As a seasoned Operator with countless battles under my belt, I can confidently say that the beast known as Cerberus is one of the toughest challenges we face in this digital realm. But fear not, my comrades! With the right strategy and a well-coordinated team, we shall triumph over this three-headed terror.

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Drawing inspiration from the legendary three-headed hound of mythology, the central mechanism of Cerberus is equipped with a versatile system called “The Ripper”, enabling it to adapt to multiple shapes and employ diverse attack strategies.

In simpler terms, Cerberus is the initial boss encountered in Chapter 8. It swiftly combines its attacks with minimal pauses, which makes it quite a formidable battle for those who are not well-prepared.

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Behaviour and Attacks

Cerberus possesses two distinct positions, each associated with different types of attacks. It’s capable of switching between these positions during battle at any given moment.

Humanoid Stance

In its initial position, standing on two legs, is where Cerberus usually starts combat. This stance is simpler compared to the other, making it ideal for Cerberus to remain in this form. At higher difficulty levels, Cerberus will launch more projectiles, but these attacks are relatively easy to avoid. For the most part, you can dodge them by moving sideways, even when aiming down sights (ADS).

Bullet Stream

In a continuous burst, Cerberus shoots a series of bullets towards you. The impact isn’t so powerful that it knocks you off balance, allowing you to sustain a few hits.

Stun Pillars

Cerberus can also send out pillars that move outward, dealing damage and staggering you if hit.

Missile Barrage

Cerberus is capable of launching two distinct kinds of missile assaults. The first type unleashes numerous small-scale missiles, and these missiles fly in a continuous stream without any interruption or pause.

The other sends out a smaller amount of larger missiles. These will stagger you on hit.

Beast Stance

As Cerberus assumes its beast form and prepares to attack, it jumps powerfully towards you, rising high above the ground. If you’re standing too near when it touches down, you’ll be pushed back. However, remember that any Control effects should only be applied on Cerberus once it has landed, not during its windup or while it’s still airborne.

Laser Pounce

As Cerberus leaps towards you, it unleashes a wide laser assault. This leap has two variations: at harder settings, Cerberus might add an additional swipe with its front paw during the jump. Any contact with either attack causes you to be pushed back.

Leisure Gamers: Maintain some distance from Cerberus to give yourself time to respond if it leaps at you. Remember also to dodge in the opposite direction of the laser’s movement to avoid getting hit.
Speedrunners: If Cerberus uses the laser attack, dodging even once can cause an immediate reset. Plus, there’s always the risk of it jumping on you, pinning you under its body, which is a definite game over.

Orb Barrage

Cerberus has the ability to emit numerous orbs following either of two distinct arrangements. These orbs move simultaneously without interruption, and as the challenge increases, more orbs will appear on screen.

Casual Players: With a well-timed roll, you can avoid the first line attack. The second one, attempt to zigzag through it since its pattern is consistent. Keep your distance to have enough time to foresee the movements of the orbs.
Speedrunners: Stand and face it, this is the only attack Cerb performs in beast stance that doesn’t push you back. However, be careful not to get hit too many times and perish.

Attack of the Clones

After reducing Cerberus to about 70% of its health, it will exit the battlefield. During this absence, you must endure ten assaults from replica versions of Cerberus. Once you successfully withstand these attacks, Cerberus will come back and continue fighting. If you plan on imposing a Control effect upon its return, wait for it to stand upright again, as Cerberus has a short time frame where it becomes resistant to Control effects post-resurrection.

The clones can randomly perform one of three attacks:

• A fan of small orbs that deal damage but do not stagger
• A single large orb that deals damage and staggers
• A melee headbutt, sometimes with a followup swipe from the clone’s front leg as an extra treat

Each clone will disappear once it finishes its attack.

Casual Players: Keep a sharp eye on all areas of the game map. Clones tend to appear in places you’re not watching, so always check your surroundings to avoid surprise attacks from behind. After surviving ten assaults, be cautious about staying in the center as Cerberus will descend there, causing damage and pushing you back.

Instead, the second approach is usually chosen since it lets you bypass this mini-game entirely.

Following the mini-game involving cloning, Cerberus becomes significantly more prone to assuming its beast posture. Moreover, during a shift from an attacking to an upright position, Cerberus may summon additional copies of itself. On occasion, it might even do so spontaneously, just for fun.

These clones can perform any of Cerberus’ upright stance attacks.

During the cloned phase, followed by assuming the beast stance, Cerberus can exit the map, leaving behind a radiant circle as its substitute. If you disrupt this circle prior to the timer at the top of your screen running out, Cerberus will sustain heavy damage instantly and fall back onto the map in a weakened state for a brief period.

Casual Gamers: Watch out for the duplicates that appear at increased difficulty levels during this phase as they can either defeat or control you, neither of which are appealing. Remember, the circle is an integral part, so ensure your characters are leveled up as much as possible to destroy it swiftly.

Strategy

Boss HP: 1,823,504

Cerberus is thematically a very cool fight, but is very annoying to speedrun because of its beast stance. In beast stance, Cerberus uses attacks that are much more annoying to evade, and is almost permanently immune to Control effects, making it difficult to find effective DPS windows. If you’re willing to reset for a run where Cerberus stays in upright stance the entire time, you’ll likely find it to be your fastest run. However, this can take countless attempts if you succeed at all. Otherwise, there are not many optimizations possible beyond doing damage effectively.

After completing the clone phase, there’s an opportunity to exert control over Cerberus as soon as it re-enters the field, but not straight away. You should wait for a moment or two after it has stood upright before applying the control effect. Utilize this brief period of unhindered damage output, as it could be your last chance to deal damage from that point forward.

By the way, one and a half of Cerberus’ difficulty modifiers just don’t work. While in humanoid stance, It’s supposed to release a shockwave when it jumps back and fire homing projectiles when it slides sideways, but it just… doesn’t. Similarly, it also doesn’t fire bullet barrages when it jumps back in beast stance, though it does follow up sideways stances with pounce attacks. This is great for you, the player, because it means fewer things to worry about. Just keep this between us.

Clone Skip

Instead of spending your precious time on the amusing yet unnecessary clone mini-game, consider jumping right over it instead. Luckily, there are two methods available for this.

Just Kill It

The first method is pretty straightforward: oneshot it before it ever gets to the HP trigger.

At present, only Cherno – Enigma and Siris – Ksana are known to possess the ability to accomplish this task, and it necessitates a significant setup investment. You’ll need to inflict damage of at least 1,276,500, depending on how near you can get to the HP threshold, but let me tell you, the resulting explosion is quite a sight to behold.

Tricky Timing

The second approach requires less initial effort, but demands more skill to execute effectively. Intriguingly, Cerberus momentarily loses its invincibility for around 0.08 seconds (or approximately 5 frames at 60FPS) before departing the arena and spawning clones. This creates a narrow opportunity where you can squeeze in an additional burst of damage to ensure its defeat.

You can immobilize Cerberus during that period. This keeps it from departing the map, ensuring the clone minigame doesn’t initiate. As a result, Cerberus remains stationary (though invisible), allowing you to attack it freely until it is defeated.

There are also two other options for Paralyze:

• Timing the hit from Tess – The Magician’s ultimate ability to hit in that window while her support skill is active
• Paralyzing it with Fenny – Coronet’s ultimate ability (with neuronics unlocked)

However, the former method is (and I’ve been told this is the technical term) “incredibly mald,” and I’ve never been able to get the latter method to work despite it supposedly requiring no special timing at all. Attempt these at your own risk. Also note that the Paralyze status effect applies immediately after damage from the corresponding ability is dealt, but not at the same time! This means that it’s entirely possible to have the damage from an ability land but also have the Paralyze apply too late.

Regardless of whether you want to oneshot it or apply Paralyze, the timing window is tight, so you’ll have to be on your A game to squeeze it in.

Team Building

It’s much more manageable when Cerberus isn’t permitted to attack, making it less of a bother. Having some form of control will significantly ease the situation. Since Lyfe – Wednesday is susceptible to paralysis and slows, she can be a valuable support option if Acacia – Redacted is unavailable or busy for the week. Even when Cerberus shifts into beast stance, making it tougher to apply control effects, you’ll typically get one or two chances to delay the transformation. Of course, having a source of paralysis allows you to attempt the clone skip and save time. If you opt for a skill-damage based or hybrid DPS, Enya – Exuvia is extremely beneficial as she can withstand all of Cerberus’ attacks without being pushed back or staggered – particularly useful against its beast stance attacks.

Distinctive Damage Per Second (DPS) operatives often handle Cerberus with ease, but some excel exceptionally. Yao – Winter Solstice amasses her ultimate by firing clones created during the clone phase, which she then swiftly unleashes on Cerberus. Mauxir – Shadow Ka aids in this assault. Additionally, Chenxing – Ethereal Cloud locates three vulnerable areas on Cerberus to target, boosting her DPS efficiency. Lastly, agile operatives like Marian – Swift and Lyfe – Infinite Sight can deal damage while moving, allowing them to dart around Cerberus and inflict substantial damage even during its beast stance.

Certainly, having Cherno – Enigma and Siris – Ksana with the potential to eliminate Cerb before it can deploy its clones against you certainly makes them quite beneficial, especially if your setup is robust enough, without a doubt.

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2024-11-10 07:00