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| “ | ''Blight had struck the harvest again that year, and the Miller was desperate. He came to me, hat clutched tightly in filthy fingers, stinking of sweat and manure. Seated comfortably in observatory, surrounded by telescopes and other delicate apparatus, I recognized his misfortune as an opportunity, and I agreed to lend him my... expertise.
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„ |
| “ | ''Slabs etched with certain celestial designs were erected around the perimeter of the Farmstead. The Miller, lamentably eager for some early sign of improvement, fixed his watery eyes intently upon wilted fields and listless mill. My gaze, however, was cast skyward and I marveled at the limitless profanity of the stars, wondering what harvest might come.
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„ |
| “ | ''The poor Miller — thrice a victim. The seasons took his livelihood, I took his land, and now, uncountable years later, the comet has taken his humanity. My only regret is that I did not live to see that shoddy mill smashed to pieces by the miraculous bounty I reaped from beyond the void.
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„ |
| ~ The Ancestor |
The Miller is a boss found within the Farmstead. He must be defeated to unlock the Endless Harvest mode, and is also always the first boss encountered on every Endless Harvest run.
History[]
The Miller was once a normal human being and the owner of the Farmstead and the surrounding lands. He, his family and his group of loyal and swarthy Farmhands worked the fields day in, day out, providing grain, flour, livestock feed, and other kinds of agricultural goods for the Hamlet. However, after losing a substantial portion his crops to a blight for the second time in a year, the Miller went to the Ancestor and desperately pleaded for help to save his farm. Though at first, he was repulsed by the Miller's dishevelled and ragged appearance he soon accepted his request. However, his acceptance was not out of altruistic intent, but rather because it afforded him an opportunity to use his newly acquired knowledge. For by that time the Ancestor, in his quest for forbidden knowledge, had begun to delve into the darker side of astrology, studying the movement and relative positions of the heavens to glean information about the supernatural and otherworldly events.
Not long after striking a deal with the devil disguised in human skin, the Miller and Farmhands began to construction of Stone Slabs around the Farmstead and it’s acres of land. Under the watchful eye and instructions of the Ancestor, each slab was adorned with elaborate carvings of arcane texts, blasphemous equations and unknowable constellations. While the Miller believed that enchanted slabs would help his farm, unbeknownst to him and the rest of Farmstead’s inhabits, the Ancestor had turned their farms and surrounding farmland into a giant Celestial Array designed to search the infinite blackness of space and to draw in a unnameable cosmic terror to our world. The Ancestor was planning to capture the cosmic entity and harvest it for all its knowledge and parts. While it would take many years before he would see any results, he quietly imagined with sadistic glee what unnameable thing might fall from the sky, hoping it would destroy that ugly windmill that was in the center of his Celestial Array.
Many years passed and things have gone worse for the Miller and his family; when the Miller made a deal with the Ancestor he did not know that he would be effectively giving over all land he owned to his "benefactor". While the Ancestor allowed the Miller and his family to live on their ancestral farm, they were basically forced to work the fields and give large amounts of what they grew to their new landlord, not leaving them with much to sell to the Hamlet. Making things even worse, the Ancestor hired a group of sadistic Foremen more akin to slave drivers to keep the Farmhands in check. As for why did the Ancestor needed such large quantities of food from the farm and what did he do with all that foodstuff… Let’s just say that the test subjects used for his experiments were better fed than the people of the Hamlet were.
Not long after the Ancestor died, an eerie glowing Comet came screaming from beyond the darkest reaches of the cosmos and struck the Windmill with terrible force.
By all rights, the Windmill should have collapsed entirely, but the parts that were not outright destroyed in the impact seemed to remain floating in the air in nearly the exact same places they were when the Windmill was whole. From within the Windmill, an eerie, otherworldly glow shone from the half-ruined building and an equally eerie pale blue mist flowed forth from the wreckage like vaporous blood. Everywhere this mist went and on everything it touched, mysterious crystals began to grow like a mysterious fungus. Soon the entire area around the Windmill was covered by this strange plague.
The Miller, his family and Farmhands went to investigate, but never returned. There has been no word from the Farm in a fortnight, save for the unearthly groaning that echoes from the ruin of the Mill....
And so the poor Miller became thrice the Victim: first the seasons took his livelihood; then the Ancestor took his land; and as the finally insult, the Comet took his humanity. He now haunts the fields he once tended, stuck in eternal torment as a phantasmal wraith, frozen in time with no memory, yet unable to forget. He has become the Overlord of the crystalline corpses that infest the countryside. His sad wails maddeningly echoing through space and time as he commanded his army of Husks to search for his family and his beloved wife. Unable to find them, they themselves end up lost within distortions caused by the Comet.
Beginning close to the crash site of the Comet, distortions are so strong that time itself starts to slowdown or accelerate. Time starts to flow back and forth, so that people creatures and objects are displaced through space and time. It is unknown how long the Miller has been trapped within those distortions but it could be more than an eternity.
End his suffering so that he may find peace in death.
Behavior[]
The Miller has a versatile set of skills, with his most offensive attack being The Reaping, a skill that inflicts heavy AoE damage, especially to heroes in the front. He can also summon various enemies from the Farmstead with The Master Beckons, including Scarecrows, Sleeper's Heralds, and Farmhands, with a cooldown of 7, 5, and 8 turns, respectively. The enemies the Miller summons do roll initiatives, and will be able to act as soon as they are summoned.
If a Farmhand is present on the battlefield, the Miller will use Winter's Breath to transform it into a Frozen Farmhand, a unique enemy found only during this battle. The Frozen Farmhand will permanently guard the Miller, and disable all guard skills for heroes while it is alive. It also has a 0-damage attack called Hollow Keening that deals a fair bit of stress and Horror. If it survives for 3 or more turns, it may use The Soil Thaws to revert itself back to a normal Farmhand.
The Miller also has the rarely-used ability The Harvest, which can only be used if at least one hero has over 50 stress, and the Miller is below 70% health. It is very unique in that it will actually heal a hero's stress, while giving the Miller a modest heal and a short buff for +15% PROT. It has a cooldown of 4 turns.
Lastly, an important note about this battle is the existence of the trinket Mildred's Locket (obtained from interacting with the husk of the Miller's wife, Mildred, found before the battle). Equipping it will have the unique effect of giving the Miller a new ability, Immortal Beloved, which debuffs himself by removing his inherent PROT for a short time. Additionally, the hero with Mildred's Locket takes no damage from The Reaping, and deals +40% extra damage to the Miller.
The Miller has fairly long cooldowns on all of his abilities except for The Reaping. This can create a situation where the only ability the Miller can use is The Reaping, and he will use it twice in one round, which can be very painful for the party.
Strategy[]
The Miller is a very powerful soul, considering his nature as a shriveled husk. He has fairly high HP, 20% PROT, and a number of powerful moves. It would be more than ideal to equip one of your heroes with Mildred's Locket, which you find before his fight (or bring it with you, if on Endless mode), as the debuff the Miller gives himself with Immortal Beloved will give a much-needed offensive boost to the party. It is recommended to give the Locket to someone in the front ranks, both because The Reaping deals the most damage there and heroes with the Locket deal significantly more damage to the Miller.
The Miller has two actions per round, and when the battle begins he will most likely use The Master Beckons to summon a Farmhand, which he will transform on his second action with Winter's Breath.
The Frozen Farmhand created from Winter's Breath is typically only a minor nuisance; it will disable guard skills for the heroes (but not remove existing guards), but the most damaging attack in the battle (The Reaping) will bypass guards anyway since it targets the whole party. The more annoying effect of the Frozen Farmhand's presence is that it guards the Miller until defeated (or reverted back to a normal Farmhand). It has 35% PROT, but relatively low HP and resistances, particularly against blight.
Destroying his summons can mitigate the Miller's damage output, as he will often spend at least one turn summoning a new enemy, most likely a Sleeper's Herald. However, his cooldowns will all but guarantee that at some point he will use The Reaping multiple times in quick succession, as that may be the only move he has available. His large damage output can quickly destroy even a full health party in short order, so be ready to give out some very necessary heals, especially with very low-HP heroes like the Jester or Occultist.
The Miller is effectively immune to bleed (disregarding debuffs), but weak to blight, favoring a party with Plague Doctors or Shieldbreakers
, who both can deal significant blight to the Miller regardless of their position. The Shieldbreaker has the bonus of being able to pierce through the Miller's inherent PROT, and disabling the Frozen Farmhand's guard with Puncture. An additional strategy is to use a Bounty Hunter with Mildred's Locket; a single crit with Collect Bounty on a marked Miller can easily take off a quarter to a third of his health. However, be warned that the Miller's 2 actions per round will reduce the effective duration of the mark, and Frozen Farmhands using guard will further interfere with this strategy.
Abilities[]
Miller[]
| Veteran Level | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Name | Range | Rank | Target | Accuracy | Crit Chance |
Damage | Effect (Target) |
Effect (Self) |
Notes |
| The Reaping | Melee | 1,2,3,4 | 1+2+3+4 | 103.75% | 8% | 6-10 vs Rank 1 5-8 vs Rank 2 5-7 vs Rank 3 2-4 vs Rank 4 |
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| The Harvest | Melee | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 | 103.75% | 0% | 3-5 |  Stress -5 |
 Heal 15 Buff: +15% PROT (2 rds) |
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| The Master Beckons | Support | 1,2,3,4 | Self | ||||||
| Winter's Breath* | Support | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 (allies) |
 Transform Farmhand into Frozen Farmhand |
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| Immortal Beloved** | Ranged | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 | 208.75% | 0% | 2 | -15% Stress (3 rds) |
 Debuff: -20% PROT |
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Summon 1 Frozen Farmhand[]
| Veteran Level | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Name | Range | Rank | Target | Accuracy | Crit Chance |
Damage | Effect (Target) |
Effect (Self) |
Notes |
| Hollow Keening | Ranged | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 | 92.5% | 0% | 0 |  Stress +5 Horror 5 |
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| The Soil Thaws | Support | 1,2,3,4 | Self | Transform back into Farmhand |
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Miller[]
| Darkest Level | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Name | Range | Rank | Target | Accuracy | Crit Chance |
Damage | Effect (Target) |
Effect (Self) |
Notes |
| The Reaping | Melee | 1,2,3,4 | 1+2+3+4 | 115% | 10% | 8-14 vs Rank 1 7-12 vs Rank 2 7-12 vs Rank 3 4-7 vs Rank 4 |
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| The Harvest | Melee | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 | 115% | 0% | 4-7 | Stress -7 |
Heal 20 Buff: +15% PROT (2 rds) |
|
| The Master Beckons | Support | 1,2,3,4 | Self | ||||||
| Winter's Breath* | Support | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 (allies) |
Transform Farmhand into Frozen Farmhand |
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| Immortal Beloved** | Ranged | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 | 222.5% | 0% | 2 | -15% Stress (3 rds) |
Debuff: -20% PROT |
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Frozen Farmhand[]
| Darkest Level | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Name | Range | Rank | Target | Accuracy | Crit Chance |
Damage | Effect (Target) |
Effect (Self) |
Notes |
| Hollow Keening | Ranged | 1,2,3,4 | 1,2,3,4 | 102.5% | 0% | 0 | Stress +8 Horror 6 |
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| The Soil Thaws | Support | 1,2,3,4 | Self | Transform back into Farmhand |
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* Can only target a Farmhand.
** Used when a party member has Mildred's Locket
Barks[]
Some of the Miller's abilities trigger unique barks from targeted heroes. These are not class-specific.
| Skill | Bark |
|---|---|
| The Reaping | "The ground itself thirsts for our blood!" "Ashes to ashes!" |
| The Harvest* | "My breath turns to ash!" |
| Immortal Beloved | "Is this the same man portrayed in the locket..?" "His grief causes my heart to quail in sympathy!" |
* This line is bugged and does not appear in-game, as the effect that is meant to trigger it doesn't actually target a hero, but the Miller himself.
Gallery[]
Miller's combat animation
The Miller using The Reaping
The Miller using The Harvest
The Miller using Winter's Breath
The Miller using The Master Beckons
The Miller using Immortal Beloved
The Miller defending
The Miller's corpse
Frozen Farmhand's combat animation
Trivia[]
- Despite the Memoir saying that the Ancestor wasn't able to destroy the Mill, the Mill has to be rebuilt.
- The Ancestor’s later dialogue reveals that the comet crashing into the Mill is what destroyed it.
