ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights – How to Beat Hoenir Boss

Hoenir Boss Guide

Preparation

The first step to fighting Hoenir is ensuring you have a proper arsenal. It IS possible to somewhat-consistently defeat Hoenir using just Umbral, Eleine and Siegrid. I would suggest having Siegrid at least level 3 and Eleine at level 2 for higher stamina (and HP) damage.

However, there is one spirit that does increase the damage output greatly. Our lord and saviour, Headless Defender. You won’t have him for all the runs but for something like SSO he is mandatory. Otherwise, Floral Sorceress is another great choice as she does massive stamina damage combined with Siegrid. All other spirits are bonuses, these are just the bare minimum.

Phase #1

In the beginning of the fight, Hoenir will jump immediately away from the player to whichever side the player is not on. 

Executioners will always spawn at the start of this fight, periodically, and at the beginning of every phase. 

• There is no definite answer to them. It’s slow to kill all of them but dangerous to leave them since they will constantly attack you. Kill some, avoid some.
• Leaving a number of them alive but at one HP before a phase change will stop more full health executioners from spawning. So leave a few fatally wounded before the change and then finish them off.

If the player is far enough away from Hoenir when he lands, he will throw a dagger. 

• It’s best to hop over this while using ranged attacks that can hurt him or to close the distance and get whatever burst damage you can off on him

Sometimes if the player is too far, he will throw an additional dagger and you’ll need to wait for him to idle so that he doesn’t jump away instantly when you approach. If you’re going to strike him in melee at this phase, it MUST be while he is throwing a dagger.

Don’t stagger him randomly, use his jumping distance as a guide. You want him on either far side of the arena when he has low stamina.

In the image above, this is the right-side of his arena. Using the background pillar on the leftside, Hoenir will sometimes jump to the left but usually right when he is PAST this pillar.

• When he is below or past the torch in the background, he will always jump left.

If you’ve managed his stamina well, you’ll be able to intercept him in his jump since he is forced to jump over you.

• Do this using Siegrid + Floral (if you have her) at the peak of his jump for maximum fall damage

Fall damage is what makes Hoenir both fast and easy if utilized correctly, similar to Eleine. Basically, if you’re seeing him fall from this height, you’re doing great.

Continue this, and he will enter 2nd phase when his health bar reaches the p in “keeper”

Phase #2

After a short animation, Hoenir will enter his 2nd phase.  In this phase, he will walk more actively towards the player, opting to throw 2 daggers in succession now instead of one. Now is where his fight turns into more RNG as he has several mixups. 

Hoenir can opt out of throwing the second dagger, choosing to jump towards and over the player instead. He will unleash 4 daggers in a cone beneath him as he does.

This attack is actually ideal! (ESPECIALLY if you have Hidden Test Subject / Headless Defender for massive stamina damage).

Again, Hoenir is all about proper stamina management. So by using a ranged attack like Eleine or Hamlet Youth, we can degrade his stamina until he is almost staggered. Baiting out the first dagger and then waiting for him to jump, it will ALWAYS be a maximum height jump. 

Staggering him midair will yield immense fall damage. However, this is not the only attack pattern we can abuse!

Hoenir gains the ability to utilize a cyclone/whirlwind type attack in front of him when the player is too close upon recovering from stamina breakage or after throwing a 2nd dagger.

• Hoenir loves his personal space.

However, there is a gap between the hitbox of the cyclone and Hoenir that the player can sit inside of while utilizing melee attacks. 

• Use this in the place of a missed stagger as Hoenir has a 50/50 chance of throwing it out when he recovers.
• The placement can be tricky but consistent with some practice.

As long as Hoenir works with you and doesn’t constantly throw double daggers or just hops away like a god dayum frog, you’ll move onto the 3rd phase easily enough.

Phase #3

After a longer animation, Hoenir will enter his 3rd phase. 

• Not only does he lose his cloak, but also every sense of personal space he had
• He will now invade yours constantly, all the time, everywhere, and all at once

Hoenir will now become exceedingly aggressive, running after the player and constantly using jumping spin attacks that range from high to low arcs. 

Because someone let a typewriter design Hoenir, once again most of his attack patterns are RNG (I actually love this bossfight but he can be HARD).

• Luckily, he now moves exponentially faster than the executioners and it’s easy to run from them and let Hoenir follow to avoid them

Hoenir’s patterns change starting with his double dagger throw, with two coming out in succession:

• The good news is that he can no longer do a mixup and throw only one, he will ALWAYS throw 2 (unless you approach, he may use the whirlwind).
• The bad news is the mixup comes after the jump.

When Hoenir finishes throwing the second dagger, he can do the long jump while throwing 4 daggers beneath him as in his 2nd phase. OR, he will do a high, but not very far, spinning attack. He will ALWAYS follow this attack up with another high spin attack after the first.

• He can also throw out either variation of his spin attack without throwing daggers as a precursor, because AHHH.

Remember Headless Defender, our sweet prince?

This is where he shines:

• Whenever Hoenir is currently using a spin attack, if he is countered by Headless Defender / Hidden Test Subject he will drop like a rock and receive appropriate fall damage regardless of his stamina

That means the ideal attack pattern that makes Hoenir both fast and easy should be a Headless Defender counter on the 2nd high jump as it is highly predictable and highly damaging. It should look like this: 

Hoenir will somewhat randomly use the gap-closing single jump spin which can also be countered likewise but for less damage since it’s not as high of a jump. Hoenir is also much more likely to do a spin attack jump rather than use the cyclone after recovering from a stun.

• NEVER attempt the cyclone spacing trick in 3rd phase, his jump attack will guaranteed hit you if you try it.

If you don’t have Headless Defender, you can still get fall damage! It’s just harder and somewhat more risky.

• After the double dagger throw, Hoenir will always do “some” jump towards the player.
  • It might be the double high spin attack, or the phase 2 quadruple dagger.
• Either one can be hit by a well placed Siegrid + Floral.
  • This is risky because the Quadruple dagger might directly pelt Lily in the face like dodgeballs and instantly end your run.

There you have it, now go slaughter this maniac as many times as possible.