Lotus was one of the Black Mage commanders, a simple boss on it's own, but he have other things that make the fight difficult, he originally was a spirit or Darkness alongside Orchid, they wanted a body so Black Mage gave em one, he served him until his sealment, eventually he was brought back by Gelimer in Black Heaven.

Lotus was firstly introduced in Black Heaven, there it's a huge blockbuster(it can take 4hours to finish it) and it's necessary for you finish all acts in order to be able to fight him, since his introduction he had 2 difficulties, Normal and Hard mode(which is A LOT HARDER than Normal), both having 300%defense, so you need at least 89% ignore defense.

-You can solo Normal Lotus with around 3m rang clean and some nodes(+all 3 skills) and Hard maybe 40m rang clean or close to that.
Note: Reboot can add maybe 50% more rang into this minimum.



Lotus can drop soul pieces and coins only obtainable from him, these coins can be traded to get lv160 absolab equipment, you can get all equips aside from hat and shoulder, where you can get from the other boss Damien, here's a list of the itens you can get from him, Hard mode can drop these itens in the shop(usually you get weapons).

This NPC will own the shop and sell the equips.




The coins dropped by Lotus are one of the two necessary to buy absolab equipment in this shop, you will need the coins from the dailies in Haven as well, you need 20 from the dailies and 2 from Lotus so you can get 2 coins from the shop and trade for the equipment or twice that for the weapons.

You can trade the coins with this NPC




Lotus have 3 phases, the first one is almost like a turrent and doesn't move while the second and third are very similar to each other, with the 3º being a more difficult version of the 2º.



The main problem/mechanic of this boss is the debris that fall of the sky, these debris will stun anyone who get hits by then and take some %health of their hp, dodging em is fundalmental, specially the bigger ones, they can be HELL if they hit you in a tense situation.



A big problem is potentially get chain stunned by the debris and Lotus's attacks, so it's better to not rely on luck too much.

These debris can be very problematic in Hard mode, because of the stupid amount of time stunned and the higher %hp damage you can easily die if you don't watch your HP, even in Normal i recommend dodging the biggest one without a doubt, for Hard try to always dodge the bigger two since even the third debris can be problematic if other stuff hits you.

Note: The bigger debris always have a time before they are summoned and dropped into the floor, so you can prepare where to go to avoid them even before they spawn.

Familairs are NECESSARY in this boss, they can save you many times, the debris are a more constant damage without too much damage so familiars can heal you from that and make you more focused on damaging Lotus .and dodging the worst attacks from him.



Other thing is the Hero will alike skills, these can really help gainst the debris's stun, as long you use BEFORE it hits you, you will be able to move freely and not die by getting chain stunned or stunned+hit kill/high %hp damage.



@@@Now let's go to Phase 1 :

In phase 1 Lotus is imprisoned in the center of Black Heaven, there he will be giving power to everything, what will attack here is the machine that contain him, this machine will be using a Cross Laser that will be spinning in order to hit everyone in the map, so you MUST MOVE ALL THE TIME or rely on some iframe or teleport that can avoid it, since this laser will hit kill anyone who touchs it.

Note: the Laser will slowly speed up as time passes, so try to be fast to kill it.




NOTE: JUST BE READ WHEN YOU ENTER THE STAGE/PHASE SO THE LASER DOESN'T HIT KILL UPON ENTRY(use some invencibility skill or try to move away from the middle/spawn point since it's where it usually appears, but not too far).

In this map/phase you have one help, you can use portals in the top of the map to teleport in the oposite direction, you can teleport from:

Top Right>Bottom left

Top Left>Bottom right

Note: Sometimes the portals can lag a lot because of the server's response+some of your delay.

In this image i teleported from Top right to Bottom left safely, since the laser was spinning clockwise



However in this image i actually died when teleporting from Top left to Bottom right when the laser was spinning anti-clockwise, because the laser gliched a little.



NOTE2: SOMETIMES THE LASER CAN GLICH OUT AND SUDDENLY CHANGE POSITIONS, so try not be too close, or just hope to gods that it won't glich too often, the servers's lag can heavily influence this behavior and **** people's live before they even get to second phase.

In Phase 1 the debris that will be appearing are the first 3, the third and bigger debris is a bit rarer thought, usually it's the second that hit you, just watch out for these whenever you are going up the stairs/platforms(to use the portals), since they can stun you and make you get hit by the laser or stun you and make you fall into the laser.



The other big problem with the lasers are his robots that get summoned, he will summon one of each and each have it's own unique abnormal status, overall they aren't really strong, but can be annoying and cost your life, specially the green one.



You can dodge the robots by walking a bit after they get close to you, they will explode themselves and you won't even take any damage or abnormal status(as long you are far enough), you can also KILL em, they aren't really strong, specially for Hard mode, but Normal mode can have a big trouble at times.



Just try to not forget about their existence, they can end up stacking up.

Note: If you die they will all disappear once you re-spawn.




@@@Now let's go to Phase 2:



In phase 2 Lotus will be walking/floating near the ground, he will only use ONE attack, and that's his push, this attack can take 20% of your HP upon hit, in Hard mode it does 10% more, 30%hp, remember that normal %power stance won't work, but only the super stance from Warriors and skills like RUSH that can tank the push.



You can always dodge the attack by getting far away from it(like a Marksman) or going to Lotus's back like in Gollux Head.



In this phase Lotus will use all his 4 debris, and unlike in phase 1, he will actually use a lot more frequently the 3º debris, the 4th debris won't be that frequent in this phase, the 2nd will also be quite frequent.



Lotus will sometimes summon a blue ball, you will be able to see the animation and the sound whenever he does, this ball will kick in the walls, roof and floor of the map and increase it's size whenever this happen, however the %hp dmg won't change, it does the same %hp the push does 20%hp and 30% in Hard mode.



Sometimes there can be 2 balls in the field, thought that is not too common.



The BIGGEST problem of Phase 2(and eventually 3) is the LASERS from the floor, everytime he prepare to use the lasers he will drop platforms on the ground, it can vary to one to maybe 7 platforms at time, everytime they will make the same sound when they hit the ground.



These platforms will hit the ground and soon after the lasers will hit the ENTIRE FLOOR, so no way to actually escape it without any air mobility(classes like: Mercedes, Corsair, Cannoer, Blaster, Xenon, Demons Slayer/Avenger, Pathfinder) or tank the laser damage.

Note: Remember Lotus will still try to hit you with his main attack and pushing you away from the platforms, that way you can get get throw directly into the laser and die.



The lasers will take 70% of your Health in the Normal mode, however Hard mode will ALWAYS hit kill unless you can absorve %hp attacks, for Normal mode people remember you can take a hit and heal immediately after to take another hit, so you can try to abuse that and survive many lasers that might not even have platforms for specific reasons.



One of the reasons can simply be that someone or you ended up being in the way of the platform when it was falling, so it got destroyed, whenever that happens you will be stunned and lose 30%hp(40%for hard i imagine) and mostly important the platform is destroyed and you lose a potential safe spot to avoid the laser, so be carefull and try to avoid it's way at all costs or if you do, try to not destroy more than one/two.

Note: You can avoid his lasers if you bind right as the platforms fall into the ground(usually when they are falling), but if you fail to do the right timing you can make him laser after the bind and there will be no platforms to stay on.




Other ability that Lotus have, but that isn't very problematic is the one that launches players into the air if they are in one of 3 areas where the machine appears, hardly really problematic, just be carefull whenever you get thrown by it to avoid debris on the way, specially the bigger ones.



One ability that he have, but barely uses it is his teleport, he will always teleport to where a player is(i think the most agressive), so it's not random.




@@@Now let's see Phase 3:



Lotus in phase 3 will continue to do a skill that push players, but now it does 10%more damage than before(in phase 2), 30% in Normal and 40% in Hard, it also have a little more reach/range so be carefull with that.



Same as phase 2 he will summon a ball, but this time it's orange and it does more damage, same damage as his push it does 30% in Normal and 40% in Hard, one important detail is how this ball can grow bigger than the blue one, so try to avoid it.



Phase 3 have the exact same mechanics for the Lasers as phase 2, so just use the same knowledge, just note that in Normal mode the laser will do more damage: 85% hp (Hard continues to do hit kill on touch).




NOW in this phase Lotus will be able to summon a new DEBRIS, the pulverizer, this one will hit kill anyone who touchs it and get hit by it in Normal or Hard, it's also BIG, bigger than all other debris combined

NOTE3: REMEMBER, Lotus will use more debris than the other phases and also will summons more bigger debris than phase 2, so watch out to dodge the 4th debris and the 3rd more often.



One thing you can do is prepare yourself whenever he prepares to summon it, it takes 3 seconds for it appear in the map unlike the other debris that take less time, so be sure to not be on it's way when it drops.



Lotus can also continue to throw people in the air, but this time it's a higher distance, so much that you can be hit directly into the debris that are summonning or just summoned, so try to always flash jump away from debris in case you got throwed into the air.



One thing Lotus can do is pull people towards him, that's yet another way that he can potentiall kill you with debris or even the pulverizer, remember that if you get close he can push you away and end up hitting you right into a lot of debris or a pulverizer giving you a unexpected and somewhat avoidable death.



Lotus second biggest problem after the lasers in this phase is his Purple Ball attack, he will teleport himself away and throw balls into the map from far away.



He will throw em and you will be able to see where they will hit before they hit the ground, just be carefull when he goes to use the attack, his first ball will ALWAYS be faster for our eyes(potentially killing you without any chance to dodge), maybe using invencibility habilitys right when he goes to use this attack isn't a bad idea.



His least dangerous ability(after the teleport) is his slow+weakness, he will cast a posion in a area that slow and weak players that pass throught it, it's not problematic, but you can't JUMP because of the weakness given by the poison, so you can potentially die by being too slow to get out and flash jump out of danger, unless you use teleport or some rush/movement skill.



Remember he can stil teleport to players.

Note: In hard mode he will spam it in the last 20% of his health.




In case you waaan check out the guide i made about the other boss who you can get Absolab equipment, Damien:
http://forums.maplestory.nexon.net/discussion/23405/damien-guide#latest