Dungeon · 4 players · Solstice (entrance northwest of Shell-Tide Village wayshrine) · Feast of Shadows (2025)

Black Gem Foundry

VetHardHMVery hard

A Daedric black-soul-gem quarry and forge. Three main bosses, each with its own hard mode, plus one hidden secret boss per map (three total). Secret-boss essences craft a wrist-cuff buff at the dungeon's jewelry station.

Hard mode: banner before each main boss (veteran). Vykand's banner only works if you raised it on both earlier main bosses.
Secret-boss buff: each secret boss drops a Superior Daedric Essence. Use it to fill a Potent Black Gem, then upgrade a wrist cuff at the Jewelry Crafting Station. Each tier adds a buff: recovery, then faster rezzes with a shield, then a damage and heal-over-time proc.
Trash: pulls are long and include several ranged adds. Use line of sight to stack them. Tank the small Forgers before the big adds.

Prospector Lyrakta

Secret boss

How to spawn: A hidden room on the first map, before Saldezaar. The entrance is easy to miss.

Tank

Turn her away from the group. Her shock tornadoes go where she faces.
Block her charged knockback attack.

DPS

Kill her adds fast. They multiply over time.

Healer

👁 Watch for

A spiderkith Daedra. She webs a player in, then drops a wide AoE on them. Step out of her shock AoEs.

More detail

Drops a Superior Daedric Essence for the wrist-cuff buff.

Not fully confirmed:

Exact location of the hidden entrance. No text source describes it.

Quarrymaster Saldezaar

Boss

☠ Wipe mechanic

Throw phase: he vanishes and a yellow animated zone appears, around the center altar or along the outer wall. Run into the yellow zone. You then get thrown in a straight line. Any crystal in your path kills you.
In the yellow zone, stand on the edge farthest from crystals, without touching the purple wall. Too close to the center gets you thrown into the wall.

Tank

Use his cone/slam to break the soul-gem crystals. Position him so it clears as many as possible, keeping the room clean for the throw phase.

DPS

Kill the Imps he summons.
Watch for falling debris (ground markers). Step out.

Healer

👁 Watch for

Crystals: purple-black soul-gem clusters that grow across the floor and hurt on contact. They also stick to players, and his cone strips them.

Hard mode · veteran only

Activate: Banner before the boss (veteran).

More HP.

More detail

ArzyeL describes the throw phase as a series of thresholds: center pulses at ~78% (go to the outer ring), you're pushed to the edge at ~60% (stay central), outer ring pulses at ~40% (go inner), and you're pulled to the center at ~20%.

Not fully confirmed:

HM changes: no source lists any beyond HP.
ArzyeL's per-threshold description and the forum's yellow-zone description don't line up exactly. Follow the yellow zone in-game.

Gemcarver Hynax

Secret boss

How to spawn: Hidden side area on the second map, between Saldezaar and the Black Gem Monstrosity. Easier to find than Lyrakta.

Tank

Block or roll his staff slam (knockdown).

DPS

Kill the atronachs he summons quickly.
Interrupt the fire channel he starts after teleporting.

Healer

👁 Watch for

A slow fire projectile that explodes into an AoE. Step aside.

More detail

Drops a Superior Daedric Essence for the wrist-cuff buff.

Not fully confirmed:

Exact location. Sources only show a map image.

Black Gem Monstrosity

Boss

☠ Wipe mechanic

Below ~30%, lava floods the center and the outer ring in turns. Move to the clear area early. The damage zone can be ahead of the visual.

Tank

Soul Focus is a beam at you. Block it and stand so a Black Gem Shard is between you and the boss. The beam destroys the shard. A thinner beam means you're blocking correctly.
Block the heavy. It spawns crystals. Don't touch them.

DPS

At ~80% he teleports out and a Pyromancer spawns with adds and ground AoEs. Kill them.
Avoid the small marked crystals. They explode on contact.

Healer

👁 Watch for

Black Gem Shards: crystal adds around the arena. Soul Focus is shown when you first enter the room, so watch.

↯ Alternatives

If Soul Focus targets someone else, a player can stand in its path to absorb it ('Share the Load').

Hard mode · veteran only

Activate: Banner before the boss (veteran). Saldezaar must have been killed on HM.

More HP.

More detail

Not fully confirmed:

HM changes: no source lists any beyond HP.
On PTS the Pyromancer and lava phases sometimes failed to start after a death. Unknown if fixed.

Misura, Assistant to the High Soulbinder

Secret boss

How to spawn: Hidden side area on the third map, before Vykand.

☠ Wipe mechanic

Giant hand: she slams and summons an arm that grabs a player. Break free quickly.

Tank

Face her away. Her frontal ground AoEs go where she faces.

DPS

Kill her adds fast.

Healer

👁 Watch for

She teleports behind a player with an AoE. Don't stand in line with the group.

More detail

Drops a Superior Daedric Essence for the wrist-cuff buff. Killing all three secret bosses gives 'Underminers'.

Not fully confirmed:

Exact location. Sources only show a map image.

High Soulbinder Vykand

Final boss

☠ Wipe mechanic

Color check: three colored crystals (red, yellow, green) circle the center. She siphons the two crystals farthest from her and teleports to the middle. Each player must stand at one ghost of the third color, one player per ghost. Doubled-up players die.
Reveal ghost colors early. Split the room into quadrants and run through the purple ghosts to show their colors before she channels.
Unstable (Refracted) Souls walk toward players. Kill them at a crystal. Killed anywhere else, they become a Soul Essence hazard for the rest of the fight.

Tank

Block her staff slam and leave the radius.
Her ranged heavy slam leaves tornadoes/fountains that last the whole fight. Place them at the edge.

DPS

Healer

Enervation: heal through it while the group handles the Unstable Souls. Among each set of four Anguished Souls, call out the one that's different (green).

👁 Watch for

Ghosts start out purple. They show their color when a player runs through them.
Crystal icons appear around her head to show which two colors she took.

Hard mode · veteran only

Activate: Banner before the boss (veteran). Saldezaar and the Monstrosity must have been killed on HM first.

More HP.
Ominous Vision (from ~60%): she slams and pulls everyone to the center. Each player sees a different staff animation and safe square. Remember yours.
Annihilation: later she pulls everyone in again. The player who saw that animation calls the safe square. Everyone goes there or the group wipes. Watch the staff, not her body.
You can't reveal ghost colors once her channel starts.
Harbinger of Annihilation hits harder, and Refracted Souls have more HP.

More detail

Not fully confirmed:

Ominous Vision is HM-only per a forum player (Soarora). UESP (search snippet) just says '60% and below'.
Color-check details come from one forum player plus ArzyeL. Ghost count and color layout may differ.
HM numbers changed several times on PTS. Treat the damage notes as approximate.

Sources · last checked 2026-11-09