Best way to beat Birkin in the crane fight?

[Ploppy]

I just finished the crane fight on Claire B 4th run and found it just as hard as the 1st time on Claire A (about 6-7 attempts to beat it). Leon B/A was okay, only took a couple of attempts, I didn't die with Leon, just reloaded to get it 'perfect' for fun.

I have played the game on standard setting in this order: Claire A, Leon B, Leon A, Claire B.

So the problem I had with Claire is Birkin won't stay down for long and sometimes when she talks after pressing the button making you think the crane will 100% hit, Birkin gets up and leaps the full distance of the platform and either hits you or picks you up getting you both killed.

If I want to do a Claire run in the future, what's the best weapon combination to beat him without too much fuss?

I know I beat him with SMG and flashbangs but the SMG damage had random stun times and felt unreliable on different attempts. I aim for the eyes as much as I can as they should bring him down faster. Acid rounds from the GL seem to do damage over time so I can't really use them as a fast stun on their own.

Any pro tips on where to stand, what weapon to use, how to avoid him stun-locking you when you try to bait him to the end of the platform etc?

[Diabolicus]

Knife

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Yaz:

Knife

Not for G2...

Throw grenade at shutter door leading to next phase the moment the claw appears in the roof to instantly end that first phase and make him bust open the door saving time and potential injury.

For Leon A you can use about 350-400 fuel on G2 to 1-shot him with the crane. Lure him to where the crane can hit, and hit him with about 250-300 flame thrower to drop him and lay on EXTRA damage (important). Run back over to crane controls to start crane and flash bang him as he starts to get up in the process. While he is flash banged and the crane starts coming dump the remainder of the fuel on him and he should end up kneeling again in the process and take enough dmg that when the crane finishes swinging it instantly kills him.

Claire A, idk, haven't bothered doing her HC as I got bored of the game after 5 full runs and my Leon A S+ HC run cause it just gets repetitive after a while.

[talgaby]

Flashbang. Or even a normal grenade. Once he gets up, throw it and he will stay in the crane's effect area.

[Ploppy]

Yeah flashbang and SMG work well.

As for the control room where his claw comes from the ceiling, all you need to do is stay on the left of the metal door he breaks through, do this while he is above in the ceiling. Then when he is behind the door breaking it stay on the right and you can run right by him when the door breaks.

I saw that tip on another post and it works 100% :D

I was curious as to the rough amount of SMG shells it takes to drop him for a long time or is it something like 24 hits on his shoulder/back eye to drop him.

Does the fight work out the same every time you guys play or do you have random attempts each run with Claire?

[Mendoborn]

Don't suck. Pretty straightforward!

[BassChamber]

One flame round and some SMG bullets take care of him. He is very weak against fire.

You only have to worry about the timing with the crane, but it is an easy fight. If you mistimed the downing, use a flashbang.

[Ploppy]

I found it easy enough with Leon but I obviously used the wrong weapons with Claire and made it much harder for myself.

I just saw a speedrun where the guy uses a flashbang to stun, then uses the knife about 16 times, presses the switch then goes back with flamethrower to sustain the stunlock.

Maybe a couple of flame rounds from the GL could work instead for Claire.

Here's the vid btw: https://youtu.be/CNaTJ39EFjU?t=6340

Timestamp 1:45:40 for the crane fight.

[Antonio Neto Kosovo]

the more you hurt him, the less you need to bump him with the container

[bulldog0890]

with leon i just plug him with all my flamer ammo until he takes a knee, knife him until he gets up, flashbang him, and knife him until he takes a knee again. then use the crane

with claire, i acid grenade him until he takes a knee, knife him until he gets up, smg his shoulder eye until he takes a knee, and repeat until he takes a knee a third time. for some reason i can't ever seem to kill him with 1 crane use with claire unless he drops down 3 times instead of two with leon

[Aeiku]

Originally posted by Ploppy:

I found it easy enough with Leon but I obviously used the wrong weapons with Claire and made it much harder for myself.

I just saw a speedrun where the guy uses a flashbang to stun, then uses the knife about 16 times, presses the switch then goes back with flamethrower to sustain the stunlock.

Maybe a couple of flame rounds from the GL could work instead for Claire.

Here's the vid btw: https://youtu.be/CNaTJ39EFjU?t=6340

Timestamp 1:45:40 for the crane fight.

Should also note his fps is high. If you watch the Birkin fight in the start you see how fast Birkin dies. The higher your fps the more knife damage you do. So be careful if you plan to use knife, but what the post above yours states also works. Grenade launcher and SMG with flash grenades.

Originally posted by bulldog0890:

with leon i just plug him with all my flamer ammo until he takes a knee, knife him until he gets up, flashbang him, and knife him until he takes a knee again. then use the crane

with claire, i acid grenade him until he takes a knee, knife him until he gets up, smg his shoulder eye until he takes a knee, and repeat until he takes a knee a third time. for some reason i can't ever seem to kill him with 1 crane use with claire unless he drops down 3 times instead of two with leon

Flamethrower should be enough to knock him off with one crane hit for Leon. At least it does in my experience.

[Overlord]

Originally posted by Xengre:

Originally posted by Yaz:

Knife

Not for G2...

Throw grenade at shutter door leading to next phase the moment the claw appears in the roof to instantly end that first phase and make him bust open the door saving time and potential injury.

For Leon A you can use about 350-400 fuel on G2 to 1-shot him with the crane. Lure him to where the crane can hit, and hit him with about 250-300 flame thrower to drop him and lay on EXTRA damage (important). Run back over to crane controls to start crane and flash bang him as he starts to get up in the process. While he is flash banged and the crane starts coming dump the remainder of the fuel on him and he should end up kneeling again in the process and take enough dmg that when the crane finishes swinging it instantly kills him.

Claire A, idk, haven't bothered doing her HC as I got bored of the game after 5 full runs and my Leon A S+ HC run cause it just gets repetitive after a while.

Waste of flamethrower fuel, you only get 400 + 300 in the nest, which is needed to deal with the plant monsters, easier to take your shotgun or if you're ballsy just your handgun because you get like 90 rounds in the nest anyways.

[Aeiku]

I wouldn't suggest using the flamethrower on the plant monsters in the nest it's better to save it for the boss fight in the lab to quickly down him. The plant monsters can be temporarily stunned by shooting the bulbs allowing you to run by.

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Ploppy:

I found it easy enough with Leon but I obviously used the wrong weapons with Claire and made it much harder for myself.

I just saw a speedrun where the guy uses a flashbang to stun, then uses the knife about 16 times, presses the switch then goes back with flamethrower to sustain the stunlock.

Maybe a couple of flame rounds from the GL could work instead for Claire.

Here's the vid btw: https://youtu.be/CNaTJ39EFjU?t=6340

Timestamp 1:45:40 for the crane fight.

Keep in mind from what I have heard from other posters that I assume got the info from data mining flame rounds override each other and the last tick of the flame round is what does massive damage thus don't spam them back to back until the prior is completely done.

Originally posted by Aeiku:

Should also note his fps is high. If you watch the Birkin fight in the start you see how fast Birkin dies. The higher your fps the more knife damage you do. So be careful if you plan to use knife, but what the post above yours states also works. Grenade launcher and SMG with flash grenades.

It doesn't boost knife dmg per hit per say but DPS, faster hits = higher dmg per period of time. This would mean it still takes 16 hits (if he counted right) in X example, just might need to down Birkin and avoid him while knifing him over a bit longer period of time.

Originally posted by Overlord:

Waste of flamethrower fuel, you only get 400 + 300 in the nest, which is needed to deal with the plant monsters, easier to take your shotgun or if you're ballsy just your handgun because you get like 90 rounds in the nest anyways.

Completely false. Other than G2, and to some extent G3, there is very little use for the flamethrower as it is very inefficient on anything else. In addition, you do NOT need to use it to kill Ivy. If you shoot the yellow spots on Ivy it stuns them for a good moment and lets you pass. Carry 2-3 flash or grenade in the event you screw up. There is little need to kill the Ivy. You might notice speedrunners don't kill the Ivy in their playthroughs because it is simply not necessary (nor did I in mine). Yes, Claire can because she gets so much ammo for the grenade launcher it is kind of obscene and its just a quick single tap from the flame round to pretty much wreck an Ivy so you can kill the 2 that would be immediately in your way in that first Ivy room.

[talgaby]

Not really inefficient. You can do 11× bonus damage against zombies, lickers (+60%) and G-Adults (+140%) have a natural weakness to it. It is the only way for Leon to kill an Ivy for a kill count challenge, everything else just puts them into hybernation.

By the way, you get 700 bonus fuel for it, on top of the 400 you start with, not just 300.

[Sk8erGirl]

https://youtu.be/dGl1dYPR3yM