"Neverwinter" - Castle Never Trivia Quiz

Answer: The dungeon was removed and reinserted, respectively, into the game

The sixth update in the game's history removed Castle Never from the game completely, albeit temporarily. It was reintroduced to the game during the eighth update, about a year after the sixth. The differences were substantial. With the interest of not giving away questions later in the quiz, it is worth noting that the primary differences involve significantly nerfing one of the game's bosses, adding new enemies to the dungeon and decreasing the dungeon's length.

Answer: Demons and the Dead

The castle, and the area surrounding it, are absolutely swarming with Demons and Undead. For Demons, you can primarily expect to deal with Barlugaras and Shadow Demons, although Zythars, Galbrezus and the occasional Nalfeshnee will also pop up. As for the Dead, you are given a very eerie and harsh notice that you are not the first party to attempt this dungeon, as the majority of what you face will be a horde of Undead Adventurers.

Answer: 11,000

Although the required item level is eleven thousand, it is commonly agreed upon within the majority of the "Neverwinter" community that a character who sits right at eleven thousand is not actually ready to enter this epic dungeon. Realistically, you will want to reach about 12,500 for an item level before attempting this dungeon.

This is because, at that item level, you hit an important threshold with regards to your role within the party (you are able to deal just enough damage, tank just enough damage, heal just efficiently enough, etc).

Answer: Tal'Gath is Cythlar's right hand "man"

Tal'Gath is as difficult to slay as it is to look at. The massive gaping eyeball is predictably very bulky and hits very hard. It has multiple control powers and summons a lot of agro according with how much health it has at a given moment. What's more agonizing is how it abuses the Soulgreen Magic you saw in a cutscene earlier in the map. If players attached by the Soulgreen connect, the explosion can be devastating. Frail DPS loadouts will be killed in one hit, while bulkier loadouts such as the Guardian Fighter or Devoted Cleric can potentially be killed in one hit if they get struck from behind by the explosion.

Otherwise, they will survive easily. The Guardian Fighter and Oathbound Paladin will take little damage if they have their shield up and end up being connected to the other player. Having said that, this is a fate that can be avoided with constant communication between the party. Typically, since the Guardian Fighter has attracted Tal'Gath's attention and is absorbing hits from Tal'Gath, the Guardian Fighter will be the one getting attached to another player. Great Weapon Fighters are heavily advised to be on the opposite end of the Guardian Fighter, so that if they become attached they can safely flee the scene instead of accidentally getting hit unexpectedly. Devoted Clerics, who typically will stand behind or off to the side of the Guardian Fighter, need to be especially careful; if they stand behind the Guardian Fighter, the Guardian Fighter's back will be getting attached by the Soulgreen, and the Cleric can inadvertently cause the death of the Guardian Fighter if they do not attempt to resist the Soulgreen and are standing too close to the Guardian Fighter.

As such, it will pretty much always be best to instead stand towards the left or right of the Guardian Fighter in this fight.

Answer: No

The fight isn't particularly different than anything you might have expected from a boss. The whole "very bulky and hits hard" mantra applies here, as well as summoning agro around half health. Where this fight takes a twist - literally - is when Cthylarr begins to twist the castle's dimensions in an attempt to kill you with spike traps.

At random points throughout the conflict, you will spot big, red boxes at random points on the battlefield. Immediately as you see these, you will essentially be teleported to the ceiling of this room in the castle, where these red boxes become spike traps capable of instantly killing anyone who happens to step in them.

While they are definitely capable of this, and will only need minor chip damage to finish you off, they do not deal fixed damage and therefore will not be instant killers.

The simple solution to avoiding the spike traps is to stay close to Cthylarr itself; it will never spawn these traps near wherever it happens to be standing. Predictably, Hunter Rangers, Control Wizards, and Devoted Clerics who need to be at a distance can potentially struggle with this boss. Guardian Fighters and Great Weapon Fighters, however, should have no trouble at all here, especially since the former can negate 80% of the damage the spikes would deal by simply putting up their shields.

Answer: Orcus

Orcus is the biggest, baddest, meanest, by far toughest boss you will have ever faced. What's funny is that he used to be so difficult, the game had to remove Castle Never for an entire year to nerf him, just so his difficulty rating was a bit more reasonable. Even now, he still retains a lot of what made him so scary back then. I cannot stress how bulky and hard-hitting he is.

In fact, to provide you with some statistics, he used to have an attack before he got nerfed capable of doing as much as 800,000 damage, enough to easily one shot kill anything, even the world's best players. Now, this particular attack deals as much as 450,000 which is still more than enough to OHKO an unsuspecting adventurer. To offer some perspective, the Guardian Fighter who holds the world record for most health in the entire game barely has half that amount of health, clocking in at 233,459 health (they can easily use their shield to always survive such a blow by negating its damage by 80%, but they can die in one hit if they are not in shield). That's not all, though, Orcus has three other damage dealing traits you need to keep track of. Around hitting half health, Orcus will occasionally begin to summon his namesake Shards onto the middle of the battlefield.

These Shards instantly kill anything that isn't a Guardian Fighter in shield upon touching them, and will still kill such Guardian Fighters very, very quickly as well. These Shards will also move around the battlefield, and cannot be diverted away by the Guardian Fighter, meaning that the DPS loadouts and Clerics have to pay sharp attention to their whereabouts. Another key aspect of fighting Orcus comes within the rifts he will summon. These will provide aggro to the battle, but will also significantly improve Orcus' Damage Resistance, making him even harder to kill. Finally, once he hits 75% and 25% of his health, Orcus will fly away from the battlefield and spawn a Death Sphere. If you have ever played through a Demonic Escape Demon Heroic Encounter before, you will know what to do; keep the incoming Undead Adventurers away from this Sphere. If you allow too many Undead Adventurers to reach this Sphere, it will explode, causing massive amounts of damage to the entire party, also easily killing any frail DPS loadout like a Hunter Ranger or Control Wizard. You must kill twenty Undead Adventurers before you allow ten to reach this Death Sphere. One last thing to note about Orcus is how truly bulky he is, weighing in at over two hundred million total health!

Answer: Greater Demonic Key

Unlike other epic dungeons, it is highly recommended you bring a Greater Demonic Key with you to Castle Never. There is very simply little risk and potential for amazing rewards if you do. The range of rewards stems from the highly regarded Shard of Orcus Wand artifact to Demonic Enhancements, Mount Insignias, and useful Rare or Epic equipment that can be used or salvaged for Astral Diamonds.

As a funny little anecdote, I can recall that, on my first ever time through Castle Never, I brought such a key with me for this Treasure Chest. I opened the Chest and was rewarded with the Shard of Orcus Wand artifact. At the time, I did not understand just how absolutely amazing this artifact was, so I told my party that I had obtained it. I can remember them gushing and freaking out at my luck, to the point where one of my party members remarked on having run Castle Never hundreds of times, never having received the artifact from this Chest himself. Through time, I learned personally how rare this artifact is, as I didn't, and still haven't, seen it ever since. In other words, if you get this artifact, put your controller down and go buy some lottery tickets!

In conclusion, if you should happen to receive the Shard of Orcus Wand artifact, you can opt to equip and use the awe inspiring power of Orcus' Wand, or you can opt to significantly improve your financial outlook by placing it on the Auction House. Though it is merely a Common artifact, it can command, on average, 450,000 Astral Diamonds on the Auction House. That's a lot for any artifact in general!

Answer: The glitch prevents you from opening either Treasure Chest after the fight is over

There is absolutely no explanation as to why this occurs. However, since it is not absolutely essential to interact with the rifts, you can decide to leave them alone. Unfortunately, doing this makes it even more cumbersome to kill Orcus, which puts you in an awkward spot.

Answer: No

It has not been proven, as nobody has ever completed the dungeon alone, nor has it ever been deemed to be impossible by Cryptic Studios. Having said that, it is not realistically possible to solo this dungeon. In lesser Epic Dungeons, such as Valindra's Towers, it was difficult to solo them but feasible due to having fairly easy access to an assortment of items or powers that could allow you to overcome being alone.

However, this dungeon does not offer that type of leeway. In theory, it could be more than doable to reach Orcus alone, but defeating Orcus by yourself is reasonably not possible; he is way too bulky and hits way too hard. DPS loadouts will struggle to do the only thing they exist to do in actually hurting Orcus, and have no chance at surviving any of his harder hitting attacks. Meanwhile, it has actually been statistically proven that a Guardian Fighter facing Orcus alone would actually take literally an entire day to finish, even if the Guardian Fighter brought their strongest attacks to the fight. Simply put, the fight against Orcus, in particular, requires DPS loadouts to actually hurt him, a Tank to take the damage that the DPS loadouts have no chance at surviving, and a Devoted Cleric to prevent the Guardian Fighter from being overwhelmed, which Orcus could otherwise easily accomplish. Without any of these particular traits, completing this dungeon is unreasonably difficult.

Answer: Third hardest

The only two dungeons that are more difficult than Castle Never are Fangbreaker Island and the infamous Tomb of the Nine Gods. As a matter of fact, though Castle Never is significantly harder than other epics such as ETOS, Malabog's Castle, or Valindra's Tower, its difficulty pales in comparison to Fangbreaker Island or Tomb of the Nine Gods, the latter in particular.