Note: This guide is only for Normal Mode.
1. Before you go in
There are no prequests or anything, just talk to Manji in Perion to get warped the room for 10k mesos. The level limit is 50-200, and Cygnuses can join. The room is just like a zakum/horntail/ckpq signup, and the squad limit is 6-15 people. I'm not sure if this glitch exists for other signups, but probations are carried over from leader to leader. The only way to get off is to have the leader place someone else on probation in the same slot you were in last round. You can only place 10 people on probation.
When you go in, you'll be placed on a curse that does not allow any 3rd/4th job skills (passives do work except thrust/burst fire, buffs do not), reduces your stats to those of a stripped level 60 who pressed auto-assign AP, removes all your 3rd/4th job buffs, and does not allow you to change equipment at all. You need to key in any beginner(echo works)/1st/2nd job skills. Restricted skills of note include resurrect and maple warrior, so try not to use equipment that you need maple warrior to use, or you won't be able to attack during the whole fight due to the equipment restriction, unless you're a buccaneer or striker. Also, since your stats are static, consider using entirely defense/hp equipment, unless you need the stats to use your weapon (the stat curse only affects damage, not stats required to use equipment). Speed/jump is useless because they get reduced to 100 in the room, but haste and dash work. Accuracy won't be a problem, the boss has really low avoid.
If you have a hero's gladius, be sure to have it in your inventory when you enter. You get a 30 att/magic buff if you do. You can also pass this around to your group. Trade the gladius while inside, have the person with the gladius leave and come back, then repeat. You need to have time left on the timer outside though.
2. Phase 1
Phase 1 lasts for 10 minutes, or until the clock hits 20:00 (it starts at 30:00). Only the head and the left hand (on the right of your screen) are active. It's recommended that everyone stay on the top left because the 1/1 and 2.5k damage lightning can hit the bottom, but it doesn't matter whether you're hitting the hand or the head. You'll only get hit for about 400 damage per attack on the top left, and you'll get dispelled a ton by the purple jaw attack. It's kind of a pain to get up the rope because the boss has extremely high accuracy and stance is disabled, but just keep trying. If you stay on the top left, you'll probably have nothing to worry about in phase 1, unless you're a magician. It dispels constantly, so watch magic guard if you need it.
Phase 1 is just a test to see if you're doing enough damage to stand a chance. Once you pass a certain threshold, none of your damage counts anymore until phase 2. If you don't do enough damage within the time limit, Mu Young will "save" you by kicking you out.
3. Phase 2
Phase 2 starts at 20:00 left if you deal enough damage in phase 1. The differences with phase 1 include the right hand becoming active, summons starting to come out, the hp bar showing up (hitting the head or either of the arms all count toward damage), and the healing sequences starting. The right hand is nothing special, it just gives you another target and adds more attacks to the spam. Summons include jr. balrog and crimson balrog, which may be problematic due to their relatively high hp. They only do like less than 2000 damage though. The healing sequences happen when the boss fades into the background and a notice shows up in your chat box telling you to regular attack a tombstone. There are three tombstones on the map on the left, bottom, and right. When the healing sequence starts, you can't hit the head, a bunch of little rogs show up, (not sure what to call these o_o) and one tombstone becomes active. You have to whack the tombstone three times for the head to become hittable again. If you take way too long to deactivate the tombstone (like 30-ish seconds?) the boss heals completely, and you'll probably have no chance at finishing.
The best way to tackle phase 2 is to have one ranged character on the right to cover the tombstone on the right, preferably a night lord with maxed fake, and one melee or I/L character at the bottom to cover the tombstone on the bottom. Placing an I/L at the bottom is kind of risky though because of the dispel spam and 2.5k damage attacks. Anyone who can mob the summons and hands at the bottom should work. Everyone else besides those two should stay up top attacking the head, where it's safer.
4. Phase 3
Phase 3 starts when the boss reaches 42.9% hp left. You'll know when the notice comes up at the top of your screen (Balrog chats). When phase 3 starts, both the arms get sealed, which makes them unable to attack as well as unattackable. Also, the head starts casting damage reflect at 95% hp left (40.7% of the yellow bar at the top), which reduces your hp by 1000-9000 per attack. It also starts casting zombify later at 25% hp left (10.7% of the yellow bar at the top).
The first damage reflect cast doesn't happen immediately, so at the beginning of the phase, only attack during the delays of its attacks, when the animations are still going, unless of course, you have over 9000 hp. When it casts DR the first time, note the time on the clock. Its DR has a cooldown of exactly 1 minute, and it lasts 7 seconds. Attack only within the 53-second window, and wait for it to cast DR again. The timing is consistent through healing sequences, so be sure to stay still if it goes into healing like 5 seconds or something before the next possible cast. It's best to have a time keeper for DR timing who tells everyone when to stop attacking when there's like 3 seconds left before the next cycle.
When phase 3 starts, the person who covered bottom in phase 2 should move up to the top left with everyone else due to the hands being sealed, while the person who covered right should stay there. That person should now cover both right and bottom and should stay on the right, hitting the head. When a healing sequence starts, check the tombstone on the right if it's active, and if not, quickly go down to cover the one on the bottom. Summons on the bottom should be totally ignored.
5. Bonus
When Balrog dies, it doesn't drop anything. Every survivor gets booted to the bonus room automatically, which has an orb in the center and an exit portal to the right. The orb contains the drops and can be broken with regular attack. When you go through the exit portal you are always rewarded with one balrog leather, as far as I know.
Currently known notable orb drops:
Balrog Card
Balrog Leather
Balrog's Leather Shoes (2/2/2/2 6 slots, lv58 req, karmable)
Balrog's Fur Shoes (2/2/2/2 6 slots, lv68 req, karmable, levelable twice)
All Balrog weapons (karmable level 80/90 weapons that have 8 slots)
Clean Slate Scroll 1%
Chaos Scroll 60% (needs to be confirmed)
White Scrolls (needs to be confirmed)
Bain weapons (needs to be confirmed) (trade disable upon equip weapons with status effects)
You can trade 1, 7, 20, or 30 balrog leathers in at once to the NPC in the map directly above the lobby. You cannot access that map if you warped there through Manji, the portal is only accessible if you originally came from that map. In my experience, trading one at a time only rewards balrog defense scrolls, so I don't recommend you trade once at a time.
Balrog Leather Trades:
Balrog's Defense Scroll 30% (wdef+10, mdef+10)
Balrog's HP Scroll 30% (hp+30)
Balrog's MP Scroll 30% (mp+30)
Balrog's Speed Scroll 30% (speed+3)
Balrog's Jump Scroll 30% (jump+3)
Balrog's Accuracy Scroll 30% (acc+3)
Balrog's Avoidability Scroll 30% (avoid+3)
Balrog's STR Scroll 30% (str+2)
Balrog's INT Scroll 30% (int+2)
Balrog's LUK Scroll 30% (luk+2)
Balrog's DEX Scroll 30% (dex+2)
Balrog's Twilight Scroll 5% (str, int, dex, luk, speed, jump, accuracy, avoidability +4; wdef, mdef +14; hp, mp +40)
All are untradeable and can only be used on the balrog shoes.
Hopefully I've covered everything there is to know, and sorry for the lack of pictures, just typed this up in like a half hour lol.
Lolvideo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsa8A30NT_0
1. Before you go in
There are no prequests or anything, just talk to Manji in Perion to get warped the room for 10k mesos. The level limit is 50-200, and Cygnuses can join. The room is just like a zakum/horntail/ckpq signup, and the squad limit is 6-15 people. I'm not sure if this glitch exists for other signups, but probations are carried over from leader to leader. The only way to get off is to have the leader place someone else on probation in the same slot you were in last round. You can only place 10 people on probation.
When you go in, you'll be placed on a curse that does not allow any 3rd/4th job skills (passives do work except thrust/burst fire, buffs do not), reduces your stats to those of a stripped level 60 who pressed auto-assign AP, removes all your 3rd/4th job buffs, and does not allow you to change equipment at all. You need to key in any beginner(echo works)/1st/2nd job skills. Restricted skills of note include resurrect and maple warrior, so try not to use equipment that you need maple warrior to use, or you won't be able to attack during the whole fight due to the equipment restriction, unless you're a buccaneer or striker. Also, since your stats are static, consider using entirely defense/hp equipment, unless you need the stats to use your weapon (the stat curse only affects damage, not stats required to use equipment). Speed/jump is useless because they get reduced to 100 in the room, but haste and dash work. Accuracy won't be a problem, the boss has really low avoid.
If you have a hero's gladius, be sure to have it in your inventory when you enter. You get a 30 att/magic buff if you do. You can also pass this around to your group. Trade the gladius while inside, have the person with the gladius leave and come back, then repeat. You need to have time left on the timer outside though.
2. Phase 1
Phase 1 lasts for 10 minutes, or until the clock hits 20:00 (it starts at 30:00). Only the head and the left hand (on the right of your screen) are active. It's recommended that everyone stay on the top left because the 1/1 and 2.5k damage lightning can hit the bottom, but it doesn't matter whether you're hitting the hand or the head. You'll only get hit for about 400 damage per attack on the top left, and you'll get dispelled a ton by the purple jaw attack. It's kind of a pain to get up the rope because the boss has extremely high accuracy and stance is disabled, but just keep trying. If you stay on the top left, you'll probably have nothing to worry about in phase 1, unless you're a magician. It dispels constantly, so watch magic guard if you need it.
Phase 1 is just a test to see if you're doing enough damage to stand a chance. Once you pass a certain threshold, none of your damage counts anymore until phase 2. If you don't do enough damage within the time limit, Mu Young will "save" you by kicking you out.
3. Phase 2
Phase 2 starts at 20:00 left if you deal enough damage in phase 1. The differences with phase 1 include the right hand becoming active, summons starting to come out, the hp bar showing up (hitting the head or either of the arms all count toward damage), and the healing sequences starting. The right hand is nothing special, it just gives you another target and adds more attacks to the spam. Summons include jr. balrog and crimson balrog, which may be problematic due to their relatively high hp. They only do like less than 2000 damage though. The healing sequences happen when the boss fades into the background and a notice shows up in your chat box telling you to regular attack a tombstone. There are three tombstones on the map on the left, bottom, and right. When the healing sequence starts, you can't hit the head, a bunch of little rogs show up, (not sure what to call these o_o) and one tombstone becomes active. You have to whack the tombstone three times for the head to become hittable again. If you take way too long to deactivate the tombstone (like 30-ish seconds?) the boss heals completely, and you'll probably have no chance at finishing.
The best way to tackle phase 2 is to have one ranged character on the right to cover the tombstone on the right, preferably a night lord with maxed fake, and one melee or I/L character at the bottom to cover the tombstone on the bottom. Placing an I/L at the bottom is kind of risky though because of the dispel spam and 2.5k damage attacks. Anyone who can mob the summons and hands at the bottom should work. Everyone else besides those two should stay up top attacking the head, where it's safer.
4. Phase 3
Phase 3 starts when the boss reaches 42.9% hp left. You'll know when the notice comes up at the top of your screen (Balrog chats). When phase 3 starts, both the arms get sealed, which makes them unable to attack as well as unattackable. Also, the head starts casting damage reflect at 95% hp left (40.7% of the yellow bar at the top), which reduces your hp by 1000-9000 per attack. It also starts casting zombify later at 25% hp left (10.7% of the yellow bar at the top).
The first damage reflect cast doesn't happen immediately, so at the beginning of the phase, only attack during the delays of its attacks, when the animations are still going, unless of course, you have over 9000 hp. When it casts DR the first time, note the time on the clock. Its DR has a cooldown of exactly 1 minute, and it lasts 7 seconds. Attack only within the 53-second window, and wait for it to cast DR again. The timing is consistent through healing sequences, so be sure to stay still if it goes into healing like 5 seconds or something before the next possible cast. It's best to have a time keeper for DR timing who tells everyone when to stop attacking when there's like 3 seconds left before the next cycle.
When phase 3 starts, the person who covered bottom in phase 2 should move up to the top left with everyone else due to the hands being sealed, while the person who covered right should stay there. That person should now cover both right and bottom and should stay on the right, hitting the head. When a healing sequence starts, check the tombstone on the right if it's active, and if not, quickly go down to cover the one on the bottom. Summons on the bottom should be totally ignored.
5. Bonus
When Balrog dies, it doesn't drop anything. Every survivor gets booted to the bonus room automatically, which has an orb in the center and an exit portal to the right. The orb contains the drops and can be broken with regular attack. When you go through the exit portal you are always rewarded with one balrog leather, as far as I know.
Currently known notable orb drops:
Balrog Card
Balrog Leather
Balrog's Leather Shoes (2/2/2/2 6 slots, lv58 req, karmable)
Balrog's Fur Shoes (2/2/2/2 6 slots, lv68 req, karmable, levelable twice)
All Balrog weapons (karmable level 80/90 weapons that have 8 slots)
Clean Slate Scroll 1%
Chaos Scroll 60% (needs to be confirmed)
White Scrolls (needs to be confirmed)
Bain weapons (needs to be confirmed) (trade disable upon equip weapons with status effects)
You can trade 1, 7, 20, or 30 balrog leathers in at once to the NPC in the map directly above the lobby. You cannot access that map if you warped there through Manji, the portal is only accessible if you originally came from that map. In my experience, trading one at a time only rewards balrog defense scrolls, so I don't recommend you trade once at a time.
Balrog Leather Trades:
Balrog's Defense Scroll 30% (wdef+10, mdef+10)
Balrog's HP Scroll 30% (hp+30)
Balrog's MP Scroll 30% (mp+30)
Balrog's Speed Scroll 30% (speed+3)
Balrog's Jump Scroll 30% (jump+3)
Balrog's Accuracy Scroll 30% (acc+3)
Balrog's Avoidability Scroll 30% (avoid+3)
Balrog's STR Scroll 30% (str+2)
Balrog's INT Scroll 30% (int+2)
Balrog's LUK Scroll 30% (luk+2)
Balrog's DEX Scroll 30% (dex+2)
Balrog's Twilight Scroll 5% (str, int, dex, luk, speed, jump, accuracy, avoidability +4; wdef, mdef +14; hp, mp +40)
All are untradeable and can only be used on the balrog shoes.
Hopefully I've covered everything there is to know, and sorry for the lack of pictures, just typed this up in like a half hour lol.
Lolvideo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsa8A30NT_0
And Cyanne, you should add a guide on how to get the sign up timer from the noobs 
![[Image: swingO2.0.weapon.png]](http://www.southperry.net/Pictures/KMST/218/Character/01382068.img/swingO2.0.weapon.png)
![[Image: stand2.0.weapon.png]](http://www.southperry.net/Pictures/KMST/218/Character/01402062.img/stand2.0.weapon.png)
![[Image: info.iconRaw.png]](http://www.southperry.net/Pictures/KMST/218/Character/01472086.img/info.iconRaw.png)
