The Maelstrom is one of the biggest bosses Eve faces inStellar Blade, and is unique in a couple of ways. Firstly, rather than following Eve around the battlefield and forcing you to be aware of your surroundings,the Maelstrom is connected to the wall by fleshy webs, damaging you with projectile attacks. As such, you’ll need to be well-stocked on ranged weapon ammunition to take it out.
Secondly, the Maelstrom is one of the few boss-level enemies thatyou fight twiceacross the campaign. Though the same basic technique works on both, they have some individual quirks to deal with as well - mostly in how they defend themselves. We’ll cover that in this guide on how to defeat the Maelstrom, but first let’s get to things that work against both beasts.
How To Damage The Maelstrom
The Maelstrom can seem like a massive tank with its chunky health bar, but it’s more of a glass cannon. If you just shoot or slash at it randomly, you’re going to chip away its health in such microscopic slivers that you’ll probably end up dead before you make much of a mark. While hitting it anywhere will damage it, the key here is toaim for the weak spots.
There areseveral yellow pustules on the Maelstrom, and Eve should aim for these to turn the tide of the battle. However, these are just one step of the process - the most important thing is thatonce all the pustules have burst, a larger boil appears in the Maelstrom’s mouth(at least, we hope it’s his mouth). Firing at this doesan incredible amount of damageand will see the battle over in no time.
The problem isammo is limitedin Stellar Blade. The Maelstrom (or its minions in the first battle)will drop ammo, but if you’re not fast enough the window of opportunity will close and the pustules will sprout back. Therefore, we suggestleaving one of the pustules undamagedwhile you scout around for extra ammo, then fire at it and the mouth boil immediately afterwards, meaningno time is lost looking for bulletswhen you could be kicking butt. Or mouth. We’re sure it’s a mouth. Maybe.
How To Dodge The First Maelstrom’s Attacks
The Maelstrom will attack you itself via three main methods, which we’ve outlined below with ways to avoid falling foul of them.
However, it will alsosummon Test Subjects which explodewhen they get near you. With these, you should attack themquickly with your sword then dash away- they don’t need to be at zero health to explode, but are instead triggered by proximity. Don’t let them get too numerous by running away. Seek them out andforce them to explodebefore escape becomes impossible.
How To Dodge The Second Maelstrom’s Attacks
Rather than summon minions, the second Maelstrom attacks with fiery goo. There are three basic ways it does this, and three ways to avoid them (they’re the same as the above, but each move is now faster and does more damage).
This boss fight can be cheesed a little bit as theMaelstrom’s attacks rarely reach the corners of the arena, but with your ranged weapon you can still shoot all pustules and the central boil, as long as you swap sides in the middle.
How To Get Ammo During The Maelstrom Boss Fight
The most annoying thing about the Maelstrom is Eve will need to constantly vary her attacks and keep her gun stocked up in order to progress. With the first Maelstrom,these drop from the minions it summons(actually births, from its mouth, which might not be a mouth, which is gross), so by killing these creatures through melee attacks, you can keep Eve’s gun fully loaded.
With the second Maelstrom, there are no minions around. Instead, thesedrop whenever you burst a pustule, but must be gathered from running right up to the creature. If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of being completely out of ammo and therefore unable to damage the pustules, they canoccasionally be found inside the thrown lava bombsafter a successful dodge.
