How to beat the Captain (The Struggle Is Over/Never Look Back achievement guide)

How to beat the secret alt final boss.

Who's Captain?

Captain is an alt final boss who can be found in the IDPD HQ. She's the head of the IDPD, the Future Cops that always try to kill you with their horrible attacks. And let's be honest, Elites have ended so many of your runs at this point that you probably want to them to burn to death while listening to their agony screams. You don't? I'm sure you'll love to be able to take down their master, though, Captain John Johnson! Despite being called John, she's a girl for some reason, by the way, so I'm going to refer to her as "she" throughout this guide.

Why would I want to kill Captain?

Beating Captain will end your run, which means you won't be going for distance and will not get a high score at all. So why would you want to kill her? Several reasons:

• ACHIEVEMENTS. Beating Captain will give you the achievement "The Struggle Is Over". That's pretty cool.
  
• A B-SKIN! And an achievement that comes with it! Defeating Captain with Rogue will unlock Rogue's B-skin, which looks pretty cool in my opinion. Good luck defeating the hardest boss in the game with the worst character in the game (in my opinion), though!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• And the most important one, in my opinion, CROWNS. Beating Captain will end your run, unlocking any crown you had on. This is important because there's a special set of crowns after you loop, and the only other way to unlock them is to reach L2 and further loops.
  Beating Captain not only is faster, as you'll only need to reach ~1-3 L1 before being able to win, but also more reliable, as bad spawns and terrible RNG could make your road to L2 a nightmare. Not to mention it's hard, and good luck doing it more than 70+ times if you want every single crown.
  You could do this for completion's sake, being able to try fun stuff by starting with some loop crowns, or the "Ultra Mutant" achievement. I, and many others, do it for that 100% achievement. Be warned, however, that to get it you'd have to kill Captain 74 times with different characters as well as crowns that often cripple you! This is no easy challenge.

Also, it makes you cool.

How do I reach Captain?

Captain is in the HQ, which can be reached by pressing "E" on a van that's still moving. Vans only appear after you've looped (defeated both the Nuclear Throne and Throne II, but you probably knew this already). This can actually be very tricky, as vans one-shot you if you touch them! You'll have to wait until the van stopped moving but still has its lights on, which means it won't kill you if you go on it. However, you'll have to act really quickly, as you'll have less than a second to enter it between the moment it stops moving and the moment its lights turn off. Try to stand just above or below the place you think it'll stop, then make a run for it.
You could also just enter it, lose your Strong Spirit and get to 1 HP before entering the HQ, but you probably don't want that to happen, to be honest.

This guide is mainly for people aiming to get every single post-loop crown, so I'm going to talk briefly about when to enter the van: I usually reach 1-2 L1 and enter the Crown Vault, then pick whatever crown I want and exit in 1-3 L1. Then, I kill the Big Bandits, as the van will hardly ever spawn before these two are defeated, then I try to enter the van. If I miss, I try again in the next level.

There's not much to be said about the H.Q, other than you should be careful. IDPDs can shoot bullets from across the map sometimes, and not being careful will probably result in a stupid death, especially with all the Elites around. Also, if you were carrying an Ultra Weapon, you'll probably run out of ammo really quickly as cops don't drop rads upon dying.
The H.Q is NOT randomly generated, and the walls will have the same patterns every single run. The enemies will be random, however. (this is true 99% of the time, but one stage of the H.Q was different than normal in a run I did. Seems like it can be rarely randomly generated, but it's probably just a glitch)

How do I beat Captain?

You've killed everyone in the first two HQ levels, and now you're ready to fight Captain, the trickiest boss in the game (as well as the hardest, in my opinion).

You'll spawn in a big arena-like room with noone, except Captain chillin' at her desk. She will not attack you unless you attack her first, as she is too busy playing Candy Crush on her iPhone. You can take this time to relax before jumping in and attempting to beat this horrible boss.
Notice the mug with a heart on it? That's because Captain's a nice woman who loves everyone, no matter the amount of radiation they've been exposed to. That's 100% true as long as you don't deal any damage to her, in which case she WILL go berserk and WILL try to murder you. She'll start by charging at you (and destroying her nice desk in the process), which will one shot-you or leave you with 2 HP if you have Rhino Skin. So stay away from her before dealing the first blow,




Now that the fight has started, let's talk about her attacks:

• First, Captain can throw gigantic blue balls at you. These can't be destroyed by melee weapons, except by any kind of Screwdriver or the Jackhammer (which makes it a pretty cool weapon in this fight), but will instead being bounced back at whatever you aimed at : that means you can aim at Captain to deal some extra damage to her (only 8, though). These big projectiles will kill you in one shot, too.
  She will usually throw one at you, then teleport somewhere else and throw another, up to five times in a row. What makes these balls so annoying is that they explode upon hitting a wall, Captain or you (you'll already be dead though) into ten lines of fast bullets, and by the time they actually are destroyed Captain will have already attacked you again. That means you'll have to watch your back with this attack, or you will get destroyed by some bullets you had forgotten even existed.
  Just dodge them and watch your back, or throw them back at her face if you have a melee weapon. Also note than upon exploding, they wil drop a medkit or an ammo pack, the only way to get back ammo or HP in this fight. Get them if you want to, but stay on alert as Captain won't stop attacking you.
  
  
• Captain can fire bullets. These bullets are special in that unlike normal projectiles, they aren't destroyed by melee weapons, but are instead reflected. You can reflect them at the boss itself, but they will only deal 3 damage to her (and you will take 3 damage if you get hit by them). She can fire these bullets everywhere on the screen in two different ways:
  first, in a pattern that makes me think of a weird flower. You can dodge this one by going through the tiny spaces between the bullets (they're pretty slow), but it'll be pretty hard unless you back up: the distance will make the bullets go farther from each other and let you enough space to squeeze through.
  
  Here's a picture of it I stole from Pantless Gaming's YT channel because I was too lazy to go fight her myself again :
  
  
  
  
  
• Second of all, with two extremely fast lines of bullets that keep moving towards each other. This one's scary, but not that hard: you'll just have to keep moving away from both lines and she'll eventually stop shooting, leaving you just enough space to make it between them unharmed. Also, move away from her so the distance draws the bullets farther apart, you'll make things easier. It won't always be possible to squeeze through if you're too close to her.
  
  Here's yet another stolen pic, from YouTube user 18ml, who was crazy enough to beat her using a revolver only (Here's the link to the video) :
  
  
  
  
  You could just use a melee weapon and make both of these attacks a joke, too.
  
  
• Captain can also charge! When you'll see her hide briefly inside of her weird blue guardian-like suit, you know she's going to leap at you. This charge is a one-shot, too, so always KEEP YOUR DISTANCE FROM HER. This is also why you shouldn't try to melee her to death.
  I've heard her charge can be deflected if you hit her hard enough, but I've never actually managed to do it, to be honest.
  Also, her charge only does 10 damage, which means you can survive it with Rhino Skin or Crystal's Fortress. You'll still be left in a terrible spot, though.

Captain has 1540 HP, a bit more than the Nuclear Throne itself. Which means you're going to need some good weapons if you don't want her to overwhelm you with her sea of bullets and one-shot attacks.
The global strategy is to always shoot at her. You want her dead as fast as you can, she's a dangerous opponent. This doesn't mean you shouldn't stay very cautious, and choking just a little will probably end with your death.

What should I use to kill Captain?

This is probably the most important part of this guide. Mutations and weapons make all the difference in the world against this boss, and a good loadout can make this fight a joke. It probably won't often be a joke, though.

MUTATIONS

• Strong Spirit: for obvious reasons. It'll save your life once, which can really help in tough situations. This fight is a tough situation.
  
• Scarier Face: this mutation reduced every enemy's HP by 20%. This applies on bosses, and will make Captain's health go from 1540 to 1232. This may not seem like it, but this is a huge deal, as you want Captain dead as fast as you can.
  
• EUPHORIA. The absolute best mutation against this boss. You probably heard of it as one of the worst mutations, and probably never take it, but it makes Captain so much more easier. The reason is obvious: Captain only attacks using bullets. Euphoria slows down bullets. You'll have a much higher reaction time and overall greatly improved survivability.

As well as some other less good, but still decent mutations :

• Back Muscle, so that if you fight her loaded on ammo you won't have to pick up ammo packs;
  
• Plutonium Hunger, so you can pick up ammo packs and medkits more easily;
  
• Second Stomach, to get the most of a dropped medkit if you've been injured;
  
• Long Arms to bounce back more bullets with a melee weapon;
  
• Rhino Skin, so you can take more hits.
  
• Stress can allow you to shoot a lot faster the more damaged you are, increasing your DPS.
  
• Throne Butt highly depends on your character, and can be awesome or useless. I'd really recommand picking it as Steroids, Plant, or eventually Rogue or Eyes.

Pick whatever mutations you want throughout your run, though. Despite not being good against this boss, Rabbit Paw, Boiling Veins and other such mutations can help you a lot. Fighting Captain is a thing, reaching her another; so don't pick Back Muscle over Bloodlust just because you want an optimal build for the fight.

WEAPONS

You're gonna want some powerful and precise weapons. You only have one enemy, so no need to use weapons with a high spread or designed for crowd control. Hyper Slugger, Hyper Launcher, Auto Crossbow, Gatling Bazooka, anything that hits hard, fast and doesn't spread too much is good. The absolute best, in my opinion, is the Heavy Auto Crossbow. 55 bolt ammo, that weapon and Scarier Face is enough to take her down without ever picking up ammo. You're fine without it, though, but you should give it a try someday.

It'd be smart to also bring a melee weapon, as they can help a lot by bouncing back her bullets. She basically only attacks using these, so melee weps are very strong and will allow you to not only rely on dodging. Bring whatever melee you want, it's fine. Except the Screwdriver, I guess, because its range is pathetic (why would you even bring a screwdriver to begin with). And remember, her charge will kill you in one shot, so if you're standing close to her, you're screwed. So don't melee her, only deal damage using your primary weapon!
Quick note, the Jackhammer is a bit special as it also destroys her giant projectiles. It's very good against her bullet spam, too.

Ultra Weapons are to be avoided, as you will run out of rads without any way to get them back. You should use them only if your rads are maxed out or close to being maxed out; which means you shouldn't use them in the H.Q. as IDPDs don't drop radiations, so you can spam them in the last fight. Makes things a little more complicated, but it's doable.

Character pros

Every character has an active and a passive that can more or less help during this fight. I'll go over all of those:

• Fish can roll, which doesn't really help in this fight as you'll probably roll into a bullet. It can be useful depending on the situation, though. His passive will help you get more ammo from mini ammo chests, and he will get a Guitar in 0-1 L1, a very good melee you can bring to this fight.
  Gun Warrant is recommended, as Confiscate won't do anything for you here.
  Fun fact, I once won this fight with Fish, then rolled right into one of her bullets that spawned from one of her big splitting projectiles. I died. Be careful where you roll at, folks.
  
  
• Crystal can shield, which allows her to protect herself from bullets. This is very good in this fight as, once again, you'll mostly be dealing with bullets: bringing a melee weapon also is optional, as you already have a way to protect yourself. Having more HP by default is also nice.
  You can pick whichever Ultra you want, but I like Juggernaut the most.
  
  
• Eyes can use Telekinesis, which will drift bullets away from him. He's one of the best characters against her in my opinion, just watch out not to use telekinesis when she charges or she will get you.
  Pick whatever Ultra you feel like.
  
  
  
• Melting is the worst against her. His active is worthless as there's no corpses to explode, and his passive gives you less HP, making you very fragile. If you're going for crown unlocks, reaching L2 probably will be easier, as Melting is really really strong against mobs.
  None of his Ultras will do anything against her, and Detachment will probably cripple you even more.
  
  
• Plant is pretty good against her. Running faster is nice to avoid bullets, his snare won't really do anything to her though. What makes him good is his Throne Butt : it kills any enemy below 33% HP. This basically means Captain will have 2/3 of her normal HP, which means only 1027 HP. This, like Scarier Face, makes a difference that shouldn't be underestimated.
  None of his Ultras will really do anything, but his Trapper can slow her down a bit more. She teleports, though, so it won't make a big difference if you picked Killer.
  
  
• Y.V is a Gun God. He's very good against her, too: his passive makes him shoot faster, which means you'll be able to hit her faster and harder; his active, if you have Ultra B, will make you save ammo; and he'll be able to enter his crib and get pretty much any weapon you want for this fight.
  Both Ultras are fine : if you have enough ammo in your pockets to kill her without picking up ammo crates, as well as good weapons, Ima Gun God will put her down extremely fast. Back 2 Bizniz will make you save ammo by giving you one free pop pop upgrade, which will make you fire your gun fire three shots for the price of two. Which one you pick is entirely up to you.
  
  
• Steroids can dual weild. This means more damage dealt faster, which is good. You won't really take any advantage out of this if you bring a melee, though, and if you don't you might lack defense. If you're using two guns, Throne Butt is highly recommended and will help you not to run out of ammo.
  Both Ultras won't do anything against her.
  
  
• Robot isn't particularly good against her. Finding better weapons before the fight can be good, I guess, but you're in L1 so you can get any weapon you want at this point anyway. There won't be any gun to eat there, so Robot has no upsides in this fight; at least it isn't crippled like Melting.
  
  
  
• Chicken can survive one fatal hit. This won't do much here, as you'll have no way to replenish your health other than praying she'll throw a giant ball that'll drop a medkit to save you.
  Throwing weapons can be good, but only with Determination, which will basically give you a third high-damage gun. Without it, good luck picking up that weapon you just threw away without risking your life!
  Harder to Kill won't do anything here, as you need to kill enemies to be able to survive for longer.
  
  
• Rebel is okay. The problem is even though her allies can do some good work by dealing damage, they will always end up running into bullets and die. Your health is too precious for you to spam right click here, too.
  Personal Guard will make your allies stronger and give you two free allies, which is good in this fight as you want your allies to have survivability against her bullet spam. Riot can be good, but both allies spawned will probably die a few seconds after you've created them.
  
  
• Horror can use its passive to get a better mutation build, theoretically speaking. It's still very good, but not against this boss. Its active is where the good things are at: his rad beam can destroy projectiles, including the giant balls she throws : this can really help against her endless bullet spam.
  Stalker won't do anything here; Anomaly will reduce her HP by 140, which is pretty good; and Meltdown will double the amount of rads you can carry, meaning you can use your rad beam more. Both Anomaly and Meltdown are good here, but Anomaly also has the upsides of making the H.Q extremely easy! Cops don't have much HP, which means if an Elite Shielder isn't around, killing one or two cops will activate Anomaly and end the level. The Van won't even have the time to spawn!
  
  
• Rogue is probably the one you want to kill Captain with, if you're not trying to unlock crowns. Her passive will create an explosion around her upon getting hit, which will destroy bullets around her as well. This is pretty good against Captain for obvious reasons. Her active, the Portal Strike, which create five explosions which can deal 8 to 16 damage each. Problem is, Captain has 1540 HP. Even if she gets hit by several explosions at once with one Portal Strike, this damage is meaningless.
  Ultra B, Super Blast Armor, is recommended as it'll destroy more bullets when you'll get hit. You could pick Super Portal Strike to carry up to 6 PSs, but as I've said this won't make a big difference at all here.
  Rogue will also have a sad music that'll play in the H.Q instead of the regular theme! After all, you'll basically be murdering your friends to get through it.

Overall, here is my personal opinion on which characters are the best for this fight :

• Top tier : Crystal (Shield), Eyes (Telekinesis), Horror (Rad Beam+Anomaly helps in the HQ), Y.V (Ultra A, Ultra B, free to choose his weapons freely in his crib)
  
• Good characters : Fish (guaranteed fast melee weapon+Ultra B saves ammo), Plant (TB reduces Captain's HP by 33%), Chicken (Ultra B = basically a third high damage weapon), Steroids (high damage output)
  
• Bad characters : Robot (literally no upside), Rogue (almost no upside), Rebel (allies are worthless here)
  
• Pathetic characters : Melting (what the hell do you want to do with only 6 HP and no corpses to explode)

Outro

Keep in mind that you're dealing with the hardest boss of an extremely hard game. Losing against her is completely normal, even if you've killed her many times already (unless your name is horheristo). Just keep trying until you manage to take down Mama Cop for good.

Anyways, hope I helped.

[Eldritch]

I have an epic rebel build that easily gets me to loop 2, second stomach, bloodlust, basically any mutation that gets you health, rabbit paw, throne butt, crown of time or protection, then riot. A melee weapon is also useful for deflecting and ally protection. It's hilarious seeing twenty allies nailing mom to a wall. having almost 50 allies growing exponentially in the labs. That's what makes nuclear throne fun, lol.

[platinumplatypus]

What about rebel with throne butt, long arms, laser brain, riot, and an energy sword. Use your sword to protect the allies and allow them to do most of the shooting. (Never tried it. an idea I had while taking a shit)

[※Tapu Lele※]

whoops i mean more than 1 kid lets say... 11 kids following her and 10 more waiting at camp being protected by the others? She had a lot of time for them kids...

[※Tapu Lele※]

the only person we know who has a kid is rebel because they're basically proven on the art that they're either 5 year olds carrying guns and shooting people or 9 year old kids who played Call of Duty for too long and made it a reality for themselves (cuz plays for fun, too boring to do it yourself...)

[soap]

I was kidding, nobody knows anything about her life

[※Tapu Lele※]

lolwut she has kids

[soap]

Probably her husband and kids she'll never get to see again because you're a monster

[※Tapu Lele※]

Captain apparently has a photo of someone on her desk, what is it?

[NoFilters]

i just looped twice in a row , time to beat captain ass!

[soap]

If you say so ;)