When it comes to confusing bosses in Mortal Shell 2, Vrannic, the Grand Illusionist, takes the cake as finding this boss is quite peculiar in comparison to the other bosses within the game, and once you do find him, fighting him is another odd challenge in itself.
If you haven’t already, there are some bosses you can do before Vrannic to help prepare yourself for this complicated boss, such as the Grisha or the Great Arbiter of Flesh from earlier in the game, as both of these bosses are quite easy and will help prepare you for this challenging boss.
How to Find Vrannic, the Grand Illusionist in Mortal Shell 2
If you’re wondering exactly where Vrannic is, don’t worry, we’ll be able to direct you with minimal fuss. Starting at the Mushroom Village Beacon, you’re going to want to head East, towards the nearby Corrupted Gate. Before you head up to the centre mound that splits off in multiple directions, including left to Hilga and Grom, look to the left, and you’ll see a sort of hidden wooden bridge going across towards the Corrupted Gate. Head across this, killing the few enemies waiting for you, and you’ll quickly find yourself facing both the Gate and a new Beacon. As with all the rest, you’ll want to enter this Beacon so you can Cleanse it, but it’s also at the end of this Beacon you’ll encounter the big guy himself.
As you enter the Beacon and take the familiar steps down and elevator ride, you’ll enter the Hall of Illusions, which, with its name, is indicative of the puzzles ahead. As you go from room to room, killing the enemies lying in wait, you’ll have to solve three or four puzzles to make your way through to the end room. These aren’t hard, but they are pretty cool in their execution. You’ll see a stand of sorts, two small pillars standing facing the room. When you enter from one side, nothing happens, but if you turn and face the other way, the space between these pillars reveals a different room entirely to that which you can see on the other side, revealing your exit. Jump through the stand and head on into each subsequent room, once again killing the enemies that lie in your way.
You’ll have two of those to contend with; the third puzzle is different, as you’ll need to attack the Gloom branch sticking out of the floor, sinking the room into darkness, and then attack the wall that the statue is pointing at. You’ll be able to then phase through it as the wall disappears. Lastly, in this same room, head towards the next beacon and then look up to the ceiling, and then down, and the previously immaculate room will now have a huge hole in the centre. Jump down, and now you’ve found Vrannic. Finding him is only half the battle; now you have to figure out how to beat him.
How to Beat Vrannic, the Grand Illusionist
Now that you have found Vrannic, the Grand Illusionist, or should I say you have fallen into his trap, you can begin the boss fight. Because you have fallen into this arena, you likely aren’t prepared for the fight, but do not worry as Vrannic is quite a slow boss, meaning that you won’t have too much panic rolling to do before you are safe.
In order to beat Vrannic, you might be looking for an edge in combat that will aid you in defeating this mysterious boss, and luckily we have just the aid you might need, as you can find the build we used to beat this boss below.
- Tiel Shell – Location Here
- The Iconoclast – Starting weapon.
- Untarnish Seal.
- Forgotten Crossbow – Location Here
- Retribution Stone – Increase Riposte Damage
- Auspicious Stone – Improves Melee Critical Damage
When it comes to Vrannic’s attacks there arne’t too many that you have to worry about as his main attack focuses on him using his staff to stab down towards the player but there are two different versions of this attack, there is one that can be parried if you time it right, or there is a version of this attack that is unblockable meaning you will have to block it.
CHEESE METHOD: The arena is littered with pillars holding up the ceiling above. You can use these for cover, only coming out to attack Vrannic, and once again hiding when he sends his ungodly projectiles your way.
The other attack that Vrannic will use during this fight is that he will summon flying objects that will chase the player down to cause damage to them, but because they fly so slow, you can hide behind one of the pillars in the room to make them crash into them instead of simply run around and dodge them, we wouldn’t recommend parrying as there can be quite a few at once and with each one requiring their own parry it can be quite a problem.
So far, this might sound like a rather easy fight, but unfortunately this isn’t the case, as sadly when you manage to get Vrannic to around half health, he will disappear and summon duplicates of himself around the arena. Once Vrannic does this, you have two options in how to deal with his clones and Vrannic himself.
The first option that you can use in order to deal with these clones is the more obvious option of defeating each clone before focusing on the main boss himself, but this can be quite time consuming, although defeating these enemies can be quite simple as during our playthrough we were able to one shot the clones with the Forgotten crossbow but we had managed to rank this weapon up quite high so a base version may not be able to duplicate these results.
The second option for dealing with these clones is to ignore them and try and find the main boss himself. This option is incredibly risky as this means you are leaving numerous enemies on the field that can constantly attack you, making the fight a lot harder. This can especially become harder when all the clones use the same attack that summons projectiles, as it means rather than dodging 6 projectiles you will instead be avoiding around 30.
Although this method does have its flaws, there is one silver lining, and that is the main boss is very easy to notice as he is slightly taller than the other enemies while also being the only enemy that doesn’t have a health bar over their head. Once you decide which method of fighting this boss you want to employ, then you will have no problems defeating him and opening up the opportunity to head into the Corrupted Gate. Along with this, you will also earn these rewards:
- A Volatile Fragment
- One Glimpse
- 3,500 Gloom
For your next read, don’t miss our review of Mortal Shell 2, or our top tips for making the game easier than it should have any right to be.
Liam is a Senior Editor, Writer, and Critic for Thumb Wars and has been working with the team since day one. Liam is a big fan of all things gaming, as you will catch him playing all of the new releases from every genre you can imagine. Whether you find Liam gaming just for fun or spending his free time streaming, you will always find a smile on his face when it comes to all things gaming.
