Scars Above is just a little-bit Souls-y, and that means bosses. If you've been playing the game for an hour or two, you've likely come across a giant rock-faced monster called The Alpha that prowls the game's earliest areas. In your journey to acquire a way across the blood eel pit, you come across the Alpha in a clearing, and you have to take the monster to task before he smushes you flat. Our Scars Above The Alpha Boss Guide will show you how to take this big git down to size.
Scars Above - The Alpha Boss Guide
The Alpha is basically a giant rock gorilla, but much like most other enemies in Scars Above, he has a very obvious, color-coded weakness that you can take advantage of. Basically, if it's an orange glowing weak spot, shoot if with your flame gun. That said, he's also a very aggressive fighter who develops more and more attacks as you fight him, all of which can be tricky to learn to dodge. For your first few rounds, it's advisable to learn his pattern (which we've outlined below) and focus on dodging until you can reliably read his movements in each phase.
The Alpha - First Phase
During his first phase, The Alpha only has two ways of attacking you. He'll either slowly walk towards you, eventually swinging his arms at you if you get too close, or he'll take a big pause on the opposite site of the boss arena, eventually charging at you. This second attack can be a bit tough to dodge, so if you feel confident, you can also prevent damage by shooting him in his weakspot with your fire weapon before he hits you. This will also stun him for a few seconds, allowing you to continue to do damage for a little while.
When he approaches you slowly, you'll need to learn to bait out his attacks. He has three, a slow swing with his left arm, and three attacks with his right, and if he lifts both arms, he will slam them down three times, causing a fissure to shoot out through the ground away from The Alpha. The easiest way to deal with this phase is to just shoot him as he walks toward you, since you can still easily aim at his chest despite the odd angle. You can also get a shot in if he swings his left arm up since this attack has a pretty big window of opportunity for you to punish. Just make sure you've practiced getting out of the way a few times before you start trying to shoot back.
The Alpha - Second Phase
After you've done enough damage to him, The Alpha enters his second stage and starts covering his weak point at he walks towards you. Otherwise, his attacks remain mostly the same. During this phase, you'll be completely reliant on baiting his slow left-handed attack to do a decent chunk of damage to the boss. He might rarely use his healing ability as well during this phase, roaring for a long time and glowing green to regain health. This move is also super exploitable and can lead to him taking more damage than he has any chance of recovering.
The Alpha - Final Phase
During his last phase, The Alpha gains his most dangerous attack; a feint with his left arm. If he goes to attack you with his left arm, make sure he's also rearing upon his hind legs, because if he isn't, then he's about to do a quick attack. You really need to learn to differentiate between these two attacks during this phase, or he's going to turn you into mulch. You can also exploit his double-handed attack with the three fissures, but the timing is incredibly tight and hard to pull off well. Just play it safe, and you'll take him down. Failing that, just use the cheese strat below instead.
Scars Above The Alpha Boss Cheese
If you're not one for a fair fight, then you'll be happy to learn that Scars Above is very accommodating towards you. All you have to do is rely on your newly acquired ice gun to completely destroy the enemy with relative ease. Using the gun enough freezes the enemy in place, leaving him open to attacks from your other weapons. You can also just shoot him in his big face and do decent damage because your electric gun can shoot quicker than he can move his arm when you aim at him.
Either or both of these starts will see you through the fight with relative ease, as long as you keep an eye on your ammo and grab the supplies from around the arena as you need them.
The Alpha - Attacks
If you're struggling to keep track of all of the Alpha's Attacks, we've provided a chart below that lists the attacks and gives tips on how to recognize their telegraphs and exploit their openings.
| Attack Description | Telegraph | Exploit |
| Three-Fissure Smash | Slowly lifts both arms | Can get a fire shot in while he's lifting his arms, but you have to be ready to dodge immediately to avoid damage. |
| Three-Melee Swings | Raises right arm | Not exploitable. Dodge completely away from the enemy on his first swing to avoid the following two connecting. In later phases, the third punch seems to have a longer range so be ready to dodge again. |
| One-Handed Smash | Slowly raises left arm and hind legs | While he's charging up, you can easily get in one or two shots, depending on how quickly you recognize it. Make sure you're ready to dodge a second later when the fist comes down. |
| Faux One-Handed Smash | Appears to slowly raise left arm, but doesn't extend legs. | Looks almost exactly like the one-handed smash outside of the legs not extending. Actually brings his fist down quickly. Dodge away as soon as you identify the attack. |
| Healing Roar | Stands on his hind legs, roars and beats his chest as he glows green. | Is completely vulnerable during this state, so take full advantage. You need to outstrip the healing it'll do to itself. |
| Charge | Stands in the distance, perfectly still for a few seconds. | As soon as you recognize the attack, you can shoot at the glowing weak spot (with a fire weapon) to prevent it from working, which also causes a brief stun period to take advantage of. If not, make sure you move out of the way fast enough. |
Thanks for checking out our Scars Above The Alpha Boss Guide, if you're enjoying the game, you might want to check out some of our other guide too:
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