High Brunhilda Guide: Standard & Expert

"Let's have a little fight, you and I—one with my full power unleashed."



High Brunhilda's Trial is a challenge quest centered on a boss battle with High Brunhilda, unlocked upon the completion of Brunhilda's Trial: Master.
 * Rewards from Standard difficulty include, which can be traded for the dragon  or the , and can be used to upgrade the Fafnir Statue facility.
 * Rewards from Expert additionally include, which alongside s can be used to craft Flame-attuned High Dragon weapons.
 * Additionally, weekly clears from Expert additionally include small amounts of s, which alongside s and s can be used towards refining and enhancing Flame-attuned High Dragon weapons past four unbinds, and can be used as an entry point towards Volk's Wrath: Expert.

Standard
HP isn't too much of a concern for Standard difficulty, as all adventurers should be able to withstand the unavoidable damage High Brunhilda inflicts at the beginning of the fight if they have sufficiently strong equipment, and a healer was used, which is highly recommended.

Expert
See the following table for HP requirements depending on co-abilities available.
 * The wyrmprint reduces the HP requirement, as well as further damage throughout the fight, though will reduce your DPS.
 * Additional defensive chain co-abilities, or defense buffs from a healer or buffer, may further improve your HP or defensive capabilities, not shown here.
 * These values apply for Water-attuned adventurers. Off-element adventurers will take twice the listed HP damage.

Standard
Crafting Void or Chimeratech weapons, or better, can improve your adventurer's performance (especially if it's Chimeratech) in the quest, though technically optional. Still, if possible, at least equip your adventurers with Void weapons at minimum.
 * Generally speaking, if you're able to clear Tidal Chimera Strike: Standard (and preferably, also its Expert difficulty), you should obtain materials from it to create a Chimeratech weapon, as it should be more powerful than void weapons due to its better base stats and ability.
 * Note that as Manacasters do not have a void weapon, the bane ability is unlocked by upgrading 's abilities instead.

Expert
High Brunhilda's Trial: Expert can still be challenging even in the face of powercreep.

A Void weapon with the High Dragon bane enabled is the bare minimum possible to clear the quest, but it's strongly suggested to at least craft a Chimeratech weapon and use that instead, or better yet, craft a High Dragon weapon with materials obtained from High Mercury's Trial: Expert, and unbind it at least four times.

Weapon Table
''The following table shows only Water-attuned weaponry. For Flame-elemental lances (specifically for ), see High Midgardsormr Guide: Standard & Expert and Volk's Wrath Guide: Expert (demote each weapon by 1 rank).''

The Void Manacaster cell displays a core weapon due to the lack of a void equivalent.

Dragons
Everyone should be ideally be equipped with a max-unbound dragon at a minimum for Standard, and a max-unbound  dragon at a minimum for Expert.

Wyrmprints
Most adventurers should equip their standard wyrmprints.
 * If surviving the opening blast or unavoidable damage is an issue, equip for permanent damage reduction.

Unspiraled (not ) and unspiraled  (not ) have specific requirements due to their partial resist, that has to be patched up with a   wyrmprint such as.

If desired, (not ),, and/or  can make use of two  wyrmprints such as  and  to significantly reduce the opening blast's damage for everyone in the team. These adventurers should then use their defensive buff skills before the opening blast hits.

Baiter/Support
These adventurers will be performing close-range baiting for the majority of the fight. The Elisannes can also buff the entire team, and in case of Gala Elisanne, provide some defensive support.
 * Only bring one of either Elisanne to the fight in the composition.
 * Having multiple close-range baiters may make positioning tricky, though is doable with careful play.

DPS
These units will be doing the majority of the DPS, and provide buffs/debuffs if applicable.

Healer
The healer provides defensive support and take care of any damage the adventurers may incur.

General Party Setup
The three real requirements for general compositions are as follows:
 * One of the adventurers in the composition must be able to heal the entire team in a significant manner, or run a wyrmprint such as  or  on the entire team if multiple adventurers can activate defense buffs frequently, if the teamwide DPS is not expected to be extremely high (i.e. not at least an entire team of upgraded HDTs/Agitos)
 * One of the adventurers should behave as the close range baiter. Usually, this job falls to either the DPS with the shortest reach, either of the Elisannes, or the host (Player 1).
 * Having multiple adventurers with similar reach may cause baiting issues, though it can be worked around with careful play.
 * One of the adventurers should behave as the long range baiter. Usually, this jobs falls to the healer.

On Burn
High Brunhilda inflicts which always inflict HP to 1 damage, and lasts a very long time before it wears off.

It is strongly recommended for newcomers to the fight to use only adventurers with (including these that can reach this with one  wyrmprint, but not these that require two wyrmprints), especially in teams without burn relief healing, as High Brunhilda has unavoidable attacks that burn and also be followed up be another unavoidable attack, which can spell doom for partial- and off-resist adventurers.

Scorching Blast
This is the fight's initial "HP check" blast.
 * Any adventurer with, such as , should use defensive skills such as to reduce the damage taken.
 * Afterwards, if possible, heal it back up ASAP to restore HP conditional abilities. Provident Protection will provide healing, but one may opt to run other skills to make it go a bit faster.
 * This is especially important if there are adventurers without in the team; use a burn relief healing skill ASAP to prevent their HP from bottoming out.
 * Shared skills can help with further mitigation and/or healing.
 * You can't iframe it, however if you are a melee character then you can hold down Force Strike to not get knocked back.
 * Sword-wielding adventurers can also attempt this sequence of actions: dodge roll towards High Brunhilda, attack twice, force strike, then attack five times without using a force strike. Due to knockback immunity between the third and fifth attack on the second string of attacks, they will also not be knocked back, and this also improves SP gain.
 * Lance-wielding adventurers can also attack immediately, but make sure that the attack string is ongoing (restart the string if it's about to end at the fifth attack) and do not use a force strike; lances have natural knockback immunity that is strong enough to prevent movement from the opening blast's knockback while within the string of attacks. Alternately, hold a force strike only after the fifth attack has landed.
 * Axe-wielding adventurers should just simply attack immediately without ever breaking the chain or force strike. Axes have natural knockback immunity that is strong enough to prevent movement from the opening blast's knockback.

The close-range baiter should get prepared to bait High Brunhilda's next attack away from the other adventurers. Dodge rolling provides iframes that may help in preventing yourself from getting knocked back by her backdash before the attack.

Backdash + Fire Breath
After backdashing, High Brunhilda faces the closest adventurer and breathes fire in a 180-degree area, clockwise, starting from her left side. Skill or dodge.
 * If evasion is desired, either dodge towards the opposite direction of the breath's sweep, or go behind High Brunhilda, and you may have to dodge roll several times in a row to be completely safe.

The close-range baiter should take position afterward to bait High Brunhilda towards the top of the arena in preparation for "dive cancelling", described later.

Dash + Claw Swipe
High Brunhilda faces the closest adventurer, charges, and performs a claw swipe.
 * The long-range baiter should start going to the other edge of the arena, opposite of where High Brunhilda is right now (if you baited her to the top, the long-range baiter should now go to the bottom), if they wish to attempt "dive cancelling", described in the next section.

Crimson Inferno
High Brunhilda targets the furthest adventurer, and divebombs them. This attack is unavoidable within the explosion area, and deals a good amount of damage.

Dive Cancelling
Crimson Inferno in Expert difficulty and below have a maximum range. If the distance is too far apart between the target and High Brunhilda, High Brunhilda will instead just turn around and perform a claw swipe.

If the long-range baiter moves away to maximize distance between themselves and High Brunhilda, it is possible to perform the cancel intentionally, and it can improve DPS as High Brunhilda will not move a large distance.


 * All future instances of Crimson Infernos can also be "cancelled" in this way.

Volcanic Blitz
In solo mode, High Brunhilda summons four volcanoes in a cross pattern, sometimes rotated 45 degrees, and also inflict burn on hit. Avoid lingering on their positions.
 * As they deal very little damage, it is possible for a to completely block their damage.

In co-op mode, these four volcanoes will appear on the adventurers' positions one by one, and also inflict burn on hit.
 * As they deal very little damage, it is possible for a to completely block their damage.
 * If a non- adventurer gets burned from one of the volcanoes, they cannot be burned again from the same chain of volcanoes. They can take advantage of this fact by intentionally overlapping the first volcano that can damage them, even if it doesn't belong to them, so that they get burned at the earliest opportunity, letting the burn relief healer fix it earlier than normal.
 * If the first volcano doesn't end up on the long-range baiter, try to trap High Brunhilda with strategically positioned volcanoes and baiting, though don't overlap them too much to prevent her from teleporting out due to collision issues.
 * If High Brunhilda appears to be vibrating rapidly, the volcanoes are too close to her, and she might teleport when she performs moves.
 * Remember the order the volcanoes spawn, so that you don't get caught by a volcano disappearing on you later on.

Either way, High Brunhilda will try to keep you busy while the above attack is ongoing.

Crimson Inferno
Keep in mind that Crimson Inferno's range is cut short by any volcanoes in the path, if you decide not to perform "dive cancelling".


 * If the close-range baiter receives the second volcano marker, someone else should bait the next attack.

Fire Breath
The close-range baiter or the substitute baiter should bait this attack away from the rest of the team. Failing that, skill or dodge the attack.

Hellfire
Unavoidable, strong mapwide damage that can only be blocked by having one of the volcanoes be in the path of the attack between the adventurer and High Brunhilda. Get behind a volcano and avoid excessive movement.
 * This will happen three more times.

Dash + Hellfire + Dash + Hellfire + Backdash + Hellfire
The close-range baiter should try to keep High Brunhilda within the general area of the volcanoes.

Flame Chaser + Searing Pillar
High Brunhilda will spawn purple chaser markers on all adventurers; these markers are significantly larger than those in other Advanced Dragon Trials or Volk's Wrath. All adventurers should spread out as far as possible (usually to their four corners, either diagonally or top/right/bottom/left), and avoid overlapping other adventurers' with their markers to minimize damage taken.
 * In solo mode, only one chaser will spawn.
 * Activate defensive buffs such as 's before this attack lands.

Afterwards, if playing in co-op, High Brunhilda will then spawn a red stack marker targeted on the closest adventurer.
 * This attack is skipped in solo mode, and so are all future instances of Searing Pillar.
 * If the adventurer has a dragon ready, they should shapeshift now and dragon tank the stack marker.
 * If the adventurer doesn't have a dragon ready, all adventurers should get together and split the damage. A defensive healer can help with this.

Backdash + Fire Breath
Continue normal baiting (preferably towards a wall in preparation for the next attack).

Mini Meteors
High Brunhilda targets the closest adventurer, and spawns small meteors that hit them after a small windup that deals a strong amount of damage, and lingering on them can cause you to take damage multiple times. The close-range baiter should start moving all the way to the opposite edge of the arena to perform a "dive cancel" if desired.
 * Note that in this instance, the long-range baiter does not perform the "dive cancel".

Crimson Inferno
See previous instance for more information on "dive cancelling".

Grand Muspelheim
High Brunhilda flies off the map, and burns a significant portion of the map with lava, which causes small, but very rapid damage to anyone that gets caught in it.
 * If you are caught in it, and end up losing all HP due to the lack of healing, once you're revived, leave the area ASAP! The revive action will grant you temporary true invincibility.
 * It is possible to cancel the entire attack by breaking High Brunhilda before she flies off the map, once the attack's text show up.

All adventurers should immediately go to the lower-right side of the map, which will become a safe zone.
 * There's also a safe zone at the upper-left side of the map, but generally it isn't used in Expert difficulty and lower.

Once High Brunhilda finishes painting the map with lava, the adventurer with shapeshifting ready should try to get as close as possible to High Brunhilda, while the other adventurers stay as far as possible, so that the former baits the stack attack.
 * Some attacks that appear to have the adventurer not move actually move the adventurer slightly (e.g. the HDT wand and staff's weapon skills), which might send the adventurers to their doom should they use these skills too close to the edge of the lava. Backstep once before using them.

Searing Pillar + Flame Chaser
High Brunhilda reverses the order of attacks for this instance. After Searing Pillar hits, all adventurers should immediately spread out to their corners for the chasers.

Dash + Claw Swipe + Mini Meteors
Continue normal baiting (preferably towards a wall in preparation for the next attack).

Crimson Inferno
See first instance for more information on "dive cancelling".
 * The long-distance baiter should bait the next close-range attack.

Fire Breath + Backdash + Fire Breath
Continue normal baiting after Fire Breath.

Volcanic Blitz
Similar to previous instance, but the moves High Brunhilda uses will be slightly different.

Dash + Claw Swipe + Hellfire + Backdash + Hellfire + Dash + Hellfire + Dash + Hellfire
Continue normal baiting, remembering to hide behind a volcano for the four Hellfires.

Flame Chaser + Searing Pillar
Identical to first instance.

Backdash + Fire Breath
Continue normal baiting.

Grand X-Muspelheim + Flame Chaser
High Brunhilda flies off the map, and burns nearly all of the map with lava, which causes small, but very rapid damage to anyone that gets caught in it. There are four safe zones, in each corner of the map.
 * In solo mode, move to a safe zone, and also manually move any lingering AI, if needed, to the same safe zone. A regen healing skill and a defense buff is strongly recommended to take care of any stragglers.
 * In co-op mode, each player should make sure to indicate which corner "belongs" to them, whether by discussing in a pre-made room or by using the arrow stickers.
 * If you are caught in it and end up losing all HP due to a lack of healing, once you're revived, leave the area and head to an unoccupied safe zone ASAP! The revive action will grant you temporary true invincibility.

Flame Chasers will then spawn - this is why splitting up was important earlier for co-op. Use healing skills to cover any accidental damage beforehand, and defensive buffs to reduce the damage taken.

Searing Pillar

 * If the entire team is in bad shape and no shapeshifting was ready on anyone, the weakest DPS adventurer (usually a healer) should bait this attack and sacrifice themselves.