Gravelord Lych/Strategies


 * Note: This page is updated as of Version 28.3

Gravelord Lych is fast but possesses less health than Bloonarius and compensates for its lower health with elusiveness, blimp necromancy, and defense sabotage. In particular, a very dangerous part of Lych is its capability to sap tower buffs and drain lives. Unlike Bloonarius, sent bloons are always guaranteed to be recently popped MOAB-class bloons with higher health and speed, in addition to a miniature version of itself called Lych-Soul that has less HP but drains lives over time. While under Skull Health, Lych is completely invulnerable to any damage until all its offspring from that skull send are popped.

There are up to 40 rounds to start farming before Lych first enters in its first tier. All tiers from Tier 1 to 5 need to be beaten in a single game in order to fully win the Lych Boss Bloon Event. Each tier of Lych must be beaten within 20 rounds of its appearance, or else the game is over. Losing by other means is also an obstacle to counter, so be careful.

The following article is a series of strategies to counter Lych, mainly focusing on Elite Lych due to its notorious difficulty of killing.

General Strategy
The general strategy for beating Lych, especially Elite Lych, is to take extremely greedy farming strategies to build a solid foundation of income prior to facing various factors in anticipation to the Lych's arrival: the extreme HP, single-target waves of bloons sent, and the buff-sapping properties. Once Lych arrives, there are several ideal decisions that can be made, at least for earlier tiers. But at higher tiers, one must go all in at DPS with as minimal support as possible. All this needs to be made before Lych becomes too strong to handle. In addition, avoid selling (if possible) while Lych is alive, because Lych regenerates health whenever a tower is sold; if needed while in battle, do it while Lych is already at full health, as Lych cannot heal beyond its maximum health.

For earlier tiers, choose a specializer at single-targets that does not rely on any buff that is directly applied and/or temporary (e.g. Alch buffs including Permanent Brew, Overclock and Ultraboost abilities, Ultraboost permastacks). Influence buffs (e.g. Village except its abilities, Shinobi Tactics, Support Sun Temples) and most hero buffs are not sappable. Stall-farming is not very viable for Lych, as there is a huge risk to stalling out rounds, and any wrong move (especially accidental feeding) will restore Lych's health substantially. The best option would be to take a moderate route at anti-stalling aIl bloon rounds, which will make round-based income such as Farms generate income faster. Make sure to raw-damage Lych at a consistent rate, unlike when fighting Bloonarius, so that Lych triggers skull health sooner. Once Lych is defeated at each tier, sell unnecessary defenses and build income. Do not sell while Lych is active, or else it will gain health and therefore set your progress backwards.

At the highest tiers, make sure to prepare DPS and non-sappable supports while maintaining a stable income flow. In addition, prepare in advance for saving up Paragons and accumulating tower pops of their constituent towers, as a super-buffed Vengeful True Sun God isn't going to be the best option due to omitting its most favorable buffs.

The best choice of hero, assuming custom hero choice is available, is either one that specializes in income, excels in early-game for cheap, or specializes in the extreme late-game as a buffing source. The most optimal choice for most situations is Benjamin, who gives a large headstart to income production, and buffs Monkey Banks as a transition towards much stronger Farms such as BRFs + Monkey City towards an early Monkeyopolis. Hero buffs are a bit of a questionable one, but Ninja Kiwi stated that heroes are immune to getting sapped.

As for tower choices, choose an effective early-game strategy that also allows greed of income to the max, a strategy for countering early tiers of Lych, and a strategy for transitioning into extreme DPS. Support is extremely helpful too in addition to massive farming. Take care to not go too heavy on support though!

Towers
Towers each have their special roles in Boss Bloon Events. The "optimal" tower choices in Lych battles are generally those who have a cheap early-game prowess, offer income generation, or assist in damaging the boss and its minions as efficiently as possible. In the case of handling Lych itself, the best tower options are generally those with gradual high MOAB-class damage, passive permanent tower buffs, bloon debuffs, life regeneration, and defense combinations that do not rely on appliable buffs or self-buffs.

Heroes
Heroes offer super valuable roles at supporting a defense with their own special utility through their self-leveling upgrades. For Lych, it is usually best to choose a hero that extrapolates the best leading into late-game. Such a hero choice is usually an income generator, an early-game breezer into an early income saver, or a late-game dominator.

An important note is that Lych cannot absorb hero buffs at all, so feel free to use any hero with a buffing option without risk of backfiring.

Paragons
Paragons are major powerhouses for handling bosses. To ensure the highest-level Paragons, make sure to accumulate enough pops early on by using the same tower type as much as possible, mainly damage to the boss and its swarms. Avoid selling towers of the desired type(s) unless necessary for higher income growth.

In general, accumulation of pops in Lych battles is a lot more difficult compared to battles against other Boss Bloons, mainly due Lych's considerably lower health and fast speed, both factors contributing to its overall reduced damage opportunities for the desired towers. In addition, Lych's absorption of tower buffs makes it difficult to super-buff towers of any type in the save-up for Paragons.

Powers
Sometimes, Lych may be too difficult to beat that bailing out with Powers and Insta-Monkeys may be necessary. Use them wisely, and ideally prepare use of Powers before defenses begin to overwhelm. For efficiency, they should not be consumed on useless endevours, because Powers and Instas are single-use, Powers cost Monkey Money, and Instas are limited resources. Powers (including Instas) cannot be used on Ranked Mode, as they add unnecessary advantage over players who don't use them.

In general when playing on Lych events, the best Powers are the ones directly related to income, for extrapolating cash gain faster and therefore affording the necessary defenses sooner. Micromanagement supporters such as Banana Farmer and Tech Bot are also worth adding for convenience purposes. Tower boosts such as Monkey Boost and Time Stop are useful when needing to destroy the boss better with a beefy defense, but direct damage Powers such as Super Monkey Storm will generally be useless because of their little potential for dynamic empowerment.

An important note is that Lych will not steal buffs from Powers, so feel free to have no worry if using Powers.

Pre-Boss (Farming)
It is recommended that you start farming as soon as possible. Preferably use Benjamin to start gaining money, and then start upgrading your farms to Marketplaces, if you have the Healthy Bananas MK, as you gain 1 life per Marketplace at the start of every round. The reason to choose Marketplaces is that Lych drains your lives every few seconds, using the Lych-Soul bloon child that it releases at every skull. It's highly recommended to start getting Marketplaces as soon as possible, to ensure that you survive in case Lych-Soul drains some of your lives.

Tier 1 (Farming)
Conserve some cash to grab some single-target DPS, rather than invest in more Farms. Otherwise, this may force you to sell, leading to Lych regenerating back some lost health. Even so, use standard anti-Lych strategies to fight off Lych as soon as possible so that safe farming can continue sooner; the sooner Lych dies, the sooner that it's safe to achieve stronger foundations in income generation. Sell unnecessary defense once Lych fully dies at Tier 1. Don't forget to anticipate for Tier 2 Lych, and do an aggressive farming strategy while there is enough time to recover income and lives.

When it comes to income, be sure to have some Marketplaces and Central Markets to make up for any lost lives, provided Healthy Bananas is active. In addition to this, invest on 4-2-0 BRFs, and rush the income flow aggressively. If needing to anticipate Tier 2, sell some of the Marketplaces or Central Markets, given their higher sellback (because they come with the Banana Salvage upgrade). It may also help to have a single Favored Trades nearby for a small sellback boost.

Jungle's Bounty is another useful income source, and can also double as a defensive role. However, ability-based income farming such as the aforementioned Druid farming bases income primarily on time, so be sure to not make any mistakes while fighting Lych.

Tier 2 (Farming)
Keep up the conservative farming playstyle while Lych is on screen, and use standard Tier 2 countermeasures to defeat Lych at this tier. Sell yet again once Tier 2 is dead. Recover income and lives, and aim for a Monkeyopolis before Tier 3 Lych arrives.

Once Tier 2 is dead, quickly sell unnecessary defenses and make sure the 4-2-0 BRFs are nearby a Village, or at least theoretically where a Village would be, and then quickly rush for a Monkeyopolis with the remaining time. Also try invest in more BRFs and then a Banana Central, if possible, but if not, don't worry about it until the next tier of Lych is defeated.

Tier 3 (Farming)
After Tier 3 Lych is defeated, get a Banana Central if not done already. Get a Monkey Wall Street and a few 4-2-0 BRFs near the Monkeyopolis. In the rest of the map spam 0-2-4 Central Markets if necessary for extra lives. Once enough Central Markets are accumulated to reach the slow-generation threshold of 1000 lives, sell some for more Banana Research Facilities, maximizing income by a substantial amount.

Tier 4 (Farming)
Keep farming hard with as many income-based sources as possible while also at the same time investing for pops for the Paragons. Also use the last 20 rounds before Tier 5 Lych to accummulate those last pops, especially for Apex Plasma Master and Glaive Dominus. Still make sure to farm super hard at the same time too.

Tier 5 (Farming)
By this point, the main defenses should be fully developed by now, especially Paragons. Do not remove ALL Farms. Keep as much income producers as necessary but do not remove them all; money is still an important drive for income and further investing for even more defense. Bear in mind that selling can heal Lych, so do the selling before it comes, or at least just while Lych is at a reasonably high health.

Tier 1 (Boss Countermeasures)

 * Sticky Bomb + MOAB Assassin tends to fare well against Elite Tier 1, the former even provides great assistance when dealing with the regular rounds.
 * MOAB Maulers are great for dealing with Revived MOABs
 * MOAB Shove is fantastic for stalling the Revived MOABs for your defences to deal with
 * Perma-Spike and The Tack Zone are good for dealing with Ranked Lych very quickly, but are very expensive and could limit farming.

Tier 2 (Boss Countermeasures)

 * 0-1-5 Avatar of Wrath complimented with the Tier 1 defense can quickly shred through the health of Lych. Pair with Poplusts for the best results.
 * Super Brittle and Cripple MOAB synergizes really well with fast-firing and/or multi-projectile towers due to the nature of their debuffs, for instance in the case of Grandmaster Ninja
 * If you can farm fast enough, you may even be able to afford an M.A.D. However, it is not needed for this tier.
 * The Tack Zone does great damage, and can also deal with most of the regular rounds until round 80.
 * Master Bomber can decently chip away health from Lych as well.

Tier 3 (Boss Countermeasures)

 * The M.A.D. tends to play a crucial rule when dealing with this tier, and so does the Sun Temple. The Support Temple buff also could not get drained, so no need to worry about it.
 * MOAB Eliminator supported by Energizer + Primary Expertise can provide assistance as well due to it being a high-damage, low-cooldown ability specialized for single-target havoc.
 * A Shinobi army with Grandmaster Ninja, Master Bomber, Super Brittle and Cripple MOAB are not the top pick but are still viable and provide great opportunity for gaining pops in order to get a high-degree Ascended Shadow. Grand Saboteur can also gain many pops on Rounds 94, 96 and 98 if the ability is well-timed. Do note however that Master Bomber and Cripple MOAB could stall the rounds and cause the time to be extended in Ranked, as well as potentially keeping Lych in an invulnerable state for longer.

Tier 4 (Boss Countermeasures)

 * An Apex Plasma Master is a fantastic option for dealing with the boss rapidly, and also has limited range on all its attacks, meaning it can be placed away from the entrance and allowing other monkeys to get lots of pops.
 * The M.A.D. still does high damage, and all debuffs are good against Lych.

Tier 5 (Boss Countermeasures)
By this point, Paragons are by far the strongest option for handling Gravelord Lych. Additional advice:


 * Have as many high-level Paragons at ready as possible. If possible, sell some Farms to get them.
 * When Lych spawns, exit the match and re-enter IMMEDIATELY. This will give you valuable time to prepare by selling all your farms if necessary and get all paragons and potentially a VTSG. This even works in ranked and does not penalize you for time.
 * Doing this in round 121 or later would cause a sort of 'Limbo' where the rounds do not progress normally and thus no MOAB-class bloons are reincarnated, but the boss functions normally otherwise, causing the boss to be trivialised.
 * Using the 0-0-5 Engineer Monkey, you can insta-kill the bloons spawned by Lych at the start of the track. Also have a 2-0-5 Heli pilot as well when Lych becomes invulnerable and after the Lych-soul is destroyed, it can push the resurrected bloons back to the start and into the XXXL trap, one shotting them and making Lych vulnerable quickly.
 * Spamming 2-4-0 Spike Storms can be done if there's no other valid expensive option available.