The First Descendant | How to Beat the Hanged Man Boss (F2P Friendly)

While most of your time in The First Descendant will be spent grinding out new weapons or characters, some of its best moments are its Void Interception missions. In these activities, you enter a space outside of reality, one where you face off against massive, unknowable creatures known as colossi in tense boss battles. With only 10 minutes on the clock and a maximum of three deaths per run, you and your team will need to build around and exploit each colossi’s unique weaknesses and mechanics. And the final colossi waiting for you at the end is the Hanged Man. 

The Hanged Man only becomes available once you’ve completed The First Descendant campaign. What sets the Hanged Man apart from all other Void Interception encounters is that it has a very specific set of combat mechanics you and your team need to engage with: fail to do so and the Hanged Man has a built-in wipe mechanic which will always fail the mission. Compared to everything else you’ve faced so far, the Hanged Man will be your toughest battle yet. 

Here’s how to defeat the Hanged Man Colossi in The First Descendant. 

The Hanged Man

Hanged Man Weaknesses and Weak Points

The Hanged Man is the final colossi of Normal difficulty in The First Descendant. As such, it also has some of the most strict elemental resistance requirements and hard-to-reach weak points of any boss in the game. When it comes to weakness and resistance, the Hanged Man is especially weak to Toxic damage and extremely resistant to Electric damage:

• Fire: Strong
• Electric: Very Strong
• Chill: Normal
• Toxic: Very Weak

As for its destructible and removable parts, you’re able to destroy the Hanged Man’s Sensor (tubes on its back), Core Cover (plating on its head), and Rear Cover (plating on its back). Meanwhile, the removable parts (AKA parts of the colossi which you can grapple onto) on the Hanged Man are its Core and its Shoulders.

However, removing these parts is a feat easier said than done. The boss’ serpentine appearance and constant thrashing make consistently hitting the same weak point very difficult. As such, you should generally aim to damage the back half of the boss, which is where the majority of its weak points are located, but don’t be surprised if you only manage to shed one or two parts of the Hanged Man throughout the entire encounter. 

Best Descendants for the Hanged Man

On the offence side, Freyna is easily the best Descendant to bring against the Hanged Man thanks to her ability to exploit the boss’ severe Toxic weakness. On one hand, Freyna’s Ultimate, Venom Baptism, is incredibly strong against the Hanged Man as it deals high amounts of Toxic damage which can deal critical and precision damage, whereas her Venom Trauma skill is also a nice instant chunk of Toxic damage. Then, on the other hand, her ability to quickly cover the battlefield in damaging AoEs can protect you from the Hanged Man’s KingFisher minions. All in all, there’s very little reason to bring anyone else if you already have Freyna.

Next to Freyna, Gley is probably the next best in terms of raw power. While she is a bit harder to play than Freyna on account of the restrictions placed by her Frenzied state, the benefits are massive such as her ability to not consume ammo while the Maximum Lethality buff is ability. Considering that most of your damage against the Hanged Man will be from your weapons and that the only way to regain ammo is from the KingFishers, this is a big boon.

Freyna and Gley are Best for Damage

Meanwhile, if you’d prefer to support your allies and take on the harder, riskier job, we recommend coming in with either Viessa or Bunny. At first glance, these two characters may seem like an odd choice, especially when you look at how their Descendant abilities match up against the Hanged Man: after all, most of Viessa’s attacks simply won’t reach the Hanged Man while all of Bunny’s damage will be greatly reduced on account of the colossi’s significant Electric resistance. 

However, you’re not bringing these Descendants for their damage but for their mobility. Both Bunny and Viessa have Descendant abilities which greatly boost their mobility and speed for a certain amount of time while maintaining their current form, unlike Valby. This will prove vital in the Hanged Man’s boss encounter which has a set role that requires running around and avoiding the boss while your allies damage it. In this scenario, Viessa and Bunny become top-tier options.

Bunny and Viessa are Great Cube Runners

Best Modules for the Hanged Man

The most important of all Descendant Modules for this fight is easily Electric Antibody. All of the Hanged Man’s attacks deal Electric damage and, if you aren’t built to handle them, they’ll almost always one-shot you. The First Descendant recommends that you have at least 3,100 Electric Resistance before stepping into the Hanged Man’s arena but stockpiling additional resistances isn’t going to hurt.

Here’s a full list of recommended Descendant modules:

• Electric Antibody: Increased Electric Resistance
• Polygenic Antibody: Increased All Attribute Resistance
• Increased HP: Increased Max HP
• Spear and Shield: Increased DEF and Skill Power
• Toxic Specialist / Chill Specialist / Non-Attribute Specialist: Increases Toxic / Chill / Non-Attribute Skill Power

Electric Antibody Resistance Module

As for weapon modules, the Hanged Man doesn’t differ too much from other colossi. In terms of elemental attunement, you’ll want to slap an upgraded version of Toxic Enhancement on all your weapons for that extra big damage boost against the Hanged Man’s severe toxic weakness. In conjunction with this, Toxic Gunbarrel or Posion Priority are also excellent module options as they further increase the Toxic damage of your guns, albeit while also slightly dropping other stats like Fire Rate or Reload Speed.

Other weapon modules you should consider bringing to the Hanged Man boss fight are:

• Toxic Enhancement: Adds Toxic DMG equal to a % of your Firearm ATK
• Rifling Reinforcement: Increases Firearm ATK
• Fire Rate Up: Increases Fire Rate
• Weak Point Sight: Increased Weak Point Damage
• Anti-Matter Round: Increased Firearm ATK and Firearm Critical Hit Damage
• Expand Weapon Charge: More rounds per magazine

Toxic Enhancement Weapon Module

How to Beat the Hanged Man in The First Descendant

The Hanged Man is a very unique boss when compared to all other colossi in The First Descendant. Instead of being highly mobile, the Hanged Man is almost completely stationary, hanging down from a single spot in the centre of the arena. However, just because it cannot move doesn’t mean it’s any less dangerous, with the majority of its attacks being simultaneously high in damage and wide in area of effect. Furthermore, because the Hanged Man is high off the ground, a lot of Descendant abilities simply won’t reach it, limiting how you deal damage.

Fortunately, there is a lot of cover around the arena and, thanks to the Hanged Man’s large frame, you’ll almost always be able to see it. This allows you to get in some comfortable damage with almost any weapon type while remaining relatively safe, although Snipers, Scout Rifles, and Tactical Rifles will all see the biggest gain when it comes to damage due to their higher range.

Additionally, like the Dead Bride and several other colossi, the Hanged Man will spawn in waves of small Kingfishers every few minutes. While they don’t deal a ton of damage on their own, they are very annoying adds and will often stun you for a moment with their attacks, which can prove disastrous if the Hanged Man is doing certain attacks. The best bet is to use the majority of your Descendant abilities to deal with the Kingfishers, especially the ones which you cannot use against the Hanged Man itself. 

Take Out the KingFishers

In its normal state, the Hanged Man has three main attacks you need to be aware of:

• Homing Electric Balls: The Hanged Man will fire off a barrage of electric balls which will each hone in on a different player. These balls have incredibly accurate tracking and deal very high Electric DMG if they hit you. The best way to avoid them is to kite the balls into the various bits of cover around the arena. 
• Close Range Slam: If you get too close to the Hanged Man and stay there for a significant time, it will rise up before slamming both of its hands down onto the ground. This will create a wide Electric shockwave which will deal heavy damage to any nearby allies. Attacking at range is the easiest way to avoid this attack but, if you’re using an SMG or any other close-range weapon, just keep moving in a circle around the Hanged Man to stop it from casting this attack. 
• Rain of Lightning: The Hanged Man roars, calling down a surge of lightning strikes around the arena. While these strikes don’t seem to specifically target players, they go off at an incredibly fast rate and deal a lot of damage. The best tip for this attack is to just keep moving and look out for the blue AoEs which signify where the next lightning strikes will hit.

These are the main attacks you’ll be dealing with during the first few minutes of the Hanged Man fight. However, things change once you reach the minute-and-a-half mark.

How to Stop the Hanged Man’s Instant Kill Attack

Below the Hanged Man, you’ll see an angelic statue surrounded by four large tubes. As the fight progresses, these tubes will slowly fill with red liquid and it will take roughly two minutes for them to fill to the top. If you allow them to fill completely, the Hanged Man will deliver a devastating attack across the whole arena, instantly killing all party members: you cannot dodge or block this attack, resulting in an instant wipe and mission failure if you get hit by it. 

The only way to stop this wipe mechanic is to have one of your team members pick up the small floating cube in front of the statue. Picking up the cube is similar to picking up a bomb as it significantly hampers your mobility and stops you from using any of your skills or weapons aside from your grappling hook. We recommend the runner be either a Viessa or a Bunny as both of those Descendants have mobility skills which they can pop before picking up the cube, allowing them to stay highly mobile while holding it.

The Hanged Man will enter its frenzied state once the cube has been removed from the pedestal, making it immune to all damage. The only exception is its mouth which will become vulnerable whenever it starts charging its massive beam attack. Dealing enough damage to the Hanged Man’s mouth will stagger it, delaying the beam attack and draining about half of the liquid from the tubes.

As a side note, the liquid will only drain if the runner is currently holding the cube. If they drop the cube or are incapacitated, destroying the Hanged Man’s mouth will only delay the beam and won’t drain the liquid. As such, it is paramount that the runner stays alive and that the non-runner players destroy the mouth before the beam attack goes off (which, in most scenarios, will result in an instantly KO). 

Shoot the Mouth while Holding the Cube to Drain the Tubes

So, the goal here is to have the runner run around the arena with the cube while the other players destroy the Hanged Man’s mouth. Once you’ve done this twice, enough liquid will have drained from the tubes, allowing the runner to return the cube. This will restart the regular damage phase. 

From here, you just repeat the process of damaging the Hanged Man until you need to drain the tubes, at which point you should have your runner grab the cube. With only 10 minutes to defeat the Hanged Man, you’ll likely go through about three cycles of running before you take it down. 

Punish When It Gets Stunned

Step-by-Step Guide to the Hanged Man

If you’d prefer a simplified explanation of how to defeat the Hanged Man in The First Descendant:

1. DPS the Hanged Man with your whole team while avoiding its attacks.
2. Once about a minute and a half have passed and the tubes next to the statue are nearly full, designate one player in your team as the cube runner (preferably a Viessa or Bunny). 
3. The runner should grab the cube from the statue and begin moving around the arena away from the other players.
4. Meanwhile, the remaining three players should focus on the Hanged Man’s mouth and shoot it as it begins to charge its wide beam attack. 
5. Deal enough damage to the Hanged Man’s mouth and the colossi will stagger, draining roughly 50% of the liquid from the tubes. Repeat this process twice until most of the liquid has been drained.
6. Once you’ve gotten rid of the liquid, have the runner place the cube back onto the pedestal so you can continue normal damage without fear of the wipe mechanic. 
7. Whenever the tubes are about to completely fill up, have your runner grab the cube and repeat the process again. 
8. Rinse and repeat these steps until the Hanged Man falls. 

Watch the Hanged Man Fall

That was how to beat the Hanged Man in The First Descendant.