Act 1 Boss Guide

The difficulty of campaign bosses in Path of Exile 2 is a massive step up from the bosses in the first game's campaign. Our Path of Exile 2 Act 1 Boss Guide walks you through the difficult bosses you encounter in the first act; including The King in the Mists and Count Geonor. We have guides for Act 2 and Act 3 plus, a full campaign walkthrough if you need more help.

Biera of the Rotten Pack

Zone: Clearfell

Damage Types: Physical, Cold

Default Attacks:

• Fires a flurry of frost shards, tracking the player.
• Fires frost spikes in a semi-circle in front of her.

Special Abilities:

• Spawns multiple frost runes that erupt in ice spikes.

At roughly 80% her phase 2 starts, she gains new abilities along with her previous ones:

1. Feeding Frenzy
   • Resurrects multiple undead wolves from around the arena.
2. Rotting Chill
   • Covers the arena with small frost runes that summon a frost spike after a few seconds. 
3. Frost Swell
   • Summons a broken circle of ice around her before shooting out spikes in multiple directions. Look closely at the ring around her, you'll notice shards appearing before they expand outward, indicating where the damage occurs.

The Devourer

Zone: The Mud Burrow

Damage Types: Physical, Chaos

Default Attack:

• Fires small blood projectiles at the player.

Special Abilities:

1. Submerge
   • The Devourer submerges multiple times in quick succession.
2. Eruption
   • Occasionally the devourer submerges only to burst from the ground in a toxic eruption, spawning additional insects.
3. Summon Tail
   • At roughly 75% the tail joins the fight, if the player gets too close it sweeps at them.
4. Tail Slam
   • The tail also slams the ground to summon additional insects.
5. Toxic Slam
   • When in melee range the boss may begin to regurgitate poison, before slamming the ground in front. When the boss starts to turn green move away from the head. 
6. Poison Barrage
   • The boss flashes red before spraying the arena with poison from side to side, this should be dodge rolled to avoid damage with invulnerability frames.

The Brambleghast

Zone: The Grelwood

Damage Types: Physical, Cold

Default Attack:

• His default attacks are 2 sweeps as well as a lunging bite. 

Special Abilities:

1. Volatile Orb
   • Brambleghast reaches down its throat and throws a rotating orb that fires projectiles.
2. Vine Sunder
   • Ruptures the ground and causes vines to burst forth, before ripping off and growing his arm back.
3. Vine Screech
   • Roars, spanning vines from the ground that slam the player, these should be killed.
4. Volatile Vines
   • Puts both arms into the ground and spawns multiple vines that create slow moving explosive balls.
5. Volatile Slam
   • Slams both arms into the ground before creating large purple growths that slam the ground before dissipating. This is a very hard hitting ability and can potentially one shot the player if they lack maximum health on their gear.

The Rust King

Zone: The Red Vale

Damage Types: Physical

Default Attacks:

• His default attack is a swipe at the player with his left hand.
• Commands the shards in his right hand to track the player briefly before impaling the ground in a horizontal line.

Special Abilities:

1. Sword Scatter
   • Summons swords in a circle around him before firing them outwards.
2. Shard Whip
   1. Transforms the shards into a whip to slash at the player.
3. Rust Volley
   • Transforms the shards into a whip to slash twice before creating a large volley of projectiles to rend the ground in front of him.
4. Eternal Army
   • Summons a swarm of Ancient Ezomyte warriors.

The Rotten Druid

Zone: The Grim Tangle

Damage Types: Physical, Chaos

Default Attacks:

• At range he fires 3 projectiles at the players feet, which erupt on hit.
• In melee range he swipes at the player with his left arm.

Special Abilities:

1. Teleport
   • Summons rotten vines around him to teleport around the arena.
2. Barrage
   • Points his staff at the player before releasing a barrage of his default attack.
3. Fungal Slam
   • Raises his staff in the air, channeling a short time before dealing AoE damage around him.
4. Rock Smash
   • Dodge sound queue is played as the druid raises a large boulder from the center of the arena before tossing it at the player. Watch his arm closely, once he starts throwing his arm down you dodge roll to avoid damage.
5. Summon Vines
   • Slams his staff on the ground to begin channeling and summons vines from the ground that lunge toward the player. Deal damage to the boss to interrupt the channel. 

Asinia, The Praetor’s Consort

Zone: Tomb of the Consort

Damage Types: Physical

Default Attacks:

• Asinia slashes the player in melee range with her sickle.
• When the player is at ranged, causes the ground to upheave dealing damage in a cone.

Special Abilities:

1. Flurry
   • Performs a flurry of melee attacks at the player.
2. Death Runes
   • Channels to spawn four circular runes under the players feet, the first three spawning quickly while the last is staggered but larger.
3. Flicker Strike
   • Teleports behind the player, hindering them by 30% for 5 seconds, before slashing with her sickle. 
4. Bone Storm
   • Summons a wall of bones around the player, before showering the area with spears. Quickly burst the bone wall down to escape. 
5. Death Mortar
   • Fires a barrage of mortars at the player.
6. Praetor’s Love
   • Summons a clone of Draven to perform his multi-projectile slash.

At roughly 75% Asinia begins to call spirits into the arena. Walking over a spirit causes them to dissipate. If the player walks over a spirit as it is standing on one of the four graves located around Asinia’s spawn location it summons an Eternal Knight. These knights reflect damage back when blocking with their shields. When slain, they are reanimated if a player walks over a spirit while it is near their corpse. Asinia’s head begins to burn with ghost flame if a spirit reaches her, however, it does not appear to cause any additional effects. 

Draven, the Eternal Praetor

Zone: The Mausoleum of the Praetor

Damage Types: Physical, Fire

Default Attack:

• Slashes quickly at the player.

Special Attacks:

1. Flurry
   • Performs a flurry of attacks at the player.
2. Soul-rending Slash
   • Charges up and sweeps his sword at the player, firing multiple projectiles. He occasionally slashes twice, sending out an additional volley of projectiles. 
3. Perishing Sunder
   • Avoid sound queue is played before he stomps the ground in front of him dealing damage in line that expands outwards to the sides.
4. Consort’s Love
   • Summons a clone of Asinia to perform her Death Rune ability. 

Similar to Asinia, at roughly 75% Draven starts dragging spirits to him. Walking over a spirit causes them to dissipate. If the player walks over a spirit as it is standing on one of the four graves located around Asinia’s spawn location it summons an Eternal Knight. These knights reflect damage back when blocking with their shield. When slain, they are reanimated if a player walks over a spirit while it is near their corpse.

Lachlann of Endless Lament

Zone: Cemetery of the Eternals

Damage Types: Physical, Cold

Default Attack:

• Swings his right arm at the player.
• Slams his sword in front and behind him.
• Slashes at the player twice with his sword.

Special Abilities:

1. Barrage
   • Fires a torrent of three spirits at the player, dropping chilled ground that deals damage over time. If the players are hit they are Hindered for two seconds. 
2. Spirit Eruption
   • Erupts three spirits from the ground before slamming them back down. Same as Spirit barrage, hinders and places chilled ground that deals damage. 
3. Spirit Burrow
   • Stomps the ground causing a burrowing ghost to chase the player before emerging and spiraling after the player. Dealing damage and dropping chilled ground.
4. Earthquake
   • Lachlann slams the ground with his sword creating a large cone of upturned earth. This slam can potentially one shot the player if they are lacking health on gear.

Crowbell

Zone: The Hunting Grounds

Damage Types: Physical

Default Attacks:

• Swipes his claw at the player.
• With the bell he has an overhead sunder, dealing damage in a line.

Special Abilities:

1. Multiple avoid sound cues abilities:
   • Slams the ground in front of him.
   • Leaps into the air before slamming.
   • Enrages and repeatedly hits the ground in front of him.
   • While wielding the bell, he swings it around twice.

This boss tests the player's ability to dodge roll boss abilities with the 'avoid' sound cue. The majority of attacks the Crowbell does are accompanied by the avoid cue. Watch the Crowbell closely and play defensively, only dealing damage when you have an opening after he attacks.

The King in the Mists

Zone: Freythorn

Damage Types: Physical, Chaos

Default Attack:

• Fires a small projectile at the player

At 25% he becomes immune and transitions into Phase 2. 

Default Attack:

• His default attack now fires 3 projectiles instead of 1

The King in Mists is one of the toughest bosses you encounter in Act 1, this guide has a breakdown of his abilities to help you prevail.

Ability Breakdown

Afflicted Swarm

The King in the Mists creates small roaming swarms of purple insects that deal chaos damage over time if the player stands in them.

Boiling Blood

The totem in the center of the arena spawns boiling blood pools causing physical damage over time. 

Explosive Spore

The King in the Mists fires a large fast moving orb that explodes after a short duration, maiming the player if caught in the blast.  After the explosion, multiple purple pustules spawn, detonating if the player walks over them.

Bait the spores to the edges of the arena, this drops the pustules at the edges to allow for more freedom of movement.

Ritual of Dance

Curses the player with a ritual, requiring them to keep moving or be rooted in place. The color of this effect is Purple.

Keep moving to avoid being rooted.

Ritual of Meditation

Curses the player with a ritual, requiring them to stop moving or be rooted in place. The color of this effect is Red.

Players are still able to dodge roll 1-2 times in order to prevent getting hit by other abilities. Too much movement causes the player to be rooted in place for a few seconds.

Thorngrip

Bursts forth purple vines in a cone in front of him.

This ability is fairly easy to avoid, he always casts the ability with the voice line "Thorngrip!". If you're in melee range, dodge to the side past him, if playing in range roll away from him.

Vine Slam

Avoid sound cue plays as he raises his staff before slamming the area around him.

He usually only casts this ability while players are in melee range, if you hear the avoid cue sound with the red indicator above his head, move out of melee range to avoid the slam.

Affliction Totem

Summons an Affliction totem that causes increasing damage over time the longer it’s alive.

These totems have a very small amount of health, players should ensure they are killed quickly to prevent multiple stacking up and applying a larger chaos degen.

Note: It is recommended to take the Ruby Charm here, as a majority of bosses in Act 2 deal a large amount of Fire damage. 

The Executioner

Zone: Ogham Village

Damage Types: Physical, Fire

Default Attacks:

• Large sweeping axe swings.
• Smacks the player with his fist.

Special Abilities:

1. Reinforcements
   • Throughout the fight soldiers rush into combat, continue killing to prevent being swarmed.
2. Sunder
   • The executioner Sunders the ground in front of him, dealing damage in a line. 
3. Execution Sentence
   • The Executioner raises his axe into the sky, it begins to glow hot red before slamming the ground dealing a large amount of damage in an explosion. 
4. Guillotine
   • Places the head of his axe into the ground before pulling it like a lever, causing a guillotine to fall from the sky. 
5. Leap Slam
   • Leaps into the air jumping toward the player before slamming down and turning around to slam again.

Candlemass

Zone: Ogham Manor

Damage Types: Physical, Fire

Default Attack:

• Swings his sword at the player

Special Abilities:

1. Flame Slash
   • Raises his sword above his head before performing a fake out and slashing his sword to create a fireball. 
2. Leap Slam
   • Leaps into the air before slamming down in a fiery AOE.
3. Flame Breathe
   • Candlemass begins to breathe fire, tracking the player. 
4. Candle Mortar
   • Candlemass ducks down and fires multiple volleys of fireballs from his back.

Count Geonor

Zone: Ogham Manor

Damage Types: Physical, Cold

Default Attacks:

• Swings multiple times with his claymore

At roughly 25% Geonor transforms into Geonor, the Putrid Wolf

Default Attacks:

• Swings multiple times with his claymore.
• Lunges at the player, biting them.

Count Geonor is the final boss for Act 1, this guide explains each of his abilities in detail to help you get your revenge.

Ability Breakdown

Avalanche

Creates two walls of frost in a cone in front of him before performing an overhead slam shattering the walls.

Players can dodge roll through the frost walls in order to avoid getting hit by the slam.

Blood Burst

Channels three blood spheres in front of him and ruptures them dealing damage to both sides.

The damage this ability deals is mostly in a large square in front of the boss. Once you start seeing the blood spheres forming, begin to either run past the boss in melee or continue moving away from the boss if playing at range.

Blood Moon Requiem

Similar to the cold damage variant, except it also applies a stack of corrupting blood along with cold damage.

Once below 50%, this ability begins to overlap with his other abilities, which can make avoiding this ability very difficult.

Bloody Leap

Same as phase 1, dissipates into a mist of blood before slamming down onto the player in a physical explosion

Counter Attack

If the player is standing behind Geonor, he swiftly turns around performing a large arc of his sword dealing frost and physical damage.

Once you see him start spinning if you're in melee range should dodge roll past him, or if playing at range dodge roll away.

Freezing Gale

Summons chilling mist in a large area around the arena, with a clearing in the center. Continuously summons the same werewolves as Phase 1, including those that explode on death. Geonor begins to recite multiple lines of dialogue, leaping after he finishes each phrase.

The leaps always come after a line of dialogue, dodge roll in cadence to when he finishes his line to avoid being damaged by his leap. As Geonor's health gets lower Blood Moon Requiem begins to be cast during this intermission phase.

Frost Breathe

Fires a breath of frost in front of him.

Frostbite

Pulls his sword back in and imbues it with frost before stabbing forward, firing an ice projectile.

Frozen Upheaval

Plants his sword into the ground, spawning small ice patches before they erupt into ice shards.

When Geonor begins to spawn the ice patches players should run out of the upheaval radius as fast as possible. As Geonor's health goes down he may also cast Blood Moon Requiem during this ability as well.

Impale

Puts his sword point first and charges towards the player dealing constant damage to them as he impales them onto the wall. If he does not hit the player at the end of his charge he performs a large frost sweep behind him.

If you dodge the initial impaling charge do not immediately rush into the boss, wait for him to perform his sweep before getting close again.

Leap Slam

Leaps into the air towards the player before slamming down.

Pale Moon Requiem

Raises his sword to the sky, calling down multiple pillars of chilling light.

Summon Pack

While in wolf form Geonor summons multiple werewolves that rush the player.

Some of these wolves can detonate on death, causing area damage.

Wolf Form

Geonor plants his sword into the ground, creating a frost rune and transforming into a wolf. 

If players walk into the frost rune under Geonor's sword, they are frozen for a few seconds.

Summary

The Act 1 Boss Guide includes move sets and strategies to defeat the challenging encounters found at the start of Path of Exile 2's campaign. Learn tips and tricks for defeating The King in the Mists and Count Geonor with our detailed ability breakdown.

Check out these related guides:

• Act 2 Boss Guide
• Act 3 Boss Guide
• Campaign Walkthrough
• Permanent Stats
• Act 1 Secrets

Credits

Written By: havoc616

Reviewed By: Jerrin, Tenkiei