Miller

The Miller has a versatile set of skills, with his most offensive attack being The Reaping, a skill that inflicts heavy AoE damage, especially to heroes in the front. He can also summon various enemies from the Farmstead with The Master Beckons, including Scarecrows, Sleeper's Heralds, and Farmhands, with a cooldown of 7, 5, and 8 turns, respectively. The enemies the Miller summons do roll initiatives, and will be able to act as soon as they are summoned.

If a Farmhand is present on the battlefield, the Miller will use Winter's Breath to transform it into a Frozen Farmhand, a unique enemy found only during this battle. The Frozen Farmhand will permanently guard the Miller, and disable all guard skills for heroes while it is alive. It also has a 0-damage attack called Hollow Keening that deals a fair bit of stress and Horror. If it survives for 3 or more turns, it may use The Soil Thaws to revert itself back to a normal Farmhand.

The Miller also has the rarely-used ability The Harvest, which can only be used if at least one hero has over 50 stress, and the Miller is below 70% health. It is very unique in that it will actually heal a hero's stress, while giving the Miller a modest heal and a short buff for +15% PROT. It has a cooldown of 4 turns.

Lastly, an important note about this battle is the existence of the trinket Mildred's Locket (obtained from interacting with the husk of the Miller's wife, Mildred, might be found before the battle). Equipping it will have the unique effect of giving the Miller a new ability, Immortal Beloved, which debuffs himself by removing his inherent PROT for a short time. Additionally, the hero with Mildred's Locket takes no damage from The Reaping, and deals +40% extra damage to the Miller.

The Miller has fairly long cooldowns on all of his abilities except for The Reaping. This can create a situation where the only ability the Miller can use is The Reaping, and he will use it twice in one round, which can be very painful for the party.

The Miller is a very powerful soul, considering his nature as a shriveled husk. He has fairly high HP, 20% PROT, and a number of powerful moves. It would be more than ideal to equip one of your heroes with Mildred's Locket, which you may find before his fight (or bring it with you, if on Endless mode), as the debuff the Miller gives himself with Immortal Beloved will give a much-needed offensive boost to the party. It is recommended to give the Locket to someone in the front ranks, both because The Reaping deals the most damage there and heroes with the Locket deal significantly more damage to the Miller.

The Miller has two actions per round, and when the battle begins he will most likely use The Master Beckons to summon a Farmhand, which he will transform on his second action with Winter's Breath.

The Frozen Farmhand created from Winter's Breath is typically only a minor nuisance; it will disable guard skills for the heroes (but not remove existing guards), but the most damaging attack in the battle (The Reaping) will bypass guards anyway since it targets the whole party. The more annoying effect of the Frozen Farmhand's presence is that it guards the Miller until defeated (or reverted back to a normal Farmhand). It has 35% PROT, but relatively low HP and resistances, particularly against blight.

Destroying his summons can mitigate the Miller's damage output, as he will often spend at least one turn summoning a new enemy, most likely a Sleeper's Herald. However, his cooldowns will all but guarantee that at some point he will use The Reaping multiple times in quick succession, as that may be the only move he has available. His large damage output can quickly destroy even a full health party in short order, so be ready to give out some very necessary heals, especially with very low-HP heroes like the Jester or Occultist.

The Miller is effectively immune to bleed (disregarding debuffs), but weak to blight, favoring a party with Plague Doctors or ShieldbreakersShieldbreaker, who both can deal significant blight to the Miller regardless of their position. The Shieldbreaker has the bonus of being able to pierce through the Miller's inherent PROT, and disabling the Frozen Farmhand's guard with Puncture. An additional strategy is to use a Bounty Hunter with Mildred's Locket; a single crit with Collect Bounty on a marked Miller can easily take off a quarter to a third of his health. However, be warned that the Miller's 2 actions per round will reduce the effective duration of the mark, and Frozen Farmhands using guard will further interfere with this strategy.