Quick Links
- Richter Overview
- Richter Phase One
- Richter Phase Two
Richter is the sixth and final boss encounter in Wanted: Dead and is the second boss in the Kowloon Street area. This fight is by far the most demanding one in the game, forcing you to pay attention to and use several mechanics to emerge victorious.
Nothing quite prepares you for this encounter and its difficulty, but once you get the general gist of Richter's moves down and how to respond to them, you can persevere with practice, execution, and maybe some luck. Overall, this encounter will test your melee prowess, so don't expect to be able to fall back on your guns for a quick win.
Richter Overview
Being the game's final encounter, you should have every Skill unlocked and will be facing Richter at full power. However, you will be taking him on alone, as the rest of the Zombie Unit dispatched the area on a helicopter, meaning you do not have Doc to Revive you if you fall, making this encounter that much more challenging. As mentioned above, this is the most demanding fight in the game, so you will need to be on point if you want any chance of emerging alive.
Before we move on to how to best prepare for Richter, we just wanted to note that this encounter can be pretty frustrating in the first few attempts. Still, once you learn his patterns and how to respond to his attacks, you will undoubtedly be able to take him down with patience and a sound strategy. This is one of the few battles that force you to play in a specific way, and it is surprisingly rewarding compared to all others.
Richter Phase One
The first phase of this encounter sets up the overall themes of the battle and does an excellent job of showing you what Richter is capable of. He's quick, relentless, and gives you very little room to breathe, forcing you to play defensively in a precise and confident way. Due to having few windows of opportunity to attack, you can often get overwhelmed by his aggressiveness and will get opened up and promptly killed as a result.
To make matters worse, Richter cannot be shot, as he will dodge every bullet fired at him, which also carries over into his second phase. You must master Stone's Katana for this encounter and take risks on defense that will make or break the fight's outcome.
Richter Phase One Strategy
Due to Richter's aggressive nature, you cannot entirely block his attacks, and Evading them will more than likely get you caught up in the follow-up attacks. So, for this encounter, you will need to utilize and master the Parry if you want to make things much easier on yourself. While he has several attacks up his sleeve, all Richter's actions can be Parried, allowing you to sneak in a few hits of your own from time to time.
Richter also possesses one Handgun Counterable attack, allowing you to temporarily stun him and follow up with a devastating strike and then a complete Standard Combo to maximize your damage output. Remember that since you have all Skills now, you can use the Handgun Counter Follow-Up and Standard Combo Extention Skills to their fullest here, which will deal even more damage thanks to the Melee Damage Up Skill. Your overall goal here is to Parry everything Richter throws at you, attack when you can, and utilize your Handgun Counter when possible.
One last thing of note is that while Richter is immune to bullets, you can still use your Bullet Time Skill on him, but only when you are actively attacking him. So, when you fill your Adrenaline Gauge, do not activate Bullet Time until you land at least two hits on him. We used it anytime you landed the Handgun Counter to maximize damage, but you can use it whenever you like, just as long as you know he cannot dodge it.
Lethal Lunge
Richter hunkers down and puts his hand on the hilt of his sword before lunging forward with a lethal slash. Just before attacking, however, a red light will flash, indicating you can perform a Handgun Counter (Y on Xbox Controller). When executed, Richter will be temporarily stunned, allowing you to press 'X' immediately after to launch into a devastating slash and then your Standard Combo. If you have Bullet Time ready, you can use it mid-combo to extend and amplify your damage.
Flurry Strikes
The most common attack string at Richter's disposal is his Flurry Strikes, which has him unleash a series of slashes and strikes from his sword on you at blazingly fast speeds, making it impossible to Guard through them all or Evade. To effectively avoid taking damage from this move, you must Parry all strikes, which range somewhere around four to five of them. After Parrying them, you can typically land one or two hits on Richter.
Heavy Slash
While a rarity, Richter's Heavy Slash is still devastating enough for you to keep an eye out for, as it deals massive damage on contact. Nonetheless, it is easily telegraphed by Richter stopping dead in his tracks and raising his sword high above his head before delivering a brutal overhead slash. Though not always the case, Richter will frequently follow this attack up with his Flurry Strikes, so be on high alert afterward. You can time an Evade with this attack or even Parry or Guard it, but we recommend using the Evade here, as you can create distance and attack if he doesn't launch into his other attacks.
Richter Phase Two
Upon depleting Richter's Leath Bar halfway in phase one, a small cutscene will play out, beginning the second phase of the encounter. Unlike most of the boss fights in this game, Richter gains access to a couple more attacks during this stage of the fight, both of which are crucial to know how to counter, as they can be unnecessarily frustrating. Phase two is no joke and will be the portion of the fight that pushes you to your limits.
In addition to his new abilities, Richter will also use all of his attacks from the first phase but at a much faster and more aggressive pace, so you will have to be on the ball here. And, like before, Richter will dodge your bullets, so don't even think about using your guns to chip away at his health.
Richter Phase Two Strategy
Overall, your strategy in phase two is near-identical to the first one, except for two additional things you must worry about. You must still Parry everything he throws at you, but at a much faster pace, and you will have an even smaller window to land your own attacks. Essentially, everything you did before is still applicable here, but you must execute in record time to deal damage.
Furthermore, his two new actions will throw a wrench into things and put tons of pressure on you to make a decision and make it fast or risk dying and starting the encounter over. You can learn more about his new attacks in the section below, but remember that his other attacks are the same as phase one and resolved the same way, just faster.
Healing Wind
Richter kneels down, and a wave of red energy surrounds him, gradually replenishing his health. He typically does this at the start of phase two or when he runs away from you and creates distance. However, he won't always do it in those situations and will sometimes start healing right after he attacks you. Nonetheless, as soon as you see him kneel down and start healing, run at him, Slide, and then attack to break him out of it. Simply running at him and attacking mid-sprint will not work for whatever reason, so you either have to stop then attack or can Slide and attack.
Lethal Grab
The other new attack in his arsenal is the most annoying and replaces his Lethal Lunge attack. While still a Handgun Counterable move, if you fail to land the Counter, you will instantly die. That's right, if Richter lands his Lethal Grab on you, even if you're at full health, he will perform an attack on you that instantly kills you. As soon as you see the red light flash, press 'Y' (On Xbox) to evade the Grab. Guarding, Evading, Parrying, or trying to run away will all result in death, so you must land your Handgun Counter here. After doing so, just do what you did before to maximize your damage!
From here, just rinse and repeat everything from the first phase and the second one to emerge victorious. As laid out above, this encounter is frustrating in many ways, and that's primarily due to being forced to Parry, which you may not have been doing through 90 percent of the game. However, once you get the rhythm down, you will have Richter beat in no time!
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