Puzzle Quest 2 Arch Lich Tips

As a follow up to my Puzzle Quest 2 review yesterday (and as a way to make sure my server move worked properly - so if I can see this in a day or so, the move worked), here is how to beat the Arch Lich Greater Challenge very easily.

The fight is fantastically flawed in its design. Probably one of the easier "boss" fights I've done. So he's 100% immune to magic - so don't bother using your spells (the way they were intended). You will be doing damage mainly through skulls and action points. Occasionally, he'll cast a spell that damages you, and does 50% of that damage to himself as well - but this is a losing proposition for you, of course, so it's not a way to win.

So, prepare for the fight. Equip a weapon that uses 3-4 action points/attack and does about 2x that in damage (Ancient Shortsword is wonderul). Change all your spells to be the ones that use the -fewest- gems. Optimally, you want spells that use 3-4 red or 3-4 yellow or whatever, but not ones that use 3-4 red -and 3-4 yellow. Single gem usage is important, in case he casts his mana explosion and drains a given color.

So, you will play this fight on defense and only match skulls or action gems. Unless there is a 4 match available on board, you want to skip your turn. How? Simple. He's 100% spell resistant, so cast a spell. He'll resist it and you'll lose your turn and you won't lose any gems. So he'll move and make a match. Rinse-repeat this method till its over. Make action gem or skull matches over using your weapon. Use the weapon if there is no skull or action match on the board. If you can't use your weapon -and- no skull or action matches on the board -and- no 4 or 5 matches out there; cast a spell and end your turn.

If he uses his mana explosion, you'll lose a full bar of mana so you might have to change spells now and again but the premise is the same. If all your mana pools are empty, match the color you need as far to the top as possible to limit secondary matches that you might not want to make.

All in all, a very easy fight. First "Greater Challenge" I did in one shot and ended up with about half of my hit points left in the end.