Boss Strategy Guide

How boss stats are built

Every enemy starts from base HP and damage. The game then adds your progress: +15 HP per player level and +3 per day, and +2 damage per level and +1 for every two days, before multiplying the result. Bosses from contracts, weather and the Zmora hub also carry a flat hardening of x1.25 HP and x1.15 damage, so the multipliers in this guide already include it. Their rewards are paid in full.

Examples assume level 10 on day 15, where these bosses have roughly 1,900 HP. Boss-damage talents such as Boss Hunter (Reaper tree, +6% per rank, five ranks) only work on enemies whose final HP multiplier is 3 or higher. The Raider Warboss (2.5) and the Reptilian Warlord (no multiplier) do not qualify.

Three tools decide most boss fights. Take Cover costs 1 AP and halves ordinary hits for the next enemy phase only, so it must be renewed every round. Charge and Pull Back move you one range zone for 1 AP. Stuns make an enemy skip its entire next action. See the combat guide for basics.

Weather bosses: Lady Midday and the Unknown Threat

Lady Midday, the Noon-Stalker

She appears on a High Heat day when you take an open-air trip (fishing, hunting, caravan scavenging, the checkpoint or the convoy) at noon or in the afternoon with thirst below 60%. You must be level 5+, and she appears at most once a day, with a 75% chance when conditions are met. You can decline: drinking 3 Water raises thirst by 40 and ends the scene.

She is melee, has 15% damage reduction, and uses a two-beat pattern. In the round she reaches you she raises her sickle and the log warns you to take cover. The next round she strikes for 1.8 times her top hit (about 122 in our example), which ignores armor. Cover cuts that to 40% (about 49). Dodge can still avoid it entirely.

The Unknown Threat

During a Rad-Storm, the first trip you take from camp each day (level 4 or higher) is intercepted, wherever you were going. It is ranged, and its attack follows a fixed three-round cycle:

Radiation ignores armor and cannot be dodged, though percentage damage reduction from talents still applies. Each hit contaminates you, cutting your damage 30% until treated. The Med Bay's Decontamination Flush clears it for 35 Medicine and 15 Water.

The plan: in the exposed round spend your damage and take cover, since cover lasts through the burst. A stun in the exposed round makes it skip its burst and keeps the shroud down for another full turn. Reward: 160 Scrip, 14 Tech Data, 12 Medicine.

Grab bosses: Utopek-7 and the Zmora

Both are melee bosses (about 6 times base HP), and both run their special attacks before the charge check, so staying at long range does not protect you.

Utopek-7 (boss contract, level 6+, two Drowned Husk escorts) spits bio-acid every round for 30% of his top hit (about 19, ignores armor). If you are not held, he also has a 35% chance to drag you under. While held you cannot move or flee and take 6% of your max HP per round. The Zmora (reached from the camp terminal after an outbreak is diagnosed, 10% damage reduction, two Sleepwalkers) sends a neural pulse for 25% of its top hit that also drains 14 stamina, pins you with a 30% chance per round, and then crushes for 5% of max HP. Each Neural Shield level you own cuts the Zmora's pulse, stamina drain, pin chance and crush by 20%.

Breaking free costs 2 AP and succeeds 65% of the time, so with 3 AP you get one attempt per turn. Ranged weapons and allies keep firing while you are held, and killing the boss releases you.

The Zmora also has a non-combat solution. With 6 or more points in the Netrunner tree, or a hired Sector Hacker (or Cipher) in your camp, you can jack in at the hub, and the Zmora is cleared either way: your hack chance (35%, plus 2% per Netrunner point up to a 30% bonus, plus 12% per Neural Shield level, plus 25% when a Sector Hacker or Cipher helps) only decides whether you lose 25 HP to backlash. Force pays more: 140 Scrip, 14 Tech Data, 8 Medicine and 6 reputation, against 8 Tech Data and 4 reputation for the hack. Utopek can be bribed with 8 Cloth and 6 Food, but only killing him yields the Water Purification Pump, 130 Scrip and 25 Water.

Contract bosses and quick reference

The Shady Informant at the Wasteland Bar sells boss contracts for 60 Scrip, and you can hold two at once. Each boss only appears once you reach its level. HP and damage multipliers below include the hardening.

Without armor-piercing talents, skip the Reaper: 25% reduction on the highest HP multiplier is the slowest kill. Armor Piercing (Reaper, 3 ranks) gives 10% per rank and Overpenetration (Gunner, 3 ranks) 8%, both reducing a boss's percentage reduction, capped at 80% total. Zhor-Kaal hits hardest, so bring Armor and a healer.

Story and event bosses

• Reptilian Warlord (Informant contract, no minimum level): 5,000 base HP and 40 to 80 damage plus scaling, with no multiplier tricks. Pays 1,000 Scrip, 500 XP, 25 reputation, 2 Global Broadcast Passes and one gear piece rolled as a boss drop (at least Rare: 55% Rare, 33% Epic, 10% Legendary, 2% Godlike before Luck).
• Bebok (Scrap Yard event on the map, once only): 100,000 HP but only 1 to 2 damage, unscaled. Leaving resets him, so fight it in one sitting with a melee weapon, because guns burn ammo. With a little armor, the Safe perk (or the Field Medic and Mutated classes) rounds his hits down to zero. The prize is 1,500 Scrip, 1,000 XP and the Godlike Scrap Pack (+1,000 carry weight).
• Sszakar-Aten (Relic 9 shrine, three back-to-back phases, no retreat between them): phase one is x3.75 HP and x1.5 damage, phase two x2.6 HP and x1.8, phase three x1.1 HP and x2.3 damage. Phase three hits for about 99 to 113 in our example.
• Abattoir Warden (Slaughterhouse wave 4): 6 times base HP, 30% damage reduction, melee. Wave 3 brings toxic gas, so arrive with healing to spare.

Preparing for any boss

If you shoot from range, Lady Midday is a free kill: keep pulling back and she never swings. If you have 6 Netrunner points or a Sector Hacker in your squad, jack into the Zmora hub and spend the saved HP elsewhere. If you have no healer, avoid Zhor-Kaal and the Silica Reaper until you can stack Armor Piercing or Medicine. If you can stun, save the stun for the round a boss is about to use its signature attack, not for an escort.

The mercenary guide covers who gives cover, who stuns and who finishes a boss under 35% HP. Related: the bestiary, weather, formations and talent builds.

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