The Death Howl final boss encounter awaits at the summit of Howling Mountain, consisting of two distinct, back-to-back battles: the celestial serpent Moon Eel followed immediately by the spirit Sorg. Reaching the summit requires clearing consecutive gauntlets of up to five encounters where card penalties from previous regions are completely removed. While your health restores before the final clash with Sorg, you cannot modify your deck between the two bosses, meaning your 20-card deck and totems must handle both encounters simultaneously.
Final Boss Breakdown: Moon Eel and Sorg
The climax of Ro's journey pits your deck against two fundamentally different mechanical challenges. The following table summarizes the documented stats and primary mechanics for both encounters:
| Boss Name | Health Pool | Core Threat | Special Rule Shifts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moon Eel | 45 HP | Eye laser blast and 6 hatching gland adds (roes) | Vulnerable only at central eye; side eyes can be destroyed to disable laser |
| Sorg | 30 HP | Color-shifting form, persistent armor, and AoE shockwaves | Ro has infinite mana/zero card costs; movement restricted to 1 tile per turn; Sorg acts upon player actions |
Community walkthroughs and playthrough data note that dying during the Sorg battle does not force you to replay the Moon Eel. You restart directly at Sorg, but your active deck remains locked to what you entered the summit with.
Phase 1: Defeating the Moon Eel
The Great Spirit of the Howling Mountain, the Moon Eel, enters battle with 45 HP. You can only inflict direct damage by striking its central eye. However, ending your turn directly in front of this eye is dangerous, as the boss unleashes a claw strike or a devastating laser beam that punishes anyone standing directly in its gaze.
Players can disable the laser mechanic entirely by targeting and destroying the two smaller eyes situated on either side of the Moon Eel's head. Once these secondary targets fall, the laser beam can no longer fire.
Every three turns, the Moon Eel lunges forward and exposes six glands (roes) along its underside. These glands act as a critical countdown:
- Any roe that is not destroyed immediately hatches into a random spirit that enters combat as an active add.
- High-damage area-of-effect (AoE) cards such as Burst of Fire, Shattering Ground, or cross-line strikes allow players to wipe out these pods in a single turn before they hatch.
- If you run an attack-buffing setup, combinations like Growth with A Sight to Behold provide flat damage boosts that allow even low-cost cards to one-shot the glands cleanly.
Once the Moon Eel's 45 HP is depleted, the arena transitions into the true final confrontation.
Phase 2: Surviving and Defeating Sorg
Defeating the Moon Eel restores Ro's health pool to full, but you are thrust into combat against Sorg—the entity of sorrow inhabiting Ro throughout her journey. Sorg possesses 30 HP and drastically alters the established rules of combat.
In this encounter, the standard five-mana restriction is removed, granting Ro unlimited mana and zero-cost cards. However, Sorg reacts dynamically to your movements and cards, and Ro's movement is restricted to a single tile per turn. Sorg shifts forms and colors throughout the fight, signaling different defensive and offensive behaviors:
- Yellowish-Orange Form: Prepares a wide area-of-effect (AoE) blast.
- Red Form: Unleashes a direct cardinal-direction blast.
- Blue Form: Grants Sorg heavy armor.
- Green Form: Grants Sorg attack power or increases damage taken.
- Turn End AoE: Sorg regularly emits an arena-wide AoE blast at the start or conclusion of turns, while telegraphed red range-marker lines display incoming attack zones.
Because Sorg continues to accumulate armor with excessive actions, high-damage hits and armor-piercing cards are particularly effective. Players on community forums have demonstrated that pairing vulnerability or fragile status with heavy single-turn bursts—such as block-explosion cards (Crushed from Above or Exploding Blocks) or stacked poison—can finish Sorg within one to two turns before its armor ramps uncontrollably. Defeating Sorg completes the game and unlocks "The Last Howl" achievement.
Summit Deck and Totem Strategies
The climb up Howling Mountain removes the out-of-region penalty that previously added +1 mana cost to cards from different zones. At the summit, you are free to combine cards from all four realms into an unrestricted 20-card deck.
Community-Tested Archetypes
Players and guide creators on the Steam Community forums frequently recommend three proven deck archetypes for clearing the mountain gauntlets and final bosses:
- Direct Attack Buff Burst: Utilizes cards like Gift of Nature, Sharpen Weapon, Enchant Weapon, and Growth paired with A Sight to Behold (to duplicate key buff cards). This setup relies on Double Strike, Triple Strike, and AoE cards like Burst of Fire and Shattering Ground to wipe the Moon Eel's roes and burst down Sorg.
- Block Explosion: Built around stacking massive armor through Barkskin, Double Block, Bracing for Battle, or Tending the Nest, and then detonating that armor for lethal offense with Crushed from Above or Exploding Blocks.
- Poison and Fragile Attrition: Uses Poison Dart, Quiver of Poison Darts, Tainted Memories, and Cursed Grounds. While slower against the Moon Eel's egg phase, players have successfully used Drink and Infected Defense alongside the Adder Stone totem to mitigate curses and melt both bosses through damage-over-time ticks.
Recommended Totems
- Bird Nest: Grants extra card draw, which helps maintain hand consistency against high-threat boards.
- Shell of Whispers: Provides +2 mana in exchange for -1 card draw, perfectly countered when paired alongside Bird Nest.
- Adder Stone: Nullifies curses gained when playing specific high-risk cards or moving across hazard tiles.
- Amber Figurine: Grants 5 block at the start of combat, shielding Ro from early boss attacks while setting up position.
- Algae Bubble: Applies free fragile status to enemies at the cost of two health per turn, drastically amplifying burst damage decks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you change your deck between Moon Eel and Sorg?
No. You must use the exact same 20-card deck and equipped totems for both the Moon Eel and Sorg encounters. Your deck must contain enough burst or AoE damage to handle the Moon Eel's gland spawns while maintaining sufficient burst or defense to survive Sorg's reactions.
What happens if you die against Sorg?
If you fall during the battle against Sorg, you do not have to fight the Moon Eel again. You will restart directly at the beginning of the Sorg encounter. However, your deck and totems remain locked, meaning you cannot return to the deck menu to alter card composition.
How do you stop the Moon Eel's laser attack?
You can disable the laser mechanic by destroying the two smaller eyes located on either side of the Moon Eel's head. Once both secondary eyes are eliminated, the Moon Eel is unable to fire its central laser beam.
