How to beat the King boss in Saros

The King is the final boss of Saros, and they’ll put your shielding, parrying, and dodging abilities to the test.

Like most bosses in Saros, the King will have three phases, but, for this fight, each phase is separated by colors. However, they’ll still send a ton of projectiles your way, so you’ll need to be on your toes to stay alive. Luckily, there is a way to “cheese” the boss if you find an annihilator shotgun with recuperate.

Here’s how to beat the King in Saros, and how to avoid their attacks.

How to prepare for the King boss in Saros

The King is found at the end of the Yellow Shore, which is the final biome in Saros. Before you head in, we recommend applying the following Carcosan modifiers:

The protection modifiers will improve your overall damage before and during the boss fight, while also improving your survivability by healing you when you face the King and giving you the ability to dodge red orbs and beams. Meanwhile, the trial modifiers will barely affect your capabilities in the Yellow Shore, as second chance is already disabled and you won’t really need halcyon or lucenite if you beat the final boss.

As for your weapon, we always recommend the smart rifle for its reliability, and it’s just an easy gun to use. However, if you find an annihilator shotgun with the Recuperate enhancement, definitely pick it up because it can trivialize the boss fight. Recuperate will make your damage dealt to hostiles heal your health for a short period of time after taking damage. For the first and second phase, you will not have to deal with corruption at all, as the boss uses only blue and red attacks respectively. As a result, you can stand right on top of the boss and spam your shotgun until you reach the third phase. However, try your best to hit the fast reload because your shotgun will essentially switch to burst fire and you’ll stay at full HP.

For your proficiency level, we recommend hitting at least level 40. Getting to 50 would be amazing, but, as you’ll need to clear out additional side paths and you only have one life, it can be dangerous taking on more foes.

How to beat the King boss in Saros

The King has three phases, just like the majority of the bosses in Saros, but this time, there’s nothing special about the arena. It’s just a clear circular area, so there’s nothing you can use to your advantage. Instead, you’ll just need to rely on everything you’ve learned so far to survive and defeat the boss.

Additionally, we recommend turning up your audio. Some of the King’s attacks have an audio cue, which sounds like something is charging up. At the end of the sound, there will be a “boom,” which is when the attack is coming in. This is particularly useful for one attack in the second phase, as its tell can be a little hard to see.If you’re using the annihilator shotgun with recuperate method, you can just sit on the boss and spam shoot and dodge until you reach the third phase. For the most part, you do not have to worry about any of the boss’ attacks, except for the shield, which you’ll need to punch to continue doing damage. In the third phase, you can follow the same strategy, but you need to use your power weapon from time to time to lower the corruption.

Below, we’ve listed out the King’s attacks, their counters, and what your game plan should be during each phase of the boss fight.

First phase

During the first phase, your shield will be your best friend, as the majority of the King’s attacks in this phase are blue. You can essentially avoid taking any damage by putting up your shield before you get hit — just remember to keep shooting.For the first phase, the King will swap between these attacks:

• Homing blue projectiles: As soon as the fight begins, the King will send out three waves of homing blue projectiles. Put up your shield to absorb the damage. This is also a great time to spam your power weapon, as each group of projectiles will recharge your power gauge.
• Shield: The King covers themselves in a shield, which you’ll need to punch to destroy.
• Falling blue projectiles: The King will put up two walls made of blue orbs, and shoot blue projectiles from the sky onto the ground. Use your shield to avoid taking damage.
• Red rings: The King shoots out three red rings, with each ring being taller than the last. Immediately after, they’ll shoot out rings made of blue orbs. Jump and dash over the rings, then quickly put up your shield to absorb the blue orbs.
• Blue rings: The King sends out multiple waves of blue rings, followed by a sphere of blue orbs around them. Keep your distance to avoid the blue orbs near their body, and shield the rest.
• Torrent of blue projectiles: The King shoots out a beam of blue orbs. Shield to absorb them. This is also a great opportunity to spam your power weapon.
• Exploding light blue projectiles: The King sends out six homing light blue orbs that stop before reaching you. They’ll soon explode into rings of red beams and blue projectiles. If you’re close to them, you use your shield to absorb them, which will decrease the number of rings and projectiles that appear. If you’re not close to them, keep your distance so you can shield and jump accordingly.
• Homing light blue projectiles: The King throws a vertical line of homing light blue projectiles. Shield to absorb them. This is another great time to use your power weapon.
• Ground punch: The King will punch at the ground if you get too close.

For the entirety of this phase, remember to use your shield and spam your power weapon. Your power weapon will be up so often that you can quickly deplete the first health bar. As always, use your Overdrive, but it’s best to use it after you destroy the King’s shield — just in case they randomly decide to use it.

Second phase

As soon as the second phase begins, the King will shoot out multiple blue rings and surround themself in blue orbs, so make sure to shield them.

From now on, you need to abandon the shield. Forget everything about the shield from the first phase and pretend it doesn’t exist because the majority of the King’s attacks in this phase are red. Instead, you need to be quick on your feet and parry to survive. If you picked up the Nova Dash protection modifier, this is the phase that’ll come in handy because you can instead dodge through everything.

The King will perform the following attacks:

• Homing red projectiles: This attack will mimic the appearance of the homing blue projectiles from the first phase. The King sends out three waves, but this time, make sure to keep running to the side and dodge if needed.
• Dash: The King charges up and dashes to your location. There are two ways to avoid this attack:
  • Dodge to the side when you see the yellow flash in their hands.
  • Use the audio cue to time your dodges.
• Red orb rings: The King will erupt with multiple rings of red projectiles expanding outward from their body. You need to be especially quick on your feet to dodge this attack, as it requires you to do something different every time. You may need to run inward, outward, or jump to avoid the orbs.
• Midair dash: The King will jump into the air and dash to your location. You can avoid the dash using the two methods we listed above, but after the King slams onto the ground, red orbs will erupt out of them. Make sure to look behind you as you’re running away to avoid any incoming orbs. Additionally, there will be a red ring to jump over and homing red projectiles to sidestep.
• Red laser rings: The King shoots out three red laser rings at increasing heights, and then immediately shoots out a wall of red orbs. Quickly jump and dash over the red lasers, so you have enough time to jump over the wall of red orbs.
• Red circle in the sky: The King will unleash a large circle of red orbs into the sky, and they’ll slowly descend to the ground. However, those orbs are mostly a distraction. Instead, look toward the ground as red orbs are spiraling outward and the King will throw a vertical line of red orbs in your direction. Run to the side and jump over the orbs on the ground as necessary.
• Three red walls: The King will go to the center of the arena, put up three red walls, and unleash red laser rings on the ground. Then, depending on what side you’re on, you’ll need to either jump over more red rings or avoid incoming red projectiles.
• Red orb wall: The King will shoot out a wall of red orbs and follow it up with a cone of red projectiles. Jump over the wall and run to the side to avoid the cone. Immediately after, they’ll slam onto the ground, unleashing a ring of laser beams that you’ll need to jump over.
• Shield: This is similar to the shield from the first phase, but now the King will also surround it in red orbs. Quickly run through the gap and punch the shield to stop its next attack from coming out.
• Yellow laser: Yellow lights will beam out of the King’s hands, and then they’ll bring their hands together to shoot a powerful yellow beam with yellow rings coming out of it in your direction. When the lights disappear, dodge to the side and continue running to avoid the attack.
• Ground punch: Similar to the first phase, the King will punch the ground if you get too close.

The game plan for this section is to, unfortunately, just run and gun. Continue to whittle down the boss’ HP and make sure to use your Overdrive after the King’s shield is broken.

Third phase

The third phase starts out the same as the second, but this time the orbs are red instead of blue.

From now on, the King gains two new attacks, but it also repeats many of the same moves that they used before — just now they’re all yellow. As the attacks are now corrupted, you need to change the way you avoid some of their attacks. Below, we’ve listed the new attacks as well as the old attacks with their changes, if they have any:

• Homing projectiles (first and second phase)
• Shield (first and second phase): The shield is now surrounded in yellow orbs with no gaps, so you’ll need to dash through them to punch it.
• Exploding projectiles (first phase): You can shield the projectiles to reduce the number of explosions, but you will gain corruption as the orbs are now yellow. We recommend keeping your distance from the orbs and dodging as necessary.
• Red rings (first phase): The King will shoot out three red rings like before, but now the orbs that follow are yellow.
• Yellow orb rings (second phase): After the orb rings are finished, two walls of orbs will shoot out, so you’ll need to either jump over them or dodge through.
• Circle in the sky (second phase)
• Orb wall (second phase)
• Teleport (new): The King teleports to a random location in the arena and unleashes three red beams. Turn your camera as fast as possible to locate them, but also listen to the audio to see which direction the King is attacking from.
• Red lasers (new): The King summons vertical red lasers that move toward you. These can be avoided by dashing to the side.

Use what you’ve learned in the previous fights to dodge the King’s attacks and defeat the King. When you’ve depleted their health, punch them to end the fight.