Remnant: From the Ashes Boss Guide - How To Beat The Unclean One

Remnant: From the Ashes features a lot of exciting, challenging, boss fights, and for this guide we’re taking a look at one of the first bosses you meet in the swamp world of Corsus: the tenacious and incredibly challenging Unclean One. The Unclean One can easily give you a really hard time if you take him on unprepared, and as such it’s smart to first drop by Ward 13 to stock up on various items before finally meeting him. Even then, once you meet him, it’s still prudent to know just what exactly you’re up against in order to better arm yourself against the Unclean One.

Meeting the Unclean One

The Unclean One is found in a shack in Corsus, and is one of the first key bosses of this realm. By taking him on, you are choosing to complete Corsus, which will push the game in a different direction entirely. The Unclean One represents a move into the harder and more challenging bosses, and his accompanying level just may be the most annoying of them all. A thing to always note is that the Unclean One’s attacks all deal an ungodly amount of damage, and his aggressive nature, coupled with the level layout and spawning minions, makes him a true terror to behold. However, he’s not impossible, and with a few key choices in equipment, items, and even the way you move, you will find yourself defeating this boss in no time.

The Unclean One has five offensive attacks, all of them dealing high amounts of damage and can stagger you quite easily. Like so many other bosses in this game, the Unclean One spawns adds (minions) to get in your way, which take on the form of the special swamp adds with whip attacks. They are much more dangerous than anything you’ve faced in Rhom or Earth, so be warned that becoming overwhelmed one hundred percent means death. The Unclean One itself is highly aggressive, and the first order of business is to always keep your eyes trained in his general direction at all times during the fight. He has a pretty bad habit of tracking you from across the room, and you will need vision of him if you want to dodge these attacks correctly.

Traversing the Unclean One’s shack

When you first enter his level, you immediately realize that the shack is filled with walls and corners which could prove troublesome in dodging his attacks correctly. The Unclean One is pretty big and chunky, but he also attacks with such force that the walls of the level get destroyed by most of his attacks. The first order of business is to clear the level of these walls in order to try and gain sight of him even from across the room, and the fight becomes a lot easier once you’ve managed to do so.

Once you first grab his attention, make sure to try and stay relatively close to him. Of The Unclean One's five attacks, there’s only one he can do to you up close, and that is a three hit axe combo. You want to strafe to his side once the attacks begin and maintain a good distance, unloading some shots into him as he goes. In his efforts to take you down, he will most likely have destroyed a few of the nearby walls. You will want to repeat this for some time to clear the level, which will make his fight go so much easier since there would be some breathing room for you.

However, since you’re pretty close to him during this stage, it’s imperative to know if there are any adds nearby. Once they are close, make sure to focus on these adds first before facing the Unclean One again. If you managed to face him correctly, he will have already cleared a section of the walls, which should give you plenty of space to disengage him and focus on the adds instead.

After some time, the Unclean One will then switch to his whirlwind attack, in which he spins around rapidly while moving, devastating all those in his way. When he begins this move (which takes a while to end) the best way to avoid it is to move around the room, sprinting every once in a while to maintain your distance. This should effectively destroy most of the walls standing around the room, and once it ends you can try and take him down from a distance without worrying too much about being hit by his ranged attacks.

Here are some more things to remember when you’re clearing the room of walls for the Unclean One fight:

• If you’re ever caught in a bad spot, do not try and damage the adds on their lower bodies. The swamp adds are different as they become a bit more dangerous without lower limbs thanks to their whip attacks, which are a nightmare to dodge if they’re crawling on the ground. Melee attacks work to a certain degree, although I do not recommend getting in more than two or three hits due to the Unclean One’s highly aggressive nature and long-ranged attacks.
• The Unclean One is really slow when you’re near him, and his turning speed can be exploited if there are no other enemies nearby. What you want to do is to try and catch him in the middle of his three-hit combo; it’s there when he can’t really do much except wait for it to end, and if you’re quick enough, you’re already at his back by then. Unload a couple of buttock shots here as he’s not armored in the area, and you’ll manage to take him down much more quickly.
• The Unclean One’s whirlwind attack is much more of a boon to you rather than a danger, due to the attack’s slow nature and relatively long wind-up time. You can use this whirlwind attack to try and clear the room of adds, since it can damage everything it encounters. Likewise, if you faced Claviger as the Rhom boss before heading out to Corsus and you managed to get the Void Silver, you can use the Particle Accelerator to clump the adds together in the way of the Unclean One’s whirlwind, killing them all in one blow.

Keep your eyes trained on the Unclean One at all times

Once a significant portion of the level has been de-walled by the Unclean One, you can now fight him using the usual tactics of dodging and firing. Keep your distance during this phase, but not too much that your weapons don’t deal the optimal damage they should be dealing. Keep to a circular motion, moving in the room as you dodge through the Unclean One’s ranged attacks.

The Unclean One has three ranged attacks, all of which require you to have vision at him at all times in order to dodge effectively. At mid-range, he can leap into the air and bring his axe down on a target area. At longer ranges, he can either throw his axe weapon at your position, which is his best damage dealer and will outright kill you at around one-third of your health. The final attack is a belly slam, which he can charge from pretty far away, although the purpose of this is more of a stagger mechanic to box you in rather than deal severe damage.

Of the three attacks, the axe throw provides the best opening since the Unclean One lumbers towards the weapon’s location after throwing it in order to retrieve it. During this time, you can deal a significant amount of damage to him, especially if his throw originated from pretty far off. Due to the nature of these attacks, it’s also very important to know what they are before he releases them, which is why above everything else, you have to keep your eyes trained on the Unclean One at all times.

Here are some more tips to remember during the rest of the fight against the Unclean One.

• All of his ranged attacks have huge wind-ups, and if you have your vision on him, you’ll know when they’re likely to hit you. The axe throw, however, can track you even if you’re moving, so it’s better to actually stay still and wait for it to come before dodging it. If you’re having trouble, running away also works, but the stamina you consume from that may be needed to dodge the adds.
• Take adrenaline shots whenever possible in order to keep your stamina up, as you’ll be needing it quite a bit. Between the adds’ constant barrage and the Unclean One’s shenanigans, you do not want to be caught without any more stamina. Stamina-regenerating equipment works wonders, too.
• This should be self-explanatory, but just in case, make sure to hit the Unclean One on his unarmored body. The only exception seems to be the head which, while armored, is still considered a weak spot.
• The Unclean One cannot be staggered, but you have brief windows where he is unable to attack you. The first one is after the axe throw, and the other one after the whirlwind, after which he stops to catch a breather.
• Be mindful of your surroundings, as there’s very little audio cues for the adds and they can easily overwhelm you if you’re not careful.

Stay tuned for more tips, tricks and guides to Remnant: From the Ashes. Check out a guide on how to deal with the Claviger boss here, and Singe here.