has anyone ever beat this guy in a final battle?... I just finished playing through a game against him and luckily finished him off with seals with his doom track at 10 of 11.. took me and my g/f 6 seals to beat him due to a gate burst midway through...was a great and tense game.. but like with all games that we finish we always decide to tackle the AO at the end as if he awoken at that point in time...well suffice it to say we got completely torn apart by this monstrous beast.... i was wondering if anyone has actually beat this guy in a final battle... i scanned through the statistic page and it doesn't appear so for those who recorded... also in an 8 player game it would take 176 hits to defeat him?!!! i guess he's easier to beat than Azethoth

I actually have, but I was totally playing like a chump.

Two player game with the express intention of beating Zhar in final combat, just to see if it was possible (so only 44 successes necessary). I played Joe Diamond, girlfriend played Patrice. Just sat around and collected money at the newspaper for weapons and skills, ignoring the doom track and gates. We got lucky and started with really good weapons in addition to the automatic, I think Brazier of Souls and elephant gun were involved. She stocked up on clue tokens, and by the time the ancient one awoke (too many gates open, if I recall correctly) we had tons of clues, magical weapons and physical weapons, and I had messed around with the administration until I got fight. She got extremely lucky and hit an encounter that doubled her clue tokens, and she already had around 20. I believe what followed is described derisively as "clue shotgunning."

So yeah if you a) set out with the express goal of beating Zhar in final combat, b) play the game like in a overly strategic, munchkiny way that really isn't very fun and c) get really lucky you can kill Zhar in final combat.

In a normal game when you're trying to seal gates and you happen to fail? I can't imagine.

I've done it with 4-investigators, never gearing for it. Stupid Zhar was one turn away from losing via seals, but had to wake up .

"Zhar, who I needed just 1 more turn to 6-seal BTW got taken out partly because of Mythos, namely "All Quiet in Arkham" hit the turn before he woke and all 4 investigators got Blessed as a result. Still went down to the wire, Roland already had the Zhar token, so it was do or die. He did.

Big reason was Patrice having 12 Clues, Roland had I think 5 as well. I also had use and discard weapons for those early victims, so I didn't lose any good weapons in the long-term. Shotgun also helped in the early part. Thanks to Prof. Rice, the game ended with 29 Clues on the boards !

Other two investigators were Wilson Richards (brother of Benjamin ?) and I want to say Agnes Baker (checking the stats, Diane Stanley is also listed, but that game had 1 investigator devoured). Due to the Mythos card the turn before, everyone was Blessed, Patrice with her 12 Clues could spread them around as needed, especially critical in killing the first Zhar, since the rest of the successes from the attack that kills Zhar the first time are ignore. Roland was getting 1 Clue each Upkeep. The Magical Immunity went down fast, thanks to Shotgun and having discard weapons (Dynamite and Molotov IIRC). Turn order was also key, Wilson came first, then Agnes, then Patrice and finally Roland (I think he had an Ally that boosted Lore and/or Fight). Even with all those, it went to the 8th combat round, Roland flying solo, just got the needed hits."

Very interesting topic.

Did you use Epic Battle cards?

I can tell you that Dam didn't.

I did... don't really remember what ones were drawn. Obviously nothing crushing. I think maybe the stamina drain one. It's been too long, sorry.