I just came back not long ago after a break and I’m yet to tackle the Al Merayah stronghold.
I’ve just been busy slowly building my camp, tavern and purge base I was saving it for last but since the new update is soon and the cave is under the castle thought I’d might as well do it now.
What does it actually require? I hear players talking about it like it’s a big quest. Can I just get my best thrall grab some battering rams and go to town on the castle and its inhabitants or is there more to it?
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There is.
The respawn of npcs is super fast until you kill the king.
If you are going solo, be prepared to lose your thrall.
I went without a thrall through the front gate and managed, but it’s hard and stressful. Online, the tiniest bit of lag or desync will get you in a position where you might be stunned and killed.
So…
Sneak. There are a lot of weak spots where you can avoid the anticlimb. You can get all the way into the kings chamber like this.
However, if you decide going in like I did, I can tell you explosive jars are more efficient than the trebuchet.
Use the battering ram inside or if you sneaked.
If you really want to try the trebuchet (it’s quite cool if you use demon fire), just use it for the first gate. I used it to blow all three, but I had to build a tower and place it on top and it took me an hour. The inner gate is very easy to miss. Don’t be like me, although bombing the fortress through the night feels epic. But it’s very expensive. It’s much better to use explosive jars.
The enemies hit hard, try to surround you and stun you.
There are spots where you can get stuck easily. Be careful with that.
If you sneak, it’s easy. So, your choice. Easy or a freaking nightmare. 
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Awesome thanks for the info 
So far all iv done is fly my bat to the top of the castle and drop/slide down to the balcony and slashed at the door with my axe but didn’t do any damage 
im a noob raider I know but it wasn’t till I started doing the purges that I started getting battering ram drops and recipes so I thought they had steps implanted for the siege. But if your saying I can just sneak in and use explosives and the battering ram this should be fun.
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I don’t know if the thrall AI will be get improved on chapter 4, but as it is now, i wouldn’t count on any thrall, even if it was Arena champion with well trained. The agro is multiple, your thrall will be staggered and if you won’t manage to help it, you will witness the doom of the poor thrall.
This fortress is pvp training as it is. So use pvp methods to win, not pve.
Here’s a relative video how to do it, yet you can always try your self on single player.
For me the best build so far is…
15 strength
20 agility
10 vitality
10 grit
5 expertise
Dragon hide armor (bulked plating)
Thag scythe (master weapon fitting)
You will find both the bombs and the battering ram in the fortress, just take 10 healing potions, some pork feast and a couple argossean dream dust, just in case you’ll go night.
Both buffs in strength
You don’t need tools and leave your wheel of choice free to put the bombs and the battering ram.
Put the jars one by one, not all of them. Let them explode and burn.
I jump to the two first gates, i avoid them, but to the third on i do frontal attack.
Dodge heavy, dodge heavy and see them all going down 2 shot.
Enjoy.
Ps. The gold is heavy, it’s best to unlock sorcery first.
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If he wants to fight, because it’s not mandatory. You can even cheese the king with a bow while staying out of reach.
Once you find your way, you can do this naked with a bow!
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Let me show you an easy way to cheese the whole thing.
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Ill watch the video once iv done it atleast once
Don’t want too many spoilers.
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Then definitely don’t see it, because if you do it like this, it’s super easy, @Deamo . This is how you farm that gold for purges. 
Quick and cheap.
As you go naked, with a bow, 5 points in expertise are more than enough to carry all the gold and then some. Getting out is as easy as getting in. But you’ll quickly figure that out.
If you have legs, you have everything you need .
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I went in solo, with invisibility potions from the battle pass, ramms, and some noxious gas arrows.
I’m not even trying any more. And for those experiencing lag, the latest update to testlive made it so much worse.
Have you seen the video I made, @DeaconElie ?
You can do that shit naked.
You can do it even faster if you throw some acid arrows and some high damage arrows in the mix.
You can even get the Musashi on your way out.
Naked without being afraid.
You don’t have to fight a single enemy and you are not in the target line of any archer in the crucial parts. When I say it is easy, I mean it. Anyone can do it.
What I found interesting is even when invisible some enemies locked on me but didn’t attack. Ya, the hard way with the Stygian keep is hitting it head on.
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So let me get this right. The way to do this is exploiting game mechanics because endless respawn just kills you otherwise?
Sounds like an awesome new concept. So what’s the idea behind that siege?
Probably group activity, @Ankhozhul .
I was able to raid it through the front gate alone, but man… it’s intense to say the least.
If you sneak, it’s very easy.
You can do a hybrid approach if you want to loot the warriors. Sneak, kill the king (halting respawn), kill everyone after that.
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nah its more complex than that as i have explained it before, if your character enter in the inner court yard it stop respawn outside castle wall and beetween first and second gate.
if kill the three skulls boss at first floor of the inner castle, it stop respawn in inner courtyard so beetween second gate and inner court.
if you kill the final boss at top of the inner castle it stop all respawn or respawn inside the inner castle too.
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This is what I get. You kill the final boss and those you kill after don’t respawn (or take too long to become a threat.)
So, you kill him first. I’ve just shown in the video how easy it is to do it.
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No it doesn’t kill you, but your thrall is another story.
And it’s not exploit, it’s the pvp mechanism of this game.
If you’re saying that you wish this fortress to work more pve than pvp, then i agree.
But for pvp players this fortress is butter on their bread. They don’t even have to spend anything to gain the loot, the fortress provides plenty for raid, instant max lvl to a thrall that waits on distance, and main spawn for the most vicious katana of the game.
Don’t get me wrong, i am not complaining for the loot, i find it very rewarding, i wouldn’t like to change. Today i made a round around the walls, killed the npcs and gather so many hardened steel weapons that i won’t need hardened steel for a long time. But this fortress equalize a bit the current surge system in Siptah. You gain hardened steel weapons from tier 1 surges. So it’s nice we have something similar on exile lands.
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It feels a bit like raiding a base while the owners are offline and build bad af.
Go in, clear the thralls, go for the loot. If you kill the king first, they don’t respawn. Any of them. I raided it again yesterday and not a single one respawned when I killed the king first. If we do it like that, it feels a lot like offline raiding.
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Every pve aspect has the difficulty a player defines.
Whenever a player wishes to go and win and think not of the general loot but only the specifics, our characters can become so powerful now that impossible is nothing. Actually it’s very easy to do everything completely solo.
The “commander” and the “looter” builds are risky right now, not the fighter.
20 points in vitality and 20 points in grit makes you a complete beast. You feel nothing.
For strength 20 it’s best heavy armor and you get over 2k armor. You will accept hits, lots of them but you’ll endure literally everything.
20 agility choose light armor and have fun with every single mob and npc of the game.
That’s why the strength weapons are higher in damage, because agility makes you extremely flexible and it wouldn’t feel balanced.
Yet the truth is that it’s not, agility is way better in every aspect right now.
I am not complaining, just saying.
I find it a bit weird after testing it yesterday for the first time. Sadly my clan is not available over the holidays, so we can’t check out how 5 man vs the fortress works.
I made it yesterday with some sorcerey and sneaking on an agility build (poison arrows, poison daggers, etc), but it still doesn’t feel right. It’s a bit similar to playing Skyrim on a stealth archer.
Next try with the Clan and putting a trebuchet up that can hit outer and inner gates and with thralls
The problem having multiple solutions doesn’t mean all but one are exploits.
My first run on test was head on. Lost 5 thralls{?} Never made it to the final.
Second i robin hooded it and stealthed in, busted a couple doors, died to the boss because I wasn’t ready for that fight 
Then I invisibled past it all and gassed the boss.
You know I don’t play PVP right? Just because people don’t play PVP doesn’t mean they don’t know how to raid a fortress. But it is better to work smart then hard
Just need to be flexible, not like you’re finding some spot the end boss can’t reach you at and you set there and gas them or something 
Ya I quit it after the 5th time; not counting the god raid
Like the “purge” got boring.
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