Curse of the Dead Gods: How to Beat The Blood Hunter (Boss Guide)
While roguelikes as a genre are typically known for being difficult, Curse of the Dead Gods doesn't hesitate to throw every challenge it can at the player. In order to progress through this game, the player has to go up against many unique difficulties like deadly traps, life-altering curses, and incredibly strong monsters. Progressing through this world will require supreme patience and skill no matter what.
Where things can get a little more interesting though is that at certain points in a run the player must face off against champions and bosses. These enemies are capable of dealing immense amounts of damage against the player at a period when they are already probably pretty weak. One of the first champions that the player will have to fight is Xak'olchir the Blood Hunter. This enemy is actually very hard to bring down, so this guide is here to show players how to defeat the Blood Hunter.
Player will encounter The Blood Hunter as the first champion during the Jaguar Temple, which means that he is most likely the first boss that players will go up against. Those who want to defeat this boss will want to get their hands on a build that emphasizes speed and dodging so that they can avoid his attacks and follow up before going back to dodging. Here are the weapons that it is recommended the player brings with them:
Main Weapon - Venomous Fangs: This weapon will allow the player to deal poison damage to enemies and is incredibly fast. Whenever the player has a chance to attack they will be able to score several hits on the boss at a time, which will drain his health due to the poisoning effect.
Off-Hand Weapon - Ceremonial Dagger: Once again this is an incredibly fast weapon that will allow the player to move in fast and get in as many hits as possible before running away. On top of this though if the player is able to increase their Perception stat this weapon will deal +3% more damage per point of Perception.
Two-Handed Weapon - Sky Hammer: This weapon is incredibly slow, but packs a huge punch when swung at enemies and deals lightning damage on them. The reason to keep this around is for clearing out the mobs of jaguars that this boss will summon to attack the player. One swing is capable of damaging and stunning several at once.
To help them out as well the player will want to bring one or both of these Blessings with them:
Favor of Sich'al - This will grant the player 1000 gold and five Perception points at the very beginning of their run. The gold is perfect for either leveling up one of the weapons or acquiring Relics that will boost the player's ability. Those Perception points are also ideal for boosting the Ceremonial Dagger's attack power.
Storm's Focus - If the player manages to score a successful parry they will restore their stamina gauge fully. Since most of this fight is spent dodging and swooping in to attack the player is going to need all the stamina that they can get. This ensures that the player is able to dodge without failure.
Once the player is fully prepared for this fight and have made it to the arena where The Blood Hunter resides, they will then need to actually defeat him in combat. This purple-skinned monster wields two javelins that can deal a huge amount of damage and commands a series of jaguars that will rip the player to shreds. Luckily for the player though, The Blood Hunter only actually has two abilities that they will need to keep track of during this fight. His attacks are:
Summoning Ability - This ability has a double purpose. It will both harm the player and summon a jaguar to the arena. Right at the beginning of the fight he will always take his two javelins and drive them into the ground. This will cause a wide ring of dark energy to spawn around him. If the player stands inside of this they will slowly take damage and have their corruption bar filled. Each time this ability is used a jaguar is summoned. The player cannot interrupt or parry this attack.
Javelin Throw - The Blood Hunter only has one attack that will directly harm the player, but it is one that can cause them a considerable amount of damage. A charge meter (similar to the one shown when the player uses a ranged weapon) will build up in the direction of the player before The Blood Hunter throws one or two spears at them. This attack is lightning fast and is capable of making it across the entire arena in a fraction of a second. The attack can be parried and dodged, but not interrupted.
There are two different ways to bring down The Blood Hunter, but they will depend on if the player wants to prioritize focusing on the jaguars or the boss itself. If just focusing on the boss then the player will want to get really good at dodging really quickly. Essentially they want to rush at the boss and start attacking him as hard as they can. Whenever a jaguar approaches they will then need to dodge out of the way before rushing back at the boss. The Blood Hunter will eventually throw a spear, which should then be parried to restore stamina completely (if Storm's focus is equipped) to enable the dodging of more jaguar attacks. The trick is to keep hitting the Blood Hunter before he can summon enough jaguars to overwhelm the player. This method is faster but puts the player more at risk.
The other method is to focus exclusively on the jaguars first. Every time that the boss summons a jaguar the player should rush in and dispatch it before attacking The Blood Hunter a few times. If done correctly the player will be able to keep the number of jaguars on screen at once to a bare minimum, which means there will be less enemies attacking at the same time. The downside to this though is that it will take much longer and therefore give The Blood Hunter more opportunities to kill them.
No matter which method the player uses they will want to use the dodge button to avoid jaguar attacks and the parry button to block the incredibly quick spear throws. The hammer is perfectly suited for crowd control too, so whenever enemies bunch up together the player should punish them all with a quick combo from the hammer as well. Players should also keep in mind that if they wait to deliver the killing blow to The Blood Hunter and defeat all jaguars first they have a chance to receive his spear as a reward. This weapon is immensely powerful and can be pretty useful in any fights ahead.
Curse of the Dead Gods can be played on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.