Siren

The Captivating, Alluring, and Beguiling Siren is the first Boss of the Cove. She has 2 turns per round.

Ancestor's Memoirs: The Siren
"My lofty position wasn't always accompanied by the fear of office, and there was a time when I could walk the streets or raise a glass in the tavern without concern for molestation. Faithful as the tide, one precocious village waif made it her hobby to shadow my every errand. It was charming then, troublesome later.

In financial desperation, I struck a bargain with the ancient things that surfaced in search of sacrifice when the moon was right. Their price was the delivery of an obscure idol and one other item of more troubling portent. The pact struck, my new-found accomplices slipped silently beneath the brackish water. A fearful stirring at the edge of the torchlight betrayed a familiar witness and gifted me with malign inspiration.

Under the blood moon, I lured my wide-eyed prey to the pier's edge. Before she could properly appreciate her position, I clamped down a manacle, chaining her to the leering idol. A small push was sufficient to send both into the icy waters. And, when at length the tide receded, jewels of the most magnificent grandeur lay scattered upon the shore.

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- The Ancestor

Behavior
The Siren's main gimmick is her Song of Desire ability, which allows her to temporarily mind-control one of your heroes. Charmed heroes have access to their entire class' skill repertoire — not just the ones you've selected — and can use them from any legal position (e.g. the Highwayman can use Point-Blank Shot from Rank 1, the Vestal can use Judgment from Rank 4 etc.) Heroes will be put in a random rank either right in front of or behind the Siren (while she pushes herself backwards one rank) and typically fight for the Siren for two full turns (taking minor stress damage for every turn they spend charmed) before returning to your control - they will, however, be placed in Rank 4. Note that if you flee the fight while a Hero is currently ensorcelled by the Siren, that hero will be lost.

If it is the first turn of the round, and the following conditions are met, the Siren is guaranteed to use Song of Desire:


 * You have at least 1 hero not on Death's Door.


 * You have at least 2 heroes remaining in your party.


 * The Siren hasn't already charmed one of your heroes.

If it is not her first turn, but previous conditions are nonetheless met, the Siren still has about 1/4 of a chance to use Song of Desire again.

Aside from her powers of enchantment, the Siren can also inflict party-wide bleed and stress, or summon in Pelagic reinforcements. She will generally use one of Pressure Crash, Devour, or High Tide on her second turn. They are all equally likely to be used, unless the Siren has been unable to charm one of your heroes, in which case High Tide is twice as likely to be used in order to bring in additional firepower.

Strategy
With high dodge and fair resists, the Siren is hard to hit. This combined with the fact that she will regularly charm one of your heroes means it's probably going to be a long fight. The good news is that her own skills are weak — she relies instead on monsters and charmed heroes to fight for her. A hero that can stun or ignore Guard is valuable, in case Pelagic Guardians come to her aid. She also has no PROT, so skills have the potential to hit hard if you can get them to hit in the first place. With 2 actions per round, debuffs are of little use on her. If you want to use damaging ailments, note that her blight resist is lower than bleed, just like most enemies in the area.

Due to charm, you must be prepared to fight with 3 heroes. Also know that heroes will move forward to fill any empty slots, while a returning hero will always drop in the back. Skills that move may be ideal to fix positioning between charms. Be wary of using multiple target skills, as you could very well hit your own heroes.

Charm has a fixed 70% chance to succeed, ignoring any debuff resist. Despite this, the Siren is prone to targeting the hero with the lowest debuff resistance. After it expires, she will target the 2nd lowest resist hero, then cycle between them for future charms. This means you can mostly predict who will be taken, and influence subsequent charm targets with Holy Water. You can protect 2 of your heroes from charm simply by having 2 others with lower debuff resist. This is one of the few boss fights where the Antiquarian is desirable, as her low debuff resistance and poor individual combat ability means that the Siren is very likely to take a largely irrelevant combatant.

Charmed heroes can use any skills they like, regardless of the ones you selected. Be wary of allowing charm on heroes with skills you don't want used against you, such as the Leper. By comparison, a hero like the Antiquarian has little to offer the Siren. Likewise, the Occultist has bonus damage vs the Siren, but not against you. The Abomination is potentially risky because he may transform while charmed, whether you like it or not.

Preferred Heroes

 * Antiquarian - Low debuff resist attracts the Siren's attention. Poor individual combat ability means your own heroes are not as vulnerable to harm.

Reasonable Choices
These heroes have situational damage abilities and have no issue with being in the back after Charm wears off.
 * Plague Doctor
 * Arbalest/Musketeer
 * Grave Robber

Discouraged Heroes
These heroes have high individual damage — getting them Charmed means you lose a strong damage dealer and have to deal with a powerful temporary foe.
 * Leper
 * Abomination
 * Flagellant - Redeem's percentile healing translates into a big number if used on a boss.

Trophy
After completing the Siren's champion quest, she will drop her conch as a Trophy.

Abilities
Apprentice =

Veteran =

Champion =

* A hero controlled by the siren takes 10 stress damage on each of their turns. When a hero is released from the Siren's control. they will go to rank 4. ** The Siren will summon either a Stinger, a Grouper, or a Guardian. The Guardian is twice as likely to be summoned.

Related Enemies
Cove: The Pelagics


 * Pelagic Grouper
 * Pelagic Shaman
 * Pelagic Guardian
 * Sea Maggot
 * Deep Stinger
 * Uca Major

Cove: The Drowned


 * Drowned Thrall
 * Squiffy Ghast

Bosses


 * Drowned Crew
 * Drowned Anchorman

Trivia

 * Her singing during Song of Desire can be also heard at the beginning of Darkest Dungeon's Official Launch Trailer.
 * In keeping with her "alluring" theme, the Siren's head sports the same shiny bulb on her forehead as the anglerfish's.