Nihilister, Dragon of Inferno

Written by Jay

Published on: 2023-05-20

Updated on: 2025-03-13

Tips to beat Nihilister

Nihilister is the 2nd main Tyrant Class Heretic level Rapture the players face in Chapter 20 (the first being Modernia earlier in the story).

The boss encounter contains 2 Phases and for most people is a heavy DPS check at fairly difficult parts of the main story.

Unless you really took your time and didn’t progress as soon as you possibly could, you will be below the recommended power by 10’s of thousands of power (anywhere between 10 and 30k below).

This will make this fight way harder than it actually is, strictly due to the heavy power reductions the further you are away from the recommended.

Don’t fret however! Players have cleared the encounter more than 20k below the recommended power in both versions of the fight, knowing the fight well and having the right units and gear with a bit of luck and you too will be able to clear.

Phase 1

Phase 1 of the fight has the most mechanics in the encounter and is also the blocking point for most runs.

If you cannot reach the transition to Phase 2 (51.3 bars) with at least 50 seconds to 1 minute left on the clock, your chances of clearing the fight are extremely low.

At ~50 seconds left, your clear can be as low as 1–2 seconds remaining. It is almost worth resetting by that point to not waste time if you aren’t even close.

Nihilister’s attack pattern goes as follows:

• Throws x# of rocks at the player, targeting Nikke from left to right.
• Moving Red circle pattern (Either a snake pattern, or a square pattern. Always random)
• Boss will continuously move forward and fire its 2 guns at a single target for a few seconds. It will then target a second unit, dealing the same amount of damage.
• The boss will draw its cannon’s in and spend time charging up an attack which after a few seconds will breathe fire hitting your team (can be covered)
• The boss will then leap back to the edge of the area.
• Instead of firing rocks, the boss will fire off a stream of rockets at a random Nikke, and the rest of the patterns remain the same.

Strategies for Phase 1

• Losing cover is one of the most important things to avoid, if at any point you lose cover on any unit, it is 100% a guaranteed loss of that unit and isn’t worth continuing the fight.

  • It is generally better knowing when you can take damage and when to completely avoid it, taking hits from some attacks is better if you don’t use units with cover repair.

• If you are having trouble breaking the circles and have low investment in unit skills, it is possible to cycle your bursts around.

  • Make sure to use them just before the red circles come out, so your units have the buffs to break them way easier.

• Each part break does a lot of damage to the boss, the legs being the safest and easiest to break.

  • While the guns are much harder to target, they will make your overall run safer if you kill them
  • If you only break 1 gun, the other will deal more damage. Time your burst so you can break both of them at the same time if possible

• If number 2 is failed and you are unable to break the circles at any point, she will fire a series of missiles multiple times, targeting a single Nikke at random.

  • These missiles WILL kill a unit if the majority of them hit, however these missiles are extremely fragile.

The rocks thrown at the beginning of the fight deal damage to both Nikke and cover, they also are very sturdy for a projectile, so concentrated fire is necessary to break them.

The fire breath is the 1 attack you 100% have to avoid, getting a single tick of it applies 15-second damage over time debuff on the units and does Max HP % damage.

This will kill any unit not getting burst/sustained healing or the debuff removed. This is why you MUST have cover HP during the entirety of the first phase.

Bringing a healer is actually 100% optional, if you are comfortable knowing when units can take hits and how often during the fight.

If you are further below the power level, then you have no choice but to only bring DPS units in, as you will not have enough to get through the fight. You’ll end the fight with very low hp and potentially a lost unit or two, but the clear is more possible.

If you got through Phase 1, you are at the home stretch.

Phase 2

This phase is much more simple than the first and is really a home stretch phase for after you get through the painstaking amount of HP the first phase has.

There is still always a chance you lose units or run out of time if you aren’t careful.

Mechanics for Phase 2

• The boss opens the fight instantly flying over your team and dealing a fire breath attack dealing heavy damage, this attack MUST be covered.
• After it returns to the screen, it will deal a series of fire laser attacks that deal moderate damage to Nikke from left to right.
• The boss will also send the same smoldering rocks from the first phase at a Nikke dealing heavy damage to whoever is hit.
• The boss will screech and send a ton of missiles in the air in two waves, and do the same fire breath attack at the start of the fight soon afterward.
• The same attacks will then repeat from Step 2.

There is a lot less to deal with in this phase, but getting complacent is a definite possibility when you feel so close to ending the fight.

All of her attacks feel like they do a lot more because of how critically close she is to dying.

If you have any AOE burst (Scarlet, Privaty, Modernia etc.) those will clear the missiles instantly, they are extremely easy to destroy and can be dealt with fine.

Leaving those up is arguably more dangerous than anything else in the fight (excluding the fire breath).

The Breakable parts in the phase are its heads, realistically if you have enough damage to break one head, you can clear the fight with a burst soon afterward.

If you got through it all, then congrats! This fight is one of my favorites in the entire game. With insanely good music and a charismatic Heretic pilgrim unit to unlock afterwards makes the fight worthwhile.