The Tar Golem is one of the bosses you can face in Mortal Shell 2 during the prologue. While you don’t need to defeat him to continue the story, fighting him can earn you a useful reward and the No, You Still Can’t Win achievement. The fight is mainly about learning his attack patterns, guarding his axe swings, and dodging his unblockable attacks. With the right timing and a patient approach, you can take him down without too much trouble.
Tar Golem Boss Fight in Mortal Shell 2
In order to find Tar Golem, go past the Disciple’s Grotto Beacon and take the downward sloping path on the right. You will see an updraft there, so use it to get to the upper part. Pass the Elite Brigand and then find the gate without anything in front of it. Get into the gate and enter Tar Golem’s arena, where you can begin the battle. By killing the Tar Golem, you will get Vatra’s Seal.
You can also unlock the No, You Still Can’t Win achievement by reducing the Tar Golem to his minimum health. You don’t actually have to defeat the Tar Golem to continue with the game. Whether you win or lose the fight, you’ll still get the same outcome and cutscene.
However, taking him down to minimum health is worth doing if you want to unlock the related trophy. If you make a mistake and want to restart the fight, you can simply run off the ledge to kill yourself and reset the encounter.
How to Defeat Tar Golem
There are several moves of the Tar Golem that should be watched out for. The first move is clap attack and a clap attack, followed by a jump. These attacks cannot be parried. When the red attack indicator appears, the player should parry this move just before its impact.
The axe moves of the Tar Golem may be parried in most cases. Parrying moves is the key to defeating this boss. Guarding his attacks builds up stagger, which eventually gives you an opportunity to perform a riposte. Every time he swings at you, try to guard it instead of simply dodging.
You will be able to gain additional stagger by using the Shell ability whenever possible. The Golem has another skill: a spinning skill. It is important to avoid this attack. He will be able to rotate and change direction while performing this move, which means that moving behind him doesn’t provide any safety. You can also use the attack of the Golem to deal some damage from a distance.
It is important to perform attacks in very short combos. Two hits at once are enough. After finishing attacks, prepare yourself to guard against the enemy. It is necessary not to attack but to protect yourself from his attacks, to gain stagger, and to deliver ripostes.
How to Retry Tar Golem Boss Fight
While playing on PS5, you can create a backup save file before the battle with the Tar Golem if you have PlayStation Plus. All you need is to turn off Auto-Sync before creating your backup save file so that you can use the same save file if you either die or fail the fight.
On PC, there is an easier way for you to do this. As soon as you notice that you are losing the battle and the end sequence begins, press Alt + F4 to close the game window. This will allow you not to save the unsuccessful battle. Next, start Mortal Shell 2 and choose Continue. You will find yourself in front of the Bone Gate near the boss arena, and you can enter the arena once more and fight with the Tar Golem.
