Strategy:Lych

This article was last updated for: version 48.2

Lych is a unique boss in the sense it can counter strategies reliant on buffs and compact defenses. It also tests the player's ability to have enough damage to cover longer sections of the track or even other tracks by its soul and MOAB-Class resurrection abilities. It can also make the early game farming less efficient due Lych-Soul live stealing ability, forcing the player to conserve more lives during the first 40 rounds by buying more expensive defenses.

This strategy page only covers dealing with Lych itself and not the farming required to afford the defenses, for such guide consult Strategy:Boss Bloon Event. The tower selection also assumes all challenge modifiers are at standard values.

Normal Lych

Lych

Tier 1

Lych itself is not really the problem at this point, but the Soul and the Resurrected MOABs are the biggest threats at this stage, ideally the defense should be able to deal with the three of them at the same time. Unless using MOAB Eliminator, Jungle Drums is strongly recommended due to its ~17.6% attack speed buff not being sapped by Lych and being extremely cost-efficient. Jungle Drums is recommended for all tiers of Normal and Elite Lych.

• 2-0-5 Elite Defender completely counters Lych, as it can deal with Lych, Lych-Soul and the normal spawns all by itself (with the help of some form of camo detection, setting it to First targeting is recommended). The Soul's live stealing ability triggers Elite Defender's passive attack speed bonus which can defeat all Bloons on the screen nearly instantly and, if it has some time remaining with the ability, it might damage Lych enough to also trigger the next skull. Make sure Elite Defender is very far from Lych because the attack speed bonus can be stolen.
• 0-5-0 MOAB Eliminator and a 0-4-0 MOAB Assassin can deal with Lych and its spawns, is recommended to not use MOAB Eliminator's ability on Lych itself as it will trigger a skull immediately, making the Soul and the Resurrected MOABs a extreme threat if the abilities are down. Instead, let the MOAB Eliminator set to Strong damage Lych with its normal attack and use the abilities when the skull is reached. MOAB Eliminator will defeat the Soul immediately and the MOAB Assassin can deal with the MOABs.
• 2-0-5 The Tack Zone + 0-4-0 Embrittlement + 2-0-4 Overdrive can also handle the entire defense if positioned correctly to quickly defeat the Soul and the MOABs just in the moment they spawn before they can leave the Tack Shooter's range.
• 5-2-0 Carrier Flagship or 2× 4-2-0 Aircraft Carrier.
• 3× 2-4-0 Carpet of Spikes, space out their abilities to deal with Lych and its spawns.

• 2-0-5 Sub Commander, make sure it has vision of the entire track, although it can work on its own, it will perform even better when paired with a few 2-0-3 Triple Guns and/or Admiral Brickell. 3× 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts can also be used instead.
• 4× 0-4-0 Operation: Dart Storm, Wingmonkey is recommended.
• On longer or easier maps: 4-2-0 Plasma Accelerator and or enough 1-0-4 Sticky Bombs to cove the entire map.

There are other tower combinations that can defeat Lych and its Soul, but will be overwhelmed by the normal spawns and the resurrected MOABS, so they will need additional support. The support can be from 1 to 3 towers that can handle regular spawns, defending or stalling MOABs, and camo detection. For example, 4-0-2 M.O.A.R Glaives, 0-2-3 MOAB Shove and 3-0-0 Submerge and Support can perform those tasks. In maps with multiple lanes, a 0-2-3 MOAB Shove can be used to stall MOABs in those lines and let the helicopter or the main defense handle them eventually.

Tier 2

• 1-5-0 M.A.D, avoid using Emergency Unlock ability.
• 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath with 5× 0-1-4 Poplust.
• 2-5-0 Carpet of Spikes.
• 2-0-5 The Tack Zone + 0-5-0 Super Brittle + 0-4-0 Embrittlement and several 2-0-4 Overdrives, is recommended to not place them very tightly so spawns can be defeated before they leave the range.
• 2-0-5 Sub Commander, with several 2-0-4 Armor Piercing Darts.

In a similar way to Tier 1, there are many other towers and combinations can defeat Lych and the Soul on their own but need support for the resurrected MOABs and the regular spawns (like Round 63), some examples are:

• 0-5-0 MOAB Eliminator.
• 5-0-2 Cripple MOAB.
• 2-0-5 Elite Defender.
• 4× 2-4-0 First Strike Capability, use their abilities on pairs, first to trigger the skull, second for the soul.
• 1-0-5 Master Bomber.

Examples of support towers that can be used:

• 5-0-2 Glaive Lord.
• 0-2-5 MOAB Domination.
• 0-2-5 Super Glue.
• 2-0-4 Spectre.
• 0-2-4 Comanche Defense.
• 5-2-0 Archmage.
• 2-0-3 Dark Knight.

Tier 3

Very few single tower defenses can handle Lych at this point including:

• 1-5-0 M.A.D.
• 5-0-0 Megalodon. Power 84 works in nearly all cases, but it is worth it to go for Power 132 on difficult weeks.
• 4-2-0 Sun Temple, 1-1-1-0 sacrifices.
• 2-0-5 Legend of the Night.
• Any Paragon, Degree 1 is enough.

With the exception of M.A.D and Megalodon, the other defenses listed above might be too expensive if the farming has been subpar, in that case, at least two or even three of the options listed for Tier 2 (plus towers like Ray of Doom, Flying Fortress and Super Mines) are capable of defeating Lych. Support defensive towers listed in the previous tiers are still really useful here.

Tier 4

• Degree 20+ Apex Plasma Master, Crucible of Steel and Flame or Glaive Dominus.
• Any other Paragon at Degree 1+.
• 5-0-0 Megalodon with max power if the boss can stay in its range for long enough.
• A combination of the Tier 3 options, but they might be less reliable as the most common buff methods are countered by Lych. In this case having pairing them with the usual debuff towers such as Super Brittle, Glue Storm and Cripple MOAB is very important.

For Tiers 4 and 5 is recommended to have support defensive towers in the back to catch anything that can get past the main defense, usually composed from a one tower that can stall MOAB-Class Bloons and a second offensive tower that can do the cleanup (ex. 0-2-5 Super Glue and 0-2-5 MOAB Domination). As a last resort, a 2-5-0 Perma-Spike or a 5-2-0 Super Mines can be useful.

Tier 5

A Paragon defense is heavily recommended at this stage as even a VTSG or tower spam strategies can struggle with the lack of Permanent Brew, Ultraboosts and Homeland Defense. For single Paragon solutions the recommended degrees are:

• Degree 60+ Apex Plasma Master.
• Degree 60+ Crucible of Steel and Flame.
• Degree 60+ Glaive Dominus.
• Degree 20+ Nautic Siege Core.
• Degree 40+ Navarch of the Seas, Degree 20 is enough if Lych can stay long enough in the Paragon's range to be hit by its main attack.
• Degree 20+ Magus Perfectus, if the player can use a Metamorphosis ability while the boss is in range with nearly full graveyard.
• Degree 20+ Ascended Shadow.
• Degree 40+ Master Builder, is possible to be done at Degree 20 if the Paragon is prepared in the previous tier for the self-ultraboost effect, Sentry Paragon micro is required.
• Degree 20+ Mega Massive Munitions Factory, if placed at the back of the track to prepare a large spike pile, don't use the Controlled Burst ability as Lych can steal it.
• Degree 1+ Goliath Doomship.

Elite Lych

Elite Lych

Tier 1

Compared to Normal Lych, the Elite version has two additional skulls, making it more resilient to compact defenses by increasing its health and the amount of time it will spend on its ethereal phase. Towers that can defeat Lych include:

• 2-0-5 Elite Defender, after the first skull is triggered Lych-soul will drain the player's lives which triggers Elite Defender's passive ability, and it can use that attack speed to clear the soul, revived MOABs and everything else in the screen, and, if it has extra time remaining it can damage Lych enough to trigger another skull very quickly repeating the cycle. Elite Defender should be placed very far from Lych as it can steal this passive bonus.
• 4× 2-4-0 Carpet of Spikes, space out their abilities to deal with Lych and its spawns.
• 2-0-5 Sub Commander with some 2-0-3 Triple Guns.
• 3× 4-2-0 Aircraft Carrier.

It is heavily recommended to have additional defense to stall the revived MOABs like 0-2-3 MOAB Shove or 4-2-0 Maim MOAB or 0-0-3 Golden Eagle with max Beast Power.

Tier 2

• 1-5-0 M.A.D, avoid using Emergency Unlock ability.
• 5-0-0 Megalodon. Power 84 is usually enough, but when playing on a difficult week or attemting to defeat Lych quickly, getting Power 132 is well worth it.
• Compact defenses like Avatar of Wrath or Overdrive spam should only be used if the boss can stay for some time in their range.
• Combination of several strong towers like Master Bomber, Ray of Doom, Flying Fortress, Carpet of Spikes, Super Mines and the debuff towers like Super Brittle, Glue Storm and Cripple MOAB.

These towers can be supported with MOAB stall or cleanup from 0-2-5 Super Glue and 0-2-5 MOAB Domination or 0-2-5 Comanche Commander.

Tier 3

For Tier 3 a Paragon defense is usually used, with a Degree 20 Apex Plasma Master, Crucible of Steel and Flame or Glaive Dominus being affordable at this tier. On a good position, the Paragon should be also able to deal with Lych-soul and the revived MOABs.

Tier 4

Lych can be defeated with two low degree paragons or one with a higher degree. Without additional support, the minimum recommended degrees for both options are:

• Apex Plasma Master: Degree 40 for two paragon defenses, no recommended solo.
• Crucible of Steel and Flame and Glaive Dominus: Degree 20, 80 if used alone.
• Nautic Siege Core, Navarch of the Seas, Ascended Shadow, Magus Perfectus, Master Builder, Mega Massive Munitions Factory: Degree 20, 40 solo.
• Goliath Doomship: Degree 1, 20 solo.
• A VTSG can be used in place of any paragon.

Tier 5

In preparation for this Tier, it is recommended to sell Apex Plasma Master and Crucible of Steel and Flame and even Glaive Dominus because the needed degrees might be too high, Glaive Dominus is also in asimilar position. Then choose between 4 of the following options (or 3 with 20 more degrees per Paragon):

• Degree 80+ Apex Plasma Master.
• Degree 80+ Crucible of Steel and Flame.
• Degree 60+ Glaive Dominus.
• Degree 40+ Nautic Siege Core.
• Degree 40+ Navarch of the Seas.
• Degree 40+ Magus Perfectus, use Metamorphosis while the boss is in range with nearly full graveyard.
• Degree 40+ Ascended Shadow.
• Degree 40+ Master Builder, micro the Sentry Paragons, is preferable to get it several rounds before so the self-ultraboost can start getting some stacks.
• Degree 40+ Mega Massive Munitions Factory, at the back of the track so it can save a pile of spikes and also catch Lych-Soul if needed.
• Degree 20+ Goliath Doomship, 80 can defeat Lych by their own.

Tips and recommendations

• After defeating Tier 1, the game will keep sending MOABs during the 40's, so is important to keep defense for them after defeating Tier 1 Lych. This defense needs to be stronger than what is needed in the 50's as the MOAB concentration is higher and many of them are Fortified.
• In Tiers 4 and 5 Lych can revive DDTs, that, with their increased health, they can become very dangerous as they can run past the defenses, specially in multi-lane maps. Dangerous rounds include 102, 106, 110, 112, 114, 115, 117 and 118 for Tier 4 and 128, 130, 135 and 138 for Tier 5 as they contain Fortified DDTs. Weaker defenses might also struggle with Fortfied ZOMGs. Is very important to have an answer to them with support defensive towers or Paragons with global range.
• Depending on the chosen defense switching the main attack towers between Strong and First targeting is very useful to either target, stall or anti-stall Lych, Lych-Soul or MOABs. An example could be leaving it on Strong most of the time and switch to First when the Soul is on the screen or if a MOAB overtakes Lych.
• Lych-Soul and resurrected MOABs may escape compact defensive setups (Avatar of Wrath, Overdrive spam and even single Paragon defenses) if the damage is not high enough to defeat them instantly, to avoid that, is possible to use buffs that Lych can't steal like Village top path.
• Usual buff towers like top path Alchemist, Overclock / Ultraboost and Call to Arms / Homeland Defense should be either avoided or used very carefully in Tiers 1-4 on towers that will be very far from Lych, do not use them at all during Tier 5 as the boss has global range in this stage.
• In the other side is important to know that Lych doesn't steal the majority of buffs, most importantly Village buffs with the exception of Call to Arms and Homeland Defense, so they can be safely used.
• Is important to have the defense planned ahead to avoid selling towers while Lych is on the screen, that action will heal it. For example, if the player is in the necessity of moving a Super Brittle, is better to use a Support Chinook rather than selling and buying the tower again.
• When facing Lych, the player should have a way to gain lives and avoid losing to Lych-Soul. The most common way of doing this is having a few Marketplaces or Central Markets with Healthy Bananas in the farming setup or using the abilities of Jungle's Bounty, Spirit of the Forest, Support Chinook and Special Poperations.

Gallery

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