Gaia Guardian

The Gaia Guardian is the final boss in Botania and summoned through the Ritual of Gaia. The Gaia Guardian is the only source of Gaia Spirit, a highly valuable material for tools, turbines, and more. The Gaia Pylons needed for the ritual are crafted with naquadah plates and charged void metal caps which means the boss is gated behind LuV and requires a notable amount of progression in Thaumcraft. There are two versions of the boss, normal (I) and hard (II), determined by the sacrifice/ingot that the player uses to initiate the Ritual of Gaia. The latter offers significantly more loot and a few exclusive drops (ie. Ring of Loki) for being much more difficult to beat.

There are only a few construction requirements for the ritual. Start by placing a vanilla beacon at the center of a 12 block radius circle. The area must be generally flat and devoid of large gaps or holes in the ground. Next, place the Gaia Pylons four blocks diagonally and one block up from the beacon. If necessary, use the Lexica Botania to visualize the exact locations of the Pylons--find the page for the Ritual of Gaia under Alfhomancy. If something is wrong with the Arena, the ritual will not start and even tells the player what is wrong or missing.

After the fight starts, an "impenetrable" barrier is placed around the edges of the arena to prevent the player from leaving. Running into the barrier pushes the player back towards the center without inflicting damage. It is possible to fly above the barrier or teleport out of the arena, but that causes the Gaia Guardian to instantly disappear and not drop any loot.

Start the ritual by sneak right-clicking the beacon with either a Terrasteel ingot or Gaia Spirit ingot, consuming it in the process. The Terrasteel ingot summons the normal version of the Gaia Guardian and the Gaia Spirit ingot summons the hard version. The health of the Gaia Guardian scales with the number of players in the arena: 400 hearts + 400 hearts per additional player.

Once summoned, the Gaia Guardian appears as a dark silhouette of the player. It is immune to range attacks and teleports around the arena to avoid being hit. The Gaia Guardian attacks the player by creating harmful pools around the arena in the form of purple particle effects. The hard version additionally shoots the player with beams of light which do very little damage but are very annoying because they have knockback and interrupt the momentum gained from sprinting. They are also very difficult to dodge and the only counterplay is to avoid running at the boss in a straight line.

Once the Gaia Guardian reaches 20% hp, it enters an invulnerable state above the arena and begins spawning various mobs on top of the player for the next 45 seconds. Killing the mobs is only necessary for staying alive and does not affect the boss in any way or reduce the time. Afterwards, the Gaia Guardian resumes teleporting around the arena to avoid being hit.

Once the Gaia Guardian reaches 5% hp, it teleports and attacks much faster than before. This can make it difficult to get those last few hits in and end the fight. It is possible to skip this phase entirely with a strong enough sword.

The amount/type of loot depends on the version of the boss and the number of players (N) in the arena. More specifically, the loot tables below are rolled N times to scale the drops appropriately. The hard version is significantly more rewarding and offers many exclusive drops. The only drop affected by looting is the Gaia Guardian Head.

The Dice of Fate awards the player with one of six relics, listed below, when right-clicked. It does not drop repeats until all six Aesir's relics have been found. Each one bestows the wearer with immense power and/or abilities.

1. Ring of Thor - Drastically increases the strength of AOE mining with the Terra Shatterer.
2. Ring of Loki - Places or destroys blocks in a predetermined offset at the cost of mana. Extremely useful for building.
3. Ring of Odin - Provides a health regeneration buff, ten extra hearts, and resistance to elemental damage such as fire.
4. Key of King's Law - Hold right-click to charge up explosive projectiles that release in the direction the player is looking. Does not destroy blocks.
5. Eye of the Flugel - Bind to a block to return to that location at any time.
6. The Fruit of Grisaia - Satisfies hunger at the cost of mana.

The Gaia Guardian does not teleport on top of water despite it being allowed in the arena. This can be abused to ALWAYS keep the Gaia Guardian in close proximity to the player, as seen in the image below. The only downside is that the zombies and skeletons spawned during the invulnerability phase no longer passively die from fire during the day.

The knockback from the Gaia Guardian's attacks can be completely ignored by sitting in a Bibliocraft seat. Place one down next to the only blocks not covered in water and the fight basically turns into an idle game. The only concern is having enough defense to withstand all the attacks.

The quickest and easiest way to kill the Gaia Guardian is with the Sword of the Cosmos. All it takes is one hit and the fight is over. There is not even an invulnerability phase. For maximum speed, spawn multiple Gaia Guardians at the same time before killing them all with just a few clicks.