Since Ophion has multiple vulnerable points on its body, you’ll have to kill all of them in each phase to advance—which means you’ll have to hammer a spot until it’s gone, a more difficult targeting requirement than any other boss has had up to this point. Furthermore, you’ll need to expose those weak points by shooting the flashing white orbs floating on the boss’s sides, and those orbs will occasionally vanish, forcing you to constantly aim the orbs to reveal them again.
In general, you should come equipped with a rapid-fire weapon for this boss fight. In this guide, we are going to explain the attack phase and give tips and tricks for defeating the final boss Ophion.
How To Defeat Final Boss Ophion In Returnal
He begins by launching green projectiles that travel slowly but in large numbers. You’ll still have to look out for dark purple shockwaves; you won’t be able to dash across them; instead, you’ll have to hop across them to avoid being struck. Yellow bullet shapes will appear, but by the time they hit you, you should be able to stop them. He’ll even hurl fast-moving blue missiles at you, so get out of the way.
In this battle, your dash is less useful than normal because Ophion uses laser beams that you can’t dash around. Straight beams can emerge from portals the boss places in front of it, as well as waves resulting from impacts when its tentacles slam into the earth. As a result, you shouldn’t wander too far to the sides of the arena during this part of the fight; Ophion’s tentacles are a concern, and they’re very big, so if you come too near, you’ll be crushed.
In the second phase, Ophion turns into something much more dreadful. He can hammer down his huge hands in this fashion, sending out those dark purple shockwaves once more. Most of his attacks would be familiar from step one, but new tricks include purple laser beams that fall from the sky or fire down at the earth (you can’t sprint through these). Bullet hell attacks aren’t that difficult to avoid because they’re mostly pretty spread apart before they get to you. Keep an eye out for the blue orbs that will show his blind points.
He transforms once again in phase three. Ophion’s purple lasers will now get really trigger happy, so keep going and note that you can’t sprint through these rays. He’ll even aim all of the bullet-hell things at you at the same time, which seems good but can be difficult to stop. Where necessary, take a step back and sprint though. A spinning green bullet pattern appears next, followed by fast-moving bullets. This is very difficult to avoid, and you’ll have a hard time avoiding a blow here. Continue to strafe and run like a madman.
