Jaxisthere's Halescourge Strategy

**A more or less complete guide to Bubblegum Mesquitebrick fight**, by u/jaxisthere, 6 April 2018 from r/vermintide for patch 1.0.5.

### Fight Overview

Barbecue Handlebars has three phases that he will repeat in order until he dies. They are as follows:

* **Phase 1 - The Large AoE** - After you have dropped down into the arena and the dialogue has played, Bulletsponge Hairspray will teleport to the middle and cast his snot clone attack in a full circle at random intervals. At the same time, adds will drop down into the arena. If we take the wall where the boss spawns as the "front", then the adds spawn in in the center of the back wall, and in both corners of the front wall. You will want to eliminate them as fast as possible while keeping an eye on the boss to dodge his attacks to get ready for phase 2.

* **Phase 2 - Too Fat Too Furious** - Butterbeer Horticulture will teleport semi randomly around the arena, and cast a tri-pronged snot clone attack at a selected player. If he is targeting you, you will want to be as far away as possible from him. The snot clones spread out the further way they get from the boss, and give you more room to dodge between them. The boss will hard pivot after you before the cast goes off, so it's impossible to simply get out of the way. You will want to dodge in between the right/middle or left/middle clones after the cast goes off. This phase will go on for some time, 5-6 teleports in my experience, but it is likely time based.

* **Phase 3 - The "You Can't Touch Me"** - Bumblebee Healingspree will teleport to one of the raised platforms in the corners of the arena and spawn additional waves of adds. The spawn locations are the same as in phase 1. Additionally, he will cast swarms of black beetles that will slowly travel to a chosen player. If these reach their target, they will disable them until the affected player is shot or meleed by a teammate. Mob damage does not break the disable. These bugs can also be destroyed before reaching their target via ranged attacks. During the phase, the boss is \*\*not\*\* immune to damage. Ranged units can continue to hit him, while melee can run underneath his platform to attack him through the floor from below.

After this, the phases repeat. It is important to note here that while the first Large AoE attack is always the snot clones, the second one does not appear to be fixed. He can cast it again, or use a large tornado move similar to Blight Callers. In either case, staying near the walls is the safest option, giving you the most space to dodge the snot and making you completely avoid the storm.

### Strategy 1 - The Buddy System

This one has been the most consistent for me, but its probably not the most efficient one. The main goal of this strategy is to allow easy add control, while maintaining steady damage on the boss. Break up your group into pairs of two, and place one group by the front wall, while the other two stay by the back wall. Start Phase 1 by quickly tossing our your ultimates and bombs, and then quickly switching your focus to the adds. Don't forget to dodge the snot missiles.

Phase 2 is where you will see most of the damage happen. By spreading out across the arena, you are never more than half the arena away from the boss. If you're not being targeted by Bottlepop Hinterlands then you have free reign to melt his face. Use your ranged if he's far away, or melee if he teleported close. If he is targeting you, try to get away as far as possible to give you the best chance to dodge the attack. With this strategy, you always have at least two players doing damage to the boss, since the teams are not stacked on top of each other, and at worst only 2 players have to focus on dodging at a time. Repeat the above steps until phase change.

Once Butterscotch Hazmatsuit retreats to a raised platform, your main focus should be the adds. Stick with your partner, and eliminate them as fast as possible. The longer they are alive, the less time you have to get some free damage on the boss. If they continue to trickle in after the initial spawn, let one player focus on the remainder while the other starts to dps the boss. As mentioned in the phase descriptions, you can hit him through the floor of his platform from below. Keep an eye out for those black bug swarms. Once the AoE phase starts again, retreat back to your starting positions and keep going until boss is dead.

### Strategy 2 - Four Corners

This one is a lot riskier, as it relies on players being able to handle any adds that drop onto them. It is easy to tunnel on the boss, and then go down to an overhead that came from behind you.

The main gist of this strategy is that you each take control of a corner of the arena. This allows you to maximize your dps on the boss as you will always have a player next to him, and you will never need to have more than one player waste time dodging the snot clones. Besides that, the plan is exactly the same as above.

### Miscellaneous Thoughts

Battleship Hexagon definitely feels like the most mechanics heavy boss of the bunch. Rasknitt is a close second, but the difficulty of the fight goes down significantly as soon as the Rat Ogre dies, as Rasknit can be CCed to infinity by any physical damage. Still, memorizing the flow of the fight helps significantly. Below are some other random optimizations you might want to do:

* Use the best pots for the job - Pyromancer Sienna does a ton of damage with her ultimate. Pair her with a purple pot to allow for 3-4 of them right off the bat. If she's not available, the Kerrilian also has a short cooldown damage ult.

* Save pots for 2nd phase - There are a lot of adds to deal with in the first phase, which can make you waste time on that str/haste pot. Phase 2 or 3 are much easier to fully utilize it. Just make sure you're not the one being targeted by his tri-pronged snot clone attack.

* Prioritize Dodging above all else - The snot clones attack has a damage dot attached to it. This will prevent you from picking up teammates and will deal damage through block. If someone went down, dodge first, then pick them up.

* Players will respawn in the arena - If someone dies, not all is lost. Survive the onslaught long enough and they will spawn along the right wall, ready to get back into the fight. As far as I know, there are no enrage timers in this game, so take it slow and steady.

* If you're not solo queueing, build your team with care - If you know what you're going into, build your loadout with care. Take something that can deal boss damage, or deal with adds while someone else deals the boss damage for you.

Hope this helps.