Lost Ark Achates Guardian Raid Guide

You’re about to fight one of the toughest raid guardians in Lost Ark, and you need a handy guide to help you out. Well, it’s a good decision to know what you’re in for before clicking on that matchmaking button. In this Lost Ark Achates guide, we’ll give you a rundown of the moves to avoid and how the main mechanics work during the fight.

Before diving into this one, remember that there are a lot of players who have no idea what they’re doing in this fight. You can do your part by coming prepared and knowing what to expect, and maybe relay that information to your teammates to improve your overall chances for success.

Lost Ark Achates Guardian Raid Guide

Who is Achates in Lost Ark

Achates is a Guardian Raid boss and the final boss in Raid Level 3. The recommended item level is 920, and as with all other bosses, you’ll need four people for this one unless you can solo it at the max item level. Do not underestimate this boss—it’s going to be a brutal fight, especially if you pug it.

“Achates, who has wings of dazzling light, possesses the dignity of overpowering all beings with divine power.

Items You Will Need for Achates

The items you will need for the Achetes Guardian Raid fight are:

• Flares
• Potions
• Destruction Bombs

Flares are to find Achates without wasting any time. Potions are for healing up, something you’ll be doing a lot of, and Destruction Bombs are for the main mechanic to add stagger to Achates’ weak spot on the wings.

Achates Moves

Main Mechanic

Achates’ main mechanic activates when becoming invincible. It’s usually around five minutes into the fight but will vary based on damage output. You’ll know the phase is about to happen because all your shots will show up as “invincible” in blue text and do no damage. At this point, Achates will teleport to the center of the closest open area and spawn statues. 

The statues spawn in four possible areas in a small radius around the boss. The statues will drop three different color stones: orange, green, and blue. It’s your job to destroy these statues as quickly as possible and pick up and throw the stone that matches the color of Achates’ shield. Your party must do this four times (twice for each color of Achates’ shield) to break the shield around the boss.

To pick up the stones, press your interact key (G by default), and then press Q to line up your shot and Q again to throw it. You can also set down a stone if you pick up the wrong color. Some parties find it efficient to assign everyone a color, but this could overcomplicate things in a pug.

Tossing the stones at Achates can prove challenging, as Achates sends orbs out that do damage and have a knockback. Party members not currently throwing stones can body-block these orbs to help the team, absorbing the damage and knockback.

Two circles will show up on Achates’ wings when the shield breaks. At this point, all players in the party must throw a destruction bomb and use stagger skills on the target location. If successful, the boss will become neutralized and have damaged wings, making it a much more manageable encounter. You can expect this mechanic to happen twice or more throughout the whole fight (if you fail).

Let’s recap this mechanic:

1. Achates goes invincible
2. Achates teleports to the center of the nearest open area
3. Statues spawn around Achates
4. Destroy the statues to get them to drop three stones 
5. Pick up and throw the stone at Achates that matches the shield color two times
6. Repeat the process
7. When the shield breaks, destruction bomb and stagger the wings

Berserk / Annihilation

Failure to break the shield will make the encounter much more difficult, but not impossible. If you fail to break the shield, Achates will go berserk and immediately cast an annihilation ability where the ground turns white. You must run outside the radius and avoid the white orbs that can knock you up and make it impossible to escape. The move occurs many times throughout the fight and creates a lot of downtime for all players. Being hit by this move seems to deal between 20,000-40,000 damage, but will depend on your class and defense. It’s essential to perfect the main mechanic of this fight if you want a clean victory.

Flame of Torch

Players will get a white circle underneath them occasionally. When this happens, you should run away from your party. Eventually, lightning will strike and cause white fire on the ground. Making it spawn away from your party helps because it deals serious damage.

Stepping in this gives you Flame of Torch debuff, which makes you engulfed in a sacred flame causing periodic damage, and greatly decreasing self HP regen (potions). This can stack many times, so be careful where you step.

Breath

Achates will breathe white flames from time to time, sometimes also moving backward while doing it if enraged. Stay out of the breath, as being hit by it will spawn a white flame around you that damages other players. If you get the flame and/or a debuff, you’ll need to watch your positioning.

Pizza AoE

Like most bosses in Lost Ark, Achates has a generic pizza AoE. That means in a radius around it, there’s a giant circle of damage, with some safe pizza slices that you can stand. When this casts, there will be two blasts back to back. Each blast has random safe zones, so get your mobility moves ready for the dodge, or simply move out of the radius entirely.

Roar

Achates will occasionally take a deep breath and let out a ferocious roar. Being in radius of this causes the Overwhelmed debuff, which decreases Attack Power, causing you to be overwhelmed by the Guardian’s Roar. You cannot remove this, and the duration is one minute.

Red Mark

Occasionally, a player will be marked with a red triangle over their head. This debuff is a damage-over-time mark, and it ticks for a lot of damage. To get rid of it, stand on another player with the opposite color of the mark. Standing near the player for three to five seconds should cleanse you of the mark. Depending on your health pool, having this on you for the full duration could mean a guaranteed death.

Other Moves

The moves above are the main ones to look out for, but there are many others. In general, just stay out of the white flames, avoid the wings, and look out for charges. If you fail the main mechanic and Achates enrages, it may be a good idea to restart the raid unless you are sure your group is competent enough.

Understand the moves listed above in our Lost Ark Achates Guardian Raid guide, and you’ll be well prepared to down the boss. Remember to go in solo if you want to practice avoiding moves and learning the patterns! For more related guides and content, check our website’s Lost Ark section.