In High on Knife, the awesome DLC to High on Life, you’ll meet the Duffalo Ranch, full of the… interesting species. When talking to the rancher, he’ll accuse you of being a poacher, from all the violence reeking off of you. If you want to gain his trust, as Knifey suggests, you’ll need to defeat the poachers and kill the Poacher King. Here’s how to ascend their base and take out their leader in High on Knife.
How to clear out the poacher outpost in High on Knife
Conveniently, the poacher outpost is located right outside of the ranch, so you can follow your objective marker right outside their base. You’ll be needing to clear all of the poachers on the ground floor before you can go further. I personally found using Gus to be the easiest course of action here. A warp base will be incoming, and when it spawns, take out all the poachers that come with it. It won’t take you too long.
Screenshot: PC Invasion
On the side of the stone spire that supports the base is a hot wall. You can use Gus’ ability to create a platform, where you can jump up. You may need to make two to reach over the wall. Immediately once you’re up the wall, a purple spire will be in your face. Use Knifey to cling onto the purple platform and climb across it. The game will prompt you to use B.A.L.L. to close the geyser holes to build pressure as you’ve done before. There are four of them to plug, and the geysers will shoot up.
Once they have, drop onto them and you’ll get blasted up where you can use Knifey’s grapple to climb onto the cliffs.
Jetpack over and use Knifey’s grapple to grab onto the wall, where you can start climbing across the wall. You’ll need to jump over to the other wall once you’ve got far enough. Just be careful of the wind! Do a wall jump one more time and you’ll come across a hive. Your suit will tell you to launch “one of Creature’s little kids” into the hive to push out a hook bug. Jump and jetpack over to the hook bug to be slung toward the giant spire. You’ll need to use Knifey again to climb up the ledge if your fuel runs short before the ledge.
Screenshot: PC Invasion
As pictured above, look back to the poacher’s base. You’ll see another hot wall for Gus to use. Use the hook bug and fly your way over to Gus’ platform to climb up to the next encounter. Once again, you will be killing all of the poachers on these cliffs, where another home base will warp. Take them all out. Once they’re taken care of, you can use the highest hook bug to sling yourself onto a vent, where you can use Harper’s Glob Shot to unblock the vent.
Screenshot: PC Invasion
Let the vent carry you over to the other spire. On this spire, there will be enemies and a quick puzzle to solve. There is another fan that will blow you back to the base, but to activate it, you’ll need to use B.A.L.L.’s pinball to block up three pipes. The pipes are easily found after following the three cables running from the vent. If you wish to kill the creatures that spawn, you can, but it isn’t necessary.
Using the fan to blow you back over, you’ll need to let the two hook bugs be your path back to the poacher base. Climb up the stairs and walk into the main compound of the base. Your meeting with the Poacher King is drawing near. There will be many enemies to clear out, so using Gus or Sweezy was my personal path to victory. You will come across a fan, where you can use Sweezy’s time bubble ability to slow it down and walk through.
Screenshot: PC Invasion
Upon passing through the fan, you’ll face your final wave of enemies. There are a couple of tough enemies in this stage, so make good use of your weapons’ abilities. I found out using Gus’ ability to launch the disk and using Knifey to bat it back and forth is an amazing way to take them down. Alternatively, you can make fantastic use of B.A.L.L.’s ability. Placing the bumpers in the middle of the compound, you can hit almost all of the poachers with one shot. It’s incredible.
Finally, you’ll be able to climb to the top of the poacher base and meet the Poacher King.
Related: How to get to Muxxalon HQ in High on Knife
Heading back to the ranch
So, yeah, he’s a human. If you want, you can take the poppers right away and make your way back to the ranch, or you could talk to him a little longer. It’s High on Knife, however, so I’d recommend that you exhaust all the dialogue options you can.
Once you’ve finished talking to the human turned Poacher King, you can head out of his office. You can either walk all the way back to the ranch, using your legs, or you can press the red button right outside of the Poacher King’s office. It will launch a zipline right onto another spire. Along the way, Toxxo will notice you and either greet you happily or berate you hilariously, depending on how long you spent staring at his butt.
Screenshot: PC Invasion
At the next spire, you’ll find another button that will launch another zipline directly back to the rancher.
With the poppers you found from the Poacher King, you can get a ride from Elizabeth, the Duffalo who’s now in fine health. Talk to the rancher to carry on with your quest.
I hope you enjoyed our guide on clearing out all the poachers in High on Knife! And I sincerely hope you’re able to find Knifey’s package. If you want more High on Knife assistance, look no further than PC Invasion.
