With Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven officially released, players will once more be diving into this cute, adorable, absolutely brutal world. Unlike the base game, this time you will be aiding a long-lost deity to strike down a mad scientist trying to spread heresy across the land. Gasp!
Known as Marchosias, she is the main antagonist of this expansion and will prove to be one of the toughest bosses you’ll face in the entire game. Here is everything you need to know about beating her and what you get for your troubles.
How To Defeat Marchosias
Similar to The Executioner, Marchosias is a three-part fight that escalates in difficulty as her health is depleted. However, the difference is that you won’t need to worry about going into any dungeon to reach her, as you will start right outside the boss room. From here, you will be presented with a couple of different weapons and curses you can pick from before going to face Marchosias.
During my testing, I found the Blunderbuss, Flail, and Sword to be the most effective weapons against Marchosias, particularly since she spends a large portion of the fight in lava. While she isn’t always chilling in lava, not having to worry about getting super close to her can make a pretty big difference in surviving throughout the battle.
As far as Curses, I recommend nabbing the Divine Guardian if possible, as the two seconds of invincibility will help you deal damage during the chaotic final phase. Alternatively, Touch of Ithaqua or Touch of Maelstrom are great options for clearing out the area of all the hazards that Marchosias will spawn.
Once you’ve decided on your weapons, ascend the stairs to face Marchosias.
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Phase One
When the battle begins, rush up to Marchosias and begin attacking the main body. Keep an eye on Marchosias’ arms, as she will briefly raise one of her claws before swiping it in front of her. This can be easily dodged by rolling backwards, so make sure to watch her movements while striking her.
Additionally, Marchosias will launch bombs around the arena that stick around for a short time before exploding. You can actually hit these bombs with an attack and launch them into Marchosias for some extra damage. So when you see them, stop directly attacking her and use her own weapons against her.
You’ll also want to keep an eye out for a large red arrow that will appear on the ground in front of Marchoasias. When you see this, roll out of the way in either direction, as she will launch a large tentacle out of her body (gross) in a straight line. This does quite a bit of damage, but can easily be avoided so long as you move the moment the arrow appears on screen.
Once she loses about 1/6th of her health, a brief cutscene will trigger, and you’re onto phase two.
Phase Two
Phase two sees Marchosias’ arms extending out from her body into these horrifying tentacles. Along with these new appendages, she will gain access to a variety of new attacks. The first is a ground pound where she slams one of her hands down onto your last known position. Another is that either her left or right arm will become covered in spikes, and she will swipe it in front of her whole body.
Marchosias will also slam her hands down to create large shockwaves you’ll need to roll through to dodge, and occasionally summon other enemies into the arena to help fight you. She will also include all of her attacks from the previous phase, along with the destructible rot mounds spawning way more frequently throughout the arena. The key to surviving this fight is to keep an eye on Marchosias’ arms. Her main attacks are triggered by them, so by watching their movements, you can easily predict what she is about to do.
You should also focus on damaging the main body and not the arms, as attacking her arms will do less damage than attacking the main body.
If you manage to snag a Curse that releases an area-of-effect attack, I recommend using this to both clear out the spreading rot and take down any of the minions that may arrive during the battle. If you’re worried about avoiding an attack, run to the bottom of the arena, as this is a relatively safe area from almost all of Marchosias’ moves.
Keep rushing in, hitting her a few times, and avoiding her arm attacks until she is down to about 1/3rd left of her health. This will trigger a final cutscene and move you to the third and final phase of this boss fight.
Phase Three
Welcome to phase three, it’s absolute chaos.
With her body electrified, Marchosias will gain access to another set of new moves, along with making her previous ranged attacks way more frequent. You won’t need to worry about melee attacks anymore, so that’s a plus at least.
When the phase begins, Marchosias will unleash a volley of lasers that will move around the arena. You can avoid this by getting close to Marchosias, as the beams mostly stick to the middle and lower portions of the arena. She will also fire a volley of directed beam attacks at your last known position, so if a red circle with an X appears at your feet, keep moving until she stops attacking you.
Striking Marchosias a few times will actually sever both her right and left arms. When this happens, she will begin firing these small bombs that release her fiery shockwaves around the arena. These will be relentless, and you’ll need to keep dodging them as this boss seldom stops releasing shockwaves. Thankfully, their radius is fairly small and can be dodged by rolling through them.
Marchosias will also rain down rot, which is indicated by a bunch of tiny circles suddenly appearing on the screen. You can avoid this move by sticking to the lower half of the arena and waiting it out. Finally, she launches her tentacle out way more than the previous two phases, so make sure to watch for the big red arrow if possible.
Your key to beating Marchosias in this phase is to focus on surviving rather than just dealing raw damage to the boss. There is so much going on that prioritizing your own health is critical to coming out on top. Getting hit in succession by multiple attacks is almost certainly what will cause most losses, so as long as you don’t get greedy and overcommit, you’ll be able to take down this corrupted scientist.
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