The Swansong

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The Swansong
Cultist Mech Boss
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Health 1500 HP
Phases
Mission The Dantalion.png The Dantalion
Spawns
Drops Swansong Figurine Icon.png Swansong Figurine (5%)

The Swansong is the final bounty of the bounty hunting questline, and by extension the final boss fight in the game, given the post-Ruin nature of the bounty mission in question. It is a mech piloted by Asra Nox found at the end of the Dantalion. If the player is not equipped with a high-level mech, this fight can be extremely tough. It requires agility and a very high level of mech energy.

The boss fight with the Swansong can be divided into two phases with an intermediate part.

Phase 1: This phase consists of the two alternating parts. In one part, the gravity is turned on and Swansong hovers above the floor. It then creates eight orbs, which all fall to the floor as well. Once the orbs begin to fall, they can be attacked by the player. The orbs have a very large amount of health, but if they are eventually destroyed by the player's attacks, they have a chance to drop energy for the mech. After the orbs are created, a laser with come from Swansong that will follow the player's position. After two seconds or so, the laser stops moving. Then Swansong fires some orange pellets along the laser's path. This laser attack is repeated twice. After this, the other part begins. Gravity is turned off, and Swansong rises into the center of the arena. All of the orbs will also rise and make a formation around Swansong. Orange beams will connect nearby orbs. When the orbs become numerous enough, the collection of orbs and beams will resemble a spiderweb (picture needed). The beams deal damage when the mech or player comes into contact. Swansong will then attack the player with one of three attacks. One of these attacks involves the Swansong launching a large number of missiles that surround it, and then begin to target the player one at a time. The second possible attack involves Swansong shooting orange beams at the player. The beams are launched about one second apart, and target the location where the player will be based on the player's current velocity. The last possible attack involves Swansong getting a sword and launching itself toward the player, stopping only when it hits a wall. After hitting a wall, Swansong begins to move back towards the center, leaving a small damage-dealing section of the wall where the sword hit it. After moving for half a second, Swansong targets the player again and repeats the process. During this third possible attack, Swansong may use a large sword swipe if the player's mech is in range for such an attack. These two sections alternate until Swansong's health bar reaches zero. When Swansong runs out of health, all remaining orbs are destroyed, and Swansong goes into the intermediate part.

Intermediate Part: This part is similar to one of the attacks in the first phase. Swansong becomes invulnerable and begins to fill up its health bar. While this is happening, it shoots lasers at the location where the player is going to be, similar to one of the attacks in the first phase. However, this time the lasers come more quickly than the attack in the first phase. This intermediate part continues until the the health bar is full.

Phase 2: During this phase Swansong attacks using the sword in one of three different ways. Swansong will either attack with the close-range swipe of the sword seen in phase 1, do the lunge with the sword (also from phase 1), or do a large dash attack that takes Swansong more than halfway across the arena in a very short period of time. During the second phase Swansong also teleports frequently. Swansong continues to use these attacks and teleport until the player is killed or Swansong is defeated.

The key to this boss fight is keeping the mech's health high enough to survive the second phase. The first phase of the boss fight can be beaten consistently by attacking the orbs right after Swansong creates them, and attacking Swansong at every other time. The intermediate phase can be beaten by circling around Swansong at a very close range so that the mech is never hit by the laser attacks. The second phase isn't very complicated; as long as the player attacks Swansong at every opportunity and dodges its attacks fairly well, Swansong should be defeated before the player's mech runs out of energy.

Known Bug
Sewer Fly.png
The Swansong's behavioral code contains significant bugs, which may be triggered depending on the relative locations of the player and Swansong when Swansong's lunging attacks occur. If these bugs are triggered, either the fight may restart, or it will become unwinnable. The Starbound Patch Project contains partial fixes for these bugs.


Trivia

- The name Swansong is a term referring to a final performance before the end of one's career, a name that's particularly fitting with Asra's line of "one last dance" before the Swansong boss fight begins.

- This boss is notable for being, at present, the only boss fought via the player's Mech in the base game.