One of the first things you see in Deck13’s new Souls-like game is this very enemy, which remains shrouded in mystery up until you activate the three magnetic towers and trap it in Gideon’s Rock. With the mechanical beast enclosed to a confined area, it’s finally time to battle The Surge 2 Delver boss. Here’s how to beat Delver in The Surge 2.
The Surge 2 Delver boss guide | Delver first phase
Provided you severed the weapon arm of pervious boss Captain Cervantes, his Mk. IV JAG-22 ‘Aeterna’ sword is a great fit for this fight. If not, go for anything with a decent balance of damage and attack speed, then before proceeding to the boss arena make sure to kill the five essentially helpless critters around the hole which you’ll need to drop into to trigger the fight. This should allow you to fill up your energy bar and charge any injectibles basically for free, so now you can meet Delver with a full stock of heals.
When you drop down into Delver’s lair, be sure to immediately dodge as it’ll ambush you without fail. As the bipedal monster menacingly strides towards you, you’ll quickly realize that there’s no escaping its relentless pursuit, though dodging/sprinting straight back should allow you to stay just out of range of its frenzied horizontal swiping attacks and then close in for a counter hit or two before falling back. Make sure to target the unarmored legs to deal extra damage and potentially stagger the boss.
If you put enough distance between you in retreat, it’s possible that Delver will take to four legs and lunge straight at you with a bite, allowing for an easy side dodge and counter combo. Alternatively, the boss can burrow underground and pop up at your feet to deliver a quick slash, so sprint to avoid the first emergence and then double back to land a sprint attack before it resubmerges; repeat this for the second round, but on the third keep your distance and as Delver leaps out of the ground with a homing attack dodge at the last possible second.
The Surge 2 Delver boss guide | Delver second phase
Keeping all of the above in mind the first phase should become pretty simple with a few repetitions, but then comes the second stage of the battle. First things first: During the transformation animation position yourself to stand ready at the unarmored head of the beast, then deal heavy damage as soon as it comes out of said animation. This is a great way to get off to a headstart that you’re likely going to need, as Delver hasn’t shown its best tricks yet.
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Now fully four-legged and doubly quick for it, you need to be aggressive and close in on Delver to prevent it darting from side to side and most likely running you over in the process. Be wary of the wide-arced and snappy attacks you’ll be subjected to in the process, but with enough aggression, you can knock the boss down and continue to deal heavy damage unimpeded. In the process, you’ll be building power to charge batteries and these should be used to keep your health topped up from any damage you might’ve suffered while striving to stay up close and personal.
If Delver manages to break away this is a great place to utilize all of your available drone ammo, since the EMP is completely useless here. Just unceremoniously unload everything you have into its unprotected face in order to try and put this difficult phase to bed sooner rather than later.
If you’re lucky, Delver might also teleport to the ceiling and start raining down easy-to-avoid projectiles before crashing to the floor and leaving itself open to attack. Make sure that in doing so you position yourself at the tip of the nose, as standing to the side will cause you to get hit from behind when those projectiles are recalled.
The Surge 2 Delver boss guide | Delver third phase
With that, the worst is behind you. Reemerging as a hulking tank covered in spikes, like something from a heavy metal album cover, this instance of Delver can perform incredibly slow swiping attacks and a rather unintimidating ground pound, but you shouldn’t be seeing much of either of those.
The boss itself ceases to pose any significant threat when you learn that standing at the other end of the battlefield will cause it to throw itself face-first along the floor in order to reach you. This “attack” is simple to sprint away from and presents a large window to get your hits in, which you’ll want to do at the top of the head for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this will eventually break the armored cage and expose the vulnerable fleshy bit beneath. Secondly, it’ll keep you out of the way of the nano corruption Delver now excretes all over the place.
So long as you’re careful with your positioning as you attack and take care to retreat around (rather than through) lingering clouds of nano, there’s very little that can go wrong by simply running from opposite end to opposite end and attacking only when Delver is getting back to its feet after sliding at you.
