Blackrock King in Block Tales — Cruel King DX Superboss Guide
Jim Liu · July 7, 2026 · Optional superboss, Blackrock Throne Room
TL;DR
- Blackrock King is the Cruel King DX rematch — same character, ghost form, unlocked by talking to Shedletsky after Chapter 1. He is not a new story boss; he is Cruel King with Double Turns, ally summons, and a Persevere phase added.
- His kit is three moves: Choke (delayed AoE freeze, Combat 20 total across two implosions), Call For Help (summons an Ancient Knight, Ancient Archer, or Sentient Statue), and Knock (Combat 20 single-target plus a position swap).
- Double Turns means he acts twice per round. Budget your guard cards for two hits, not one — this is the single biggest adjustment coming from the Chapter 1 fight.
- At 1 HP or less he gets Persevere for 3 turns (can't drop below 0) plus an ATK Up buff, and heals 20 HP every time he downs a party member during it. Do not get greedy in the last stretch.
- Skip Ice Dagger entirely — it fails against him and buffs his own team instead of yours.
- Reward: the badge "A call for help!" and the Call: Blackrock King card, an ally-summon move for your own deck.
What Is Blackrock King?
Blackrock King is not a separate story boss — he is Cruel King DX, an optional superboss rematch of the Chapter 1 boss. You unlock him by clearing Chapter 1 and then talking to Shedletsky, after which he sits in the Blackrock Throne Room at Blackrock Castle, available to fight again any time. Visually he is close to identical to the original Cruel King with one change: his whole body is glossy and translucent, because this version of him is a ghost.
Personality-wise he is the same aggressive, dismissive character from Chapter 1, still convinced the player is acting recklessly. The dialogue payoff is different, though — beat him and he reacts with surprise and frustration at losing twice, then softens once you explain your actual motives. That framing matters for the guide because it confirms this fight is meant to be replayed, not a one-time story gate. The Chapter 1 walkthrough already covers the story version of Cruel King and his throne-room introduction — this page is specifically about the harder DX rematch, which uses three mechanics the story fight never touches: Double Turns, ally summons, and Persevere.
Attack Breakdown — Choke, Call For Help, Knock
Three moves make up his kit. None of them is a raw damage race by itself — the danger comes from how they stack with Double Turns, which I cover in the next section.
| Attack | What it does | Damage | How to handle it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Choke | Points his scepter, conjures an icy mist in the middle of the party that implodes after a short delay, applying Lv 5 Freeze for 1 turn. He repeats the mist a second time shortly after the first implosion. | Combat 10 per implosion, Combat 20 total | The freeze is the real cost, not the damage. Play your setup or heal turn during the delay window before the first implosion goes off, since you'll likely lose your next turn to freeze either way. |
| Call For Help | Whistles, looks behind him, slams his scepter down twice, then summons one ally: an Ancient Knight, an Ancient Archer, or a Sentient Statue. | Varies by which ally spawns | Kill the add immediately rather than splitting damage between it and Blackrock King. An extra attacker on top of his own Double Turns is what turns a manageable round into a bad one. |
| Knock | Walks up to a target, holds his scepter back, and smacks them. If the target is not a summoned ally, it also swaps them to a random one of the four party slots. | Combat 20 | Track your slot after every Knock — a position swap can put your healer in a spot your team isn't expecting, which causes more misplays than the damage itself. |
Two of these three moves — Choke and Knock — deal the same headline number, Combat 20, once you add up Choke's two implosions. The reason Choke feels worse in practice is the freeze denies you a turn on top of the damage, while Knock only costs you position. If you're triaging which one to guard against on a turn you can only block one, guard Choke first.
Double Turns — Why This Plays Nothing Like Chapter 1
This is the mechanic that actually makes Blackrock King a different fight and not just a reskinned Cruel King. He has the Double Turns attribute, meaning he uses two moves every round instead of one. In practice that means a round can be Choke followed immediately by Knock, or Call For Help followed by an attack from the ally he just summoned — the round doesn't end after his first action the way it did against Chapter 1 Cruel King.
The practical build implication: SP that would normally cover one defensive card per round now needs to stretch across two potential hits. I found the fight noticeably easier once I stopped trying to out-damage him and instead treated every round as "two things are about to happen" rather than "one attack is coming."
The Persevere Phase (1 HP and Below)
Persevere — his last-stand mechanic
Once Blackrock King's HP hits 1 or drops below it, he gains Persevere for 3 turns. While it is active his HP cannot go below 0 no matter how much damage lands — he simply stays at 1. He also gets a Lv 10 ATK Up buff that applies to his next attack, so the round right after he enters Persevere hits harder than anything earlier in the fight.
The genuinely dangerous part: while Persevere is active, any time he downs a party member he heals himself 20 HP. If your team is ragged going into this window and someone drops, you can watch a boss you'd already "beaten" claw back health you spent the whole fight removing.
If Persevere expires while he's still sitting at exactly 1 HP, he dies. So the fight isn't about landing one more big hit at 1 HP — it's about keeping your party alive and stable for those 3 turns so the timer runs out on its own. Trying to force lethal damage during Persevere is wasted effort since his HP is floored at 1 regardless of the number you deal.
This is the single mechanic that separates a clean Blackrock King clear from a frustrating one. I lost a fully-winning run to this exact trap on my third attempt (see the attempt log below) by pushing an aggressive final turn instead of just holding position for three rounds.
The Ice Dagger Trap
If you're carrying an Ice Dagger build over from an earlier fight, drop it before this one. Using Ice Dagger against Blackrock King doesn't just fizzle — it fails outright, and the game logs a placeholder failure message instead of resolving normally. Worse, instead of doing nothing, the effect gets redirected onto his own team rather than yours, which means the turn you spent playing it does the opposite of what you wanted.
This isn't a balance nerf specific to a "hard mode" — it reads like an unresolved interaction the game hasn't fully implemented for this fight, and it's exactly the kind of thing that only shows up once someone actually tries it and reports what happened. I'm noting it here as a confirmed behavior rather than a guess, because it's the sort of quirk that costs a wasted turn against a boss where you can't really afford one.
Recommended Build and Party Roles
Because the fight's real pressure is Double Turns plus Call For Help adds rather than one big damage check, the deck that worked best for me leaned toward answering two threats per round rather than maximizing single-target burst.
In a multiplayer party, assign one player to focus adds the instant Call For Help resolves and keep the rest of the party on guard/heal duty that round. Trying to burn Blackrock King down while an Ancient Knight is also swinging is how SP runs dry before Persevere even starts.
My Clear Attempt Log
I tracked every attempt after unlocking him through Shedletsky. Six attempts, most of the early losses came from treating this like the Chapter 1 fight rather than a new fight wearing the same face.
| # | Deck (abbreviated) | Result | What happened | Change made |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Power Stab, Shield Wall, Prayer | Wipe, Round 4 | Guarded one hit per round, ate the second every time — didn't realize Double Turns was active | Confirmed via the fight log that he acts twice per round |
| 2 | Power Stab, Shield Wall ×2, Prayer | Wipe, Round 7 | Survived the double-hit rounds, but Call For Help added a Sentient Statue and I split damage between it and the king | Decided to prioritize killing adds on sight |
| 3 | Sea Serpent, Bodyguard, Prayer, Shield Wall | Wipe at 1 HP boss | Got him to Persevere, then pushed an aggressive turn expecting lethal — he downed a teammate and healed 20 HP back, resetting the close-out | Learned to hold position during Persevere instead of forcing a finish |
| 4 | Sea Serpent, Bodyguard, Prayer, Shield Wall | Wipe, Round 5 | Knock swapped my healer to a slot the party wasn't tracking, and a Choke freeze landed on the wrong turn as a result | Started calling out slot position out loud after every Knock |
| 5 | Sea Serpent, Bodyguard, Prayer, Shield Wall | Close — Persevere held, ran out of turns | Played it safe through Persevere correctly this time, but overall SP was too low to keep guarding for the full 3 turns | Swapped one Shield Wall for a second Prayer for better SP economy across a longer fight |
| 6 ✓ | Sea Serpent, Bodyguard, Prayer ×2 | CLEAR | Killed the Call For Help add on the round it spawned, guarded through both Double Turns hits every round, and held position for all 3 Persevere turns without forcing a finish | — |
The pattern across the losses: three different attempts died to a version of the same root cause — not respecting that this fight has two things happening per round where Chapter 1 only had one. Once I stopped trying to answer it with a Chapter 1 mindset, the actual clear took one attempt.
Common Mistakes
Guarding for one hit per round. Double Turns means a round is never over after the first attack resolves. If you're still playing this like the story fight, you will eat a second hit you didn't budget for — this cost me attempts 1 and 2 directly.
Splitting damage between the king and a summoned add. Call For Help adds are cheaper to remove outright than to half-kill while also damaging Blackrock King. A live add plus Double Turns is effectively three actions against your party in one round.
Forcing a finish during Persevere. His HP is floored at 1 for those 3 turns no matter what you deal. Pushing an aggressive, exposed turn to "finish him early" only risks a party member going down, which heals him 20 HP and undoes progress. Play defensively and let the timer run out.
Ignoring position after Knock. A slot swap that goes unnoticed is how a healer ends up out of position right when a Choke freeze is about to land. Say your new slot out loud in multiplayer.
Bringing an Ice Dagger build. Covered above, but worth repeating here because it's an easy carry-over mistake from earlier fights — it does nothing useful against this boss specifically.
Drops and Rewards
Clearing Blackrock King awards the badge "A call for help!" along with the Call: Blackrock King card — a summon-ally move for your own deck that mirrors the same Call For Help ability he used against you. It's a novelty pick more than a meta-defining card, but it's the reason a fair number of players fight him more than once after already collecting the badge on a first clear.
If you're chasing the full enemy roster context for what Ancient Knight, Ancient Archer, and Sentient Statue actually do outside of this fight, the all enemies database covers Chapter 1's Blackrock Castle roster in more depth. For the reward card's stats once you have it, check it against your existing deck on the cards and builds calculator before committing a slot to it.
FAQ
Is Blackrock King the same as Cruel King in Block Tales?
Same character, different fight. Blackrock King is the Cruel King DX superboss rematch — a translucent, ghost-like version of the Chapter 1 boss you unlock after talking to Shedletsky post-Chapter 1. He keeps Cruel King's personality but adds Double Turns, ally summons, and a Persevere mechanic the story fight never uses.
How do I unlock the Blackrock King fight?
Clear Chapter 1, then talk to Shedletsky. That conversation opens Blackrock King as a repeatable optional superboss in the Blackrock Throne Room at Blackrock Castle.
What does Blackrock King's Choke attack do?
Choke conjures an icy mist that implodes after a short delay, dealing Combat 10 and applying Lv 5 Freeze for 1 turn, then repeats a second mist shortly after. Total damage across both implosions is Combat 20, and the freeze window costs more than the number suggests.
What happens when Blackrock King uses Call For Help?
He summons one ally — an Ancient Knight, an Ancient Archer, or a Sentient Statue — adding a second attacker to the round on top of his own Double Turns until the add is downed.
What is the Persevere mechanic on Blackrock King?
At 1 HP or below he gets Persevere for 3 turns (HP can't drop below 0 during that window) plus an ATK Up buff on his next attack, and he heals 20 HP any time he downs a party member while it's active. Let the timer expire rather than forcing damage.
Why does using Ice Dagger against Blackrock King backfire?
It fails outright and the effect gets redirected onto his own team instead of yours — a wasted turn carried over from a build meant for a different fight.
What does Blackrock King drop when you beat him?
The badge "A call for help!" and the Call: Blackrock King card, an ally-summon move for your own deck.
Is Blackrock King harder than the Chapter 1 Cruel King fight?
Yes. Double Turns roughly doubles his action economy per round versus the Chapter 1 version, and Call For Help can add a third attacker to some rounds. Players who breezed through Chapter 1 Cruel King still wipe once or twice here before adjusting their guard budget.
Next Steps After Blackrock King
Clearing this superboss is a good signal that you're reading Double Turns and add-management correctly, both of which show up again later. The boss strategies hub covers the five story bosses plus the other optional superbosses if you want to keep testing that skill against Mutant or the Griefer Boss next.
For deck planning beyond this fight, the all cards list has the full stat breakdown if you're looking for alternatives to the build above, and the cards and builds calculator lets you model whether a specific loadout survives a round with two boss actions plus an add.