Introduction
The Hive of Gorgons raid is a 10 man end game raid in New World Aeternum. The raid is intended to be the pinnacle of PvE content in the game. It’s a step above Mutators and even though it’s similar to the Sandwurm Trial, there are more complex mechanics. There are three ‘chapters’ to the raid. Each chapter contains is own section of enemies, a puzzle action sequence, and a boss.
From the Hive of Gorgons raid you can obtain gear score 725 gear. You can also obtain 3 new perks (1 for weapons, 1 for armor, and 1 for accessories) that are exclusive to the raid. Along with the gear and perks you can also find a special crafting material that is utilized to craft gear score 725 gear.
Hive of Gorgons Drops
Weapons
| Item | Where it Drops |
|---|---|
| Trsna ( Warhammer Artifact) | Typhon |
| Gorgon’s Weapons – Every Weapon & Shield Type – Drops with Random Perks | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Flail | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Longsword | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Rapier | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite War Hammer | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Spear | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Bow | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Musket | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Great Axe | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Fire Staff | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Life Staff | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Ice Gauntlet | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Void Gauntlet | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Hatchet | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Blunderbuss | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Greatsword | Broodmother Medusa |
Armor
| Item | Armor Weight | Armor Piece | Where it Drops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azoth Conductors (Artifact) | Medium | Legs | Echidna |
| Gorgon’s Armor Set (Drops with Random Perks) | Light, Medium, Heavy | All | Typhon |
| Hoplite Armor Set | Light, Medium, Heavy | All | Typhon |
Jewelry
| Item | Where it Drops |
|---|---|
| Elemental Band (Ring Artifact) | Broodmother Medusa |
| Hoplite Amulet | Echidna |
| Hoplite Ring | Echidna |
| Hoplite Earring | Echidna |
| Gorgon’s Amulet | Echidna |
| Gorgon’s Ring | Echidna |
| Gorgon’s Earring | Echidna |
Crafting Material
| Item | Item Type | Where it Drops |
|---|---|---|
| Chromatic Seal x 3 | Crafting Material | Upon Raid Completion |
| Hive of Gorgon Token x 10 | Crafting Material – Used to craft Hoplite Gear | Upon Raid Completion |
| Gorgonite Inductor | Crafting Material – Used to upgrade artifacts to 725 & to craft Gorgon Essence | Upon Raid Completion |
| Gorgon’s Eye | Crafting Material – Used to craft 725 gear score gear | Upon Raid Completion |
| Schematic: Gorgonite Gear (All armor pieces & weapons) | Pattern – There is one for each type of armor piece, weapon, & Jewelry in the game | Upon completion of Hercyne Wave |
Exclusive Raid Gear Perks
| Perk | Can be used on: | How to Obtain | Crafting Mod |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hasted Vigor | Armor Pieces | Drops on some of the Hoplite armor pieces. You can salvage Hoplite or Gorgon’s Armor to obtain the crafting mod | Natural Finish |
| Unimpeded | Amulet | Drops on Hoplite Amulets. You can salvage the amulets to obtain the crafting mod | Silver Oil |
| Distained Infliction | All Weapons | Drops on Hoplite weapons. You can salvage the weapons to obtain the crafting mod | Poisonous Nectar |
Location & General Information
The Hive of Gorgons Raid is an end game raid intended for 10 players. However, you can open and attempt the raid with a minimum of 6 players. It is located in the southern part of Cutlass Keys, just above the Barnacles and Black Powder Expedition. You can enter via the raid entrance or by using the group finder function.
Once inside the raid you will encounter Angry Earth type enemies. They are weak to slash and fire damage. You can check the full list of weaknesses for all enemy types by checking our Damage Type vs Mob Type quick chart. Make sure you’re equipped with Infused Angry Earth Coatings and Infused Angry Earth Ward potions to dish out more damage and to mitigate additional damage from the Angry Earth enemies. You will also want to ensure you have your Major Angry Earth Combat trophies active, honing stones on hand, and the appropriate stat food.
Hive of Gorgons Walkthrough & Mechanics
The major components of the raid consist of the puzzle rooms and the bosses. The remainder of the raid is simply clearing trash mobs to get to these areas.
1st Puzzle Room
Upon entering the first puzzle room there will be quite a few trash mobs you’ll need to take out. In this room you will notice 2 pillars with 4 red orbs rotating in a circle. You will need to have 1 person stand on the platform directly across from the pillar.
This will activate the orbs, allowing them be shot. You can shoot an orb when you see the red circle around it. Shooting the orb will turn it green. You will need to perform this for both pillars, and each of them can be activated at the same time. Once all the orbs on both pillars are green, the door to the first boss will open.
It’s important to point out that there will be spiders that continuously spawn and try to attack the players standing on the platforms. You can taunt the spiders to the middle of the room to get them off of the platforms. Don’t kill them. Just have the tank hold them and heal the tank. They will just keep respawning during this phase if you kill them.
Echidna – 1st Boss
When you enter the first boss arena, you’ll see the boss, Echidna sleeping on the side of the mountain. Once you step into the arena he will jump down to begin the fight. There are few mechanics you need to be aware of in this fight:
- Pillars – The boss will summon several pillars in the arena. You will see rumbling in the ground and then the pillar will pop up. If you stand on the rumbling area you will be shot into the air onto the top of the pillar. However, this will damage you, so make sure you’re not low health when trying to get on a pillar. If you stand on one of the tallest pillars you will receive a damage buff and a stamina damage buff. The lower pillars will not give a buff, but will prevent you from taking AoE damage from the stomp if you’re standing on one.
- Obsidian Crystals – Periodically there will be several obsidian crystals that spawn in the arena. You can damage these the destroy them. If they are up for too long they will shoot out an AoE of vines around them. These vines deal quite a lot of damage. During the second phase of the fight if the obsidian crystals are not cleared they will wipe your group. If you are on top of pillar and a crystal lands on the pillar you need to get off the pillar. You will die if you stay on the pillar
- Rocks – The boss will summon several rocks on either side of him. These will shoot out and damage anyone they hit. Please note that you will still be hit if you are in the gap between the 2 rows behind the tail of the boss from his tail slam. You must move or block to prevent taking massive damage. Therefore, if you are melee behind the boss make sure you move back out of range of the tail slam, block, or move to a side gap in the rocks to prevent from taking massive damage.
- Ground Stomp – The boss will stomp the ground and send out an AoE of damage. You can dodge or block to reduce or avoid the damage of the ground stomp. If you’re on a pillar you will also avoid damage.
- Tail Swipe – The boss will quickly spin swiping with his tail. This is a quick AoE ability and deals quite a lot of damage. Be aware if you’re in melee range.
This boss deals quite a lot of strike damage. Slotting Onyx gems and having a strike protection amulet can increase your survivability against this boss significantly. Also, if you choose to go ranged make sure you’re utilizing a ranged weapon that can heavy attack to help break the boss’s stamina bar.
1st Phase
During the first phase of the fight you will want to try to break the boss’s stamina bar as quickly as possible. You can do this by standing on the pillars to get the buff and heavy attacking with a ranged weapon, or standing behind the boss and heaving attacking with your melee weapon. If you are melee ensure you are utilizing a melee weapon that deals a good amount of stamina damage (war hammer, etc). Also, if you’re melee make sure you’re avoiding the tail smash when the boss throws out the rocks.
Periodically the boss will also do a ground smash. When this happens you will be damaged if you’re near the boss. This ability also breaks the pillars down a level. You can stay on the pillar the avoid the damage of the stomp, but will no longer get the buff on the shorter pillars.
If you’re tanking during the first phase, make sure your away of the ground stomps, and swipes. You’ll also want to avoid positioning the boss against the wall. When the rocks are thrown it makes it very difficult for the melee DPS to avoid damage if his tail is against or close to the wall.
Once you break the stamina bar of the boss he will fall over. This is a free DPS phase. You will want to hard focus all your damage on the boss at this time. Make sure you’re attacking his back. The are where the spikes are sticking out on his back are guaranteed critical hits when he is down.
When you see the obsidian crystals spawn into the arena you should have several DPS members take them out as quickly as possible. Taking them out quickly will avoid the AoE vines, and the wipe mechanic in the second phase.
2nd Phase
The second phase will happen once the boss is below 50% health. It is much like the first phase with some added mechanics. Below are the new mechanics that you need to be aware of:
- Jump – The boss will place a glyph over someone’s head. Shortly after he will jump to that target. When he lands on the ground he deals AoE damage. If you’re close to the person who has the glyph above their head, make sure you dodge whenever the boss jumps to its target. If you’re hit by the jump you will take massive damage.
- Roar – The boss will roar and the pillars will glow. You need to get off of the pillars when this happens in order to prevent taking damage. If the obsidian crystals are not cleared by the time the roar is over, it will wipe your group.
Much like the first phase you will want to break the boss’s stamina bar and then deal as much damage as possible to him. During the boss’s roar you can not deal stamina damage, but can deal damage to his health. This is good time to get a good amount DPS on the boss. When the obsidian crystals appear make sure you send DPS to destroy them.
In short, break stamina bar, damage boss, clear crystals, dodge the jump.
2nd Puzzle Room – Medusa Puzzle
The 2nd puzzle room is a labyrinth that you will have to navigate with your group. There’s some Medusa’s that lurk around in the labyrinth. They are very fast and will chase anyone they see. They will shoot a beam from their eyes that will deal massive damage.
You will notice 3 orbs on the wall as soon as you walk into the room. These orbs are an indication of the activated platforms that are located within the labyrinth. The orbs will glow green indicating which platforms have people currently standing on them. The orbs with the red circle around them mean that the spiders have been cleared, but no on is currently standing there. The red orbs mean the spiders are still there and must be cleared before anyone can stand on the platforms.
There are 3 sets of platforms you must activate at the same time in order to open the door to the next area of the raid. There is a set of platforms to the left, right, and in the middle. Each set of platforms is guarded by 2 spiders. You must kill the spiders first. Once they are dead you can then have 2 people step on the platforms to activate them.
One way to approach this area is to send the entire group to the left. Whoever gets aggro from the medusa should try to kite her away from the rest of the group. The rest of the group should kill the spiders and leave 2 people there to activate the platforms. Do this until you have activated all platforms, and the door opens.
Typhon – 2nd Boss
Once you have completed the Medusa labyrinth you will face the second boss of the raid, Typhon. This boss has a total of 3 phases. Each phase is the same mechanically. However, with each phase there are more ads added to fight and less pillars to hide behind during one of his abilities.
Mechanics
The mechanics you need to be aware of with this boss include the following:
- Lane of Thorns – Periodically either the left, right, or center of the arena will be covered in thorns. You will see the area slowly turn to red, once the red has filled the area the thorns will appear. You need to be out of the area of you will die. The thorns will disappear after a few seconds.
- Moving Thorns – 2 people will be marked in the first phase. You will see a red icon above your head. When this appears, an AoE area of thorns will begin appearing underneath your feet. Do not stand in your group when this happens. You will wipe your group. If you have the mark, move to the edge of the map and keep walking, until you are no longer spawning thorns. Do not stand still or you will be hit by the thorns. In the second phase 3 people will be marked, and in the 3rd phase 4 people will be marked.
- Thorny Maiden – The boss will shoot 2 sets of vines out. They will crawl on the ground towards a target. If you are hit with the vines you will be trapped inside a thorny maiden cage. While inside you will take damage. Your team will need to attack the cage to break you out. You can also deal damage to the cage yourself when you’re caught. You can dodge the vines in order to avoid getting trapped.
- Ads – The boss will spawn in several ads. There will be spiders, a wolf, and a corvid. In the first phase there will be 2 big ads (corvid and wolf) and spiders. 2nd phase there are 3 big ads, and the 3rd phase there are 4 big ads. These ads will be in the arena for 25 seconds. After 25 seconds the boss will suck all the ads into himself. If the boss consumes the ads he will get the following buffs:
- The Corvid will give the boss a 30% empower buff. This stacks with each corvid that is consumed
- The Wolves give the consume (green aura that sucks mobs in) draining damage. You will start to receive significant damage from the consume at roughly 5 stacks of the wolves.
- Charge – The boss will mark someone in the group. That person must get behind one of the pillars in the room or they will be insta killed. Once you have identified who has the mark and they are behind the pillar, everyone else in the group can freely DPS the boss.
The Fight
When the fight begins, you simply need to DPS the boss. During this time he will spawn moving thorns and possibly the lane of thorns. If you are targeted with moving thorns, make sure you move away from the group to the wall and keep moving to avoid taking damage and damaging your team.
He will then spawn the ads. Make sure you prioritize the corvids to prevent the boss from absorbing them. The empowering buff the boss receives is incredibly punishing. Prioritize corvid and then wolf. You can ignore the spiders. During phase 1 you ideally want to kill both the corvid and the wolf every time he spawns ads.
Shortly after he consumes there will be a red glowing animation that circles around the boss. This means he’s marking someone for his charge ability. Whoever is marked needs to immediately run behind a pillar. If they do not get to safety they will be insta killed from the charge. If you are not marked you can freely DPS during his charge. Once he hits a pillar he will be stunned for a short duration, making this prime time for free DPS.
After he hits the pillar it will be rinse and repeat of the mechanics until the next phase.
Having some gravity wells in the group can be useful during this fight. This can help with grouping the ads in order to burn them down quickly before the boss consumes them. You will also want several DPS to be running the vines heartrune. This will help lockdown the corvids and prevent them from flying around the map.
Phase 2
Once you have the boss down to 70% health he will run through the wall into the next arena into phase 2. This is a rinse and repeat of phase one. However, the phase 2 arena only has 3 pillars, making the charge ability a little more difficult. You must be aware of where the pillars are in case you get marked. This phase also spawns an additional corvid or wolf. During phase 2 there’s also three people marked with moving thorns versus two.
Phase 3
When the boss is down to 30% he will begin phase 3. During this phase there will only be 2 pillars. 4 people will also be marked with thorns versus 3 in the previous phase. In phase 3 you simply want to ignore the ads and burn down the boss. If you have too many stacks of empowerment from the corvids or life drain from the wolfs going into phase 3, you will wipe. It’s important to manage the ads in phases 1 and 2 so in phase 3 you can just focus the boss to end the fight.
3rd Puzzle – Cleansing Puzzle
For the third puzzle, you will encounter a bridge will a circle arena on the other side. Around the circle arena are fountains. You must grab the cleansing water from the fountains and cleanse the arena to prevent you and your team from taking damage. The objective here is to cleanse the arena of the infection and clear all the mobs. Once you do this you will be able to progress.
A good strategy here is to simply have the entire team rotate around the arena to the left. Make sure you assign a couple people to do the cleansing. Once an area is cleansed you can safely use that area to fight the mobs. If you’re infected with the poison, you can run into one of the blue cleansing bubbles to remove the debuff. You must stay in the bubble for a moment to remove it.
As you progress past the infected area you will soon find yourself at a fork in the road. You will want to send half of the team to the right and half of the team to the left. There are levers along each path that each team must activate. This will open the door for the other team on the other side.
Broodmother Medusa – 3rd Boss
The final boss you face in the raid is Broodmother Medusa. This boss fight can get very hectic. There’s a lot of mechanics going on all at once, so make sure you’re paying attention to your positioning and the effects on the ground.
Mechanics
The mechanics that you need to be aware for this fight are the following:
- Flowers – There are flowers hanging from the ceiling of the arena. There is also a flower that will pop up on the back of the boss. These flowers will periodically activate. When they do, they will spew a white AoE cloud into the arena. These clouds will float on the ground over the arena. If you run into one of them you will gain stacks of a sleep debuff. Getting 10 stacks of the debuff will put you to sleep. When you’re asleep you can’t move, use abilities, or attack in any way. The flowers will also place clumps of branches on the ground. Running into the branches will damage you. Avoid them and the white clouds. You will need ranged DPS players to shoot the flowers in order to deactivate them.
- Charge – Broodmother will charge in a direction towards a player. Getting hit by the charge deals a lot of damage. The charge also leaves behind a trial of sludge. Running into the trail will deal quite a lot of DoT damage.
- Poison Volcanos – Poison volcanoes will periodically spawn in the arena. These are on the ground and spew out poison. Standing on one will give you stacks of the posion. The more stacks you have the more DoT damage you will take. The damage gets very potent, so you will need to cleanse the debuff by standing in a blue circle from the cleansing fountain. You have to stand in the circle for a brief moment to cleanse. Running though the circle does not cleanse you.
- Cleansing Fountains – There are 4 fountains on the walls of the arena. You can use the fountain to get an orb of cleansing water. You must throw the orb of cleansing water onto the Poison volcanoes to remove them from the arena. This will also create a blue cleansing bubble. Players that are affected by the poison can stand in the blue cleansing circle for a moment to remove the debuff.
- Eggs – The boss will periodically spew eggs into the arena. These eggs must be cleared or they will spawn ads. If ignored, the ads will overwhelm you. Make sure you have some DPS assigned to kill the eggs.
You will need some ranged DPS for this fight in order to take out the flowers on the ceiling. This fight also has quite a lot of nature damage. Therefore, having a nature amulet is ideal for this encounter.
The Fight
This fight gets incredibly hectic very quickly. There’s a lot of AoE’s on the ground that you must avoid, and it takes teamwork to cleans the debuffs on the team. Prior to entering the arena you will want to make sure you have a few ranged DPS assigned to taking out the flowers when they activate, and have some DPS assigned to taking out the eggs when they are thrown into the arena. You will also want to assign 2 people to the fountains. Activating a fountain will put it on cooldown. Having 2 people assigned to the fountains will allow them to each work one side of the room.
They should throw the water on the volcanoes when they appear, and throw them when someone has several stacks and needs to be cleansed.
Essentially the tank will hold aggro and someone will need to call out the charges. If the boss charges and hits you, you will most likely die. Once the flowers activate they need to be cleared as quickly as possible to avoid the sleep clouds and the branches that the flowers spawn. Whenever eggs are in play, make sure they are cleared quickly as well. In between eggs and flowers, everyone should DPS the boss. However, make sure you’re aware of the poison volcanoes and getting into the cleanse bubbles when needed. The DoT damage from the poison ramps up very quickly, so try to avoid taking stacks or get cleansed when there’s a bubble near you. Avoid the white clouds. You will be rendered useless for a good period of time if you get put to sleep.
The players assigned to the fountain must be aware of the volcanoes, and try to call out the cleanse bubbles when they are activated. The bubbles will disappear after a few seconds, and the fountains go on cooldown once used.
Once the boss reaches roughly 30% the fountains will be periodically covered with vines. When the vines appear a DPS needs to clear them quickly so the fountains can be used to cleanse again.
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