Apollo 2nd Duel

[Mish101]

I can't beat apollo i don't know what to do after third duel. Dev says play defensively but he changes out his skills his 2 major attacks home in and have guard break. I can't dodge out of the scatter ball or evade his spin attack when he flashes green. I put points in focus but not feeling the Iframe also he cancels out my attacks if catch him just as he about to do one of the special moves.

[dustin1280]

I have read that First Cut on the neutral job tree (dashing) is exceptionally helpful for this boss.

Beyond that all I have read is play defensively and don't attack till he turns red...

[Mish101]

Well I just got it was semi close but i kinda went for the attack when he turned green. And i stayed close ish mix of range and melee did manange to catch him a few times in between the times he turns red.

[ChevyNoel]

One of the easiest ways to defeat him is to throw up the defense bubble skill every few seconds and melee him to death. If you have good gear and a decent level for that point, you can even ignore what he's doing and face tank him. I easily got the 5-0 every duel trophy by doing this.

Alternatively, it's a little faster to kill him with a counter block and attack art, but that requires timing.

[Michelle]

You can lose the duel if you want and it's not game over. But to win, I disagree with "play defensively." I found that playing defensively was most likely to make me lose. I'd equip the opposite of whatever element he was using (bc he had lower resistance) and wail on him with melee attacks. Dash cancels are really good (this is when you melee 3x and dash, then rinse and repeat bc the 4th melee attack leaves you open). I would charge up level 2 special attack and shred him. Except, whatever you do, don't use Flame's level 2 throw art. You will a) probably miss and b) get killed because it leaves you wide open.

[Jellyfission]

I lost the first duel, buI just used the ice dash art for the 2nd and 3rd duels with him and won handily. It feels kinda cheesy cause the AI doesn't realize he needs to avoid the ice blocks, but hey, it works.

[Gigafreak]

Against his first two duels, the First Cut special attack can take off about half his health in a single shot if your gear matches his level. That's basically all there is to the plan: gear up, dodge and block, and wait for your chance to hit him with First Cut.

Against the third duel (with Heat and Cold available), I like to use the Cold Throw and Cold Dash specials that leave ice pillars everywhere to obstruct him. You can also shove him into them with your projectiles if he's right next to one-- and the resulting Chill status makes his attacks slow enough to dodge easily. The Cold Guard special, Frozen Stance --the one that guarantees a Perfect Guard and counterattacks with a slowing effect-- is also a very good choice. If you see him chasing you for a melee combo, pull that out and you'll leave him wide open for a punishment. Heat element has a similar move: Recoil Trumpet. It doesn't stun or slow, but includes the punishment built-in.

You don't have to swap to the element that opposes Apollo's. Remember, YOU are also weak to HIS attacks if you do that. It might be a better idea to either sit in the element you're most comfortable in, or change your element to the same as his (to gain resistance to his attacks).

[Contractk4]

I don't remember exactly what is available for the second duel, but what pulled me through the pvp duels was the tier 2 fire melee art "Calamity Trigger". It's got a massive range that will reach the opponent even when they are trying to stay at range and the initial wave of fire is a stun and pull, meaning that if you tag them even a little, they'll eat the entire combo (and they also can't interrupt the combat art).

[Songbird]

Fire arts are almost all OP and better than any counterpart (minelaying tier 2 dash art is insane, melee arts except for the tier 1s are great, ranged almost immediately triggers hit-count-based breaks and inflicts burn super-fast with piercing AoE, and when you finally get the tier 3 dash art it's an "I win" button). Get used to using them a lot. Only the leeching ranged wave arts rival them (because you can stack Mark effect and heal 2k+ every time you use a tier 1 art).

For Apollo 2, you should be able to just dodge the first two rounds until he tires (glowing red) and counter him. For round 3, wait about 15 seconds, then use the dashing fire tier 2 art to put mines along where he is going to dash to place his own mines, so he runs through all three. For the last two rounds, play safe and use a perfect guard art when he moves into melee range to be aggressive.

[74 prairie dogs in a trenchcoat]

There's a few ways to go about the second Apollo fight.

The first time I won it successfully I did it by avoiding/blocking/tanking his attacks as best I could and timing Final Showdown (the T2 neutral dash special that's an upgraded form of First Cut) so that it went off during his bullet spam to both deal massive damage and make me invincible for his entire attack. Another time I abused Guard Sphere (T1 neutral guard special) whenever I thought he'd do enough damage to break my guard; that skiil puts you in a 360 degree guard state that doesn't stop you from moving or attacking, it's kind of OP.

Most recently I 5-0'd him by baiting him into running at me for a melee combo and timing a block so that I'd get a Perfect Guard. That interrupts his attack chain and forces him into a vulnerable state. You do need to be a bit more skilled at the game and/or bring gear with Royal Guard (increased Perfect Guard timing window) in order to pull this off though. Alternatively, you can use the Fire T1 guard art to force a PG, but I think the devs patched that to only work once per Apollo fight - manual PGs still work.

The most important thing you need to know is that if you're in the same element he is, other than neutral, you'll take less damage from his attacks but also deal less damage to him, so if he's in fire you should be in fire while defending then switch to neutral when he's open.