Boss guide: how to beat every boss in 1.0

Every SULFUR boss has one place that takes damage, and most deaths come from shooting the wrong part. Since 1.0 every boss also has damage gates, so a single huge hit cannot skip a phase; bring sustained damage and spare ammo rather than one perfect shot. HP, XP and resistances are in the enemy list.

Boss	Area	HP	Where to shoot
Goblin Cousin	Caves	5,000	Clear the mud off him first
Black Guild Cardinals (three)	Town	400 each	The Cardinal about to fire
Novanian Guard	Dungeon	2,000	Helmet, then the glowing core under it
St. Lucia	Castle	8,000	The eye she holds up
Terrorbaum	Forest	13,000	The corrupted eye only
The Emperor	Fortress	8,000	Red tail segment, then the cockpit
Desert Claus	Desert	8,000	Him; kill adds with area damage
The Witch	Beyond the Veil	See the Witch	Black eggs first

HP values come from the wiki and predate the 1.0 damage gates. Complete oil and scroll setups for the guns named below are in gun builds.

Goblin Cousin (Caves)

Cousin throws mud globs like an archer’s arrows. After taking some damage he dives into his mud pool and throws from other pools, then reappears covered in mud that you must shoot off before he takes damage again. Goblin Spearmen and Young drop from the ceiling at about 50% and 15% health.

• Weapon: single heavy shots. His phase changes make him briefly invulnerable, so most pellets from a shotgun or burst are wasted when a phase begins. Penetration and Holy Fire hit him through the mud.
• Resistances: 95% frost, 100% electricity and charm, 75% to most other elements. Plain bullet damage is best.
• Build: the .50 BMG Pierre-Fusil (1,480 per headshot) or, on a first run, the starter Mossman.
• XP: a kill gives 30 weapon XP; with a Lock of the Magus equipped it gives 3,000, enough to take a low-rank gun most of the way to rank 5. Equip the Lock after both add waves.

If he never surfaces again, the fight is bugged; quitting the game reloads the last autosave.

Black Guild Cardinals (Town)

Three Cardinals guard the arena at the end of the Town. Each carries a different element (electric, explosive, fire, frost or poison), teleports between the windows and the tops of four pillars, charges, then fires a fast stream of bolts.

• Stand behind a pillar; even the pillar a Cardinal stands on blocks its shots.
• Move sideways. Their bolts are slow and do not lead you.
• Burst one Cardinal down while it charges. Each has about 400 HP, so one projectile from the .50 BMG Pierre-Fusil build (740) kills one with a body hit.
• Watch for feet under the red curtains to see where they appear.
• A Health Potion cures fire and poison; Rödsopp Paste slows time.

Novanian Guard (Dungeon)

A giant swinging a spiked ball and chain. He is immune to everything except a glowing weak spot under his helmet.

1. Shoot the helmet during the long wind-up and pull-back of each throw, when the visor holes glow.
2. Once the helmet breaks, hit the glowing core.
3. Back away when he kneels and holds his head: he explodes, and the blast can kill you.

In 1.0 he leaves lava pools, so carry water, soda or a Health Potion to clear Burning. Since 1.0.1 electricity does nothing to him, so leave Surge, Chain Lightning, Thunderbolt and Storm Surge guns in the stash; the visor holes reward a precise gun such as the Pierre-Fusil or D4RT. His kill gives 16 XP.

St. Lucia (Castle)

Lucia sets you on fire often, summons Black Guild henchmen and raises “maidens” from corpses. In the darkness phase she holds up an eye: shoot the eye each time it appears, two or three hits, and the darkness ends. Shooting her body does nothing in that phase, which is why players report her as immortal.

• Use the storage chest before her door to swap in fire protection and spare guns.
• If both guns break mid-fight you are stuck, because invisible walls block melee. Carry repair items, or bring the infinite-ammo D4RT (1,200 shots of durability) as the second gun.
• Her adds slow you; movement food and jump gear help.

Terrorbaum (Forest)

Only the corrupted eye takes damage. Everything else is absorbed, and the developers confirmed he returns the projectiles you fire at him, enchantments included. A heavily enchanted sniper or a gas weapon can kill you with your own bullets when he sprays them back as a rain on marked spots.

• Keep moving during the rain until every shot has landed. Since 1.0 the returned bullets fall more randomly around you instead of directly on you.
• Single-shot or burst weapons make the return fire easier to dodge than a bullet hose. The D4RT build sends back one projectile per shot; an explosive 12Ga sends back forty.
• Kill the Craw adds quickly so they do not block you during charges.
• His resistances: frost, earth, charm, bleed and petrify do nothing; fire deals 20% extra.

The kill achievement now unlocks correctly; before 1.0 it only popped on reaching the bridge.

The Emperor (Fortress)

Phase 1, the worm: only the red tail segment takes damage. Each destroyed segment makes him smaller and faster. Holy Fire hits the tail from any angle and gains damage by piercing the front sections; any penetration helps. Rödsopp Paste (3 Rödsopp + 1 Rock) slows time.

Phase 2, the machine in a circular tunnel: shoot the cockpit. Outrun the slow rockets by sprinting with your melee weapon held, or break line of sight with pillars and the tunnel’s curve. Stay away from his death explosion.

Bring more than two guns, because ammo and durability run out. The Holy Fire Fisk suits both phases: it reaches the tail through the front segments, and the cockpit is a single large target for its three beams. He drops no loot himself: four plinths in the next room hold rare items such as weapons, Insurance and Chamber Chisels.

Desert Claus (Desert)

A long fight through machine-gun, sniper and rocket phases with many minions, on the fifth Desert level. Poison clouds work well, because the minions keep them ticking and spread damage: a gun with Scroll of Noxiosa (Earth + Plague), or the explosive 12Ga Corpsemaker for the adds. One pre-1.0 player fired about 3,400 rounds from a 240-damage rifle and still died with Claus at a third to half health, so carry an infinite-ammo D4RT as the reserve. Bring far more ammo and healing than for earlier bosses. The game saves after he dies, and this is your last chance to bank items: the Amulet cannot take you home from Beyond the Veil.

Mini-bosses

• Goblin Barrel Boy (Caves stage 5, 650 HP in 1.0): each wooden plank absorbs one bullet. Strip them with a shotgun, SMG or the Wakizashi, step about 3 metres back and jump over his landing shockwave. He cannot jump in tunnels low enough to touch his head.
• Corrupted Amalgamation (Hedge Maze): effectively unkillable by damage. Shoot out all four eyes to collapse it, then destroy it with an explosion, or simply outrun it. On Hardcore, enemies with a black enchantment can spawn one mid-level.