Boss Battle Strategy

Preferred Boss Strategy?

All out assault	23.1%	[ 6 ]
Stealth	26.9%	[ 7 ]
RAABSU!	26.9%	[ 7 ]
Block attack, deflecting back, then layeth the smacketh down!	23.1%	[ 6 ]
Total Votes:			[ 26 ]

[Tall Dark and Snarky]

Bring a hell of a lot of potions, and a party that specializes in being an annoying son of a b***h that can pester and run away like flies because it's not going to take a few mere seconds to take him down.

Not only is he a bulky character that can take a hit or two, his attacks will knock your HP through hell, and even his "light" attacks are a major ouchie.
The exchange for being such an annoying staller is that he is slow as ********, so you can basically run around him and dodge his attacks if you can see 'em coming.

It'd be best to have at least one healer on the team that can stand on the sidelines without being targeted. The rest need to be quick characters that can jump all over the place when they feel like it. Although they may not survive a hit, you healer can revive them while the rest of your party distracts him.

Although it'll take a hell of a long time, you'll eventually whittle down his HP to the red bars and land a quick final blow without taking too much damage.

[The Old Exorcist]

If you're wondering why you keep getting hit, for god's sake, look in the mirrors! You can see where he is, and though it's a difficult system to acclimate to, if you can find where he is relative to you, you can avoid his attacks when he's 'invisible!' Focus on blowing out the candles. Don't try to attack where his reflection indicates he would be unless you have an attack with good knockback/stun and a good opening.

When all the candles are out, you should be able to see a ghostly aura when the camera 'eye' adjusts to the darkness. This is where you can do massive damage, but be mindful! Snarky can still attack when vulnerable, and when you're attempting combo moves, keep in mind he always evades the last strike, which is usually the one with the most damage. Don't waste your time trying to line up the perfect combo. Focus on accuracy and have a plan for his rapid attacks, whether it be good armor or a good healing ability. When the candles come back on, distance yourself!

What Snarky lacks in health, he makes up for in evasiveness. Don't let the HP count fool you; this will be a fast-paced battle, but not a fast one.

[AsuraSyn]

You don't actually fight him. Instead you have to sneak past him in a giant form similar to Scarecrow in Asylum.
The key is to have a lot of little toss-able items handy to distract him while you dodge from shadow to shadow and behind or under cover at every opportunity.
Should he catch sight of you for more than three seconds in a row, it's game over. If you manage to get past him, instead of bingoing him, you seal him inside the room while he obsessively continues to search for you in the room, removing him from the rest of the game.

[Holy Slayer]

His boss battle is like something out of Metal Gear Solid, particulary something like The End. To defeat him you have to out stealth him by sneaking through the swampy lands while everything is on ******** fire.
Then upon getting a few good shots all stealth will be thrown up in the air and you'll have to engage him in a brutal, manly fist fight while everything is still on fire, just keep spamming uppercuts and quicktime events and you should be fine.

[Tall Dark and Snarky]

If it's your first time fighting Slayer, and you HAVEN'T looked up a guide to defeat him, you're in for a hell of a lot of rage-quit. As the not-as-good-as-he-seems sheriff of the town, you think "Haha. If he can act like a goody-two-shoes, he shouldn't be that hard to defeat. This'll be a piece of cake." Apply a lot of run-of-the-mill brute force here; he'll go down very easily in the usual mini-boss thirty seconds to a minute. His low HP, slow movement, and paltry defense make him a cushion to your attacks, but when that HP bar reaches 0. DO. NOT. STOP. ATTACKING.

All the green health goodness may be an empty bar now, but he absolutely hasn't been defeated yet. If you don't remember, Slayer is a zombie. He's already dead. Now your bullets and physical melee attacks will do nothing to him; they won't even stagger him. Back up and start applying magic to your attacks. It is recommended that you use fire magicks once you get to this stage. If you remember the terrain you're fighting on, you'll remember that it has just recently rained before you encountered him. Lead him into obstacles that'll slow him down when he chases you to create space, and when he's a good distance, just start throwing your fire magicks like a crazy person. Mind you though, when he's set aflame, he'll start to chase you at twice the speed he did before. Keep running when he's lit on fire and squeeze into spaces where he can't get you to create time for you to escape. Once the fire goes out, repeat the fire tactic, and eventually, his body will crumble away and there will be nothing left.

[AsuraSyn]

It's half FMV so mostly you wait for the right buttons to flash on screen then hit them.
As you and he fall through the giant elevator shaft, tumbling together in battle, you do have several chances to score big hits by slamming him into falling debris. However, he can do the same so watch it. Once you both hit bottom, the real fight begins. His wings and most of both your weapons are toasted by now, so it's pretty much a straight out hand to hand fight. You can, occasionally, grab a piece of pipe or board and whack each other with but in the end, it's not going to matter as the bombs are falling on the entire complex and you're both going to die.

[Janish]

Asura has average move speed, slow attack speed, and average-high damage. He attacks mainly with his crowbar, but also has an arsenal of special attacks that must be watched out for. If nobody is within melee range, he begin firing poison darts that tick for 3% health per second. Periodically he will flash an evil smile that stuns all players for one second. 1-5 normal minions will spawn at various corners of the map and attack the closest player. At 75/50% health, he will go invulnerable while he plays his pan flute. The flute animates his stuffed cat, which you must defeat before returning to Asura. The cat hits hard but has low health. Burn it down before one minute has passed, or Asura's magic flute music will begin slowly healing the cat up over time. At 25%, he will break his flute, which summons 10 elite minions and re-animates the cat. He is not invulnerable however and can be attacked while the cat is alive. The minions will switch targets randomly, which makes it important for all healers to be extremely alert. Depending on the group's playstyle and composition, you can either attempt to burn the boss before the adds overwhelm the group, or focus fire the adds and clear them out before returning to Asura.

[The Old Exorcist]

Before encountering Janish, it is highly reccommended you go back and practice combat with the notoriously tricky hooded assassin NPCs. They're hard to hit, and take sharp reflexes to take down, just like Janish, and no guide can make up for the practice and skill required to take Janish down.

When you've gotten the hang of taking down the hooded assassins (them fleeing doesn't count as taking them down; if they get away, you're not fast enough), be sure not to wear too much armor before you face Janish. Though heavy armor will guarantee minimal damage from combat, it will weight you down too much to actually strike her. Without the movement bonus of light armor, it is impractical (read: IMPOSSIBLE) to attempt landing a strike on this boss. The preferred weapon of choice is a light one with long reach; try for a spear or longsword, but the best weapon by far is a whip, as it has long reach, is difficult to parry by even very agile characters, and Janish doesn't wear armor, so unlike other enemies, it WILL deal significant damage. Invest in some good boots, too. Movement bonuses are your friend.

Now for combat. Janish is a fast character, and will commonly strike at your sides, or if you failed to take my movement bonus advice, your back. These are the most notoriously difficult strike zones to avoid damage from, hence my stress on practicing with hooded assassins. Whichever technique you've learned to execute on evading or parrying these attacks, be sure you have it down to a formula, as you'll have to block these sort of attacks /regularly/. Not every attack Janish throws can be countered (unless you parry, of course), but when you see an opening, you'll know. Be sure to commit; if you second-guess yourself mid-execution, Janish will take the opening and cut you to ribbons. Don't try for the critical zones. Your primary target is her legs. She'll accuse you of fighting dirty, but there is no penalty for striking there, so whittle them down until she's slow enough to hit at her sides and arms. Once you've got her slow enough, the match is yours, but remember that even when slowed down, she's still fast enough to run you through if you hesitate on any execution. Expect to have to repeat this battle a few times until you get the hang of Janish's demanding reflexes.

There's an alternae cutscene if you manage to defeat Janish with a heavy weapon, but that's not covered in this guide.

[FreelancerAgent-Nebraska]

Pro tip: Save before you enter his walled city!

Nathaniel Solomon is, as his title suggests, the last and most powerful exorcist. Due to his position holed up in the forbidden and holy walled fortress, this boss battle involves some tricky platforming. Scale the wall, run across a blessed (or damned, whatever your preference) field of landmines, and climb to the tallest tower of the city.

What makes Nathaniel truly unique is the complete and utter lack of underlings for you to fight through, whether on your way through his fortress or in the fight with him. This, coupled with an inability to escape until he is defeated, means that you have no chances to level-grind after you hop down from that siege wall.

The battle with Nathaniel can be (barely considered) easy or ridiculously hard based on what character type you're using. If you are an extremely low level OR have an excellent persuasion skill you can convince him to go easy on you in the pre-fight dialogue. If this hasn't been done, well, unless you can handle massive close-range damage and have brought as many potions as you can carry or healing spells you can cast, you're SOL.

Long/midrange weapons are the best to use to keep him at a distance, but don't expect him to let it stay that way. He is surprisingly agile and can appear behind you almost without noticing. When your health drops to 0 for the first time, don't fret--Nathaniel will take pity on you and revive you to full health if he is at 50% or more (any other stats will be as they were before you died).

This is easily one of the longest one-on-one battles in the game, so make sure you have the time to commit to it. He can go down if you just keep pinging him since he rarely heals himself.

[AsuraSyn]

FLAN is a nightmare boss. Literally! You’re in a drugged stupor when you encounter him and thus, fighting him is an exercise in frustration.
He’s insanely strong, can cover any distance in the blink of an eye, and heals anything you do to him. Only way to deal with him is to use smoke to hide yourself and get creative in your camo choices to hide form him till you start getting auditory clues from your friends on how to wake up.
First off, snipe the weird-a** birds flying around without giving away your position. ******** impossible, almost, but whatever. Next you have to actually sneak up behind him and steal some of the purple... thingies growing off his back and eat them. Now things start to get less hazy and you can actually do some damage to him. Nonetheless, stay hidden as much as possible.
Finally, to fully wake up and begin the real fight, find the hidden room in the back of the map to confront your worst memories and embrace them at long last.
Now go kill the b*****d.
He’s not invincible nor super powerful anymore, but he’s still fast, strong and hard to bingo, so stay mobile, take cover, and plink his head as much as possible Eventually, you shatter his protective mask and paint the walls with his brains.

[Xairone]

[thou art I and I am thou]

All that's needed is a pistol with 2 rounds and a chain adorned with spikes. First, take the first bullet and hit the wheel of the tire. Next, catch her with the chain and shoot her with the last bullet.

[Ryu_the_Fox]

Alright, so before the boss fight, get the Mirror Shield. It is very crucial for his laser eye attack. You also need the Syringe Gun and you must equip the Life Recovery Mod. He's a boss that has negative life. Doing any damage only makes him stronger. So what you do with the Mirror shield is reflect his eye beam but angle it so that it hits somewhere else, preferable the roof, because you want to create holes of light to limit his movement. There is no use dodging the laser because his accuracy is impeccable. He will shoot 9 rounds of eye laser before having to recharge, take this time to shoot the Syringe Gun LR at him before he finally recharges. Remember to take cover and be patient about your moves and you will be fine.

[Miteux]

All you really have to do is break that mask... But it's harder than it seems.

Whenever you see him bring his scythe up, run to the left to avoid it and then stab him with your sword and back away. Then wait until he glows yellow. Dodge the blades coming from his heart and jump up, slashing at his mask. Last, when he opens his mouth wide, deflect the beam of light with your shield. That's the part that will break his mask for good.

After his mask is gone, you just need to hit him three times and you win!

[AsuraSyn]

Grenades. You need a lot of them.
Cause she will dodge everything else and then bite you.
Basically, toss a frag, run like hell, toss another, repeat. Oh, and take cover under something heavy when she starts to hover in midair and sparks fly off her, cause that's gonna hurt when it hits you.

[V_Kamihara]

If you never encountered Asura before, prepare to rage-quit! Similar to Ripto in Spyro 2, she has 3 stages to her fight. First, her and the cat fight separately and all you have to do is wait for the cat's turn to attack, jump over the cat and strike her, then run, cause she will chase you. BE CAREFUL NOT TO HIT THE CAT! If you do, prepare for hell. She will chase you at a speed faster than the fastest you can go. Your only hope is to hide behind something when you hit the cat, she'll ran into it with a THUNK and give you opportunity to get about 3 hits on her, 4 hits if you're quick. After 5 hits, you move on to the next stage.

Her second stage becomes a little harder. Her and the cat then attack at the same time. It seems like nothing, but trust me, it's hard. This is the point you might rage-quit! You have to jump over them and run like hell to the corner of the stage. She will chase you and you have to jump at just the right time. Too early or late and she'll shove you off the stage, making you lose a life and start from the beginning again. If you jump at just the right time, she'll fall off and you have to press a button and do a God of War style sequence, which will end up slamming her through 2 floors of the 3 floor level. Once you slam her through the final floor, you latch onto the stage and she plummets towards the spikes, right before, she turns the cat into a Pegasus-style horse and begins to fly off. You have to jump off at just the right time or you will fall into the spikes and lose a life. If you decide not to jump, a sequence will play that the horse kicks you, making you fall to your death. After you jump on the horse, you play another God of War style button sequence which will kick her off the horse, making her fall to her death.