Hyper Light Drifter: How to Beat the Bird Boss to the North

To the North, East, South, and West of the central hub world of Hyper Light Drifter lie difficult bosses to defeat. Here’s how to take down the Bird Boss in the North.

As always before heading through the door to take on any boss in Hyper Light Drifter, check the surrounding area for handy Health Packs tucked away in the corner of the environment. These will come in incredibly handy especially if you’re already running low.

The Bird Boss will require you to be on your A-game with dashing. Its attacks are quick and powerful and any mistakes with your dashing will be punished heavily. The Bird Boss has three different attack phases, the first of which revolves around its weird magical ability. As the battle begins you’ll notice that it’ll stand in one position and make some of the tiles on the floor glow pink. These glowing pink tiles will follow you around the room as you dash and will deal heavy damage if you end up touching them. For this you’ll want to dash away as much as possible and when you’ve got enough distance between you and the tiles chasing you, make your way over to the enemy and get a couple of slashes in. If you can’t get close enough to it, shoot at the Bird Boss from a distance to chip away at its health.

Sometimes it may move into one of the corners. If this does happen, use your gun to chip away at its health from a distance. Heading into a corner and getting tangled up with him during this first phase can prove pretty devastating to your health bar, so it’s best to play it safe.

The next attack phase of this boss is to call in four of the smaller bird enemies you’ve already faced on your way to this point. During this phase of the attack is where you’re going to deal the most damage. The Bird Boss should always remain in the middle, so get right up close to it and just go nuts with your sword. Combo your slashes with firing your shotgun when you have the ammo. As the birds he has summoned start to fly in, try and direct your slashes to not only hit the boss, but also the incoming enemies. It’s also important to note that this is the safest phase to heal up if you need to. As soon as you see him warp into the middle and raise his wings, get healing.

As soon as he starts making his way toward one of the corners again, begin dashing away as the glowing pink tiles make their return. When you’ve got the space to, fire off a couple shots at the boss and if you’ve got the grenade upgrade, roll one of these into the corner to knock a couple of extra blocks off its health bar.

The final phase of the Bird Bosses attack is a much more powerful version of the first phase. Rather than the tiles chasing you around the room, this time it will cause multiple tiles to glow at the same time in a certain pattern. This can either be alternate lines, a + pattern, or an X pattern. At this stage, it’s best to try and gauge which pattern is coming and finding a safe spot. Shoot as much as you can during this phase and whittle away his health bar quickly. This final phase is really tricky to survive, so the sooner you take him down the better.

If possible, get right up close in this phase and start slashing furiously with your sword. Of course, keep an eye on the tile pattern and evade when necessary but slashing and firing your gun in a combo will knock his health down much faster than shooting from a distance.

Soon enough the Bird Boss will fall and you can take the three Gear Bits from its body and pick up a sweet new gun from a nearby corpse. Once you’ve grabbed all of this, continue on your adventure through Hyper Light Drifter. We advise grabbing a bunch of upgrades as you pass through the hub town on your way to the next area.

Have you got any tips for other Hyper Light Drifter players taking on the Bird Boss? Share them in the comments below.