Hyperius the Invincible (mission)

Hyperius The Invincible is a raid boss exclusive to Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty.

According to Shade, Hyperius was a regular Engineer who grew mad with power. After the Vault opened, dangerous alien creatures awoke from their slumber. Hyperius was altered by them, becoming one of the most powerful entities on Pandora. He is also a Seraph Guardian.

Mission
After completing the mission X Marks The Spot, Shade will offer a new mission in Oasis called Hyperius the Invincible. This takes place in previously sealed off arena in Washburne Refinery. The arena can only be accessed by paying 8 Eridium at the gate, and there are nearby vending machines including an Ammo Dump and a med vendor, and a Quick Change Station.

Shielded Stage
Hyperius will not attack until attacked. When first attacked, he will drop his aura, then start pounding the ground like a regular Hyperion Engineer for about 1-2 seconds, triggering a Nova dealing ~50k damage. At this point the fight already has begun and he can be damaged.

Next he will summon four Hyperion loaders similar to RPG Loaders, but with much higher health. These loaders have critical hit point similar to regular RPG loaders, and take extra damage from corrosive weapons. Once spawned, they will immediately power Hyperius' shield, indicated by orange parabolic semi-transparent light connecting the loaders to Hyperius. The shield of Hyperius prevents most elemental damage and reduces non-elemental damage. With four loaders there will be four connections to Hyperius.

Hyperius will not attack as long as he is shielded, and will only walk towards vault hunters (but not other targets such as Zero's hologram, Gaige's Deathtrap or Axton's turrets). Occasionally though Hyperius fires blue rockets, similar to that of Hyperius Engineers. There are ~16 rockets to his barrage, fired one after another. As the rockets fly, they will have a tight serpentine path but will not home in on a target.

Each loader will attack with RPGs similar to those of RPG loaders. RPGs fire in groups of 4, but like blue rockets of Hyperius himself, they are slow and easy to avoid. At medium to long range, they will seldom hit a moving target. Rockets can also be shot down.

Disconnecting Shield
Each connection to Hyperius can be severed by dealing enough damage to the corresponding loader. At this point, the loader will stop attacking for about 30 seconds and call for repair similar to regular damaged loaders. It uses shield on itself instead of on Hyperius. However no flyers means there is no actual repair. After the call-for-repair period, the loader will transfer its shield back to Hyperius and resume attack.

As long as there is at least one loader connecting to Hyperius, his shield will remain active. Once all four connections are severed, by either completely destorying all four loaders or by forcing all four simultaneously into call-for-repair mode, Hyperius's shield will disappear and he takes regular damage.

Novas and Two Trigger Conditions
Once Hyperius's shield is down, he will trigger one pair of Novas one after another, by attempting to stomp the ground with his mechanical fists similar to that of Hyperius Engineer. The first nova completely depletes his shield. The second nova does ~50k damage. Hyperius will ALSO trigger the Novas approximately every 25 seconds like clock work. Therefore it is possible that Hyperius triggers 2 pairs of Novas in quick succession, e.g. immediately after his regular-interval Nova triggered, he loses his shield and triggers Nova again.

Novas will have no effect if Hyperius is too far away. He also will fail to properly trigger Novas when he is standing on uneven surface: he will attempt to stomp the ground with his fists, but no Nova will follow. If out of line of sight, e.g. by hiding behind the pipe near the entrance or outside the arena, Hyperius's second health damaging Nova will have no effect.

Berserk Stage
If all loaders have been destroyed, OR Hyperius health drops to about 1/3, OR enough time has passed, then Hyperius will trigger a pair of Novas and grow to become a giant and change his tactics. He will now attempt to melee targets, including Deathtrap, turret and hologram, by first jumping towards them, then stomping at them repeatedly with his feet, dealing high damage. If targets are out of range, or immediately after an unsuccessful jumping stomp, he will fire his blue rockets instead.

At this point, Hyperius will not be shielded, regardless of the status of the loaders. He will still trigger his regular-interval Novas though.

Core Strategy
Core strategy is basically to survive Hyperius' regular Nova blasts, since direct hit from a pair of Novas is enough to kill even a level 50 character with above average equipments. The fight also tends to be long since Hyperius is shielded and mostly invulnerable for long periods of time. Survival is key.

General Tactics

 * A party of four is recommended, with at least 1 Siren with investments in Res and Restoration. A large pipe immediately to the left of the entrance can only protect one character at a time from Hyperius's Nova. A Harmony-focused Siren is recommended to hide here to remote revive and heal others.


 * HP regeneration class mods or relics are recommended for all classes. A Vitality Relic or Blood of the Seraphs will increase a character's survivability substantially. Adaptive shields don't seem to be working against the novas from Hyperius, although an Evolution works well.


 * Due to the length of the fight, a Gunzerker with Team Ammo Regen is very useful, otherwise players may be forced to use less-preferred weapons midway through the fight. Infinity is also good as a back up weapon.


 * The Bee shield is now a tactical choice. While it significantly improves damage and shortens the fight, its very long recharge delay makes it difficult to prepare for Hyperius' highly damaging Novas. Pre-Patch 1.2.0, however, it was an obvious choice.


 * One player can use singularity grenades to pull all the loaders tightly together. Other players may then throw corrosive cloud grenades to simultaneously damage the bots. When loaders go into healing mode, deal massive damage on Hyperius. The point is to manage the timing of Hyperius' Nova Blasts by attacking the loaders all at once.


 * When the loaders are dead, the player must rely on careful reading of Hyperius, as a single mistimed manoeuvre will lead to the character's death. Hyperius has a major tell when he leaps, dropping to one knee a mere second before leaping toward a target. Jumping sideways when they see this tell will allow a player enough time to jump again when hitting the ground and avoiding the leap attack from Hyperius. If Hyperius is not firing missiles, the goal is to keep moving backward and away from him, and unleash as much damage as possible.

Siren

 * Maya's melee override Scorn can automatically shoot down rockets.
 * Phaselock with investment in Converge can round up loaders. It is much more efficient than using singularity grenades since those normally cannot replenish during the fight.

Commando

 * The main usefulness in a Commando here can vary. Axton's nuke can disrupt Hyperius from casting his Nova Blast. Sabre Turret shield will also block all damage from these blasts. While very effective at avoiding the blasts at the beginning of the fight, the shield does not stand up well to the minions' rocket attacks, and is therefore much harder to use later on, along with the complication of keeping party members together.

Assassin

 * Assassins have the added advantage of B0re, allowing them to deal significant damage to Hyperius or loaders while shielded. B0re also has the ability to make Hyperius flinch (if shot through a minion first); with correct timing, Hyperius's Nova Blasts can be stopped.


 * Assassins have an alternate strategy for soloing Hyperius using their melee capabilities. Builds utilizing Law and Order coupled with faster Action Skill Cooldown Rate can quickly whittle down both Hyperius and his minions. After beginning the fight, it's important to group the minions and Hyperius up by running around them and frequently using Decepti0n. Using Death Bl0ss0m augmented by Deathmark can stagger minions looking to launch their rockets, while Innervate allows one to make distance and recover lost hit points. After the group is clumped up, it's just a matter of circling the group while swinging repeatedly to damage the enemies, recovering hit points, and avoiding further damage. Decepti0n is still incredibly useful for kunai, regeneration, and the damage multiplier. High Ambush and Backstab skills along with careful positioning of the decoy can allow very damaging hits to Hyperius's back. Once Hyperius has low health, do not be afraid of killing all his minions. Having boosted points in Killing Bl0w will make short work of him. It is recommended to use a Legendary Hunter Class Mod or a +5 Killing Bl0w Ninja Class Mod because of this. Even if an Assassin is incapacitated during the Berserk Stage, Hyperius will maintain close enough proximity to be finished off by Killing Bl0w, assuming the Berserk Stage is triggered by low health rather than a loss of all minions.

Gunzerker

 * Gunzerkers have a relatively simple strategy for fighting Hyperius. Having boosted points in Last Longer and Get Some allow for endless Gunzerking. If Hyperius is shot constantly, preferably with an Infinity, it will cool down several seconds before the duration ends and allow for immediate re-activation. This allows for the constant benefit of all Gunzerk effects, such as the speed granted by Bus That Can't Slow Down and ammo regeneration. Equipment is far less important when relying on this method but does serve well to expedite the process. With a vitality artifact or Blood of the Seraphs, the Evolution, Hard to Kill and Ain't Got Time to Bleed, a Gunzerker using this strategy can tank three consecutive explosions from Hyperius and restore to full health in well under fifteen seconds. If using The Bee instead, two consecutive explosions can still be endured easily with a similar time until health is fully restored. So long as missiles are avoided and Hyperius does not stomp the character, a Gunzerker can always outlast him. The greatest risk is a shield reflecting bullets back at the character, given the constant fire required to perform it. Care should be taken not to either sidestep past shielded loaders or to trigger a loaders' shield while close enough to reflect bullets.


 * A skilled player is capable of soloing Hyperius with some difficulty and a bit of luck using a Gunzerker specced around Gunzerk and Money Shot. The key to victory lies in careful use of Shield Swaps, using a high capacity shield with a low recharge time and high recharge rate and The Bee in combination with two Maggies. Use the high capacity shield to soak up the initial Novas, then immediately gunzerk and switch to The Bee. Damage each Loader just enough that they go into healing mode and Hyperius loses his shields, then proceed to unload into Hyperius for the rest of the available window. When the window closes, switch back to the high capacity shield and wait until the next set of Novas, shooting Hyperius to trigger the effect of "Get Some" to finish off the Cooldown on Gunzerk and repeat the above steps until the loaders are dead. Care must be used to not lower Hyperius health past 1/3, or the end of the fight will become very complicated.


 * Another solo strategy most viable with Gunzerker but could theoretically work on other class's is to abuse the 12% healing on Moxxi's Rubi. Because the Rubi heals for 12% of ALL damage done by your character (not just from the Rubi itself) if you gunzerk with a high powered weapon (such as the Unkempt Harold) in one hand, and the Rubi in the other you get massive amounts of healing despite the Rubi's rather low damage output.  It's recommended that you take a high powered grenade (such as the Bonus Package or the like) so that you have a viable healing option in the event he nova's when your gunzerk is on cool down.  Because you're relying more on your massive healing ability to tank the nova's rather than shield/health, it's entirely possible to solo Hyperius using only The Bee without doing any shield switching.

Mechromancer

 * Gaige's Deathtrap is useful to draw Hyperius' attention during the Berserk stage.

Psycho

 * Krieg's Buzz Axe Rampage can penetrate Hyperius' shield, even when thrown. When combined with Release the Beast, and correctly timed, Krieg will get a health regen without killing any enemies and be able to cause a considerable amount of damage. Using this technique it is possible to solo Hyperius, although still with some difficulty.

Notable Loot
Only available in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.
 * Seraph Crystals
 * Seraph weapons

Trivia

 * The dialogue spoken by Hyperius is identical to the Bruisers.
 * There is an exploit where killing Hyperius and exiting his arena quickly causes him to spawn again. Any subsequent failure to dispatch Hyperius may reset the exploit. Failure is noticeable by a cost to open the gate.