Heaven on High

Guide

The following guides are great resources for aspiring Lone Heroes

Maygi's Handbook

Pillowyzeal's Solo Guide

Finh's Warrior Guide

The following is geared towards solo play, but much of the information will apply to groups.

Heaven on High Solo Tips/FAQ (6.4)

Which job should I take?

While every job has cleared HoH there are some jobs that are exceptionally strong and recommended for beginners.

• Any Tank - WAR >Tanks are all very strong  - Warrior > Paladin/Dark Knight > Gunbreaker. The benefit of warrior is survival, Paladin/Dark Knight have fantastic defensive utility, Gunbreaker has great passive sustain.

  • Pros

    • Can fight anything

    • Are more resilient to RNG due to being able to fight anything without needing specific pomanders (such as steel)

    • Use pomanders for time, not survival

    • Don't need to worry about farming potions

  • Cons

    • Slow clear time due to lower damage 

    • Will struggle with the instance timer (the real enrage) on the later floors (71+)

• Barrier Healers - Scholar and Sage are both very strong in Palace of the Dead due to the strong barriers. Which you will prefer largely comes down to whether you would prefer instant cast shields or fairy healing.

  • Pros

    • Nearly infinite sustain

    • Can fight most thing

    • Are more resilient to bad floor debuffs

    • Multipulling 2 or more mobs is a DPS gain

    • Can sleep mobs to disengage (such as in the event of a luring trap)

    • Don't need any sustaining potions until 61+

  • Cons

    • Slow clear time like tanks

    • Will struggle with the instance timer

• Ranged DPS - Machinist and Summoner - Machinist and Summoner are some of the most consistently performing DPS jobs in Palace of the Dead due to high damage and utility.

  • Pros

    • Great burst DPS (don't have to worry about timing out)

    • Ability to fight on the run (kiting)

    • Great utility

  • Cons

    • Less RNG resilient.

    • Needs pomanders for survival (such as Steel).

    • Need to explore efficiently and collect as many chests as possible.

    • Have a number of unfightable mobs in the later sets.

• Melee DPS - Reaper

  • Pros

    • Simple rotation

    • Very high damage(don't have to worry about timing out)

    • Extra Defensive utility

  • Cons

    • Have to fight at melee

    • Needs to find sufficient steel to clear.

    • Need to explore efficiently and collect as many chests as possible.

    • Have a number of unfightable mobs in the later sets.

Solo Strategy

The poms you will need vary by the job you play. Generally speaking the following is true when solo:

• Always aim to save your key pomanders (magicites/petrify/sights) for the hardest sets

• Climbing higher is always more important than saving poms. Use what you need to safely climb.

• Keep at least one Serenity for floor 99 which is guaranteed to have three cripplingly bad debuffs

• Raisings are an extra life that will save your run if you die

  • Can be used for any floorset or boss that you aren't confident on with your job (typically 51+)

  • Raising do not drop after floor 79

• Save your Petrify's and Magicites (Floor wipes) for 81+ unless otherwise free or required to prog.

  • Elder Magicite is the rarest pomander and there are only three places in a clear run you would use it.

    • Floor 90 boss due to time or extra resources required to clear

    • 91+ as a normal floor wipe (ideal)

    • Prior to 90 if you somehow get three Elder and find a free magicite or need to magicite a floor in the 81-90 set

• Flights are useful to help catch up on time

  • Pair Flights with Affluences as lower mob counts usually make it easier to grab chests.

  • Do not pair Flight with Alteration (it reduces the effectiveness of alteration)

• Affluence, Fortune, should be used to get more chests whenever you are missing poms

  • Fortunes pair well with floor wipes or on kill floors

• Use Strength/Frailty when you are behind on time.

• Use Steel to help survive high damage mobs.

• Safety is best used in big rooms to remove the trap exits

There are more specific notes in PillowyZeals guide in the guide link above. It's worth a read.

Floor 1-50 Strategy

These floors shouldn't challenge you on time, even fully exploring every floor should rarely leave you with less than 20 minutes on the clock by the boss floor.

Your goal in these floors is to acquire all of the pomanders that you need for 71+.

Floor 51-70 Strategy

Continue to use whatever freebies you can find and try to fill out as many slots as you can.

This the turning point where bad debuffs may not be worth fighting through. You will also need

Floor 71-80 Strategy

From here, every set becomes "the hardest set" for different reasons. Ideally, you should be entering 71 with just about all of your pomanders at 3.

Start this set with a raising.

Your goal is to be aggressive with this set, but conserve as many resources as possible. An ideal outcome in this set is to reach the end with as many of the big poms (Flight, Magicite, Petrify, Serenity) at 3 as possible. While it is okay to use some resources (such as a flight, strength and steel) the more resources you use, the more you are going to be relying on luck in the later two sets.

It is preferable to serenity a floor with bad debuffs in this set rather than wiping it.

The floor boss of this set takes 7-10 minutes on most jobs.

Tank Specific Notes
On floors 71, 72 and 73, there is an increased chance of landmines, if you are a tank, it is good to play on trying to do landmine plays to help speed through these sets. If you do it correctly, you will arrive at 74 with at least 50 minutes remaining. So long as you keep fighting, you should arrive at the boss  with plenty of time.

DPS Specific Notes

Due to the danger of the landmine plays, they are typically not recommended unless you are very confident that it won't end your run. You still want to aim to get ahead on time in the early floors by opening with a strength (and optionally a frailty). This set -- in particular --puts the harder mobs later in the set, so getting ahead early is critical.

If you are a DPS or Healer, it is also important to do your best to learn what mobs you can fight without steel to conserve as many as possible to bring into 81+.

Floor 81-90 Strategy

This is the gauntlet. Whether you clear is largely decided by how you perform on this set. It is brutal, monsters are nasty, but it's completely doable with knowledge and determination.

• Always pop a raising to start

• Start the set with a Strength and a Frailty to get a good pace

• Make relatively aggressive use of flights and alterations. Mimics are better to fight here than on 91+.

• Aim to use one Magicite and one Petrify during bad floor debuffs so that you do not find a magicite right before the exit and be unable to pick it up.

  • Special Case Elder Magicite and Floor 90

    • If you have an Elder Magicite (Odin) consider whether you will need to use it for Onra or not when you enter floor 87.

      • If you reach floor 87 with less than 20 minutes left, Odin is likely the only way that you will clear. Plan to fight super hard to get through 87-89 with at least 30 seconds to spare (for loading + animation lock), and let Odin take care of Onra for you.

    • If you arrive at floor 90 with 15 minutes and an active raising, you should always try to fight the boss to keep the magicite for the next set.

• Floor 90 boss takes

Tank Specific Notes

Multi-tasking is critical in this set. The kill counts are high and mobs are tanky. While you can fight anything on this set without steel, time is going to be a major concern. Ideally you want to try to reach the end of the set with about four floor wipes and two serenities to ensure that you can clear.

In addition, the boss takes 10-15 minutes depending on how many pomanders you are willing to use on the boss.

DPS Specific Notes

There's not a lot that you can comfortably fight without steel on this set. Machinist and Summoner have an easier time doing so due to being able to kite 

Floor 91-100 Strategy 

The difficulty of this set will depend on your performance in the prior sets. This set will either be a fight for your life or a victory lap depending upon how you performed on the previous set.

General notes for the set

•  There are a lot of nasty mobs (specifically from 94 through 96) 

• Many floors may take 10 minutes unflighted if the kill count is high. This is okay as you will make up time with your wipes.

• Be very opportunistic with your exploration and heavily prioritize getting through the passage as quickly as possible.

• When wiping a floor, be sure to grab as many gold chests as possible before you use your Petrify/Magicite. If the debuffs are bad, do not open chests after you have wiped the floor a mimic will kill you.

• Unlike prior sets, where it's worth trying to keep petrify and magicite balanced for the sake of chests. Once your Magicite and Petrify are both at two, you should always favor petrify over magicite when you can use it.

• Floors wipes can be used in place of a serenity for bad floors.

Floor Strategy

• 91 never has any debuffs so always fight 91 with a Strength and a Frailty. Use a steel for dangerous mobs and do your best to get through this floor quickly.

• If you have any flights remaining use them on floors that you expect to fight (typically 92 and 93).

• Aim to fight 92 and 93 (unless the debuffs are really bad and you have a fourth or fifth floor wipe and only have one Serenity)

• Floors 94 is the hardest floor in the set and you have a mix of very challenging mobs with the potential for very challenging patrols.This is a floor that is usually worth wiping even when there are no debuffs. 

• Floor 95 and 96 are also challenging due to the Dullahan and Centaur mobs which are very challenging. If there's bad floor debuffs wipe these as well.

• Use any remaining floor wipes on 97 and 98 for time unless you were able to flight them.

• Always save a Magicite or a Serenity for floor 99 as it will always have bad debuffs.

• Save a safety or conceal for 97+ which have a higher chance of being a big room