Sand Worm

Sandworm
Group	Worms
Roles	Boss/miniboss
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 2 Epic Battle Fantasy 3 Epic Battle Fantasy 4

The Sandworm is a recurring enemy in the Epic Battle Fantasy series, appearing as a boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 2, Epic Battle Fantasy 3 and, since the Battle Mountain update, Epic Battle Fantasy 4. Its Tail acts as a separate entity.

Appearance

Sandworm is a monstrous burrowing worm with numerous brown bumps and black spines on its pale body. Its fanged mouth takes up most of its front end, and a long tongue dangles from its middle.

Overview

It primarily attacks with its massive mouth, biting and even swallowing players. It also wields a variety of other mouth-related attacks, such as belching and vomiting, and many of these moves can inflict hazardous status effects such as Poison and Blind.

The Sandworm first appeared as a boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 2, attacking Matt and Natalie in Stage 16. Its tail, called Sandworm's Tail, aids the worm with powerful physical attacks and occasional Stuns. Both are weak to Water, Ice and also slightly weak to Poison. After beating the enemies, the second (and last) checkpoint is reached.

The Sandworm returned as a powerful enemy/miniboss in Epic Battle Fantasy 3. Although its threat level was somewhat reduced (due to losing its tail helper and the addition of Lance to the party), it remained a threatening opponent with a tendency to spam its vomit attacks when its health dropped low. Its weaknesses and resistances were largely unchanged from its previous appearance, save for switching its Water vulnerability for a weakness to Holy damage.

The Sandworm (now parsed as Sand Worm) appears in Epic Battle Fantasy 4 after the Battle Mountain update, guarding the path to the Ladder in Goldenbrick Resort; it also appears in Battle Mountain's miniboss rush. It is once again a boss-level foe, similar to its EBF2 appearance, and is once again assisted by its tail (now called Sand Tail). Both parts of the worm are immune to Wind, Stun, Freeze, Syphon and Instant Death, and weak to Water, Earth, Ice and Poison. When defeated, the Sand Worm has a notable 50% chance to drop Cake and Donut — consumable permanent stat boosters for Magic Attack and Magic Defence, respectively.

Statistics

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

This section is incomplete. You can help Epic Battle Fantasy Wiki by adding required information to it.
To do: All EBF2-related stuff.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

	Sandworm	Giant Penis	EBF3
	Attacks with earth, wind and poison. Bleeds when weakened.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	Gold
	1000	4	4	4	4	4	4	380	20	150
Elemental Resistance
	-	-	-80%	-	-	200%	-	-	-90%	-
Status Resistance
	-	100%	-	-	-50%	70%	70%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon						-	-
Name	Solid Spike	Curly Horn	Jaw Bone	Green Potion	Red Potion	-	-
Chance	100%	80%	60%	40%	20%	-	-

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

	Sand Worm	EBF4
	A foul beast that lives deep underground. Uses mostly poison and earth attacks. Has low accuracy but high attack power.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	4800	4	4	4	4	3.5	3.5	650	40	40	200	50
Elemental Resistance
	-	-	-100%	-50%	-100%	-	100%	-50%	-	-
Status Resistance
	-	100%	100%	-	-100%	-	-	100%	-	-	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%

Item Drop Rate
Icon					-	-	-
Name	Bio Virus	Solid Spike	Cake	Donut	-	-	-
Chance	100%	100%	50%	50%	-	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
7%	6% per stack, up to 54%	Immune	-33.(3)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

In the Kongregate version of the game, Chocolate takes Donut's place.

Attacks and Abilities

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

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Epic Battle Fantasy 3

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	60		----	--	--	--	110%	10%	10%
Swallow	Single	100		----	100%	3x		110%	10%	10%
Supersonic Burp	All	30		100%	80%	20%		150%	10%	10%
Sand Spit	All	30		100%	80%	30%		150%	10%	10%
Poison Vomit	All	60		100%	100%	2x		150%	10%	10%
Blood Vomit	All	30		100%	150%	2x		150%	10%	10%

Blood Vomit's original sequence consists of calling "special4", "special5" and "special6" skills one after another, suggesting it was intended to be multi-hit. However, only special4 exists, so the attack only strikes once.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	85		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Swallow	Single	170		----	100%	9x		100%	10%	10%
Spinal Spikes	Single	260/6		----	20%	1x		75%	10%	20%
Supersonic Burp	All	10		100%	100%	40%		100%	10%	20%
Notes: On Hard and Epic difficulties, debuff strength is increased to 50%.
Sand Spit	All	10		100%	100%	20%		100%	10%	20%
Notes: On Hard and Epic difficulties, debuff strength is increased to 30%.
Poison Vomit	All	60		100%	100%	5x		100%	10%	20%
Leap	Centered	500		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%

Battle logic

The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

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Epic Battle Fantasy 3

• Berserked → Bite;
• ≥38.5% HP → Bite (1/5), Swallow (1/5), Supersonic Burp (1/5), Sand Spit (1/5), Poison Vomit (1/5).
• <38.5% HP → Blood Vomit.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

• Berserked → Leap;
• ≥65% HP → Bite (1/4), Spinal Spikes (1/4), Supersonic Burp (1/4), Sand Spit (1/4);
• <65% to ≥32% HP → Swallow (1/6), Spinal Spikes (1/6), Supersonic Burp (1/6), Sand Spit (1/6), Poison Vomit (1/6), Leap (1/6);
• <32% HP → Swallow (1/4), Spinal Spikes (1/4), Poison Vomit (1/4), Leap (1/4).

The first time Sand Tail is defeated, it will be regrown three turns after. In case of subsequent "deaths", the tail shows up on the next turn.

Strategy

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

If she didn't do so in the previous wave, Natalie should start by summoning Slime Bunny — Regeneration helps counter the numerous poison effects you'll likely sustain. As usual, keep Defence and Magic Defence buffs high (via Protect and Barrier, respectively). You may want to kill the tail outright (preferably with IceBerg and Glacier) or just Stun it with Stunners (if out of Stunners, Natalie's Thunderbolt with "Thunderclap" skill bonus or Matt's Blizzard Unleash can be used as less effective alternatives). The latter strategy is recommended, as it requires less turns and prevents the worm from respawning the tail.

When the tail is neutralized, turn your attacks on the Sandworm. As counterintuitive as it may seem, the beast is also vulnerable to Poison; a few hits from Black Fang Unleash (preferably) or/and Toxic will cause the Sandworm to lose massive chunks of health every turn, and Poison is stackable without a limit. Focus on keeping your HP and defenses up, but use Antidotes or Natalie's Purify if the status effects start piling up. Don't be afraid to use your Limit Breaks — you'll have a few waves to recharge them before the next major boss.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

After setting up Defence and Magic Defence buffs and Regen, focus on taking down Sandworm's allies — it will not pull off any reinforcements. When the Sandworm is alone, get it to maximum Poison and attack it with your best Holy and Ice skills, or Defend while Poison does its job. Natalie and Matt have a plenty of relevant skills to choose from, while Lance is out of luck, with no Holy and Ice skills and no strong weapons of these elements; he may simply use his most invested skill. As with EBF2, Natalie can also use Purify if the status effects become too numerous.

After the Sandworm's health drops below 38.5%, it will use the blood vomit attack over and over, dealing moderate damage and stacking the Poison effect on the entire party. At this stage, switching to Poison-resistant gear may be helpful, or have Natalie take over healing duties with Purify and Regen. To reduce the amount of time spent getting drenched in poisonous blood, try to gauge when the worm's health will fall below the plank and have your characters primed for maximum damage output — you may be able to wipe out most or all of the Sandworm's health before it begins vomiting blood.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

The Sand Worm and its tail are characterized by their high attack power and poor accuracy — as such, your best option is to make your party even harder to hit. Solar Flare and other direct Accuracy debuffs are risky, given the worm's 50% resistance to stat debuffs, but raising the party's Evade with Reflex and Evade-boosting equipment is a reliable mean of reducing the chances of the worm or its tail hitting their marks. You can also try to inflict the Tired status effect on the enemies, as their resistance to stat drops does nothing against the Accuracy/Evade penalties inflicted by Tired — and as a bonus, most means of inflicting Tired also hit the worm's Earth weakness.

Offensively, the Sand Worm and Sand Tail are mostly unchanged from their EBF2 appearance. There will be plenty of status effects and stat drops coming your way, including Poison, Stun, Accuracy-Down, and Attack-Down, so have Purify, Medipack, and/or Cleanse ready to use (the Maid Outfit is useful here, as it can randomly cast Cleanse between turns and offers great resistance to the Sand Tail's Earth-elemental double attack). Keep Defence buff high (via Protect) to save the day in case dodging won't work. Poison can knock off significant chunks of the worm's health if you can keep it at a high enough level for a few turns.

Since Sand Tail respawns in one turn, there isn't much of a reason to try to kill it; instead, debuff tail's Attack and Accuracy to minimize the danger, and focus on the worm. After losing some of its HP, the Sand Worm may unveil its new attack — a massive, physics-defying leap attack that inflicts enormous physical damage on the party. Although Accuracy/Evade manipulation will greatly reduce the boss' chances of landing its attack, you should make sure to keep the party's HP and Defence buffs as high as possible to ensure that a lucky hit won't set you back too much. For added insurance, the Kitten Fort summon can provide Morale to further increase your chances of survival — if going this route, it may be advisable to take out the Sand Tail whenever possible to avoid having it pick off a weakened party member.

Trivia

• When you first encounter the Sandworm in Epic Battle Fantasy 3 and Epic Battle Fantasy 4, Lance will exclaim, "Walk without rhythm to confuse the worm!". This is an reference to Dune, the book by Frank Herbert.
• In EBF3, a NPC in the Kitten Kingdom Ruins references the Sandworm's boss status in EBF2 by mentioning how he was torn between attacking the tail or the head first. Ironically, the EBF3 version of the Sandworm never uses its tail in battle (the only time so far where it has appeared without its tail).
• In EBF4, Matt says he is up to eat the Sandworm when they kill it, despite the consequences he and Natalie suffered in EBF2 when they attempted to consume it. Interestingly, Matt didn't find the similar Evil Worm enemy edible.