Mchavi

“	My name is Mchavi. I am an old shaman of the family that derives its origin from the oldest sorcerers of zebras. And I am here on the instructions of my lord, the legate Caesarius	”
–Mchavi

Mchavi is a zebra shaman, and the boss of Ministry of Image.

Background[]

Mchavi blindly believes that the Legion is perfect, and will obey every order from its leader, Caesarius. She mentions she was waiting for Littlepip, supposedly knowing when she'll show up. She plans to use her heart for an evil project involving necromancy.

Behaviour[]

To say Mchavi is a difficult opponent would be a great understatement, due to the strategy that she uses. Instead of attacking you directly, she mostly runs around, always turning around and running away from you if you try to get close.

Her abilities consist of:

Turning into a shadow, becoming immune to damage and being harder to see for a short time.
Turning completely invisible for a short time. While it is much harder to spot her, she can still take damage.
Healing for a small percentage of her maximum health.
Summoning a variety of minions to assist her. Their appearance is marked by ritual circles.
Casting ritual circles that inflict one of many debuffs. These circles can either be placed where you're standing or where she thinks you're moving. In the second phase, lines of many ritual circles can be cast instead.
Charging up a powerful dark magic barrage, which deals very high damage per shot. This attack has a large spread, making it easier to dodge at a distance.

Arena[]

The arena consists of 3 full width platforms, with some solid parts. Some boxes can be found on the platforms.

There are multiple teleporters on both sides of the room, indicated by purple lights. Each will sends the one teleporting to a random teleporter on the other side of the room. However only Mchavi and her minions can use them.

Summons[]

Mchavi constantly summons enemies from the Canterlot ruins in groups of up to 3, one appearing on each platform in the center of the room. A ritual circle will mark their appearance. Ghouls that are summoned have their bodies immediately destroyed when they are killed, preventing their revival.

A maximum of 6 enemies can be summoned. Less enemies are summoned if the number would become greater than 6. If there are already 6 enemies summoned, Mchavi will not attempt to summon more.

Enemies summoned will appear in order, looping back to the beginning once each enemy has been summoned. Enemies that can be summoned are listed below:

Canterlot Ghoul
Bloated Ghoul
Swarm of necrosprites
Canterlot Witch (only in second phase)

Debuffs[]

Mchavi casts various debuffs that range from crippling to lethal in severity. See status effects page for exact details.

When she casts a debuff, a ritual circle (the same as she uses to summon enemies) will appear either where you stand or where you're moving towards, in an attempt to catch you off guard. Sometimes several circles will be cast at once.

Debuffs she can inflict are listed below:

Pain connection, partial damage you deal is inflicted on yourself.
Poisoning by Pink Cloud, deals Pink Cloud damage every second.
Shackles, binds you to a spot and prevents you from leaving.
Stupor, slows you down and reduces stamina to 0%.
Weakness, reduces a variety of stats.
Anti-life (only in second phase), healing potions will not work.
Sacrifice (only in second phase), once the time runs out, take 50% of your maximum health in damage.

Shadow form[]

Mchavi can turn into a shadow. This has a similar effect to Potion of shadows - she can't be damaged, but can't deal damage either. Enemies she's summoned and curses your are affected by can still hurt you. Don't bother attacking her while she's in this state.

Second phase[]

Mchavi has two phases, the second phase beginning when you reduce her health to 0. She will briefly die before black magic converges on her corpse, fully restoring her health (same as in fight with Blood Moon). Her appearance changes, now being partially transparent and glowing.

Sacrifice debuff icon

She'll summon less enemies and use 2 new debuffs. These curses are more dangerous then the others and can easily be the cause of your death. Make sure to have some potions of purification with you to be able to remove them.

She also gains the ability to create many ritual circles in a line, with you in the center. If you are caught, many debuffs can be applied to you, severely crippling your ability to fight. The circles are created either from the left or the right. Move in the opposite direction or jump/fall/teleport to avoid getting hit.

Tips[]

For general tips for fighting bosses, see Bosses.

For this fight it's crucial to pick an efficient weapon. It needs to have good DPS and fire rate (for defeating swarms of enemies), but is accurate at the same time (for shooting Mchavi as she sprints over the arena). Energy weapons are a good choice, as it will take care of necrosprites and disintegrate ghouls. Melee weapons, magic and explosives builds will have to pick their weapons more carefully. Firearms however has the most difficulty due to ghouls resisting bullet damage, and necrosprites being outright immune. Magical (mag) special rounds are needed to deal with them. Plasma minigun is a perfect choice since it does high amount of damage and is effective against necrosprites. Requiem is also a good choice.
Recommended worn equipment is the Warlock's Amulet (protects from black magic) and either armor that'll increase your weapon's damage or no armor at all (to reduce damage from Pink Cloud). Most bonuses that armor gives will be useless in this battle, due to damage only being black magic, Pink Cloud or blunt damage.
Using Distortion Field is recommended, as it slows Mchavi and her ghouls down considerably if you're near, giving more time before they reach you, and making Mchavi herself an easier target. Necrosprites are unaffected.
Telekinesis can be used to grab onto Mchavi for a short amount of time, allowing you to deal massive amounts of damage before she can get away. Grabbing her can be tricky, but this can be made easier if she's already being slowed.
Killing the enemies she summons may be a good idea, since it'll reduce the amount of distractions in the battle and allow you to focus more on Mchavi herself. However killing these enemies wastes time and ammo that you could be using to damage her instead, so keep this in mind.
If there are many enemies on screen, focus on Canterlot ghouls due to their ability to telekinetically grab you, making it harder to avoid curses and other enemies. Necrosprites are also dangerous, but they move slowly and only have melee attacks.
If you're currently under the shackles debuff, teleporting will allow you to move to a different location, though you will still be bound to your new location.
If you are constantly using defensive spells, it may not be a good idea to use offensive spells as well. Use another form of attack if you're having trouble using both.
Some ghouls have trouble reaching you if you're standing on the higher platforms. However they may still use the teleporters or attempt to telekinetically bring you down towards them.
During the dark magic barrage, Mchavi stands still. The attack itself is inaccurate, often missing if you're a long distance away. This gives you an opportunity to attack her from afar with your own weapons at little risk to yourself.
During the second phase make sure you always have Potions of purification to remove the Sacrifice curse. Letting it run out will deal 50% of your maximum health, killing you if you're already injured.
Staying near the edges of the room will prevent enemies from swarming you due to being teleported. However this may also be dangerous to do because ranged attacks, curses and pink clouds can still affect you.
Mchavi's ritual circles sometimes predict where you'll go instead of appearing at your location. Quickly moving in another direction will cause her to miss. The Kinetic dash spell is best at this, since it allows you to move quickly in another direction.
The terminal that Mchavi starts next to in the beginning of the fight blocks her projectiles, but not yours. It's a perfect place to take cover while shooting back, but you'll have to stand still since the area that provides you cover is fairly small, leaving you vulnerable to the ghouls and necrosprites she might've summoned.
Keeping necrosprites alive can be a very effective if somewhat dangerous strategy, due to their slow speed, limited attack range and grouping tendencies. Only a maximum of 6 enemies can be summoned, if all 6 are necrosprites, no more will be summoned. By constantly moving in a circle, you can keep away from the cluster of necrosprites and attack Mchavi without the danger of more ghouls being summoned. Bullet, blade and blunt weapons can be used as they will not damage them. Only 1 necrosprite can hurt you at a time, due to your character receiving temporary invincibility against melee damage after each hit, however care should be taken not to be affected by shackles.
Due to a bug, the Frozen status effect can be of great use. Once it's effect ends, the enemy affected will slow down even more instead of returning to normal speed. When used against Mchavi this can slow her down to a crawl for the rest of the battle.
Because of the battle's sheer difficulty, it may be a good idea to switch to a lower difficulty just to make things easier for the battle, then switching it back afterwards. Cards that change the difficulty can be bought from Dip Fanken at the "Prancing pony" camp.

Notable loot[]

“	I'm alive! And I have a book!	”
–Littlepip, after picking up the Black Book

Black book, part of The Black Book quest
Necromancer's key - used to unlock doors and containers within the Ministry of Image
Grim Reaper - high level melee weapon (from the gun case in top right corner, unlocked with Necromancer's key)

Bugs[]

The terminal in the room blocks Mchavi's projectiles, but not yours. This can be exploited during battle.
Mchavi may sometimes attempt to become a shadow, but will still remain in her normal form. This can trick players into shooting at her when she's invulnerable.

Notes[]

Although Mchavi visually appears to be male, Littlepip later refers to her as "she" in a dialogue with Scribe Amaranth.
If there are too many enemies around, the game may start to lag. This can make the battle even harder if you're already having trouble.

Gallery[]

Enemies
Ponies, Zebras and Griffins	Raiders • Slavers • Zebras • Griffins • Steel Rangers • Enclave
Monsters	Slimes • Bloatsprites • Ghouls • Alicorns • Swarm of necrosprites
Robots	Large robots • Small robots • Turrets
Bosses	Boss of the Factory • Butch • Ultra-sentinel • Blood Moon • Mchavi • Bombardier • Wing of Ravagers • Thunderhead