With the official launch of POE 2 early access, you will find that although there are only 3 acts to experience, each act is very rich, including campaigns with different plots and bosses of different difficulties.
Among them, if you can successfully defeat those higher-level bosses, you can not only get more POE 2 Currency than completing ordinary tasks but also unlock the next act or a new challenge difficulty. Viper Napuatzi, in the third act is such a boss worth challenging.
Located in Utzaal, this boss will deploy various poison attacks in a very small arena, forcing you into a claustrophobic battle. Although the battle process with her may not be very complicated, the limited size of the arena and the power of the poison will make her extremely deadly. Especially when she uses multiple core actions in rapid succession to cover the arena in poison or trap you in a corner.
Based on this, we will introduce you how to defeat her from two aspects: pre-preparation and specific battle.
Prepare According To The Boss’s Weaknesses
When you encounter her, you need to make sure your game character is at least level 43-45 - of course, the higher the better. Since Viper Napuatzi is resistant to almost as many elemental damage, even physical damage, so you’d better use chaos damage to deal with her, or destroy her armor as much as possible.
Among the 6 classes currently available, Warrior’s slam attacks and Witch’s chaos build will be the best weapons to deal with this boss, and Ranger with poison or chaos attacks is also effective. Other professions will feel more difficult, such as Monk or Sorceress. If you play such a disadvantaged class, you’d better use chaos resistance to enhance your equipment and defense.
To do this, you need to farm equipment with chaos resistance attributes throughout Act 3 beforehand, and make them stronger by consuming POE 2 Exalted Orbs. In addition, you can also work hard to unlock those chaos resistance nodes on the passive skill tree. Alternatively, you can use Chaos Resistance Ring, which is a random drop in Act 3, and can also be found at vendors in Act 2 or Act 3.
It’s worth mentioning that if you’ve previously defeated Ignagduk and completed Tribal Vengeance quest, you can choose to obtain Blooming Antidote Charm. This will make you immune to poison when you’re poisoned during the fight with Viper Napuatzi.
How To Defeat Viper Napuatzi?
Throughout the fight, Viper Napuatzi will accumulate the frequency of her attacks, rather than switching between phases. As a result, she’ll become more unpredictable as the fight progresses.
First, her basic range of attacks is based around spear attacks, which include thrusts that can be dodged sideways, and a standard three-hit combo. Typically, her first two attacks might hit you at close range, and then she’ll leap forward and slam her spear into the ground for a more powerful third attack. You can dodge the first two attacks by rolling out of the way, and then rolling to the side to avoid the third slam.
She will then slowly walk forward, swinging her spear, and suddenly jump forward while spinning the spear, dealing poison damage to you. During this time, you must do your best to stay away from her, because if you are hit, you will continue to take damage while being infected by the poison.
Be careful, Viper Napuatzi can also rush towards you to close the distance between you, but you can predict it by some of her behaviors. When Napuatzi holds the spear with her right hand and charges it, you can see the poison concentrate on the tip of the spear, accompanied by a loud sound prompt.
This is actually a long-range charge attack, and she will launch two snakes in the area in front of her. This attack has a wide range, so when she releases the charge attack, you should immediately step back and dodge.
Between all of Viper Napuatzi’s attacks, it is recommended that you use single-target skills that can be automatically aimed, area-of-effect skills, or projectiles such as walls and spheres to allow you to damage her while avoiding the boss.
Of course, you should always remember not to get too close to her, but to guide her from a distance to keep a medium distance around the arena slowly. This will allow you to avoid most of her melee attacks with good dodging.
How To Deal With The Ultimate Phase Of The Fight?
If you play as a Warrior or other melee class, you’ll want to focus on casting totems and shockwaves. Also, if you don’t damage Napuatzi for too long, her energy shield will regenerate, making her harder to kill.
When Napuatzi’s health drops to around 85%, she’ll place her spear on the ground and form a poison pool around herself while rising into the air above the arena and starting to fire blasts at you. These blasts are marked with circles on the ground, and to avoid them you must slowly move around the arena, moving to spaces where the blasts didn’t hit or just hit.
There’s no set order for these attacks. Viper Napuatzi can use several blasts in a row, or relentlessly unleash her melee attacks. To do this, you’ll need to be familiar with her movements for each attack.
When her health drops to around 30%, she will perform a spear attack, and once her health drops to 5%, she will perform a spear attack more continuously. However, you cannot damage her during this attack, so you have to wait until she starts fighting on the ground again to continue to damage her until she is defeated.
With the death of Viper Napuatzi, you will not only can obtain Regal Orbs or some rare equipment that may drop through her, but also enter Cruel difficulty and endgame. It is worth mentioning that now enter IGGM Discord, you can participate in POE 2 Orbs giveaway event, just leave the reaction emoji “Love” to have a chance to get a lot of Orbs! Hurry up and act!
