Soloing Trapdoor

I've been called on to provide this advice a number of times now, so I decided to write a mini-guide to point to instead of cutting-and-pasting repeatedly in PMs and e-mails.

The various tactics that I have found to be successful against Trapdoor can be characterized as follows...

A) STEAMROLLER: This method relies on overpowering Trapdoor's Regen. Many high damage characters can just take out Trapdoor while ignoring his bifurcations. Characters with significant -Regen (including Envenomed Dagger temp powers) can substitute that for damage, since most of Trapdoor's difficulty arises from his bifurcation's Regen buffs. Use what you have to boost your burst damage and just pound him flat before he gets to be too much of a crowd. If you go straight at Trapdoor he'll be at 69.6 HP/s Regen right off and that will go up 58 HP/s roughly every 33 seconds as he bifurcates (that's if he's a level 50 Elite Boss). You need to do a net 4016 pts of damage to him to defeat him. So to beat him in 33s you need roughly (DPS - 69.6) * 33s > 4016 HP or DPS > 192. To beat him in 66s while ignoring the bifurcations you need around 160 DPS. After 66s the DPS needed starts going up rather than down, as his Regen will be 185.6 HP/s at that point. So, you need an effective DPS (including -Res, -Regen, -Rech which effectively works as -Regen by delaying his bifurcation, etc) of about 160 damage/second to make this workable. Note that an Envenomed Dagger will do -250% Regen for 10s with a 1.2s cast time (ArcanaTime). Add in the 160.6 pts of Lethal and Toxic damage and that means Envenomed Dagger has an effective damage of 276.6 if Trapdoor has no bifurcations and an astounding effective damage of 740.7 if he has one or more. So if you use it every 10s that means your average DPS otherwise needs to be DPS * 0.88 + 74.1 > 160 or DPS > 98. So with an Envenomed Dagger (used optimally and with perhaps as many as 7 charges) you need around a 100 equivalent DPS from other sources to beat Trapdoor using this tactic.

B) CLONE WARS: This method is based upon minimizing Trapdoor's Regen by eliminating the bifurcation buffs quickly. High mobility or ranged characters with moderate damage can have success by taking out the bifurcations as they appear and working on Trapdoor in between. Nothing fancy here, and presumably the intended method of defeating this nuisance. Note that Trapdoor's base Regen is only 11.6 HP/s, so if you spend half your time defeating bifurcations you only need to average around 85 DPS to do more damage to him in those 16s of attacking him than he regenerates with his base Regen plus a bifurcation buff up half the time. The DPS needed being DPS > (11.6 + 58 * percent of time spent on bifurcations) / (1 - percent of time spend on bifurcations). That value approaches the 160 DPS needed for the "Steamroller" tactic if you take more than 22 seconds to defeat a bifurcation. So if you can't manage to defeat the bifurcations and re-engage Trapdoor in, say, 20 seconds or less on average (this requires 120 DPS during the 13s period where you're fighting Trapdoor), then this tactic isn't for you. If you can defeat the bifurcations and return to Trapdoor in 15s you only need about 70 DPS to succeed.

C) BIND-AND-GRIND: This method simply stops Trapdoor's bifurcation +Regen buffs altogether. Characters who can stack Mez to prevent Trapdoor from bifurcating can concentrate on mezzing Trapdoor (don't worry about damage in this phase, just stack mez as fast as you can) to the point where he will stay mezzed while you take out a bifurcation and then you can grind down Trapdoor at your leisure. Make sure to keep him mezzed constantly once you have him under control - this means defeating one bifurcation at a time if he somehow managed more than one. Trapdoor has normal EB status protection, so to use this method you need to be able to stack 7 Mag of either Hold or Stun and maintain it. Though I can't personally confirm it, Confuse has been reported to work as well. The disadvantage of that is that he will still summon the bifurcations, but the advantage is that as long as he's Confused he shouldn't get the buffs (this is the part I haven't confirmed with a Power Analyzer), so maintaining the 7+ Mag constantly shouldn't be as important with Confuse.

D) LAVE IN LAVA: (NOTE: THERE ARE MULTIPLE REPORTS OF THE LAVA DOING NO DAMAGE TO TRAPDOOR - I haven't tested this to see if happens all the time or whether it is an intermittent bug as occurs with the lava in Who Will Die Episode 1.) This method is a way of supplementing your damage output using the lava so that you can overcome Trapdoor's Regen. As stated in the "Steamroller" section, you need an effective DPS of 160 or higher to overcome Trapdoor's Regen while ignoring his bifurcations. The previous tactics are for those that can manage that DPS, or that can deal with the Regen buffs from the bifurcations in one way or another. Basically, that means low damage toons lacking holds or the ability to quickly acquire and defeat the bifurcations probably will need help either from a teammate, a temp power, or the lava. The latter is always available (though can be problematic for Masterminds - I suggest temp powers and the "Steamroller" tactic for them). So...

1) Aggro Trapdoor.

2) Immediately take out the bifurcation he summons.

3) Try to drag Trapdoor to the lava. This can be tricky at times since he may move while you're defeating the bifurcation, but it's usually not too hard. You're a level 50, you should have plenty of practice with making the AI critters dance to your tune. If you're having trouble then I suggest you duck under a catwalk till he jumps in, then move to a rock in a manner that keeps him from leaving the lava when he follows you. The latter, in practice, just means that you make sure there's an unbroken stretch of lava between where he is and where you move to. The key is that you have to take out the bifurcation fast, locate Trapdoor and then move to a location that is out of his line of sight and will lead him to move through the lava to reacquire that line of sight to you.

4) If you can't get him to the lava within about 25 seconds or so then drop back to a good vantage point and wait for the next bifurcation.

5) Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you manage to get him in the lava with no bifurcations and a bit of time to work on him. You may need to bring a fair number of green inspirations to offset the lava damage you will take. And perhaps purples and break free class inspirations to prevent Trapdoor himself from defeating you. However, it does help that most characters that need the damage boost provided by this tactic have either mitigation or healing of their own (or both).

6) Hit him with your best possible damage output (use reds, temps, whatever) and ignore any new bifurcations. Try to avoid a situation where you have to spend time defending yourself by using purple pills and break frees. This allows you to concentrate on doing damage. With this approach you don't need to do much damage however. If a new bifurcation shows 16s after you re-engage Trapdoor while he's in the lava you only need about 130 DPS combined between you and the lava to take him down to 25% in 50s. And the lava appears to do 145, though I'd heard 116 before and it's hard to time accurately. Even if he bifurcates just as you start attacking then you will only need at most 75 DPS for 33s to beat him. The central component of this tactic is to get him in the lava with a good amount of time to work on him while he has one or fewer bifurcations.

I was able to defeat him not using any of these methods. I used alot of Temporary Pets, like Shivan, Backup Radio, my Fire Imps, and my Toxic Spider. Defeated Trapdoor in 2-3 minutes.

Well, (A) should never take more than 60s or so if done right. To give a graphic explanation of why...

Imagine a plot with the DPS on the vertical axis and Time on the horizontal axis. On this a curve for defeating Trapdoor will be a segmented line sketching out a rough bowl shape. That is, the DPS needed to defeat him quickly is very high, but so is the DPS needed to defeat him slowly, as he'll have massive Regen after a period of time. The bottom vertex of this bowl shape is at around 195 DPS and 60s. Any effective DPS (including -Res and -Regen effects and so on) below that won't succeed. Any effective DPS above that (higher on the DPS axis) should take less than 60s as the DPS line will intersect the curve at two places and you'll never reach the one to the right as Trapdoor will be defeated when you reach the one on the left, which will be to the left of the 60s vertex. Of course, this is a simplification, as your DPS isn't a fixed amount, but varies throughout the period, and Trapdoor's Regen isn't smooth, but comes in 5% bursts just like everyone else's.

Anyway, these tactics are intended as just that - tactics. They certainly aren't the only ways to beat Trapdoor. They are basically simple statements of ways to either overpower his Regen (A and D), get around it by attacking the +Regen directly (B) or preventing the +Regen altogether (C). (NOTE: The "Haul to the Hall" tactic that the patch eliminated was a variant of C that could be used by anyone.) The first three tactics aren't spelled out in detail because the characters that can implement them successfully probably aren't the ones having trouble with the mission. They're also pretty obvious. The fourth has a more detailed description because I've found that almost any character can succeed using it just with an inspiration load bought right at the mission door.

I added a statement of the central notion behind each tactic and some numbers for what you need to be able to simply smack Trapdoor upside the head.

[Edit: Moved most of the math into the "Steamroller" section, since that seemed the more appropriate place for it.]

Nice guide.

You might add: -Recharge effects slow down the recharge of the Bifurcation ability.

I admit, I don't have hard evidence of this, but I solod Trapdoor with my Warshade and my Widow. Neither used Holds. The Widow killed two Bifurcations (using the Clone Wars method) while taking him down. The Warshade only had to kill one. It certainly SEEMED that my -Recharge effects were slowing down the clone summoning.

I would add that Confuse, as well as Hold and Stun, seems to prevent Trapdoor from benefiting from his bifurcations, and may send him out attacking them. Unlike you, he can one shot them fairly reliably.

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

I tagged on a bit about Confuse. I checked my toons and have no one to directly test this. If someone does test it, please post here so I can update the guide to remove the disclaimer.

Kosmos, did you actually time his cloning to 20s? I've timed it myself and its closer to 30 seconds..

I had timed him before, but couldn't remember *when* I had timed him.

I just timed him again and it appears that it is actually just under 33s between bifurcations. That's what I get for taking a quick PM to start with instead of starting over from scratch.

Hopefully I can still edit the guide. It doesn't change the strategies any, but does lower the DPS needed to defeat him considerably. It makes the "Lave in Lava" numbers come out more in line with my experience that you have a fair bit of time to defeat the clone and get him in there.

You can drop the Honoree/Holtz mission (though you have to run back to Ramiel to do it). So I don't feel there's a need for a guide on that. I only did the Trapdoor guide because (1) you can't avoid him and (2) I'd PMed/e-mailed the rough version to five different people and one had requested that I resend it, leading me to choose to put it somewhere accessible.

The method I've had good luck with is KB. If he's on his back, he can't fight back. And that includes Bifurcating.

So Storm/Eng Def, Eng/Storm Corr, Elec/Earth Dom, etc, etc, etc, can whittle him down at their leisure. Of course there's no reason NOT to put him in the lava, I'm just saying that it's not necessary if you have enough KB to keep him consistently on his back.

my Illusion controller can solo the whole quest chain and I've helped lots of people do this.

inviso to trapdoor and confuse him.
I usually set confuse on auto-cast at this point.
he will kill his own spawns if any get close enough for him to aggro on.
He usually only makes 1-2 copies.

Phantom Army brings him down enough to win.
=========

fairly similar fight for the quest in RWZ, confuse rikti portals, confuse the boss until he beat honor down into submission, kill confused boss with Phantom Army.

I stacked holds on him to prevent the splits, then I rained him with fire, and then I jumped the rail and beat him down(charged brawls, thunderstike, havoc punch). I prevented him from moving completely.

I soloed with my ar/dark corruptor


I slealthed into the room, got 10 feet behind him and summoned a shivan, a snow beast and 1 (one) fluffy to spawn directly behind him. He didn't know what was up; will all the pets starting their attacks he was still standing pretty, thinking out loud, "yeah, I bifucate like a BOSS."


After the last pet was summoned, I started my soul drain/flamethrower/full auto/shotgun chain. I only got to full auto before some pet KB tossed him over the rail. He was dead before he hit the lava.

Thanks for the information. My dual blade/natural tanker pounded the snot out of him and go no where. Now, with this information, I should be able to take him out. Thanks!

An interesting thing happened with my Mind/Energy Dominator while fighting Trapdoor.

I used Confuse to keep him docile while I attacked him. I have no idea if it prevented his regen or not as I wasn't really paying attention to that, I just killed his Bifs as they appeared and kept using Confuse on him. I must have queued up a final Confuse right after the ranged Energy Blast went off that defeated him and the Confuse took effect AFTER he got defeated and "turned blue". Since he was considered an "Ally NPC" upon being defeated, when my Confuse landed, he became aggressive again and started attacking me even though I was not able to attack him back.

I was able to click on him and start his "After Being Defeated" conversation however and he continued to attack me throughout the entire process of clicking through his conversation tree. By the time I got done and the "Mission Complete" button popped up, he almost killed me. I have a pretty long-lasting Confuse.

I taunted him off the platform to where the pop-up turrets are, and then drew him into the tunnel. I then spammed my hold (Char) and my attacks all have disorient or knockdown (due to inherent or set bonuses).

As an Invul/Energy tank, I don't hit THAT hard, but the knockdowns, timed right with the Total Focus, beat him to the 'blue' point rather quickly, and he never spawned a clone that I saw.