Swine Prince

The Swine Prince/King/God is a Beast boss that appears in the Warrens.

Ancestor's Memoirs: The Swine Prince
"The ways and rituals of blood sacrifice are difficult to master. Those from beyond require a physical vessel if they are to make the crossing into our reality. The timing of the chants is imperative: without the proper utterances at precise intervals, the process can fail spectacularly.

My first attempts at summoning were crude, and the results disappointing. I soon found, however, that the type and condition of the host's meat was a critical factor. The best results came from pigs, whose flesh is most like that of man.

The great thing I had managed to bring through was brutish and stupid. Moreover, it required prodigious amounts of meat to sustain itself. But this was only a trifling concern. After all, I had a village full of it.

Narration_load_warrens_01.oggNarration_load_warrens_02.oggNarration_load_warrens_03.ogg"

- The Ancestor

Behavior
The Swine Prince always appears taking up rank 1, 2 and 3, with Wilbur taking up rank 4. Wilbur can be moved though it is ill advised.

During battle, Wilbur will use End This One or End These Two on one or two of your heroes. This marks your heroes for extra damage from the Swine Prince's attacks, as well as targeting those specific heroes for either Obliterate Body (for one target) or Obliterate Masses (for two targets).

An Arbalest with the Rallying Flare ability can clear marks from all heroes (except herself), and the Swine Prince will use Wild Flailing instead of Obliterate Body or Obliterate Masses, for substantially less and much more manageable damage. Additionally, if one of the marked heroes has been stunned by Wilbur, Flare will clear the stun and prevent that hero from missing a turn.

Note that hitting Wilbur with any damaging attack whilst the Swine Prince is still alive will result in immediate retaliation by the Swine Prince in the form of all the heroes being attacked with Enraged Destruction for increased damage and a chance to stun. Therefore the best ways to manage Wilbur is to either clear the marks with an Arbalest each round as above (hoping Wilbur doesn't stun the Arbalest), or hit Wilbur with a stun attack that does not do damage, such as the Bounty Hunter's Flashbang or the Plague Doctor's Blinding Gas.

Wilbur can also be killed to stop the marking of your heroes, however, this will result in the Swine Prince going ballistic and using Enraged Destruction on every turn for increased damage and a chance to stun (as you have no hope of outhealing this, it will result in a total wipe very quickly unless you kill the Prince or retreat). Be wary of using Riposte attacks, as Wilbur's mark will trigger them and the Swine Prince will not react immediately but he will still start using Enraged Destruction once Wilbur dies.

After the Swine Prince is defeated, the heroes will also have to defeat Wilbur. Wilbur will use Squeal, which does one to two points of damage, but mainly inflicts stress damage on your heroes, and has a high chance to stun them in the higher levels.

Trophy
After completing the Swine Prince's champion quest, Wilbur will drop his flag as a Trophy.

Abilities
Apprentice =

Veteran =

Champion =

* When a Hero uses an ability on Wilbur, Swine Prince will automatically perform Enraged Destruction after that action, ignoring any status effects already on it (stun etc.). If Wilbur dies, said ability will be used every turn by the Swine Prince/King/God afterwards.

Strategy
The most important thing to remember in this fight is; don't ever attack Wilbur! The Swine Prince will immediately counter attack the entire party with a crushing strike if anyone dares to harm his little buddy. Wilbur can safely be stunned, so long as the skill does no damage. Oddly, this counter attack is not triggered by riposte, but if Wilbur is killed, then the Swine Prince will rage permanently for the rest of the fight. This means you should avoid using riposte as it could get Wilbur killed prematurely. For the most part, you want to ignore Wilbur until the Swine Prince has been put down.

There are a few ways to trivialize this fight. By using the Arbalest, you can clear marks, forcing the Swine Prince to use his much weaker strike. You can also use the Shieldbreaker to make someone immune to mark, which means wasting Wilbur's turns if he accidentally targets an immune hero. Heroes with guard can also help mitigate some of the incoming damage. The Houndmaster is the professional swine slayer. In addition to a bonus vs beasts+marks, he also has guard, a self heal, and applies bleeds. Another solid choice is the Leper, which can buff his own prot, self heal, and swing hard.

Combining these techniques, a party of Shieldbreaker/Shieldbreaker/Houndmaster/Healer trivializes this fight in the extreme. Shieldbreakers use their camping technique on each other, rendering them unmarkable, while a dodge-buffed Houndmaster uses his guard on the healer rendering the entire party more or less unhittable.

Chopping down the Swine Prince isn't a hard task. By taking up 3 slots, just about anything can hit him. He has no prot and is vulnerable to bleed+blight, although the area is full of blight resistant beasts, so bleed would be much more ideal to bring. With only 1 action per round however, dots will not tick quickly. This means focusing on hard hitting attacks is more ideal.

After killing the Swine Prince, Wilbur can freely be attacked. Amusingly, you don't actually have to kill the little piggy to win, as you already have credit for the quest. You can actually flee the fight if you prefer, and probably should if a hero is too weak to finish. More amusingly, if Wilbur finishes off your party, you still have a victory credit, and get the trophy, despite no one being left alive to carry it home.

Trivia

 * Despite a red light appearing in his eyes when he attacks, the Swine Prince appears to be blind. This might explain why he is so protective of Wilbur; he needs the smaller Swine to direct his attacks.
 * Despite appearing to lack eyes, a Plague Doctor can still stun The Prince and his higher forms by using "Blinding Gas".
 * The Ancestor using pigs as vessels for creatures from "outer spheres" is potentially intended as a reference to Legion, a man possessed by many demons from the Bible who begged Jesus to allow them to possess a sounder of swine instead of being sent back to hell.
 * Wilbur's name and runty appearance comes from the book Charlotte's Web written by E.B. White, which follows the adventures of a farm pig named Wilbur who was the runt of his litter.
 * The achievement you receive from having a member of your party killed by Wilbur, "That'll do pig..." is a reference to the movie Babe where Farmer Hoggett tells his pig Babe, "That'll do, pig. That'll do."
 * The Swine Prince also seems to largely influenced by the "Great Unclean Ones" of the Warhammer universe.
 * The Swine Prince is likely a reference to The Rotten from Dark Souls 2. Both are giant, legless piles of rotting flesh that wield large, rusty cleavers, and are commanded by a creature much smaller than them.
 * If they player hurts Wilbur, a random hero will say one of the following lines to advise against attack him: "It is protecting the little swine!", "Wounding the small one has infuriated the giant!" and "Leave the small one alone!".

Swinefolk

 * Swine Chopper
 * Swine Slasher
 * Swine Wretch
 * Swine Drummer
 * Swinetaur
 * Swine Skiver

Bosses

 * Wilbur
 * Flesh