbs around the mask can be extinguished but they appear back after a short while.
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Phase #3
Same as the first phase, but there are 4 spinning orbs of fire around Vana and his mace slam attack will make Shadow Fire drop down onto the arena from the ceiling. Once again 4 Slags are spawned at the beginning and just like on Phase #1, this will sometimes not happen and vana will start attacking right away.
If there is too much Shadow Fire on the floor, extinguish it once in a while.
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Phase #4
Vana’s mask is once again broken free now firing fireballs diagonally and having more red orbs around it. This phase is completed in the same manner as Phase #2. Before destroying the mask, it is suggested to extinguish all the Shadow Fire on the arena.
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Phase #5
Vanaduke will gain resistance to Elemental Damage, and gain a total immunity to Shadow Damage. A second layer of Fireballs appears around Vana and he adds a new attack to his arsenal, now being able to summon ‘snakes’ of flames similar to the ones fired by Red Rover puppies. This time Vanadukes mace slam makes a lot more Shadow Fire drop from the ceiling.
At the start of the phase he summons 2 Almirian Royal Guards. They act and attack like Deadnaughts but are a bit stronger. Again, just like on Phases #1 and #3 he doesn’t always summon them.
After Vana’s Health is at zero he falls down to his knees and goes out in a shadowy/fiery blaze.
The fight is over and after a long bridge there are 12 Red Treasure Boxes and 4 Mineral Deposits.
Congratulations!
Depth 29 – The Path is Sealed
After the long way down towards the core, you’ve finally arrived there.
Depth 29 is a Terminal overlooking the Core of the Cradle. A Recon module has been left at the Terminal.
The Path is Sealed. For the moment…
Treasure Box Loot
A little note about the loot that is available in FSC’s Depths from 24 to 28
Treasure Box Loot:
D24
D25-D28
Average amount per run on Elite:
Shining Fire Crystal – 36-48
Radiant Fire Crystal – 12-24
Eternal Orb of Alchemy – 0-2
Spark of Life – 0-2
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Some runs hand out better stuff than others. Orbs drop often in FSC, keep trying!
Complete Material Drop List
FSC runs also hand a bit of 5 Star Materials, most common being Philoso Feathers, Flame Souls and Reaper Ribs. With even better luck even a Dragon Scale/Primal Ore, Plasma Cell/Sun Silver, Royal Core/Royal Skewer or a Crest of Ur/Shadow Steel drop is possible from Ash Tails, Red Rovers, Bomb Cubes/Oilers or Trojans/Silkwings respectively.
Material List
Common Materials:
Uncommon materials:
Rare Materials:
Very Rare Materials:
Aftermath
After mission King of Ashes the player achieves the rank of Vanguard and new missions become available, unveiling mysteries surrounding the Core and also challenging the player with a mini boss and ultimately a perilous trip into the Core.
Thank you for the feedback.
Big thank you to Pyrosparker, Sebastian and Pineytrap in the comments for noting mistakes and facts I had missed when writing the guide so that I can fulfill for example different choices for gear so that everyone can find their own way of running through FSC.