Final Boss Fight

[Renesco]

I've tried and failed this 4 times now, twice I tried the tanky route of high HP, crit and dodge and failed, and twice I've tried the high skill regen route of having super cooldowns on my abilities and both times I just got completely overwhelmed, even when focussing on the boss himself. Any tips?

[brickey.8]

The way to beat this boss is to chip away at him a little at a time, keeping your health high as #1 priority. Don't be afraid to let up on attacking if you need to heal and regroup, even if that means he summons some minions and gets a weapon or two. Do NOT let the assist die (that's basically game over).

First off, notice the boss's counter chance. I don't remember what it is on interesting mode, but on challenging mode it's 50%, and when he gets a counterattack it can be several different attacks, including the big area attack. If he counters with the area attack while you're surrounding him, your odds of victory go way down. So as much as possible you want to hit him with uncounterable attacks. (which includes almost all skills except melee weapons. Spears, squarehouse kick and lightning dagger are ok). It helps if you have high skill regen on whoever has the best ranged attacks. If you do melee him, team attacks will only allow him to counter once. Keep your techie and assist out of his AOE range when possible.

As for his minions, don't sweat it. Kill them when you can hit several with an AOE attack or whenever you can't hit the boss this turn, but if they're out of range you should chase the boss. With everyone wearing endgame equipment they're a lot less dangerous than they used to be.

Taking out the weapon bearers is nice but actually not necessary; the weapon attacks are only a little bit stronger than his normal attacks, and there's no guarantee he'll actually use the weapon. Especially if you have Mend Friend to cure status effects. I consider them less dangerous than the normal enemies.

Finally, skills. The Join Up skill for the lead is insanely useful in this fight because the arena is huge and the boss likes to teleport. Don't forget you can throw the lead before using it (with the assault for even more range) and can follow it up with a lasso. It's definitely possible to get attacks in on the boss on the first turn of the battle. And it combos well with either of the lead's season 3 skills if you can get the skill regen to once every 2 turns.

Once you get the boss to extremely low HP, he'll enter his second phase, but don't be fooled--the second phase is easy. You get a status effect that gives you healing each turn and free resurrection even if the assist dies or is overwhelmed. His only abilities in that phase are a powerful melee attack and a powerful AOE with knockback. No more minions. If you want to cheese it, use Swat Mode or Join Up to end your turns almost or entirely out of his range. But that's not necessary; if you're strong enough, you can just wail on him while keeping the more fragile party members at the edge of bow/rifle range and you'll be fine.

[ImHelping]

When you can for whatever method you are using, Prioritize taking out the frogs bringing portal guns above all else. Really smooths things out.

I have also found Assault's extra acrobatics throw range is nice for being able to toss more people up to the balcony from the ground floor, than placing someone else, hitting teamwork, and discovering it won't let you throw them up there.

Using "Form Up" to get everybody into position around him IS a great option, and I still use it. But I also use it while being mindful of his habit to teleport away to the opposite side of the room the next turn. Though this in turn, is convenient when he runs off to the balcony givng your team time to murder a bunch of rhino soldiers in peace, so they will be too dead to potentially stun somebody.