Brigand Vvulf

"Flames on the horizon, sulfur in the air. The wolves are at the door. Narration_neut_townevent_banditincursion.wav"

- The Ancestor.

Vvulf is the leader of the Brigands who plague the land surrounding the Hamlet, and has long been planning an invasion of the town itself. He is a dangerous and versatile foe, and can easily stand toe-to-toe with your hardest warriors. Armed with his Tower Shield and a barrel full of bombs he is able to deal massive damage and guard his men from any attacks your heroes try to dish out. As the Brigands' leader, he can also call in reinforcements at any time, and his voice has such a commanding presence that it strikes fear and doubt into the bravest of hearts. When he and his Brigands decide to invade the Hamlet, prepare for war!

Wolves at the Door
Brigand Vvulf is a human event boss that's only available during the mission "Wolves at the Door" that is unlocked by the Town Event "Brigand Incursion." In order to unlock this event, a few conditions must be met;
 * "Wolves at the Door" will not occur before Week 35.
 * You must have at least 4 LV5 heroes.
 * The base chance is 12% and will increase by 4% every time a town event takes place.

Be warned that if you skip Wolves at the Door that Vvulf will destroy two of your building upgrades. If you fail the quest you do not lose town upgrades.

Behavior
If the Barrel O' Bombs is out, he will start every round with "Bombs Away," placing a bomb on a rank like the Prophet's Calamitous Prognostication. At the end of the round, he will use "Time's Up!" which detonates the bomb, dealing heavy damage to the hero on the same rank. Both of these skills are automatic and don't use up his turns.

Destroying the Barrel at any point prior to "Time's Up!" will automatically cancel active bombs, i.e., they will do no damage, making the removal of the Barrel a priority every turn, similar to the Matchmen in the Brigand Pounder boss fight. However, the Barrel O' Bombs also has a persistent Riposte effect, meaning it will automatically counter-attack any non-lethal damage it takes.

Vvulf can subsequently re-summon the Barrel using the ability "Get Them!" if it has been destroyed. Vvulf will use this ability every turn that there is no active Barrel O' Bombs. "Get Them!" will also summon Brigand Cutthroat class enemies, and has a chance of stunning one hero.

His other skills are "Tower Shield," a skill that guards one of his allies and has a high chance of summoning another Brigand Raider, and "Warcry" which causes stress damage on one or two heroes.

Decent Parties and Strategies
First thing to be aware of is that Vvulf is found in a short Lv6 dungeon. This means there is no camping before fighting him. Be wary of abandoning the quest, as it might result in a party member dying as a result.

Trinkets that prevent Bleeding will be very helpful here, since the numerous Brigand Cutthroats and Raiders will attempt to bleed out your heroes before and during the boss fight.

While progressing through the dungeon note that Brigand Hunters, unlike their weaker counterparts, deal significant AoE damage and heavy AoE stress damage with their Blanket Fire. Players will have to choose between the high-crit, bleed-heavy Raiders (heavy damage potential) and these Hunters (heavy AoE stress) carefully to minimize both damage and stress prior to finding Vvulf (since there is no option to camp).

Vvulf himself is a fight that has elements of both the Brigand Pounder and Prophet fights. Players have the choice of either attempting to mitigate the incoming damage from bombs and the summoned Raiders (via guard) and focusing down Vvulf, or using a combination of AoE and heavy hits to control the Raiders and remove the Barrel O' Bombs while chipping away at Vvulf. Mitigating the damage can be risky since Vvulf can stun heroes and the Raiders have high crit chance, bleed, AoE attacks, and can Shuffle heroes. Leaving the entire group present can lead to unpredictable spikes in damage, and a well-placed (for the Bandits) stun can end up resulting in extremely heavy damage dealt to the party.

Vvulf himself does minimal health damage without his bombs, instead focusing on dealing stress damage and stunning heroes while bringing in and guarding the high-damage Raiders. Parties consisting of a heavy front-rank AoE character (such the Abomination's Rake or Leper's Hew) can be very effective in neutralizing the Raiders quickly while ranged classes (Arbalest or Grave Robber) can efficiently remove the Barrel, which always spawns behind Vvulf (it will generally occupy Ranks 3 and 4 for most of the fight). If players go the route of removing the Barrel, be aware that it has a Riposte effect that can crit, and will deal damage against any hero whose attack does not finish off the Barrel.

Strategy:

Vestal, Jester, Graverobber (GR), Man at Arms (MAA)
 * Vestal uses heals or "Judgement"
 * Jester bleeds or heals stress if necessary (keep an eye on the stacks of bleed)
 * GR deals damage or uses 'Toxin Trickery'
 * MAA protects the character who has received 'Bombs Away' (reach ~90% Prot), attacks or uses 'Bolster'

"Occultist, Jester, Abomination, Man at Arms"
 * Occultist (junia's head + ancestor's cloak), heal, occasional damage debuff
 * Jester (dark tambourine + light tambourine), battle ballad, bleed, destress
 * Abomination (Dismas's head + Ancestor's Pen), Rage 1 brigand until death, then proceed to rake spam, as vvulf apparently spawns 1 brigand after spawning 2 for a few times with Get Them!, so rake can hit both 1 brigand and vvulf
 * man at arms (cleansing crystal + martyr's seal), always protect bombing target. if man at arms is target of bomb, activating riposte or stunning vvulf is good move


 * Focus Vvulf and don't spend any attacks on the Brigand Raider or the barrel until the boss is done.
 * since Build 14619 the barrel disappears if Brigand Vvulf is defeated

Trophy
After completing the quest, Vvulf will drop his tassle as a Trophy.

Abilities
* Rank Marked marks the target's rank when the ability lands, not the targeted Hero.

** Time's Up! can only be cast on heroes occupying a Marked Rank. Heroes in Ranks that are not marked will not be affected, even if it says 100% +1 extra target. However as Bombs Away is only able to create 1 marked rank, the ability to target additional ranks is redundant.

*** There is a 1 Barrel limit. Also summoning will occur whether the ability lands or not.

Trivia

 * Vvulf is the only enemy in the base game to have more than four abilities.
 * Vvulf is the only boss outside of The Darkest Dungeon with no variants.
 * V 2.16.0.20 made a new change to this quest. Vvulf now appears only once if you kill him, instead of respawning many times.