How to Defeat Zil & Thungr: Plains Miniboss Strategy, Gear & Rewards

What Makes This Fight Unique

Zil & Thungr are a duo miniboss waiting at the bottom of the Sealed Tower in the Plains. Thungr is the muscle: a massive, blue-skinned Fuling brute with a devastating club. Zil is the brains: a cunning Fuling shaman who slings Fireballs and casts protective barriers over his partner.

Part of Hildir's Request

Hildir, the trader, marks three Sealed Tower locations on your map. Zil & Thungr guard Hildir's Bronze Chest, the last and hardest of her three chests. Returning it unlocks a new tier of her trades.

This is a tactics fight, not a gear check. Veterans clear it with Plains gear, and some with Black Forest equipment. The tower itself is your greatest weapon if you know how to use it.

Understanding Their Attack Patterns

Thungr's club swing

His regular swing covers a 4-meter, 70-degree arc and deals 150 Blunt (its 100 Chop and 40 Pickaxe only affect terrain). He can use it every 2 seconds when you are within 3 meters. It comes in two versions, a standard and a delayed swing about 0.3 seconds slower, and that delay kills players who dodge too early.

Thungr's Rage Attack

He slams his club into the ground three times, stepping forward with each 4-meter, 60-degree vertical swing. He uses it every 20 seconds when you are within 6 meters. The forward steps catch people who think they are at a safe distance.

Zil's Fireball

Zil is the more dangerous of the two despite less health. His Fireball inflicts Burning, which keeps ticking after the hit. It travels at 15 meters per second with 4 to 20 degrees of spread, so it is not perfectly accurate, but in the cramped basement accuracy barely matters.

Zil's Protect

He shields all allies within 6 meters with a barrier that absorbs up to 100 damage or lasts 40 seconds, whichever comes first. On a 40-second cooldown, Thungr is shielded for roughly half the fight. Burst through it or wait it out.

Why kill order matters

When Thungr dies first, Zil's attacks revert to those of a regular Fuling Shaman. He loses both Fireball and Protect and becomes far less threatening.

Finding and Navigating the Sealed Tower

Every world generates exactly 3 Sealed Towers in the Plains. Visit Hildir and interact with the map near her to mark all three.

Getting in

The tower is unbreakable black stone with sealed windows, arrow slits and wood panels. The real entrance is on the roof, heavily guarded by Fulings, so build your way up the outside with ladders or scaffolding. Build a Portal on the roof before heading in, so you have a quick retreat.

Working down

The tower has roughly five floors. The top four are gauntlets of:

• Regular Fulings
• Fuling Shamans
• Traps hidden under straw piles: check the floor before every step

You cannot build or deconstruct anything inside, so no cheesing with walls or platforms.

The boss floor

The bottom floor is the arena. Two or three special Plains chests here hold guaranteed Coins (44-165), an Egg, Chains (2-5) and Amber Pearls (2-4). The Egg alone makes the tower worth clearing, since it starts a Chicken farm.

Resistances and Damage Tips

Both take normal damage from Blunt, Slash, Pierce, Fire, Frost, Lightning and Poison, and are immune to Spirit, Chop and Pickaxe. Nothing useful is resisted, so pick whatever weapon you are most comfortable with.

Why Ooze Bombs work

Poison deals full damage to both. Each bomb creates a 4-meter cloud lasting 10 seconds that deals 40 Poison over 7 seconds and refreshes while an enemy stays inside, for up to 97 Poison per bomb. In the cramped boss room, they can't escape it easily.

Defensive buffs

• Fire Resistance Barley Wine: 10 minutes of fire resistance against Zil's Fireball and Burning, longer than the fight needs.
• Bonemass power: a flat 50% reduction to Blunt, Slash and Pierce, which covers all of Thungr's damage.

Stack both and you become extremely hard to kill.

Rewards: What You Get for Winning

The duo drops the Zil Trophy, the Thungr Trophy and Hildir's Bronze Chest, which Zil always drops. The trophies are wall-mountable collectibles; the chest is the quest item and the real prize.

Getting the chest home

Hildir's Bronze Chest weighs 200 and cannot go through a regular Portal (a Stone Portal accepts it), so you will likely carry it back to Hildir by boat.

What it unlocks

Returning the chest unlocks a tier of Hildir's cosmetic trades:

• Beaded Dresses (brown, blue, yellow)
• Beaded Tunics (blue, red, yellow)
• Twisted Headscarf Red, Fur Cap Grey and Extravagant Cap Orange
• Basic Fireworks (50 Coins each)

Don't forget the boss room chests either: the Egg inside is arguably the most valuable reward in the tower.

Alternative Strategies

Stairway peeking is the safest approach, but not the only one.

Full Ooze Bomb cheese

Bring 30+ Ooze Bombs and throw from the stairway or windows above the boss room until both are dead, without ever entering the arena. Some players dig down to the basement from outside with a Pickaxe and combine Ooze Bombs through the walls with Stagbreaker ground pounds.

Bow only

Sit at the bottom of the stairway and peek out to shoot Thungr. Root armor with a Huntsman Bow is enough, though slow. The main risk is Fireballs reaching you around corners if you get careless with positioning.

Co-op

One player tanks Thungr at the bottom of the stairs while another pours ranged damage into the fight. Even in co-op, killing Thungr first is usually better because it strips Zil of his dangerous abilities.

Lore and Trivia

Their trophy descriptions reveal a sibling rivalry. Zil is the older of the two despite being much smaller, and they envy each other: Zil wants Thungr's strength, Thungr wants Zil's magic. The pairing is likely inspired by "Master Blaster" from the 1985 film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, a small, clever character riding on the shoulders of a huge one.

Quirks from the game files

• Zil can still cast elemental attacks while swimming.
• Thungr spawned with cheats leaves a normal green corpse instead of blue.
• Starred Thungr spawned via console commands turns brown, while Zil stays his normal color.