Boss health and Extremis weapons

For an Extremis boss, bring its specific counter weapon. Norn Emissary needs Gauntlets of Ultramar; Great Unclean One needs Weapon of the Matriarch; Ghazghkull needs Bale Eye. Ordinary bosses need a different check: whether your damage reaches the boss, whether it has Healing, and whether your platform has hotfix 2.1.6.

Prepare the named Extremis counter

Boss	Starting character and counter route
Norn Emissary	Marneus Calgar starts with Power Fist. Reach Power Fist 8, hold Codex Astartes 6 and obtain Gauntlets of Ultramar from an eligible evolution reward.
Great Unclean One	Saint Celestine starts with Ardent Blade. Reach Ardent Blade 8, hold Tactical Rock 9 and evolve to Weapon of the Matriarch.
Ghazghkull Thraka	Commissar Yarrick starts with Power Klaw. Reach Power Klaw 8 and Da Lucky Stikk 9 to obtain the Bale Eye Gift.
Vizzik Skour	Hanniver Toll starts with Flintlock Pistols. Reach level 8, hold Ardcoat at any level and evolve to Aqshian Firestakes.
Trugg the Troggoth King	Gotrek Gurnisson starts with Fyrestorm Greataxe. Reach level 8, hold Kragg Blackhammer’s Master Rune at any level and evolve to Zangrom-Thaz.
Skarbrand	Carthalos starts with Uskavar the Sunderer. Alternatively, Rostus Oxenhammer starts the earlier route: Stormcharged Warhammer 8 + Tactical Rock 9 produces Uskavar.

These starting characters must be unlocked. They remove the need to find the base weapon in a random offer; they do not remove its required levels, companion passive or evolution reward. Carthalos is the exception in this table because he already starts with the named counter. Character rescues gives the relevant unlock routes.

Aqshian Firestakes is also called Anti-Wizard Flintlock in some references. It is Toll’s evolved Flintlock Pistols. For Skarbrand, the named hammer is Uskavar; the subsequent Ghal Maraz chain is a separate upgrade route.

If the counter is still missing late in the run, compare the actual levels with the evolution reference and eligible chest windows. Merely carrying Power Fist and a low-level Codex does not provide Gauntlets.

Read the hint after an Extremis defeat

The defeat screen shows a counter-weapon hint near its bottom. Xinoci identifies that hint in the launch-week boss discussion; other replies name the Celestine and Yarrick routes. Hotfix 2.1.6 fixes missing Extremis hints on Steam.

This table concerns the six named Extremis counters. A special final-stage fight with restricted equipment can have different rules; do not assume every boss can be solved by the same open equipment pool.

Ordinary bosses accumulating on screen

If a second boss arrives before the first dies, inspect one surviving boss and the attacks actually touching it. Clearing the surrounding swarm does not establish that a short beam, a directional gun or a follower-carried aura is hitting that boss.

Problem	Specific change
Lasgun clears mobs but the boss stays alive	Its evolution, Meltagun, has a short beam and bonuses against bosses and close enemies. Lasgun 8 + Gauntlet obtains it. Bring the beam’s bearer into reach while leaving space for the champion to move.
Shield or melee damage appears behind the champion	Weapon ownership determines the attack origin. Let the follower formation turn in open ground and inspect that bearer’s position.
The boss recovers health	Check Realm of Ghyran in the active Tarot/Arcana; it grants enemy bosses Healing. Choose a different Arcana on the next run if you want to avoid that added condition.
Plague Marines or Meganobz remain unusually durable	Steam 2.1.6 makes them easier to kill. Check the platform version before applying the change to a console, GOG or mobile run.

Meltagun’s bonus is conditional on reach. A distant boss outside the beam gains you nothing from that weapon’s close-range advantage. The Castellan and Kozlowski guide explains why evolving Lasgun also changes the squad’s firing pattern.

Amalia with Nuln Oil and fire

For a named 40K fire setup, Amalia starts with Shield of Faith. Add Nuln Oil so the same approaching enemies pass through oil and fire. Oiled slows enemies and increases the fire damage they take; Burning also makes enemies move faster.

Reserve Bugman’s Tankard for Shield of Faith → Emperor’s Wrath, and Hourglass for Nuln Oil → Mordant Earth. Each base weapon needs level 8. Nuln Oil and fire gives the overlapping-area condition. This setup does not replace an Extremis counter.

Keep Tyranid pounces, Bloodcrusher charges and Ratling Gunner firing lanes in view while positioning. The developer’s enemy skills describe those telegraphs; follower invulnerability does not protect the selected champion.

Health totals and XP

The Bestiarium describes the enemy you encountered, but a raw base-health figure is not a guaranteed encounter total. Corruption changes enemy conditions, while Realm of Ghyran adds Healing. A player’s proposed health-per-level formula in the boss thread does not establish a universal rule for every enemy and mode.

Do not deliberately abandon XP solely to follow that formula. If upgrades are arriving too slowly, XP collection and Kozlowski separates missed pickups from experience bonuses and weapon selection.

The November 11 hotfix reached Steam first. The developer planned the same fixes for other platforms during the following week; see hotfix 2.1.6 for the platform split.