Struggling against Archon King, could use some tips.

[Cuthawolf]

Title says it all. I had zero problem with the Viper King, and although the Berzerker Queen is scary as all get out, I found her bark was worse than her bite. I knew I was going to dislike the AK because of his Devastate, but really I had no idea just how much trouble he was going to give me. So if anyone has any tricks, tips or tactics they've found work well against the Archon King, I'd love some help.

[Mhblis]

Flashbangs, Poisen and Dragon rounds, The Hunter DLC weapons especially the pistol on a pistol sniper, any other free action abilities and lastly fighting him inside a building.

Stunning and Freezing them is best since they do nothing.
Free action abilities don't trigger a reaction from them.
The Damage over time abilities trigger every reaction so you quickly take out their HP without doing anything.

[Slivicon]

Reload your save if you need to, but keep your squad spread out to lessen the chance of devastate. Not too far, though, as you need to all be in range, especially if he tries to drag one of your squad into the air.

You have to use the least amount of actions possible, and cripple as much as possible. So, things like throwing axe and lightning hands. Freeze bomb, frostbite. Slash has a chance to stun if you have the right weapon. Gren with gas bomb and acid bomb, to stack the damage over time and cripple. Bolt caster has a chance to stun. Mimic decoy beacon is sometimes a good play as well.

Some of it is random luck of the rolls, too, but concentrate everything on the ruler until it is dead or flees.

[drake_hound]

The usual stuff, but best is 2 rangers with bladestorm and stun sword.

So just run up to the archon and slash it.

this also make devastate and his aoe ability predictable where he is going to hit.
But more often then not he just moves away from the two rangers .

Trying to get the juicy targets. that is how I dealt with him. when there was no CC flashbang or freeze grenade or anything else around .

[Coyote]

The number 1 tactic is use battle scanners and concealment to find out if there is a ruler on the map and then prepare accordingly...

Drop tons of proximity mines,hack bonuses and do whatever you gotta do to bolster your chances of winning after doing recon beforehand.
The proximity mines are key here...

A decent tactic is spread out.. So he cant do his aoe on your guys.


Rupture+fire bullets. The fire does like 4 extra damage to him if i remember correctly after he is ruptured...

Guardian+ever vigilant combo is great.. When you end your turn ur guy goes on overwatch and has a chance to fire his entire clip at the boss without having the boss take any extra turns.
Although it could all be wasted vs his minions if there are any.

You cant go wrong with a sniper hidden across the map using ap rounds and a +3 stock... My number 1 tactic to use against everything in the game a-heh heh heh.

If you want to hunt rulers you need to make some classes designed to fight them.. Whatever you think works best.

[Zeitmeister]

best things to have are:
flashbangs
frost grenade
repeater attachments (one of my snipers executed him)
boltcaster

Thats the stuff i used.

[Cuthawolf]

Whoa, repeaters attachments work on Rulers? That's bannanas.

[Jesterofgames7712]

Originally posted by Cuthawolf:

Whoa, repeaters attachments work on Rulers? That's bannanas.

Their isn't a single Enemy that is immune to repeters to my knowledge

though some people think This is dumb their's already a mod out that makes them immune

[UATUU]

Psi-op's statsis and incendiry nades to cause burning. Freeze nade and if you can Mind Control one of the Archon kings lackeys.

[Narrowmind]

Are acid grenades a valid option and, does it stack with burning and poison?

[Slivicon]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

Are acid grenades a valid option and, does it stack with burning and poison?

acid burn stacks with poison, not sure if it stacks with fire burn.

[Sines]

So, is the Archon Ruler reliably on the ground? I haven't had too much trouble with the Berserker and Viper, as I can do at least enough damage to get them to run away over the course of a Frost Grenade. However, the Archon can fly... which renders him practically immune to the Frost Grenade, leaving me only the Viper armor to hold him down with.

Part of the reason I ask is because I've got my Grenadier carrying the Frost Bomb in his double grenade slot, but if he spends too much time in the air, I might as well bring the extra damage.

And on that subject, does Frost duration stack? Can I just Salvo a pair of Frost Bombs for double the duration? What about layering on the Viper ability too? Or should I just pace my characters actions to refreeze whenever they thaw.

Also, how do his attacks work? I'm imagining the regular Archons Blazing Pinions, only they land as soon as I move a single soldier... I've heard this guy is pretty hard, and would like to know what to expect so I can plan around it. I'm doing an Ironman playthrough and it's going great, I'd hate to lose it all due to simple ignorance.

[talemore]

Scopes and repeaters, flashbangs, acid grenades, promixity mines. magnetic swords, boltcaster, dragon and poison rounds. Free action moves; return fire, lightning hands, bladestorm, axe throw, conceal

when you move the blazing pinion hits all soldiers except for one, archon sometimes tries melee attack. pinions only work outdoor and can't be targeting its user, close range gain free protection.

[Hiddey]

Originally posted by Sines:

So, is the Archon Ruler reliably on the ground? I haven't had too much trouble with the Berserker and Viper, as I can do at least enough damage to get them to run away over the course of a Frost Grenade. However, the Archon can fly... which renders him practically immune to the Frost Grenade, leaving me only the Viper armor to hold him down with.

Part of the reason I ask is because I've got my Grenadier carrying the Frost Bomb in his double grenade slot, but if he spends too much time in the air, I might as well bring the extra damage.

And on that subject, does Frost duration stack? Can I just Salvo a pair of Frost Bombs for double the duration? What about layering on the Viper ability too? Or should I just pace my characters actions to refreeze whenever they thaw.

I found he;s on the ground a lot. He only flies up for his AoE or his grab attack.

Bear in mind the frost bombs have a drastically reduced effect on the Archon King; it will keep him immobile for just one action.

[El Fixo]

get the item with a 15% chance to instakill, 1 hit kill the bosses :D

[*OSS*0rigin]

He will appear in around June 20-ish date. I purposely left one of the early blacksite missions alone and waited for that date when I knew the archon king would pop up. That way he doesnt get you on a timed mission.

I did the mission and used a ranger to scout ahead for him. When i found him, i put most of my guys in a building to protect them from that devastate attack. I set up my guys for an overwatch, and with my last action, i tossed a nade in front of my group. Archon moved up to investigate and snipers and rest of team overwatched shot him. One sniper had incendiary rounds and set AK on fire. I next fired the freeze grenade. and then next action was a rupture shot (rupture shot will crit hit and cause archon king to take +3 damage from all attacks). What I didn't realize was that this includes the burning. So after every action i was taking, the archon king was taking 5 burning damage. This really worked him over and I managed to take out 3/4 of his health before he escaped. NONE OF MY SOLDIERS TOOK ANY DAMAGE.

I did this with tier 2 weapons except i did have plasma rifles for my specialists. This occurred on Commander difficulty. I had mod that allows me 2 extra soldiers so i had 8 guys. I brought 2 specialists and both had guardian which really helps. 2 grenadiers with 1 that has skill to allow two shots of the freeze grenade. 2 snipers to get the lightning hands. 1 scouting ranger and 1 blademaster ranger.

Right before he escaped, my blade master ranger threw the axe and slashed which stunned him. Everything went as planned which never happens for me in this game.