The Hydra is the final boss you’ll face at the end of Gears Tactics‘ campaign. It’s likely you’ve obtained a lot of epic and legendary items, and you’ve also got a squad with several soldiers are level 7 or so. That’s perfect for acquiring some of the most useful skills in the game and for this fight. Here’s our boss guide to help you out.
Note: For more information, check out our Gears Tactics guides and features hub.
Gears Tactics: Defeating the Hydra boss
The Hydra presents the culmination of all the challenges you’ve faced in Gears Tactics. The boss has some abilities to watch out for and there will be many Locust Horde enemies that keep spawning. It’ll also be slightly tougher compared to the Brumak and Corpser boss fights you’ve experienced in previous acts.
You’ve got four characters that you can bring here, and they’re all integral to Gears Tactics‘ story. You’ll then need to do a few tasks in a short mission, namely flushing all the Imulsion vats in a circular room. There are three levers that need to be activated here and you’ll go counter-clockwise to reach them all.
Enemy mobs such as Hammerburst Drones, Wretches, Grenadiers, and even Disciples, Zealots, and Theron Guards will spawn from the doorways to annoy you. Take note of these doorways since they’re still the spawn locations during the Hydra encounter.
Once all three levers have been activated, the Hydra will make its grand entrance. It’ll smash the walkways and split your group into two teams of two. Much like the boss encounters before it, this fight will still have three phases denoted by the monster’s health bar.
Note: Three of the four characters are Gabe, Sid, and Mikayla. I won’t spoil who the fourth one is because the character might be a treat for Gears of War fans.
The Hydra’s abilities
Missile Launcher
Just like the Brumak, the Hydra’s main attack comes from its missile launcher. The boss will fire two, then three, and finally four missiles each turn as the fight progresses.
You’ll have to get away from these spots since those missiles will go boom once you end our turn.
Scream
The Hydra will unleash a piercing screech on the section of the map that it’s closest to. This attack has a frontal cone that not only damages your units within the AoE, it’ll also prevent them from moving or using abilities for a time. It’s going to be a death sentence if they’re caught since they might not be able to move away from the missiles.
Locust Horde spawns
The Locust Horde enemies will no longer spawn from random Reavers or Emergence Holes. Instead, they’ll come from the doorways that you’ve seen around the map. You can always cover the area via overwatch to try to eliminate as many of these mobs as possible.
Also, these spawns are tied to the Hydra’s movement or whenever it flies around. We’ll explain this below.
Damaging the Hydra
The Hydra has three targets that can be hit. The first is its ugly head which depletes its health bar. The other two are the missile launchers to its side. Funnily enough, unlike the Brumak, the Hydra’s missile launcher attached to its sides can be destroyed. Unfortunately, the destroyed launchers will also get automatically repaired within a couple of turns.
We mentioned that the Hydra flies around. Well, since your squad is split up, it’ll float from one side of the map to the other. Whenever it does so, mobs will end up spawning from doorways on both sides of the map (which means both your two-person teams will need to contend with them).
Aside from using overwatch to defeat Locusts, destroying the missile launchers can help. This will fix the Hydra in place for a turn — not only does this prevent some missiles from striking their targets, but this will also prevent additional mobs from spawning temporarily.
More often than not, however, you’ll focus fire on its ridiculously hideous face as this is the only way to lower its health. This will lead to the Hydra’s missiles exploding, plus the boss switching places, and additional mobs popping out. That’s fine since you can do your best to weather the storm.
You have one Scout class character, and they can obliterate enemies as they spawn. Gabe and Sid — Support and Vanguard classes respectively — can also use overwatch or pepper enemies with Lancer and Retro Lancer fire. Likewise, because you can predict where mobs would spawn from, you could go for bayonet and chainsaw kills to earn extra AP.
Your go-to hero, however, is Mikayla since she’s a Sniper. Your other can only hit the Hydra when it’s switched to their section of the map. Mikayla’s Longshot, though, can fire on the boss even from the opposite side of the room. It’s also possible for your two teams to start moving closer towards the center so they can support each other if need be.
Keep at it and do your best, and you’ll slowly but surely whittle down the Hydra boss’ health pool. It’ll crash and burn while your squad puts the finishing touches.
Congratulations! You’ve finished Gears Tactics‘ campaign. Still, the game isn’t over yet. You can now do veteran missions. These are essentially the same mission types you’ve seen before, and you’ll just be running more of them to amass epic or legendary loot.
Gears Tactics is available via Steam and Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass for Windows. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
