End fight

[Dolan Tromp]

Any tips on the ending fight? I played it like 20 times and the farthest ive gotten was hitting him twice and after that his attacks swarm the ground too much and leave no room to dodge.

[D]

Run to each corners to lure his drops, try to watch your space when he summons the fire and rats so you don't get trapped

[nyanko]

On the last rush, just stay on one side at the very end, and come slowly to the center, it's easier than going both sides like the previous rushes. The "each corner" tactic is a bit difficult on that one.

[Shinllers]

Just don't trap yourself on one side, the subterranean attacks take some time to launch and track your position, wait until ground breaks then dodge. If one side is used up, go to the other and do the same and leave the central to Hugo. Vitalis has limited number of rats thus like 4 times of attacks before he runs out, then you can tell Hugo to break his last defense while Vitalis tries to summon his rats back, also remember to extinguish fires as soon as you see them.

[Deathmatcher]

The fight is a bit annoying, since you can get cornered so easily in phase 3. Try to use the available space to its fullest extent by not running around too much. Make more deliberate moves, such as stepping just out of harms way. Put extinguish fire and throw rock on convenient hotkeys (I was fine using the wheel throughout the entire game but for the final boss, I needed hotkeys). Craft enough fire extinguishers before the fight. The rest is just trying and trying until you get lucky with everything.

Side note: Sometimes Hugo's rats don't reach the boss, since they get intercepted by white rats. I don't know if there is a good trick to get rid of those. I briefly tried throwing fire at them, but in the end, there was too much going on and I just kept trying until the rats got through on their own.

[Shinllers]

Originally posted by Deathmatcher:

Side note: Sometimes Hugo's rats don't reach the boss, since they get intercepted by white rats. I don't know if there is a good trick to get rid of those. I briefly tried throwing fire at them, but in the end, there was too much going on and I just kept trying until the rats got through on their own.

The white rats go back after Vitalis uses up his attacks, when you can tell Hugo to attack. I think Hugo's rats go the shortest(central) path, so as long as you are quick enough the white rats won't be able to intercept in time, also all fires need to be put out before Hugo can attack. If all goes right, it's pretty much a guaranteed hit.

The subterranean attack spot won't change anymore once ground breaks, so just dodge after that.

All you need is fire extinguisher(Exstinguis) during the attack phases, when his defenses are gone you have enough time to switch to rock, shoot him and switch back.

[Deathmatcher]

I had it several times that Hugo's rats where blocked by white rats, even though I had extinguished all fires and ordered him to attack the moment it became possible. I think either you can avoid the rats with better timing (but there was so much going on that I just ordered the attack the moment it became available) or they just added a bad luck factor here.

[neoadorable]

Pure garbage designed by wannabe film students who failed at making movies and thus turned to games as a substitute. That boss fight was so bad, clearly made by idiots who don't understand combat in games needs to be fluid and not clunky. Repeating ♥♥♥♥ gameplay doesn't make for "git gud". Might as well have been a QTE.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I'm totally stuck on this despite already figuring out what I need to be doing. Its really not forgiving enough if you get near even one white rat, you're dead.

I get wanting a challenging boss at the end, but I do hope they consider an option to tone-down this one as I'm kinda disappointed that I will probably never get to finish the game because my reactions just aren't fast enough.

[Shinllers]

Originally posted by Alex Atkin UK:

I'm totally stuck on this despite already figuring out what I need to be doing. Its really not forgiving enough if you get near even one white rat, you're dead.

I get wanting a challenging boss at the end, but I do hope they consider an option to tone-down this one as I'm kinda disappointed that I will probably never get to finish the game because my reactions just aren't fast enough.

You basically need to leave enough space for them. Vitalis has 4 times of attacks before Hugo can attack like I said, so it's 2 on the left and 2 on the right, starting with the further end so you don't get cornered, thus you should end up being somewhere near the center, or between the latter 2. Remember to put out fires in the time intervals, so Hugo can attack as soon as it's ready.

You don't need super fast reflexes for this fight, you probably need a break from the game and to relax. If Amicia can do this, so can you. I still tend to make various mistakes in my later playthroughs, I probably lack gaming practices recently but it's also heavily dependent on my status at the time.

[Star Taker]

You gotta calculate the space you'll have left once Vitalis is regrouping, it is kinda tedious but with some quick micro-management, it's fine. The Nicholas battle was harder, you can do it :)

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Judge Diaz:

You gotta calculate the space you'll have left once Vitalis is regrouping, it is kinda tedious but with some quick micro-management, it's fine. The Nicholas battle was harder, you can do it :)

I disagree, the Nicholas battle i won on my first try, it took like 8 for Vitalis.

[neoadorable]

Originally posted by Judge Diaz:

You gotta calculate the space you'll have left once Vitalis is regrouping, it is kinda tedious but with some quick micro-management, it's fine. The Nicholas battle was harder, you can do it :)

When you say stuff like "you gotta calculate", the designers have clearly failed. Not blaming you of course. But this isn't a math test, it's a story-based video game with very flexible and forgiving stealth and simple combat, that ONLY for the last boss decides to say screw everyone, and after 12-13 hours pulls a difficulty spike out of its butt. That's not good design, but it's their choice.

[Dolan Tromp]

I just wish it gave us a save halfway through at least. To have to redo the whole fight every time is insane.

[Deathmatcher]

I fully agree that the final boss has an unnecessary difficulty spike, which isn't in line with the rest of the game. Yes, it could be toned down by nerfing the white rats or adding an auto-save halfway through. Anyway, this thread is about tips for the end fight, not a nerf rant. I think giving the game a break is a good advice. I was really annoyed about the fight too, but after a while I noticed that I managed to get to the last third of the fight quite often. The rest is just trying to improve your small mistakes and hope for a bit of good luck. With 20-30 tries it should be managable to beat the boss.

[Shinllers]

Originally posted by Ogami:

I disagree, the Nicholas battle i won on my first try, it took like 8 for Vitalis.

I think you might think differently if you do it for a second time. It does take a few more tries to figure out the mechanics of the Vitalis fight, but I think the room for mistakes there is actually bigger.

Nicholas has zero response time like any regular human enemy, you may easily waste your Extinguis if you get spotted / if you are too slow switching to Imperium / if he's too far from the rats, and thus will have to repeat your previous steps again.

Vitalis' attacks are actually easier to predict once you get the hang of it, and there's enough time for you to put out the fires, though if you somehow forget the latter you may miss the chance for Hugo's attack and thus have to do everything again. I made one mistake by dodging to the wrong side and got cornered in my second playthrough, but the rest was pretty fluent and was done in a few minutes.

I honestly admire the 20+ tries you guys made without giving up. I think if that happens you should try to slow down, observe better and figure out the mechanics, instead of making reckless tries. The game doesn't took the controls from you in any way, besides mechanics is pretty much necessary for a challenging fight, instead of brainless imba that needs nerfing.

Also the game does have difficulty spikes elsewhere. Such as the last sequence while escaping the English camp, the 3 consecutive fast-moving guards when you first meet Rodric, the whole Chapter 16, especially the Rodric carriage sequence. I'm not sure about KB&M but handling multiple enemies with a controller is always challenging enough, in that way the whole difficulty curve might be less steep than KB&M.

Originally posted by Deathmatcher:

Anyway, this thread is about tips for the end fight, not a nerf rant.

I wholeheartedly agree.