Lets be honest the Apocrea event was awesome at first but it still has some fatal flaws that should be fixed and somethings that should be added.
First off, lets point out there is no point in "completing" the mission Shroud of the Apocrea (or at least that I am aware of and I know it used to offer prestige and bonus tokens but was not repeatable). This kills both the thrill and the challenge that the mission is suppose to offer because there isn't much consequence for dying and there isn't a purpose in stepping on the elevator on the last plateau (unless you really want to try your luck on the prize wheel) because you might as well continue until you die.
On to fixes:
One thing that could be done although it may seem like radical change is to not reward the sigils upon by freeing souls and instead counter have a counter go up for every soul you free and sigils would be reward upon leave from an elevator which would give the same amount of sigil as before or by reaching the last floor which would give one bonus sigil more per soul.
Expanding on the soul counter suggestion the amount of souls you have also changes how aggressive the harvester is. At 0 souls collect the harvester doesn't even appear an as you or a party collects more souls the more frequently it appear and the more agile it become (could even get one or two more abilities as it reaches max aggressiveness). Also having sigils being reward in this manner means that dead play wont be left out if they die (because you cant collect anything when you die and you basically become dead weight).
Now onto the harvester,
After every certain number of souls the the harvester will appear more frequently and and become faster and stronger.
I'm going to give a rough estimate on number of souls so let say,
-1-10 souls harvester does not appear
-11-30 souls harvester is half as aggressive as it is now
-31-50 same harvester as now
-50-75 harvester attack speed in increase by 30-50% and and apocrean grip contains 50% more arms
-75+ Harvester gain a new abilities pursuit :basically chase a far of knight like a rocket puppy missile cause an impact that can cause stun upon reaching the knight, harvester will use apocrean grip after words, and arm slash: a wide range quick slash with it arm that can cause stun and negates shield (low damage and range is a half circle with the same radius as the grim totem).
100 souls: first phase of a boss fight with the harvester (will be explained below)
150 souls: gives the harvester a second phase in the boss fight
200 souls: give the third and final phase of the harvester boss
(please not that I am estimating high as I never kept track of how many souls i have found in a run)
Apocrean harvester boss
First of all I would like to reference a picture of some the original concept design for the harvester the phase are from right to left. After collect at least 100 souls upon getting on the elevator at the finally plateau arms will grab you and take you else where to fight the boss.
Phase one: Same appearance as the originally harvester this boss would be rooted to a now broken elevator ( stationary boss in it first phase)
Attack would include:
-focused apocrean gaze: similar to a retrode's beam attack except quicker, 3 times longer, with bigger exposions
-obsidian arms: similar to big irons tentacles (visial the appcrean arm with and obsidian tip signaled with left arm)
-Apocrean grip: (signaled with right arm) 2x the arms of the original
-obsidian spikes: (signaled with both arms) similar to the jelly cube's spike attack but enough to to cover a 5 star bomb's blast radius
-apocreans soul orbiters: souls that will detonate on contact that orbit the harvest between 5 and 10 square away from it center)
-arm slash same as what i mention before
Nothing special about how to damage it just avoid attacks and hit it as for hp undecided
Phase two: After defeating the first phase the apocrean's remain swell up to reveals it second form. This boss will move similar to gargos in swaying back and forth when not attacking
Attack include:
-homing charge: basically a homing version of the deadnaught's charge
-homing blast: 3 large orbits the behave like tier 3 rocket puppy missiles
-body slam: stops levitating and simply drops it self on knight the also six large obsidian rock appear from the ground the can damage knight when they appear but can be picked up and thrown later.
-inhale: inhale knight towards and chomps at the end (knights already in it reach will receive damage until chomped) harvester can slowly turn but not move while suing this attack (range is 12 stars forward and 4 squares wide)
The second phase can be stun if hit with an obsidian rock and stun for even longer if it hit while inhaling
Final phase A giant arm appears out of the second phase corpse mouth and pull the rest of it body out.
Attacks:
-massive apocrean gaze: a large version of the apocrean gaze that sweeps from left to right directly in front the harvester
-smash: basically an extra large version of the lumbers smash
- ground stab: the harvester stabs forward one of it arms into the ground, while the arm is stabbed into the ground obsidian arms will appear continually, the arm can be damaged while in the ground destroying it will cause the the harvester to fall over and the lost souls will pin into the ground in which give knight the opening to attack its face Note the harvester can still use it massive gaze while it armed is stabbed in the ground)
- massive beam: while the harvester is pinned to the ground it can still fire lase beam 3 squares wide from it mask
The harvester's can only be actually damaged when know down, however knight can attack the harvester's legs to force it to use a ground stab to re-balance.
Additional notes: Every phase releases 10-20 souls upon defeat and also have a chance of dropping an apocrean themed 4 star shield (1% chance on first phase 5% on second and 15% on final phase) that can be upgrade
Additional rewards for sigils
-obsidian spiked Mohawk (reskin)
-obsidian shackles (reskin)
-obsidian pualdrons (reskin of artic and sealed)
-obsidian Ruinous Crystal (reskin)
-obsidian crystal horn (basically an obelisks sticking out of you forehead)
I like the ideas somewhat, but how about instead of making too many changes to the graveyard level part, why don't we make the final level of the prestige mission be the boss fight? This means if you've gotten this far, you'll have a boss to fight, and give more incentive to complete the whole level.
Make the boss fight last longer depending on how many souls you freed, and give higher reward chances depending on how many souls you freed. I would say make the first phase be there if you freed 60 souls, have two phases if you freed 150 souls, and all three phases if you free 300 souls. Every additional 100 souls after the 300 mark will increase chances to drop a special item, such as the accessories or shield listed above.
The boss will have a 100% chance to drop obsidian materials. How many and of each star level depends on its final phase. It also drops a large amount of sigils, and drops these after every phase (obsidian materials are only after the final phase is killed), potentially the same amount required for each phase to be activated. (first phase 80, second phase 200, third phase 400)
Every puzzle solved counts as saving 5 souls.
If you solve no puzzles, then you need to find souls inside of 100 tombstones and kill every one of them to fight all 3 stages of the boss. If you find less than 20 tombstones with souls in them, you don't have to fight any boss.