Unto The End

Mastery can be earned by defeating the final boss while only using your sword. Do not throw your knife or spear. You can watch this be done at 101:00 in the video below.
A few tips for this fight and situation. The game is not over when the final boss is defeated so try to make sure you have a tonic in your inventory from the last camp fire which is quite a few fights previous to this. You may be bleeding after your fight and if you want to see the end of the game and have a chance to continue without resetting progress to work toward the "Bloodlust" achievement, you could likely love having a tonic so you don't have to fight the boss again.
This guy is tough and has a particular attack that will likely kill you instantly.

If you are not the most skillful and reacting to his prompts, perhaps try what I did below:
The best method I found to defeating the final boss was a high attack () and then quickly stagger him with a shoulder check (), then take advantage by attacking again. You can get a rhythm with a bit of practice to chain these two moves over and over. If the boss gets away from your combo, try to induce the situation again by sneaking in a shoulder check after you land a high attack. Also, at the very beginning of the fight, if you are quick dropping down to him, you can get behind him for a free attack, this is a good way to set up your first combo of and . You should have success stringing the combo together as long as you dont get close to walls, that can throw it off. (This cheese method has been patched)

Since the Cheese Method is likely not gong to work for you, you are gonna have to do this one with skill! Take the time to try and learn his attacks and indicators of where you can get an attack in. The video posted shows combat with the boss that can be studied to set you up for success and then will like take some repetition and improvement until you finally break through and defeat him. My advice would be prioritize your own health and not get into a situation where you open yourself up.

You can also make sure the the combat is set to "Assist" in the settings to make combat a hair slower and easier.

Maximum Armor will help as well to ensure you can take a little punishment. If you are traveling up to the final boss and have your armor piece break, I would let that enemy kill you, so that you can respawn with that armor intact.


For all achievements in the game, you can follow this awesome guide on YouTube:
All credit to Trophy Tom. Please like or subscribe to support him. Please note how he has conveniently labeled sections of his video based on which achievement is next or what item you are tracking down, this can be seen if you watch his video on YouTube on the video progress bar instead of the imbedded video here on True Achievements. It is a very well done 100% guide.

*If this solution helped you in some way, please vote positively. If you think it needs improvement, please let me know how in a private message or by leaving a comment.*)

There’s nothing special to attaining this achievement. The simple part is that it only requires you to not use your dagger or spear on the final boss. Let me just reiterate that.YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO USE YOUR SWORD ON THE FINAL BOSS.

That’s the solution but this wouldn’t be a helpful community if I left it at that. Before you go into the final fight, make sure that you have max armor or at least as much armor as possible. I can’t even begin to tell you how annoying it is to fight him without armor. Just do your best to constantly stay repairing your armor or respawn whenever you take damage after maxing out your armor. If you have any questions, don’t downvote. Send me a message on Xbox and I’m more than happy to explain this to anyone who doesn’t understand.

Description translation: Defeat the final boss using only your sword (no throwing your dagger or spear)

Tactic:
1) Walk left to get down as quick as possible, then move a little right and attack him ONCE with .
2) Immediately hold left stick down to block low attacks and keep it down for the rest of the fight (or at least when you’re able to block) - Note if you’re successful with step 1, he seems to always use a low attack first.
3) Any time he attacks high, use a well timed to duck under the attack. This important because, in my experience if you block a high from him you just get knocked down and get kinda stun locked.
4) Attack with immediately after ducking.
5) Repeat steps 2-4.

Good luck, and please give feedback on whether you experience the same or not.

I thought this was going to be a lot harder as the first time I tried this this I had zero armor.

My biggest piece of advice is to wait until you get the metal helmet to craft your level 2 (bone bracers) AND level 3 armor (bone plate). You shouldn't need any before this. Carry capacity maxes out at 11 for resources to allow you to get the pristine shard and level 3 (++) armor. And resources CAN BE wasted if you are full and try to pick up more. But at this point in the game you should have almost capped out. If you craft both at the metal helmet spawn you will have enough for one or two repairs if you get hit plus enough for both pristine shards (3 herbs and 6 bones) thru pickups the rest of the game. If you lose all of your armor in a fight let the enemy kill you so you restart the fight with the armor you had.

Now for the actual fight. There is still a cheese... Sort of...
The boss has a few different moves which can be quite annoying. Obviously he attacks low/high, but he also has a fake attack where he tells one directional attack and as you guard he will switch directions on you. Ignoring that he has a heavy lunge which can be read when he is in a kneeling position with his front hand straight behind him brandishing the dagger clearly. Now I have no actual proof this works 100% of the time, but when you are close to him and DO NOT throw up a block he thinks you can be one hit so he won't waste time with directional light attacks and just go for the lunge. You are essentially baiting him to use the heavy lunge because that is when he is exposed the longest. You have enough time for a light LOW attack and roll AWAY. after you roll he may try to jump toward you simply roll UNDER him and prepare for the next attack. Double rolling helps if you aren't making enough space after your attack. And you have heavy armor if you make a mistake.

It's also worth noting the player also has a leap attack if you jump toward them and press your high attack button.

That's all I got. Good hunting.

Unfortunately, you now have to do this the hard way. I missed the first bit of the fight, but it was only 2 free hits dropping down into the fight.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Have full armor when you get to the final boss. If following one of the video guides you just need to make sure that you repaired / upgraded fully at the last fire and have found the iron helmet.
2. You cannot shoulder block, heavy attack the boss. Your only hope is to block low, wait for his mid scissor attack (which you can duck) and then heavy attack.
3. Begin the fight with combat speed set to 50%. Drop down the series of ledges to where the final boss is stabbing a big yeti fella and hit him from behind with a strong then a quick.
4. He is 50% likely to block the quick attack.
5. From this point on you are turtling waiting for an opening. Start by blocking low and watch his next move. If he pulls one arm back without crouching this is the start of the scissor attack. You can duck this and hit him with a strong hit. The timing indicator is actually his feet for the scissor, he stutter steps right before he throws it. When you see the snow fly from this and he is in the scissor stance hit your duck. Might take a few (dozen) deaths to get the timing, but it is doable. Don't bother waiting for a block daze he's just gonna recover and wreck you.
6. If he does a low attack you will block it, and he seems to favor a scissoring attack after a successful block, so go back to step 5 if this is the case.
7. If he hits you with a weak upper attack try to block it, but you'll be in much better shape tanking one of those hits with full armor.
8. If the boss does a charge attack roll back away from him rather than through him and resume your turtle stance.
9. Hopefully you get enough scissor ducks and weak stabs to your shoulders to get a few good strikes in.
10. If you manage to defeat him and want to continue the game, don't forget to DRINK AN HERB POTION! You're highly likely to be a bloody mess and there's no more bonfires. It would suck to bleed to death on the long walk to (be reunited with your family)

Happy hunting, see you in Valhalla.

Timing is your best friend here. Took a few attempts to work it out. I did the fight without getting hit using this method.

Jump down and land a hit straight away, you may even get lucky with 2. Roll away once or twice and this is where the waiting game begins. You need to wait for him to run at you on all fours. You can see when he is about to do this when he takes a couple of steps back. Once he does that block upwards to protect from a future hit, then press to land a big hit remembering to keep blocking upwards while landing that hit. He will always try to strike back after you hit him but since you are blocking upwards (always his attack of choice in this scenario) you are protected. Immediately roll away either away from him or through him. There will be times when he will run at you on all fours but it’s from a greater distance than you would like. In these instances he will be slightly out of range for you to land an attack but he can still hit you so either roll away or block upwards.

Remember to always wait for him to start his attack before rolling towards him otherwise you will roll into him and drop your sword. When he jumps through the air wait until he is mid flight before rolling towards him so you go through him. There doesn’t appear to be a set distance for him to run at you on all fours so just keep an eye out for his little back steps. He often does these steps right after you land your first “free” hits.

Anyway I hope this solution helps you. If you see an amendment you think needs made let me know.

Maybe more about this encounter has been changed than the other guides show.
I found it very hard to block the attacks. The boss seemed to often change his attack stance very quickly and hit me anyway especially when combat speed changes.
Through trial and error I found my own way to defeat him and once I had completely switched to this method he died on the first try without even hitting me. Here's how to do it:

As the other guides suggest, make sure to get your free first hit while he's busy with the other creature.
After that whenever you're on your feet and within range, do the following:

If the boss starts his jump attack: roll towards (through) him with or respectively.
Otherwise: Attack the boss with a low attack and immediately roll towards (through) him with or respectively.

You will get a hit in most of the times before successfully avoiding his attack. Even if he blocks you should be able to perform the roll.
Turn around and repeat. Timing is not really an issue unlike with the other methods.
So if you're struggling give this a try and let me and others know if it worked out for you.

Oh and obviously: Don't use your dagger or spear during the fight. Just avoid .