Gwent: Rogue Mage White Dragon Boss Guide

So, you've read through our starter guide and have found your footing with Gwent: Rogue Mage. But, there is still one major hurdle in your way. Albastra The White Dragon is the first boss waiting for you at the end of a run. Furthermore, his unique strategies and overlapping abilities can lead to a nightmarish end to your game if you're not careful. Thankfully, our Gwent: Rogue Mage White Dragon Boss Guide is here to provide you with some helpful tips and tricks.

Gwent: Rogue Mage White Dragon Boss Guide | Preparing For the Fight

Before your big boss battle with Albastra, there are a few cards and strategies you might want to invest in:

• Giantslayer: This is a unit that instantly destroyes your opponent's highest power card
• Aedirnian Mauler: This is a crucial unit in the Bulwark deck. It has an Order ability which allows you to deal damage to an enemy unit equal to how much you boosted this unit.
• One-Eyed Betsy: This is a monster card that deals four damage to an enemy unit. However, if that unit has armor, six damage is dealt instead.
• Glorious Standard: This is a passive Treasure that boosts all of your units by 1. This does count towards Aedirnian Mauler.
• King's Blood: This is a new artifact you can equip Alzur with once you've hit Level 20. This boosts all units in your starting deck by 1.

Try to have at least two of these items in your deck since they will help with the upcoming fight. Furthermore, as mentioned in our Starter Guide, try to conserve your energy for Alzur's spells as much as you can and complete at least one Elite Battle to enhance your key cards.

Gwent: Rogue Mage White Dragon Boss Guide | Tips and Tricks

The first major mechanic you need to understand when fighting Albastra is that it loves to freeze your units. Every single unit he plays, every single passive ability, even the dragon's Banner Card revolves around either applying Freeze or benefitting from you having frozen units. Finally, the match starts with two Frozen Adventurer cards on your side of the field

A frozen unit is terrible.

This is because Albastra's Banner Card, the “main body” of the dragon is accompanied by both its “left wing” and “right wing” cards, all three of which have abilities that activate on a frozen unit. The main body, the one you can't damage, allows Albastra to freeze one of your units each turn. Furthermore, whenever one of your frozen units dies, a Frozen Adventurer is spawned its place, cluttering your row. On top of that, the wings, both of which have 6 power and 6 armor, have ongoing effects that cause frozen units to take damage over time, and cause adjacent units to be frozen. Last but not least, Albastra has certain cards that will move your units between the melee row and the ranged row, which instantly kill any frozen units.

In other words, unless you dismantle these abilities and plan ahead, all of your synergies and strategies will fall apart while Albastra's cards steamroll you.

The first thing you want to do is take out both of Albastra's wings. Giantslayer or a one-two punch of One-Eyed Betsy and a cast of Lightning will do the trick. Do whatever you need to do to remove these wings as fast as possible. You won't be able to stop Albastra from freezing your units, but removing the wings will prevent early strategies from cascading. Second is remove the Frozen Adventurer units from your rows. Not only will this keep your rows open for more units, it will shut down some of Albastra's other strategies.

Second is start building up your units' individual power and invest in some unit killers. Build up Aedirnian Mauler or keep another Giantslayer on hand. Alzur's Cleanse Spell, major cards like Zoltan Chivay and Reynard Odo are your friends here. As for the units you want to prioritize, there are a few of note. The first is White Dragon Whelp. This is a card Albastra will play early since the card gets boosted based on how many frozen units are on the battlefield. This can escalate quickly with its power rising to over 20. Kill it as soon as you can. The second units are a combination of the Ice Queen and a few notable hero cards from The Wild Hunt. Look over their abilities as they are played and you should notice a similar pattern to White Dragon Whelp.

Keep building up your units, keep your rows clean, and if you strike down these cards early enough, you should survive the worst of Albastra's cards and finish your first run of Gwent: Rogue Mage. Enjoy your post-run cutscene and the bombshell that follows.