Proving Ground |
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|---|---|
 Ghechswol the Arena Master |
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| Location | The Academy |
| Suggested Level | 17 |
| Next Quest | n/a |
| Previous Quest | The Driftwood Arena |
Proving Ground is a Quest in Divinity: Original Sin II. Entering the portal, you face yet another challenge similar to the other trials of the One back at Driftwood and Fort Joy. Will you triumph and be worthy of the title of "The One"?
Important NPCs
Proving Ground Objectives
- Enter the portal.
- Speak to the Arena Master.
- Challenge the Great Guardian.
- Report back to the Arena Master.
Proving Ground Walkthrough
In the Teacher's Hall at the Academy, there is a door that can be opened with the Key of the One which you get after fighting in the Driftwood Arena. The door can also be lockpicked. Upon entering the room beyond, which is called "Armaments of the One", you will immediately be awarded 27,900 Exploration XP. Head towards the portal and enter it.
Upon entering the portal, you will gain another 41,850 Exploration XP. Continue onward and you will see the body of a dead bird. Cast Spirit Vision to see the spirit of the bird, and speak to her. Agree to her challenge to fight some battle-hardened construct.
Enter the vast chamber, and you'll find a huge guardian there called "The Great Guardian", along with 2 Eternal Protectors and 2 Eternal Sentinels. He will demand you leave, and if you try to move closer, he will initiate combat. It is not a difficult fight, and once you kill the Great Guardian, all the smaller constructs will be destroyed. The Eternal Protectors and Eternal Sentinels are worth 27,900XP each, while the Great Guardian himself is worth a whopping 97,650XP. All the smaller constructs will award XP upon death regardless if they were killed by your hand or because the Great Guardian died, so the most optimal way is to simply focus on the Great Guardian. When killed, the Great Guardian drops the "Blade of the Swornbreaker", one of the pieces to craft the Swornbreaker weapon, as well as several Divine-quality loot pieces.
If you are having difficulty with this fight, there are Eternal Reflectors in the room that can be moved, with a phase conductor that is located behind the Great Guardian. Placing a Phase Capacitor on the conductor can shoot a beam forwards onto the reflectors. Directing the beam at the boss will stun it and keep its magic armor at 0 for as long as the beam is focused on it. You can use invisibility potions or spells to do all this without being noticed. Ultimately though, the simplest solution is to cast a powerful source spell such as Meteor Shower or Hail Storm, and since the Great Guardian is so big, nearly all the shards will hit it, resulting in a quick one-shot kill move.
Warning: Cheesy strategy
-You can pickpocket the phase capacitors of the entire enemy group, you just need to trigger the fight with some members of your group while the sneakiest one makes is way around the arena and slowly one shot the enemies by stealing their capacitors. The boss himself can be killed in -this manner.
End of Cheese
In any case, once the Guardian is a pile of trash heap on the ground, report back to the Spirit of the Bird, and you will be deemed worthy of being "The One".
Rewards:
- 27,900 Exploration XP upon entering the "Armaments of the One" room.
- 41,850 Exploration XP upon entering the portal.
- 27,900XP for each Eternal Protector and Eternal Sentinel, plus 97,650XP (only 55,800XP in DE) for the Great Guardian, which adds up to a grand total of 209,250XP.
- "Blade of the Swornbreaker" crafting material on the body of the Great Guardian.
- There are 2 eternal plates and a giant thunder rune in the gallery at the far north end of the room.
AnonymousMass Corpse explosions works too. There are 3 bodies right in front of the Guardian so make use of them. 1 shot kill for me.
- Anonymous
level 16 solo character, I chameleon cloaked into the big guy, waited a turn for full ap, and enrage + onslaught the guy. Feels pretty cheese to me.
- Anonymous
i took great guardians phase capacitor with cloak and dagger and stealth pickpoket, and all the mobs went down at once, just have to pick pocket big guy in center to end fight with all
- Anonymous
I put a little cheesy strategy at the end if you are struggling with the fight.
- Anonymous
I pickpocketed a phase capacitor from the great guardian and he died instantaneously
- Anonymous
Unchain the one team member and sneak to hide behind the pillar on the right side, then start the fight from dialog with the rest member. The unchained member will not enter combat. Now you can safely sneak around, place the capacitor, turn around 3 mirrors, then switch to your member in fight, turn around the last mirror in front of you. The giant robot will lost all its magic armor immediately and being shocked.
- Anonymous
If i try to sneak they always catch me and initiate combat. what am i missing?
- Anonymous
During the dialog I sneaked around and pick pocketed their phase capacitors. That simple.
- Anonymous
You can sneak around, turn them and put an capacitor on the other side of the room. It then triggers the fight and the Guardian is permastunned as long as the capacitor is alive.
- Anonymous
I played through this game twice before, but it’s been a while. Is there any reason why there are eternal reflectors in the arena with the robots? I don’t remember and when I search the question anywhere it doesn’t give a specific answer. I was mainly curious.
- Anonymous
Remember to talk to the bird afterwards with the same character that started the quest, you wont get the option to become "the one" otherwise.
- Anonymous
Interacting with the reflectors doesn't break stealth, so if you have one person remain in stealth when the fighting begins, you can get every reflector turned the right way except for the one in front of the Great Guardian, and also start the beam, all while your first party member is acting, or even before the fight starts if you want.
- Anonymous
No need to fight just get your thief to sneak round behind it and pickpocket the phase capacitor full fight and all xp given with no effort
- Anonymous
The fight is easy, even on Tactician, once you get past his alpha strike. If you have potions (fire + air) you can use them to tank their alpha strike. After that, you can burst the Guardian easily in 2 turns
I also thought those Reflectors had some use, but once i figured it out, the fight was over.
- Anonymous
I didn't even know that there was a spirit from the dead bird, i just ran into the arena and easily killed it with air-spells (their weakness) in the hopes of getting more phase-conductors.. i now am in the arx so i cant be "the one" apparently
- Anonymous
As per 2020 on DE, i simply focused the Guardian, when he died they all died at the same time as many time said, EXP was: 27,900 x 4 for the Sentinels and 55,800 for the Guardian. So total of 167,400 XP for focusing the Guardian.
- Anonymous
guardian only worth 83k now, also last sentinel gave 0 exp when it died along with guardian. DE. Two divine pieces of loot however, that much is true.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Seems a bit anticlimactic. I was planning to backstab them when I saw that I could pickpocket their phase capacitor. A bit too easy. Even the great guardian went down through this.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If you have the key from the Driftwood Arena treasure vault, it fits here, opens the way to the portal, so no need to lockpicking the door. Then you can tell the owl, when she asks about you being either student or master, that you're a master of the arenas in Fort Joy and Driftwood, she'll be impressed that you've beaten Mulga, her favorite one. You can also say, that you're a master, if you've acquired the "Summon Condor" skill, but that won't do it, she'll be little impressed by that. I mean she will be, but won't let you pass, until you tell her you mastered either of the arenas, or both.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I went in the portal but when I entered the room the bird was dead.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Easiest way to deal with the fight is have 1 character enter the fight from the front. While having a thievery 5 out of combat character sneak around and steal their power core. Works on the boss too
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
There is a small spectator area with a collapsed entryway at the North end of the room with the Great Guardian. You can teleport there. I found a giant thunder rune there.
- Anonymous
I got a Divine shield and a Divine ring from the Great Guardian. One of the energy chests in the room was empty, though.
- Anonymous
Engagement Tip: When you attack, make sure only your mage (for thunderstorm) is in the front. This will allow you to cast Thunderstorm on the Great Guardian and the two sentinels will not do their jump jet + laser ray combos on your entire party (since they aren't in the fight yet). The rest of your party will be drawn into the fight as the automatons move closer.
- Anonymous
Got no exp from the smaller ones, only the big guy. Also never got a quest/quest reward since I failed the convo with the bird after I had already killed the constructs. Wtf
- Anonymous
Several divine quality loot my ass. Only 1 with 6 lucky charm.
- Anonymous
Just have a mage that is adept in aero and use thunderstorm, it utterly destroys them as they are weak to air.
- Anonymous
Don't miss the two eternal plates up in the viewing area. Holding alt will not display them, they are sitting on pedestals behind the chairs.
- Anonymous
Had a bit of trouble with the guardian as a rogue. So, I burst down its physical armor in one round, and for the last action point cast shackles of pain on it.
It suicided itself damaging me. Hope this helps someone.
- Anonymous
To go to the room above for the rune, just teleport from platform behind the Great Guardian. However, my main got the quest from the Bird/Arena Master but I can't the quest to close after defeating the Great Guardian and its minions.
- Anonymous
If you are still talking to her after giving Almira the Swornbreaker, you can buy it back from her.
- Anonymous
I defeated the golem, but i can't return to the hall with the birdghost. It appears the door has closed behind me. Is this part of the game or a bug?
- Anonymous
How do you enter the room with the portal i can't find the key
- Anonymous
Tip: You can pickpocket the Great Guardian and remove its phase capacitor. This will instantly kill it.
- Anonymous
From the platform right behind the Great Guardian you can teleport up to a (spectators) area, where you can find a giant rune.
- Anonymous
This quest didn't close for me... Despite the fact that the bird infused me with some kind of power ... And now that I'm in the next chapter it says that I didn't pursue the challenge of the arena master ...
- Anonymous
Also, use your invisibility potions to move the reflectors and to activate the beam without anyone noticing.
- Anonymous
Moving the reflectors and activating the beam does not do direct damage to it. It stuns the boss and keeps its magic armor at 0 until the automatons free it. I never got to see how exactly it frees it though since I just one-shot it with an enrage+onslaught at 70 STR.
- Anonymous
It says that you can feel power seep into you and stay there (or something to that effect), does anyone know the impact of this "power"?
- Anonymous
By the way you can reach the higher room section only with flight, tp or planar gateway are out of vision range to use. I found just a t4 thunder rune there
- Anonymous
Placing a phase capacitor on the phase conductor doesn't make anything happen either. Wondering if the puzzle is glitched as I've tried everething I can think of
- Anonymous
I, too, am curious if there is a way to activate the reflectors in the proving grounds.
- Anonymous
What do you do with the reflectors and phase plate in the arena?
That was hilarious. Just had my thief sneaking before combat was initiated and then had them pickpocket the artifacts one by one. No blood shed. Good times
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