Dragalia Lost guide - How to beat Hypnos Showdown

Dragalia Lost's second raid event dropped this week, and after speculating on everything you'd need to know to get prepared, we've spent some real time figuring out exactly how this raid works. As it turns out, everything we suggested would be useful turned out to be correct (fancy that!), but there are some other nitty-gritty details about beating Hypnos that we couldn't have possibly known until the event came out.

Now, after clearing Hypnos 21 times as of this writing (with 19 of those clears being expert and EX clears, mind you), I've gathered quite a few tips to make this fight a bit easier. See below:

Elements and wyrmprints are more important than your Might level

You have to have a pretty impressive Might level (7800 for expert and 9500 for EX) to clear the highest levels of the Hypnos Showdown, but just boosting that number ever-higher won't mean you'll automatically succeed. On the contrary, players that bring non-optimal teams of Adventurers just because they've already invested heavily raising their Might is the number one cause of me LOSING the raid.

Instead, make sure you put together a solid team of fire Adventurers with sleep resistance and damage bonuses to Hypnos (I'm looking at you, Melsa), even if that means bringing a lower Might level to the table. Having these bonuses is much, much more valuable than bringing Adventurers with raw high stats.

Shapeshift Prep is crucial for EX clear

We were spot on about speculating that Hypnos would be able to put people to sleep in this fight, but something we didn't anticipate is how important the Shapeshift Prep ability would be. Shapeshift Prep is an ability attached to Wyrmprints like King's Countenance, Dragon's Nest, or Dragon Arcanum which allows your Adventurers to start fights with more of their Shapeshift meter filled. This allows Adventurers to turn into their dragon form more quickly.

The idea for using Shapeshift Prep for Hypnos is simple. By filling your Shapeshift meter faster, you can do a lot more damage earlier while also reducing the amount of damage you take (since you can't take damage in your dragon form). This is super useful because there's one particular target that needs focusing in the Hypnos fight (explained in more detail below). More than that though, Shapeshift Prep Wyrmprints might become the standard for you to equip to non-player-controlled Adventurers in raids from now on, since being able to shorten the time to your first dragon transformation is arguably more useful than other bonuses that you might be able to give to characters that are controlled by poor AI.

You don't need Naveed or other S-tier Adventurers

Just because Dragalia Lost is a gacha game that hides away the absolute best characters behind a virtual slot machine, that doesn't mean your shot at clearing the highest levels of the raid are dependent on you getting the best pulls. In fact, Melsa is arguably the best Adventurer for this fight, and everyone has the option to earn her for free simply by playing the game.

In all of my clears of the Hypnos raid, I've had a team of Melsa, Verica, Sinoa, and Vanessa, none of whom are five-star units. I've also partied up with players that also have non five-star Adventurers, and it's been fine as long as everyone knows what they're doing. This is all to say that just because you don't pull Naveed, Ezelith, or Cerberus, that doesn't mean you can't overcome even the hardest levels of the Hypnos fight.

Hypnos Showdown strategy

When it comes to the raid itself, the main thing you want to do is focus all of your damage early on to Hypnos's right hand. This body part can unleash some devastatingly powerful attacks over a wide area, so knocking this out of commission as quickly as possible should be all players' top priority. This is also where Shapeshift Prep is useful. Being able to transform and wail on this hand ASAP can give you a leg up for the rest of the fight, so make sure you and your teammates all follow this plan.

Once the hand is destroyed, the fight gets considerably easier, especially if you have melee Adventurers. Lots of Hypnos's remaining attacks emanate away from his body, so you're free to just hang out under him and keep hammering away with attacks. The only real exception to this is when Hypnos ascends, at which point you want to make sure you and everyone else destroys the green orbs that appear on the map as quickly as possible to minimize damage from an attack that spans the whole map. If you take care of these things and you have enough DPS between your team and everyone else, Hypnos should be a breeze.