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The First Berserker: Khazanhas its fair share of grueling encounters that will make you cheer the moment you defeat them after what felt like hundreds of attempts, which is to be expected from a soulslike. Rangkus is one such boss fight that will test your limits with potent and infuriating tactics that can tilt you in minutes.
While not the most challenging encounter in the game, Rangkus is definitely up there and will take some time to figure out and adapt to. Fortunately, once you learn how to deal with some of his more devastating actions, you will have him defeated in no time!
Rangkus Overview
Rangkusis atremendously challenging encounterin The First Berserker: Khazan, which will take lots of time and effort to overcome, but it will be one of the most rewarding victories when you finally cut him down to size. Witha heated second phase,you can expect sweating out a narrow win.
However, before we dive into how to defeat Rangkus, let’s go overwhat you will obtain when you finally beat himand someadditional informationthat may be useful to you!
How To Defeat Rangkus
You’re in the thick of things by the time you reachRangkusin The First Berserker: Khazan, meaning no one is pulling their punches, and you can expect all encounters to require your full attention, forcing you to use everything you have to keep progressing the story. Rangkus can be a huge pain, butonce you know how to deal with his tricks,you willmop the floor with himin no time!
When theencounter begins,Rangkusalmost alwaysperforms hisOverhead Slam Combo,which involvesthree devastating attackswith his oversized mace. Thefirstis anOverhead Slam,followed by aSwing from the rightand aHeavy Swing from the left.
Reflecting all these attacks is crucial,as you willtemporarily staggerhim if you do so. For thefirst attack,wait until yousee him begin bringing the mace downward,thenguardto land theReflect.Thenwait a brief momentandguardthe moment yousee him start swinging the macetoward you for another Reflect. For thefinal Heavy Swing,thepause will be a tad longer,but you willdo the same thingas before.
If done correctly,Rangkus will stumble backward and fall to a knee,allowing you to run up andunleash several attacks on himfor a pretty decent amount of damage!
Rangkus: Rolling Slash Combo
Next up isanother common comboof Rangkus', which is theRolling Slash Combo.Like the previous move, this actionkicks off with an Overhead Slam,which isinstantly followed by him rolling toward youbeforeslashingat you with his mace. After that, he will perform aspinning slashand willlink it into a backslash.
Like before,Reflecting all four of these attacks will stagger him,so lock in. TheOverhead Slam is handled the sameway, sowait for him to roll toward you,and as soon as yousee him begin swinging his mace, guardfor another Reflection. He will thenspin toward you,guard when he plants his feet and starts swinging.Release your guard, then press it againthe moment you see him perform the backslashfor thefinal Reflection.
Staggering him againhere will allow you todeal considerable damage to his Health and Stamina Gauge,making it one of the best ways to open the encounter if you want to get ahead without using any Healing Items or Consumables!
Rangkus: Exhausted
There is agood chance Rangkus will open the encounter with both combos,and if youReflect all the attacks,hisStamina will likely be close to being depleted,allowing you tobe a bit more aggressive to finish it off.Doing so will temporarily place him in an exhausted state, allowing you tounleash all your Skills on him for massive damage!
Rangkus: Charged Slam Combo
Another comboup Rangkus' sleeve is hisCharged Slam Combo,which has him performtwo Overhead Slams in a rowbefore following it up witha Heavy Swingand ending it with aCharged Slam.If you see him perform two Overhead Slams, expect this combo instead of the previous ones.
Thetwo Overhead Slams will be Reflected the same wayas earlier, and the same goes for the Heavy Swing.After you Reflect both of those, Rangus willraise his mace high above his head, charge it up, and heat the top of the weapon,changing its color to a bright red glow. After abrief pause,he willslam it into the ground, causing an upheaval.
Whenever yousee him begin moving his mace downward, wait a brief second and then guard just before it hitsthe ground toReflect it and the upheaval.If you’re close enough, you canget two to three hits in!
Rangkus: Charged Stomp
Following that is hisCharged Stompattack, his first non-combo action. This attack has Rangkusraise his left leg high in the air, gathering energyaround himself beforeforcefully slamming it into the ground, causing another upheavalthat travels in a straight line in front of him.
Sincehe hangs his foot in the air for a while,this attack can berather challenging to Reflect,but you mustbe patient and guard the moment you see him begin to perform the stomp.If timed correctly, you will get Reflection and will get toland several hits of your ownafterward!
Rangkus: Grappling Hook Slam
From here, Rangkus will likely perform hisGrappling Hook Slam,having himpull out a Grapple Hook and hook the ceilingabove you,flinging himself high into the air before performing a devastating slamthat will deal tremendous amounts of damage on contact soyou must Reflect it.
After he flings himself into the air,he jumps off the Grappling Hook and holds his mace behind his headas he makes his descent. You mustbe patient hereand need totime your guard just before he hits the ground,which can be tricky to land. Essentially,watch his arms,and themoment you see them begin moving forward, wait a brief momentand thenguardto get the Reflect.
Getting the Reflect here will allow you tohit him several times as he recovers for a decent chunk of damage,which is crucial in this stage of the fight!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Flamethrower
Rinse and repeat the steps aboveuntilRangkus whips out his Flamethrower,signifying that you’re now in thesecond phaseof this boss encounter. Things are only just heating up, so buckle in, as it’s about to get really annoying!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Flamethrower Twirl
With his Flamethrower finally out, he can do a handful of attacks, but the most common is hisFlamethrower Twirl,having himspin frantically around the arena while unleashing streams of fire in every direction,an attack that is extremely annoying to avoid andwill deal substantial damageif you get caught by it.
Toavoid this move,sprint at Rangkus and get behind him,circling with him as he violently twirlsaround. Youdo not want to be in front of him or too far away,as the streams of fire will catch you.Try hugging him and staying behind himto get out of the area of effect.
Once he is done spinning around, you will have abrief opportunity to attack him,allowing you to getthree to four hitsbefore having to go back on the defensive!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Stamina Juice
Occasionally,Rangkus will run away from youbefore stopping,pulling out a vialof sorts, andchugging it,replenishing his Stamina Gaugeand seeminglymaking it regenerate a bit faster.Brace yourself; things are about to get really tricky from here on out!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Flamethrower Grappling Hook Slam
Atremendously devastating attackof Rangkus' is hisFlamethrower Grappling Hook Slamattack, which has himspray a burst of flamesat you before using hisGrapple Hook to fling himself in the air.Once he’sairborne,he willunleash another stream of fireat you beforedismounting the Grappling Hookandslamming into the groundwith tremendous force.
Guarding the initial burst of fire is fine,allowing you toreadjust when he flings himself into the air.Once he’s here,guard through the stream of flames,then prepare toReflect the slam.As soonas he dismounts, wait brieflyandguard right before he slams into the groundfor the Reflection.
After this,turn and run far away from him,as theground will bubble up and explode.Getting caught in this explosion will deal substantial damage that can be hard to recover from!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Fire Canon Grab
Perhaps THE most annoying attackof Rangkus' is hisFire Canon Grab,which can seem nearly impossible to avoid. This attack will have himpull out a Fire Canonbeforelaunching a barrage of Fireballs at you while sprinting toward you.Then,when he’s closeenough, he willstop firing and will go into a dead sprint, grabbing you when he’s up closeand personal.
For thefirst part of this attack, run toward him diagonally and to his lefthand sidein a counterclockwise motion, having him miss every shot. Then,as he switches to try and grab you,remain closeto him andstay stuck to his side.Themoment he attempts to grabyou,evade behind himto avoid the grab barely.
Thetiming is very tight and the hitbox of his grab is ridiculous,so he may very well still grab you. If youtry running away from him or evading to the left or right,he willseemingly magnetize to you and still get you,and this is the only way we were consistently able to evade the grab. Good luck!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Fire Canon Shotgun Blasts
Speaking of annoying attacks, Rangkus’Fire Canon Shotgun Blastis also not fun to deal with, asgetting hit by even one of these will likely insta-kill you.He willfire a wave of fireballs at you three times in a row,forcing you to evade them to stay alive.
To do this, werecommend walking to the right and then evading to the leftfor thefirst wave.Next, beginwalking to the left, then evade to the rightfor thesecond.Then, as you likely assumed, beginwalking back to the rightfor the final wave andevade to the left to avoid it,allowing you to stay alive and finish the fight!
Rangkus - Second Phase: Fire Blaster Shots
Time to dodge more projectiles. Joy. TheFire Blaster Shotsis another annoying attack of Rangkus' andcan be very challenging to evade.He willcontinuously do this action until you get close enough to him or he runs out of Stamina,which is good for you once you know how it works.
Sinceyou want to deplete his Stamina,you mustconsistently dodge these Blaster Shots while moving closer and closerto him.If he has a lot of Staminaleft, youcan do this very gradually,as youmust let him drain his Staminato capitalize on this move fully.
Whenhe barely has much Stamina left,youshould be very close to him,allowing you totime an evade through the Fireballs, placing you directly in front of him.Once you’re here,a solid hit or two should exhaust him,allowing you tounleash a barrage of attacks!
Finally, hislast attackwill be hisFlamethrower Overhead Slam Combo,which isn’t too bad to deal with. He will performtwo Overhead Slams back-to-back,followed by aHeavy Swing.Youknow how to deal with these by now.However, after this, hepulls his Flamethrower outand ignites it.
From here, he willperform two more Overhead Slams,exceptnow they’re with his Flamethrower,which can cause tremendous damage. Justbefore the first Overhead Slam hits, guard to Reflect it, then do the same for the other onebutrun in the opposite direction immediately afterwardto avoid theground exploding.
Now it’s amatter of surviving long enough and repeating everything above until you best Rangkus.This can be a very challenging encounter, so don’t feel too bad if it takes a bit of time to get down!
