RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

Here are all the tips and tricks I can give you to beat the final boss for this achievement!

This is going to be kind of an all-in-one guide as it will include general pointers for all of the characters.

The first thing you need to know is that you only need to finish the final level for the achievement to pop, and difficulty doesn’t matter either so you can just go through on the lowest (normal). It might even just count for whichever character you’re using as the final boss dies. This goes for all of the individual character achievements too (I almost played through the entire story solo before a helpful Copernicus told me, but at least it’s good for experience and learning your character). In fact, once I got the hang of it, I preferred to get the rest of the character achievements solo. Even with Jaune (who is designed for multiplayer).

Secondly, it's going to help to build your characters along the lines I found for the Steam version of the game:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=84559...
If you decide to tweak it in any way, I suggest going for things that will make your character more durable (such as more aura and more health) as the final boss can land some pretty nasty attacks that can wipe you out instantly if you're not careful/using your dodge right in the midst of the chaos.

Now, onto the guide proper. I'll split this up into three major areas, as there are minor things between/before that don't matter all that much: 1. Small vats, 2. Big Vats, 3. Arena.

1. Small vats:
This area is fairly simple. If you're using a character with a decent ranged option (pretty much anyone but Lie Ren, Yang Xiao Long, and Jaune Arc), you can shoot and blow up most (if not all) of the vats without even dropping down to fight the enemies. Unfortunately, the special part of a ranged combo tends to not do any damage to the objective in my experience (with the possible exception of Nora Valkyrie). I don’t know if doing it this way stops enemies from infinitely respawning, but it does allow you to build up a hit streak and ultimate to wipe out the few that showed up fairly easily. Lie Ren and Jaune both have pretty devastating area of effect (A.O.E.) attacks if you set them up correctly too, so you can knock out the vats pretty quickly if range isn’t on the table using their charged heavy attacks (beware of Ren’s Aura draining though). You can get away with using Jaune’s aerial heavy attack in most situations in place of the charged heavy. After this, you must deal with the most terrible challenge in all of gaming: The room with spiky floors. May God have mercy on you.

2. Big Vats:
This can be tough. If you are still using someone with a good ranged option (a straight shooter which has distance) you can shoot three out of the six big vats by standing on the railing to the right of the drop or the little gap on the left of the drop. They take about 50 normal hits to pop each. Nora can take down at least one with a lot fewer hits, but the arching shot of the Love Launcher sadly doesn’t allow her to get all three without getting much closer. Enemies don’t spawn until you’re one or two raised tiles from the front of the darkened drop areas, so you might be able to snag all three if you’re lucky. You will want a character with good ranged attacks in this area in particular as you have infinitely spawning exploding Grimm to deal with and you can work on each of the vats whilst keeping them at a slightly safer distance. Mainly focusing on keeping them away will help greatly, so if you have a character that can stun from a distance (like Blake or Pyrrha) you might be able to give yourself just enough breathing space.
Once all the vats are done, two (random?) robots will join the fray. Keeping them stunned at a distance will help too, but running away and taking care of the exploding Grimm until you have enough breathing space to land a counter/stun, charged heavy, Team attack combo might help too as you’re invulnerable for at least part of the team attack. Or burn through as many ultimates as you have. Once the robots are destroyed, you can run out of the area and the Grimm shouldn’t follow. It might be useful to use them to replenish your ultimates before the final area…

3. Arena:
The first part of the arena involved fighting through waves. No biggie, you should have done this many times before.

A. Bug Boss.
You can do slivers of damage by attacking it from the side, but it isn’t really worth it. The biggest damage comes from attacking the stinger when it’s stuck in the ground. This part is a good opportunity to experiment to see how far away you can to be to trigger an attack, as you need to make the stinger get stuck in the ground by triggering attacks. This can be crucial in the final stages. It will also be useful to learn the various attacks that will be coming your way:
* Claw swipe (easy to avoid, just keep your distance),
* Ground pound (easy to avoid, just keep your distance),
* Spinning/spitting venom (trickier to avoid. Sometimes dashing towards it or sideways at the right time will have you dodge cleanly or just be invulnerable).
* Venom storm. This comes in three or four flavours and you’ve got to figure out how to avoid it in the best way for you. One version involves the venom raining away from the Mutated Deathstalker towards you. I think dashing toward the boss helps here, or sideways if you can manage it. The second involved the venom starting far away from the Deathstalker and coming towards it. I assume dodging away from the monster would help here, but I often saw it too late. Side ways dodging would probably help too. I think earlier stages have a lighter version of these two attacks, but all versions of it have wiped me out because I didn’t deal with it properly. The final version is seemingly Random (to me). Congratulations if you can figure out how to dodge it, I usually just tried to run away as quickly as possible and hope for the best.
* Stinger. I don’t understand the hit box on this, but once it happens, either use an Ultimate attack or a charged/aerial heavy attack if that’s how your character is set up (Lie using a risky charged heavy attack here is as good as an ultimate and so is Jaune’s boosted charged heavy, but an aerial heavy will do if you’re struggling for space/time to charge it).

B. Boss’ Bot I
After dealing sufficient damage, a bunch of Grimm and one white Ranged robot will spawn in. Your priority from this point onwards should be survival, keeping your Aura as full as possible, clearing Grimm, stunning the Ranged bot if it keeps getting in the way (they stay stunned a little longer if you get them ready for a team attack), and hitting the Mutated Deathstalker’s embedded stinger from now on. In that order. The Ranged bot will respawn infinitely, so you may have to just manage with it being a pain. Try to avoid the grenades in particular. They’re the worst, especially on a direct hit. Having a character who is good for ranged stunning attacks will be helpful throughout the battle (especially Blake Belladonna).

C. Boss Bot II
Once you’ve damaged the Deathstalker enough, it will spawn in even more Grimm and a red Melee bot. The good news is that the Ranged bot no longer spawns infinitely. The bad news is that the Melee bot now does. Getting rid of the Ranged bot should move up the priority list here, as those attacks are not something worth dealing with in all of the chaos. Once you have eliminated all of the Grimm and the Ranged bot, you only have the Mutated Deathstalker and the Melee bot to contend with. Characters that can stun will be exceptionally useful here as I feel like the Melee bot is much worse than the Ranged bot due to its oppressive attack combos which can take you out if you’re struggling even a little bit with the Deathstalker. Remember to keep your Aura high and just try to survive until the conditions are good enough for you (ultimate and full/high Aura, stinger just one or two attacks away from being stuck in the ground).

D. Two Too Many Bots:
After you have dealt sufficient damage again, a final round of Grimm will spawn. The bad news is that the Ranged bot is now back. And both bots now respawn infinitely. The good news is that there is only about a third more of the Mutated Deathstalker’s health left. Yaaay…
As before, focus on survival (keeping your distance until you’re comfortable getting stuck in), clearing out Grimm, and just managing the two bots on your tail whilst trying to attack the embedded Deathstalker tail. This is where the pressure will feel high, but you’re just doing the same as you have done in the previous rounds. Once the Mutated Deathstalker becomes a deadstalker, you win. When I was playing as Nora, she died at the same time as the Deathstalker and the achievement unlocked anyway (though it was a tense ten seconds).

One final tip that I figured out for myself:
When dealing with Mutated Beowulfs, you can sometimes stun them with single shot weapons. Jaune may be at a disadvantage with this, and you might have to start shooting whilst the Mutated Beowulf is still attacking to take advantage of it whilst playing as Lie. You can just about tell they’re stunned because they just look down and aren’t actively coming at you or attacking. If you can get off a charged heavy attack in this small window of opportunity, you can deal massive damage and cut the length of a fight significantly.


Let me know in the comments if you want me to create a video of me doing the final level as each of the characters, or if you have any further questions.

Happy hunting, huntsmen!