The Hollow Stag

Health

Its health depends on the lair's tier and on how many Jewels you hold when you go in (see Lairs). In a Normal lair with no Jewels held it has 550 health.

In online play, each extra Wanderer who comes in through the boss gate adds 60% of this in a Normal lair, 72% in a Fatal lair and 80% in an Abyssal lair, up to 5 players.

Moves

Damage below is what each blow deals at its base, before the lair's own strength (the Jewels you hold and a Fatal or Abyssal lair change it) and before your Defense. Its rage adds 20% to all of it.

Charge

Its most common move at middle range. It lowers its head, rakes the floor with a forehoof and snorts green breath for about 1 second, turning to keep its antlers on you until just before it goes. Then it charges in a straight line for 1 second, very fast, and skids to a stop. If its antlers reach you, you take 40 damage and are thrown far back. It can only hit you once per charge.

• Watch the scrape, then step out of its line just as it starts to run. It cannot turn once it is charging.
• Make it crash. If the charge runs into a wall or anything else solid, it crashes and is dazed for 1.5 seconds. While dazed this way it takes 50% more damage from every blow. Stand with a wall behind you, step aside at the last moment and let it hit the wall.
• Parry it. A parry at the right moment (right-click or R just as its antlers reach you) staggers it, with the same 1.5 seconds dazed and 50% more damage taken. Guarding late blocks part of the blow instead.
• Enraged, it wheels round and charges again straight away, up to three times in a row. After the third it stands blowing for about 2.6 seconds, open to your blows.

Rear and stamp

What it does most when you are close (within about 3 tiles). It rears up on its hind legs for 0.75 seconds, then brings its forehooves down: about 0.9 seconds from the start to the blow. A shock wave spreads from where its hooves land, a little in front of it, out to about 4.5 tiles: about 19 damage to anyone on the ground.

• Space as the shock wave's front reaches you, or back out of its reach while it rears.
• After the stamp it takes about 0.6 seconds to recover, and then a little longer before its next move. That is a good time to hit it.

Call

At middle range, when fewer than 3 gnawlings are already fighting, it may throw its head back and bellow for 1.5 seconds, its antlers glowing green. Two rings of green breath spread out (they do no harm) and 2 or 3 gnawlings climb out of the ground round it. They are as strong as the lair's own creatures. No more than 5 of the gnawlings it has called can be about at once.

• Kill the gnawlings quickly, or keep them away from you: they are weak but get in the way of your dodges.
• A bellow is a good time to land a few blows: it stands still while it calls.

Firewalk

Used only when you are fairly near, never in the first 10 seconds of the fight and then no more than once every 30 seconds. It shakes its antlers for about 0.9 seconds as they light up, then walks proudly about near you for 7 seconds.

• Every step bursts into green fire round its hoof (16 damage if you are standing right there).
• Balls of green fire fall all round it, one every 0.4 seconds. Every third one is aimed at where you stand; the rest land anywhere on the floor round it. A shadow and a ring of dots show where each will land, just under 1 second before it does. Each bursts for about 19 damage and leaves a scorch mark for a few seconds.
• Keep moving, step out of every shadow, and keep away from its hooves. When the 7 seconds are up it stops to recover.
• Enraged, it walks almost twice as fast and the fire falls every 0.28 seconds.

Leap

Used when you are a short way off (between about 3 and 13 tiles), never in the first 5 seconds of the fight and then no more than once every 9 seconds. It crouches for just under half a second, then springs high into the air at you. A red circle on the floor shows where it will land. For the 1.25 seconds it is in the air, the circle follows you, but more slowly than you can run. It lands in a blast that fills the whole circle at once: 48 damage, and it cannot be jumped.

• Run as soon as it leaves the ground and keep running in one direction until it lands. The circle cannot catch you.
• Enraged, it leaps three times in a row, crouching only briefly between leaps. Keep running until the third has landed.
• After its last leap it takes about 0.6 seconds to recover.

Wildfire ring (Fatal and Abyssal lairs only)

In a Fatal or Abyssal lair, some of its rear-and-stamp moves (at most one every 14 seconds, never in the first 7 seconds) set off a ring of green fire as its hooves come down. The ring spreads out across the hall over 2.4 seconds, to about 12 tiles from it. There is one gap in the ring, a little to one side of you, and it is shown on the floor from the moment the stag rears. The fire deals about 26 damage.

• As soon as it rears, find the gap and get into it. Let the ring pass you there.
• The stamp's own shock wave still comes too, so jump it if you are close.

Spirit herd (Abyssal lairs only)

In an Abyssal lair it may bellow instead of calling gnawlings: never in the first 10 seconds, then no more than once every 18 seconds. Ghost stags of green fire stampede across the hall in 3 lanes (5 once it is enraged): one lane through where you stand, the others beside it. Each lane lights up on the floor 1.2 seconds before its stags come, and the lanes go one after another. Each ghost stag deals 32 damage.

• Step out of the lit lanes into the space between them. The lanes run straight across; the stags do not turn.

Rage

When its health falls to 35%, the Hollow Stag roars as soon as it is between moves. It rears a little, throws its head back and its antlers blaze, for about 2.5 seconds. The roar deals no damage and cannot be interrupted. While it roars, night creatures of the Haunted Wood climb out of the ground round it to fight beside it: 5 when you are alone, 2 more for each other player nearby (11 at most).

From then on, until it falls:

• Its blows deal 20% more damage.
• Your blows on it deal 20% less damage.
• It chooses its next move 25% sooner.
• It moves 35% faster (its walk and its charge).
• It heals a small share of its health each second, but never back above the 35% where its rage began. How much depends on the Jewels you hold (see the table). Each blow you land stops its healing for 2 seconds, and it then eases back in.
• It charges up to three times in a row, leaps three times in a row, walks faster in its firewalk with fire falling more often, and its spirit herd runs in 5 lanes.

It heals 40% faster than Giggos does.

Rewards

• 2 Hollow Crowns, its trophy. Hang one on a Boss Trophy plaque, or spend them at the Augmentation Table to bind its echo to another item. See Boss Trophies.
• 1 Endurium.
• The Mourning Thorn, the Jewel of the Haunted Wood, the first time you clear a Haunted Wood lair. Like every Jewel it opens the next metal tier. See Jewels.
• A Rare chest rises in the hall.
• Stag Forged gear. As it falls, its echo can go into a fully spirited weapon or coat you carry that has not been forged before, making it Stag Forged. A Stag Forged weapon gets +15% attack speed and +8% power (a bow: +15% draw speed and +8% power); a Stag Forged coat gets +20% speed and +20% jump. See Forged Gear.

How to fight it

• Fight near a wall. Its charge is its main move, and a charge into a wall dazes it for 1.5 seconds, taking 50% more damage. Step aside at the last moment.
• Or parry the charge with right-click or R for the same opening, if your timing is good.
• Hit it after its moves. The openings are: the daze after a crash or a parry, the recovery after a stamp or a leap, the 2.6 seconds it stands after three enraged charges, and the bellow of its call.
• Watch the floor. The scrape before a charge, the rearing before a stamp, the red circle of a leap, the shadows of falling fire, the gap in the wildfire ring and the lit lanes of the herd all show what is coming.
• Jump the stamp's shock wave, but never try to jump the leap's landing: run out of its circle instead.
• It flinches. Its health bar is split into parts. Each time you empty one before its rage (at about 78% and 57% of its health) it flinches and is dazed for about 3 seconds in all.
• Before its health reaches 35%, be ready for the creatures its roar calls up. Deal with them quickly, or keep them away from you while you keep hitting it: once enraged it heals when left alone.
• See Lair Bosses for what all lair bosses share.

Drops

When it falls it leaves:

Item	Amount	Chance	Used for
Hollow Crown	2	ALWAYS	Selling
Endurium	1	ALWAYS	Endurium Ingot, Spirit Book (item), Yeti Tusk Charm, and more

Spirits and experience

When it falls it lets go of 12 Earth and 8 Fire spirits. You gain experience in: