KF2 Boss Guide for Beginners: Attacks and Tactics for All 5 Bosses

Killing a boss is never a problem for a well-coordinated team, but you often play with strangers, and sometimes the whole team dies within two minutes. This Russian-language beginner guide, written with a lot of humour, gives general advice on each Killing Floor 2 boss instead of exact health pools and attack timings (for those see the official wiki). It does not guarantee victory for six random players, but the bosses are not smart and are easy to predict.

General notes

• Nearly every attack can, and should, be dodged. Soaking thousands of damage and then blaming the Medic for not healing is pointless: the Medic physically cannot heal that.
• It takes teamwork. Solo you can only finish a boss at 10 to 15 percent health; if most players die without doing significant damage, it is a loss in 99 percent of cases.
• You can know the boss in advance. Open the console (tilde key) and enter getall KFGameReplicationinfo BossIndex: 0 Volter, 1 Patriarch, 2 King Fleshpound, 3 Abomination, 4 Matriarch. See also the BossIndex cheat sheet.
• In Endless mode bosses come every 5 waves with more health each time. From about wave 30 they may summon large support zeds regardless of the usual rules.
• Do not shoot the metal-covered parts of a boss (Abomination axes, King Fleshpound hands, Patriarch limbs, metal parts of Hans Volter suit): almost no damage gets through.
• For exact health and damage numbers use the official KF2 wiki, or see our boss overview.

Abomination (King Bloat)

Abomination.

In the authors' opinion the weakest boss, except in the weekly mutation Up, Up, and Decay where all enemies regenerate if you stop shooting them. He attacks mostly at short range, so rule one is to keep your distance. Rule two is that Abomination Spawn are a bigger threat than the boss himself; clearing them is the key to survival.

Attacks:

• An axe swing or vomit. The Medic has built-in resistance to the vomit.
• Acid mines. The damage is high; 4 to 5 explosions can be lethal.
• Suction: he sucks in air; if you are caught in the funnel you lose control of your character before he hits you. The attack is buggy and can leave a player hanging in the air. You can only die to him if you stand in front and do not step back.

His armor is split into head, chest and back; remove the head and chest armor first. Most Firebug weapons are poor against him because fire and microwave damage must strip the armor before damaging the body, and he has 50 percent resistance; the Helios Rifle is the exception because part of its damage passes through armor. At 25 percent health he often runs at players using his gas as a jet, so simply back away and finish him. If he mines the whole map, one player should shoot the mines. Do not relax just because he is the easiest boss.

King Fleshpound

King Fleshpound.

A hypertrophied Fleshpound. He behaves like a normal Fleshpound: walks calmly until shot, then gets angry after a few hits and charges.

Attacks:

• The main combo is a jump and three hits. If he misses everything he stays enraged, so take one hit (preferably the last) to end the rage, then shoot freely.
• The spin: the weakest attack since you can jump back, but taking one hit also ends his rage.
• The hammer: at about 60 percent health he makes small damaging explosions when he enters rage. Keep your distance.
• The laser at low health (usually just before the shield): it hurts. Dodge by being below or above his torso; crouching is quickest, or climb higher if you are elevated.

He summons mini Fleshpounds that cause many problems, so someone (usually a Demolitionist or Berserker) must clear them. Since he prefers melee, retreating works best: do not get stuck in corners and keep shooting.

Dr. Hans Volter

Dr. Hans Volter.

A sadist and National Socialist adherent, the first boss of Killing Floor 2. Unlike the two creatures above he is dangerous to health and often to life. His only weak attack is shooting with the MKB42 (nerfed in autumn 2017; they are very inaccurate but can still strip armor). He likes to rush into melee, and if the targeted player is not healed they will die.

Grenades come in three types:

• Gas: little explosion damage but a poison cloud. Just do not stand in it.
• Frag: they explode and kill. Three or four going off nearby guarantee death. After mass suicides the developers extended the fuse to three seconds; with the indicators showing where the grenades lie and the doctor warning, you can step out of the zone.
• Smoke: no damage, but they block your view of the boss while he drains a player.

On Hell on Earth he summons helpers for support. At 60, 41 and 25 percent health, Hans activates a shield, runs away and selects a player to drain health from. The team must break the shield; if he starts healing, the Medic should throw a grenade under him. Each shield matches a phase change, and every phase is more aggressive with a small speed and damage bonus. He moves fast and can dash sideways, hindering Demolitionists and Sharpshooters, but punishing him after the second zed wave is easy to learn.

Patriarch

Patriarch.

His name is Kevin Clamely and the authors consider him the strongest boss. Rule one: find cover (a pillar, a car, anything) and run around it. Kevin is arrogant and always announces his next attack, so listen.

Attacks:

• Rockets: a straight shot, often instant death. Look at him and jump aside right after he fires; a hit may still land but death is no longer guaranteed.
• Minigun: a lot of shots in a short time, faster than a Medic heals. Hide behind cover or, if there is none, run right up to the boss (with a risk of being hit in the head).
• Artillery: a parabolic shot. It is buggy; sometimes nothing fires, sometimes six volleys. Damage is similar to rockets. He aims at your position at launch, so do not stand still or cluster.
• Melee: a three-hit combo (outrun it with at least +10 speed, which the Medic has with the second left skill), a shoulder charge (81 damage on Hell on Earth, often the penultimate hit a player takes, cannot be dodged, so do not come close), and the claw, which pulls a player in and kicks them. On high difficulty (Suicidal and Hell) that is instant death. The claw is vulnerable and retracts when shot or parried.

He flickers when cloaked, which helps spot him. You can buy C4 (not only Demolitionist) and stick it on him, or light him up with the Berserker EMP grenade or a Commando passive. He has three syringes: when the health bar changes color he runs off to heal. An experienced team can block him or weld the door in his path to kill him before he heals; C4 or all five Sharpshooter freeze grenades (each freezes for a second) can help. Do not count on it too much.

Matriarch

Matriarch.

Kevin's daughter. As with the Patriarch, find cover and run around her. She starts with long-range attacks as strong as her father and announces them too.

• Basic hit when someone is close.
• Spinning claw strike that hits all around.
• Storm: she stops, powers a Tesla coil over her head and unleashes lightning with heavy close damage.
• Plasma cannon: a beam that deals fire damage.
• Tesla cannon: an electric ball over long range with area damage.
• Pull: a tentacle drags a player in, then she hits in melee; as with the Patriarch, shoot or parry the claw to retract it.
• Scream: like a Siren but with more damage and radius.

Her key feature is the shield. It takes pure damage with no modifiers, so skills that boost damage do not work. It is hard to break but possible, it does not regenerate, and it turns off while she attacks, which is a good time to shoot. There are three vulnerable zones: the head, the claw and the device above her head, but the head and claw are armored. If you break the claw armor she cannot shoot (nearly helpless), but she starts using the pull attack. Head armor is a little less than her total health; at 25 percent health all armor breaks. Best plan: strip the claw armor and shoot there; if you cannot, shoot the coil above her head; at 25 percent finish with headshots. At low health she can turn invisible but, unlike the Patriarch, she does not run away; she tries to close the distance.

Afterword

The devil is never as terrible as painted. In Killing Floor 2 the word boss means a strong opponent, not something epic or especially dangerous. The guide only covers the basics so that you avoid silly losses.