Changes: Dark Anna

Revision as of 20:20, 4 July 2021

For the similar Epic Battle Fantasy 5 superboss, see Annabelle.

"That thing doesn't even look like me! The hair color is all wrong! (Among other things...)"

―Anna, Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Dark Anna is an optional boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 4. She appears in the final areas of Battle Mountain along with the other Dark Players — as such, she is exclusive to the Steam release of the game and the post-Battle Mountain update version of the Premium Pack.

Appearance

Dark Anna resembles Anna with an evil, undead appearance. She has reddish-brown skin and blood-red hair, as well as the black eyes and glowing red pupils shared by all of the Dark Players. She has a pair of bloody scars on her collar and left cheek, seemingly stitched shut. She wears the Pirate Hat and Pirate Dress, and wields the Black Widow bow.

Overview

Dark Anna mainly uses Bio skills with low elemental degrees, but she also has Thunder, Ice, Wind, and Earth options. Her attacks deal severe damage and carry very high chances of inflicting devastating status problems, including Poison, Stun, Tired, Doom, and Freeze. Hurricane can also debuff Magic Defence, but this is relatively negligible in most situations. She can also eat a bat to heal herself and greatly boost her defenses; this also gives her five Bless stacks, so removing her buffs will be easier said than done. Fortunately, she can't use this skill every fourth turn at best, giving the party time to work through her buffs or wear her down.

Like the other Dark Players, Dark Anna charges up a Limit Break bar by taking damage. Once charged, she can use Mother Earth to Poison the players and apply Regen on her team while dealing a fair amount of magical Bio damage, or Power Blast to deal devastating part-Bio physical damage with a very high chance of Dispel.

Dark Anna has above-average Evade, high offensive stats, and very high Accuracy, but her defenses are somewhat weaker than the average foe's. When fought in the dark cave, she begins the battle with an Evil Worm and an Undead Bear for offensive support, and can summon more if they happen to fall. In the Dark Boss Rush, she instead fights alongside Dark Lance, only summoning her usual backup if he dies.

Dark Anna is weak to Holy and especially Fire, but is immune to Dark, Stun, Freeze, Syphon, Doom, and Instant Death. She also has a very strong Dispel resistance and slightly lower resistances to Weaken, Tired, Curse, and all stat debuffs. Activating "More Foe Resistance" makes her immune to Bio, Poison, and Earth while removing her Fire weakness and reducing her Holy weakness; on the other hand, she becomes severely vulnerable to Ice.

Defeating Dark Anna on Epic difficulty will reward the player with the "Shadow Huntress" medal.

Statistics

	Dark Anna	EBF4
	Uses many elements and status effects, including poison, earth, wind, thunder and ice. Summons Undead Bears and Evil Worms.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
Base Statistics	4200	6	3.5	6	3.5	7	5	800	80	200	800	10
Elemental Resistance
Elemental Resistance	-100%	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-50%	100%
Status Resistance
Status Resistance	-	100%	100%	50%	-	70%	-	100%	-	50%	50%	100%
Debuff Resistance
Debuff Resistance	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%

Item Drop Rate
Icon			-	-	-	-	-
Name	Elixir of Life	Bottled Darkness	-	-	-	-	-
Chance	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
2.8%	0.6% per stack, up to 5.4%	Immune	-6.(6)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

In the Kongregate version of the game, has 5.5 Accuracy instead.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Dark Anna	EBF4
	Uses many elements and status effects, including poison, earth, wind, thunder and ice. Summons Undead Bears and Evil Worms.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
Base Statistics	4200	6	3.5	6	3.5	7	5	800	80	200	800	10
Elemental Resistance
Elemental Resistance	-	-	-80%	100%	100%	-	-	-	-30%	100%
Status Resistance
Status Resistance	-	100%	100%	50%	100%	70%	-	100%	-	50%	50%	100%
Debuff Resistance
Debuff Resistance	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%

Item Drop Rate
Icon			-	-	-	-	-
Name	Elixir of Life	Bottled Darkness	-	-	-	-	-
Chance	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
1.4%	Immune	Immune	-6.(6)%
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
Normal Attack	Single	100		30%	100%	3x	100%	10%	10%
Piercing Shot	Single	120		30%	100%	5x	100%	10%	10%
Combo Shot	Single	240		30%	100%	5x	100%	10%	10%
Notes: Although the animation shows Dark Anna firing 3 arrows, 2 will vanish before reaching the party, which is most likely an oversight. Prior to the v2 update, this attack had 80 power.
Arrow Rain	All	100/3		30%	50%	3x	100%	20%	10%
Spark Arrow	Single	130		80%	100%	3x	100%	10%	10%
Frost Arrow	Single	130		80%	100%	6x	100%	10%	10%
Hurricane	All	80		100%	100%	15%	100%	0%	10%
Gaia Blossom	All	60		100%	100%	9x	100%	10%	10%
Eat Bat (Heal & Buff)	Self	MaxHP/10	--	----	--	50% 50% -- 5x	--	--	20%
Notes: In the Kongregate version of the game, heals for MaxHP/15 instead.
Power Blast	All	220		30%	100%	--	150%	10%	10%
Notes: Limit Break! Prior to the v2 update, this attack instead had 320 power.
Mother Earth	All Allies	180 --	--	100% ----	100% --	9x 2x	200% --	10% --	10% --
Notes: Limit Break!

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.

Limit Break → Power Blast (1/2), Mother Earth (1/2). Also summons either Undead Bears or Evil Worms to replace defeated allies, if any;
≥65% HP → Normal Attack (1/7), Piercing Shot (1/7), Spark Arrow (1/7), Frost Arrow (1/7), Hurricane (1/7), Gaia Blossom (1/7), Eat Bat (1/7);
<65% to ≥32% HP → Normal Attack (1/9), Piercing Shot (1/9), Combo Shot (1/9), Arrow Rain (1/9), Spark Arrow (1/9), Frost Arrow (1/9), Hurricane (1/9), Gaia Blossom (1/9), Eat Bat (1/9);
<32% HP → Combo Shot (1/4), Arrow Rain (1/4), Spark Arrow (1/4), Frost Arrow (1/4).

Additionally,

Eat Bat may not be used until the 4th turn, and then no more often than once in four turns; meanwhile, any attempts to initiate it will result in Combo Shot instead.
In the Dark Players Marathon, can't have more than one ally at a time, thus won't summon anything until the accompanying Dark Player dies.

Strategy

Equipment

It's advised to have a lot of Poison resistance in order to slightly weaken about half of Dark Anna's attacks, including both of her Limit Breaks. While most of her Poison attacks have low elemental degrees (including Power Blast), sufficiently high resistance can completely nullify Mother Earth and the Poison status effect inflicted by most of her skills. She can also inflict Stun and Freeze, but they're less common and the latter can be covered with Regen (via the Slime Bunny summon). Dispel resistance is also advisable in case she uses Power Blast. Bless-generating equipment (the Oak Staff, Pink Flower, and Clover Pin) can occasionally nullify all statuses at the same time, but they're unreliable.

As with the rest of the Dark Players, damaging status effects are effective at wearing Dark Anna down. Vines and Toxic can provide Poison, Fire Spin applies Burn, and Log can be used to inflict Stagger to further boost their damage. Along with the armor-piercing Giga Drill, they can counteract the boss's tendency to buff her own defenses. However, using Poison-inflicting auto-skills (such as the effect of the Gas Mask) can be risky, as Dark Anna's minions benefit from the status. Keep in mind that these strategies become less effective if "More Foe Resistance" is on; Dark Anna will be immune to Poison and Earth damage while losing her Fire weakness.

For more active offense, Fire and Holy skills work against both the boss and the helpers.

Battle

After setting up your initial buffs, start stacking Weaken and especially Tired on Dark Anna — her Evade is the highest of the Dark Players, her Accuracy is the second highest (or tied with Dark Lance), and she cannot cancel out any of these debuffs. If you are desperate, direct Attack and Accuracy debuffs such as from Bubbles could also work.

Dark Anna and her minions will inflict many status effects. Be sure to use Purify when necessary (especially when players are Stunned or heavily Poisoned). Cleanse, Medipack and Refresh will also work, but only for one player at a time; on the other hand, Refresh will also shield the target from the boss's status effects by applying Bless. You can also use the Mother Earth Limit Break yourself to grant Bless to all players and heavily Poison the enemies, temporarily ruining Dark Anna's main gimmick at the cost of healing her minions.

Dark Anna's Limit Breaks are troublesome. If she charges her bar, prioritize Defence over Magic Defence; Power Blast is much stronger, and your elemental resistance should heavily reduce/nullify Mother Earth anyway.

To survive Power Blast on higher difficulties, you'll want either Auto-Revive (preferably via the Genesis Limit Break) for instant revival, Morale (via Kitten Fort summon) to withstand it without dying (but watch out for any helpers that could finish you off), or at least Defend (possibly via Ancient Monolith summon) for plain 50% damage reduction. If going with Auto-Revive or Morale, make sure to have Dispel immunity; otherwise, they won't have any effect.
If Dark Anna uses Mother Earth instead, the Poison should be cured as soon as possible (unless your resistances nullify/absorb it). The Regen effect is usually negligible — it only lasts two turns (healing for 2/15 or 13.(3)% of max HP in total) and Dark Anna's Dispel resistance is high enough that it might be more effective to continue damaging the boss rather than waste turns failing to Dispel her.

In short, Dark Anna's specialty is status effects and Poison damage, but she doesn't have much else going for her; once she falls below 32% HP, her more focused attack pattern also prevents her from inflicting Stun and Magic Defence debuffs. Her Combo Shot is her strongest single target attack by far, though it still doesn't reach the danger levels of Dark Matt's Legend or Dark Lance's Unload.

In the Dark Boss Rush, Dark Anna appears the first wave, together with Dark Lance. It's suggested to start the battle with Mother Earth for temporary immunity against Dark Anna's numerous status effects and Dark Lance's frequent Instant Death. Focus on killing Dark Lance as fast as possible — his offensive buffs and Unload are more troublesome than anything Dark Anna can throw at you, and his summoned minions are also more potent in damage than Dark Anna's

@@ Line 284: / Line 284: @@
 === Battle ===
-After setting up your initial buffs, start stacking {{s|Weaken}} and especially {{s|Tired}} on Dark Anna — her {{s|Evade}} is the highest of the Dark Players, her {{s|Accuracy}} is the second highest (or tied with [[Dark Lance]]), and she cannot cancel out any of these debuffs. If you are desperate, direct {{s|Attack}} and Accuracy debuffs could also work.
+After setting up your initial buffs, start stacking {{s|Weaken}} and especially {{s|Tired}} on Dark Anna — her {{s|Evade}} is the highest of the Dark Players, her {{s|Accuracy}} is the second highest (or tied with [[Dark Lance]]), and she cannot cancel out any of these debuffs. If you are desperate, direct {{s|Attack}} and Accuracy debuffs such as from [[Bubbles]] could also work.
 Dark Anna and her minions will inflict many status effects. Be sure to use [[Purify]] when necessary (especially when players are Stunned or heavily Poisoned). [[Cleanse]], [[Medipack]] and [[Refresh]] will also work, but only for one player at a time; on the other hand, Refresh will also shield the target from the boss's status effects by applying Bless. You can also use the [[Mother Earth]] Limit Break yourself to grant Bless to all players and heavily Poison the enemies, temporarily ruining Dark Anna's main gimmick at the cost of healing her minions.
 Dark Anna's Limit Breaks are troublesome. If she charges her bar, prioritize {{s|Defence}} over {{s|Magic Defence}}; Power Blast is much stronger, and your elemental resistance should heavily reduce/nullify Mother Earth anyway.
-* To survive Power Blast on higher difficulties, you'll want either {{s|Auto-Revive}} (preferably via the [[Genesis]] Limit Break) for instant revival, {{s|Morale}} (via [[Kitten Fort]] summon) to overbear it without dying (but watch out for any helpers that could finish you off), or at least {{s|Defend}} (possibly via [[Ancient Monolith]] summon) for plain 50% damage reduction. If going with Auto-Revive or Morale, make sure to have Dispel immunity; otherwise, they won't have any effect.
+* To survive Power Blast on higher difficulties, you'll want either {{s|Auto-Revive}} (preferably via the [[Genesis]] Limit Break) for instant revival, {{s|Morale}} (via [[Kitten Fort]] summon) to withstand it without dying (but watch out for any helpers that could finish you off), or at least {{s|Defend}} (possibly via [[Ancient Monolith]] summon) for plain 50% damage reduction. If going with Auto-Revive or Morale, make sure to have Dispel immunity; otherwise, they won't have any effect.
 * If Dark Anna uses Mother Earth instead, the Poison should be cured as soon as possible (unless your resistances nullify/absorb it). The Regen effect is usually negligible — it only lasts two turns (healing for 2/15 or 13.(3)% of max HP in total) and Dark Anna's Dispel resistance is high enough that it might be more effective to continue damaging the boss rather than waste turns failing to Dispel her.