Overview
Heyo! This is just a quick guide i felt like making to help some peeps with bosses. This is in no way THE definitive boss guide, but these are my tips and thoughts on the bosses
Introduction
Hey, and welcome to some random (probably crap) guide on how to beat the Hyper Light Drifter bosses using the same strategies and exploits that i do!
Feel free to comment your own tips, but know that this is how I usually go about beating this bosses.
I know that these bosses can all seem intimidating, but really, they’re not all that hard to beat if you know what you’re doing, so listen closely!
Before we begin, I need to explain a few concepts ill be using in this guide:
The first of these is the pistol/sword combo. To achieve this, equip your pistol, right-click to fire a shot and immediately left-click to swing your sword and i mean IMMEDIATELY. This is a form of animation cancelling and will allow you to fire off 2 damage in the space of one sword swing, or turn your 3-hit sword combo into a 6-hit combo. This move is easy to pull off and once mastered, will basically double your damage output for the whole game.
The second technique is reload cancelling. This is done by double-tapping the swap gun button (mine is R, as in reload in most games). What this does is swap out your gun, then swap it back in, cancelling the reload time. It is most useful on the shotgun (oh btw, use pistol and shotgun for this whole game) as it allows you to unload all 3 (or 5) shots within a second.
And finally, the third conept is freeze-frames. When you hit an enemy, the game will freeze for a few frames, so that you don’t get punished for attacking too early. This can be abused in boss battles. By bum-rushing a boss, spamming attack after attack, you can essentially lock the boss in slow motion, as they are stuck in freeze frames, while you aren’t. This means you can fit in a huge amount of damage while the boss is winding up or down from an attack.
That’s it for the intro, onto the guide!
Free Loot (East Boss)
This guide will be quick and simple, so let’s get straight into it.
Enter the arena and walk behind the boss to the left, as seen in the screenshot. Aim horizontally, as this will prevent you from moving downwards while attacking, and spam your pistol/sword combo to your hearts content. If he throws a pot at you, step out of the way and continue. He can’t hit you with his slam, so don’t bother dodging it. Repeat until fights ends and collect your free shotgun
Don’t Stop! (North Boss)
For this boss, multi-dash is heavily recommended. The shotgun will also make this fight easier, but that requires having the East done, so it might not work for everyone.
The gist of this fight is run. Don’t stay still for long, as the boss’s main attack will catch up to you quick. Dash away, then towards the boss, leading this attack away to buy you time. Dash away when he unleashes his other attacks too, except in the third phase. When you can, use reload cancelling to unload your shotgun into him, this will help you severely as it saves time. As always, only ever use the pistol/sword combo to double your damage output. When he warps to the center to change phases, stick to him and continue attacking. You can hit his spawned birds through him, but back away if you are not confident in fighting these. During the third phase, you don’t need to bother backing off, so unload all you can and he should die quick.
Patience, Please (West Boss)
Ok. I gotta admit. This guy is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard, but there are a few techniques you can use to make him easier.
There isn’t much structure to the guide on this fight. Basically, unload your shotgun when you can, reflect his shots back if possible, pistol/sword combo the ♥♥♥♥ out of him for extra damage and freeze frames galore and charge up an attack before he comes to you, then dodge the hell away. Guide him towards his frozen minions so he destroys them, removing them from the fight. Again, there isn’t much exploitation you can do in this fight, you just have to fight him and its tough, but be patient and keep trying and you’ll get it eventually.
Quadruple Pushover Combo (South Bosses)
There are four of these guys, but they’re very easy. I recommend having multi-dash, charge attack, reflect and absorbtion.
The One with Projectiles:
Keep your distance and circle-strafe to avoid his projectiles, let him dash towards you then unload your shotgun and p/s combo him for freeze-frames, simple as. If you’re feeling brave, you can hit his projectiles while he’s spinning them up to damage him and prevent him from using them, but i wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re very confident.
The One with Drones:
Use charged attacks to hit his drones. Kill them off fast before they can do anything and then back off, let him dance about and dash then rinse and repeat. If you don’t kill all the drones then back off and absorb the shots if you can, then continue.
The One with the Scythe:
Play very defensively. Stay back at all times. When he throws his scythe out, charge up an attack, hold it, then release it on him as he approaches before dashing off as soon as possible. Repeat this until death. He has a low health pool so this slow method doesn’t take long.
The One with a Bow:
This guy is disappointingly easy for being the “main” boss of the south. He goes through a set pattern.
1. Fire off three bursts of shots. The first two bursts will miss you, dodge the third. Reflect what you want out of these
2. Move, Fire off one burst. Dodge this, reflect if you want
3. See No. 2
4. Get up close and fire out a square of mines. Wail on him when he’s close, abusing freeze-frames to maximize damage. You can walk on these mines then dash immediately to detonate them without taking damage.
This fight shouldn’t last long.
Poor Judgement (Final Boss)
This guy is surpisingly easy, if you know what to do. I recommend having multi-dash, charged attack and absorbtion.
First off, empty your shotgun into him when the battle starts, before he dashes.
Once he dashes, let him back into a corner. Stay away until he releases a wave of projectiles, then dash through them once they reach you, absorbing them. Use this ammo to unload more shotgun.
He will now do a beam, which will start either horizonatlly or vertically from him and sweep. You can bait him into aiming where you want, so let him start charging, then move to the place he won’t be aiming. Get real close while he’s firing and wail on him.
If you stick to this, he won’t ever use his other attacks. He has 3 phases, at 2/3 then 1/3 of health. When he reaches these points, he will disappear and the arena will darken. Four drones will spawn. Wait until you can move, then kill two adjacent ones, then get away from the other two. A pink diamond will appear where he is going to appear, keep away from that too. As soon as he appears and you see that diamond enlarge then disappear, get close and wail on him. This is his longest gap and abusing freeze-frames you can make it last for ages.
Rinse and repeat until he dies.