How to defeat Viper Napuatzi in Path of Exile 2

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Napuatzi viper is the boss Path of Exile 2third act Located in Utzaal, Napuatzi unleashes a variety of poison attacks in an extremely tiny arena, forcing you into claustrophobic combat.

Viper Napuatzi may not be as sophisticated and overwhelming as some of the other fights in Act 2 or 3, but the narrow size of the arena and the power of the poison make her extremely deadly. This is especially true when he uses a few basic moves in quick succession to cover the arena in poison or pin you in a corner.

Our Path of Exile 2 conductor covers How to defeat Viper Napuatziincluding how to prepare for a boss fight and how best to deal with the attack you will face.

Viper Napuatzi’s weaknesses and how to prepare

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

When you get to the Viper Naputazi boss fight, you’ll want to be nearby level 43-45if not higher. Unfortunately, Viper Napuatzi is immune to almost all types of elemental damageincluding fire, frost and lightning. She is also resistant to physical damage. That’s why you want to apply chaos damage if you have it on hand at the moment, or try to break down her armor as much as possible.

This makes certain classes much more effective against her, such as the Warrior with her smash attacks, or the Witch if you’ve managed to build a chaos build at this point. A Ranger with poison or chaos attacks is also effective. Other classes will have a harder time, such as Monk and Sorceress, so you want to combine your gear and defense with chaos resistance (poison damage counts as chaos damage).

The main way to achieve this is by using farming equipment with chaos resistance stats throughout Act 3. Additionally, you can apply highways in the passive skill tree to purchase chaos resistance nodes, which may be far from where you started in the tree.

The menu shows the best skills you can get from the Viper Napuatzi boss fight in POE2

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

You can also apply the Ring of Chaos Resistance, which can be found in Act 3 as a random drop or purchased from one of the vendors in Act 2 or 3.

Finally, if you defeat Ignagduk (which you could have done while obtaining the spirit) and complete the Tribal Revenge quest, you will be able to select the Amulet of the Blooming Antidote. This gives you immunity to poison when you are poisoned. If you haven’t selected it, your only hope is to randomly find it while farming enemies.

How to defeat Viper Napuatzi in Path of Exile 2

Viper Napuatzi is a demanding fight in a tiny arena with a lot going on visually. It will gradually add more attacks throughout the fight, rather than switching between distinct phases. Therefore, as the fight goes on, it becomes more unpredictable. In this guide, we’ll cover each attack, roughly in the order in which they appear.

The basic range of attacks that Viper Napuatzi has is a series of spear attacks. This includes a sideways lunge that can be dodged, as well as the standard three-hit combo. The first two blows will hit at close range, then he will leap forward and drive his spear into the ground for a more powerful third attack. These can be avoided by turning away from her during the first two attacks and then avoiding the hit by rolling to the side.

POE2 dodges fire while fighting Viper Napuatzi

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

In his next attack, he slowly moves forward, swinging his spear. He will then jump forward and spin his spear, dealing poison damage. To avoid the attack, move away from her. Almost all of her attacks also deal poison and chaos damage, so when you get hit, you’ll constantly take some damage while infected with poison. This is why Chaos Damage Resistance is so essential if you can get it.

Viper Napuatzi sends two snakes as a projectile attack in Path of Exile 2

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

He may also run towards you to close the distance between you. When Napuatzi holds the spear to his right and charges it, you will see a concentration of poison at the end. (It will be raucous too hit beep.) This is a charged ranged attack that fires two snakes in front of her. He has quite a long range in the arena, so you want to back away and avoid him when he releases his charged attack. He will also scream while charging this attack. As soon as it stops, get ready to dodge.

A Path of Exile 2 player avoids knives and fireballs during the boss fight with Viper Napuatzi

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

He can also take a quick step back and then throw poison in front of him, at which point you want to dodge backwards. Additionally, he can throw lightning knives that bounce off the sides of the arena. You can avoid them by rolling the attack to the side.

Generally speaking, in between all of these attacks, you won’t want to apply any single-target auto-aim abilities, area-of-effect abilities, or projectiles like walls and bullets to deal damage between dodges. Don’t stay too close to her either. Instead, slowly guide her around the arena from a distance, maintaining a medium distance. This will allow you to avoid most of her melee attacks with good dodges and you won’t have to worry about projectiles.

If you’re playing a Warrior or a melee-focused class, focusing on skills like wards and shockwaves is key. If you don’t damage Napuatzi for too long, her energy shield will return.

Viper Napuatzi fires a series of fire bolts during the POE2 boss fight

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

Once Napuatzi is down to around 85%, he will place his spear in the ground and create a pool of poison around it. He will also levitate in the air and fire firebombs that hit the arena from above. These are marked with circles on the ground, and the trick to avoid them is to slowly walk around the arena. Don’t roll. Just move to places the bombings didn’t hit (or just hit).

Viper Napuatzi covers the arena with chaos bombing in the POE2 boss fight

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

He will then apply Chaos Bombardments, which work in exactly the same way. However, their area of ​​effect is much larger, so you’ll want to roll to avoid them. Fortunately, there are fewer bombings at a time compared to fire bombings. However, you will still have to walk around empty areas of the arena or areas that have just been hit by bombing.

Once Napuatzi lands back on the ground, he will start shooting poison bullets at you, which deal significant damage. These poison bullets appear either as speedy and unrelenting streams of poison, or as a shotgun blast of about five bullets in front of it. She will consistently switch between both formations, and the only real way to damage her is with area attacks, as you won’t have time to cast long spells or perform melee swings.

The shotgun blast must be avoided by performing a roll By attack, but you can bypass Napuatzi to avoid the stream of poison bullets. She will quickly change direction to catch up with you, so try to keep an eye on her. If you’re lucky and he lands on a spear after the bombardments, he can pick it up and go back to melee attacks instead of those projectiles.

Viper Napuatzi fires poisonous bullets during the POE2 boss fight

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

Napuatzi can also charge into a languid poison projectile attack, which you can initially avoid by staying behind her. However, when it starts attacking again, these projectiles will remain in the arena for a few seconds.

If she jumps into the air and screams when this happens, move away from her as she is about to launch a slam attack. If Napuatzi crouches, he prepares to perform one of his most devastating moves. In addition to occasionally firing tiny, slow-moving projectiles of poison, it will momentarily sink into the ground before exploding, firing spears of minions that act as a wall around the arena.

These creatures will randomly shoot their spears back and forth, but right before they attack they will glow dazzling green, allowing you to dodge or stand in an area where they are not attacking. However, you must watch out for the left and right sides of the arena, because the creatures will attack from both sides.

Viper Napuatzi shoots spears during the POE2 boss fight

Photo: Grinding Gear Games via Polygon

The best strategy is to stay in a tiny part of the arena away from Napuatzi and zigzag back and forth depending on where the creatures are attacking. Once Napuatzi finishes his attack, he will return to performing the remaining moves described above. Additionally, each time he finishes this attack, the arena will get smaller and the creatures will get closer to it.

This makes the fight even more stressful because once he finishes his spear attack for the first time, he no longer gains any novel moves. However, it will still apply every move you’ve had before, including melee attacks, lightning knives, fire and chaos bombing, and poison bullets.

Dodge becomes even more essential here, as he won’t stop running towards you or let you keep his distance. Try to keep as much space between you and her as possible by using your skills. One wrong dodge can put you in a tight area and be hit with a barrage of attacks, effectively forcing you to heal and apply one of the bottles. (You want to hold them off for the last 5% of her health, which is when the arena gets so tiny that it’s strenuous to dodge some attacks.)

There is no set order for these attacks. He can apply multiple bombs in a row, ruthlessly spam melee attacks, or switch between both. You just need to become familiar with the movements that signal each attack. She will perform a spear attack (the one where she floats) after her health drops to around 30%.

Once her health drops to 5%, she will perform her spear attack more consistently. However, the arena will not shrink, which is a tiny improvement. However, you cannot damage her during this attack, so you must wait until she starts fighting again on the ground – and then you can resume dealing damage.

After defeating Viper Naputazi, you will be able to advance to the Cruel difficulty level and complete the game.

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