Eidolon boss fight

[Yaffie]

Hello everyone,

I just finished exploring the archives for the first time and I have a question. While fighting the Eidolon at some point, locust started to spawn uncontrollably to the point I had to stay in corner and try to fend them off before having even a chance at damaging Eidolon (which was hard with him throwing me around the whole arena). Also, can I just say that this boss fight is nonsense? I admit, that I was ill prepared for it, but 500hp and him being able to throw at me undodgable boulders while I was behind the rock he is crushed under. I also found blocking to be very inconsistent, sometimes it blocked the boulder, other times not. But still my main point is the giant swarm of locust that started to spawn mid fight, I'll be grateful for any info about that.

 

 

Edited January 13 by Szymon Czorny

[LadyWYT]

26 minutes ago, Szymon Czorny said:

But still my main point is the giant swarm of locust that started to spawn mid fight, I'll be grateful for any info about that.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!

The locusts will start spawning once the boss is sufficiently damaged. At this point in the fight, the player needs to make killing the boss a priority since the locusts will continue to spawn until the boss dies. If the player keeps trying to play safe or turns too much of their focus toward dealing with the locusts, they'll get overwhelmed and die.

It's supposed to be quite a tough fight. Half health seems a bit early for locusts to start spawning, but I seem to recall the locust bit getting adjusted to be a bit more difficult when healing was adjusted to be a little easier after the initial implement of the healing timer. I could be wrong though.

I will also note that the minimum equipment level for completing the Resonance Archive is tier 2, however, players might want to opt for tier 3+ if they are playing alone or otherwise struggling. Equipping a shield should help mitigate some of the incoming damage, and jumping before the boss's ground slam will prevent the player from being launched into the air. Aside from that, the best general strategy that I've found is to stay just within his reach in order to provoke more melee attacks from the boss, and step back out of reach before the attack hits.

[HalfAxd]

59 minutes ago, Szymon Czorny said:

Also, can I just say that this boss fight is nonsense?

I'm one of those who agrees with you.  It's an odd arcade mini game that you can't skip and just doesn't feel right from a game play point of view.

I cheat to get around it.

[DeSaerth]

Both times I've fought the Eidolon, I've ended up setting a respawn point just outside his arena and Leeroy Jenkins' him to death. The fight just doesn't match the combat style of the rest of the game.

[Yaffie]

I loved the archives, it was a great dungeon, and a lot more interactive than I thought. The only part that I didn't like was the Eidolon, I love tough boss fights, but it just felt unfair. I did try to stay within his reach to bait his melee attack, but he still threw boulders at me, and since I was right next to him, it was impossible to dodge it.

18 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Aside from that, the best general strategy that I've found is to stay just within his reach in order to provoke more melee attacks from the boss, and step back out of reach before the attack hits.

 

[Yaffie]

18 hours ago, HalfAxd said:

I cheat to get around it.

 

14 hours ago, DeSaerth said:

Both times I've fought the Eidolon, I've ended up setting a respawn point just outside his arena and Leeroy Jenkins' him to death. The fight just doesn't match the combat style of the rest of the game.

I did the same, I had a temporal gear with me but it took a lot more tries than 20 to beat him, at one point the locust was so overwhelming they pushed me into the wall and had to cheat my way to get out of it as well

[Apocalypse_Andy]

You are aware that you can jump to avoid the slam damage and being thrown around?  I've never had a problem with a continual locust spawn, I kill the first batch and then finish off the boss.  I haven't seen a second spawn, maybe this is new?  For those who believe this fight is inconsistent with other gameplay, you're right he doesn't kill nearly instantly like your first encounter with wolves, bears or aggressive pigs.

[Tom Cantine]

My second time (first time without cheats) I only died to it once, but I had already pushed on to get steel plate armor before even visiting the Archives. The chief advantage of the armor was I could afford to ignore the locusts. 

Jumping to avoid the slam attack helped, and would have helped a lot more if I had more practice at the tactic. But I did have some success doing damage by just kiting normally, and taking advantage of the spear's reach (since you really can't move very fast in plate armor).

Still, not really a fan of this sort of fight. Or of fights generally, to be honest.

[Yaffie]

On 1/15/2026 at 3:20 AM, Apocalypse_Andy said:

You are aware that you can jump to avoid the slam damage and being thrown around?  I've never had a problem with a continual locust spawn, I kill the first batch and then finish off the boss.  I haven't seen a second spawn, maybe this is new?  For those who believe this fight is inconsistent with other gameplay, you're right he doesn't kill nearly instantly like your first encounter with wolves, bears or aggressive pigs.

I am aware of that, but after some point for me the locust just didn't stop spawning, before I finished one wave, the second one was already there. And in case of inconsistency, sometimes the swarm despawned before my next attempt, sometimes not, also sometimes eidolon would go back to sleep, and sometimes he threw rocks at me before I even got into the arena, on one attempt he even killed me before I had chance to do anything.

I guess I'm just bad at combat in this game

[marmarmar34]

I was fortunate to go in with iron plate, so I managed to get rid of him my first try. That being said, he sure was a nuisance to fight. Him spawning a constant wave of the most annoying enemy didn't help either. I swear, the hitboxes for locusts are ridiculously smaller than their model let's on.

[Professor Dragon]

On 1/15/2026 at 4:41 AM, Szymon Czorny said:

I did the same, I had a temporal gear with me but it took a lot more tries than 20 to beat him, at one point the locust was so overwhelming they pushed me into the wall and had to cheat my way to get out of it as well

On 1/15/2026 at 4:41 AM, Szymon Czorny said:

I did the same, I had a temporal gear with me but it took a lot more tries than 20 to beat him, at one point the locust was so overwhelming they pushed me into the wall and had to cheat my way to get out of it as well

You guys wait until the later story events!

Spoiler

A completely random parkour death maze that overstays its welcome. The initial premise of this story event is awesome. But after that the implementation drops off a bit and becomes an exercise in frustration. In the end, I totally turned on Creative just to get to the next section.

In any case, I totally overgeared on the Eidolon and went in with full Forlorn Hope armour, steel shield and steel arrows - and it was fine. Staying in the corner, jumping to avoid attacks (most of the time) and pelting with arrows worked for me, with additional thwacking of locusts behind the pillar.

However, this approach really does cut it out from being an "early" (mid?) game experience, which is when all of this should really take place to be most useful. I'm curious as to the lowest levels of gear that seasoned Vintarians do it at. I'm sure it is possible to do it in linen gambeson - I just haven't tried it.

[Yaffie]

44 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

However, this approach really does cut it out from being an "early" (mid?) game experience, which is when all of this should really take place to be most useful. I'm curious as to the lowest levels of gear that seasoned Vintarians do it at. I'm sure it is possible to do it in linen gambeson - I just haven't tried it.

I've seen a guy with full eq of spears just constantly throwing them and hiding behind a pillar, doing it without getting hit, so yeah. As for later story locations - I've decided to focus more on progressing more before attempting anything more, although I must say that I'm still tempted to look for more adventures.

[LadyWYT]

7 hours ago, Szymon Czorny said:

I guess I'm just bad at combat in this game

In fairness, the eidolon is a really tough fight, and the occasional goofiness of hitboxs and entity movements doesn't really help things. 

 

3 hours ago, Szymon Czorny said:

As for later story locations - I've decided to focus more on progressing more before attempting anything more, although I must say that I'm still tempted to look for more adventures.

If you have iron equipment, you should be equipped well enough to handle what comes after the Archive. Chapter Two has had some pretty significant changes since its inception and feels much better to play now than it did at launch. While I would say it's perhaps easier than Chapter One in some ways, there's not really such as thing as too much preparation when it comes to Vintage Story.

[Distilled Spirit]

You do not get hit by any boulders if you stand under the pipe (or was it a lantern?) next to the door to the library, which will open after you defeat the boss. 

You can one shot bronze locust with a stone spear (at least, as a hunter).

You can spam flint spears at the boss untill it dies - only took ~20 for the whole dungeon.

Armor may be needed for your first completion. But you get some heavily damaged bronze armor from the guard room - more than enough to carry you all the way to the boss. Just set your spawn next to the library and spam, spam, spam!

[Echo Weaver]

I guess this is a necro, but this thread was the one that turned up on searches about the Eidolon fight. 

Gotta say I really, really hated it. I get that it's supposed to be tough, but I agree with the folks who say it's tough in a way that doesn't match the tone of the game so far. The combat mechanics feel more like an aggressive platform combat game, with the timed jumps to avoid AOE, the second stage with constant add spawns, and the blocked retreat. If you discover you don't have the right gear, you're screwed because you can't escape the fight without dying, and then you have to jump right back in if you want your gear back. So you better get it right the first time or be ready to cheat. 

Most of these things could be all right, but not together. It's not a fun fight unless you are a gamer who likes a specific kind of unforgiving combat.

ETA: I did absolutely love the archive up until the boss fight. The mood is perfect. I had a bit of trouble with the puzzle, mostly just because it took a while to look around and find the right tooltip to figure out what object you needed for what spot. But the whole place gave me the shivers in the best way. 

Edited 22 hours ago by Echo Weaver

[Zane Mordien]

This one didn't bother me. It was a fun fight for me but I can see why it wouldn't be for others. The stupid chapter 2 fight is the one I can't stand. I haven't gone back to that cursed tower since I did that fight early after release. I keep trying to force myself to go back and do the updated tower but the memory of the first miserable parkour time keeps me away.

[PlatonicNymph]

Boss mechanics should feel different than fighting normal enemies. The eidolon fight felt gripping and memorable for me because of the sudden fear and difficulty, and it'd be a shame in my mind to erase the more flavorful mechanics for the sake of keeping things bland and simple.
Also just patiently enjoy the game until iron age before beginning the story quests - 'tis my humble advice.

[Stralgaez]

It does say a lot when people tell their tale about the boss and mostly have opted into a battle of attrition either by throwing themselves repeatedly onto it until you wear the boss down, come back with gear far above what is needed for the place, or resort to cheese tactics.

They praise the Archives for its atmosphere and fair levels of danger and rewards, but the Eidolon encounter is a sour point for many because it is far above what you would expect from a Chapter 1 Story location - Something what you SHOULD consider making it accessible as possible within a reasonable/"relaxed" level of challenge, instead of making them the most difficult.

[Echo Weaver]

I don't necessarily think it should be easy, but we didn't do much research ahead of time because we didn't want to spoil the story of the location, and that was a huge mistake we couldn't recover from. That seems like a bad game design decision. 

[CastIronFabric]

4 hours ago, Stralgaez said:

It does say a lot when people tell their tale about the boss and mostly have opted into a battle of attrition either by throwing themselves repeatedly onto it until you wear the boss down, come back with gear far above what is needed for the place, or resort to cheese tactics.

They praise the Archives for its atmosphere and fair levels of danger and rewards, but the Eidolon encounter is a sour point for many because it is far above what you would expect from a Chapter 1 Story location - Something what you SHOULD consider making it accessible as possible within a reasonable/"relaxed" level of challenge, instead of making them the most difficult.

when you describe the sour point are you sure that is accurate for many? I am not saying that to be pedantic, I say that because I heard as long as you know the path its fairly easy adventure but does not provide much loot worth the effort. To be fair what I am saying is anecdotal but that is what I heard. I could be way off.

 

Edited 9 hours ago by CastIronFabric

[Stralgaez]

26 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

when you describe the sour point are you sure that is accurate for many? I am not saying that to be pedantic, I say that because I heard as long as you know the path its fairly easy adventure but does not provide much loot worth the effort. To be fair what I am saying is anecdotal but that is what I heard.

It's also because it's a room you are dropping in without escape unless you defeat the Eidolon. Or die. 

And the latter is not ideal due to the potential loss of all the loot you might have gathered so far, along with your equipment. And if you didn't set your respawn point right at the entrance of the Archive, you are guaranteed to lose it all. And even you did set a point, you need several seconds to reorganize your equipment you picked up from your last death (which is in itself a weird game feature that you pop open like a piñata upon your death), all the while you are trapped in the room again and fighting the boss - And that can cause a death spiral like the above being mentioned, dying to it 20+ times and more. It does sound frustrating and tedious as hell.

 

Of course, you could put up a camp in front of the Archive and get back to it before dropping the first time into the room, so you got nothing to lose outside what you bought to the trip. But I think not many might be that savvy to see the potential danger if you do that, since you also drop into the underwater lake a little earlier and you came out of it unharmed (if maybe wet and with a extinguished torch). 

 

The loot itself might not be valuable to make something out of it, but you bring something else from the Archive - A souvenir. Something that shows you have been there. And has quite the personal value after you have trekked for so long to reach it for those who go for it for the first time.

However, if the Eidolon claps it all out of your inventory, and can you cannot reliably recover it, or have the needed skill to defeat it .... 

I wouldn't bother anymore. Or cheat. And that would make it a bad design when those solutions are the ones considered the most. 

Edited 8 hours ago by Stralgaez

[CastIronFabric]

1 hour ago, Stralgaez said:

It's also because it's a room you are dropping in without escape unless you defeat the Eidolon. Or die. 

And the latter is not ideal due to the potential loss of all the loot you might have gathered so far, along with your equipment. And if you didn't set your respawn point right at the entrance of the Archive, you are guaranteed to lose it all. And even you did set a point, you need several seconds to reorganize your equipment you picked up from your last death (which is in itself a weird game feature that you pop open like a piñata upon your death), all the while you are trapped in the room again and fighting the boss - And that can cause a death spiral like the above being mentioned, dying to it 20+ times and more. It does sound frustrating and tedious as hell.

 

Of course, you could put up a camp in front of the Archive and get back to it before dropping the first time into the room, so you got nothing to lose outside what you bought to the trip. But I think not many might be that savvy to see the potential danger if you do that, since you also drop into the underwater lake a little earlier and you came out of it unharmed (if maybe wet and with a extinguished torch). 

 

The loot itself might not be valuable to make something out of it, but you bring something else from the Archive - A souvenir. Something that shows you have been there. And has quite the personal value after you have trekked for so long to reach it for those who go for it for the first time.

However, if the Eidolon claps it all out of your inventory, and can you cannot reliably recover it, or have the needed skill to defeat it .... 

I wouldn't bother anymore. Or cheat. And that would make it a bad design when those solutions are the ones considered the most. 

fair point. I have rejected the spawning mechanics in this game for so long I forgot about that. 

[Echo Weaver]

2 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

fair point. I have rejected the spawning mechanics in this game for so long I forgot about that. 

Out of curiosity -- what do you do to the spawn mechanics? Do you just put keep inventory on?

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Stralgaez said:

And the latter is not ideal due to the potential loss of all the loot you might have gathered so far, along with your equipment.

To be fair, unless one has "keep inventory" turned on, they probably shouldn't be dropping into a hole with all their valuables on them, especially when said situation is something of an obvious boss fight. Aside from the boss being hinted at in the Archive's literature and set designs, the player will have had plenty of time to figure out that Vintage Story tends to be a pretty dangerous game. 

In any case, I took a stab at drafting a rework of the fight some time back. I suppose now's as good of time as any to drop a link: 

My general idea was to keep the fight mostly the same, but tweak a few details to smooth out the incoming damage and make the fight itself feel a little better/more immersive.

[Thorfinn]

IMO, this should all be resolved similar to the way Terraria did it -- mini-boss fights that you encounter before the story line. Skeleton warriors defending tombs, for example.

No, double-headed or nightmares do not count, because they are not anywhere close to the same level of challenge, plus they are swarms. Like Fezzik (Andre the Giant) put it in The Princess Bride, "you use different moves when you're fighting...  half a dozen... people... than when you only... have to be worried... about... one!"

Edited 4 hours ago by Thorfinn