Lords of the Fallen: How to beat the Spurned Progeny boss
At the heart of Calrath lies one of Lords of the Fallen's largest — and strangest — bosses.
Teeming with Rhogar and engulfed with raging flames, Calrath is one of the most threatening places you'll visit during your adventure through Mournstead. As you advance towards the second corrupted beacon within the overrun settlement, you'll come across the Spurned Progeny — a gigantic Rhogar creature with an impressive affinity for Inferno magic and an unsettling third hand that extends from within its throat.
With attacks that hit like a truck and a massive health pool, the Spurned Progeny is undoubtedly one of the toughest bosses in Lords of the Fallen. However, most of its moves are well-telegraphed, and the fight itself isn't too complicated to master once you understand how it works. In the guide below, you'll find a full overview of everything you need to know about it.
Lords of the Fallen: Spurned Progeny phase 1
Phase one of this fight is pretty simple, but the camera angle can make it difficult to see what the boss is doing. Here's how it works.
- Immediately, you'll want to start hugging the boss' legs and attacking them when possible. This is the only viable way to damage the Spurned Progeny in this phase, and being this close will help you avoid some of its sweeping attacks.
- In phase one, the boss mainly attacks with a variety of sweeps and smashes with its hands. These can be tough to see coming due to the short camera angle, but I found unlocking the camera and angling it up a bit to be helpful.
- If the boss raises its leg up, it will perform a body slam shortly after; dodge to the side or back to avoid it. This attack in particular is very deadly, and may one-shot you.
- If the boss stands up straighter on its legs, it will cast fire spells at your feet that explode after a short delay. These hurt quite a bit, but are easy to dodge. Just don't roll too early, or you may still take damage from the delayed explosion's hitbox.
- If you need to heal, back away a good distance first. Other than its fire spell attack, the boss doesn't have ranged options, so this is a good way to give yourself some recovery time.
- At 75% HP, the boss will hunch over and begin to vomit lava onto the ground; run up one of the sets of stairs nearby. You'll die quickly if you're not able to get to higher ground, so get a move on. Note that this marks the start of phase two.
Lords of the Fallen: Spurned Progeny phase 2
Now that you're on high ground, phase two of the battle has begun. Here's how to get through it alive and emerge victorious.
- Throughout this phase, ranged weapons and spells are quite effective. Take advantage of them whenever the boss is walking over to your platform and isn't casting its fire spells.
- When the boss reaches the platform you're standing on, it will start trying to swipe and smash you with one of its hands. Dodge to the side and then quickly land a hit or two on its arm before it pulls it back.
- It may also slam with its "mouth hand," sending out a shockwave of flame from the impact zone when it does. Make sure you roll through this shockwave to avoid taking damage.
- If the boss goes on its knees, its mouth hand will charge you and attempt to ram you three times. Dodge to the side each time, landing a hit or two on the hand after the final attempt if you can.
- Eventually, the boss will use its mouth hand to charge a fireball on your platform; when it explodes, it rains small meteors that cover it in lava. When you see this attack coming, simply run along the nearby catwalk to a new platform.
- If the boss raises its mouth hand in the air and begins charging a massive fireball, stand behind one of the wall fragments on the catwalks. If you don't, you'll get one-shot by the fireball when it explodes.
- Eventually, the lava in the lower part of the arena subsides, allowing you to return to it and fight the boss like you did in phase one if you want. You can also choose to stay up high; ultimately, it doesn't matter.
This fight is a slow one that demands patience and good positioning, but it's not terribly difficult once you've gotten used to dodging all of the boss' attacks and know what to look for. Keep chipping away at its health, and you'll eventually stand over this bizarre descendant of Adyr triumphant.
Lords of the Fallen is available to play now on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 for $69.99, as well as on Windows PC (Steam and Epic Games) for $59.99. It's quickly become one of my favorite Soulslikes ever, and is undoubtedly one of 2023's best Xbox games and best PC games.
Lords of the Fallen
With responsive, precise, and challenging combat, innovative twists, stellar grimdark presentation, and more, Lords of the Fallen is one of the best Soulslikes available. Don't sleep on it if you're a fan of the genre.
Buy at: Xbox | Epic Games Store (PC)
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).