These caves have the distinction of being the most famous kwama mines in Deshaan. Dark Elves consider kwama eggs a delicacy, and those harvested from Darkshade Caverns are particularly prized by Dunmeri gourmets.
Darkshade Caverns II is a four-person dungeon in the game The Elder Scrolls Online. The dungeon consists of various rooms and corridors, each with its own challenges and enemies. Darkshade Caverns II can be accessed at Level 42. In this guide, I shall explain the mechanics as well as what you should and shouldn’t do while facing the dungeon’s bosses.
Table of Contents
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Darkshade Caverns II Location
Darkshade Caverns II is located in the southeastern region of Deshaan. Travel southwest from the Silent Mire Wayshrine to reach Darkshade Caverns I and II. You can also access Darkshade Caverns II specifically by using the Dungeon Finder.
Inside Darkshade Caverns II
Darkshade Caverns II is a one-level dungeon with six bosses and one quest. The enemies in this dungeon include corrupted Pit Rat warriors, kwama scribs, and dwarven spiders.
What Was Lost
I met a mage named Shatasha in Darkshade Caverns. She has asked for help investigating the Dwemer ruins to find Nervyna, the mine’s owner.
Completing What Was Lost
You must defeat the Transmuted Hive Lord, defeat Grobull, The Transmuted, and defeat the Engine Garrison and the Engine Guardian. Speak with Shatasha to complete the quest. Completing this quest will reward you with gold, a skill point, and the Ancient Netch-Robes, part of the Netch’s Touch armor set.
Darkshade Caverns II Boss Mechanics
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The Fallen Foreman
This boss is very simple but the ONE major mechanic can wipe groups if not careful. The tank should position the boss in the center of the room and hold the agro while also pulling in as many of the adds as possible. There are lots of enemies to deal with and general aoe should be able to kill these fast, but people must stay on top of interrupts if archers try to channel abilities.
Fireball – A simple basic attack that should only really be directed at the tank. Blocking will prevent this from being any real threat but to be honest the damage is so low that any healer or even a vigor will keep this from doing any serious damage to a tank.
Spinning Flames – This mechanic is extremely obvious but people get the false “I am god mode” feeling and seem to think they can stand in this, you CANNOT! The boss will raise his staff in the air and spin a flame ability slowly around his head at 360 degrees. You have two options, follow it around from behind or stay ahead of it in front and just circle the boss. So long as it doesn’t touch you, you are fine. Focus, pay attention to it, and get caught. This ability alone if not paid attention to is capable of wiping out an entire group.
Transmuted Hive Lord
This boss should be taunted at all times and turned away from the group. DPS and healers should NOT stand in the boss’s face. In the meantime, the tank should also control the 2 scribs that spawn with the boss. These can be tricky.
Scrib Stuns – The Scribs can fire off heavy attacks which must be blocked above all they do channel abilities but due to the red color of the room, it can be very hard to see it happening. Keep your eyes peeled, if you do NOT interrupt the scribs they will pin players to the ground and drown their resources. This is unbreakable too so you will literally have to go through the motions while being hit. Interrupting these is KEY, not killing them. Killing them just makes them respawn.
Slam – The boss will occasionally slam the ground doing moderate aoe damage, heals should keep this from being a problem, it is not a one-shot mechanic. However, the tank should keep a taunt up as much as possible.
Slam and Damage Shield – At low health, the boss will enrage, gain a damage shield, and violently slam the floor repeatedly. This will continue to happen UNTIL you do enough damage to take his damage shield away. Your healer really needs to be on point here because in a low dps group although this is completely doable, the longer the shield is up, the longer people have to be kept alive for. Do not try to run away, it will NOT save you. focus that damage shield and get it down!
Transmuted Alit
This boss is actually 3 bosses in one and they are connected, so you must pay attention to the fight. The tank must taunt all 3 of them and face them away from the group else they will get loose and start causing problems. Do not run away from these if they get loose they MUST stay together.
Jump – Just like regular Alits, these jump in the air and slam back down again in the form of a heavy attack. If you are the tank of course you should block this to prevent knockdown. If you are a dps or a healer and for some reason, they are hitting you, the same applies…make sure you block.
Breath – A very small AOE effect will appear at the boss’s feet and this will be aimed at whoever has aggro. Again this should be on the tank and people should not be standing in front of the bosses, they are turned away from the group for a reason.
Revive! – The damage on these enemies must be EVEN. Do not overburn one target. When an Alit dies, after a few seconds if the rest are not dead they will Revive with around 25%ish health. If another dies and the rest do not, then it will get back up, if TWO die and the last one does not, the other TWO will get back up…I think you can see where I am going with this. Kill them altogether if you can to prevent constantly fighting the endless revive mechanic. Pace your single target per boss and keep up an even amount of aoe.
Grobull the Transmuted
This boss is the PUG killer and is not as hard as it looks once you break down the mechanics. The trick to this one is knowing WHAT to kill and WHEN.
Lightning Shield – This boss while floating around has a lightning shield surrounding it…do NOT attack the boss. ALL projectile damage will be reflected at the caster! The tank can taunt the boss since that is not reflected but the negative effects can be. So be careful. All damage will only hit Grobull for 10% if not reflected so don’t waste your time hitting him. You can ONLY hit him properly during a certain mechanic.
Charge Attack – The boss will try to charge/shock players which will stun them in mid-air, you MUST break free from this.
Ground Lightning – This very easy-to-spot large circle of lightning MUST be avoided, you can be slowed, stunned, and killed inside of it, avoid it at all costs.
Netch Swarms – MANY small Netch swarms will come into the room, the tank should try to pin these as much as possible in a little cluster while the group throws down as much AOE as possible. You will have to move a lot to avoid the boss but stay together. Spreading out and running around headless will wipe you. Larger Netch types MUST be taunted by the boss because they do nasty heavy attacks and will need to be controlled. Anyone who gets heavy attacked MUST block!
Each killed add will hit the boss with a charged ability and once the boss has been hit by enough dead charges he will sit down for 10 seconds, and THIS is your opportunity to damage the boss as much as possible! Use everything you have got, ultimates and all! Then once he stands up again, stop damage on the boss and get back on the adds. Rinse repeat!
Engine Garrison (Mech Army)
This is CRAZY! A MASSIVE army of mechs sitting outside the door to the last boss! The tank and healer are under HIGH pressure in this particular encounter. Be aware of your surroundings, taunts, and cc must be applied to pin and/or chain in the ranged targets and the group must NOT run around the room. Running will prevent you from getting heals and also make you pull increased amounts of enemies. Position your group in a safe place away from the army, once you have aggroed one of them from range, they will steadily come to you in waves. Fast but controlled. If however, you go too close you will pull them all at once and it is game over. FOCUS!
Spheres – Ranged targets with nasty ground aoes and darts that fire at the group. The tank needs to pull these in and pin them as fast as possible so they don’t pick off the dps
Spiders – These are close-range and can be controlled easily but they must die fast. These will charge up a lightning bubble and all mech army enemies can run over to these and charge themselves with lightning increasing their damage output. Do not let them do it!
Centurions – The BIG ones are easy to spot and they are easy to get taunts on but these must be grabbed fast, they can almost one-shot a squishy dps and can cause wipes. The tank should ALWAYS make sure these are turned away from the group. If you are a dps/healer and these are on you, make sure you block until they are controlled.
Above all do NOT run around the room, focus, and use as much AOE as possible.
Engine Guardian
This once upon a time was considered one of the hardest bosses in vet dungeons before One Tamriel. This has simple mechanics but can go SO SO wrong. Your tank in this fight, plays debuffer, controller, and protector! The boss cannot strictly be taunted and will run around the room in a circle in the direction of its choice. BUT you can still apply a taunt to debuff it with major fracture and breach to increase the damage done by your team. This boss moves all of the time apart from when it changes phases so your damage needs to be carefully applied. Don’t waste ultimates unless he is sitting down and/or adds are present because he will just walk out of them. Time everything! Every few seconds while walking around the boss will sit down and change phases RANDOMLY, you need to recognize fast which phase is which. There are 3!
Phase 1: Poison – A very simple, the room goes green and everyone takes damage constantly (healers and shields from the tanks will help and are essential. During this phase as well as survival is key you can get VERY close to the boss if you are doing damage and you will not be hit with any additional damage. Just the aoe poison. Keep the heals com
Phase 2: Fire! – The boss will spin his head while walking emitting a HUGE flame thrower in 360 degrees, do NOT go anywhere near him, stay ranged and do what you can. In the meantime, he will fire mortar shots at the ground and they will explode in large circles aoes of fire. stay OUT of them.
NOTE when he sits down AFTER the fire it is NOT safe. No matter what phase is next, he will still do one more final flame thrower spin, and stay away until it is actually gone.
XPhase 3: Lightning + Spheres – In this phase, the boss will zap anyone close by so do NOT stay near him else you will die fast, you can dodge roll under him and miss damage but staying close long term will kill you, so again ranged damage only. Also during this phase, 3x spheres will appear and these MUST be killed. The tank needs to chain/pull them together and pin them down while the group kills them fast. free free to nuke these with ultimates. If you do NOT focus on these you will get overwhelmed and it is possible to end up getting 2/3/4 phases of lightning in a row meaning you could get WAY more than 3 adds at once. FOCUS on the adds. If the tank has not applied a taunt on each one yet keep your eyes open, they do have interruptible mechanics to prevent them from throwing ground aoe effects and also they do heavy attack with darts, if you see this, BLOCK!
All of the phases are random, they can go in order, they can be random, they can duplicate, and it is not predictable. Learn how to manage each phase and you will be fine. Also note, hard mode is basically doing the above. If you persist you will complete it and hard mode will be done…HOWEVER there are 4x levers in the middle of the room, if you activate these during the poison phase it will negate the poison completely BUT this will cancel out hardmode completion. So be very clear that your group does NOT press any buttons and the achievement is yours!
Good luck!!
Darkshade Caverns II Dungeon Loot
Below is a list of all the loot you can expect to find in Darkshade Caverns II.
On normal the loot is blue and the boss does NOT drop a monster helmet, but on veteran difficulty all of the loot is purple and the final boss DOES drop a special monster helmet.
Note: in dungeons some individual bosses can drop a unique item but generally, the weapons and jewelry (non-named items) come from the last boss. HOWEVER the entire loot table can also drop from trash and chests, so loot everything! Got the gear in the wrong traits? Don’t worry! You can alter the traits by either transmuting or reconstruct the piece with a trait of your choice. For more information see the Introduction to Transmuting and Reconstructing article.
If you are looking for a matching shoulder monster piece, visit the Undaunted Pledge Master Maj al-Ragath at the nearest Undaunted enclave. She sells a 50/50 chance at the shoulder piece as part of the Darkshade Caverns Coffer or it could be in her mystery coffer. You can learn more about the Undaunted in the Undaunted Guide.
- Armor of Truth
- Netch’s Touch
- Strength of the Automaton
- Engine Guardian (monster helm from vet only)
Builds That Use Darkshade Caverns II Gear
Darkshade Caverns II Achievements
Darkshade Caverns II Assassin
Defeat the Fallen Foreman, the Hive Lord and its Scribs, the Transmuted Alit, Grobull the Transmuted, the Engine Garrison, and the Engine Guardian in Veteran Darkshade Caverns II, all within twenty minutes. Timer starts upon engaging the first group of kwama.
Darkshade Caverns II Conqueror
Defeat the Transmuted Hive Lord, Grobull the Transmuted, and the Engine Guardian in Veteran Darkshade Caverns II.
Darkshade Caverns II Survivor
Defeat the Fallen Foreman, Transmuted Hive Lord, Transmuted Alit, Grobull the Transmuted, the Engine Garrison, and the Engine Guardian in Veteran Darkshade Caverns II, without suffering a group member death.
Darkshade Caverns II Vanquisher
Defeat the Fallen Foreman, Transmuted Hive Lord, Transmuted Alit, Grobull the Transmuted, the Engine Garrison, and the Engine Guardian in Darkshade Caverns II.
Deadly Engineer
Defeat the Engine Guardian in Veteran Darkshade Caverns II without anyone in your group activating an Engine Lever.
Veteran Construct Slayer
Defeat 800 Dwarven Constructs in Veteran Darkshade Caverns II.
Veteran Kwama Slayer II
Defeat 200 Kwama in Veteran Darkshade Caverns II.
Darkshade Caverns II Leads
There are currently no leads in Darkshade Caverns II.
Final Note
Thank you for taking the time to watch the content and read this guide. Be sure on your travels to remember, although once you get very experienced you may make these dungeons much easier and faster… it starts from the ground up and it’s…
