Drowned Crew

The Sodden, Sunken, and Drowned Crew are bosses which appear in the Cove.

The Crew are a group of three undead smugglers chained to the wrecked ship aboard which they drowned, typically alongside a Drowned Anchorman that they can summon repeatedly in battle. Although they may appear to be individuals, the Crew are mechanically a single-target entity filling three consecutive ranks in battle. The Drowned Anchorman is not part of the larger group, and has his own HP, resistances, and set of abilities.

Ancestor's Memoirs: The Drowned Crew
"Prying eyes had become a nuisance along the old road, and so I undertook to receive my most curious deliveries by way of marine shipments. A sheltered jetty was accessible by a narrow stone stair off the back of the manor, and a discreet system of pulleys could hoist even the heaviest prizes up the rock face from a securely tied dinghy below.

I employed a crew of particularly unsavory mariners, who for a time sailed the four corners at my behest, retrieving many valuable artifacts, relics and rare texts. Predictably, they increased their tariffs to counter my intense stipulations of secrecy. Such resources had long been exhausted, of course, and so I prepared an alternative payment.

While the greedy dogs slept off their revelry, I hexed their anchor with every twisted incantation I could muster, imbuing it with the weight of my ambition and my contempt for their crude extortion. At the witching hour, the anchor pulled with preternatural force, dragging craft and crew down into the depths. They must have cried out, but no sound escaped the swirling black waters.

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- The Ancestor

Behavior
The Drowned Crew will start the battle with "All Hands On Deck!", which moves a hero to the front rank and summons a Drowned Anchorman. The Anchorman will immobilize the first hero in line with its anchor and force them to experience the crew's horrible death if the first hero is not virtuous. If the first hero is virtuous, they will refuse to be anchored and de-stress their companions. While the hero who is tangled in the anchor is free to attack, their stress will increase rapidly over time, and the Crew will heal health every time anyone takes an action.

Note that the Anchorman will change to a 'Drowned Puller' after immobilizing a hero, making it pointless to attack them if you're not going to finish it before it does so, since the Puller's health and DoTs are separate to the Anchorman's. In all other respects, the Puller is identical to the Anchorman.

The Drowned Crew will always start a round with "All Hands On Deck!" unless a hero is immobilized.

Any hero immobilized by the Drowned Anchorman can only be released either by killing the Anchorman, or automatically when the hero's stress reaches either 100 or 200. Additionally, when the Anchorman is summoned, it will have a buff that will drastically increase its PROT and resistances. It will keep this buff until it immobilizes a hero, after which the Drowned Crew will receive the buff instead until the Anchorman is destroyed.

Strategy
The Crew itself has very low defensive stats with low dodge, low blight resist and no Prot. Furthermore, it has 2 actions, which makes Blight even more effective. It also takes up 3 slots, which makes every hero able to target it in some shape or form. It has more Health than other fragile Bosses like Hag, but it's not extremely tanky. It's actions are barely threatening. Both Mutiny and Drink with the Dead do no damage and barely chip away at your heroes' Stress. Boarding Clutch is barely a threat without crits, since it does almost no damage.

The main gimmick and thing you have to plan around is the Anchorman. First, a hero will get pulled with All Hands on Deck. Having a party that can work around any of it's 3 back heroes getting pulled is important. The second part is the Anchor. If the Anchor lands, that hero will take continuous Stress damage and be immobilized. The most dangerous part is the buffs the Drowned Crew gets. They get a huge defensive stat bump, +50% to PROT, Bleed Resist and Blight Resist and +25% Stun Resist. In addition to that, the Crew starts healing after each action. Leaving an Anchored Hero up for too long will make the fight almost impossible to win. Because of that, you will usually want to deal with Anchorman very quickly.

Note : When a hero is anchored by the Anchorman, stunning the Anchorman will NOT release the hero.

Note : The "Anchor buff" will initially be with the Anchorman and will transferred to the Crew once the Anchor catches a hero

Note : The Anchor skill (Heave to) can be dodged

There's 3 main ways you can prepare for Anchorman:


 * 1) Stuns. Having high base chance Stuns is very good for this fight since it allows you to take an additional entire turn without worrying about a hero being Anchored
 * 2) Rank 1 burst damage. Having a way to deal large amounts of damage to Anchorman is also crucial to either kill Anchorman before Crew can heal too much or prevent it from Anchoring by bursting it down. The second use is not recommended, since Anchorman has the same defensive boosts it transfers later. It also heals back to full if you fail to finish it off before it throws it's Anchor.
 * 3) Virtues. Gettin a Virtue on any hero breaks this fight completely. Try to keep that hero in Rank 1 when the Anchor gets thrown for Stress healing and another wasted turn of the Anchorman. Though going for Virtues using Virtue Trinkets is not recommended due to better options existing.

Having a combination of the first two ways is extremely important to dealing with this fight.

Generally you want to try to Stun Anchorman, while putting damage into Crew. If you do it right, you can usually manage to burst down Crew before Anchor actually lands. If the Anchor does land, shift your entire focus towards killing Anchorman as quickly as possible. Getting through the defensive buffs and the healing of Crew is a losing battle.

Good heroes to deal with the fight

 * Abomination - Depending on what the team needs more, you can either Transform for massive damage with Rage or use Manacles in combination with a Stun Chance Trinket like Broken Key to stall Anchorman. He is vulvernable to getting pulled when going for Manacles, but he can still change gears to deal damage very quickly. Be mindful of the team around him, as he needs to be in Rank 1/2 to deal damage, making him a poor fit with other heroes that need to sit in Rank 1/2.
 * Bounty Hunter - Huge burst to Crew due to Mark and decent on-hit damage against Anchorman. His main advantage is his Campskill Planned Takedown, which gives him a huge offensive boost against Crew. He is also very flexible with positioning, since he can work from Rank 1-3.
 * Crusader - Doesn't deal as much damage to Crew and Anchorman as some other options, even with his damage against Unholy, but his combination of Stun, Healing and movement is more than enough to make up for that. Holy Lance allows Crusader to fix positions at the end of the turn while also dealing good amounts of damage to Crew.
 * Grave Robber - Huge amounts of burst damage to both Anchorman and Crew with Lunge. She can also help deal with the Pull with a combination of Shadow Fade and Lunge while also setting up her own damage in the process.
 * Highwayman - Doesn't deal amazing damage to Crew, but offers great position control and can oneshot the Anchorman with Point Blank Shot after moving in position to take the Anchor.
 * Houndmaster - Can either set up Mark for another hero or use it himself with Dog Treats to deal good amounts of damage to Crew. Blackjack also helps to Stun the Anchorman.
 * Jester - The fight is often not long enough to get a fully powered Finale, but the insane offensive boost Battle Ballad provides is always welcome. If he does get pulled, he can use Finale early in the fight to get some decent damage on Crew while also moving himself back. The debuffs are not so bad, since Crew barely has offensive power.
 * Leper - Insane damage with Revenge set up. Can often take away more than half of Crews Health with one crit. He can get hampered by two pulls, but his upside is well worth that risk. Even if he gets Anchored, he can oneshot the Anchorman in response.
 * Occultist - Has the best Stun to deal with Anchorman in Hands from the Abyss. He can often win the fight by himself by Stunning the Anchorman twice in a row due to his incredible Trinket Support in Demon's Cauldron. Furthermore, he can also Mark Crew to set up his teammates' damage. The Pulls aren't a big problem for him, since he only loses his Stun when he gets moved too far back.
 * Plague Doctor - Can't do much against Anchorman in terms of Stunning, but she has very good damage output against Crew with it's low Blight Resist and two actions per Turn.
 * Shieldbreaker - Provides amazing position control while also having good damage with Adder's Kiss and Pierce.

Mediocre heroes to deal with the fight

 * Arbalest - Very good damage to Crew itself due to the huge Mark multiplier on Sniper Shot. However, she offers no way to deal with Anchorman and can get messed up by the Pull.
 * Hellion - Deals less damage than Crusader while not offering the same amount of utility and rank flexibility, since her Bleeds don't work as well in the Cove.
 * Vestal - Mediocre Stun without much Trinket Support and completely useless when Pulled. Her Healing isn't very important for the fight, since Crew deals so little damage.

Poor picks

 * Antiquarian - Doesn't deal great damage and the Dodge buffs she offers don't help too much. However, you can technically use Get Down to completely counter All Hands On Deck if she gets targeted.
 * Flagellant - Due to the high Bleed resist in both the Dungeon and the Boss, Flagellant can often times lose large chunks of his damage.

Trophy
After completing the Drowned Crew's champion quest, the captain will drop his bell as a Trophy.

Abilities
Apprentice =

Veteran =

Champion =

While "Heave to!" is the Drowned Anchorman's ability, it's worth mentioning here. It immobilizes the hero in the first position, and it gives the Drowned Crew a buff that will heighten its protection and resistances, while also dealing stress damage to the hero and healing the Drowned Crew every turn.

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 Anchorman
 * Siren

Trivia

 * The animation of the attacks show a different crew member using the attacks. "All Hands On Deck!" and "Mutiny" are the captain shouting and raising his bell, "Drink With The Dead" shows the middle crew member attacking by drinking a bottle while the insanity symbol appears above its head, and "Boarding Clutch" has the lowest crew member attacking by striking with a long hook weapon.
 * Prior to build 24121, the Drowned Crew's move resistances were 100/120/145% respectively. As neither Crew nor Anchorman had means to move back into position, shuffling either will put the Anchorman at the far back formation, unable to chain down any hero, and thus bypassing the main gimmick of the fight. Their current raised move resistance makes this tactic impossible.
 * The attack "Drink With The Dead" is a reference to the song "Drink With The Living Dead" by Ghoultown.