Dolmen
31 Achievements
18-22h
PS5
Ferronightmare
Kill the Ferronightmare
12.6%
How to unlock the Ferronightmare achievement in Dolmen - Definitive Guide
Trimbler
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
The Ferronightmare is a boss who doesn't have a ton of health, but a few environmental challenges may cause you some headaches. You find this boss in the Power Plant area. Given the small area, it's not hard to find him; you'll see the typical Respawn/Multiplayer terminal right outside the door entering onto his arena.
Arena
The arena is a raised, circular area that's not small, but as I've fallen off both on the stairs leading into the arena (more on this in a second) and by being knocked off by the boss, it's not super-big, either. Additionally, there are four walkway "spokes" that lead to smaller circular arena areas that have small stones in the center of those areas.
Gear
The boss is a flying beetle-like creature who will spit acid and is weak to ice. So, if you have multiple armor sets, find one that's most resistant to acid; and gear up with your best ice weapons. If you have other weapons that are not ice but do a lot of DPS, those will work, too. The Nikiderma Shotgun does fire-damage and due to the large boss size, is a great option for this fight.
Boss Attacks
The boss has a couple unblockable attacks, so dodging is your best strategy here. The first unblockable is a ramming attack. It's slow and telegraphed, so just be ready to not be where he's charging. The second unblockable is a three-move swiping attack. With his front legs/arms/claws, he'll swipe-swipe-swipe. Just dodge-dodge-dodge ... or be far enough away that you aren't hit. After this, you get a small window for a melee attack. Do not be greedy as stamina rules do not appear to apply to this guy.
His next set of attacks are spewing acid and he has three of these attacks. First is a laser-like attack that comes from his mouth that he'll swipe horizontally across the arena in front of him like a sword swipe. While you should be able to dodge through this, I was never able to time it, so I and ended up trying to get behind him while he did this attack. Getting behind him is easy and safe. You can also punish him while he's facing the other way.
The second acid attack is where he'll rear up on his back legs and fan a swath of acid out in front of him. In my fights he was always near the edge of the arena, so getting behind him was out of the question, but the swath is reasonably narrow that you can stay to the side of it easily. Unfortunately, he'll do this several times in a row and the effect stick around a while, so you may run out of "safe" space to stand in.
The final acid attack is an aerial bombardment. He'll fly up in the air, target you, and then run a straight line, carpet-bombing with acid. Again, getting to the side of this is your best bet and, again, he'll sometimes do this several times in a row.
Strategy
After you get this boss to about half-health, the four smaller circular areas off the spokes come into play: he'll fly to one of these four areas, land on the stone in the center, and start to regain health. He'll continue to do this every time he's getting low on health, so be ready to run to these areas to attack him. I've tried shooting him while he's on the stone but was never very successful interrupting his regen. I've had friends who say he takes damage, but I always seemed energy-challenged and my melee attacks did fine. That said, I'm not sure if I'm trying to damage him, or the stone. Either way, keep laying in damage and know he will not strike back while he's on the stone.
After you've either beaten down the stone or attacked him long enough, he'll hop off and return to the center of the arena. I strongly recommend that you take this time to heal up, restore your energy (pop a battery), and prep for another session of the same. He takes a long time to chase you down the spoke to the small area. You'll have time to prepare and get back to the main arena.
Because he will heal after taking a specific amount of damage, your best bet is to rely on both melee and firearm attacks. If you're shooting him, watch your energy and be ready to spend some stamina while your energy recovers; if you're whacking him with a sword/axe, watch that stamina and be ready to back off and start shooting. Stamina recovers more quickly so use that knowledge as you attack. Also, if you see him at low health, redouble your attacks to keep him from flying off to heal. If he's starting to fly off but not near a point you can kill him, just save your stamina for the run to whatever stone he's heading toward.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer is crap in this game, but assuming you've boosted and have someone waiting to help, be ready for another environmental twist: fog. When you have additional party members, there is enough fog that I managed to walk off the stairs leading into the area; it's that dense. Also, you can sometimes lose the boss in the fog, so having lock-on helps a bit. The final fog note is that you need to mind the edges as you can easily fall off the main arena, too.
Otherwise, the only strategy notes for multiplayer is maximize DPS and make sure one of you is in position to run to whichever small area he's flying to.
Arena
The arena is a raised, circular area that's not small, but as I've fallen off both on the stairs leading into the arena (more on this in a second) and by being knocked off by the boss, it's not super-big, either. Additionally, there are four walkway "spokes" that lead to smaller circular arena areas that have small stones in the center of those areas.
Gear
The boss is a flying beetle-like creature who will spit acid and is weak to ice. So, if you have multiple armor sets, find one that's most resistant to acid; and gear up with your best ice weapons. If you have other weapons that are not ice but do a lot of DPS, those will work, too. The Nikiderma Shotgun does fire-damage and due to the large boss size, is a great option for this fight.
Boss Attacks
The boss has a couple unblockable attacks, so dodging is your best strategy here. The first unblockable is a ramming attack. It's slow and telegraphed, so just be ready to not be where he's charging. The second unblockable is a three-move swiping attack. With his front legs/arms/claws, he'll swipe-swipe-swipe. Just dodge-dodge-dodge ... or be far enough away that you aren't hit. After this, you get a small window for a melee attack. Do not be greedy as stamina rules do not appear to apply to this guy.
His next set of attacks are spewing acid and he has three of these attacks. First is a laser-like attack that comes from his mouth that he'll swipe horizontally across the arena in front of him like a sword swipe. While you should be able to dodge through this, I was never able to time it, so I and ended up trying to get behind him while he did this attack. Getting behind him is easy and safe. You can also punish him while he's facing the other way.
The second acid attack is where he'll rear up on his back legs and fan a swath of acid out in front of him. In my fights he was always near the edge of the arena, so getting behind him was out of the question, but the swath is reasonably narrow that you can stay to the side of it easily. Unfortunately, he'll do this several times in a row and the effect stick around a while, so you may run out of "safe" space to stand in.
The final acid attack is an aerial bombardment. He'll fly up in the air, target you, and then run a straight line, carpet-bombing with acid. Again, getting to the side of this is your best bet and, again, he'll sometimes do this several times in a row.
Strategy
After you get this boss to about half-health, the four smaller circular areas off the spokes come into play: he'll fly to one of these four areas, land on the stone in the center, and start to regain health. He'll continue to do this every time he's getting low on health, so be ready to run to these areas to attack him. I've tried shooting him while he's on the stone but was never very successful interrupting his regen. I've had friends who say he takes damage, but I always seemed energy-challenged and my melee attacks did fine. That said, I'm not sure if I'm trying to damage him, or the stone. Either way, keep laying in damage and know he will not strike back while he's on the stone.
After you've either beaten down the stone or attacked him long enough, he'll hop off and return to the center of the arena. I strongly recommend that you take this time to heal up, restore your energy (pop a battery), and prep for another session of the same. He takes a long time to chase you down the spoke to the small area. You'll have time to prepare and get back to the main arena.
Because he will heal after taking a specific amount of damage, your best bet is to rely on both melee and firearm attacks. If you're shooting him, watch your energy and be ready to spend some stamina while your energy recovers; if you're whacking him with a sword/axe, watch that stamina and be ready to back off and start shooting. Stamina recovers more quickly so use that knowledge as you attack. Also, if you see him at low health, redouble your attacks to keep him from flying off to heal. If he's starting to fly off but not near a point you can kill him, just save your stamina for the run to whatever stone he's heading toward.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer is crap in this game, but assuming you've boosted and have someone waiting to help, be ready for another environmental twist: fog. When you have additional party members, there is enough fog that I managed to walk off the stairs leading into the area; it's that dense. Also, you can sometimes lose the boss in the fog, so having lock-on helps a bit. The final fog note is that you need to mind the edges as you can easily fall off the main arena, too.
Otherwise, the only strategy notes for multiplayer is maximize DPS and make sure one of you is in position to run to whichever small area he's flying to.
