1st Stratum Boss and Epilogue

Learn how to defeat the 1st Stratum boss, Amalgolem, in Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth. Includes boss stats, weaknesses, and a step-by-step strategy guide.

Before entering the room, make sure that the stone walls at D3 and D5 are activated (their switches are at E3 and D5; basically the first and the last switches in this floor) in order to make the battle easier. You may also run away from every random encounters to save your TP as much as possible.

Before opening the door, you'll feel a strong aura of something lies inside. The game lets you make a final preparation before that. Once inside, you'll come across a wide clearing and nothing is seen. However, some small golems around the edge of the room quickly gather in the center to form a huge golem creature that blocks further path.

Amalgolem

Stats / Weaknesses:

• Amalgolem — HP: 2,660, Loot: Stoneguard Shard, Stun Barrier (defeat while it's paralyzed), Skills: Explode (innate), Summon Ally (innate), Command Ally (innate), Daunting Breath (head), Stone Breath (head), Flame Strike (arms), Ice Strike (arms), Stomp (legs), Stomp Crush (legs), EXP: 4,320, Weakness: Bash, Ice, Resist: -, Immune: All ailments, All binds
• White Golem — HP: 1,331, Loot: -, Skills: Fuse (innate), EXP: -, Weakness: All physicals, All elements, Resist: Petrification, Immune: Instant Death
• Red Golem — HP: 1,331, Loot: -, Skills: Fuse (innate), EXP: -, Weakness: All physicals, All elements, Resist: Petrification, Immune: Instant Death
• Black Golem — HP: 1,331, Loot: -, Skills: Fuse (innate), EXP: -, Weakness: All physicals, All elements, Resist: Petrification, Immune: Instant Death
• Yellow Golem — HP: 1,331, Loot: -, Skills: Fuse (innate), EXP: -, Weakness: All physicals, All elements, Resist: Petrification, Immune: Instant Death

Phases:

1. Amalgolem always opens the battle by performing Explode which deals heavy fire damage to all party members and breaks the boss into one Golem Body and three smaller Golems.
2. The Golem Body itself can't attack but has two skills. The first one is Summon Ally which tries to summon small Golems if there are less than 6 Golems on the field. Notice that if you have both stone walls activated, Golems on the west and east side won't be able to proceed forward, leaving only two Golems near the entrance of this room. This would absolutely slightly mitigate the difficulty of the fight. The second skill is Command Ally which obviously aggros all golems on the field so they move one step closer to the boss. Other than this, sometimes Golem Body is also Dozing which does nothing.
3. Now move to the smaller Golems. These colored Golems have the same skillset, which is either normal attack (deals bash damage) or Fuse in which the golem merge himself into Golem Body to create a body part. There are three body parts: Golem Head, Golem Arms and Golem Legs, all of which have their own skillsets. Likewise Golem Body, these Golems can also Dozing which does nothing. This happens mostly after Golem Body has been defeated.
4. When Golem Head has been reformed, Golem Body has access to two skills: Daunting Breath (gives DEF debuff to all party members) and Stone Breath (attempts to inflict Petrification to all party members).
5. When Golem Arms has been reformed, Golem Body has access to two skills: Flame Strike (deals fire damage) and Ice Strike (deals line-piercing ice damage).
6. When Golem Legs has been reformed, Golem Body has access to two skills: Stomp (deals bash damage) and Stomp Crush (deals splashed bash damage).
7. When all three body parts have been reconstructed, Amalgolem will perform Explode once again and repeats the pattern. However, if you manage to defeat a body part on this turn, Golem Body will perform either Summon Ally or Command Ally instead, the former is most likely because you just defeated a small Golem.
8. When Golem Body is defeated, the remaining body parts turn back into smaller Golems. Moreover, all Golems who are not in the battle will disappear. Meaning your next job is to kill those remaining Golems on the field to finish the battle. Needless to say, if Golem Body has no body part when it's defeated, the battle will end.

Strategy:

• Explode can easily incapacitates some of your party members, so make sure to activate all damage mitigation skill on this turn, or even performing DEFEND on the first turn.
• When Golems perform Fuse, their current HP, buff/debuff and ailment/bind state is also reflected to the created body part. Therefore if you lower their HP before merging, the created body part can be easily destroyed. Golems are generally weak to all physical and elemental damage, so it's possible if you defeat them before the others join the fray.
• On the next turn after a Golem merges into Golem Body, for most of the time Golem Body will perform a skill that uses that body party to attack. Therefore you can predict the boss' next move and act accordingly.
• In order to obtain its conditional loot, Stun Barrier, you have to defeat this boss while he is paralyzed. Golem Body is completely immune to all ailments and binds, meaning the only way to inflict Paralysis is by inflicting the ailment on the smaller Golem and hoping that that Golem will merge itself into Golem Body. Notice that at the end of turn, it's still possible for the smaller Golem to recover so that Golem Body doesn't suffer Paralysis anymore at the next turn. At this point Harbinger is the only class who can inflict Paralysis through Paralyzing Reap. However, it's not really necessary to obtain the loot right now, since the resulting weapon has very high cost that's unlikely to be purchased immediately. All bosses will respawn after 14 days, at which point your character will be much stronger than now.