This has been covered in responses to several other posts about [b]Haunted Altars[/b] softlocking, however it’s always a good idea to have this sort of information at the head of a post rather than requiring players to soft through replies in order to find it, so here goes: As you are likely aware the boss starts the encounter protected by an immunity shield. To drop the shield you must complete the [b]Ritual Circle[/b] which will cause the Shriekers surrounding the area to open up and bombard the boss. The [i]intended[/i] mechanic is for the Shriekers to [b]go dormant[/b] (ie. close back up) after the boss’s shield drops in order to prepare for the following immunity phase. However, if the boss’s health drops to half [b]before[/b] the Shriekers go dormant, they will likely only [i]partially damage[/i] the shield for the second immunity phase and then close, causing the nodes to summon the [b]Ritual Circle[/b] again to fail to respawn, resulting in the softlock. [u]In order to prevent the softlock from occuring, you must avoid burning down the boss until the Shriekers have had a chance to go dormant after they have dropped the shield for the first time.[/u] The simplest way to achieve this is to simply refrain from damaging the boss until the Shriekers have gone dormant, as this will hopefully make up for the likelihood that one or more people in the party are unaware of the softlock and go in guns blazing. Others have stated that in the case of a softlock the encounter can be reset by through a party wipe, however I have not tested this personally so I cannot vouch for this at the moment; best to simply avoid the softlock in the first place. (΄◉◞౪◟◉｀)