Within this short time of Returnal’s release, we all have seen how unpredictable this game can be. Enemies are attacking from every side and Selene is at your mercy. The bosses in this game are beautifully broken and that projects in their attacks. No time to appreciate the beauty, you will have to be on quick your toes throughout. The second phase of the game will put you on the ground with Ixion face to face. This can be a little problematic; or a lot. So to help you in this boss fight, we will walk you through a strategy to kill Ixion easily and defeat it in Returnal to win the 2nd boss fight.
How to Kill Ixion, the 2nd boss in Returnal Easily?
Follow the below-mentioned strategies to defeat and eventually kill Ixion i.e the second boss easily in Returnal and win the 2nd Boss Fight.
Know Your Enemy And Your Surroundings
The first thing you will notice at the Ixion boss fight location is a huge open circular ground with nowhere to hide. It is just you and it face to face with no cover. Ixion has wings and can fly fast. It will have a mixture of air and ground attacks that cover the entire area. The fight is into three phases just like the first boss and each phase will be harder than the previous one.
Phase 1
In phase 1, all the attacks will be commenced by the Ixion while he is up in the air flying.
Ixion Attack patterns for the 1st phase
In stage one, Ixion is just air bound and has 3 main kinds of attacks:
Attack 1 – Projects Blue orbs in an uneven line at the player.
Attack 2 – Projects Blue orbs in a group of orbs in one particular area.
Attack 3 – Projects Blue orbs in a swirling sort of motion as shown below.
Player Defense for the 1st Phase
Ixion’s attack pattern in this stage is that it moves after every attack. For instance, he will commence attack 1, then fly to a different location, and then commence attack 2 and so forth. When he moves he projects Orange orbs or Blue orbs in the area that he moves from which look like so:
All the attacks here can be dodge sideways. We recommend that during attack 1, just focus on defense and dodging the attack. However, with attacks 2 and 3, the players can shoot at the enemy while dodging as the chances of these attacks being hit are lower than the 1st attack. This phase will be easier to get through for this Returnal Boss Fight and kill Ixion if you maintain distance. This should help you get some buffer time to see those attacks coming. The 3rd attack will only be encountered two times in the first phase.
Phase 2
In Phase 2, Ixion will land on the ground and have ground attacks along with air bound attacks
Ixion Attacks For the Second Phase
In the second phase, Axion will already have its attacks from Phase one and these will be added on:
Attack 4 – Rings of Blue and Red projecting from him when he is standing in the middle of the arena along with orbs in all directions
Attack 5 – Projecting Blue orbs in wavy lines at the player.
Player Strategy for Phase 2
The players can tackle this phase in two parts:
For the first half of this phase, Ixion will be on the ground. Attack 4 will cover the entire battle arena so distancing yourself will not help. The only way is to jump over them. It will project these rings back to back. There will be one blue ring followed by a circle of orange orbs and the blue orbs will be air bound flying in all directions. You can also dash through these rings as you will be immune while dashing. But the enemy will also throw orbs at you which you will need to dodge simultaneously so we suggest you save your dash for that. Just concentrate on defense and dodge for the first half of the second phase.
For the second half of this phase, Ixion will be back in the air. It will be out of your frame for most of the flying attacks due to its speed. Pay attention to the audio cues of Ixion. This is will help you be prepared for the direction of the attacks when it is not in the frame. This is where you go all on with the attacks and kill Ixion in Returnal. His attack patterns will be similar to the 1st place and he will be stationary before every attack that he commences. Keep your distance from him to have a short time gap.
Phase 3
In Phase 3, Ixion will have a mixture of all the attacks from Phases and more.
Ixion Attacks For the Third Phase
Ixion will already have the attacks from the first two phases and the following attacks will be added:
Attack 6 – Single beam covering a straight line on the ground along with blue rays from either side of Ixion.
Attack 7 – Rings of Blue orbs in the air and a ring of orange orbs on the ground.
Attack 8 – Sweeping strikes directly at the player.
Player Defense Strategy for Phase 3 to Kill Ixion in Returnal
This phase is basically a summation of all his attacks from all his phases that he commences simultaneously. The player just has to dodge during this phase. Eventually, the back-to-back attacks will have some buffer times in between and that is when the player can attack. After Attack 4, there is a short window after attacks that is when the player can cause the most damage. Look for that window and try to time your dash in a way that you cover two rings per one dash.
All in all, a complete defense-oriented strategy will help you defeat and kill Ixion in Returnal Boss Fight. Make sure you have any weapon above level 7 and the ones that have auto-target on the enemy or you will miss most of your shots.
So that will be all for our guide on how to kill and defeat Ixion, the 2nd Boss in the Returnal boss fight series. If you would like to know what would happen if you die in Returnal, check out our guide on that too.
