GW2. Kinfall Fractal Guide. PvE Dungeon Guide. Fractal of the Mists.
Fractal Guide
Kinfall is a fractal that takes place in a cavern within the Shiverpeaks. You journey as a group of Kodan searching for the source of the whispers.
Basic Mechanics
If you wish to return to your original appearance, interact with the Fractal Interface Panel at the start of the Kinfall fractal. There is only one path throughout this fractal even though vision is shrouded by darkness and there appears to be multiple paths. Stick together with your team and move onward.
Life-Fire
You will gain a cold debuff that stacks and damages you over time. To prevent this you must stand near other players who have the life-fire buff on them, shown by the pale circles around them. Staying near other players is advised if you cannot sustain yourself.
These players with the life-fire can also interact with the blue orbs before each section of the dungeon to open up the path. The final boss room requires two life-fires to open so there is a minimum of two players to reach the boss.
Svanir Groups
While progressing through the dungeon, there will be packs of Svanir enemies which can be dangerous if not managed properly or if your team lacks protection. They will often be split up because there is a combination of ranged and melee attackers, so pulls can help to organize the enemies together. However, some will have break bars and they cannot be pulled together. Line of sight around a corner can help to organize enemies when this is the case. Keep taking these groups out and opening the next path until you reach the boss room.
Whispering Shadow
Arrows and Circles – For most of the final boss fight, avoiding the circles on the ground is a good way to survive. However, this can be confusing because the life-fires will clutter the ground and they are not harmful to you. Specific animations like the red circles or the orange arrows should be avoided, but later on you will need to discern between them.
Semi-Circle – A wide area in front of the boss will be attacked and an icy floor will be left behind. Try to stay close to the boss so you can quickly shift behind it to avoid this.
Focused Spikes – One player will get a bullseye above their head, and arrows will indicate ice spikes that will spawn and be shot toward that direction, following the movement of the targeted player. These spikes will disable players hit by them and can hit in succession, so strafing around them is suggested. The targeted player can move out of the group to lure the spikes away from their party members, or allies can stack together and protect each other with stability.
Break Bar – Disables are required to break the decently strong stagger of the boss that occurs around 75%, 50%, and 25% of the boss’s health. Failing to break it in time will constantly pulse a blinding area of effect and your life-fire will not protect you from the pulsing cold.
Cryoflash – The main attack of the boss that can deal decent damage to your group if not avoided. It will have two different locations it can occur in a room-wide radius, either on the ground or in the air. The attack is first signaled by the thin orange circles that will radiate from the boss. Then you will see small red circles appear with arrows pointing upwards. Standing in the red circles will get you shot into the air by an ice spike. Depending on which location the mechanic occurs, you want to avoid it by using or not using the ice spikes.
Upper Cryoflash – Seeing the orb appear above the boss signals that the Cryoflash will hit players in the air. To avoid being hit by this one, do not stand in the ice spikes so you stay on the ground. The first time this mechanic occurs is in the air, so you can back away and avoid the spikes instantly.
Lower Cryoflash – Seeing the boss spin around and no orb appear signals that the Cryoflash will hit players on the ground. To avoid being hit by this one, stack in the ice spikes so you get lifted into the air.
When you can discern between the animations you will know to back away from the boss when you know the Cryoflash is going to hit in the air so you can avoid the spikes more easily, and stack with your team and prepare to jump into a spike to avoid the mechanic on the ground.
Video Guide
Credit to MuklukYoutube for the video.Achievements
Kinfall Fractal – 5AP
This is the meta achievement for the Fractal, you must complete 4 achievements from this category. The reward is a Gold Fractal Weapon Box and the ability to start the Challenge Mode.
Agonizing Cold – 3AP
Complete for first time the Silent Surf fractal on the Master tier (T4), difficulty scale level 100.
Frozen Flight – 2AP – 1MP
Complete the fractal on any tier.
All That Remains – 3AP
Find all six memories that are around the Fractal. All are possible to get before the final boss, in any diffculty scale. Their locations can be found on the map below.
Shatterstep – 5AP
Defeat the final boss without being hit by the Cryoflash mechanic. This can be done on any difficulty, but still requires a bit of knowledge and reaction to complete.
This is done by recognizing two different variations of the mechanic. One will show a ball over the bosses head that raises upwards. This means the Cryoflash will hit anyone in the air. If the boss spins while there is no ball, then the mechanic hits players on the ground. When the mechanic occurs, you must decide whether to stand in or dodge the ice spikes to either be shot into the air to avoid the ground mechanic or to avoid the spikes to stay on the ground when the mechanic is in the air.
Being hit by failing the break bar also will fail this achievement, so bring plenty of CC. Check the video below to see the animations more clearly. If you want to get this achievement more easily, it can be attempted on Tier 1 difficulty where there will be less mechanics and boss health.
Kinfall Challenge Mode – 5AP
Complete the challenge mode of the Kinfall fractal by interacting with the challenge mote at the beginning and then defeating the final boss.
Undying Light – 5AP 
Undying Light
Complete the challenge mode without any player dying.
Unceasing Whispers – 5AP
Complete the challenge mode of Kinfall seven times.
Challenge Mode
After completing the normal mode achievements, the challenge mode can be enabled at the beginning of the fractal before opening the first gate. Largely the fractal is the same, with a few differences.
Frost Wisps – While traversing the fractal before reaching the final boss, wisps will appear and steal your party’s life-fires. This may not be relevant at first, but since you need all life-fires to open the final boss room it is important to pay attention to them. Use CC to break their defiance bar which will return their stolen life-fire.
If your team forgets one of the wisps, it will impede your progress eventually, and can be dangerous because if you run out of life-fires you will take continually stacking damage over time. Stay together and focus the wisps, especially when going for the Undying Light title as any casualties can tarnish the attempt.
Otherwise, all the differences are on the boss fight. Mechanics will in general be more punishing, but pretty much the same as the normal mode, so it is even more important to understand the core mechanic of normal mode.
Cryoflash will instantly kill any player who fails the mechanic, forcing them to react to this mechanic of choosing whether to go up or down to avoid it. Fortunately, this is very easy to know because it alternates between going up and down as well as the mechanic having a clear tell.
The very first Cryoflash will need you to go into the air to avoid it. When there are orange circles with red arrows pointing upwards, you must stand in the circles to be shot in the air and survive. This can be difficult if you are not ready because the boss applies chill to your party which slows your movement. Bring movement skills to be able to instantly position into the arrows or condition cleanse to help allies move more freely.
Every other Cryoflash will require you to stay on the ground, so you should avoid the orange circles with the red crosses above them. This is easier to handle because there is much more open space that you can stand in. However, sometimes your party will need to stack during this mechanic for a green circle, so you all should run far from the boss towards a common location to avoid any casualties.
Other than the Cryoflash, the CC bar will need to be broken faster, as the consequences for delaying it happen faster. Standing inside the boss can sometimes be safer because you can be healed by your allies rather than trying to navigate the visual clutter that occurs on the ground.
