How to defeat The One Who Waits in Cult of the Lamb

After defeating all four Bishops, you’ll finally have access to Cult of the Lamb’s final boss. Provided you have at least 20 Followers, you can enter The Gateway and teleport to the final arena. There’s no Crusade to complete here, but that’s because the final fight is a four-phase battle that takes a lot of perseverance to get through. Grab your weapon and curse of choice at the entrance, then head forward to face The One Who Waits.

Related: How to defeat Shamura in Cult of the Lamb

How to beat Baal

You might have expected to march right up and face the last god, but it has two guardsmen standing in your way. Baal will step forward first. His basic melee attacks are easy to avoid; simply roll away from his three-slice combo then go in for some hits. When he pauses and concentrates, be ready to move: he’s going to summon a series of massive arrows from the ground. They can either fire out in a series of lines or follow you in a homing pattern. In both cases, you need to stay off of the targets on the ground to avoid being hit. Baal may also summon two low-level cultist enemies to join him, so be ready to take them out too.

How to beat Aym

Aym’s fight is exactly the same as Baal’s, but with one key difference: instead of summoning enemies, he flings three rings of fire at you. Be prepared to roll away from those, and remember to dodge the same spike spells and melee attacks. Both Aym and Baal will drop either a blue or red heart upon defeat, so scoop it up whenever you need healing — it’ll stay there throughout the entire battle.

How to beat The One Who Waits – Phase 1

Now it’s time for the first phase of the real fight. The One Who Waits can cast the same line of spikes at you, so be ready to avoid that attack once again. Otherwise, the boss uses a series of fireballs. First, is a series of four large rings that home in on you. Give these a wide berth as you run and dodge around them — trying to roll right through is a good way to get burnt. Another attack sends out one big burst of fireballs, but if you back off, you’ll be able to slip between the safe spaces as they fan out. Finally, The One Who Waits will float in the center of the arena and create four beams of fire that rotate around like clock hands. If you still want to deal damage during that time, take care to keep pace with the flames.

How to beat The One Who Waits – Phase 2

In the final phase, The One Who Waits will pop out its three eyeballs. They all share the same (very high) health bar, but each eye will burrow into the ground after a few hits. You need to watch out for a variety of fireball attacks again here. First, they may fire the clumps you see above. These move slow enough that you can juke around them. They may also fire quick-moving individual fireballs. Think of dodging these like avoiding ghosts in Pac-Man — you need to bob and weave through the gaps. Finally, the eyes may throw rings of fire at you, so be ready to roll away from those. They also have one non-fire attack, in which they spurt out little balls of acid. There will be tiny targets on the ground when this happens, so steer clear of those to avoid getting splashed.

When the boss’ health bar is about one-third depleted, you’ll fully destroy one eye. At this point, The One Who Waits will summon three pairs of fiery rings, so be ready to roll away from those when they snap toward you. Once the boss’ HP is down by another third, you’ll destroy a second eyeball, then have to dodge more fire. This pattern is a series of lines that fully cover the width and length of the arena, so you must roll through to avoid damage. Also, note that the remaining eyeballs’ fire attacks get faster and more plentiful each time one goes down. If you need more Fervor during any of this, look to the sides of the screen. Your Followers will periodically drop some for you.

When The One Who Waits’ health is just about gone, the last eyeball will pop. At this point, the boss will finally lean down to your level. Run up and get in a few quick attacks to finally finish this long fight. At this point, you’ll have a choice to kill or spare the boss’ true form — a little animal like yourself. Spare it, and The One Who Waits will actually become a Follower of yours back at camp.