is it just me or is Cataphract kinda annoying

[Tiberius664]

so i am new to the game, this is my first time playing this boss and i'm really struggling on. like no build i do is fast enough to get to its front and when i do a speedy build i don't have enough health or damage. you guys got any adivce?

[D. Flame]

I just use by usual boss slayer loadout: 2 worm cannons, javln detonating rocket launcher, and the laser lance or moonlight sword.

[ImHelping]

It is kind of wild that while they are designed to be a 'run away and strafe' type enemy, they are not the biggest coward in the game by far.

Any bazooka is solid (above for example) because the projectile speed is faster than a grenade shot, and most give you more ammo to play with to take shots just for the hell of it.

Melee wise, their body can be a bit fussy (I love me some chainsaw.) but any melee will do if you are SURE you are in their body enough once they are staggered. Don't forget to have arms with non ♥♥♥♥ melee (if you hate the terrible tracking on basho arms, the arquebus medium and light arms got turbo buffed to be 2nd best melee in the game at 138 and 139)

Needle cannons are tempting, but heavy, energy drainy, and the wind up on the shot can be the time they take to twist out of the way. While all in on heavy shot weapons works, it can also smooth things along/goad the AI better if you also have some workhorse weapons to spam at them the whole time.

If you want a more "Turn your brain off" primary setup, Arms with at least 140 melee (carla's arms also have 130 melee) and a pair of the new patched in later Attache super heavy machineguns are really nasty in PvE and have an ideal range out to 140.

Unlike rapid or burst MG, the attache RoF is low enough you can maintain perfect crosshair accuracy with enough recoil. Letting you just hold the triggers and use 100% of your brainpower on evasion and "Time to swap to my other weapon/fire a shoulder weapon"

Even one of them is beefy enough to plow through a metal shield MT, for future vs fodder reference. A pair of them can make even a heavy calvary a much faster fight (Pretty sure they are not unlocked yet the first time you could fight one, though)

[Tiberius664]

thanks for the advice, i'll try using some rocket launchers

[Tiberius664]

i think i might do the other decision mission first then do cataphract in NG+

[Ham uwu 6969]

Just need to look for the small window where it stays stationary after a sprint, it can't reposition its bottom by much during that brief pause, so you can just line up with the MT core and just fire whatever into it, stuns it and do the magical health delet.

Evasion wise 350 is enough to just evades most shots while being within range for cannon shots, QB right when the cannon fires to dodge it, the biggest problem is the horizontal 5 shots version where it hits so hard, dodging it requires going left or right and QB opposite when it fires, because normal QB can't escape it all.

[Elimm]

The outer part of its turret doesn't actually block attacks, so staying airborne may also be helpful.

[vk^4@]

melee? no problem! :D
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467154703
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467153808
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467154094
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467154523
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467153906
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3467154045

[RAM RANCH3R]

I beat it using LOADER4 as a meme, the trick was to rush it down with AB. Sneaking into the little groove where the MT sits and just full sending. Granted you'll need some smooth moves to dodge the spread shot on the laser cannon but beyond that all he moves are easy to dodge once learned

[Sabaithal]

Its a boss with missed potential. It could have been a great boss, mainly if the boss itself was fully armored on all sides and you had to kill it by breaking individual armor sections, or its weapon systems, to finally get to the core and destroy it. Ideally this would be the one boss that was resistant to explosive damage (otherwise what's the point of locational damage on an entity this small) so the player would have a reason to use weapon with high penetration value to more easily damage the boss.

Instead, smack yourself right into its front with a melee/DPS weapon and just hold down the attack button. And the fight is done. This is intentional, because the one weak spot is right on the front. If you do anything else you are just wasting your time. So essentially its a gimmick fight, IE bad design.

[Charsiew]

Machinegun works if want to build up stagger constantly.

[Triple-D Lloyd]

use all missiles, cataphract (and the weevil MTs) cant quickboost so theres nothing they can do about them, and explosive weapons dont have damage falloff so they wont ricochet, which means you can shoot at the cataphract from farther away than its attacks can hit you while strafing

[Speed Malus]

Always thought the good ol Cata was a MASSIVE pushover

[vk^4@]

Briefly annoying in the beginning but now a massive push over as mentioned above (unless inferno mode).
Easy s-rank now i guess lol. A very good map to practice melee boosting & cancelling, especially with dual sweet sixteens.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3474206077
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3474205770
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3474205980
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3474207860
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3474205473

[Algester]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

I just use by usual boss slayer loadout: 2 worm cannons, javln detonating rocket launcher, and the laser lance or moonlight sword.

you wont have access to the worm cannons before though especially loop 1

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by Algester:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

I just use by usual boss slayer loadout: 2 worm cannons, javln detonating rocket launcher, and the laser lance or moonlight sword.

you wont have access to the worm cannons before though especially loop 1

Something like earshot cannons, song birds, etc. would work too.

I wish this game let us have multiple save files, so I could check which is available when.