The Lost Explorers Boss Guide: Normal, Heroic & Mythic

The Lost Explorers is a three-target council encounter in The Venomous Abyss in WoW Midnight Season 2. The raid fights three possessed tortollan explorers — Scrollsage Iku, First Mate Nama and Trader Gebbo — while preventing the spirit Mor'zahi from completing Final Ascension.

The core mechanic is Disgusting Fish. Trader Gebbo throws crates around the arena; one contains a fish that can be fed to a possessed explorer to interrupt Mor'zahi, reset his energy and activate that explorer's special ability set. Each explorer can only be fed once, so the raid has three opportunities to stop Mor'zahi before the bosses must be defeated.

The Lost Explorers are part of the branching middle section of The Venomous Abyss. Depending on your route after Nek'zali, the encounter can be reached earlier or later in the raid rather than occupying one fixed linear boss position.

For the complete raid route, boss order and Season 2 rewards, use our Venomous Abyss Raid Guide. Current Normal, Heroic and Mythic clear options are available in the Venomous Abyss Raid category.

The Lost Explorers Quick Facts

The Lost Explorers Strategy in 60 Seconds

1. Use Bloodlust on pull and cleave two bosses while keeping all three health bars under control.
2. Never stack all three bosses on Heroic or Mythic. United Defense reduces their incoming damage by 99% when all three are within 30 yards.
3. Interrupt Icebound Flames from Scrollsage Iku.
4. Bait Nama's Shell Spin toward the outside. Do not stand in the path of the spinning shells.
5. Break Trader Gebbo's crates and locate the Disgusting Fish.
6. Feed the selected explorer at roughly 90–95 Mor'zahi Energy. Do not wait for Final Ascension.
7. Recommended progression order: Gebbo first, Nama second, Iku third.
8. Balance boss health. Surviving explorers gain dangerous effects when one ally dies.
9. On Mythic, clear every crate quickly. Relic Rupture punishes crates that remain untouched for 25 seconds.

How Mor'zahi and Disgusting Fish Work

Mor'zahi uses Dark Whispers to control the tortollan explorers and slowly builds energy toward Final Ascension.

If Mor'zahi reaches the end of the energy cycle and successfully completes Final Ascension, the resulting raid damage is effectively lethal.

The raid prevents this by using a Disgusting Fish on the currently selected explorer.

How to Get Disgusting Fish

While under Mor'zahi's control, Trader Gebbo uses Throw Junk and throws crates around the arena.

1. Move onto a crate to break it.
2. Breaking a crate applies Splinters.
3. Continue opening the available crates until the Disgusting Fish is found.
4. One player picks up the fish and receives an Extra Action Button.
5. Move into close range of the explorer your raid wants to feed.
6. Target that explorer and use the Extra Action Button near the assigned Mor'zahi energy threshold.

On Normal and Heroic, repeatedly opening crates applies a stacking bleed to the player doing the work. Rotate crate breakers if necessary instead of giving one player excessive Splinters stacks.

When Should You Use the Fish?

A practical live timing is around 90–95 Mor'zahi Energy. This extracts most of the available time from the current cycle without risking Final Ascension because of movement or reaction delay.

Do not automatically use the fish immediately after finding it. The purpose of the fish is to reset Mor'zahi's energy as late as safely possible.

Each Explorer Can Only Eat One Fish

Once an explorer consumes Disgusting Fish, that explorer cannot be selected for another fish later in the same encounter.

This gives the raid a finite number of resets:

• one for Trader Gebbo;
• one for First Mate Nama;
• one for Scrollsage Iku.

The bosses therefore need to die before the raid exhausts all three fish cycles.

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Best Lost Explorers Fish Order

A common and effective live order is:

1. Trader Gebbo
2. First Mate Nama
3. Scrollsage Iku

This order is a strategy recommendation rather than a hard encounter requirement. The raid leader can alter it for composition, progression problems or planned cooldown timings.

Feeding an explorer does more than reset Mor'zahi's energy. Mor'zahi's Command causes that explorer to gain an additional ultimate mechanic, so your fish order also determines the sequence of major raid mechanics.

Positioning: Keep Two Together, One Apart

The efficient strategy is not to place all three explorers at opposite ends of the arena. Keep two bosses together for cleave while the third remains separated.

Trader Gebbo naturally wanders around the outside of the platform, so tanks commonly move First Mate Nama between Iku and Gebbo as necessary.

United Defense on Heroic and Mythic

On Heroic and Mythic, United Defense activates when First Mate Nama, Scrollsage Iku and Trader Gebbo are all within 30 yards of each other.

While United Defense is active, the explorers take 99% reduced damage.

Two bosses may therefore be stacked for efficient cleave, but bringing the third into the same area effectively stops meaningful damage until the positioning is corrected.

First Mate Nama Strategy

Shell Spin

Shell Spin fires three spinning shells in a frontal cone and stuns players they hit.

Melee players should remain close enough to Nama to make the frontal predictable, bait it toward the outside of the platform and then move away from the shell paths.

Do not point the frontal through the ranged group or through the location needed for the next fish interaction.

Steady Strikes – Tank Mechanic

First Mate Nama gains increasing Physical damage against the same current target through Steady Strikes.

Tanks should coordinate this with Scrollsage Iku's Shredding Shards rather than treating the bosses as completely separate tank assignments.

A common approach is to move Nama between the second tank's active boss when a tank swap is required, preserving two-target cleave throughout most of the encounter.

Mighty Thud – Nama's Fish Ultimate

After Nama receives Disgusting Fish and Mor'zahi reasserts control, Nama gains Mighty Thud.

Three players are marked and Nama leaps to them in sequence. Each impact deals Physical damage split among players inside the soak area.

If one of the leaps hits no players, the raid takes severe damage.

A clean setup is:

• one soak close to melee;
• two separate ranged soak positions;
• do not overlap the three circles;
• assign stable soak groups before the pull.

Mighty Thud leaves behind Aftershock, so place the impacts away from future boss positioning and fish routes.

Scrollsage Iku Strategy

Icebound Flames

Icebound Flames is the main interrupt priority on Scrollsage Iku.

Use a reliable two- or three-player interrupt rotation rather than hoping that someone stops the cast. If it completes, the targeted player takes heavy Frostfire damage and receives a harmful lingering effect.

Blink Nova

Blink Nova causes Iku to teleport to a targeted player and inflict raid-wide Arcane damage. Players farther from the destination take less damage.

The targeted player should move away from the main group and ideally position Iku in the direction the raid wants her to move next.

This is especially useful for maintaining United Defense spacing while avoiding unnecessary boss movement.

Shredding Shards – Tank Mechanic

Shredding Shards repeatedly deals Frost damage to Iku's current target and increases subsequent damage taken from Shredding Shards.

Tanks should swap around this mechanic. Iku's Blink Nova often creates a convenient moment to exchange tank assignments.

Frostfire Volley – Iku's Fish Ultimate

After Iku receives her fish, Frostfire Volley targets several players with Fire and Frost effects.

• Fire targets create Fire Patches and receive Burning Flames.
• Frost targets create Frost Patches and receive Piercing Frost.
• Spread the initial impacts so circles do not overlap.
• Place the pools toward the outside of the arena when possible.

Fire effects can clear Frost effects and Frost effects can clear Fire effects.

After the initial placement, players remove their debuff by interacting with the opposite element. These clears can cause significant raid-wide damage, so do not have the entire raid clear simultaneously without healer cooldowns.

Trader Gebbo Strategy

Throw Junk and Splinters

Throw Junk creates the crates needed to find Disgusting Fish.

Step on the crates to destroy them, but monitor Splinters. On Normal and Heroic the crate breaker receives a stacking bleed, making it inefficient for one player to open every crate if several spawn close together.

Mushroom Toss

Trader Gebbo throws Bouncy Mushrooms around the arena.

Touching a mushroom launches a player into the air. After activation the mushroom becomes unstable and triggers Fungal Burst shortly afterward, so do not use mushrooms randomly.

The mushrooms become important during Gebbo's ultimate.

Explosive Surprise – Gebbo's Fish Ultimate

Explosive Surprise places bombs on players.

Handle it as follows:

1. take bomb markers toward the outer edge;
2. do not place bombs on top of the Bouncy Mushrooms;
3. after the bomb explodes, watch for the expanding Blast Wave;
4. wait until the wave approaches;
5. step onto a Bouncy Mushroom and use the launch to pass safely over the wave.

Do not consume a mushroom too early. Several players can use the same mushroom within a short window, which is much more efficient than everyone triggering separate mushrooms prematurely.

Why You Need to Balance All Three Health Bars

The Lost Explorers do not share one health pool. However, killing one too early makes the surviving bosses substantially more dangerous.

• Scrollsage Iku: Cataclysmic Invocation deals heavy raid-wide Fire damage after an ally dies and becomes increasingly dangerous with repeated casts.
• First Mate Nama: Relentless Escalation rapidly increases his damage after an ally is defeated.
• Trader Gebbo: Smashing Shovel empowers his attacks and adds knockback after an ally dies.

The safest strategy is therefore to keep all three bosses reasonably close in health and execute the final kills within a controlled short window.

Do not tunnel one boss from 100% to zero while ignoring the other two unless your raid's specific progression strategy is explicitly built around surviving the resulting enrage effects.

Heroic Lost Explorers Changes

The most important Heroic structural change is United Defense.

If all three explorers are within 30 yards of each other, they take 99% reduced damage. This forces the raid to maintain two-target cleave positioning instead of simply stacking the entire council.

Heroic also increases the punishment from:

• missed Icebound Flames interrupts;
• poor Blink Nova placement;
• empty Mighty Thud soaks;
• Frostfire Volley cleanses performed too quickly;
• bomb and Blast Wave positioning;
• Splinters accumulation while searching crates.

The encounter remains mechanically recognizable from Normal, but coordination becomes much more important than individual recovery.

Mythic Lost Explorers Changes

Mythic keeps the Heroic positioning rules and adds a major change to Trader Gebbo's crates.

Mythic Splinters

On Mythic, breaking a crate does not only punish the player who stepped on it. Splinters also inflicts raid-wide Physical damage and applies its bleed across the raid.

Do not break several crates simultaneously unless the healing plan is prepared for the resulting burst.

Relic Rupture

Every crate also becomes a timer.

If a crate remains untouched for approximately 25 seconds, Relic Rupture deals massive Shadow damage to the raid.

Mythic crate handling therefore becomes a balance:

• do not break every crate simultaneously;
• do not leave any crate alive long enough for Relic Rupture;
• assign an order for crate breakers;
• coordinate each break with healer throughput.

This is the main Mythic-specific mechanical change beyond the usual increases in damage, health and player-count pressure.

Tank Guide for The Lost Explorers

• Keep two bosses together without ever bringing all three within 30 yards on Heroic/Mythic.
• Rotate First Mate Nama between Iku and Gebbo to maintain efficient cleave.
• Swap after dangerous Shredding Shards exposure.
• Use defensives as Steady Strikes increase Nama's Physical pressure.
• Keep Shell Spin facing toward the outside.
• Do not drag bosses through Frostfire pools, bomb positions or fish routes unnecessarily.
• Balance boss health so the surviving-explorer enrage effects are manageable at the end.

Healer Guide for The Lost Explorers

• Watch crate breakers with multiple Splinters stacks.
• Prepare for raid damage when Mor'zahi's concentration is broken.
• Dispel or recover players hit by Icebound Flames if an interrupt fails.
• Use raid cooldowns while Frostfire Volley debuffs and opposite-element pools are being cleared.
• Watch tanks during high Steady Strikes and Shredding Shards stacks.
• On Mythic, coordinate healing around every planned crate break.
• Be ready for extreme damage if the three bosses do not die close together.

DPS Guide for The Lost Explorers

• Use Bloodlust on pull and maximize two-target cleave.
• Interrupt Icebound Flames consistently.
• Keep all three health bars within the raid leader's target range.
• Break crates according to assignment and locate Disgusting Fish quickly.
• Do not feed a fish without the raid leader's energy call.
• Bait Shell Spin away from the raid.
• Spread Frostfire Volley and clear with the opposite element in the assigned order.
• On Mythic, never ignore a crate approaching the Relic Rupture timer.

Lost Explorers Fish Order Example

This is a recommended progression sequence rather than an encounter-enforced order. Change it only when your raid has a clear reason to do so.

The Lost Explorers Loot

The Lost Explorers use the second raid-loot band in The Venomous Abyss.

Notable encounter loot includes:

• Errant Scrollsage's Hood — Cloth Helm;
• Gebbo's Backup Blaster — ranged gun;
• Malevolent Spiritcudgel — one-handed mace;
• Venom-Slashed Scuteward — shield;
• First Mate's Shellward — tank trinket;
• Gebbo's Bottomless Bag — multi-stat trinket;
• four Season 2 Shoulder Tier Set tokens.

For the complete encounter and raid-wide loot pool, use our Venomous Abyss Loot Table.

The Lost Explorers Shoulder Tier Tokens

The Lost Explorers are the dedicated Shoulder Tier Set source in The Venomous Abyss.

If Shoulder Tier progression is your primary objective, compare the WoW Tier Set Boost. For broader raid gearing across Tier pieces, weapons, trinkets and other slots, use the Raid Full Gear Boost.

For all five token encounters and every token family, see the Venomous Abyss Tier Token Guide.

Great Vault Progress

An eligible Lost Explorers kill contributes one qualifying boss kill toward the Raid section of the weekly Great Vault.

Raid choices unlock after 2, 4 and 6 qualifying boss kills, so The Lost Explorers can help reach the next threshold but one kill by itself does not automatically unlock an additional Vault slot.

Accidental Inclusion Achievement

Accidental Inclusion is the Lost Explorers achievement required for Glory of the Venomous Raider.

The official requirement is:

Defeat The Lost Explorers while including Hoji in the encounter on Normal difficulty or higher.

This achievement is separate from the ordinary boss strategy and should be prepared before the pull when your group is attempting the full Glory meta.

For all eight raid-achievement objectives and the Crimson Venomfang reward, use our Venomous Abyss Achievements Guide.

Common Lost Explorers Wipe Causes

• Mor'zahi reaches 100 Energy. The fish is used too late or the carrier is out of position.
• The fish is used too early. The raid wastes valuable encounter time and reaches the final cycle sooner.
• All three bosses stack on Heroic/Mythic. United Defense reduces incoming damage by 99%.
• Icebound Flames is missed. Iku adds avoidable damage and healing pressure.
• Shell Spin is baited through the group. Players are stunned and positioning breaks down.
• Mighty Thud has an empty soak. The raid takes severe avoidable damage.
• Frostfire effects are overlapped or cleansed together. Elemental damage overwhelms healers.
• A mushroom is consumed too early. Players later have no safe way to cross Blast Wave.
• One boss dies far ahead of the others. The surviving explorers gain dangerous death-trigger effects.
• Mythic crates are ignored. Relic Rupture triggers after the timer expires.
• Too many Mythic crates are broken at once. Raid-wide Splinters damage stacks faster than healers can recover it.

The Lost Explorers Pull Checklist

1. Use Bloodlust on pull.
2. Choose your fish order — Gebbo → Nama → Iku is a strong default.
3. Assign the player or rotation responsible for breaking crates.
4. Use a fish call around 90–95 Mor'zahi Energy.
5. Assign a reliable Icebound Flames interrupt rotation.
6. Mark Nama's three Mighty Thud soak positions.
7. Establish Fire and Frost placement areas for Iku.
8. Define the tank movement used to rotate Nama between Iku and Gebbo.
9. Track all three health bars and agree on the final kill window.
10. On Mythic, assign a crate-breaking order before Relic Rupture timers become a problem.
11. If attempting Glory, prepare the Hoji objective before combat begins.

Related Venomous Abyss Guides

• Venomous Abyss Raid Guide — route, all eight bosses and Season 2 rewards.
• Venomous Abyss Loot Table — boss drops, weapons, trinkets and item levels.
• Venomous Abyss Tier Token Guide — all five Tier bosses and token families.
• Venomous Abyss Achievements Guide — Accidental Inclusion, Glory and Crimson Venomfang.
• Nek'zali Boss Guide — strategy for the required opening encounter.
• Entombed Sentinels Boss Guide — strategy for the alternative middle branch.
• Sszorak Boss Guide — the next encounter on the Lost Explorers branch.
• Venomous Abyss Raid Services — current Normal, Heroic, Mythic and reward-focused options.
• WoW Raid Services — all current raid content.