Act 1 Boss Guide

In Path of Exile 2, there is a bigger focus on boss fights feeling engaging and difficult, even while playing through the acts. This guide will go over boss damage types, boss attacks, and how to deal with them.

In Path of Exile 2, certain attacks must be dodged, indicated by the boss flashing red and an accompanying sound cue. These attacks and abilities are highlighted in bold with the text (Requires Dodge) through out this guide.

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Biera of the Rotten Pack

Zone: Clearfell.

Damage Type: Physical and Cold.

Throughout the entire fight, Biera will have a baseline for the attacks she uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, she will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until she has been killed.

• Attack with her sickle when in melee range.
• Fires five ice shards in a row; she tracks the player doing this attack.
• Fires ice shards in 180 degrees in front of her.
• Special Ability: Detonate Dead
  • Biera will detonate two wolf corpses, erupting ice spikes. Note: She will only use this ability if the player is within close proximity of a wolf corpse.

When Biera reaches 80% health, she will gain the following abilities.

• Special Ability: Summon Wolves
  • Biera will unearth five wolves and resurrect them to fight for her.
• Special Ability: Frost Sigils
  • Biera will cover the arena in small, circular cold area-of-effect telegraphs. After a short period of time, these will erupt into ice spikes, damaging the player if they’re hit. Note: These ice spikes have the ability to also damage her wolf summons, and can be used to the player’s advantage.
• Special Ability: Ice Nova
  • Biera summons small ice spikes around her after a few seconds. Upon casting Ice Nova, the ice spikes will travel in straight lines from the boss. Note: Look for gaps in the circle of spikes around Biera; those areas mark the safe zone for the player once the spikes begin to shoot out.

Upon killing Biera, the boss will drop “Head of the Winter Wolf“, providing the player with a permanent 10% Cold Resistance when used.

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The Devourer

Zone: The Mud Burrow.

Damage types: Physical and Chaos.

Throughout the entire fight, Devourer will have a baseline for the attacks she uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, it will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until it has been killed.

• Sweep with tendrils when in melee range.
• Spit small projectiles if at range.
• Special Attack: Head Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • Devourer will glow green from the body moving towards its head and do a head slam attack while vomiting green poison 180 degrees around the impact of the head slam. Note: Only used if the player is near the boss.

When the Devourer reaches 80% health, it gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Burrow
  • The Devourer burrows into the ground and emerges in another place in the outer circle of the arena. It repeats this four times quickly, leaving a piece of its long body at each burrow spot.

When the Devourer reaches 75% health, it gains the following abilities.

• Special Ability: Eruption
  • The Devourer will burrow into the ground, and after a few seconds emerge spawning four larvae adds and spit a cluster of poison projectiles towards the player. Note: The body sections from Burrow can be used to block the spit.
• Special Ability: Tail Sunder (Requires Dodge)
  • Shortly After doing the first Eruption the tail will spawn and do a sunder attack that shoots a trail of erupting earth in a line towards the player’s current location, spawning four larvae adds at the start of the attack. If the player too close to the tail it will do sweep attacks against the player. It will disappear after some time. Note: the tail will always spawn from the oldest section of the body from Burrow.

When the Devourer reaches 30% health, it gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Poison Barrage
  • The Devourer will turn its head left and start spitting poison bolts clockwise 180 degrees.
    

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The Brambleghast

Zone: The Grelwood

Damage Type: Physical and Chaos.

Throughout the entire fight, Brambleghast will have a baseline for the attacks it uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, it will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until it has been killed.

• A sweep attack with both arms in either direction.
• A Lunging bite attack.
• Special Attack: Vine Slam
  • Brambleghast does a slam with one arm that sunders a trail traveling in a straight line towards the player.

When Brambleghast reaches 90% health, it gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Volatile Orb
  • Brambleghast sticks a hand in its mouth and throws a volatile orb out. The orb fires projectiles in a clockwise rotation until it collides with a wall, shooting projectiles in all directions when it does.

When Brambleghast reaches 85% health, it gains the following abilities.

• Special Ability: Volatile Slam
  • Brambleghast plants its arms into the ground, and two vines glowing purple erupt close to the player and slam the ground exploding on impact. Note: This ability hits very hard, dealing Chaos Damage and might be a one-shot depending on gear.
• Special Ability: Summon Vines
  • Brambleghast roars, summoning three vines from the ground close to the player. If the player is too close they will attack, but can be killed.

When Brambleghast reaches 70% health, it gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Volatile Vines
  • Brambleghast plants its arms into the ground, roars, and summons six vines in quick succession. These vines each produce a small purple orb that chases the player when they come in contact, they explode after a short delay.

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The Rust King

Zone: The Red Vale.

Damage types: Physical and Lightning.

Throughout the entire fight, The Rust King will have a baseline for the attacks he uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, he will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he has been killed.

• A swipe attack with his left hand.
• He uses the weapon shards in his right hand to make a line that tracks the player for a short time before hitting the ground, the line going horizontal.

When Rust King reaches 90% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Summon Swords
  • Rust King channels a circle of swords around him that shoots outwards.

When Rust King reaches 75% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Shard Volley
  • Rust King summons a bunch of shard projectiles behind him and sends them crashing towards the player.

When Rust King reaches 65% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Summon Army
  • Rust King lifts his right hand and shoots lightning in a circle around him, summoning many Ancient Ezomytes.

When Rust King reaches 50% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Whip Combo
  • Rust King turns his right hand into a whip slashing at the player twice before doing a bigger version of Shard Volley to end the combo.

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The Rotten Druid

Zone: The Grim Tangle.

Damage types: Physical and Chaos.

The Rotten Druid arena is a bit special; in the middle of it is a pool of liquid that deals Chaos Damage if the player is standing in it. The mushrooms scattered through out the room also explode after a short delay if you move too close to them.

Throughout the entire fight, The Rotten Druid will have a baseline for the attacks he uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, he will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he has been killed.

• Swipes at the player with his left arm in melee range.
• Shoots three projectiles that erupt when impacting with the ground if at range.
• Special Ability: Teleport
  • Roots spring from the ground enveloping The Rotten Druid, dragging him underground to emerge in another part of the arena. Note: He does this at the first instance of damage if the ability is not on cooldown.

When Rotten Druid reaches 90% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Barrage
  • The Rotten Druid points its staff toward the player firing a barrage of the same projectiles he uses for his default ranged attack. Note: This attack will track the player’s movement.

When Rotten Druid reaches 85% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Attack: Slam
  • The Rotten Druid lifts its staff in the air and makes a large circle around himself. He then slams the staff down into the ground. If the player is within the circle when this happens, they are teleported to the pool in the middle of the arena.

When Rotten Druid reaches 75% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Summon Vines
  • The Rotten Druid Slams its staff into the ground and begins channeling. Seven roots erupt close to the player in quick secession slamming the ground and leaving behind an exploding mushroom.

When Rotten Druid reaches 60% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Throw Rock (Requires Dodge)
  • The Rotten Druid lifts a large rock from the center of the arena and hurls it at the player. Note: Watch for his animation when he starts throwing his arms down is the queue to dodge roll to avoid being hit by the rock.

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Draven, the Eternal Praetor

Zone: Mausoleum of The Praetor.

Damage Type: Physical and Fire.

During the fight with Draven, he will summon souls, starting at 90% health, that get dragged slowly toward Draven walking over the spirits to destroy them, but doing this while they are over any of the four graves in the arena will spawn an Eternal Knight, if Draven absorbs 3 souls he will become empowered for a while making him faster and enhancing his abilities.

Eternal Knight: These knights, while blocking, reflect a projectile at the player if hit with ranged attacks. If killed they will be reanimated again if a soul is destroyed near their corpse.

Throughout the entire fight, Draven will have a baseline for the attacks he uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, he will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he has been killed.

• Heavy slashes with his sword.
• Lunging slash if the player is at range.
• Special Attack: Combo
  • Draven does a combo of three attacks with his sword. If empowered he will do a fourth attack.
• Special Ability: Soul Slash
  • Draven charges up and swings his sword shooting out projectiles in a 180-degree arc in front of him, if empowered he will do it twice instead and there will be more projectiles.

When Draven reaches 75% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Attack: Sunder (Requires Dodge)
  • Draven stomps the ground creating two lines after a few seconds he slams his sword down making the two lines expand outwards to each side.

When Draven reaches 65% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Summon Asinia
  • Draven calls upon Asinia, The Praetor’s Consort to help him. A specter version of her comes and channels four circles (three small and a single, final large one) in secession that erupts after a short while.

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Asinia, The Praetor’s Consort

Zone: Tomb of the Consort.

Damage type: Physical and Fire.

During the fight with Asinia she will summon souls, starting at 90% health, that get dragged slowly toward Asinia. Walking over the spirits will destroy them, but doing this while they are over any of the four graves in the arena will spawn an Eternal Knight, if Asinia absorbs a soul, she does an explosion of mortar projectiles that hits a large part of the arena.

Eternal Knight: These knights, while blocking, reflect a projectile at the player if hit with ranged attacks. If killed they will be reanimated again if a soul is destroyed near their corpse.

Throughout the entire fight, Asinia will have a baseline for the attacks she uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, she will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until she has been killed.

• Sweep at the player with her scythe in melee range.
• Unearths the ground dealing damage in a cone if at range.
• Special Attack: Combo
  • Asinia does a combo of three attacks.
• Special Ability: Sigils
  • Asinia channels four circles (three small and a single, final big one) in succession that erupts after a short while.
• Special Ability: Teleport
  • Asinia gets enveloped in spirit energy and attempts to teleport behind the player. She does a small area of effect at the location she teleports to, which applies the Hindered debuff, slowing movement by 30% for 5 seconds, then proceeds to do two sweeping attacks with her sickle.

When Asinia reaches 75% health, she gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Bone Cage
  • Asinia summons a bone cage around the player. After a few seconds she rains down bone shards inside the cage. Destroy one of the walls of the cage to escape.

When Asinia reaches 65% health, she gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Summon Draven
  • Asinia calls upon Draven, the Eternal Praetor to help her. A specter version of him comes that does a sweeping attack sending out projectiles in a 180 degree arc in front of him.

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Lachlann of Endless Lament

Zone: Cemetery of the Eternals.

Damage type: Physical and Cold.

Throughout the entire fight, Lachlann will have a baseline for the attacks he uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, he will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he has been killed.

• A swipe at the player with his right hand.
• A two-fold swing of his mace around himself.
• Special Attack: Slam
  • Lachlann slams his mace in front and behind him.
• Special Ability: Spirit Shoot
  • Lachlann sends three spirits in a straight line toward the player. The spirits leave a trail of chilled ground. Note: If the player is hit by the spirits they get the Hindered debuff for 2 seconds.

When Lachlann reaches 85% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Spirit Eruption
  • Lachlann holds out his hand and three spirits erupt from the ground under the player. After a few seconds the spirits slam down at the player’s location, placing chilled ground at both locations. Note: Getting hit by the spirits when they erupt gives the Hindered debuff for 1 second.

When Lachlann reaches 75% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Spirit Stomp
  • Lachlann storms the ground, sending out a burrowing ghost that chases the player. It then emerges and does a spiraling attack that follows the player and also leaves chilled ground.
• Special Attack: Sunder (Requires Dodge)
  • Lachlann slams his mace into the ground in front of him, sending out a growing cone of erupting earth in the direction of the player. Note: This attack does a large amount of damage and can be a one-shot, depending on gear.

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The Crowbell

Zone: Hunting Grounds.

Damage Types: Physical.

Crowbell runs away to the next parts of its arena at 85% health and 45% health.

Throughout the entire fight, Crowbell will have a baseline for the attacks it uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, it will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until it has been killed.

• An easily dodged swipe at the player with his arms.
• After he picks up its bell, he also does a slam that sunders the earth and sends a shockwave that travels in a straight line.
• Special Attack: Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • Crowbell slams the ground in front of him.
• Special Attack: Leap Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • Crowbell jumps at the player, slamming the ground on impact.

When Crowbell reaches 85% health and gets to its second arena, the following happens.

• Enrage:
  • Crowbell enrages, when making him deal more damage. Note: Crowbell stops being enraged at 45% health. The fight will then transition where Crowbell picks up its bell and moves to the next arena.

When Crowbell reaches 50% health, he does the following attack.

• Special Attack: Combo Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • Crowbell roars and starts slamming the ground repeatedly in front of him.

When Crowbell reaches 25% health, he gains the following attack.

• Special Attack: Bell Swing (Requires Dodge)
  • Crowbell swings his bell around him twice while moving slightly forward.

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The King in the Mists

Zone: Freythorn.

Damage Types: Physical and Chaos.

King in the Mists is a two-phase fight and his attacks are separated into each phase. At 25%, he goes immune and transforms into his second phase, gaining his health back.

Phase 1

Throughout the phase, King in the Mists will have a baseline for the attacks it uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, it will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he changes phases.

• Periodically fires a single projectile at the player.
• Special Attack: Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • King in the Mists slams his staff into the ground causing the area around him to erupt Note: Only performed if the player is in melee range.
• Special Ability: Thorngrip
  • King in the Mists sends out purple vines in a cone.
• Special Ability: Teleport
  • King in the Mists teleports around his arena.
• Special Ability: Blood Pools
  • King in the Mists will place blood pools around the arena that do physical damage over time if standing in them.

When King in the Mists reaches 95% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Affliction Totems
  • King in the Mists summons totems that cause the player to take increasing physical damage over time the longer it is alive and he will summon more the lower his health is. Note: These totems have very little health, so should be killed quickly when spawned.

When King in the Mists reaches 75% health, he gains the following abilities.

• Special Ability: Ritual of Meditation
  • King in the Mists marks the player with a red circle. If you move too much while having this debuff is active, you will be stunned and rooted in place for 4 seconds. The mark lasts for 4 seconds. Note: You should be able to dodge roll twice and move a little, however all movement should be avoided unless you’re dodging attacks from the boss.
• Special Ability: Ritual of Dance
  • King in the Mists marks the player with a purple circle. If you stand still for too long while having this circle, you will be stunned and rooted for 4 seconds. The mark lasts for 4 seconds. Note: Keep moving until the debuff is gone. This is much less dangerous than the Ritual of Meditation.

Phase 2

• Periodically fires three projectiles at the player.
• Kicks the player.
• A melee hit with his staff.
• Special Attack: Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • King in the Mists slams his staff into the ground causing the area around him to erupt Note: only if the player is in melee range.
• Special Ability: Bug Swarms
  • The totem in the middle of the arena periodically sends out creeping swarms of bugs that slowly move outwards from the totem to the edge of the arena Note: If the player stands in these swarms, they take Chaos Damage over time.
• Special Ability: Bug Orb (Requires Dodge)
  • King in the Mists conjures an orb of bugs that slowly flies toward the player’s current location and explodes when hitting the ground leaving behind purple blisters on the ground that explode and deal Chaos Damage if the player is too close to them.
• Special Ability: Ritual of Meditation
  • King in the Mists marks the player with a red circle. If you move too much while having this circle you will be stunned and rooted in place for 4 seconds. The mark lasts for 8 seconds Note: Same as in Phase 1, however the mark lasts twice longer.
• Special Ability: Ritual of Dance
  • King in the Mists marks the player with a purple circle. If you stand still for too long while having this circle you will be stunned and rooted for 4 seconds. The mark lasts for 8 seconds Note: Same as in Phase 1, however the mark lasts twice longer.

Upon killing King of the Mists, the boss will drop “Gembloom Skull” providing the player with a permanent 30 Sprit and an uncut Spirit Gem when used.

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The Executioner

Zone: Ogham Village.

Damage Types: Physical and Fire.

Throughout the entire fight, The Executioner will have a baseline for the attacks he uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, he will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he has been killed.

• Large slow sweep with his axe.
• Sweep with his right arm.
• Frontal kick.

When Executioner reaches 90% health, he gains the following abilities.

• Special Attack: Sunder (Requires Dodge)
  • Executioner does an overhead slam with his axe that sunders the earth in a straight line traveling away from the slam.
• Special Attack: Slam (Requires Dodge)
  • Executioner holds his axe above his head charging it up to be bright red then slams it down in front of him causing the ground around the slam to erupt outwards with fire.
• Special Attack: Leap Slam
  • Executioner pumps his axe in the air and then leaps towards the player slamming the ground and sundering the earth in a straight line traveling away from the slam, he then turns 180 degrees and does a slam again.

Alongside these new abilities, Decrepit Mercenaries and Crowbowmen will join the fight, jumping into the arena periodically. This will happen more the lower health Executioner is at.

When Executioner reaches 75% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Guillotine Drop (Requires Dodge)
  • Executioner gestures towards the player and puts his axe into the ground to use as a lever causing a guillotine blade to fall in the area around the player.

When Executioner reaches 80% and 40% health, he performs the following ability.

• Reinforcements Call
  • Executioner will call for help causing a large amount of Decrepit Mercenaries to join him in the fight.

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Candlemass, the Living Rite

Zone: Ogham Manor.

Damage Types: Physical and Fire.

Throughout the entire fight, Candlemass will have a baseline for the attacks he uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, he will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he has been killed.

• A basic melee swing with his sword towards the player.
• Special Attack: Flame Slash (Requires Dodge)
  • Candlemass raises his sword above his head charging it up before doing a slash around his body sending out a flaming arc toward the player.

When Candlemass reaches 90% health, he gains the following abilities.

• Special Attack: Leap Slam
  • Candlemass leaps towards the player, slamming the ground and sundering the earth it in a straight line when landing.
• Special Ability: Fire Breath (Requires Dodge)
  • Candlemass takes a deep breath and then starts breathing fire while tracking the player.

When Candlemass reaches 75% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Flame Mortar (Requires Dodge)
  • Candlemass bows forward and starts firing volleys of fire projectiles that explode on impact.

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Count Geonor

Zone: Ogham Manor.

Damage Types: Physical and Cold.

Geonor is a two-phase fight and his attacks are separated into each phase. At 50% of Phase 1, Geonor transforms into his second phase. If it is the first time fighting him, the roleplay event has to end first before he transforms.

Phase 1

Throughout the phase, Geonor will have a baseline for the attacks it uses on the player. At specific health thresholds, it will begin using new attacks, however the following will remain the same until he changes phases.

• A basic melee swing up to three times in a row with his sword at the player.
• Special Attack: Frost Stab (Requires Dodge)
  • Geonor imbues his blade with ice before stabbing toward the player and firing an ice projectile.
• Special Attack: Charge (Requires Dodge)
  • Geonor charges with his blade toward the player’s location. If he hits the player with the blade, the player is impaled and stunned until both hit the wall of the arena. If he does not impale the player, he will turn around and do a large sweeping frost attack covering almost half of the arena with his sword upon hitting the wall of the arena. Note: Dodge roll sideways when he charges and don’t go near him until after the sweep.

When Geonor reaches 90% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Frost Cage (Requires Dodge)
  • Geonor swings his sword, creating two walls of frost in a cone shape in front of him and finishes it off with an overhead slam, shattering the walls and dealing a massive amount of damage if hitting the player. Note: Dodge roll through the frost walls to avoid being hit.

When Geonor reaches 90% health, he gains the following ability.

• Special Ability: Wolf Form
  • Geonor plants his sword in the ground creating a frost sigil that expands over time and transforms into a wolf Note: If the player steps on the sigil they will become frozen for 5 seconds.
• Special Ability: Summon Pack
  • While in wolf form Geonor channels six blood globes around him, summoning six werewolves. Note: some of them explode on death dealing area damage
• Special Ability: Blood Orbs
  • While in wolf form Geonor channels three blood orbs in front of him before jumping through them making them explode outwards to the side
• Special Ability: Teleport Slam
  • While Geonor’s in Wolf Form, a red circle will appear under the player. After a few seconds, Geonor will slam down from the sky in that circle.

Phase 2

At 30% health and below, Blood Moonbeams will periodically be fired while dealing with all of his other abilities listed below.

• A basic two-combo swing using his claymore.
• Geonor lunges in an attempt to bite the player.
• Geonor swings one of his arms towards the player.
• Special Attack: Back Attack
  • If the player is behind him he will turn doing a 180 degree cold damage sweep with his sword
• Special Ability: Frost Ground
  • Geonor stabs his sword into the ground spawning frost patches throughout the whole arena after some time the patches will erupt into ice spikes Note: look for holes in between the ice patches those are save spots for when all of the patches erupt.
• Special Ability: Moonbeams
  • Geonor raises his sword in the air and thrusts it upwards. Spawning beams of light that deal cold damage and slow if hit by them, he will do this 4 times. Note: beams are a bit random but they try to predict the player’s movement.
• Special Ability: Teleport Slam
  • Geonor disappears and a red circle will appear under the player after a few seconds Geonor will slam down from the sky in that circle.
• Special Ability: Freezing Fog
  • Geonor will cover most of the arena in a chilling fog that deals cold damage over time if standing in it. During this time he will summon werewolves, like the ones in Phase 1, and periodically jump at the player from the fog. Note: Listen to the lines of his poem; after each line finishes, he leaps at the player from the mist. Be ready to dodge roll!
• Special Ability: Frost Breath
  • Geonor rears up and starts breathing ice shards in front of him.
• Special Ability: Blood Moonbeams
  • Same as Moonbeams, but now they also give a stack of Corrupted Blood if hit by a beam.

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Continuing Beyond Act I

This is the end of our Act 1 boss guide. Check out our other related guides below.