Godfall: How To Defeat Alpha Rancor

Quick Links

  • Alpha Rancor’s Attacks
  • Preparing For Battle
  • Battle Strategy

Each area in Godfall has a major boss that is supported by a bunch of lesser bosses. You are heavily incentivized to murder these side-bosses, as each one applies a nasty debuff during the main event that you probably want to avoid. Alpha Rancor is one such miniboss.

You’ve fought several Rancors during your time in the Earth Realm, but it’s time to beat up the biggest, baddest Rancor of them all – Alpha Rancor. This thing is huge, deals a lot of damage, can inflict poison, and can even summon reinforcements. It’s not to be underestimated, but can be tackled fairly easily with a little bit of foreknowledge.

Alpha Rancor’s Attacks

Alpha Rancor, being essentially a giant twin-tailed dog, doesn’t have the most diverse move pool. In general, you can expect a lot of lunging and biting, with a side helping of tail attacks. This makes Alpha Rancor a bit of a pain to read, as many of his attacks look the same, but are in fact, slightly different.

AttackDescriptionCounter
Tail StabAlpha Rancor quickly stabs the ground in front of it using its tails. This will leave a small pool of poison. This attack comes out very quickly.Due to the speed of this attack, it can be tricky to dodge. Thankfully, the attack doesn’t deal too much damage so if you do take a hit, it’s not the end of the world. You want to move away and keep out of those poison pools, however, as they can really start to stack damage on you.
Lunging Bite(s) These attacks make up the majority of Alpha Rancor’s attacks, and they all look the same (more or less). Alpha Rancor will lunge from a distance, it will lunge up close, and it will sometimes lunge and then immediately dodge backward.The best way to deal with Alpha Rancor’s lunges is to dodge and then counterattack. If he dodges backward, he is very likely to follow this up with an immediate attack, so don’t dedicate to a full combo until you are certain it isn’t going to retreat.
Tail SwipeAlpha Rancor will raise his tail, and quickly do a spin attack. This attack has a clear tell but comes out very quickly.This attack is used most often when you are behind Alpha Rancor. The best way to counter it is to simply stand at Alpha Rancor’s side, and not directly behind it.
Blue Lunge Alpha Rancor will glow blue and then quickly lunge at the player.You want to parry this attack, as it will stagger Alpha Rancor giving you a large window to attack. The parry timing is very generous on this attack.
Unblockable AttacksAlpha Rancor will glow red and then lunge or attack with its tails.These attacks look identical to Alpha Rancor’s other attacks, with the only difference being that Alpha Rancor will adopt a funky red tint. These can’t be blocked or parried, so simply dodge through them.

Preparing For Battle

Alpha Rancor is fast, mobile, and aggressive. Many of its attacks come out quickly, and it can quickly start to control the battlefield by leaving pools of poison everywhere. To counter this, you want to use fairly quick weapons, and maybe even weapons with ranged capabilities to catch Alpha Rancor when it retreats. Polearms are fantastic for this, whilst swords are a good substitute thanks to the long-range dash Weapon Technique.

As is always the case, you want to go into this fight with a full gauge of Archon Fury. No matter the Valorplate, this buff will greatly increase your damage and make you impervious to counterattacks. Both Silvermane and Phoenix are great, with Silvermane summoning in spirits, and Phoenix giving you Ignite potential for tick damage.

Battle Strategy

The best way to deal with Alpha Rancor is to be aggressive. You want to stay at its side and attack as often as you can. Alpha Rancor can attack very suddenly, so do short combos, pause, and then dodge if needed. If Alpha Rancor retreats, throw your shield or use a ranged Weapon Technique to maintain consistent DPS.

You want to start this fight with a burst of Archon Fury as this will rapidly drain Alpha Rancor’s HP, shortening the fight substantially.

Alpha Rancor will summon two Rancors to assist in this battle. These don’t do a lot of damage and are very easy to kill. You want to make them a priority so prevent them from interrupting your attacks, however.

Keep an eye out for Alpha Rancor’s blue attacks. These can be parried very easily and will open him up to counterattacks. Remember to use Heavy Attacks whenever you get a large opening, as these will rapidly fill Alpha Rancor’s Breach gauge, once again opening him up to a large combo.

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