Twilight Arbor
Explorable guide
Location: Caledon Forest
Story recommended level: 50
Explorable recommended level:
Aetherblades path: 80
Nightmare Court path: 55
After entering Twilight Arbor you'll see Caithe talking to another NPC. After they're done talk to Caithe to decide your path.
Path 1: Aetherblades
Unlike other dungeons there won't be an NPC following you around. Caithe pops up every now and then but is mostly busy doing other things (nothing). Run through the pathway that opens and take down the blossoms as you run through the tunnel. A Guardian can easily remove these plants with a staff. When you arrive in the first room jump down and wait until the Nightmare Hounds come into your direction to aggro them without pulling the Husks. After the Nightmare hounds you can pull the Husks and then move on the the spiders at the back of the room. If you get downed in this room use the flowers all around you to rally on.
Follow the next tunnel up and run to the Elite Wurm at the entrance of the next room. Some more Nightmare hounds will come running to you but you can just ignore them and concentrate on the Wurm. (If you're with a less experienced team you can try pulling them back into the tunnel and kill them off first.) After the first Wurm is dead run all the way to the back of the room and start killing the Wurms there. You'll have more space here to fight. Put targets to have a smooth fight.
When all the Wurms are dead the doorway to the next room will open. This is the first 'puzzle' of this dungeon. There'll be a sort of maze with puddles of fire. Two oozes will spawn on the left and right side of the entrance. Aside the ooze you will find a plant which gives you a 'pheromone' if you interact with it (shown as a blue ooze with a heart in it above your head). This boon will attract the ooze and makes it only follow that person carrying the pheromone. The goal of this puzzle is to guide the oozes from one side of the maze to the switches at the gate on the other side of the room. The two oozes have to reach the door within a short time, alive.
Assign two people with the task of kiting the oozes. The ooze will easily die if you let it go through the fire so run wide circles. The ooze is the only deadly thing here. You do not want him to hit you. The ooze will also stop 'running' to cast his attack skill and this will slow him down. Keep your distance from the ooze!
Lava elementals will spawn when you kite the ooze through the fire and they will try to attack the ooze. Let the rest of the team split up to defend the oozes. First rule to defend the ooze is to stand in between the elementals and the ooze to catch their attacks (but don't forget to keep your distance from the ooze to avoid getting attacked). The second rule is to not try to kill the elementals. You can't kill them fast enough so it's better to kite them around and distract them from attacking the ooze. But be careful when you attack the elementals that you do not attack the oozes. They have a low health and will need all of it to survive the maze.
Make smart use of your skills! Per example Warriors can use Kick and Stomp to keep the elementals away. Mesmers can use Feedback on the elementals (or the ooze) and use Illusionary wave. Guardians are extremely useful here because of their skills Shield of the Avenger and Wall of Reflection. Any skill that reflects/absorbs ranged damage can be used here. If you fail to bring the oozes to the gate alive switch around with the roles of each person.
When you're done and the gate is open proceed carefully into the next room. Look out for a 'Steam Watcher' and kill it first. If he notices you he'll start spawning more Aetherblades. After you've taken down the Watcher put targets on the Aetherblades for a smooth fight. I usually target Taskmanagers first but Thumpers are really annoyed as well. Kill group per group and don't run ahead to avoid pulling too many Aetherblades. After you've cleared the room you'll reach the first boss.
The first boss is a duo named Sparky and Slick. Sparky throws fire, Slick throws oil. A dangerous combination. After entering the room an ooze will spawn as well. The ooze is a very important part in this fight. The puddles that Slick throws cause damage over time. The more puddles, the more damage. The ooze loves sucking the puddles up though. Plants in the corners of the room will throw a pheromones to the group. People holding this pheromone have to make use of this to kite the ooze into the puddles.
Start with killing Sparky. Use melee or mid-range. Don't spread out to avoid Slick throwing around his oil puddles all through the room and making it harder to kite the ooze into the puddles. If you hold the pheromone get away from the group, the ooze will one hit down anyone, and kite the ooze into Slick's oil puddles. You can far range Sparky while doing that. Multiple people can hold the pheromone and it's recommended for all of them to stay away from the dps group, even if the ooze is not after you. As soon as you lose the pheromone get back close to the group.
After Sparky is dead you can focus on Slick. He does little damage so you can hug him.
Enter the next room. There'll be a bunch of Aetherblades here. Start with pulling the Aetherlades on the left. When they are all (or most of them) are dead the generator at the back of the room gets activated. You'll have to take down this generator by popping (killing) holograms that appear out of the generator. When they're killed they explode doing a lot of damage. Run to the generator and stand behind it. Continue your fight there.
When the generator is down don't run to the next room just yet. Run back into the room and kill the Steam Watchter that got spawned.
In the next room you'll find another two generators. Run first to the back of the room to kill the Steam Watcher. Then run to the back of the closest generator to pop holograms, then to the other generator to take that one down too. When running to the next room you'll encounter a few more Aetherblades. Kill those and enter the next room.
Cross this room right away to kill the Steam Watcher at the back of the room. Then finish off the rest of the Aetherblades.
You'll now arrive in a really big room with the second boss: Foreman Spur. The room will be filled with Spur's crew. Don't jump down (unless you got the reduce fall damage trait) but jump on the pipe left of the platform to get down. There's an achievement here if you manage to kill Spur with half his crew alive. Stay at the south side of the room and stand behind the machines. Aetherblades won't follow you this far so it's a good spot to lose aggro.
Look into the room and target the Steam Watcher that circles around Spur's crew. When he's close to you kill him and run back to the safe spot to lose aggro. Pull the Aetherblades in small groups to kill them. If you want the achievement try to kill only the south west part of the crew and make sure you kill less than half of the crew. You might pull some Aetherblades during your fight with Spur so it's safer to kill less than half of the crew before you start. If you don't plan to go for the achievement kill off the whole crew and fight Spur wherever you want.
When you're done move to the bottom left corner of the room. Let someone pull Spur. Do this by following the southern wall of the room, avoiding the crew. (If you want the achievement, that is.) Run back the way you came and lead Spur to the group. He won't lose aggro but Spur's crew will.
Spur is not too difficult to kill if you pay attention during the fight. First of all Spur throws knives on the ground that start spinning around. They'll down you in seconds so stay out of those. Secondly Spur will spin around dragging you with him. He'll only do this towards players he's not attacking at that moment. Use stability to escape from that. A third skill Spur uses is a shield that reflects ranged damage and will knock you down. Stay inside that circle while it's up but make sure to look to the floor so you don't step into the knives.
You can either melee or range Spur although ranged is recommended if you have never killed him before. It'll make it easier to move around, watch your steps and watch his attacks.
When you try to go for the achievement make sure to not leave the corner so you don't pull Spur's crew. You'll also have limited space so the fight will be harder because you can't spread out as much.
When Spur is dead clear out the remaining Aetherblades in the room (if you haven't already) and proceed to the next room by running up the stairs. Make sure to enter the next room all together. If one person runs ahead the others will be teleported to the eastern part of the room, which is not so safe. In this room you'll find 4 platforms. The floor will be electrocuted. The only safe place in this room is where you enter. The goal in this room is to have one person on each platform. This will spawn a hologram that has to be popped at the door to break the door.
One platform will be up with a glowing light above it as you enter the room. Let someone jump onto that platform. This is also the platform where the hologram will spawn so you'll need two people on this one. Note that you'll get kicked off the platform if you just got electrocuted by the floor. Watch the patterns on the floor to jump on the platform without getting electrocuted. When a person jumps on the platform the room will be without electricity for a short time and a second platform will rise. There's an achievement for not getting hurt by the floor in this room. Mesmers can portal other people onto platforms to get this achievement.
When there's a person on every platform a hologram will appear in the top left corner of the room. Make sure that 2 people are on this platform! Let one person kite the hologram to the door (the others have to stay on their platform) and pop it there. The easiest way to kite the hologram is follow the sides of the room but you can also run straight to the door by following the patterns on the floor. The person standing on the platform at the door can help with popping the hologram.
In the next room you'll find a few more Aetherblades. Hide behind the pipes on your left to make clearing them up easier. After this the boss room will open.
Before you can deal with the boss himself you'll have to destroy another 8 generators. Besides those you'll also find a platform in every corner of the room, in between two generators. Stand behind a generator like you have before but when the platform goes up jump on it. The floor will get electrocuted. When the platform lowers again return to your place behind one of the generators. There's a big chance you'll get downed in this part. Use the holograms to rally. It is recommended for all players to be alive before you destroy all 8 generators.
When all the 8 generators are destroyed you'll see a short cut scene of the boss, Clockheart, getting released. Right after that you'll have to dodge. He'll throw cogs at you immediately. Cogs are similar to the spinning knives that Spur threw around, but they are much more annoying and painful.
For the boss fight you'll have to move around as a team. Start with damaging the boss. The best way to do this is mid-range. If you come too close to the boss he'll pick you up and throw you away. If you are too far away from him he'll throw cogs at you. He might slam the ground sometimes, use stability to recover from this, or dodge.
At a certain point he'll put up his shield. It'll give him a green glow (as seen on the screenshot below). As soon as this happens stop fighting. You won't do any damage anyway. There'll be a hologram spawned into one of the four corners of the room. You'll have to pop this hologram on Clockheart to break his shield. Do this fast enough else he'll start to rage causing big damage and most likely down you.
Run to the spawned hologram with your whole team. Avoid/dodge the cogs he'll throw at you. Let Clockheart run to you, stand your ground. As soon as Clockheart is near the hologram pop it! Make sure the clockheart is close enough to the hologram because the hologram's explode range is not that big. After the shield is down continue damaging Clockheart.
For reviving people keep a few things in mind. First of all if a person gets downed/killed while Clockheart has his shield up ignore that person and go for the hologram, unless it's a downed player that Clockheart is attacking (then get that person up as quick as you can). If a person is dead/downed and there is a cog on that person or nearby, don't revive. You'll only get yourself killed. Wait until the cog is gone. So, only revive people when Clockheart's shield is not up and there are no cogs on that person.
After Clockheart is dead there is no time to relax. There are 5 bonus events waiting. It is best to assign roles before you start killing Clockheart. You have a time limit to complete them all.
The first bonus event is defending the Lion Guard. On the west side of the room a door will be opened. Let one person jump down to defend the Lion Guard from some Aetherblades.
The second bonus event is to follow Caithe and help her with a few things. let 2 people join her. You'll go in a small room and a door will get closed behind you so there's no chance to re-do this event if you die inside that room.
The third and fourth bonus events can be combined. Let two people do this. Don't jump down! First event is to kill a deserter. He'll come running from the north. You'll have to kill him before he diappears. When he's dead run back to the door where you'll find a chest with grenades. Run up the staircase to take down the airships.
After everyone is done gather at the Shipyard waypoint. There are 5 bonus chests to be found. You'll need an aetherkey for each of them to open them. You can get an aetherkey by combining 5 aetherkey pieces which you can get as a random drop anywhere or you just buy them in the trading post.
For the first two chests you run back up the stairs, through the room with the 4 platforms (where you had to pop a hologram to break the door) and then turn right through an opening in the wall. It'll look like you can't go through the door because of a static shield but you can. Jump down and dive into the water (white arrow).
After swimming for a while you'll see a pipe on the right side, swim in it to get a first chest. Swim back out and dive a bit lower to your right to swim into another pipe. After that go back to the Shipyard waypoint. Try to stay out of combat so you can waypoint back.
For the last 3 chests go back up the stairs, through the room with the platforms and through the door on the right again. This time don't jump down but jump up left (red arrow).
Follow the tunnel and turn left at the end. At the next split turn right. Follow until you run on some pipes. Mind the gap! Jump over it. On the other side you find a chest (white arrow). Turn around, jump off the platform and go into a tunnel under the pipes you used to get into this room (red arrow).
Continue this tunnel until it splits. Go left and run to the end to find the 4th chest. Turn around and keep left. Continue your way, run on some pipes. At the end you'll find the 5th chest.
