Final Boss Guide (Some Spoilers, natch)

An effective strategy for taking on the hardest challenge of the game, fittingly attributed to the final boss. *SPOILERS involved concerning some plot developments and the like*

Building the Perfect Bum (or Corks, Lubricants, and Your Colon)

Theoretically, you could beat the final boss without any upgrades at all. Theoretically you could smash your junk inwards with a hammer until you become the next Minnie Riperton (look it up). Assuming you have some sense about you and you've made it this far in the game with upgrades, let me give you a brief rundown of what you should have to best stand a chance against the final fight.

My stats after beating the boss:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=288607307

Weapons: The Spine (for the natural +10% defense), Icy Hearts (with upgrades in chance to set enemy on fire), and the Assassin
Armor: Elite Soldier's Armor

• At least level 20, but between 23-26 is of course better.
  
• Some points in Pyro to at least have an instant cast Fire Sword.
  
• A primary focus in Ranger is objectively the best due to speed > power, but don't worry if you're more warrior-centric.
  
• Upgraded all your gear to have high defense and interruption resist (25-30% damage resist)
  
• Upgraded crossbow that will apply either fire or poison damage on hit (75% chance is ideal and easy to get).
  
• 20-40 Health potions
  
• Some mana potions are fine, but with this strat you wont be using magic all that much.
  
• 120+ Crossbow bolts (Master Pyros can possibly ignore this)
  
• 20-30 Traps
  
• Gunner Skill is a plus
  
• Tears and smashing-resistant controller/keyboard
  
• A stealy resolve and a persistance to learn from your deaths

Personally, I prefer the Ranger tree over the other two as its super human reflexes, dodge, riptose, poisons, etc. all make a fight like this much easier as you wont be sticking around the boss for long - you want to juke and jive. Still, if you're more focused in the other trees, don't worry - the crux of this strat doesn't rely much on anything other than traps and crossbows.

This boss hits hard, so having as much physical resistance is very important. Some magic resistance is great, too, if you can hit that 25-30% defense threshhold and have upgrades to spare. Most likely, if you've been keeping up with your armor, you can hit that threshhold easily - however, if, like me, you went for a full demon run, then you'll notice that the final stage of the transformation grants you +20% fire damage (nifty!) but -20% physical defense (I've made a huge mistake). Because of this, before you enter the final area, aim to have around 50% physical defense so you can handle taking that hit to your resistances.

If you're like me in more ways than one, then you also didn't use your crossbow much in the game (stabbing dudes in the butt is too much fun). However, hopefully that doesn't mean you just chucked any crossbow that came your way. There aren't many different bows in the game, but the Assassin crossbow comes with a base damage of 30 and a 75% chance to poison on hit. You'll want to get the upgrade that adds +15 to your power, as 75% is already high enough to poison your targets plenty throughout the fight, and the faster you can kill something with the bow the better. It also helps to have the Crossbowman skill unlocked as +30% damage is nothing to scoff at. Chances are you wont use nearly all your crossbow bolts, at least not with this strategy, but the game can be a bit odd with aiming and you may miss more than a few times.

Traps are key to this build, so having the Gunner feat for +50% damage is really nice, but not required. You're going to want about 20-30 traps, possibly more depending on your difficulty setting. They weigh a pound each, so they can weigh you down fast if you don't have the Mule perk too.

In terms of skills, really all you need is Vitality from the Warrior tree, since you wont be using your 2H weapon much. If that's the path you've focused on, though, dont' worry. For Ranger, the best skills to have are: Reflexes, Vivacity, Rancor, and Gift of the Viper (and all the skills needed to unlock it to level 3). Vivacity you just need one point so you can sprint while in ranger mode, as this will help you avoid attacks, the rest should be maxed out. For Pyro I used Flaming Weapon maxed out, but I can definitely see where I would have benefited from Flame Mastery, so that'd be a good get as well. If you're Pyro focused, you may be able to forgo the crossbow bolts entirely and just use fire orb, but I can't speak to its effectiveness.

Now that we've gone over what you need before the fight, let's discuss the fight itself. And remember: MAKE MULTIPLE SAVES - ESPECIALLY ONE BEFORE YOU ENTER BLACKFROST'S PALACE SO YOU CAN BACKTRACK AND LEVEL UP AND GET MORE SUPPLIES IF YOU NEED TO.

Tickling the Backdoor (or Foreplay on the Backyard)

Now that you're prepped, let's get into the actual fight itself!

Once you enter Blackfrost's Palace, there's no turning back, so make sure you have a spare save file just before the entrance that you can go back to as needed.

Blackfrost himself is disappointingly easy, but I'll go over his mechanics all the same.

At the start of the fight Blackfrost will summon two clones, with less health than the original. One will focus on using magic and the other will pelt you with arrows. Both are laughably low in health, so don't get intimidated by their pressence.

This fight grants you access to three companions, so you'll have an easy time focusing on one Blackfrost while your friends handle the other two.

The magic user can control minds, and this can be a real problem if he chooses to control Edwen as her ranged attacks can make your life miserable, so prioritize him. I've seen the archer use mind control as well, but usually he's more focused on shooting arrows. Once the mage is dead, go after the archer. He occassionally shoots frost arrows so be aware of that.

The main Blackfrost has far more health, but not so much that you'll be there all day. He fights with two daggers, one enchanted with dark magic and the other with frost. Without his glowing weapons it might be hard to see his attacks coming and dodge them, but as it is they are very easy to spot and see moving so you can get out of the way quickly.

And that's about it. Blackfrost is built up for half the game as some big threat and he goes down no problem. You may die once or twice if you're not careful and get stunlocked by dagger-frost, but fighting these three is just like fighting three hobblers. But you probably already bested them before even coming here looking for help, so let's get to the real final boss, shall we?

How to Protect Your Poopchute (or Life After Butt Devastation)

Welcome to the big show! The final bout! The Rampart in the Worldheart! The final boss you'll be facing this evening is...(pause for dramatic effect)...the demon! Surprised? I wasn't either! What is surprising, but actually very fitting, is how difficult he can be, so let me go over a brief rundown of the fight for you to reference.

• Phase 1: You'll fight the Demon 1v1, in rl, swer on me mum. Demon fights with daggers, uses spells, and attacks very quickly.
  
• Phase 2: You'll fight the Dragon. The Demon takes a nap while you use your crossbow/fire orbs to push the lizard off the edge.
  
• Phase 3: The Demon wakes up and resumes flipping around like a ♥♥♥♥♥ out acrobat, only this time the dragon will be pelting the field with white fire and, after roughly 60-90 seconds, will land again and you have to repeat phase 2.
  
• Phase 4: Go down to the Winchester for a pint and wait for this whole Ice Lords thing to blow over.

Now onto the specifics.

In the first phase, you'll be locking blades with the Spirit of the Worldheart, the other half of the demon or some manifestation of power or something...it's never made very clear, but what is clear is he has been corrupted by the Ice Lords and lashes out at you for taking your sweet time getting back to him.

The Demon has several attacks that he'll perform in no particular pattern, but he does give a brief cue as to which one he'll perform in that exact moment. His moves are:

• A buff to his dagger damage
  
• Acrobatic attacks with this daggers, lasting 3-5 attacks
  
• A single shot magic attack
  
• A series of five magic fan attacks while protected by mines

When he's buffing his damage, he'll throw his arms out to his side and his weapons will glow bright white. Afterwards he'll attack once and the effect will wear off. Be sure to dodge this as the effect applies a DoT to you that'll drain your health fast. This is also the safest time to prepare your own spells.

The main attack you have to watch out for is his acrobatic display where he'll flip, jump, and mostly stab and slash at you. Keep dodging and don't bother to riptose or parry as it probably wont interrupt him and you'll just end up being thrown back into the thick of it. Just mash that dodge.

Rarely he'll shoot a single magic orb at you, and that's about it. Easy to dodge, but if it does hit it will drain your health some like all the white flame attacks do.

His other favorite attack is what I like to call the White Fire Death Blossom. To start the attack, he'll throw his arms up in the air and launch a ring of five white fire mines around his person, preventing you from getting close. If you're cocky you can run in and hit him, but it's ill advised. They don't explode if you do happen to hit one, just deal damage to you and then stick around. After he's laid down the defense, he'll start firing a fan of five more white fire balls in a random configuration (though always horizontal, but there will be random gaps between the orbs) at you every two seconds. During this time you'll want to just run around in circles or back and forth to avoid the fan. So long as you keep moving the orbs shouldn't hit you. If you're quick and out of the way of an orb, you can take the time to fire off a crossbow bolt or a fire orb before you start running again. He doesn't move during this attack, so you'll be sure to hit (one hopes).

So how do we deal with him? Well, our traps are key. First, always having Fire Weapon cast (so long as you have instant cast, otherwise it might be hard to find a moment to cast it) for those special moments when you get intimate with him. Second, our traps.

What you'll want to do is look for an opening or safe bit of time when he's in an animation for his weapon buff. Do the fight enough times and it becomes easy to spot. You'll want to get in close and immediately lay down a trap. It will go off and knock him down and back. Run over to him and hit him 1-2 times (three if he doesn't fly far away). Once you see him start to get back up, immediately lay down another trap. Repeat this as needed, using your daggers to apply poison and fire effects.

After you've done about 30% damage to his health, you'll get a cutscene where he summons his dragon. During this phase the demon himself will be immune, but he also wont move or attack so you don't have to worry about him (though be aware of where he is each time the dragon shows up).

The dragon stays at the North end of the arena, and you can attack his two front feet and his face. At the start of the phase, run all the way to the left and target his left claw and fire away some bolts/orbs at it until its health drops away. Then switch targets to his right claw. You can either stay there and fire or move over to the right to do it, it depends on what the dragon is attacking with. In either case, don't get too close to the dragon's feet. For one, he can attack you with them, and two he will most likely lay down a protective wall of fire across them to prevent you from meleeing them (You still can, but you'll be taking constant damage).

Once both claws are down you can start firing at his head. His head can be hard to hit, especially with slow moving orbs, as it moves around a lot. However, there are moments where he lays his head down so you can shoot it or melee it if you're feeling sassy. The best place to stand is directly in front of him and a bit back so you can hit him more easily.

His other attacks include shooting three white fire orbs at your location, which leave behind some fire for about 10 seconds. There's no telling how many times he'll do this, maybe once maybe a dozen times. They're slow moving with a small hit radius so you can use this time to spam bolts/orbs if you like. He may also breathe fire about half way across the arena, and sweep it back and forth. Another fire breath attack, this time it has a much longer range, but shorter width. Be careful of both as they can knock you down and thus hit multiple times. And as mentioned before, he'll breathe fire on his feet and attack with them.

LIke the demon there's no way to tell what attack he'll do next, and his attacks are harder to read the cues for, so as a rule just always be on the move and hitting him with arrows. He's a rather easy phase and if you like you can use the time to run around with your 2H for bonus health regen.

Once you've knocked the dragon off, he'lly fly around and occasionally shoot fire orbs onto the ground that leave patches of fire, much like his orb attack. He's very bad at aiming, however, and as long as you move every so often you can avoid them. During this time the demon will come back to fight so you'll be wanting to repeat the trap process I mentioned before.

]As his attacks are random, you may get unlucky and he'll spam the fire blossom attack several times in a row, making it hard to deal damage. After 60-90 seconds, the dragon returns and you have to knock him off again (but the demon's health will stay as is, so don't feel too rushed). There's some criteria he follows to what attacks he performs, as he will favor ranged attacks if you're far away and melee if you're close, but he's not consistent with this and you can never be certain what he'll do.

You'll likely have to fight the dragon 3-5 times while you beat the demon down inbetween encounters, so long as you're using the trap method. Don't get over confident if you see his health drop closer and closer to zero, though. He can very easily turn the tide of the battle by making a connection with this acrobat attack and then it's fight over and you have to do it all over again.

The method works, but the nature of the fight can sometimes mean he'll trigger a trap but not be knocked down, so be prepared to dodge and weave and don't panic or he'll take his opening and rip yours open. It's a frustrating fight, but you can do it! :D

tl;dr Version (or I've Got the Runs and my Plop Shop is Screaming!)

Bring lots of traps and crossbow bolts (40 and 120+ respectively), along with about 20-40 health potions. Have the Gunner and Crossbowman feats unlocked, Fire Weapon maxed for instant cast, and Vivacity so you can sprint while in combat (Ranger only). 20-30% Damage Resistance is a must to give breathing room for mistakes.

Apply face to the left side of keyboard and roll over to the right. Repeat as necessary until Blackfrost is dead.

When fighting the demon, wait until he does his buff-weapon move and run up close and place a trap. Let him get knocked down, run up, attack twice, then lay down another trap. Repeat as needed, and always keep Fire Weapon up.

When not spamming knockdowns with traps, avoid his magic orb attacks and be cautious of his melee attacks - always dodge, don't give time to riptose as it can get you killed.

At 70% health, dragon spawns. Avoid fire breath attacks and shoot his feet and face with arrows and/or orbs of fire. Demon is stunned and immune during dragon phase. Once dragon leaves, resume spamming traps on the demon.

Avoid fire bombs from dragon as he flies around arena and be prepared to fight dragon again after 60-90 seconds of fighting demon.

Don't get cocky and try to go for more attacks on the demon while he's down (1-2 attacks are fine). He gets up quickly and can immediately turn around and trap you with his own mines or stat slashing away at your health before you can react.

Trap, stab stab, trap. Be prepared to die a lot as the game can get screwy and there's little room for error. But don't give up and see it through to the end!

Pictured: All the dead Vulcans that the Demon has killed.

[Aster]

Grazie, lo screenshot finale descrive la mia situazione.
Thank you.

[Undermoroz]

Quirky writing and useful info. I applaude you, good sir!

[The Crescent Hawk]

Fantastic guide man, really well done stuff.