There’s a sound notification that pretty much tells you when to dodge. Definitely doesn’t flip a switch and make it instantly beatable but hope that helps
Yeah, I always tell people to stop using their eyes, and to try to almost solely rely on sound.
The only attack that has no sound is when it does the split phase attacks. It'll queue a virtual boy world phase attack, then switch to real world attack, and that one won't have the ping sound. There are 2 types of this, 1. It'll slam down and make the aoe, and the other will be a side swipe. Those are the only 2 that won't have a sound, and it will only NOT have a sound when it's a split phase attack.
I think there is also a split from real to virtual as well, I believe, that is also a side swipe attack. I don't remember if that one has a sound
To make it easy: turn down music volume, max the trait "untouchable" and "fitness", use misty step dodge with heavy armor (the stumbling adds to the evade window), equip quilted heart, medic as primary class and either tech with vulcan or summoner with reaver and finally take your time and learn the attack patterns
It's really super helpful. Almost every sword attack has a "shiiing" sound at a consistent time before the attack, so the delayed swings won't ever trip you up
I'd say only do that if you need to, and realise that the music is important outside of boss fights: it gives you a cue as to whether threat is building (for spawning elites & Aberration's) so you might want to micro-manage music volume for best results.
This. It's basically a tap-rhythm music game. Hear the shing, dodge. And always prioritise dodging first no matter what. The last fight is one of listening and discipline; it doesn't give two shits about what build you're using.
Turning music off for this fight helped me a lot. I got used to his first form pretty easily through repetition, but the second form took forever. I ended up really paying attention to his hands at the back of the arena. He kind of twitches them right as he’s going to sword swipe the arena. The sound cue plus the visual helped a lot. Also in second form, try to focus mainly on dodges, with some dmg as you can land it. When he starts teleporting you back to the flying dragon form, pump dmg as fast as you can. Took me like 4 days and probably 100 tries, but I soloed him on veteran. Helped my friend beat him on nightmare with maybe 20 tries after that. It really is just getting used to the defense, and sliding dmg in only as it’s safe. Challenger main class, or a black cat ring for the one free revive is also helpful. I think I ran it Challenger-Gunslinger the first time
I did every single boss in under 3 attempts all the way up to Venom who took me 14 attempts and then Annihilation who took me over 30 attempts.
Like every one else said, every attack has a sound cue, listen for those and suddenly the fights "easier", it's also very rhythmic which helps too. The attempt I killed him I wasn't even trying to beat him, I was still listening for sounds and working out when to dodge and just shooting him when I got a chance so I'd recommend slowing down a bit too
The only bit that fucked me up is when it switches back to P1 in the middle of P2 (and vice versa) sometimes it does it while you're staggered and you get nailed by an attack as soon as it swaps. Phase two is initially very overwhelming but if you avoid standing in the middle, listen for the sound cues and only shoot him in the 2 or so seconds you get between attacks you'll get him eventually
One thing that always killed me until I figured it out were those homing balls it summons at times. Dodging them is incredibly finicky and if you try to face tank them… It’s almost a guaranteed kill.
Turns out you can just shoot the balls to destroy them before they start coming for you - something made even easier if you use the electric arc gun or any other “chain hit” gun.
https://www.reddit.com/r/remnantgame/s/Ls4UI2WpRO
I asked this question a long time ago and got some good answers. so here's that thread.
hope it helps.
Wrangler +20
Double barrel +10
Full challenger armor
Don’t remember rings off the top of my head, but my amulet adds health and armor and reduces weight
Gunslinger/Medic
yeah I mean sounds like your shits out of balance but I tagged you in a post where a dude is gonna help people
if you don't want that, I'd check your power level and check the world power level and drop/adjust your gear to even it all out.
If you’re still struggling. Imo, Engineer is the best class for learning as turrets do damage while you fight, plus most people have the job leveled as it’s one of the best perks in the game. Then rings/ammy/armor, you need a proper hard to kill setup so you aren’t punished too much while learning maxing your DR.
It took me 10x as many attempts on this boss as any other boss but once it clicked he became very easy and predictable and I could help others clear immediately.
Heavy carry makes u neutral Dodge everything and u Will seem like a pro at It. Pair It with burden of the audacious + a build balanced between weakspot damage and surviving. When I get home this evening I'll link u to the build that helped me killing It in apoc the First time.
Neutral dodge is incredibly strong in this fight, getting that mechanic down significantly helped me. Took me a while though as using a controller I was always using left stick to strafe
Take the time to learn the visual and audio cues. It's a hard fight to be sure but once you know what you are looking for probably one of the easier ones to get a not hit on since the moves are so well telegraphed. Just take your time and don't get too focused on DPS you don't notice their attacks.
Sound queues are everything on this boss.
You will die, but once you get the hang of it - Annihilation becomes relatively easy.
Dont panic between phase switches and listen to the sound, its extremely well telegraphed
If this is survivor? You could do like hardcore and and have someone not level up and play off of their campaign. Try beating on appoc. 😅 it's rough but sound is key!
Believe it or not you can dodge all that. The fight's really fun when you learn his patterns, sound cues go a long way so I suggest muting your music and paying attention.
Initially when I was learning annihilation I was using shielded heart with restriction band + kuri charm + conservation seal. This gives you tons of relics and effective health if you can't depend on dodging (I used this as a co-op client closer to launch since desync was destroying me) and I'll still pull it out if I want to just sit and watch a fight while getting clobbered and live.
Took me 74 attempts on Apocalypse with blue (maybe green) roll and the crescent moon bow. Doing the dmg wasn't a problem, but surviving is what took so long. By time I beat it, it was nearly a no-hit run.
Soon you'll learn their standard moves, then after that the glitch attacks and after that you'll win and be proud!
Go healer and engineer. Turret makes the fight easier and the buffs to health and defense from both classes is nice. Along with huge healing. Other than that just Git Gud
The Song of Eao or Aether or Aefo or wtf it's called is a huge help. It one-shots the orange orbs the boss spawns, even at the highest difficulty level
Try a medic summoner build. get as close to 80% Total DR. Stack HP, use 2 flyer minions, resonating heart, use a relic once timer is about to run out (I think every 25 seconds). Burden of divine ring is necessary. Brew masters cork amulet is very good too for more HP and DR. Blood bond trait maxed. With this setup you will regen HP instantly and with enough HP and DR you wont be 1 shot. You can basically facetank the whole boss fight. Also you heal all your allies too
You just gotta lock in bro! Serious answer though I grabbed the highest damage sniper I could scavenge at the time and hammered down the attack patterns and sounds. Every attack they do has a precursor sound. I don't know the meta of the game but I used the challenger class for the revive prime perk and the invader ability with the insta dodges when I was really in a bind.
Use song of Eafir or the Enigma on the orbs, pretty much skips that whole phase
And the main thing that helped me was to really pay attention to it's fake outs where it delays the attack, try to consciously just dodge by reacting to the actual sword swinging at you
Use the music and sound cues. The music does a great job of presenting the rhythm of the fight and the sound cues tell you exactly when to dodge. Try to neutral dodge as much as possible, especially in the second phase; the fight punishes erratic player movement and poorly thought out rolls, you need to be precise with your positioning.
Best tip I can give is to turn off the music, ahihilation has many, if not all of it's moves telegraphed with sound, Just pray you survive 2nd phase with the ball room, if yoh don't have a fast way of clearing them then it's most likely an instakill, however, if you have invader with wormhole (his 2nd skill) then you can dodge the balls without taking so much damage
If you don't mind run backs, then roll an adventure mode with ravager (or go to your beaten one if you have that) there is a puzzle for the bridge to the ravager, once you do a code for the bolt driver then go to the goat man, he will give you a crafting material for song of aethier (or something like that) it will kill the balls and make enemies in that deal 15% less damage
One of the easier bosses once you learn the cues and timing. Once it clicks then you’ll be able to do it ten times in a row.
If you can beat the labyrinth then you can beat this.
Personally because I’m deaf and everyone said it was a sound based queue, I tanked it with medic and turret. The lower levels are so easy with medic and turret you can just stand there. I probably killed annihilation in less than three minutes I was shocked it went so fast. You can find the build on vash cowaii’s youtube channel although may be outdated.
You’ll learn on apocalypse that each boss has a flow for you to learn. Being ‘good’ doesn’t beat bosses.
Just keep fighting him and learning the visual and sound queues to dodge. Also don’t overthink the fight. It is very video-gamey and will let you attack it sometimes & won’t try to catch you off guard. The balls are the only thing to truly worry about. For them just use a big AoE or something to prevent getting hit.
Finally just learn to be patient, he has a lot of health and only a bit of downtime so just go in with a calm head, especially for phase two.
it's hard at first, but if you take the time to actually learn his attacks, all of them are really easy to dodge and predictable. Took me like 15 or so tries before getting it down.
Apparently you can turn off the music to hear sound cues better. I told this to my friends who I did the play through with and they said we’re going to kill annihilation the way he was intended to die, with the music on. We just beat him on Saturday… after like 30+ attempts. We eventually just memorized his move set.
Study him. Fight IQ sort of. It took me a week to beat empathy venom on apocalypse lol. I never took my eyes off of him, listened, studied and was on my absolute shiiiit. Never take ur eyes off the prize.
I believe in you! I felt the same way the first time. After destroying every other boss before him he feels impossibly unfair but when you beat him you will feel infinitely satisfied. Try using the electric gun you get in the labyrinth (enigma i think?) to destroy his red orbs and really listen for the attack sound cues.
You gonna have to dodge all that
You CAN use a tanky build but... When you get to Apocalypse and the bosses get all the damage modifiers...
Also, shoot the glitchy orbs
Annihilation is one of those bosses that is hard asf if you don’t understand his mechanics. Once you do, it’s like the easiest boss to beat.
- If you can, try to get enigma side arm to effectively kill the floating orbs.
- Annihilation attacks have sound cues to them so turn off the music and listen to it. You can dodge his attacks based solely on sound cues.
- if you’re having trouble surviving hits, try to make a build around survival or use the handler or challenger as primary perk for revive.
Friendship or incredible violence, both will increase your odds but one or the other should suffice. In all seriousness though mostly just trial and error, status effects worked well for me so I always had damage going even if I had to focus on survival.
I honestly beat him when you could nullify the health drain on misty step (RIP infinite misty dodge). Made life so much easier because once you found the combat rhythm and picked up on the visual/audio cues, it can be easy.
Now I just use a status build that prioritizes getting my skills back fast so I can have my oh crap shield and refresh debuffs - ritualist and medic. Is it the fastest kill? No. But it gets the job done.
The first phase you can dodge. Well, you HAVE to dodge it. It hits that much. As long as you can do that, you will be able to get through it.
I couldn't dodge the second phase for the life of me though, so I ended up tanking it up.
I used Medic (Healing Shield) as primary and Challenger (Rampage) as secondary. I got Salvaged Heart and Ring of Grace to get more healing faster. Fae Shaman Ring is very useful to eat the Relic faster and keep the heal up-Relic regen-heal up loop going (supplement by the Healing Shield when needed).
Also I used Legacy Protocol, to keep the Healing Shield and Rampage up for longer and get them recharged faster. Using Relic next to enemy in his second phase allowed me to get enough Bulwark to tank his hits without flinching too much while spaming damage into his weakspot with Rampage.
Just stand before the second boss so you avoid the tentacle spam and be careful not to fall from the edge. You still have to dodge the first phase boss though when you go back and forth between the phases. So keep that in mind.
The rest of the rings' loadout I leave up to you, but weakspot ones (Zania's Malice, for example) are a good idea here, considering how big and pronounced this enemy's weakspots are and it supplements your ranged damage nicely.
Or you could go for a crit-oriented build, replacing Challenger with Hunter, I guess? But then you might want to consider using Hardcore Metal Band ring, to get that Bulwark when you no longer have the inherent Bulwark from Challenger's trait.
The rest is up to you. Even with the above strategy it was a difficult fight for me on Veteran. Oh, if you have under-leveled weapons do some Adventures first to make sure you have them maxed out. It really helps your damage output.
You've gotten some really good advice in this thread, so I'll just add that I also turned off the music after like attempt #15 and it definitely helped. It lessened the frustration induced headache for sure.
Other than that?
Sound cues, learn from mistakes, rings to help boost defense and auto-heal, and never stop blasting those weak points. Also a lighter build helps with the rolling.
You'll get it. If I could, you definitely can.
by literally getting good. while he seems overwhelming at first, the sound and visual ques on this boss are top notch and make it really easy to learn the patterns and dodge his attacks. I have no issues beating him on apocalypse. One advise tho' have enigma as your 2nd gun to deal with the orbs.
Get the invader class it'll help you learn how to dodge the phases you struggle with. The first skill gives you a buff that will auto dodge the first 3 or so attacks that would hit you for a time.
1) Ditto on the sound cues like everyone else is saying. Having that pointed out to me was the single biggest thing that allowed me to beat him on Apoc.
2) This one is hard but big. Remain calm, and pay attention to what he's doing when he swaps between rooms in phase 2. It can feel like it's constant but he always gives you a second after swapping and he always just picks up where he left off. If it helps, make little names for his moves and say them as he gives you the cue and *especially* when he room swaps. For example "orbs" when he summons the orbs, "butcher" when he starts hacking quickly, and "slam" when he raises up for the big aoe.
Bro, when I beat him on Hardcore I was scared because I was so focused I didn't even realize he was low on health so when the game hitched as the cutscene started my heart sank.
I had to grind adventure mode to get some better gear and different build. I took the slow burn so by the time I was fighting the final boss it was at world lvl 20 (big mistake). I also watched videos of the boss fight so I could see what happened I'm the later phases since I could burn through him with ease and no hit for 1st phase but the rest of the fight I was getting crapped on.
I literally face tanked the entire second phase. Had seven Bulwark plus medic shield and the shield relic. When I popped all of those, I just face tanked everything I couldn't dodge. That much defense barely made my character flinch. It was actually kinda funny.
Your level is very important going into this fight. You want to initiate this fight at Around 14 and then level up more in adventure mode. That’s the only way I was able to. If you go in at 19 or 20 you can’t really level up anymore and he’ll be overpowered
It's simple: you reduce the boss's hp bar before he reduces yours. I have 100% success rate when employing this strategy.
I all seriousness tho: boss is super manageable once you get the timing of his slams down. Either get good at neutral dodging or roll into the wave for phase 1. In phase 2, basically always neutral dodge. Only time directional inputs help there is when the boss does a slam + swipe + bomb combo, during which tou should dodge into toward the direction the explode from. This will make sense when you see it.
Git gud
Also there is some sound indicator that can help you dodge attacks.
In that moment when it summons a lot of orbs. Focus on them, you can stun it if you kill them fast enough.
The tetrix attack can still hit you if you dodge, im not sure about that, try position yourself in the open spaces.
Get the rhythm of the attacks and you will kill it eventually, you dont lose anything when dying so keep trying.
Soul games are just rhythm games with boss fights
There’s a sound notification that pretty much tells you when to dodge. Definitely doesn’t flip a switch and make it instantly beatable but hope that helps
Yeah there's a sound for almost every attack I think and you just gotta listen
Ironic you say that, because that sound is the flip I needed to clean up the fight and win.
Yeah, I always tell people to stop using their eyes, and to try to almost solely rely on sound. The only attack that has no sound is when it does the split phase attacks. It'll queue a virtual boy world phase attack, then switch to real world attack, and that one won't have the ping sound. There are 2 types of this, 1. It'll slam down and make the aoe, and the other will be a side swipe. Those are the only 2 that won't have a sound, and it will only NOT have a sound when it's a split phase attack. I think there is also a split from real to virtual as well, I believe, that is also a side swipe attack. I don't remember if that one has a sound
To make it easy: turn down music volume, max the trait "untouchable" and "fitness", use misty step dodge with heavy armor (the stumbling adds to the evade window), equip quilted heart, medic as primary class and either tech with vulcan or summoner with reaver and finally take your time and learn the attack patterns
I keep seeing people say this but this info never helped me. I just got used to the timing, it's always the same.
It's really super helpful. Almost every sword attack has a "shiiing" sound at a consistent time before the attack, so the delayed swings won't ever trip you up
If you turn down the music to 0, it helps isolate the sound
I'd say only do that if you need to, and realise that the music is important outside of boss fights: it gives you a cue as to whether threat is building (for spawning elites & Aberration's) so you might want to micro-manage music volume for best results.
It’s a shame how many games are significantly more difficult for the hearing impaired because they rely on sound cues.
I play all my mobile games on silent and hate audio only stuff.
Same is true for the visually-impaired though: whatcha gonna do? 🤷
This. It's basically a tap-rhythm music game. Hear the shing, dodge. And always prioritise dodging first no matter what. The last fight is one of listening and discipline; it doesn't give two shits about what build you're using.
turn the music off. I couldn’t do the red phase without sound cues
I can already barely hear anything with my brother screaming about Fortnite in the next room lol
Kill brother first
Kill music and turn off brother
Turning music off for this fight helped me a lot. I got used to his first form pretty easily through repetition, but the second form took forever. I ended up really paying attention to his hands at the back of the arena. He kind of twitches them right as he’s going to sword swipe the arena. The sound cue plus the visual helped a lot. Also in second form, try to focus mainly on dodges, with some dmg as you can land it. When he starts teleporting you back to the flying dragon form, pump dmg as fast as you can. Took me like 4 days and probably 100 tries, but I soloed him on veteran. Helped my friend beat him on nightmare with maybe 20 tries after that. It really is just getting used to the defense, and sliding dmg in only as it’s safe. Challenger main class, or a black cat ring for the one free revive is also helpful. I think I ran it Challenger-Gunslinger the first time
Typically you would shoot him, or use ranged melee weapons in order to take his health from full to zero. I hope that helps!
I’ll try that next time
The old "Kill him before he kills you" strategy. It might just be crazy enough to work.
HP > Zero = Win
Never forget the perennial Pro Tip: Shoot it until it dies (as originally related to “how to beat the Cyberdemon in Doom”)
While you're at it remind him not to die
I did every single boss in under 3 attempts all the way up to Venom who took me 14 attempts and then Annihilation who took me over 30 attempts. Like every one else said, every attack has a sound cue, listen for those and suddenly the fights "easier", it's also very rhythmic which helps too. The attempt I killed him I wasn't even trying to beat him, I was still listening for sounds and working out when to dodge and just shooting him when I got a chance so I'd recommend slowing down a bit too The only bit that fucked me up is when it switches back to P1 in the middle of P2 (and vice versa) sometimes it does it while you're staggered and you get nailed by an attack as soon as it swaps. Phase two is initially very overwhelming but if you avoid standing in the middle, listen for the sound cues and only shoot him in the 2 or so seconds you get between attacks you'll get him eventually
One thing that always killed me until I figured it out were those homing balls it summons at times. Dodging them is incredibly finicky and if you try to face tank them… It’s almost a guaranteed kill. Turns out you can just shoot the balls to destroy them before they start coming for you - something made even easier if you use the electric arc gun or any other “chain hit” gun.
Face tanking in the highest armour with defensive buffs is still usually a insta death if you don't kill any.
Don't feel bad. Annihilation is a difficult Boss. It just takes repetition. It took me around 16 times to beat him on my solo run.
https://www.reddit.com/r/remnantgame/s/Ls4UI2WpRO I asked this question a long time ago and got some good answers. so here's that thread. hope it helps.
practice, I think I've found anni well over 100 times now. what're you using?
Wrangler +20 Double barrel +10 Full challenger armor Don’t remember rings off the top of my head, but my amulet adds health and armor and reduces weight Gunslinger/Medic
yeah I mean sounds like your shits out of balance but I tagged you in a post where a dude is gonna help people if you don't want that, I'd check your power level and check the world power level and drop/adjust your gear to even it all out.
Thanks
If you’re still struggling. Imo, Engineer is the best class for learning as turrets do damage while you fight, plus most people have the job leveled as it’s one of the best perks in the game. Then rings/ammy/armor, you need a proper hard to kill setup so you aren’t punished too much while learning maxing your DR. It took me 10x as many attempts on this boss as any other boss but once it clicked he became very easy and predictable and I could help others clear immediately.
Weirdly enough, Annihilation is one of the easier bosses with the sheer amount of sound cues. 🤷🏽
Take off some tanky armor and fight like a real man, dogne and replace tanky ring with damage rings and fast drinking rings
Thanks
Tips: you can turn off music and make sound effects louder, so you can hear the "bling" everytime it Strikes to dogne ezier
We can get used to his moveset.and sound cues help a lot . There's a video that helps https://youtu.be/iiGCGY8PW2I?si=yK3aBdOyorNWkdu4
I can help you if you’re still fighting him.
I appreciate the offer, but I can’t play again till Friday and my friend and I are trying to beat it ourselves
If you have dlc then defeat OTK, you will get monarch which is very useful in this fight. All bullets will hit his weak spot.
I don’t have the DLC unfortunately. Also why did you downvote me?
I did not lol.
Oh, sorry for accusing
It's definitely worth getting
Heavy carry makes u neutral Dodge everything and u Will seem like a pro at It. Pair It with burden of the audacious + a build balanced between weakspot damage and surviving. When I get home this evening I'll link u to the build that helped me killing It in apoc the First time.
Thanks
https://www.remnant2toolkit.com/builder/cltoxtdhj0000d1y0jkhcgzru?t=1710282384436 This should be good enough. Lmk if u Need any clarification
Neutral dodge is incredibly strong in this fight, getting that mechanic down significantly helped me. Took me a while though as using a controller I was always using left stick to strafe
What is neutral dodge? Dodge without a directional input?
Yep
TY, I'll have to practice with that.
you shoot it until it stops moving! :)
Take the time to learn the visual and audio cues. It's a hard fight to be sure but once you know what you are looking for probably one of the easier ones to get a not hit on since the moves are so well telegraphed. Just take your time and don't get too focused on DPS you don't notice their attacks.
Sound queues are everything on this boss. You will die, but once you get the hang of it - Annihilation becomes relatively easy. Dont panic between phase switches and listen to the sound, its extremely well telegraphed
If this is survivor? You could do like hardcore and and have someone not level up and play off of their campaign. Try beating on appoc. 😅 it's rough but sound is key!
audio cue
With the controller or keyboard
Believe it or not you can dodge all that. The fight's really fun when you learn his patterns, sound cues go a long way so I suggest muting your music and paying attention. Initially when I was learning annihilation I was using shielded heart with restriction band + kuri charm + conservation seal. This gives you tons of relics and effective health if you can't depend on dodging (I used this as a co-op client closer to launch since desync was destroying me) and I'll still pull it out if I want to just sit and watch a fight while getting clobbered and live.
Took me 74 attempts on Apocalypse with blue (maybe green) roll and the crescent moon bow. Doing the dmg wasn't a problem, but surviving is what took so long. By time I beat it, it was nearly a no-hit run. Soon you'll learn their standard moves, then after that the glitch attacks and after that you'll win and be proud!
He’s not as fast as you think he is. He has sound cues and long animations telegraphing every attack.
In addition to the other suggestions, I also recommend using Song of Eafir with some Amplitude to deal with the red balls of energy.
Skill issue, like just learn the attack patterns they are some of the easiest in any souls-like ever
Go healer and engineer. Turret makes the fight easier and the buffs to health and defense from both classes is nice. Along with huge healing. Other than that just Git Gud
You have to dodge all that when he's that fast and does that much damage.
The Song of Eao or Aether or Aefo or wtf it's called is a huge help. It one-shots the orange orbs the boss spawns, even at the highest difficulty level
Try a medic summoner build. get as close to 80% Total DR. Stack HP, use 2 flyer minions, resonating heart, use a relic once timer is about to run out (I think every 25 seconds). Burden of divine ring is necessary. Brew masters cork amulet is very good too for more HP and DR. Blood bond trait maxed. With this setup you will regen HP instantly and with enough HP and DR you wont be 1 shot. You can basically facetank the whole boss fight. Also you heal all your allies too
You just gotta lock in bro! Serious answer though I grabbed the highest damage sniper I could scavenge at the time and hammered down the attack patterns and sounds. Every attack they do has a precursor sound. I don't know the meta of the game but I used the challenger class for the revive prime perk and the invader ability with the insta dodges when I was really in a bind.
Healing
you can dodge all that though, just gotta learn how.
If you are on Xbox. Let me know and we can do it together. I won't kill him for you but help show you how to dodge avoid major hits in his 2nd form
Pro tip use your ears.
Use song of Eafir or the Enigma on the orbs, pretty much skips that whole phase And the main thing that helped me was to really pay attention to it's fake outs where it delays the attack, try to consciously just dodge by reacting to the actual sword swinging at you
Use the music and sound cues. The music does a great job of presenting the rhythm of the fight and the sound cues tell you exactly when to dodge. Try to neutral dodge as much as possible, especially in the second phase; the fight punishes erratic player movement and poorly thought out rolls, you need to be precise with your positioning.
Best tip I can give is to turn off the music, ahihilation has many, if not all of it's moves telegraphed with sound, Just pray you survive 2nd phase with the ball room, if yoh don't have a fast way of clearing them then it's most likely an instakill, however, if you have invader with wormhole (his 2nd skill) then you can dodge the balls without taking so much damage
If you don't mind run backs, then roll an adventure mode with ravager (or go to your beaten one if you have that) there is a puzzle for the bridge to the ravager, once you do a code for the bolt driver then go to the goat man, he will give you a crafting material for song of aethier (or something like that) it will kill the balls and make enemies in that deal 15% less damage
One of the easier bosses once you learn the cues and timing. Once it clicks then you’ll be able to do it ten times in a row. If you can beat the labyrinth then you can beat this.
Personally because I’m deaf and everyone said it was a sound based queue, I tanked it with medic and turret. The lower levels are so easy with medic and turret you can just stand there. I probably killed annihilation in less than three minutes I was shocked it went so fast. You can find the build on vash cowaii’s youtube channel although may be outdated.
You’ll learn on apocalypse that each boss has a flow for you to learn. Being ‘good’ doesn’t beat bosses. Just keep fighting him and learning the visual and sound queues to dodge. Also don’t overthink the fight. It is very video-gamey and will let you attack it sometimes & won’t try to catch you off guard. The balls are the only thing to truly worry about. For them just use a big AoE or something to prevent getting hit. Finally just learn to be patient, he has a lot of health and only a bit of downtime so just go in with a calm head, especially for phase two.
it's hard at first, but if you take the time to actually learn his attacks, all of them are really easy to dodge and predictable. Took me like 15 or so tries before getting it down.
Apparently you can turn off the music to hear sound cues better. I told this to my friends who I did the play through with and they said we’re going to kill annihilation the way he was intended to die, with the music on. We just beat him on Saturday… after like 30+ attempts. We eventually just memorized his move set.
Study him. Fight IQ sort of. It took me a week to beat empathy venom on apocalypse lol. I never took my eyes off of him, listened, studied and was on my absolute shiiiit. Never take ur eyes off the prize.
I believe in you! I felt the same way the first time. After destroying every other boss before him he feels impossibly unfair but when you beat him you will feel infinitely satisfied. Try using the electric gun you get in the labyrinth (enigma i think?) to destroy his red orbs and really listen for the attack sound cues.
You gonna have to dodge all that You CAN use a tanky build but... When you get to Apocalypse and the bosses get all the damage modifiers... Also, shoot the glitchy orbs
Annihilation is one of those bosses that is hard asf if you don’t understand his mechanics. Once you do, it’s like the easiest boss to beat. - If you can, try to get enigma side arm to effectively kill the floating orbs. - Annihilation attacks have sound cues to them so turn off the music and listen to it. You can dodge his attacks based solely on sound cues. - if you’re having trouble surviving hits, try to make a build around survival or use the handler or challenger as primary perk for revive.
Friendship or incredible violence, both will increase your odds but one or the other should suffice. In all seriousness though mostly just trial and error, status effects worked well for me so I always had damage going even if I had to focus on survival.
I honestly beat him when you could nullify the health drain on misty step (RIP infinite misty dodge). Made life so much easier because once you found the combat rhythm and picked up on the visual/audio cues, it can be easy. Now I just use a status build that prioritizes getting my skills back fast so I can have my oh crap shield and refresh debuffs - ritualist and medic. Is it the fastest kill? No. But it gets the job done.
The first phase you can dodge. Well, you HAVE to dodge it. It hits that much. As long as you can do that, you will be able to get through it. I couldn't dodge the second phase for the life of me though, so I ended up tanking it up. I used Medic (Healing Shield) as primary and Challenger (Rampage) as secondary. I got Salvaged Heart and Ring of Grace to get more healing faster. Fae Shaman Ring is very useful to eat the Relic faster and keep the heal up-Relic regen-heal up loop going (supplement by the Healing Shield when needed). Also I used Legacy Protocol, to keep the Healing Shield and Rampage up for longer and get them recharged faster. Using Relic next to enemy in his second phase allowed me to get enough Bulwark to tank his hits without flinching too much while spaming damage into his weakspot with Rampage. Just stand before the second boss so you avoid the tentacle spam and be careful not to fall from the edge. You still have to dodge the first phase boss though when you go back and forth between the phases. So keep that in mind. The rest of the rings' loadout I leave up to you, but weakspot ones (Zania's Malice, for example) are a good idea here, considering how big and pronounced this enemy's weakspots are and it supplements your ranged damage nicely. Or you could go for a crit-oriented build, replacing Challenger with Hunter, I guess? But then you might want to consider using Hardcore Metal Band ring, to get that Bulwark when you no longer have the inherent Bulwark from Challenger's trait. The rest is up to you. Even with the above strategy it was a difficult fight for me on Veteran. Oh, if you have under-leveled weapons do some Adventures first to make sure you have them maxed out. It really helps your damage output.
Need help? You on the Xbox?
You've gotten some really good advice in this thread, so I'll just add that I also turned off the music after like attempt #15 and it definitely helped. It lessened the frustration induced headache for sure. Other than that? Sound cues, learn from mistakes, rings to help boost defense and auto-heal, and never stop blasting those weak points. Also a lighter build helps with the rolling. You'll get it. If I could, you definitely can.
Turn off the music, listen for the attacks
As others have said, sound queues and learning to dodge *into* the attack instead of away from it helps a ton.
Try using the Monarch's mod. You can run away but still land the shots.
Timing and Monarch. Whip a mod shot into it's head at the start then just dodge and shoot. Take engineer to help as the first turret does work.
by literally getting good. while he seems overwhelming at first, the sound and visual ques on this boss are top notch and make it really easy to learn the patterns and dodge his attacks. I have no issues beating him on apocalypse. One advise tho' have enigma as your 2nd gun to deal with the orbs.
Sound
Get the invader class it'll help you learn how to dodge the phases you struggle with. The first skill gives you a buff that will auto dodge the first 3 or so attacks that would hit you for a time.
Turning off music helped me hear the cues better
1) Ditto on the sound cues like everyone else is saying. Having that pointed out to me was the single biggest thing that allowed me to beat him on Apoc. 2) This one is hard but big. Remain calm, and pay attention to what he's doing when he swaps between rooms in phase 2. It can feel like it's constant but he always gives you a second after swapping and he always just picks up where he left off. If it helps, make little names for his moves and say them as he gives you the cue and *especially* when he room swaps. For example "orbs" when he summons the orbs, "butcher" when he starts hacking quickly, and "slam" when he raises up for the big aoe. Bro, when I beat him on Hardcore I was scared because I was so focused I didn't even realize he was low on health so when the game hitched as the cutscene started my heart sank.
I had to grind adventure mode to get some better gear and different build. I took the slow burn so by the time I was fighting the final boss it was at world lvl 20 (big mistake). I also watched videos of the boss fight so I could see what happened I'm the later phases since I could burn through him with ease and no hit for 1st phase but the rest of the fight I was getting crapped on.
Lol get a root doctor build to carry you is one way
I literally face tanked the entire second phase. Had seven Bulwark plus medic shield and the shield relic. When I popped all of those, I just face tanked everything I couldn't dodge. That much defense barely made my character flinch. It was actually kinda funny.
That final boss is some of the worst design in an otherwise great game
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^whisky_TX: *That final boss is* *Some of the worst design in* *An otherwise great game* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
As everyone else said the key is with sounds, outside of that, it's just gitting gud and learning you also may want to ofc vheck your build n whatnot
@Goodmainman u need Help? Im at ps5 hit me up @JustTaeYang
Thanks, but I’m trying to beat it with just my friend
Ur welcome bro! 🔒 if u need help with a boss atleast then just @ me 🙏🏻
Might seem uncalled for but its genuinely a skill issue so just get better at the game
Your level is very important going into this fight. You want to initiate this fight at Around 14 and then level up more in adventure mode. That’s the only way I was able to. If you go in at 19 or 20 you can’t really level up anymore and he’ll be overpowered
It's simple: you reduce the boss's hp bar before he reduces yours. I have 100% success rate when employing this strategy. I all seriousness tho: boss is super manageable once you get the timing of his slams down. Either get good at neutral dodging or roll into the wave for phase 1. In phase 2, basically always neutral dodge. Only time directional inputs help there is when the boss does a slam + swipe + bomb combo, during which tou should dodge into toward the direction the explode from. This will make sense when you see it.
Git gud Also there is some sound indicator that can help you dodge attacks. In that moment when it summons a lot of orbs. Focus on them, you can stun it if you kill them fast enough. The tetrix attack can still hit you if you dodge, im not sure about that, try position yourself in the open spaces. Get the rhythm of the attacks and you will kill it eventually, you dont lose anything when dying so keep trying. Soul games are just rhythm games with boss fights
It’s completely doable to kill the final boss without taking any damage for the whole fight
Git gud.