Trove Shadow Arena Complete Guide and Walkthrough

 

Introduction to Trove Shadow Arenas

Trove Shadow Arena is the hardest possible dungeon available in the game. Within the Shadow Arena, players fight off waves of monsters including a final boss at the end to acclaim the ultimate prize, Shadow Arena chest. Due to its high difficulty especially in the upper Uber worlds, groups are usually required to tackle such Shadow Arenas.

 

 

In order to join a Shadow Arena, one must first locate a Shadow Lair (refer to image above for appearance). These Shadow Lairs spawn all across the Uber worlds of Trove, at approximately the same rate as recipe dungeons. In fact, they spawn in place of regular dungeons and with a bit of searching, you would usually find one within a few minutes. It is also entirely possible to find multiple Shadow Lairs in close proximity to each other.

 

 

Once a Shadow Lair has been located, players are required to use a Shadow Key in order to activate the Shadow Lock located on the second floor of the lair (refer to image above for appearance). This can be done by facing the lock and holding the corresponding button with the Shadow Key in its hotbar slot. It takes approximately 3 seconds to activate. Upon activation, a black portal similar to world portals will open above the Shadow Lock, allowing nearby players to enter using E.

 

 

 

The Shadow Key itself can be crafted through the player’s crafting menu by pressing ‘V’. Each key requires a number of materials to craft, all of which can be found in Uber worlds through dungeon chests. The higher the Uber world difficulty, the greater the number of materials dropped for Shadow Keys. Refer to image above for materials needed.

 

 

 

Once all the waves of monsters are cleared, a chest as well as an orange portal will spawn in the middle of the arena. Entering the portal will bring players to a ‘resting room’ with objects such as Style Saver, Personal Chest, Deconstructor, Trading Post, Rejuvenation Station and Class Changer. The room also features a Shadow Lock if players have keys available and intend to jump into a new round.

 

Unlike most dungeons however, there are certain ‘rules’ and ‘conditions’ in which players are forced to adhere to within the Shadow Arena:

• There is a player limit of 8 players within the Shadow Arena. Once the player limit has been filled, no additional players will be able to enter via the portal nor join functions.
• Building is restricted within the Shadow Arena. This includes acts of building blocks, destroying blocks as well as the use of bombs.
• Once the battle has begun, players entering the Shadow Arena are considered dead and are unable to participate. You do not lose magic find if you ‘die’ this way.
• Dead players will not create a tombstone and cannot be resurrected. They will however automatically revive at the start of a new wave.
• If all players die, the Shadow Arena is reset. All players’ will have their Elysian Flasks refilled and be able to start the battle again without using an additional key.

 

Monsters & Arenas

 

Within the Shadow Arenas, players can encounter a variety of combinations of arena and monster types. While most terrains are designed to cripple player movement and inject more difficulty into their encounters, some of them can be used advantageously. As such, understanding your arena is crucial in overcoming waves of monsters and conquering the Shadow Arena itself. As of the current patch, there are a total of four different arena terrains as listed below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that you have a rough idea of what arenas are available, it is time to introduce the monsters. Each round of Shadow Arena will always have 5 waves of monsters, spawning in order as such: 6/8 monsters -> 2 bosses -> 6/8 monsters -> 2 bosses -> Colossus. It is also noticed that monsters follow a particular biome and are themed to follow it. However regardless of the themed biome, the final boss will always be a Colossus (refer to image below).

 

 Cyberian Tundra

• Ice minions [4] + Frozen worm [1] + Ice fairy [1]
• Frozen Wraith [2]
• Ice minions [4] + Frozen worms [2] + Frozen beetles [2]
• Dracolich [2]

Medieval Highlands

• Wisps [2] + Warrior fairies [2] + Grass fairies [2]
• Caterpillars [2]
• Warrior fairies [3] + Caterpillars [2] + Power plants [2] + Grass fairy [1]
• Fairy King [1] + Fairy Queen [1]

Dragonfire Peaks

• Volcanic bats [2] + Volcanic minions [3] + Mini volcano [1]
• Emberdrake [1] + Molten Lord [1]
• Volcanic beetles [2] + Volcanic wasps [2] + Volcanic minions [2] + Mini Volcanoes [2]
• Emberdrake + Molten Lord [1]

 

Candoria

• Candy warriors [4] + Candy worm [1] + Cupcake catapult [1]
• Licorice lacerators [2]
• Candy warriors [6] + Candy beetles [2]
• Poundcakes [2]

Fae Wilds

• Fae warriors [2] + Fae spiders [2] + Fae fairies [2]
• Power plants [2]
• Fae warriors [2] + Fae spiders [2] + Power plants [2] + Fae fairies [2]
• Fae King [1] + Fae Queen [1]

 

The most efficient way to tackle Shadow Arenas would be to have all 8 players clustered together. While it is true that you take more damage this way, it also means that monsters will gather at one spot and take massive area of effect damage from all players’ skills. This can either be achieved through having a strong melee character pulling aggro right after the monsters spawn or have ranged characters hover stagnantly in the air while monsters gather below them. If you happen to be in any of the arenas with lava, try pushing the monsters into lava. The lava will do significant damage and help you clear the round a lot faster. On the other hand, try avoiding jump pads in the jump-pad arena as those propel enemies into the air, making them a lot harder to hit.

Rewards

 

Being the hardest dungeon in the game, Shadow Arena boasts some of the greatest rewards. In fact, Shadow Arenas are the only place where the lowest gear rarity dropped is Relic (red), directly higher than that from typical Uber world dungeons. Shadow Arena also has significantly higher drop rates for Resplendent (rainbow) as well as Shadow (black equipment), both of which scale upwards as the Uber world difficulty increases.

 

Aside from equipment drops, there are two, sometimes three rarer loot exclusive to Shadow Arenas. These include:

 

Recipe: Shadowy Banner

Magic Carpet

Seasonal Rewards

 

Candy Corn – Halloween
Turkeytopia Boxes – Thanksgiving

*Image credits Etaew’s Trove database

Trivia

• Clearing the Shadow Arena fills up your daily star bar as well.
• While monsters don’t drop items in Shadow Arenas, the worms spawned from caterpillars do.
• There is a Shadow Arena channel created to facilitate Shadow Arenas runs through /join sa.
• It is impossible to teleport to friends using the ‘join’ function while they are in Shadow Arenas.
• If you are organizing a Shadow Arena run, you may want to do /joinme after you enter the arena rather than outside. That way, players are teleported into the arena rather than to your Uber world.
• If you press M within the Shadow Arena, your entire map will be black with only the player names showing.
• For an easy way to do a headcount, type /who and count the number of names that appear.
• The Shadow Arena is considered a map of its own. Using a portal of origin within it will simply open a portal that leads to the middle.
• It is possible to jump out of the Shadow Arena where it is safe from all monsters.

 

 

Conclusion

All in all, Shadow Arenas are the hardest end game content the game has to offer at the moment. Players looking for rare drops or simply a challenge can definitely look forward to spending hours of their time daily within the confines of its four walls. While there exist no gear or level requirement, be warned that running Shadow Arenas can be extremely time consuming, especially so if you are forced to reset frequently. As such, I recommend players to be of at least full Shadow equipment before attempting Uber 1 Shadow Arenas and as an extension, fully forged Shadow for Uber 5 Shadow Arenas.