Episode 14: One Flew Over the Volatiles' Nest

As the game nears its conclusion, you'll face a classic challenge: infiltrating a Volatile nest. This is an iconic element of survival horror games, and now it has finally arrived. What I initially thought would be a somewhat tedious mission turned out to be one of my favorite main quests in The Beast. But the exciting experience comes with extreme difficulty. Therefore, if you're struggling with stealth or the boss fight, this guide for the One Flew Over the Volatiles' Nest mission will help you. Before starting this mission, it's highly recommended to craft plenty of healing items and carry a flamethrower or modified weapons that can ignite enemies.

After arriving at the mission marker, your first challenge is climbing a hill. Fortunately, it's not as daunting as the one in the Vengeance Is Mine mission. For clarity, here's a breakdown of the climbing steps: Head to the railway tracks, stand near the train car, and find the starting point on the rock wall marked with white paint.

After climbing to the first platform, walk to its edge and find more ledges you can continue climbing upward. Once you reach the narrow area between the two hills, walk to the edge on the other side, where you'll find more marked ledges. Grab them, move along the ledges and climb upward until you reach the hilltop.

Once at the hilltop, jump toward another hill indicated by the mission marker and grab its marked ledges. Continue climbing upward until you reach the cave entrance. This climbing sequence serves as your entry point to one of the game's most challenging encounters.

After entering the cave, you don't need to worry about Volatiles immediately, but the next area is filled with Sleepers and Biters. Use stealth attacks to deal with them as much as possible, and remember to scavenge the packages here (not mandatory). Continue forward until you see a large rock with marked ledges (shown in the image above). Climb up, and you should be able to find more ledges behind you. From here, you'll need to perform a series of rock climbing and platform jumping, eventually returning to the main path.

Eventually, you'll see a zipline leading deeper into the cave and a corpse. This is undoubtedly an obvious signal: a difficult and extremely challenging boss battle is about to begin. Immediately craft sufficient healing items and equip your most reliable weapons in the weapon wheel—there won't be another chance to prepare later. The following section will provide recommended strategies for defeating the boss. Make sure you have: - Maximum healing items - Flamethrower or fire-modified weapons - Your best melee weapon - Full health and stamina

The Wraith may be a hybrid of a Volatile and a Chimera, and it's one of the hardest bosses in the game. This battle is divided into three phases, and the boss can become invisible at any time. It's highly recommended to use headphones for this fight, as audio cues are crucial for tracking the boss. Key point: The Wraith almost always lunges or attacks the moment it becomes visible. Do not counterattack during its attack animation—this won't interrupt the attack and will only cause you to take unnecessary damage.

The first two phases are very similar. You may have noticed that when the Wraith becomes invisible, the boss battle music stops and resumes when it attacks. Just before the visible attack, the Wraith also emits a distinctive scream. The music stopping and then resuming, along with the scream, are your signals to dodge. After successfully dodging, immediately launch your attack until the Wraith becomes invisible again. Repeat this strategy. In the second phase, its moves don't change much, but it will gain the ability to spray acid at you, so be careful. If you want to attack the Wraith while it's invisible, you can stay in the water and judge its position by watching the ripples on the water surface. Additionally, it's highly recommended to carry a flamethrower or fire-modified weapons. As long as the Wraith is on fire, you can see its outline even when invisible.

Entering the third phase, the Wraith's tactics change completely, becoming much more aggressive. It no longer becomes invisible, so the combat style is entirely different. The Wraith will start using combo attacks and jump attacks, giving you almost no breathing room. It also won't leave obvious safe attack windows, so you must seize opportunities between its attacks for damage output and dodging. It's recommended to save Beast Mode for part of the third phase to quickly deal massive damage and end the fight. Because the Wraith won't give you safe time to heal, the longer the battle lasts, the higher the risk of death. I personally feel this boss battle's final phase seems designed for co-op mode, because in solo mode, the only possible safe healing moment is when the boss is attacking your teammates.

After barely surviving the Wraith battle, don't forget the main task is not yet complete. Prepare to continue deeper into the cave. Follow the mission marker, and after lots of rock climbing, vine swinging, and swimming underwater, you'll finally reach the Volatile nest. Needless to say, alerting any Volatile here would be fatal. You need to obtain three samples, and fortunately, they're all clearly marked.

The first sample can be safely obtained—no Volatiles will enter that area. However, for the second and third samples, you need to continuously use Survivor Sense to maintain awareness of the Volatiles' positions. When approaching the second nest, pass through the rock with an opening below and patiently wait for the nearby Volatile to move away from the sample. When it starts moving, quickly approach the nest to complete extraction. After extraction, you'll be exposed next to the nest, so immediately hide back behind the rock.

For the third sample, first wait for the Volatile near the second sample to move toward the third sample's direction, then carefully follow it from the other side of the rock. When it stops, quickly move to the rock next to it and wait for this Volatile to return. At this point, you can ignore this one and focus on the Volatile blocking the path to the third sample. Use Survivor Sense again to confirm its orientation. When it moves toward the third sample's direction, follow closely behind, and you'll successfully reach the target point. After extracting the sample, you're almost done.

After successfully extracting the third sample, a group of Volatiles will detect your presence, and the chase begins. It's highly recommended that you've already unlocked the Sprint and Active Landing skills, or it will be very difficult to shake off the Volatiles' pursuit. Regardless, if you successfully escape, you're safe. Just return to the exile cave (it's very close, no need to find a vehicle) and talk with Lydia to mark the mission complete. Rewards: - Survivor Hat (Effect: -3% Stamina Consumption, +2% Damage, +3% Healing Recovery) - 12,500 XP - 800 Old World Currency - Co-op Loot Chest (if completed in co-op mode) This was one of the most challenging and rewarding missions, featuring intense stealth gameplay and one of the hardest boss fights in the game.

Congratulations on completing one of the most challenging missions in Dying Light: The Beast! The Volatile nest infiltration and Wraith boss battle tested your skills to the limit. Final Rewards: - Survivor Hat with excellent stat bonuses - 12,500 XP (highest XP reward yet) - 800 Old World Currency - Co-op Loot Chest (co-op mode only) You've successfully infiltrated the Volatile nest, defeated one of the game's hardest bosses, and collected crucial samples for the resistance. The endgame approaches!