Beat a 464,000 HP, five minute damage check with two alternating Knocklems and up to 150% of stacked Orserk Attack and Defense.
Hard Mode Zoe and Grizzbolt is a level 72, 464,000 HP damage check on a five minute clock, and guides written for the old level 55 encounter will get you killed slowly and then time you out. This party answers it with the lowest-execution loop in the catalog: two Knocklems alternating through Steel Guardian Mode windows so the self-buff barely drops, Turtacle Terra adding 25% to 40% Ground damage on every weakness hit, Orserk converting your bullets into up to 150% of stacked Attack and Defense on the active Knocklem, and Silvegis cutting shield damage by up to 80% so you survive the gunfire while you manage all of it. Grizzbolt is pure Electric and weak to Ground, but Hard Mode hands it four Grass moves specifically to punish Ground Pals, so the skill ceiling in this fight is not aim: it is knowing when to recall.
Core slots load at rank 1; use the open slots and rank controls to adapt the party.
5Party members
4Effects surfaced
5Max partner rank
1.0Dataset synced
// 01
The encounter
Zoe and Grizzbolt, Hard Mode
The 1.0 rework replaced the level 55 tower fight wholesale: level 72, 464,000 HP, a five minute limit, and two Syndicate adds contesting your opener. Runs die to three things, in order: the clock, because 464,000 HP demands roughly 1,550 damage per second of sustained pace; the Grass suite, because Hard Mode Grizzbolt carries four Grass moves and Ivy-Covered specifically to punish the Ground Pals every counter guide sends in; and the adds, which waste the first minute if you fight around them instead of deleting them.
Target encounter
Zoe and Grizzbolt, Hard Mode
Level
72
HP
464,000
Normal Mode runs 12,900
Elements
Electric
Weakness
Ground
Time limit
5:00
Opening enemies
Syndicate Gunner and Syndicate Crusher
Hard Mode unlock
Defeat the Azure Covenant Tower boss
Notable drop
Legendary Beam Scatter Schematic
10% drop chance
The five minute damage check464,000 HP in 300 seconds is roughly 1,550 damage per second, sustained, through every recall, swap and Ivy escape. Nothing in this fight one-shots a prepared party; nearly every failed run is a timeout. Judge each defensive decision against the pace it costs.
The Grass suite is aimed at your counterGrizzbolt is pure Electric and weak to Ground, and Hard Mode hands it Reflect Leaf, Spine Vine, Wind Edge and Seed Mine: four Grass moves that hit Ground Pals super-effectively and can apply Ivy-Covered. The kit is built to punish the obvious answer, and recall discipline is how you keep the answer alive.
The opening addsA Syndicate Gunner and a Syndicate Crusher spawn alongside Zoe. Left alive they split Knocklem targeting, chip your shield through the whole opener and stall the stack economy. Their health pools are small; their cost in seconds is not. One rocket plus a commanded Knocklem removes both inside the first minute.
// 02
The lineup
5 core members
Every slot has a job. The cards below show the exact synergy, its rank range, who it affects, and a mapped route to recruiting that pal.
Our data holds the rank 1 figure: Steel Guardian Mode adds 50% Attack and 50% Defense for 40 seconds on a 50 second cooldown. Community rank tables put rank 5 at 200% and 200%, which we cannot confirm. The strategy stands on either number.
Activated partner skills carry no rank curve in our 1.0 export, so no scaling table renders for this slot. The rank 1 description and the 40 of 50 second timing are the only figures our data holds.
Recruitment route
Catch it in the wild. Spawns at levels 55 to 60 across 11 points on the main island.
The second copy buys the swap: a fresh Steel Guardian Mode window the moment the first expires, a full health bar behind it, and insurance when a Grass cast or Ivy-Covered catches the first copy mid-rotation.
Same species, same missing rank curve, so no scaling row here either. The buff applies only to the Knocklem that activates it, which is why running two is uptime rather than stacking.
Recruitment route
Catch it in the wild. Spawns at levels 55 to 60 across 11 points on the main island.
Adds 25% to 40% to Ground attacks from you and your Pals when the hit lands on an elemental weakness. Grizzbolt is pure Electric, so every Ground attack this party throws qualifies for the entire fight.
Ground Damage vs Weakness25% →40%You and palUnique effect · does not stack
Recruitment route
Catch it in the wild. Spawns at levels 40 to 48 across 102 points on the main island.
Every bullet you land gives the active Pal 1% to 5% Attack and Defense for 5 seconds, stacking to 30: a full bar at rank 5 is 150%. The buff decays the moment you stop shooting, so keep the drones working.
Attack and Defense per Bullet Hit1% →5%Active palUnique effect · does not stack
Recruitment route
Catch it in the wild. Only spawns on the World Tree region.
Cuts shield damage by 65% to 80% and shield regeneration delay by 30% to 60%. You spend this fight standing in gunfire while you manage swaps and stacks, and this slot is what makes that survivable.
Shield Regeneration Delay Reduction30% →60%YouUnique effect · does not stack
Shield Damage Reduction65% →80%YouUnique effect · does not stack
Recruitment route
Start with the mapped field-boss encounter. The lowest mapped encounter is level 62.
TipThe short version
Give both Knocklems Rocky Impact, Sand Twister and Rock Lance. Open with a rocket into the Syndicate Gunner and Crusher, deploy the first Knocklem, activate Steel Guardian Mode, and kill both adds before 0:50. Then command Knocklem onto Grizzbolt, keep Drone Launcher hits landing to hold 30 Orserk stacks, and swap Knocklems every time the 40 second buff ends. Recall from big Grass casts, grapple out of Ivy-Covered, and keep your own bullets flying: the timer is the real boss.
// 03
Condensation scaling
Rank 1 → Rank 5
Compare every surfaced partner effect at base rank and full condensation. Effects marked Unique can still scale by rank, but a second carrier of the same species adds nothing. Two different species carrying the same effect do add together.
Pal / role
Partner effect
Affects
Rank 1
Rank 5
Turtacle TerraWeakness multiplier
Ground Damage vs WeaknessUnique
You and pal
25%
40%
OrserkBullet-stack engine
Attack and Defense per Bullet HitUnique
Active pal
1%
5%
SilvegisPlayer survival
Shield Regeneration Delay ReductionUnique
You
30%
60%
SilvegisPlayer survival
Shield Damage ReductionUnique
You
65%
80%
Values verified against current partner-skill rank curves
// 04
Passives to implant
3 core · 5 total
Four lines on each Knocklem and two trainer implants across the bench. Three of the Knocklem four have cards below; the fourth is Demon God, and our export ships that passive with no effect text, so community rank tables are the only source for its roughly 30% Attack and we cannot confirm the figure. It holds the slot on what it verifiably does not do: unlike God of Destruction it never cuts maximum Health, and this Knocklem exists to absorb a boss carrying super-effective Grass coverage. The research pass behind this guide reversed the pick for exactly that reason, and the rejected section below carries the full argument.
Serenity
All five slots
Rank 3 · Standard pool
Active skill cooldown reduction 30% Attack +10%
30% active skill cooldown reduction plus 10% Attack. On this kit it compresses the Rocky Impact, Sand Twister, Rock Lance cycle from 30, 24 and 20 second cooldowns into a far denser Ground loop, which is worth more than any flat damage line of the same size.
How to get it
Rolls in the standard pool, so it can arrive on a wild catch, through breeding, or as an implant pulled from the ancient relic recycler.
Earth Emperor
All five slots
Rank 3 · No roll pool
30% increase in Earth attack damage.
30% Ground damage on a kit that is entirely Ground attacks, multiplying every cast against a Ground-weak boss. The most efficient single line on either Knocklem.
How to get it
Sits outside the standard wild roll pool in our catalog, so plan on breeding it across or applying an implant rather than waiting on a lucky catch.
Immortality
All five slots
Rank 4 · Mutation
Absorbs 100% of damage dealt and restores Health. Pal Auto Health Regeneration Rate +100%. Attack +15%.
Restores Health equal to 100% of damage dealt, doubles auto health regeneration, and adds 15% Attack. A Knocklem swinging 400 to 600 power Ground skills heals through most of the Grass chip on its own, which is what lets you save recalls for the big casts.
How to get it
Mutation pool only, so it never rolls on an ordinary wild catch. Breed for it or pull the implant from the ancient relic recycler.
Vanguard
Nice to have
Rank 3 · Standard pool
10% increase in Player Attack.
10% player Attack per carrier, stacking per Pal. Implant it on Orserk, Turtacle Terra and Silvegis: they never leave the sphere in this build, so it is free player damage against the five minute check.
30% player attack across the three support slots
How to get it
Bought once from a bounty officer for bounty tokens, then applied to any pal for 50,000 gold a time.
Stronghold Strategist
Nice to have
Rank 3 · Standard pool
10% increase in Player Defense.
10% player Defense per carrier on the same three support slots. Between this and the Silvegis shield package, Hard Mode gunfire stops being the thing that ends runs.
30% player defense across the three support slots
How to get it
Same bounty officer, same one-time purchase. Buy both in one trip.
// 05
Gear and loadout
9 picks
The weapon shelf has one job per slot: an opener, a stack engine, an escape, and a personal damage line. Armor is a rule rather than an item, and the food slot is part of the damage plan, not the comfort plan.
Weapons
All four travel to every attempt. The rocket is spent in the first twenty seconds, the drones work the whole fight, and the grapple exists for the one status that turns off your dodge.
One rocket into the stacked Gunner and Crusher at 0:00 is the fastest add clear in the game. It is the opener, not the loop: rockets do not count as bullet hits, so they never build or refresh the Orserk bar.
A Rocket Launcher that can fire a powerful round from long distances.
Up to nine autonomous drones whose hits feed Orserk, so the stack bar maintains itself while you dodge and swap. Drones stop contributing at range: stay close enough to Grizzbolt for them to keep connecting.
A launcher that fires drones which perform autonomous attacks. Capable of deploying up to 9 units, enabling sustained suppression.
Paloxite Ingot ×70World Tree Holy Water ×40AI Core ×8Ancient Civilization Core ×5
Ivy-Covered restricts jumping and dodging, and the grapple still fires while you are rooted. Keep it hotbarred as the standing answer to the one status that can pin you inside a Grass cast.
It fires a hook that latches on to distant targets, pulling the user's body towards the target. It allows for easy movement between places with varying elevation.
Paldium Fragment ×10Ingot ×10Fiber ×30Ancient Civilization Parts ×1
Personal damage
Your strongest bullet weapon
The build wants sustained bullet fire over burst: every hit deals damage and refreshes the 5 second Orserk window at once. Pick the highest rate of fire you can feed with ammo for five minutes.
Armor and consumables
Rarity beats rolls on armor, the shield is a multiplier target rather than an afterthought, and the consumable rows keep one bad thirty seconds from ending the run.
Body
Highest-rarity armor you own
Rarity first, rolls second. The Electric half of the kit is constant chip, and armor quality decides how much of it matters once the shield is down.
Shield
Highest shield you can craft
Silvegis cuts shield damage by up to 80% and shortens the regeneration delay by up to 60%, and both effects are worth more on a bigger pool. This slot multiplies; do not leave an old shield in it.
Carry at least two, one per Knocklem. A downed carry otherwise collapses the alternation into a single Knocklem running 40 second windows with 10 second gaps and no insurance against the next Grass cast.
A potion that revives a Pal that has been injured and is unable to move.
For you, not the Pals. Ivy-Covered followed by a tracked Spine Vine is the sequence that puts real damage on your health bar, and medicine covers what the shield misses.
Attack food
Attack-raising food
Eat it at the gate. Attack food and defense food replace each other, and this party already spends a member and a shield on defense: the food slot belongs to the damage check.
// 06
Stat point priority
Highest priority first
Point priorities for the player, highest first. The party carries the mitigation, so the spread leans into damage: your bullets count against the check and double as fuel for the Orserk bar.
1AttackFirst. The five minute check counts your damage too, and attack food, Vanguard implants and the weapon shelf all multiply this stat rather than replace it.
2HealthSecond. Silvegis protects the shield, not the bar behind it, and Ivy-Covered moments are exactly when something lands. Health turns a caught rotation into a lesson instead of a wipe.
3StaminaThird. Five minutes of strafing, sprinting between casts and grappling out of roots all draw from it, and the movement checks in the threat table assume you can keep moving.
4Weight and work speedLast. Neither stat exists inside a tower. Spend here only after the three combat stats are where you want them.
// 07
How to play it
6 steps
The loop below repeats for the whole fight and survives every phase. It is deliberately short: the damage comes from multipliers that maintain themselves as long as you keep firing and keep the right Knocklem out.
1Deploy a Knocklem and trigger Steel Guardian Mode
The buff is activated, not passive: an unbuffed Knocklem is the build running at half throttle. Activate on every deploy, and treat the 40 second duration as the metronome for everything else in the loop.
2Pin the target with Attack That Enemy
Aim at the intended target and press the command (mouse wheel on keyboard, right stick on pad). An uncommanded Knocklem drifts between the adds and the boss; a commanded one spends every cast where the plan needs it.
3Keep bullets landing for Orserk
Each hit is 1% to 5% Attack and Defense on the active Pal for 5 seconds, stacking to 30. The window is short, so gaps in your fire melt the bar. Drones plus your own bullet weapon hold it near full; rockets contribute nothing to it.
4Let the Ground cycle run
Rocky Impact at 600 power, Sand Twister at 500, Rock Lance at 400: all Ground into an Electric boss, all multiplied by Earth Emperor, Turtacle Terra and the Orserk bar, with Serenity keeping the three cooldowns rolling. Your job is uptime, not micromanagement.
5Swap Knocklems when the buff ends
At the 40 second mark, recall, deploy the second Knocklem, activate its own Steel Guardian Mode and re-issue the command. The benched copy clears its 50 second cooldown before its next turn, so the alternation never runs dry.
6Recall on Grass, grapple on Ivy
A recalled Knocklem takes nothing and costs a few seconds; a dead one costs a Revival Potion and a buff gap. Pull it from Reflect Leaf and Spine Vine casts, and when Ivy-Covered roots you, grapple away rather than testing a disabled dodge.
// 08
Fight plan
6 phases
The clock is the spine: 464,000 HP over five minutes is roughly 1,550 damage per second, and every window below exists to protect that pace. The buff math sets the rhythm. Steel Guardian Mode runs 40 seconds on a 50 second cooldown, so two Knocklems alternating whole windows keep the buff near-permanent, and each swap doubles as your moment to re-check the Orserk bar.
1
0:00 to 0:20Rocket the opener
Fire a rocket into the stacked Syndicate Gunner and Crusher the moment the gate drops, deploy the first Knocklem, and activate Steel Guardian Mode. Aim at the Gunner and press the Attack That Enemy command (mouse wheel on keyboard, right stick on pad) so Knocklem works your target, not its own.
2
0:20 to 0:50Clear the board
Kill the Gunner, redirect the command to the Crusher, and put your own bullets into whichever target Knocklem is on. Do not split damage with Grizzbolt yet: two dead adds are worth more than any head start on a 464,000 HP bar.
Both adds are dead before 0:50, with the first Steel Guardian Mode window still running.
3
0:50 to 1:30Build the engine
Command Knocklem onto Grizzbolt, deploy the Drone Launcher, and start firing. Every bullet is 1% to 5% Attack and Defense on Knocklem for 5 seconds, stacking to 30, so sustained fire is the whole economy. Let the Rocky Impact, Sand Twister, Rock Lance cycle run uninterrupted.
A full Orserk stack bar and an untouched second Knocklem in reserve.
4
1:30 to 2:30The first swap
When the first Steel Guardian Mode window expires, recall, deploy the second Knocklem, activate its buff and re-issue the attack command. By the time this window ends, the benched copy has cleared its 50 second cooldown and is ready again: alternating whole windows sustains itself for the rest of the fight.
5
2:30 to 3:45Hold pace through the Grass
This stretch is where recall discipline pays. Pull the active Knocklem from Reflect Leaf and Spine Vine casts, grapple out of Ivy-Covered, and resume the loop the moment each cast resolves. Every safe play costs seconds; measure each one against the 1,550 per second pace.
Grizzbolt at or below 232,000, half the bar, by 2:45.
6
3:45 to 5:00The burn
Spend everything. Remaining rockets go into Grizzbolt between Grass casts (they deal damage but do not feed the Orserk bar), both Knocklems rotate on cooldown, and you stop protecting the shield: Silvegis rebuilds it faster than the fight breaks it. If the bar sits above 15% at 4:30, take risks, because patience times out.
// 09
Attacks and counterplay
10 attacks
Nine attacks in the reworked kit, grouped by what each demands from you rather than by element. Pre-1.0 guides built their warnings around Lightning Claw; the reworked fight is decided by the two big Electric casts and the Grass suite. Power and cooldown render from the catalog on each row, so the text below spends its words on the response, not the numbers.
Hard dodges
The two casts that can end a run on their own. Both have long windups, and both reward a saved dodge.
Lethal LaserElectricPower 60030s cooldown
Grizzbolt locks its aim before firing several near-instant lightning lasers. Move hard laterally during the aiming animation and break line of sight on arena cover when you have it: reacting after the beams fire is not a plan.
Heavy Thunder TankElectricPower 55024s cooldown
Sustained minigun fire into one charged power shot. Strafe through the spray and let the shield absorb strays, but save your dodge for the final shot: that is the hit that breaks shields and ends runs.
Movement checks
Projectile pressure that punishes standing still or hugging the boss. Keep strafing and none of it decides the fight.
TriSparkElectricPower 25012s cooldown
One fast bolt in a straight line with slow tracking orbs behind it. Sidestep the fast shot, then keep moving: the trackers catch players who stop to admire the first dodge.
Thunder RainElectricPower 40020s cooldown
Delayed lightning called down after a set time. It lands on players who plant their feet, so treat the cast as a reminder to keep strafing while you fire. Your movement is the whole counter.
Lightning StrikeElectricPower 30016s cooldown
An electrocution zone around Grizzbolt itself. This is the anti-melee tool: stay out of hugging range and it never touches you. Knocklem tanks it through Steel Guardian Mode; you should not.
Recall triggers
The Grass suite hits Ground Pals super-effectively and can apply Ivy-Covered. Every entry here is a cue to pull Knocklem out or to grapple yourself out.
Reflect LeafGrassPower 40020s cooldown
A wind blade that ricochets off targets up to four times, so one cast can clip the same Knocklem repeatedly. Recall on the cast and redeploy when the blade dies. This is the single biggest Knocklem killer in the kit.
Spine VineGrassPower 25012s cooldown
Thorns that chase their target along the ground and pierce from below. It pursues, so recalling Knocklem beats hoping it outruns the vine, and you keep moving until the effect expires.
Wind EdgeGrassPower 20012s cooldown
A fan of air blades, the cheapest Grass cast. Alone it is chip damage; on a Knocklem already hurt by Reflect Leaf it is the finisher. Swap to the second Knocklem instead of feeding it a wounded carry.
Seed MineGrassPower 1208s cooldown
A single exploding seed on a short cooldown. Low power, but it is super-effective chip that compounds across five minutes. Do not let it bait a panic recall; save those for the big casts.
Ivy-Covered
The status behind the Grass suite: it restricts jumping and dodging while active. The Grappling Gun still fires while you are rooted, so grapple to open ground instead of eating the follow-up cast in place.
// 10
What this build turns down
3 considered
Three popular answers to this fight, each stated as its advocates would put it, and why this page runs none of them.
Player-led Anubis and Gobfin
The case for it Guardian of the Desert converts your attacks to Ground and adds 30% Attack while active, Gobfins stack 10% to 20% player Attack per copy, and a good rifle player out-damages any Pal loop.
The ceiling is real and the floor is not. Everything routes through your own aim and dodge for five minutes against a nine-attack table, and the conversion runs 30 seconds on a 50 second cooldown, so a third of the fight is unconverted. The Knocklem loop clears the same check with far less execution.
God of Destruction Knocklems
The case for it 40% Attack and 20% Defense is the largest attack line available, and community speed clears run it on both Knocklems.
It also cuts max Health by 50%, on the Pal whose whole job is absorbing a super-effective Grass suite. The research pass behind this guide reversed the pick for exactly that reason: Demon God keeps the full health bar and gives up a slice of Attack. Run God of Destruction for speed attempts, not for the clear you need to land.
Muddy as mitigation
The case for it Muddy is the Ground status, so applying it to Grizzbolt should blunt the Electric attacks coming back at you.
The status text points the other way: Muddy reduces the Electric damage the afflicted target takes. Grizzbolt is the afflicted target, so Muddy makes Grizzbolt harder to hit with Electric and does nothing about its output. Run the Ground kit for its damage and budget none of your survivability around the debuff.
// 11
Where to get everything
6 stops
Nothing here depends on luck except the passive rolls. It is a checklist, and the two finished Knocklems are the longest line on it.
Breed or catch two KnocklemsBoth copies are real projects: level 80, fully condensed for the rank 5 partner skill, soul-enhanced, with the four combat passives implanted or bred in. High trust and strong IVs add margin but are not the gate.Knocklem field guide
Fill the support benchTurtacle Terra, Orserk and Silvegis, condensed too: every support number on this page is the rank 5 value, 40% weakness damage, 5% per bullet stack and the 80% shield cut. At rank 1 the same party delivers roughly half its multipliers.
Implant the Knocklem passivesSerenity and Demon God roll in the standard pool, Earth Emperor sits outside the wild roll pool, and Immortality is mutation-only. Breeding lines and the ancient relic recycler are the realistic sources, so treat the four-passive Knocklems as the long pole of the build.
Buy the trainer implantsVanguard and Stronghold Strategist come from a bounty officer for bounty tokens, bought once each and applied for 50,000 gold per Pal. Three support carriers each means six applications.
Craft the weapon shelfRocket Launcher unlocks at technology level 65, Revival Potion at 61, Drone Launcher at 77, Grappling Gun at 12. The Drone Launcher is the expensive one: Paloxite Ingots, World Tree Holy Water, AI Cores and Ancient Civilization Cores.
Unlock the fight itselfHard Mode Zoe and Grizzbolt opens after you defeat the Azure Covenant Tower boss. Bring the finished party, not the developing one: the level 72 on the card is balanced as an endgame check.
// 12
Alternates and flex picks
3 viable swaps
Keep the build's identity while adapting the lineup to the pals you own or the encounter ahead.
Is Steel Guardian Mode really 200% Attack and Defense at rank 5?
We cannot confirm it. Our 1.0 export records no rank curve for activated partner skills, so the verified numbers are the shipped description, 50% Attack and 50% Defense, and the timings, 40 seconds on a 50 second cooldown. Community rank tables put rank 5 at 200%. Treat 50% as the floor: the build clears on either figure, which is why we still recommend it.
Does Muddy reduce Grizzbolt Electric damage?
No. The status description says Muddy slows the afflicted target, increases the Grass damage it takes, and reduces the Electric damage it takes. Grizzbolt is the afflicted target, so Muddy protects Grizzbolt from Electric attacks and does nothing about the Electric attacks aimed at you. Bring the Ground kit for its damage and build your survivability on Silvegis and the shield.
What skills should Knocklem have for Zoe and Grizzbolt?
Rocky Impact, Sand Twister and Rock Lance: 600, 500 and 400 power, all Ground into an Electric boss. Older guides list Rockburst, Air Blade, Sand Tornado and a skill called Stone Beat. The first three resolve in our catalog and are outclassed at 300, 160 and 200 power; our 302-skill catalog has no skill called Stone Beat at all. Comet Barrage, 450 power Dragon, is the bred alternative, but it forfeits the Ground weakness and every Ground multiplier this party stacks.
Does Orserk partner skill work on dedicated servers?
Community reports say it can fail on some multiplayer and dedicated servers, and we found no official confirmation either way. Test it: watch whether Knocklem damage moves as your stacks build. If the buff is dead on your server, swap Dumud into the Orserk slot for 15% to 30% Attack to Ground Pals, a smaller but unconditional bonus.
Is Anubis better than Knocklem for this fight?
Different build, not a better one. Guardian of the Desert converts your attacks to Ground and adds 30% Attack for 30 seconds of every 50, and like all activated partner skills it carries no rank curve in our export, so higher figures are community numbers. It pays out only if you carry the damage yourself under the full nine-attack table. Knocklem asks far less of your aim for the same clear.
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