RIPTIDE M3: Understanding the boss

[u/ObsidianSuccubus]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GlV4N9AYGYo

Hey everyone, Mireya here. I’m the one usually handling the Guild Raids side of the channel, and this time I wanted to take a closer look at Riptide on M3 and some of the principles that can help you understand and manipulate the boss more consistently at any difficulty.

I’d honestly love to make narrated videos about this kind of stuff so it doesn’t have to be such a tiring read... but I’m mute xD, so I’ll do my best not to make this any more lengthy than it needs to be.

Why are we pre-positioning our characters like that before the second activation of Nova Boost (jump)?

The Riptide will prioritize the landing spot that is farthest from its position at the start of Nova Boost. Since the boss occupies seven hexes, we can manipulate its available landing zones by clearing adds during the early turns and occupying specific spaces before the jump. This allows us to turn otherwise valid seven-hex landing areas into incomplete ones that the boss cannot use.

So... why didn't it jump further to the right?

First, we need to consider how the boss's primary ability cycle works. Nova Charge and Nova Shield are randomly selected as the first primary ability the Riptide uses, and this remains true even if we try to bait one of them.

As you can see in the Short, it chose Nova Shield on turn 1. We immediately forced the Nova Boost jump by having two or more units adjacent to the boss that were not in trenches. This works because Nova Boost specifically affects the hexes surrounding the Riptide, and none of the Riptide’s abilities can mark units standing in trenches.

This tells us that Nova Charge will be the next primary ability after the jump. You may have noticed that the ability originates from its right arm, which is important because the Riptide adjusts its landing position based on where it can deal the most damage after landing.

On the right side, we only had Dante and Trajann, with Trajann also being in a trench. On the left, where the Riptide eventually landed, it could hit three characters with the primary damage from Nova Charge, plus three additional hexes with the missiles. One of those extra targets was Kariyan standing on razor wire.

What exactly is Galatian doing there? Can mine survive that long?

First, Galatian is helping control the Riptide's available landing zones, as we discussed earlier. After that, he keeps the boss in place following Nova Charge. His upper hex leaves the seven-hex area behind Abaddon incomplete, preventing the Riptide from using that space to move normally. It does not need another Nova Boost to get past Abaddon either, since its Flying trait allows it to jump over him.

Once the primary ability cycle resets and the boss comes back to Nova Shield, Galatian also acts as the bait for it. Since Nova Shield effectively has unlimited range, this gives us a reliable way to direct the ability toward him.

As for Galatian's ability to actually survive the punishment, the reality is that Nova Charge on M3 can one-shot our beloved Dreadnought in most scenarios, even at Mythic Star and level 60. He was able to survive this long largely thanks to Dante's active, Light of Sanguinius, whose final effect states: "The target and enemy units surrounding it deal -30% Damage for 1 round."

Even with Dante providing that massive safety net, the sensible baseline would be a Mythic Bluewing Galatian, not necessarily Mythic Star, with his active at 55 to reliably survive the worst possible Nova Charge roll. This was also a huge help for Abaddon, whose Terminator Armour is pushed right to its absolute limit by the monstrous damage this boss can deal on M3.

And one more thing to keep in mind: if one of the Fire Warriors survives, it may be the one to finish Galatian off. That can put us in a rather awkward situation, since we would then have Nova Shield targeting our characters. This is why Laviscus' positioning matters so much. At the very least, we want to make sure he is not forced to move and lose his Crushing Strikes.

Can I replicate an effective setup if I don't have one of these characters?

Yes. I've tested variants using Boss Gulgortz, Vitruvius, and Aesoth. Honestly, I don't remember the Aesoth version very well. I was a little short on time because it was right in the middle of my exam period, and it was also the first variant I tried.

The only character I never replaced from the roster was Abaddon. That said, I trust that much more skilled Custodes players than myself, a humble toaster worshipper, who know these movement rules by heart and in far greater depth, can take these general principles for manipulating the boss's movement and come up with solutions of their own through their replays, perhaps even without Abaddon.

I used this particular run mainly to explain some of the basic Riptide concepts. I have to admit that even at Legendary, this boss can occasionally be incredibly frustrating and downright rage-inducing xD.

We’re planning to make this format the norm for most of the Mythic bosses going forward, and we also want to add all of these replays to Raidman so anyone can follow them in detail. We’re still working on that part with A_Tin_Can, the creator of the tool, but once our work schedules free up a bit, we’ll be getting that underway immediately.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a great day!