Break offs

• Archibald wrote on 2011-10-26 15:17
  I have been playing this game for a while but I seem to be missing my understanding of some things. One of those is break offs.
  
  Here are my questions:
  
  1. How does a break-off occur specifically ? (do you need to reduce the boss to a certain level of HP, use special items on different ones?)
  
  2. What are the best ways to get break-offs? (sticky bombs?, spears?, specific attacks?, different for all bosses?,)
  
  3. Which bosses give the best loot for break-offs? (that way when I am in a party mission I know to try to get a break-off versus just killing)'
  
  4. Does breaking off a part of equipment reduce the bosses defense or anything like that?
  
  Anyways thanks for helping me understand better with your responses.
  
  Perhaps someone in response to this could write "A Pro's guide to break-offs" containing all the information gathered here.
• Royale wrote on 2011-10-26 16:16
  1. you get need to hit the break off spot a certain number of times thats al.
  
  2. it really depends on the boss, most breaks offs can be obtained using spears, or heavy objects and some smash attacks. the newer raid break offs are more gimmicky, thor needs chain hooks(or spear spam in the beginning ) Glas needs chain hooks, Ahglan and lionotus needs sticky bombs.
  
  3. right now the most expensive break off i can think of is titan's ankle guard form The Titan and Warlord's Horn from normal Black Hammer.
  
  4. i don't think so, and if it does its too small to make any difference however breakoffs will change some bosses attack patterns.
• whocares8128 wrote on 2011-10-26 17:14
  In short...
  1. A certain amount of damage must occur to a specific area of the boss. This process must be repeated a certain number of times for the break to happen.
  2. This depends entirely on the boss. Some break-offs require special equipment or methods to get the break. For example, Ahglan will only break with sticky bombs, and Glas' break can only be done with chain hooks.
  3. This depends on the market.
  4. In addition to what Royale said, I'll add that I believe the break can change the hit box a bit. I'd swear that after breaking off the Blood Prince's blade, he'd miss me with side swings that I'd normally be able to block and counter.
  
  By the way, Lionotus doesn't require sticky bombs to break the staff. Any damage done to Verafim will work. If someone can nail him with fine spears, it should work as well.
  
  Also, some breaks have a regeneration element to them, the most notable being Thor's tongue. It takes a lot of damage over a relatively small span of time to break it.
• Archibald wrote on 2011-10-26 22:04
  Any tips on colru breakoff?
• Invertex wrote on 2011-10-26 22:16

  Quote from Archibald;636468:

  Any tips on colru breakoff?

  
  
  It's the large spike on his orange arm. Use the catapults and aim for that location.
• whocares8128 wrote on 2011-10-27 14:57
  You can also spear his arm when he gets knocked down or right after a reverse gravity.
• SozenCratosFocker wrote on 2011-11-10 08:03
  I've been planning to make a guide for breakoffs, but i haven't finished my secondary weapons guide yet.
  
  Glas breaks it off himself after you use ChainHooks on him, but for everything else:
  
  1. You need to hit the right part of the target with a certain amount of knockdown chance a certain number of times. Attacking while the target is knocked down doesn't count, but attacking when the target is getting up from knockdown does. The monster will do a special flinch animation every time you do it once, unless it's currently under the influence of ChainHooks or Palalas. Any attack that lands on the breakable will contribute, how much it contributes to breaks is based on that hit's knockdown chance. For most monsters the knockdown of 1 spear is enough, Titan takes more than one, and Thor takes 12 regular spears or 10 fine spears.
  
  2. Spears!. It depends on the target, but if you have to ask, spears. The best attacks are whatever can hit the target most easily with the best knockdown chance, and you usually want something with low dmg for breaks, since you don't want to kill the target before you get it. Spears are easy to aim anywhere, have good KD, can be used from far away and have low dmg. Just about all hammer smashes, counterattacks, Fiona sprint smash, scythe LLLR, Double Crescent, Eagle Tallon mine and Firebolt have been known to get many of the Colhen breaks easily(mainly because their AoEs reach higher than other attacks and most breakoffs in Colhen are at or above a char's eye level). Thrown objects usually have low dmg and high KD, but their AoE is much wider than spears, so they're often blocked by other parts of the monster's body.
  
  3. Depends on the market.
  
  4. The Knight, Blood Prince, and Flikr have reduced AoE with physical attacks that use the lance. Black Scar and Rockjaw seem to get a defense nerf after the break, but i'm not sure about that one cause it might just be that i'm holding back less after i get the break. Irukul's sneeze attack loses it's extra hit. In Aghlan, the more breaks you have, the faster the bombs refresh, and iirc the bombs refresh faster after the break for The Duke in Ainle too. In the battle The Evil One, after you break Verafim's staaff, he will no longer use spells(the black ball projectiles and that heal/buff thing). I hear dragon looses some AoE on one of his attacks after you break the tail. All the other breaks probably have some effect too, but i haven't taken the time to actually test for differences in DEF/ATT yet.
  
  
  
  
  
  For Colru, each of the four small golems has it's own break marked with a shiny green thing embedded in it's body. For the green one it's in the chest, gray is near the head, and i think the other two are the arms. The big one has a break on the left arm, and someone told me there's one on the right arm too but I haven't tried that myself yet.
• MareneCorp wrote on 2011-11-10 22:08

  Quote from SozenCratosFocker;655720:

  I hear dragon looses some AoE on one of his attacks after you break the tail.

  
  
  The dragon has 3 breaks, all information I list comes from lagerowonder from Youtube. The first break is the tail. By breaking the tail, the dragon's tail swipe AoE is reduced significatnly, so that break off is nearly a must. The second breakoff is the dragon's front leg thorns. Lagerowonder says that they are very expensive, and so I would assume they are used to craft something. The third breakoff is the dragon's wings. He has not stated what breaking off the wings does, but I would assume not as important because he didn't specifically say the wing breakoff was important.
  
  [video=youtube;AYQ90QMYrYI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYQ90QMYrYI[/video]
• Overblood wrote on 2011-11-13 04:17
  Chiulin's breakoff is pretty valuable.
• Dukhan wrote on 2011-11-27 08:26
  This has been very helpful to me.
  
  [video=youtube;CcoCL4NfnB8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcoCL4NfnB8[/video]
  
  Now, if only I could aim as fast as that person does. :(