Tunic has plenty of challenging boss fights like the Siege Engine, but none is quite as difficult as ‘The Heir.’ This is the ghost-like fox creature that you encountered at the very beginning of the game, and you ultimately become responsible for freeing. It’s an incredibly punishing boss battle, and so we’re here to talk you through how to beat The Heir boss fight in Tunic.
Beating The Heir First Boss Fight
After you’ve collected the three colored keys, you’ll then be ready to take on The Heir the first time after you’ve freed it from the weird prism it was stuck in.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what you do here, you’re going to lose this fight and die. Our poor little fox protagonist just isn’t strong enough to take on The Heir just yet, and this then kickstarts the second part of the game.
The only exception to this is if you had the invincibility cheat enabled to prevent you from dying. This does somewhat break the game, though, as you’re not supposed to beat it the first time.
Beating The Heir Final Boss Battle in Tunic
Once you’ve visited all of the Hero’s Graves and grabbed those items to help level up your stats, you’re now all set to take The Heir on again.
Before you go to take this fight on, make sure you’ve stocked up on Stamina-replenishing items from the merchant, consumable weapons like bombs, as well as the MP-restoring blue berries, as you’re going to want to use as many of your magic attacks as possible to whittle its health away.
Also, make sure that you’ve got the Scavenger Mask and Hourglass charms equipped, as these will make the second phase much easier. The Hourglass will give you a bit of extra time to avoid the slew of attacks, while the Scavenger Mask negates the damage from the purple cavity stuff.
Phase 1
The Heir’s first phase is relatively straightforward once you’ve got all the power-ups and made the necessary preparations.
The main attack you need to watch out for is The Heir’s melee attack that swings its long sword around it. It’ll drop the sword to the ground before flicking it around, so just use your dash to get out of the radius.
Another melee attack sees The Heir lunge forward with its sword. Again, keep calm and just dodge to one side and get a few hits in, or use some of your bomb items to deal even more damage.
The Heir will also stab its sword into the ground, creating a shockwave attack that expels out from where the boss is standing. You can either dash away and out of its radius — as it eventually fades out — or you can dash through it if you’re confident that you can get your timing right.
Finally, you’ll need to watch out for The Heir’s AoE attack, telegraphed by it raising its sword above its head. This will cause lightning to rain down from above, and land across the arena. Fortunately, small circles on the arena floor will indicate where these are going to drop, so just sprint your way around them.
The main thing to do here is to just focus on saving your dodge where you can to conserve stamina, and then getting a few hits in between each of The Heir’s attacks. Don’t get too greedy — one or two swipes of your sword or bombs thrown, then getting back to safety should see you easily get through this first phase.
Phase 2
Once The Heir’s health bar is whittled down to zero, phase two begins and its health bar will fully replenish.
This time, you’re going to have to deal with the same attacks, but they’ll now have the ‘cavity’/ purple cloud damage added to them. The worst of these is The Heir’s lunge attack, as it’ll cause almost the entire arena to be covered in the purple stuff.
The best tip to survive phase two of this boss fight is to take a minute or two of just sitting back and learning The Heir’s attack patterns before you go in for attacks. This allows you to see how the moves from phase one have changed. For example, its melee attacks have more swings in an attempt to catch you out if you dive in too quickly.
Outside of that, keep dishing out bombs when you can, and use the gun to deal some heavy damage. Use your blue MP berries to replenish your magic bar and take your time dealing damage once again. Because The Heir’s attacks are stronger and faster in this phase, it’s far more important to get in a couple of attacks before evading quickly.
That’s everything you need to know on beating The Heir in Tunic. Congratulations, you’re now all set to dive into all the post-game secrets.
For more tips and tricks on the game, be sure to check out the links below.
