Armored Oak

Armored Oak
Roles	Boss
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 4

"Run for cover! Abandon positions!"

―Lance / Anna, Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Armored Oak is an optional boss encountered in Epic Battle Fantasy 4. He's a stronger version of Mighty Oak and is fought on Battle Mountain — as such, he is exclusive to the Steam release of the game and the post-Battle Mountain update version of the Premium Pack.

Appearance

Armored Oak's appearance is based on Mighty Oak's, but has many significant differences. Noticeable differences is that his head is now mostly made of metal, his eyes are now green bionic eyes, his shoulders are now more metallic and have a strap on them, his right hand now has a massive spike on the top of it, and his left (shield) hand has been replaced with a cannon with a strap on it. The cannon is often used as a melee weapon.

Overview

Armored Oak uses three types of attacks; physical non-elemental, physical Earth and magical Bomb attacks. Virtually all of his attacks can Stagger, and he has quite a few area-of-effect attacks.

In terms of resistances, Armored Oak has resistance to half of the elements in the game (like most bosses do), though he also has a massive weakness to Poison, among smaller ones to Dark and Earth. Besides typical boss status immunities, he is weak to Tired and Poison, and most means of inflicting those will hit an elemental weakness.

Interestingly, the boss and his minions will always be at one level less than the party's average level; this includes both the original fight and the first wave of the Mega Boss Rush. This is the only case of something on Battle Mountain forced below the average level.

Defeating Armored Oak on Epic difficulty will reward the player with the Trees Go To War medal.

Statistics

	Armored Oak	EBF4
	A stronger version of Mighty Oak. Uses mostly Bomb and staggering attacks. Summons Steel and Copper Fish.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	4800	8.8	4	8.8	4	4	4	180	33	33	350	6
Elemental Resistance
	50%	50%	50%	-50%	-100%	-	50%	50%	-	-50%
Status Resistance
	100%	100%	100%	-100%	-100%	-	-	100%	-	-	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%

Item Drop Rate
Icon					-	-	-
Name	Soft Wood	Steel Plate	Chain Link	Titanium	-	-	-
Chance	100%	100%	100%	100%	-	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
Immune	0.72% per stack, up to 6.48%	Immune	-4%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Attacks and Abilities

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Cannon Bash	Single	70		----	100%	--		100%	10%	10%
Cannon Bash x2	Single	120/2		----	33%	--		100%	10%	10%
Arm Shot	All	40		----	33%	--		100%	10%	10%
Arm Shot x2	All	70/2		----	33%	--		100%	10%	10%
Ground Pound	All	50		50%	20%	--		90%	10%	20%
Notes: On Hard and Epic difficulties, is immediately followed by casting Lumber on a random player.
Lumber	Single	80/3		50%	16%	--		100%	20%	10%
Notes: Is used only in conjunction with Ground Pound.
Cataclysm	Single	75		50%	--	--	--	100%	30%	10%
Big Blast	All	40		100%	20%	--		100%	10%	10%
Artillery	Random	420/10		100%	20%	--		100%	10%	10%

"Have you ever accidentally swallowed a whole artillery battery? I think he has."

―Lance / Matt, Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Battle logic

The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.

• Every 3rd turn started with less than two allies → Passively summons either a Copper Fish or a Steel Fish.

• Berserked → Arm Shot x2;
• ≥65% HP → Cannon Bash (1/5), Cannon Bash x2 (1/5), Arm Shot (1/5), Cataclysm (1/5), Big Blast (1/5);
• <65% to ≥32% HP → Cannon Bash x2 (1/7), Arm Shot (1/7), Arm Shot x2 (1/7), Cataclysm (1/7), Ground Pound (1/7), Big Blast (1/7), Artillery (1/7);
• <32% HP → Arm Shot x2 (1/4), Ground Pound (1/4), Big Blast (1/4), Artillery (1/4). Passively summons a Wooden Idol every turn, with lower priority than the "every 3rd turn" ability.

Can't have more than 2 helpers at the same time.

Strategy

Notice: On higher difficulties, enemy damage spikes when they reach level 33, up to twice the expected damage (see here for more info). As Battle Mountain's battles scale to party's average level, keep your party under level 33 to make Battle Mountain-related medals easier during the first playthrough.

Armored Oak is one of the easiest fights in Battle Mountain when prepared, but will still hit like a tree and often Stagger his targets for guaranteed crits — and his most powerful attacks are multi-hit, immediately making use of the status. While Armored Oak does use mostly non-elemental attacks, Bomb resistance will end up being crucial: his strongest attack is a mighty 10-shot randomly-targeting Bomb attack, which is effectively a slightly weaker version of Akron's Multi-Cannon (on a foe with much higher offensive stats) from Epic Battle Fantasy 3, boasting a horrific 420 total power. Without resistance, the boss can cleave any party in two.

In short, equipment should focus on Bomb and Stagger resistance (which often come as a pair), as well as general physical defence. For magical attacks, Bomb immunity is enough.

Generally speaking, Armored Oak's helpers are not that much of a threat, but the "final attack" from the Steel Fish and the Copper Fish can catch new players off guard; fortunately, it is also fully Bomb-elemental, meaning no new resistances are needed. If he summons a Wooden Idol, consider leaving it there to eat up foe slots, as it's weaker and has less status effects in use than Fishes.

In terms of attacking Armored Oak, one has a few options. The boss is extremely vulnerable to Poison and Tired, giving the player an easy way to wear him out. In particular, Gaia Bloom, Poison Gas, Toxic and Vines are quite effective at spreading statuses. Dark is also quite effective at dealing damage, so Antimatter and Pulse will probably be the most powerful magical attacks the player can use. Acid would've been extremely strong, but unfortunately isn't available at the time the boss is first fought.