Boss Fight: How to Defeat the Harbinger¶

Now that you have the skull, use the elevator to reach the Silent Auditorium. A long cutscene will play here, after which you’ll find yourself facing the Harbinger in combat. The first phase of the fight will consist of numerous waves of Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, and Skimmers. You’ll need to fight these off before the Harbinger will enter the fight. Try not to use or destroy too many of the power coils at this early stage in the fight. They’ll be much more useful later on when you’re facing tougher enemies. When you’ve defeated the first wave of enemies, the Harbinger will attack. You’ll need to deplete her shield and then damage her slightly before she retreats again. The main combat techniques which characterize the fight with the Harbinger are her teleportation and energy ball skills. She will teleport frequently, so you’ll have a small window of opportunity to damage her each time she stops, making accuracy with a powerful weapon essential. However, at the same time she will conjure balls of energy which will then fly towards you and inflict massive damage upon impact. You’ll need to look out for these balls of energy and be ready to avoid them as soon as they’re summoned. They will appear as small blue lights at first, as shown in the screenshot below.

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(1 of 2) Shoot the Harbinger from afar as you bring down her shield to get a good visual on when blue energy balls are conjured, circled here in red.

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Shoot the Harbinger from afar as you bring down her shield to get a good visual on when blue energy balls are conjured, circled here in red. (left), When the Harbinger’s shield is depleted, you can shoot her once or twice to inflict damage to her health. (right)

Once you’ve damaged the Harbinger enough to deplete her shield, she’ll drop to her knees and become vulnerable to an attack on her health. This will inflict massive damage after one or two hits, but her health can’t be brought down more than 50% at this stage in the fight. She’ll then retreat and another wave of Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, and Skimmers will arrive. This second wave is similar to the first, only this time you’ll need to deal with a Brute Officer. Aim for the head to take them out quickly. Most of the other enemies can be killed in one or two shots with a powerful weapon. After defeating them, the Harbinger will enter the fight again and you’ll have to take down her shield while avoiding the energy balls. The random nature of her teleportation will always make this messy, but so long as you keep your distance so that you can anticipate her attacks, you should be fine.

The next wave after depleting the Harbinger’s shield for a second time will be more of the same, but this time you’ll be facing an Elite Brute with heavy armor and a devastating melee weapon. You’ll need to keep moving here to avoid being hit by the elite, so the Grappleshot is your best friend here too. Use it to grapple onto any structure to fling across the room and avoid melee combat with the elite, using any intermittent time to take out regular enemies or inflict damage to the elite. If you can manage headshots in the chaos, this will be the quickest way to bring the Elite Brute down. Otherwise, consider using a weapon with a lot of highly damaging AoE damage, such as the Cindershot. You’ll find one in the room if you don’t already have one. This weapon will also briefly stall the elite as it runs towards you, so it’s useful to stop it in its tracks if you’re caught off guard. This is also a perfect time to make use of those blast coils located around the room. Kite the elite towards them and then shoot them when it’s close enough, or do the same with a bunch of enemies if the timing is right.

After this third and final wave, all you need to do is deplete the Harbinger’s shield one last time, then finish her off while she’s down. You’ll unlock the Set a Fire in Your Heart and Too Many Goodbyes achievements after defeating her.