Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) Strategies and Boss Battles

[Art Blade]

This topic is for players who struggle with difficult parts of the game, like boss fights.

There is one boss I never liked to fight and right now I'm again fighting him: The boss on The Shrunk Machine level. So I came up with the idea of posting some sort of FAQ or guide where we can share our experiences and ideas and strategies.

Err, correction, I just finished the boss without a scratch on my precious Duke body  :-D By the way, this boss can be hurt/killed with regular weapons!

So this is how it really works smoothly:

1) After entering the room and after finishing those two baby octabrains gnawing on the body, climb the desk and fetch the Enforcer gun on top of the locker.
[smg id=3462 type=link align=center width=500 caption="DNF strategies 001"]
2) From this point of view, the desk with the Enforcer gun is to the right of that big crate, outside the pic. On the floor to the left of that crate you see a puddle of blood, there you'll find a shotgun. You can use that shotgun for the first encounter with a horde of like 10 baby octabrains that will come popping out of the ventilation shafts on the ceiling and chase you right after you called the lift.
[smg id=3463 type=link align=center width=500 caption="DNF strategies 002"]
3) So here is what you can do: After grabbing the Enforcer, replace it with the shotgun, go to the lift and call it. Run straight away towards and behind the big crate here and wait for the little bastards to get to you and finish them off. As long as you stay in that part of the room, the boss won't come out of the lift which gives you enough time to relax a little and prepare for him :) You'll have noticed, I took the screenies after killing the boss, and the desk that used to be there to climb to the locker has gone. Kind of hectic with a boss shooting like a maniac, not much left intact after the fight  ;)
[smg id=3464 type=link align=center width=500 caption="DNF strategies 003"]
4) Here you can see a lot of weapons. You can do that by picking up a weapon which will let you drop your previous weapon to the right of your position. Walk a few steps to the right until the icon that indicates that you can grab the weapon disappears, then go one step back to the left and grab it. Wash, rinse and repeat until you have relocated the weapon where you wanted it to be.. like here, all of 'em neatly behind the crate  :-D I did that because I didn't know how hard the battle would be so I would have resources without having to give up my cover (the crate) and unnecessarily expose myself to that boss.
[smg id=3465 type=link align=center width=500 caption="DNF strategies 004"]

I had a rail gun at hand when I walked over to the lift to trigger him, being far away from him the rail gun was just perfect on my way back to the crate. There I exchanged the rail gun with the Enforcer.

The final boss fight basically is a dance around the crate. He will follow you and run around the crate as soon as he sees you, so when you get behind it and out of his sight, he'll stay on the other side of the crate. Empty the Enforcer gun on him and if needed, throw a pipe bomb over the crate -- I needed just one to finish him off  :-D

In total, I used a few shots of my pistol on the initial two baby octabrains, then like 15 shots with the shotgun to finish off the horde of baby octabrains, a couple of railgun shots on the boss on my way back behind the crate and there I emptied the Enforcer gun on him. One pipe bomb to get it over with  :-()

[Binnatics]

I just had a nice boss fight on the dam. I was surprised though that I didn't kill the ba$t@rd once tearing off his horn and stickin' i to his eyes. Had to do that twice :) I guess the next boss will only go down if I rip off ALL 3 horns  ^-^

[Art Blade]

The boss on the dam.. he's got an option to humiliate him which finishes him off. Just use his crown jewels as a punching ball and keep hitting them (does it automatically once you initiate that sequence)  :-()

[Binnatics]

This is stunning: I didn't read your guide before killing this boss; didn't even know it was THIS particular boss you were talking about. When I finished this boss though, I had the same idea as you had; post something about the 'hows and whens' to kill the damn ba$t@rd. It's a hardone, that's for sure, and it took me quite a lot of times to kill him. I did it in a complete other way and guess what...

In total, I used a few shots of my pistol on the initial two baby octabrains, then like 15 shots with the shotgun to finish off the horde of baby octabrains, a couple of railgun shots on the boss on my way back behind the crate and there I emptied the Enforcer gun on him. One pipe bomb to get it over with  :-()

... all I used was 4 pipebombs and my bare hands!!!!  >:D

Hahaha, funny how people come up with different solutions.  :-D

What I did, from the beginning, was practically the same. Only I didn't use bullets for the mini-octo's when entering the room. It had no effect, as far as I could see. So I gave them 2 pipebombs. One each  :-()
I have been wandering around like you did, but found all these available weapons not quite accurate to do the job. Then I remembered: I had some steroids and beer in my pocket. I allways keep a set of these pleasures at hand in case it gets nasty.  ;D
So I called the elevator, went to the furthest most corner of the room, and killed all the mini-octo's who spawned near me with the freezergun. It automatically recharges so you could say I didn't waste any ammo on them. Then I put my last 2 pipebombs in the centre of the area and called the boss in by closing in on the elevator. He came out and I gave him a pipebomb-surprise. The surprise wasn't big because he triggered them himself by shooting at me and hitting the bombs. It gave him very poor damage, allmost nothing.
I did my thing, the Duke thing, and grabbed my pills and drinks (burb) and ran into him. I finished him off like I said, with my bare hands. It was so easy this way; you just keep on stomping and before the effect disappears the boss was laying down dead:
[smg id=3475 width=500]
As you can see I did get the enforcer, just in case, but I didn't use it.  ^-^

Now comes the funniest part: After killing the boss, you have to start the elevator. But the damn button is way too high. The first thing I thought was using the same attributes I had to get to the button to call the elevator, outside of it. I tried to push them towards the location but damn: they fell aside and it was not high enough. I thought I f***** up so I started wandering around looking for something bigger. And guess what I found:
[smg id=3476 width=500]
Indeed: The Boss was big enough. It wasn't too hard to push him all the way to the elevator and in position. All feeling good about myself, I took a screenshot and looked around:
[smg id=3477 width=500]
Damn, what's that broken handrail overthere? Is that supposed to.... Oh crap, how could I be soooo stupid. Whatever: My way was just more fun!!!  ^+-+

[Art Blade]

 ^+-+ At least you did spot it, if late  :-D

Next time through I'll try the berserk variant of yours: Beers and steroids and brass knuckles  :-D :-X

[Binnatics]

DNF Insane Boss Battle Walkthrough
Well, Since I've done an insane playthrough I should post some extra boss battle strategies here. Most bosses aren't too difficult to fight on insane difficulty, accept for the fight taking much longer. You'll need the double amount of ammo to wack them, compared to Hard. But the boss' strategies stay the same, so it's still a matter of staying alive during the fight using the same cover and movements you used to in easier playthroughs.
Things that do have got tougher are the 'helpers' of them bosses. Most bosses have their assistants; so has the battlelord on the dam his assault captains flying around with their yetpacks, and has the octaking sworms of octabrains giving him cover during the first part of the fight. It's these helpers who make the fight insane. There are more of them, they are stronger and also harder to kill.
Here's a little help for the guys who like to say "Damn, I'm good":

Cycloid Emperor (videogame-edition)
This guy you meet in the stadium at the beginning. There are no 'helpers' so even on insane difficulty, this boss is peanuts. It will only take more time. To give an impression: Instead of 3 full mags of the devastator you'll need 7. There are 3 additional ammo-drops before you finally can hit the field-goal.

Mothership Battle
This fight will take longer as well, and the helpers (tiny spaceships with annoying laserbeams) are as frustrating as allways. I don't remember if there are more of them, but their laser attacks allmost kill you instantly. It will take a few tries, but finally you should give him the finger without too many trouble.

Battlelord #1
This boss you fight in a pitt somewhere in burnt Vegas. There are no helpers. His attacks are only deadlier then normal, so you'll have to be more careful. This ain't too much of a headache to take him down and stick one of his horns into his eye, after which you humiliate him ;)

Queen Bitch
Also the Queen Bitch is not too hard to fight once you did it allready on normal or hard difficulty. Her helpers, a few pregnators and some octabrains, are easy to kill as long as you make good use of the hiding spot to the right of the area. Just keep throwing pipebombs to the babe via the trampoline-oysters and in between be sure to kill any helper that pops up, allways in the middle of the area so no surprises. And off course, once the oysters close, finish the job with the RPG available on the battlefield. ;D

Battlelord #2
Now this boss is a pain in the a$$. Not just because of his helpers, assault captains with yetpacks, but because of himself. The first part of the battle, after you pull out his first horn, is not too hard. Just take your distance and keep replenishing RPG's on him. Make sure your cover is close to an ammocrate, so he can't kill you on your way to it. The best moment to refill ammo is right after his minigun burst. He'll need a few seconds to reload so that would do. The assault captains aren't too much of trouble, since they'll concentrate on your buddies most of the time. Only sometimes, mostly when you're close to death due to an unexpected attack from the main boss, they will start shooting at you. That's when you have to take them down. I used the railgun for them, since this is still a one-shot-killer against them. I brought it with me from the part where you deal with numerous pigcops defending a cave where you have to get fuel for the bigfoot.
Then, after you ripped off his first horn, he'll get mad. He'll move more towards your direction and he also uses homing missiles now. These missiles will kill you instantly so the only way to survive this second part is finding a good cover. The only cover that will do is the black, SWAT-like bus close to where you entered the fighting area. It's higher then other available cars, and other then most vehicles on the battleground, the battlelord can't move it or throw it at you. If you're lucky enough, the boss won't kick too many cars towards you before he starts shooting at you, so you will still be able to reach the ammocrate that is near. After killing him I checked some Youtube films on killing this boss, and others mentioned that you should catch his attention when hiding near the bus. That'll make him start shooting and stop moving. That is indeed necessary; I got killed numerous times because he just stamped on me or drove me out of cover, which means a sudden death.
I also found out that in this video, the guy used an explosive-EDF-crate near the bus. I've never seen it there (can't imagine there is a difference between PS3 and PC version, but still I did it without it) so I used the RPG for the second round as well. Once in cover, it's a matter of fast moving towards the ammosupply to get the needed firepower to do the job. While choosing the moment of leaving your hiding spot, be aware that the boss will launch one additional homing missile after his minigun needs reloading. You'll have to wait a little longer until it hits the SWAT-bus.
Well that's it. It took me I think 50 tries to get the job done. Lots of times I got killed because I didn't find cover, and once I found the SWAT-bus, I got killed even more times because he just stamped me out of my cover and killed me. So atracting his attention like the guy on the Youtube film said, is indeed a good advice. I'll try again to check if there IS an explosive refill near the SWAT-bus. That makes it easier to kill him because you won't have to leave your safetyspot to shoot him, and it's closer then the ammocrate. I also got killed a lot of times because I didn't realise that last homing missile during his refill. Once I found out his "shooting rythm" I could survive finally  ^-^
***Edit:
I checked out if there is an explosive crate and indeed there is. So I think it's best to make good use of it, like the guy on Youtube explained. Just throw numerous pipebombs over the bus towards him to kill him.
There's also one more thing I'd like to comment: I thought being clever to use the HoloDuke to distract the battlelord during the second part of the fight. My advice: Don't do that. You can fool the boss, but not his homing missiles. Since they must be heat-seeking or something, they can't be fooled by a hologram. And somehow they know exactly where you are, because all the times I used the HoloDuke, I got killed immediately by one of them :(

Assault Enforcer (when shrunk)
We allready spoke a lot about this boss on the forum. Same strategy will do, best is to use Art's strategy, since his feet are causing death instantly, and even with the "beer goggles" you won't survive like I did on my normal and hard playthrough.
Funny detail is the amount of ammo you need this time. Even if you reach this room without any ammo left you can still get him down. The octababies die when you punch them, so they are of no importance. You can find the following ammo in the room:
- 1 pistol, fully loaded
- 1 shotgun, fully loaded
- 2 rippers, fully loaded
- 1 enforcer gun, fully loaded
- 1 pipebomb.
What I needed to kill the ba$t@rd was 5 pipebombs, the 2 full rippers, the full enforcer gun and half a shotgunmag. I think if you are short of pipebombs the rest of the shotgun will be sufficient. You'll kill him with the pistol unused, which can come in handy in the next level  ;)

Octaking (2 encounters)
You'll find this ba$t@rd two times on your path through the dam. First time is at a small lake on the downside of the dam. He will try to stop you from entering the "forklift area". His helpers will pop up before he actually shows up; a huge swarm of octabrains. They are hard to kill. Art commented the railgun as a good weapon to take them down, which is indeed a good choice normally, but on insane difficulty you'll have to hit them 3 times to down them. Since the railgun won't reload very fast it's not very usefull against them this time imho.
The best weapon is still the turret close to the forklift entry in the corner of the walkway around the lake. Use it with accuracy and shoot any wooden crates they throw at you; life is the big issue here. The turret has enough firepower to take down the whole swarm plus the Octaking, but you'll need to dodge their attacks to survive.
Once you killed the swarm of helpers the big boss shows up. He'll throw some huge iron cabinets towards you, which is supportable. When he's out of that sort of ammo, he'll start shooting huge electric balls at you. Dodge them by leaving the turret and walking backwards. They'll hit the turret and leave you unharmed. Between his attacks, you can shoot him and eventually he'll flee.
The second encounter is when you make your way through the large interior generator room on a crane, that is controled by an old whining guy, complaining about the tentacles all around his factory. The weapons available on the battleground are a devastator and a ripper. There's also a beer in a crate. These items are all you need.
For both his helpers, seemingly endless swarms of octabrains and the octaking itself, the devastator is the best weapon. When you run out of devastator ammo use the ripper on the remaining octabrains before refilling your ammo at the EDF crate in the centre of the crane.
Most important here is dodging the attacks of the octabrains. They throw your devastatorbombs back at you, but only one or two. The rest you fire at them will hit them and eventually will kill them. Dodge the bombs and their shooting by moving a lot. Important detail is that they shoot at the point where you move to; fool them by making short movements and use the small cabin at the right side for cover.
Use the beer wisely: Only when you're close to dying and there are still a lot of octabrains. I carried one additional can of beer and a HoloDuke, which can be usefull. It can be done without these though. When I finally made my way through I still had my HoloDuke and One beer left.
There are 3 or 4 waves of 6 octabrains. Once you killed them you can draw all your attention to the main problem: the octaking holding the crane back. Like before, he'll throw some large items at you, and then start his own electrical balls. Dodges these balls and keep shooting until he's down. He'll need an additional kill once he lays down, or he'll electrocute you at the end.
It took me a lot of tries to make it to the other side. The hardest part is surviving the helpers. Dodging their firepower is hard but finally I managed. Once you survived that, the rest of the fight is peanuts.

Energy Leech
This bossbattle is not harder then normal. It takes a little longer to down him, but as long as you keep moving between the 2 ammocrates and don't miss any oxigen on your way, you'll survive. No helpers here, so no big trouble.

Cycloid Emperor: The Final Battle
This is the real deal. It's the best boss around: both in difficulty and in joy. I really like this final fight. You need to take him down twice to disable both his arms, and then a third time to get him on his knees and piss in his eye  >:D
You'll start with a single golden pistol. His helpers are big pigcops with RPG's (these are your ammosupply) and assault captains as well as assault enforcers.
Use the pistol to kill the pigcops and steal their ammo. Use the RPG ammo to take down the boss. The first time you will only find pigcops on your way. This battle is easy. The second time, when you need to disable his second arm, you'll find assault captains and enforcers on your way as well. And to make it even more difficult the pigcops tend to go berserk if you don't kill them quick enough.
The main problem during the second fight is ammo. Take a good look around and learn the battlefield so you'll know where to find a shotgun and ammo for your pistol. It's wise to switch to the shotgun during the second battle because the ammo for the pistol will deplete. Once you took out a few assault captains you can use their AT Captain Laser which is very welcome, due to the lack of other ammo.
When you got the boss down the second time you'll get help from human side: they'll send a dropship with ammocrates and devastators. That'll make the last fight less difficult. There are more assault captains flying around this time, so be careful not to get shot by them, but the devastator is so powerfull you can use it against all remaining enemies. Once you finally downed the boss, piss in his eye and don't forget the grab the hand of your captain, flying you out of the area before the nuke destroys the dam.
Oh, and during the whole fight, keep an eye on the boss itself. His attacks are slow and easy to dodge, but it happened not only once that I was so bussy killing the pigcops and other discomfort that he managed to kill me with his giant feet, his rockets or his other mellee attacks. I used to strafe around the battlefield trying to stay as far away from the boss as possible. Sometimes you get stuck in a corner due to maybe not so smooth invisible walls and the cracked earth. Jump out of the place and if necesarry, run in the opposite direction. These places can be annoying sometimes, but if you're aware of them they won't fool you again.

Here's an impression of the battlefield after the masacre. As you can see there's quite a lot collateral damage laying down on the ground  :-()
[smg id=3482 width=500]
And here:
[smg id=3481 width=500]

I hope this guide is helpful to some, or fun to read to others who allready managed to kill them bosses. Anyway, it was fun to muse these fights over again and describe the way I finally got hem  ;)

[Art Blade]

Good (and long) read. Nice descriptions, useful tactics.

Congrats on making "insane" and a joyful slap on the back for that guide  :) :-X

[Binnatics]

Thanx Art, it was nice to make it! It's a good way of thinking it all over again and enjoy victory :)
Mostly I run from one highlight into the next if it comes to gaming, and I forget to enjoy the silence of really achieving something. This was a good way of doing that  ^-^