GW2. Silent Surf Fractal Guide. PvE Dungeon Guide. Fractal of the Mists.
Fractal Guide
Silent Surf is a fractal that takes place in Cantha’s past. Assist Captain Thess and his Serpent Clan crew in their search for fellow Luxon survivors. This quest will lead you to encounter a growing evil waiting in the deeps of the petrified sea.
The fractal can be separated in two sections, the initial part is like a jumping puzzle where you will use special skills provided by the NPC to travel around the map, and then a Boss encounter.
Jumping Puzzle
At the very start, Captain Thess will provide you with Survey Gear that will be necessary to travel and descend through the map. It is like a kit that you can equip/unequip for a new set of abilities, you can access this with your Special Action Skill.
Each skill needs ammo and the NPC will provide a limited number of ammo for each section of the puzzle (the ammo amount will change depending on the tier difficulty selected for the fractal).
The first skill is a Grappling Hook. With it you can aim at a wall and pull yourself towards it to climb. The second skill is a Parachute that you can use to slow your descent and land without taking fall damage. The third skill is a Black Powder Charge which is an explosive that you can use mid air to boost you a bit further, like a double jump. The last skill is just a Flare/Light that you can shoot freely, this one doesn’t have any purpose besides marking a spot for your allies, think like a marker, this can be useful if someone in your group is lost to where go.
First Section
Right at the start, use your Parachute to descend where Captain Thess is, grab the box for ammo and use the Grappling Hook on a wall in front to cross the gap. Use the Zip Lines and then finally use your Parachute to descend safely. Players should position on the white circle and the NPC will open a portal that will work as checkpoint. Defeat a group of enemies and continue the puzzle.
Second Section
At this section the first step is to jump down all the way and land on the Bouncing Mushrooms, then while in the air use your Grappling Hook at the jade pillar ahead (you can notice some wind effect around it) to gain momentum and then use your Parachute to land safely. Interact with the Wind Cannon to go through the jade wall. Players should position again on the white circle to unlock a new checkpoint. Defeat a group of enemies and continue the puzzle.
Third Section
This part is a bit more complicated. You will need to chain several of the mechanics used before.
First, take the Wind Cannon and you will land on a Zip Line which will automatically lift you. As soon as the line ends you will drop down. While in the air quickly use your Grappling Hook on the jade pillar to your right (the one with the wind effect) to be able to fall on top of the Bouncing Mushrooms, these will shoot you towards another Wind Cannon.
As soon as you go through the jade wall (do not wait to land on the platform), while in the air aim to your right and use your Grappling Hook on the jade pillar (yes the one with the wind effect), there are two of them so you will hook twice, then next use your Parachute to land on the Bouncing Mushrooms, they will shoot you towards another Wind Cannon.
Finally you will land on another Zip Line and at the end of it when you drop down, use your Parachute to land safely. This method seems to be the one intended by the developers, but there are definitely other ways to recover if you mess up, especially using the Black Powder Charge (though you will want to avoid this for one achievement attempt).
Players should position again on the white circle to unlock a new checkpoint. Defeat a group of enemies and continue to the final part, the NPC will give you a single charge of Parachute so you can descend into the darkness.
Check the following video to see how it is done:
Kanaxai, Scythe of House Aurkus
After descending to the deep of the Silent Surf fractal, the final boss battle takes place in a big circular platform surrounded by 5 other smaller floating platforms. The fight has three phases separated by a big attack at 66% and 33% that can wipe the entire group if ignored. The Survey Gear kit is still used but only for the Grappling Hook to move towards the smaller platforms when needed.
As soon as the fight starts the boss will summon minions around the platform that can neither be targeted nor attacked, these are Aspects, and later during the fight your group will need to defeat them. The boss and the Aspects will use the Dread Visage attack, this attack has an animation with a “giant eye” on top of the enemies. To prevent taking damage and fear from this attack you need to avoid looking at it, turning your character to face away from them (not just your camera).
The boss will also target random players and throw a “Demonic Axe” that will persist on the ground for a few seconds, spinning and doing damage while inflicting conditions.
Each 10% of the bosses health, a Defiance Bar will appear (CC blue bar), this a mechanic where the boss will summon another Aspect. Failing to break it in time will cause the boss to gain a buff that makes the defiance bar more resistant. Letting the boss summon too many Aspects will add extra pressure to your group since they will keep attacking with projectiles.
During the fight, one of the Aspects will target a random player with a Beam. The Aspect will teleport away to one of the smaller platforms around. A spirit will spawn floating on top of the platform shooting a light to the Aspect making it visible and vulnerable but only to the player who was targeted by the Beam (The boss will also send you a whisper message in chat).
The selected player can also see a red sword icon on the minimap to quickly identify which platform it is, and they will get ammo for the Grappling Hook which they will need to use their Special Action Key to swap to in order to climb towards the Aspect. They are very weak so it shouldn’t be a problem to kill them fast. Then use the Bouncing Mushroom to come back and continue the fight with your allies.
When the boss reaches 66% and 33% health, they will go invulnerable and will start charging up to unleash the World Cleaver attack, which will cover the entire platform. This a massive attack that will apply Agony and will hit you even if you are outside, the damage will get multiplied by the number of Aspects alive as well.
All the aspects will select and target a random player of your group, they must kill them all to prevent the boss from wiping the group. Each player is responsible of their own Aspect as the others won’t see their location. It can happen that some players don’t get selected if you prevented many Aspects from spawning before (by breaking the CC bar).
If you happen to fall and waste your Grappling Hook ammo, the light spirit will throw some blue bags on the platform that you can grab for extra ammo and quickly try again.
Another mechanic will happen in the second phase. All party members will get a Roman Numeral (I, II, III, IV, V) with a big orange circle. The boss will rush and do an AoE attack on each player in the order of the numbers. It is important to split from others and actually dodge the attack to prevent being hit.
The rest of the encounter is exactly the same, after the second World Cleaver attack at 33% the final phase is the same mechanics but in more quantity. It can get overwhelming if your group doesn’t clear the Aspects or splits up too much. Just split to do the mechanics and then regroup afterwards. Help your allies when they get downed, but avoid reviving allies while you are being targeting by the Whirling Axe attack because it will constantly pulse on them, making it impossible to revive. Lure that mechanic away first, then regroup and survive to push to the end.
Gameplay Final Boss Battle Tier 4
Achievements
Silent Surf Fractal – 5AP
This is the meta achievement for the Fractal, you must complete 7 achievements from this category. The reward is a
Cavalon’s Champions – 5AP
Complete for first time the Silent Surf fractal on the Master tier (T4), difficulty scale level 100.
Good Listener – 1AP
Interact with Captain Thess each time when he gets a dialogue red icon on top. This will happen a few seconds after reaching a checkpoint, a total of three times. You will get credit for the achievement after defeating the final boss.
Grim Investigation – 6AP
Find all six books/texts/pages/journals that are around the Fractal. All books are possible to get before the final boss, can be done in any diffculty scale, easier in Tier 1 of course. You will need at least one more player to progress some sections of the puzzle. Check the video below to know all the locations:
Jade Sea Legs – 3AP
Complete all 3 sections of the puzzle without falling to your death. Captain Thess “assistance” means when he “saves” you by using his portal as checkpoint. You will get credit after defeating the final boss.
Peace and Quiet – 5AP
For this achievement you need to complete the entire puzzle without falling down, and without using the Black Powder Charges (Skill #3 on the Survey Gear Kit) during the puzzle. Then you need to defeat the final boss without deaths as well. This needs to be done in Tier 4 difficulty (level 100).
The Fearless Few – 5AP
Defeat the final boss without getting hit by any of the Dread Visage attacks during the entire fight. These are the attacks where the boss and the aspects have an animation with a “giant eye” on top. Do not look at it by turning your character away. If you didn’t get hit by any, you will get credit at the end of the encounter.
Unsundered – 5AP
Each time the final boss uses World Cleaver, defeat all Aspects before he can complete the attack. Then, complete the encounter.
This achievement will require that your entire group is aware of the Aspects location during the big attack that occurs at 66% and 33%. Defeating all the Aspects will stop the attack, you need to succeed twice and you will get credit at the end.
Explorer’s of Antiquity – 5AP
Defeat the final boss after accepting the Harbinger’s Challenge (Challenge Mode). This is started at the beginning of the fractal before jumping into the cavern. You must have completed the Fractal once in Tier 4 to have this option. See the Challenge Mode section for the full guide.
Once completing the fractal on CM, you can purchase a new infusion from the vendor inside the Fractal Lobby.
Defiance Demolisher – 5AP
Defeat the boss on Challenge Mode while he has ten or more stacks of Dread Defiance. This buff is attained during the Break Bar mechanic. Whenever you successfully break it, the boss gains a stack. This makes it harder to CC but also can make the fight easier if you have plenty of CC. There are more than 10 break bars per encounter, so missing one or two is possible, but otherwise your group should bring plenty of CC. Consider slowing your DPS in the later stages where every 5% is a break bar, because your CC may still be on cooldown.
Stalwart Serpents – 5AP – 
Title: Nightmare Aspect
Complete the Silent Surf Fractal after enabling Challenge Mode with no player being defeated. This means fully dead, not just downstate. Also if your group fails an attempt, you will need to restart the fractal and do the pre-event again.
This applies to any run you wish to succeed, but even more so now. Play safely and place more priority on patience and survival than immediately doing damage or doing your skill rotation.
Challenge Mode
When enabling Challenge Mode for Silent Surf, you will skip the jumping puzzle portion of this fractal and begin before the last boss. There are a few changes to the last boss, but mostly all the mechanics become much more punishing.
Boon Steal – Two orange circles will appear and an arcing light projectile will land in them. Be sure to move out of this, dodging doesn’t work. If hit, it will steal boons and give them to Kanaxai. They can be hard to distinguish, but in general there will be other AoEs like Demonic Axes you want to avoid anyway, so don’t stand in any red or orange circles.
Break Bar – Every 10% above 50%, and then every 5% below 50% the Boss will gain a defiance bar which, if not broken, will spawn an Aspect of Kanaxai that players must kill on the outer platforms or it will increase the damage that Kanaxai deals. Subsequent break bars will become harder to break. Having good and low cooldown CC is important. However, the boss can steal Stability from your party from the previous mechanic, so make sure to either deny the boss those boons or have good boon rip to make up for it.
Roman Numerals – when you get these numbers (I, II, III, IV, V) over your head it is even more important to spread out because being hit by two of these attacks will instantly kill you. Spread out immediately and stay still to not accidentally run into each other. The damage dealt cannot be dodged but it can be blocked. After the group has split up, it is best to avoid any movement if possible. Healers should make sure to top everyone’s health bar before the split, but players should use their own heal skills to survive while split. The area where Kanaxai starts this mechanic will also have an orange circle indicator, and going into that will also kill you. Be patient.
Dread Visage – Bright Eye Icons will appear above the boss and the aspects of Kanaxai. If your character is looking at them when they flash, you will in some cases instantly die or be feared off the platform, which will also result in death (looking at multiple of them usually is worse than only one, but avoid looking at any). Your camera and your character are different, so make sure you hold your right mouse button to change the way your character faces, then use the left mouse button to look back for when ALL of the eyes are finished (sometimes they can be staggered timings).
Since there will be multiple Eyes you need to face away from, being in the center of the platform will provide you no angles to avoid looking at them. You will need to move to the edge of the platform to avoid looking at them. Just closing your eyes doesn’t work.
There are three phases to the fight, and each one will change how you need to react to Dread Visage. Usually this mechanic will occur right after Roman Numerals finishes, but it can be delayed by the Break Bar mechanic.
Dread Visage 100-66% – All of the Aspects of Kanaxai will have the bright Eyes above them and you will need to look off the edge of the platform away from them.
66-33% – Kanaxai will port to one of the outer platforms with the Eye. Just look at the minimap to see which direction he went relative to your position, then look away. You can also know where he went by seeing the direction of the trail he leaves behind. If you don’t have time to look off the platform away from Kanaxai, there is always room to stand right behind an Aspect and angle your vision to still not be directly looking at Kanaxai. If in doubt, there is no platform towards the east that he can port to, so looking off the east edge of the main platform will always be safe.
33-0% – While performing the Roman Numerals Attack, the boss itself will have the Eye above it. This just means you need to look away to the edge of the platform while standing still for the Roman Numerals. This is mechanically easier than the others, but requires a bit more self control to avoid moving around. Fractal Instabilities may complicate this further.
World Cleaver – At 66% and 33% you will need to destroy three aspects of Kanaxai. If they aren’t taken out, the World Cleaver will wipe your entire party. Falling off the platform while trying to handle this can also be fatal because losing a player will mean failing the mechanic.
When the mechanic begins, the Aspects of Kanaxai will tether to three specific players and those players will be chosen to take out the Aspects. If your healer gets chosen it can be bad since they can’t kill the Aspects quickly. Having a hybrid healer can be useful for this because the fight doesn’t need healing as much as it does cleansing, but you can also have a DPS player move in front of the tether to intercept it and be chosen instead. Therefore, as soon as this mechanic begins the DPS players should split up to cover the shadows of these aspects and be chosen to head out to the platforms. Watch the minimap to see which platform you must head to. Only the chosen can see the Aspect, so it is their sole responsibility.
When chosen, use the Special Action Key and very carefully use the 1 skill to Grappling Hook yourself to the platform. Try to stand as close to the edge of the main platform and aim as far back as you can to the outer platform or you will fall to your death. Kill the Aspect quickly and if possible CC it to increase damage dealt, but otherwise they are very low health (around 50,000).
After finishing it off, you can take the Bouncing Mushroom back, but this can be risky since the Eyes will appear after the World Cleaver, and the Bouncing Mushroom will place you in the center of the main platform, which is the worst place to be for the Eyes mechanic. Instead you can use the Grappling Hook to get back, or you can just wait and face away from the main platform and eventually you will be automatically ported back.
The mechanics of this encounter aren’t as difficult as they are punishing, so being very particular with the specifics is much more important than taking risks or decisions. Survival is more important because losing a player also makes the chances of success much worse, and it’s impossible for one player to make up for the mistakes of another, so it is of the highest priority to survive. Here are the main rules to consistently succeed and survive in this fight:
- Stand still and tank the damage of the Numbers mechanic, don’t panic
- Move your camera not your character when facing the edge of the platform for the Eyes mechanic, don’t turn back until you are 100% sure it is safe to do so.
- Pay attention to the ground, don’t stand in any circles
- Bring CC, Ranged Damage, and Self Sustain
- Be proactive during the World Cleaver and stand next to the Aspects to be chosen to kill them as quickly as possible, and then carefully Grappling Hook to the platform, and wait there after it’s killed to be ported back
Video Guide:
Credit to Vallun for the video.
There is currently also a way to cheese Jade Sea Legs. The eligibility is reapplied every time you exit and re-enter the fractal, so if you fell during the JP portion of the fractal, simply exit the fractal and re-enter (while your party remains inside the fractal) before the final boss to get the eligibility back, then kill the boss as normal.
I’d love to know if the crazy amount of conditions we were getting was us ignoring a mechanic, or just not having enough condi clear in the group
The little untargetable aspects keep applying condis/damage. So that’s why you want to clear them whenever it’s possible otherwise it can become very overwhelming.