Mantis Shrimp Boss

[isaiaheverin]

Guys, this is a real mess.

- There's a single 4-second period to damage it every 30-45 seconds.
- To get into position to attack that spot requires you to swim all the way around its hands, which damage you if you touch them, because you have to he above the Mantis AND the attack it does before that window requires you to be below it to not get hit.
- The attacks are literally completely unavoidable despite having massive delays before them, and they'll hit you basically no matter what.
- Guides recommend going behind it's head/arm a bit, but that causes it to back away from you to do an instant speed punch over and over again.
- It's literally impossible to get behind it to get ammo if without taking damage multiple times. If you run out if ammo, you just have to deal with awful short range harpoon attacks.
- The "pull the rope to raise the anchor to stun it" mechanic sometimes bugs out and won't let you pull it all the way down for no reason.
- Stunning it with the anchor doesn't let you deal damage to it?!?!

Nothing about this boss makes any sense and feels like a massive outlier of bad design compared to everything before this point. I understand it's optional, but that's not an excuse for just cruel design that none of the player mechanics in this game can actually work around. This isn't Dark Souls (and even Dark Souls doesn't make the boss 100% invulnerable for 90% of the fight).

[pyromaniac58]

So apparently everyone is having a hard time with this boss but it's not that bad. After two tries I beat it no problem. Here's my guide on how to do it.

I used the level two sniper rifle to beat him. After three attacks he lets his guard down and you pop him two or three times if you're quick.

Your problem is you are dodging from below when you can just similarly do the same thing above and to the left of him. Don't get too close and you bait him into throwing a punch diagonally to the upper left. If he goes for an uppercut you are too close. When he goes to throw the punch swim quickly so you are just above and to the left of him. This is the area where his punch will miss. Pop him two-three times right after he lets his guard down.

Do not try to get behind him ever. Once you hurt him he will jump back, dropping the ammo box from the ceiling. If you're quick you can go for the ammo and the oxygen at this point. If not, no big deal.

You are right the pull the rope thing is kinda buggy. The first time you do it each time you can't pull it down all the way. Just pull it down a bit and hang on to the rope. He'll reset to boxing you before letting his guard down again. Pop him again and he'll jump back. The second time you can bring it down all the way. He punches it and is basically stunned. He is invulnerable during this time, so just go and resupply oxygen and ammo.

I think I hit him around 10-12 times and he just died. The hardest part is dodging his hits, but it is very doable.

[The Commissar]

Took a bit of fiddling but beat it easily enough with the standard rifle.

- You can easily dodge ALL attacks by hovering near the bottom of the Shrimp (think southwest of wherever the shrimp is located. After the third swing there will be a grace period where it wont hit. Swim up, so you are slightly higher than its eyes and shoot it. It will be possible to get 1-2 shots in depending on your speed. After you attack it, it jumps back and starts to do a groundpummel/super punch.

- you don't have to get behind it, just have to make it jump back either with the ground pound attack, or after staggering it with the anchor stun.

- The anchor pull is sometimes a bit wonky, i think it might be because you've exceeded the grace-period to pull it down into the "correct" position, and to not cause clipping, the game just stops you from pulling it any further down.

- You can damage it after stunning it, it is however a bit wonky, and requires that you shoot it from an angle. Recommend you go slighty higher than the eyes.

[Hades]

just finished this fight. that anchor pull was very wonky. ended up not using it at all. good thing the crate gave me a gun enhancement kit which allowed my regular rifle to hit as much as a level 1 sniper rifle.

getting a scooter beforehand helped a lot on the maneuverability from bottom to dodge everything and going back up top to start shooting

[mmmm]

Virtually nothing you said was true, and I killed it on the second attempt

[J (6'4" 255 lbs 4.33s 40-yard)]

This fight ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks and is clearly bugged.

EDIT: The fight has since been changed with the 7/12 Hotfix. I have yet to try it again but from the patch notes, it appears the buggy behavior has been resolved.

[xoJasberry]

Why are the boss fights in this game so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying? It really takes out all the fun.

[Kaerius]

It's a pain and a half. I went in with the tranquilizer shotgun, which didn't work so well, but the chest usually had a sniper rifle, which also was quite anemic(best I could get was 6 hits(47 each) before running out of oxygen, which wasn't enough). Ended up having to restart the dive with my sniper 3, and going into the fight with both an oxygen tank and scooter, then I managed to win, with 5 hits (72 each, there was a weapon upgrade in the chest). I guess it's got 300 or 350 health.

What you have to do is go above its "gloves" which will make it back away, do that until it's all the way back. Then after a punch swim in front of it, and back up until it prepares its hook, dodge above the hook and then swim down to where you can hit the eyes, if you're fast enough you can even get 2 shots on the eyes in. It'll still hit you with its pounce after it recovers, essentially undodgeable.

When it charges up for the big hit dodge to the ceiling to avoid it and avoid being pushed into the spikes, and then start pushing it back again.

If you need to recharge oxygen/ammo push it back and then swim back to the containers, then push it back again to start the cycle over.

[isaiaheverin]

I ended up finding the one safe spot was BELOW its right elbow. I'm curious what they did to "fix it", but I've already finished the game so it's whatever. I hope they made it less frustrating, that kind of boss experience definitely doesn't have a place in a game like this.