Leviathan

The Leviathan is the Fisherfolk Lair enemy boss within The Sacred Pier, found in the Shroud in Darkest Dungeon II. "They must be made to see that their monstrous god is mortal. Vo narr node activate dungeon coast 02.wav"

- The Academic

Description
When the coastal villages were engulfed by the waters and the enigmatic monoliths of dark carved stone surfaced from deep beneath the ocean's floor, there was one more entity of note that would find its way to the now sodden shores of the Shroud. It is unsure if this beast of unknowable size and strength was lured here by the half-sunken pillars of supposed ritual, or if those were heaved from beneath the abyssal darkness by the will of the creature. That did not matter to the desperate Fisherfolk, who saw this Leviathan's appearance as a chance to yet save themselves from the cruel, unrelenting waves of the ever-growing ocean. Praised and worshipped as a savior and a god, the Leviathan sits at the end of the Sacred Pier cobbled together by its new followers, built from whatever remnant of timber and rope could be salvaged from the inundated remains of their former homes. Curiously, their putrid and rotting excuse for a church is decorated abundantly with tuning forks; whether they exist as part of some occult ritual or as wards to keep the aquatic monster at bay is unclear. As its home is shrouded in mystery, so too is the nature of The Leviathan and its true goals and plans for those who have sought its help and received its blessing. It may never be known just how complex, or how primordial, its mind truly is.

Combat Skills
At first glance, the Leviathan would seem capable of biting the heroes clean in half without much effort. However the creature seems to have no interest in consuming its victims; instead, the creature will opt to barrage the heroes with sprays of pressurized, parasite ridden waters and clouds of dense mist. As it fights, its webbed hand will emerge from the water in order to pummel and pull its helpless victims under the tide, where they would be drowned by the briny ocean. Should its hand be too severely injured to be used anymore, it will retreat under the dark waters, only for another undamaged one to re-emerge in its stead, from a seemingly endless supply of limbs hidden by the shadows cast from the ocean's floor.

The Leviathan's attacks are characterized by cleaves that stress, debuffs, and marks the party with.

Leviathan's Hand
The Leviathan's Hand has only one actual damaging attack, however its Undertow attack will capture targets with tokens, removing them from the party and making them suffer HP damage and stress until the hand is destroyed, at which point they are released.

Strategy
It's important that everyone in your party, even the support characters, is capable of dealing at least some damage during this fight. If your primary damage-dealer gets taken underwater, it will take a long time to free them if the rest of the party can't make up the difference. Try to destroy the hand as quickly as possible using heavy melee attackers like the Leper or Hellion, while the rest of the party manages buffs and debuffs or makes ranged attacks against the head.

From a mechanical, technical, and strategic view, the Leviathan's attack patterns are shockingly simple to understand and the only variance in fights would, theoretically, just be who it targets. Leviathan has 2 "Phases" it switches between; Prepare phase and Attack phase. It starts the fight in Prepare phase, in which it will always start the round with Breath of the Sea, then use it's normal action to use Eyes of the Storm, and ending the round with Deep Rising. Once the round starts and it has it's hand out, it will switch to Attack phase, using it's only action to use Tidal Surge on the party. Once the hand is defeated it will switch back to Prepare phase, repeating this cycle until either you die or it dies.

The best way you can prepare for the fight is all the way back at the Inn; Ceremonial Drums will make it harder for Undertow to take your heroes-(Your editor was pulled under, wait until they're released to continue reading)

Trivia

 * The Leviathan closely resembles the Pelagic Grouper from the first Darkest Dungeon game.