Grim Forest Guide | Raid Shadow Legends

Released on December 10, 2025, Grim Forest is the latest endgame mode in Raid Shadow Legends, designed to challenge players with roguelite-style mechanics, shifting maps, and relentless bosses. With over 400 stages, two difficulties, and seven unique bosses, it offers a fresh layer of unpredictability every month. This hub provides a complete overview of Grim Forest and links to in-depth guides covering each aspect of the mode.

Grim Forest Overview

Grim Forest Essentials

• The Grim Forest is a strategic, fog of war exploration mode in Raid Shadow Legends that resets every 30 days. It combines squad building, resource management, and roguelike elements.
• Getting In: You can start your journey at Level 55. For Normal, you will need a squad of 10, but Hard mode steps it up, requiring 40 champions split across two decks.
• Exploring the Woods: You will be pushing through a heavy fog to find hidden paths, altars, and bosses. Just watch the colors: Green is Easy, Yellow is Medium, Red is Hard, and that hidden Purple zone is where things get truly brutal.
• Building Your Deck: Since the game drafts your team randomly from your roster, you cannot just stack one deck. Keep a healthy mix of damage, heals, and cleansers in both pools so you are never caught with a bad draw.
• Powering Up: Trait cards are your bread and butter for permanent stat boosts during the month, while Curios act like special equipment for extra perks like stuns or bonus coins. Think of cards as your foundation and Curios as your secret weapon.
• The Daily Grind: Use your Distorted Energy every single day to clear the fog. To make the most of it, head straight for bosses, altars, and chests instead of wandering into dead ends.
• The Loot: There is plenty to grab, including the new Mercurial Gear, Mythical accessories, Anaxia fragments, and special treasure chests filled with souls and cosmetics.
• The Reset: Everything stays fresh with a 30 day rotation. Once the clock hits zero, the map reshuffles with new paths and bosses to hunt all over again.

Grim Forest Mechanics

• Energy Management: You get 30 Distorted Energy daily. Moving to empty stages or starting battles costs 1 Energy. It does not carry over, so use it every day.
• Difficulties: Normal and Hard difficulties exist. They share the same energy pool but have separate progress for levels and traits.
• The Fog: The map is hidden. You must move onto stages to reveal adjacent areas. Positions of bosses and treasures change every 30 day rotation.
• Team Decks: You do not use your whole roster. You must pre select a Squad (20 Champions for Normal, 40 for Hard) split into two decks.
• RNG Drafting: Champions for each battle are drawn randomly from your decks. You only get 2 free redraws per day unless you find Redraw Altars on the map.
• Progressive Difficulty: Stages are marked E (Easy), M (Medium), H (Hard), and N (Nightmare).
• Leshun the Entangled One: To fight the main boss, you must first collect 3 Grim Crowns from Mythical opponents.
• Weakening the Boss: Leshun is guarded by four roaming bosses. Defeating these bosses individually on the map removes them from the final Leshun encounter, making the fight significantly easier.
• Mercurial Gear: This is the exclusive Variable Set reward. It provides HP, Resistance, Speed, and Total Guard stacks. It is primarily found in chests from roaming bosses.
• Trait Cards & XP: Battles grant XP to increase your Squad Progress Level (max 30). Each level lets you pick Trait Cards to buff stats. Every 10th level offers a choice between Legendary Trait Cards.
• Curio Optimization: You can equip up to 6 Curios (special trinkets) for massive buffs. You must find Curio Altars to unlock these slots and duplicates to level them up to Level 3.
• Phrygius the Trovemaster: This is a DPS check goblin. You cannot kill him, but reaching higher damage milestones yields more Grim Coins and Grim Gold.

Grim Forest Exploration

• The Vendor: Sells Curios, Mercurial Gear chests, and Squad Reshuffle tokens. Use these tokens if you need to swap up to 5 Champions in your locked decks mid rotation.
• Mimics & Ambushes: Not all chests are safe. Mimics provide high rewards but require a fight. Empty stages can also trigger random ambushes or reveal buried treasure.
• Special Altars: Curio Altar: Unlocks equipment slots for buffs.
• Aid Altar: Increases the number of Champions drawn for selection before battle.
• Redraw Altar: Provides extra daily redraw tokens.
• Rankings: Global and Clan ranks are determined by the total number of stages cleared and the total turn count. To climb, you must rerun stages to optimize turn efficiency.

Grim Forest Boss Guide

Mini Boss Encounters along the Grim Forest Path

Deep within the shifting thickets of the Grim Forest lie treacherous encounters that serve as lethal gatekeepers to the greater evils beyond. These mini bosses, Mimic and Phrygius the Trovemaster, operate as specialized hurdles designed to exploit specific weaknesses in your roster before you ever reach the primary guardians. Navigating these paths requires more than just raw power; it demands tactical precision and the ability to adapt to mechanics that target your strongest assets or punish your very survival. Each encounter acts as a grueling litmus test, ensuring only the most versatile teams earn the right to venture deeper into the woods.

Avatar	Boss Description
	Mimic Mimic reigns as a treacherous predator within the Grim Forest that expertly turns your own team’s power against you! This ravenous boss specializes in summoning “Mini Mimic” to the battlefield which hunt down and devour your champion with the highest Critical Damage stats. By locking your primary damage dealer out of the fight, the beast forces your remaining allies into a desperate struggle. To overcome its relentless Regenerative Hunger, you must deploy Heal Reduction to block its recovery and stop it from sustaining through your counter attacks while your star DPS is sidelined.
	Phrygius the Trovemaster Phrygius is a gluttonous goblin weighted down by a mountain of cursed riches, turning every encounter into a high stakes gamble with legendary rewards. To bring this hoarder down, players must shatter his reinforced “Gold Plates”, a feat that deals massive damage to Phrygius but triggers a cataclysmic area of effect backlash as the cursed treasure explodes. Surrounding yourself with a robust defensive core is non-negotiable; you must stack Heals and Shields to weather the golden storm, while keeping Revivers on standby should your greed and his fury prove fatal.

Guardians of the Grim Forest Boss

The Grim Forest is home to four formidable bosses including Tauraze, Draugnell, Isheth, and Maximoz. Each one stands as a powerful trial before challengers can face the ultimate endgame foe Leshun. Though fought individually, they embody unique mechanics that test every aspect of a team’s strength, serving as relentless defenders along the path to the main boss.

Avatar	Boss Description
	Tauraze the Bestial Flame Tauraze serves as a powerful guardian within the Grim Forest who punishes aggressive teams by cycling between HP Burn and Block Active Skills debuffs. His primary threat lies in his ability to rapidly gain speed when attacked, though this momentum can be countered by keeping him under a Freeze status. Because he possesses an unremovable shield and limits damage from skills based on Enemy Max HP, survival depends on maintaining constant Block Debuffs and using high accuracy champions to control the flow of combat.
	Draugnell the Eternal Gatherer Draugnell is a defensive powerhouse in the Grim Forest who punishes aggression with a lethal mix of crowd control and damage reflection. His mechanics center on a suppression loop of AoE Provokes and Freezes, while his passive grants a high chance to freeze any attacker and slash their speed. Because he makes his entire team immune to Ignore DEF effects and reflects half of all incoming damage, traditional nukers are often neutralized or killed by their own strikes. Defeating him requires constant HP Burn to deactivate his reflection and reliable Block Debuffs to navigate his minefield of control effects.
	Isheth the Crimson Siren Isheth is a momentum based boss in the Grim Forest who thrives by stealing the initiative and scaling her power through buffs. She utilizes Continuous Heals to rapidly increase her Max HP and Turn Meter, while her passives make her completely immune to traditional Enemy MAX HP damage. With the ability to strip team buffs and lock out passive skills, she effectively dismantles standard synergies. Success requires a strategy focused on Block Buffs to stop her growth and consistent cleansing to keep your team functional.
	Maximoz the Weeping Blade Maximoz is a deadly Grim Forest adversary who overwhelms teams with a relentless barrage of Poison debuffs and skill cooldown manipulation. Success in this encounter requires more than just raw power; you must master timing and buff management to survive his toxic wrath. By utilizing Block Debuffs and HP Burn to counter his Poison Cloud, you can neutralize his deceptive shifting defenses and secure a killing blow.

Leshun the Final Boss of Grim Forest

Avatar

Boss Description

Leshun the Entangled One Leshun is a deceptive master of control who isolates your champions and drains their strength through the unique Entangle and Siphon mechanics. This encounter demands a strategic approach centered on Turn Meter manipulation and consistent HP Burn rather than simple brute force. By actively pushing your allies out of their vines and cleansing stolen stats, you can disable his formidable defensive passives and dismantle his grip on your team.

Grim Forest FAQ

Q1: Why do certain Champions stay locked when using Squad Reshuffle?

A: Champions drawn for a particular Stage remain locked and cannot be substituted until that Stage is beaten.

Q2: Does the Champion’s state remain fixed after they are put into a Deck?

A: No, it doesn’t. You can upgrade Champions in many ways, and they will enter battle in their updated state. You can change Gear, Blessings, and Relics; your Champions can earn XP, be leveled up, ranked up, and ascended; their Skills can be upgraded; and Champions can be used in other game modes. Empowerment is also not locked. Want to move them to the Master or Reserve Vault? There are no restrictions there either!

Q3: How can I adjust Grim Forest’s difficulty if it feels too tough?

A: The Hard mode is chosen by default, so don’t forget to check it before venturing forth.

Q4: Is the purple Grim Forest area covered by mist without paths a bug?

A: The secret area is revealed only after defeating the Main Boss, Leshun the Entangled.

Q5: Do Grim Forest Vendor Chests only give one Gear piece each?

A: You will always receive 4 pieces of Gear on Normal and 6 pieces on Hard from each chest. The only difference is in gear rarity.

Q6: After rotation, do Decks reset requiring Champion re-selection?

A: No, the Decks don’t reset between rotations automatically. If you don’t want to change your Deck for the next rotation of the Grim Forest, you can simply confirm the selection of the Champions used in the previous rotation.

Q7: Are there 100 Mythic Fragments for forging Relics each rotation?

A: The rewards from Chests and Mimics are RNG-based. While players will typically average 100 fragments, the number may vary slightly from month to month: one month may be less than 100 pieces, another one, more than 100 Fragments.

Q8: How many Anaxia Fragments are available per month?

A: The rewards from Treasure Chests and Mimics are RNG-based, so the amount will vary from month to month. If you manage to defeat all the Mimics and collect all the Treasure Hunt chests, you will get, on average, around 20 Fragments per rotation.

Grim Forest Videos

Official: Raid: Shadow Legends | Feature Guide: Grim Forest