Here's the part where I try to convince you not to read this until you're stuck in a rut trying to beat the last part. Spoilers ahead. This game is short but sweet, so it's best not to get ahead of yourself!

By the way, there's already another guide up on tips to beat the last fight by Firemorfox.
Check it out too!
The tips there are different from the information here, so check out both if you have the time!


The information in this guide is divided into two sections.
The first part describes the boss and her perilous attacks Even if you've tried this fight many times, there's still some useful information that might not be immediately obvious.
The second part includes some general strats for each situation, and a general approach to dealing with your opponent and increasing your chances of success.



With these mandatory disclaimers out of the way, let's get into it.

Let's get the simple and obvious out of the way:

There are three phases to this fight. The mechanics are the same, but your opponent gets considerably faster, more aggresive, and rotates through her attacks more often. To win, you have to deplete the boss' health bar three times. The only other mechanic involved is that on the third phase, time slows down. There are no other mechanics to this fight, and every time you lose, you have to start over. Your best move to start the fight is to punch one of the statues and grab a sword.

Your opponent will use five types of attacks, most of which have different "tells":

• Melee attack combo: It deals enough damage to kill you if all or most hits connect.
  
• Spin attack: After a brief charge-up, she starts spinning in your direction. This attack can kill you, but it's relatively easy to dodge.
  
• Pistol barrage of homing bullets: She will point her laser pointer in your direction, after which she'll start shooting one bullet after the other. It she shoots all her shots, this deals enough damage to kill you.
  
• Spear barrage: She summons a line of spears, which lock on to you, then shoot forward at (roughly?) the same time. It deals enough damage to kill you if all spears connect. By the time the spears launch forward, your enemy might already be preparing another attack. Another complication is that if you move during this attack, the spears might not arrive at the same time, and it might be harder to dodge.
  
• Spear throw: Your opponents throws a spear in your direction. This alone can't kill you.

More about her "simple" melee attacks:

It's not clear how many melee attacks she can chain, or whether all "simple" melee attacks follow the same behaviour, but in general she will use all of these attacks seemingly at random. You have roughly the same range as her, perhaps even a bit less. In my experience, you can usually get one hit in at the time. When you get in range, she might take the hit or start attacking herself. Sometimes your swords clash, sometimes she starts an attack combo and deals damage, and sometimes you deal damage. If you manage to hit her, then she'll either start attacking, dash away, or start preparing a spin attack.

When she's charging up her spin attack, she won't dash away, so you might be able to get one or two more hits in before having to dash away. The spear throw also gives you a bit of a window.

Managing your health:

As we've seen, many of her attacks can kill you; even if they don't, if you take a lot of damage, she might just bump into you and finish you off, or you might get unlucky and caught out of position by her ranged attacks. We'll discuss in a moment how to best deal with the boss, but watch out for your health bar. With a combination of skill and luck, you might be able to tank attacks to get in close to attack and pressure your opponent, which counter-intuitively might buy you time to regenerate some health.

A note on RNG: she usually dashes to evade your attacks, particularly after the first hit, but she sometimes dashes at random. She might start a melee chain, and dash in the same direction as you, and finish you off. It has happened to me, and it's pure chance.

In the next section, we will go over some strats to deal with this and to deal damage relatively safely,

Let's assume that you've tried this fight many times and understand the mechanics. Or maybe you've read the previous section (there's some not-so-obvious info there!). Either way, now that we understand the challenge, let's discuss some strats.

Managing your dashes:
If I'm not mistaken, you can dash up to three times in a row. They recharge one at the time. If you space them out enough, you might even be able to dash, wait a bit, dash again, and so on. Think of these as a second healthbar. You need to dash to survive most attacks, especially the spear barrage, so try not to burn all three. If you're running low on dashes, the best move can be either walking away from your enemy's melee attacks, or piling on the pressure, as we'll discuss in a moment.

How to evade her attacks:

• Melee attack combo: Dash away as soon as you can. Mashing "dash" is viable, and you usually can get away between stuns. Be careful if your health is too low afterwards though, and don't burn all your dashes.
  
• Spin attack: Perhaps the easiest attack to dodge. A single dash is enough, and you now that until she stops spinning, she won't start another attack, so you've got a bit of a window to regenerate health and dodges.
  
• Pistol barrage of homing bullets: Dash towards her and attack her. If any of your attacks connect, she'll stop shooting. As soon as she's done dashing away, she may start another attack, so watch out.
  
• Spear barrage: Have at least one dash available for this one, two ideally. The spears will lock onto you with perfect accuracy, but after they start moving forward, you can dash and dodge most if not all of them, depending on the angle. If all spears would land where you are at the same time, you can just dash away and dodge them all. Because the boss can start preparing another attack as the spears start moving, be ready to react quickly, and dodge towards or away from your opponent, depending on the situation.
  
• Spear throw: Just don't die.
  
  Keeping your opponent on her toes:
  In my first few attempts, I tried focusing on dodging and wearing my opponent down bit by bit, and trying to find windows to attack. That battle of attrition will wear you down much sooner than your opponent, since a bad call and/or a bit of bad RNG can force you to restart.
  
  A better strategy is to keep close to the boss, go in for a hit, and dash away as soon as you land one. Don't wait for attack windows. Just dodge, attack when she isn't in the middle of a melee combo, dash away, and play aggresive, especially when she pulls out the pistol. This should result in your opponent using more melee attacks, getting her pistol attacks cancelled. Just go in, hit, and get out. Keep an eye on your health and count your dashes. If you've learned to evade her attacks, you should have a good chance. During the third phase it might get ugly, but this strategy should help you get there sooner and more consistenly.
  
  To summarize, if you learn the mechanics and play aggresive, it'll be your opponent reacting to you. If not, it'll be the other way around, and even if you know the way around her attacks, it's just a matter of time until too many of her hits connect. Pile on the pressure, keep her on her toes, and thus keep her attacks in check, and after a few tries only one of you will stand atop that tower.
  

I hope this guide was of help! And more than anything, I hope we hear more from this team. Lithium City is a fantastic game. I've already beaten it twice, and I would love to see more stuff like it. Or anything else from the talented people behind it (the devs and John Camara, the composer of the OST).

Bandcamp was recently bought, and right now it is not accesible. You can support John Camara, the artist, by purchasing the OST here on Steam, and checking out his music on his youtube account. There are some unused tracks on YT!

There's another guide here on Steam with more tips on how to beat the boss, check it out!

Again, I hope you got something out of reading this humble guide. I might find the time to upload it with pictures or video in the future. But for now, good luck enjoying the last bit of the game!