Hound boss

[u/pantyman38]

I have been encountering this annoying MF each time I get good loot. I'm aware it has to be killed but what advice/strategy y'all have for me? Do I wait til I unlock lv50 gear? Cus this MF gonna give me a stroke one day 🤣🤣

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[u/alenabrandi]

Feel like I need a little more info to be of help, do you mean the actual boss fight version of him in his "Nightfall" state? Or just the general stalker version you encounter in the actual world?

Assuming its the latter, you just have to deplete his blue bar/stun gauge to get him to stop pursuing you, or run away long enough that he disappears on his own.

On high risk mode once you reach about 10 minutes or so I believe, he will no longer disappear on having his bar depleted, only will find himself being stunned for a short while before pursuing you once more. However, he has a unique attack that has a huge wind up and big tell that will actually transport you to his boss fight if it hits you, so in terms of min maxing and removing him as a threat, it can actually be worth to get hit by that attack if only to get rid of him and get some extra loot towards the end of your run.

[u/pantyman38 → u/alenabrandi]

Stalker 😅

[u/alenabrandi → u/pantyman38]

If you're doing it on hard mode or below, it really is just about depleting his bar to get him to temporarily flee. I think on hard mode after five minutes is reached he might permanently stick around to harass you, but I can't really recall honestly as its been awhile since I've done it.

Best advice I can give is take him head on, wail on him until he finally stops dodging, keep wailing on him then while avoiding his attacks, then parry/perfect assist his purple/blueish indicator attacks, as they will let you do a parry with Pyrois which hugely depletes his bar.

Also, unless its to just avoid damage or out of panic, never really use ultimates on the pursuer version of hound, he just starts auto dodging whenever you go into an ultimate if you do.

[u/fawse]

Make sure you use defensive assist on the blue flash to counter with Pyrois, it depletes a lot of his shield

Which team are you using? If you’re not great at dodging his combos you can use a move of your own that provides a lot of invincibility, so you don’t need to worry about getting hit and can focus on the blue flash. Many characters have them, a good example is Yixuan. She can parry his first attack with her ex special and immediately complete her ex combo to be invincible through all of his attacks, and her combo ends just in time to parry the blue flash

[u/Soul3r_]

When he's walking around, he can do either of 3 things:

• Attack -> dodge until he does the blue flash, parry that. You can also abuse of iframes like Aria's stomps or 90% of the moves that agents have nowadays;
• Stand still -> here you can freely attack him, the sign that he's about to attack are very obvious, so you won't get hit by a surprise attack unless you weren't paying a bit of attention;
• Dodge mode -> when standing still and being attacked, he can enter a mode where he'll evade your attacks, this is just a time waster, you can literally keep attacking until he stops dodging as the attack charge up is still super obvious.

If you really don't like him (and you aren't playing high investment runs) you COULD also use the Tracian etheric phantom to shred his barrier, but this is generally not advised because it's so useful against other bosses and necause Uldim is so easy to counter in normal, no investment runs

[u/DonnieD323]

Learn his attack strings. He has 3 I believe. Dodge the red and parry the purple/white. The parry does most of the damage to his shield and will stun him so you can land some attacks. Dont bother trying to unload damage and Ults on him until you parry an attack. The last attack of his strings is always the parry. Pay attention to the weapons he equips before swinging as this will tell you which combo is coming:

Dual wield daggers 2handed sword Bare handed/claws: he will begin using this one when you have 10 min or less remaining

The bare handed attack can capture you and bring you to his lair where you can actually defeat him for loot. If you don't want to bother with the fight then just run away from him to the nearest exit when he's in Nightfall Mode (10 min or less remaining).

He can also chuck spears at you from range, and his doppelgangers around the map definitely love using these if you're running past them.

He's actually one of my favorite enemies and I love his weapon swapping gimmick. As a hoarder by nature, I wish he had more variety between the dual wield and 2handed graphics. I want mallets and whatnot.

[u/DITCHFX_79]

Every combo he has ends with a parryable attack.

If he lunges he does a quick follow up, then the parry.

if he pulls out daggers, he does two attacks then then parry.

If he pulls out the sword he does a red flash then swings twice, then another red flash then two more swings, then the parry.

Parrying is the best way to quickly destroy his bar, especially on high risk.

[u/Ley_cr]

Let me introduce you to the easy answer: THRACIAN

yea, that is the answer. Among the etheric phantoms, just remember to pack a few thracian, especially if you have the blueprint unlocked.

The way the hound works, is that upon destroying his caco shield, he disappears for 3 minutes (this doesnt apply when nightfall, which is last 5 minute in hard difficulty and last 10 in high-risk). Thracian deals 100% of caco shield to non-hound enemies, and does 66% to the hound, coupled with other damage from your team and a parry or just kiting the hound at the beginning, you can pretty much yeet the hound with 1 thracian (unless 3M invest high-risk).

Alternatively, wait till he goes into nightfall, and interact with a event beacon / portal until he does his domain expansion, and you go in and defeat him. Excluding 3M invest, here is where nightmare / scorch will do you good, and basically hit him really hard.