Soul Knight – How to Beat Devil’s Snare Boss

Devil’s Snare Boss Guide

By ReChord.

Stats

• Total HP (normal): 600
• Total HP (elite): 750
• Status: remains static in the middle of the room during the entire fight.

May drop: Devil’s Snare skin fragment, Vine, Devil’s Snare seed, Timber, Titan Arum seed, Gem Flower, Trumpet Flower, Gem Tree, Gear Flower, Ironwood, Magic Flower, Cactus seed, Oak Tree, Carrot seed, Green Onions seed, Strange Flower, Guardian Flower, Mirror Flower, Radar Flower, Binary Tree, Watermelon and Fantastic Flower.

Attack Patterns

The boss blasts 18 bubble-like projectiles all around it, lasting 4 seconds and dealing 2 (3 in badass) damage each.

It’s Devil’s Snare’s weakest attack. The interval between the projectiles is wide enough for the character to pass, the bullets are slow and don’t last long. They’re globally easily dodgeable.

Four swirling trails of bullets slowly come out of the boss, each of them dealing 2 (3 in badass) damage.

Due to the bullets’ slowness, this attack is easy to avoid too, by either running around the boss or hiding behind the blocks. Although getting cornered by this attack can be a problem because of the very narrow space between the bullets (the character can still pass, but it’s fairly more difficult that the previous attack). When the boss is enraged, this attack’s bullets get slightly faster but the interval between them increases, which makes them globally easier to dodge in that case.

The boss blasts 18 long green-outlined bullets around it, each dealing 3 (4 in badass) damage each. Upon hitting the player, there is a 100% chance they get the Poison effect, dealing 1 (2 in badass) damage per tick, lasting 2 ticks.

Without the poison immunity buff, this attack is the most dangerous. It is unpredictable and can easily catch you by surprise if you aren’t hiding behind the blocks. Although the gap between the bullets is large, they are fast and not that easy to dodge, so be careful.

Only when enraged (below 50% HP): the boss projects 1 triangular bullet in its tentacles’ directions (1 for each tentacle), each of them followed by 2 trails of bubble-like bullets spreading outwards. The bubbles deal the same damage as the 1st attack and the spike-like bullets inflict 3 (4 in badass) damage each.

This is the only attack that can harm you behind the blocks. Indeed, the bubble-like bullets’ spreading can reach the player even when in cover. To counter that, don’t stick to the blocks when hiding: keep a little distance to avoid getting hit by these stray bullets. This attack is fairly annoying because it can quickly cover the room with bullets, therefore clustering your mobility. You can sneak between the bubbles to reach the big gap in the spike-like bullet’s trail, but it’s at your own risk as Devil’s Snare can launch multiple attacks like these in a row.

Only when enraged: Devil’s Snare pulls all her enemies towards her, with a similar effect to Implosion’s but on a wider scale. This attack doesn’t deal any damage.

Although it doesn’t inflict any damage, be aware of this attack. It can mess up your dodges and pull you into the middle of bullet hell. Best tactics to avoid this attack are: either quickly moving backwards (and predict the attack), or hiding behind the covers, as it won’t pull you closer.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strong Points:

• Limits the player’s movements because of constant bullet hell
• Requires sufficient dodging skills
• Not easy to melee spam without poison buff, as the boss is in a permanent poison pool
• Can hit the player behind cover

Weak Points:

• Is static, which means that it’s easily killable
• Covers protect the player from pretty much all Devil’s Snare’s attacks, with an exception
• The player can shoot through the covers with certain weapons
• All the bosse’s attacks are easily countered by any melee weapon

Best Setups

Buffs:

• Poison buff. Of course, that one’s obvious. It both allows you to escape from the poison effect and also allows you to spam melee the boss without getting in trouble with the poison pool.
• Reduce bullet speed buff. Yeah, this one comes in handy, since Devil’s Snare is a spammer. Recommended to facilitate dodging.
• Bullets bounce on walls buff. If you manage to get the right angle, you can hit the boss while being in safety behind a block.
• Melee weapons reflect bullets buff. If you hide behind your block and just swing your melee weapon, you’ll be able to slowly deal damage to the boss.

Weapons:

• Laser weapons. You can shoot through blocks with most of them, ex. Ice Breaker, The Judge, etc.
• Melee weapons. All of them work fine, as long as they provide protection. Like I said earlier, all Devil’s Snare’s attacks can be countered by a melee weapon.
• High energy cost weapons work fine too, as you have those piles of boxes at the corners of the room. Once half-life (or earlier), Devil’s Snare will start spamming even more, thus the boxes will get destroyed and you will have some sorts of “mana reserves” at the corners which you only need to pick up when you are low on energy.

• All weapons which have bouncing mechanics, ex. Bouncing Assault Rifle, Brownian Coilgun, Jumper, etc. For the same reason as the Bullets bounce on walls buff.
• Stunning/freezing weapons. Devil’s Snare still may attack while being silenced (frozen or stunned), but if timed right it can reset its current attack. All you have to do is to be attentive to Devil Snare’s attack animations. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t continuously spam, there are moments when she makes a little pause before triggering her next attack: this is precisely the moment when you have to be attentive and, by analyzing devil’s snare’s animations, time your shot(s) right to cancel her next attack.
• Floating Laser Gun and Floating Gun. You can just hide behind your cover and let them do the job: it’s an easy win.

Statues:

• Statue of the Elf. It helps fight bullet hell and can also clear a path for you to move back to safety or launch an attack.
• Statue of the Paladin. It can really save your life when caught in bullet hell or when poisoned.

Mounts:

• Varkolyn. This mount provides the poison immunity buff when the player rides it, so it can be useful if you don’t have the buff.
• Apocalypse. You can shoot its lasers through the blocks as said earlier, and has an integrated Elf statue effect.

Global Strategies

The “play it safe”

This strategy basically consists of often hiding behind the covers, and going out from time to time to inflict some damage. It’s a bit long but effective, and minimizes the risk of getting caught in bullet hell and losing HP or dying. It’s also linked to what I said earlier about laser weapons shooting through blocks and bullets bouncing on walls. It’s really the safest strat.

The “shut up and die already”

This one is for the rushers. As soon as you enter the room, speed up towards the boss and immediately start melee spamming it. Your spam gotta be fast enough for not to mess up and get hit in the process. Poison buff is highly recommended, since the poison pool surrounding Devil’s Snare can cause some problems. This strat is basically as efficient as the first one, but a bit more spicy. Don’t be surprised if you don’t feel your fingers anymore after the battle though.

The “you spin my head right round right round”

This one is a bit like the first strat, but you move in a circle around the boss while taking cover from time to time. You can kill the boss a bit faster thanks to this, but a minimum of dodging skills is required, as you’ll be often confronted to bullet hell if you move like that.

Additional Strategies for Some Characters

You can also adopt some other strats regarding the character you are using (not all of them will be developed here):

• Knight: there is a trick with his 2nd skill, Superior Fire. You gotta have 2 weapons: one that doesn’t cost mana and any other one that does (excluding laser weapons. 2 weapons costing 0 mana is fine too). When you enter the boss room, take cover behind one of the side blocks. Then, activate your skill (you must be wielding your 0 mana cost weapon when you do this). Your secondary weapon will then be able to shoot through the block during the skill duration.
• Assassin: although his 1st skill isn’t very well suited for bossfights, there is a strategy with it when fighting against Devil’s Snare. Take cover behind a block, then when you want to deal damage, come out of your cover, activate your skill and dash past the boss while shooting. Then, reposition yourself behind the opposite block. This also works with 3rd skill.
• Berserker: there’s a quite effective strat with his 3rd skill Leap. When you enter the room, get behind a cover. Then, leap over the block and deal some damage. When Devil’s Snare starts spamming, leap backwards to return to safety behind your cover.

Conclusion

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Devil’s Snare is, by convention, 1st world’s weakest boss. Its immobility, easy covers and not very dangerous attacks (which, again, can all be countered by melee weapons) make her a minor threat. Still proceed with caution, as any little mistake can result in your death. And remember that while being the easiest Forest boss, she’s the stealthiest.

Did You Know?

Devil’s Snare hasn’t always been the easiest boss. Between the updates 1.2.3 and 1.3.0, the 4 blocks were removed, replaced with boxes at the corners of the rooms and trees at the sides. You would then have no covers. Imagine fighting Devil’s Snare without any covers… Doable but way harder. Fortunately the blocks were added back after 1.3.0.

I hope you found this helpful!