How to Beat Hard Mode Victor and Shadowbeak
Hard Mode Victor and Shadowbeak is a level 80 Dark tower boss with 570,000 HP. Here's the Dragon team that melts it, the gear and food to bring, every attack in its rotation, and the drops it pays out.
Victor and Shadowbeak is the last tower fight in Palworld, and Hard Mode turns it into a genuine endurance test — a level 80 Dark-element boss sitting on 570,000 HP with a clone mechanic that wastes your damage if you fall for it. This guide covers the boss card, the team that beats it, the gear and food worth bringing, every attack in its rotation and what it drops.
Victor and Shadowbeak (Hard) at a Glance
Everything that decides your loadout, in one place. The important line is the weakness: Shadowbeak is Dark, and Dark takes extra damage from Dragon, so the entire fight is built around fielding Dragon attackers and surviving long enough to use them.
| Hard Mode | |
|---|---|
| Boss | Victor & Shadowbeak |
| Element | Dark |
| Weak to | Dragon |
| Level | 80 |
| HP | 570,000 |
| Damage dealt | ×12 over Normal Mode |
| Damage taken | ×0.25 — three quarters of every hit is soaked |
| Unlock | Clear the fight on Normal Mode first |
| First-clear reward |  Victor Hat |
| Paldeck | #189 |
Those two multipliers pull in opposite directions. A ×0.25 damage-taken rate on a ×100 health bar works out to the lowest effective health of any Hard Mode tower, so this is the quickest rematch to put down — but ×12 damage on a ×2 cooldown rotation is the hardest-hitting schedule on the ladder. Expect a short fight that kills careless parties fast.
What It Drops
The hat only drops once, so repeat clears are about two things: the roughly one-in-ten shot at the Cold-Resistant Ancient Armor schematic, and the material that feeds your endgame Pals. The Large Pal Souls and Dark Radiant Gems gate progression you cannot buy your way past, and the Power Lotus (L) becomes a permanent attack boost once brewed.
| Reward | Chance | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Victor Hat | Guaranteed on 1st clear | 20 defense, 60 HP — a collection piece |
 Cold-Resistant Ancient Armor Schematic | 10% | The legendary tier of the late-game cold armour line |
| Large Pal Soul | Repeat drop | Pal Soul stat upgrades on your best Pals |
 Dark Radiant Gem | Repeat drop | Awakening Dark Pals |
 Power Lotus (L) | Repeat drop | Might Elixir — permanent attack |
 Training Crystal | Repeat drop | Raises a Pal's level by one, no grinding |
Plasteel, Carbon Fiber and the Innovative Technical Manual belong to a wild Shadowbeak's own drop table, not the tower chest — see the Shadowbeak page for those rates.
The Team That Beats It
Dragon is the whole answer. Dark takes roughly one and a half times damage from Dragon moves, and against a 570,000 HP pool that multiplier is the difference between a clean kill and running out of time. Field your highest-attack Dragon Pals and make sure the moves are Dragon too — the element on the Pal does not matter if it is swinging a Neutral attack, so check the moveset on each Pal's page before you commit.
Fire is the sensible backup if your Dragon roster is thin, and a mount you can reposition on matters more than a marginal attack stat here, because most of the damage you take is avoidable. Pick your attackers from the combat tier list and check each one's best moveset — every Pal page lists its highest-DPS set with the maths already done.
| Bring | Why |
|---|---|
| A Dragon attacker with Dragon moves | The weakness multiplier is the only reason this fight is finishable |
| A second Dragon or Fire attacker | Cover for cooldowns — burst windows are short |
| A fast flying mount | Repositioning out of the AoE is most of your survivability |
| A healer or shield partner skill | The clone phase punishes standing still |
| Spare spheres | Not for the boss — for anything you meet on the way in |
By name, the strongest picks are Eidrolon Ignis and Blazamut Ryu — both Dragon/Fire, so the backup element comes built in — followed by Eidrolon and Shaolong. All four learn Meteorain, and each has a second high-power Dragon move (Blazing Beam, Magna Crush, Azure Dracoflare) to cover its cooldown.
| Requirement | Target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pal level | 80 | Matches the boss, so no level gap on top of the ×0.25 reduction |
| Condensed | 4 star | The biggest single stat swing on a Pal you already own |
| Pal Souls | HP +20, Attack +20, Defense +20 | Fed by the Large Pal Souls the towers pay out |
| Trust level | 7 or higher | Unlocks the top of the partner-skill payoff |
| Awakened | Yes | Farm the radiant gems before the run, not during |
Every Attack in the Rotation
Shadowbeak's kit is a mix of ranged Dark projectiles and heavy area attacks. The pattern worth learning is that the big hits telegraph — the damage that kills you is almost always the AoE you stood in, not the chip damage. Full details for each move, including power and cooldown, are on the active skills list.
| Attack | What it does |
|---|---|
| Divine Disaster / Divine Disaster II | Its heaviest hit — leave the marked ground immediately |
| Dark Laser | Sustained beam; break line of sight or strafe wide |
| Nightmare Ball | Tracking projectile — keep moving rather than blocking |
| Shadow Burst | Close-range burst; do not melee through it |
| Spirit Flame | Lingering ground damage — reposition, do not tank it |
| Dark Ball / Air Cannon | Chip damage between the big casts |
Strategy That Actually Changes the Fight
Ignore the clone. The fight spawns a duplicate, and damage poured into it is damage that never touches the boss's health bar. Identify the real target early and commit to it — this single mistake is why most attempts run out of time rather than dying. Never stand in the marked ground. Almost every death here is avoidable AoE damage. Treat repositioning as a damage cooldown, not an interruption to it. Stack your buffs before you enter, not during. Food buffs and partner-skill boosts applied inside the arena cost you burst window. Walk in already buffed. Let the drones stack Orserk for you. If Orserk is in the party, the Drone Launcher keeps its stacking buff at the cap while you dodge, because the drones attack on their own — but only while you stay in range of the boss. Bring the resistance you need, not the highest defense number. Late-game body armour tops out at 840 defense on the Cold-Resistant Ancient Armor line, and the equip effect matters as much as the number — see the armour-by-tech-level guide for what is craftable at your point.