User blog:Zadymek/Cyclopes Tactics

So, I am doing this Cyclopes tactics overview, in a video form. And I've done a lot of research. But will always accept any comments/criticism/questions gladly. Anyway, here's what I determined so far.

Introduction Cyclopes, my favorite enemy/boss. They are many, yet basically one ...and even Golem is very much like a Cyclops - you know, animations, posture  ...a gap where the eye should be. Some distinguish Gorecyclopes here, unfairly I'd say: mechanically they are almost identical, there's so little nuanced differences really.

The basics Cyclopes are huge, lazy chunks of meat in a shape of a biped rhino, with a bulky head and an iconic single  eye. It is the most intuitional enemy in a game as weak spots are basically inconspcuous: A tip for melees: inflicting Blind to Cyclopes does exactly the same as hitting their eye, save for damage bonus. Sadly Condemned Gorecyclopes ignore Blind completely when enraged. BTW Thundershock works the same additionally stunning the target.
 * Eye - it has but one eye. Yeah, and just poke it and it's blinded, and receives additional damage there too. Also a very good way to piss it off ;)
 * Legs - weaken it's suport and it will obviously fall like all the other giants.
 * Weapon arm - if it holds a cudgel weakening it will disarm the Cyclope. Hitting the arm right after it made a ground smash will require less stagger power to disarm it.
 * Tusks - nearly dead Cyclope may still remain calm, but destroy a tusk and Cyclops will start raging in no time (right after staggered animation). Does not apply to Gorecyclopes as "their tusks are too short to cleave ".

Apart from physical weak spots there is also creature's attitude: All those weaknesses can be exploited to damage, debuff, reach or incapacitate the one-eye giant.
 * Grab its leg and it'll limp and do a one leg stand stunt for some reason.
 * Finally, jump on its back to make it slam a ground with its bottom.
 * Hurt it's eye badly in it'll rage becoming more vulnerable to attacks,  just like a mythical berserker.
 * Grab its face or a neck and it'll reach to get rid of the intruder and possibly take off its mask - if it wears one.
 * Make the giant fall in certain ways and it'll damage its armor - if it has one.

But first one has to learn all the limits. Nunaces:

1. There is a major difference between raging and calm Cyclope: Fun fact: Calm Cyclopes stand up more quickly after the fall.
 * raging one doesn't care about its body parts, just as Pawns suggest. It'll jump, flounce, stomp and shake but it won't limp or reach. Hell, it'll even take more Lightnings to shock it! So, raging Cyclops is definitely a brawl phase, where most of Bestiary knowledge tactics go away.
 * calm Cyclops on the other hand is quite open to all the strategem like distraction, debilitation and manipulation. Only in this state Cyclops thinks and reacts to climbers aso. So, clinging to different body parts will result in different reactions of the recipient. This is definitely a way of the weak, those who can't handle the frontal assault, like Mage.

Gorecyclopes are the exception here, they, driven by apparent script, are constantly raging ...unless one can exact a glitch where the border between both kinds of Cyclopes blurs. What does that mean? When you get calm Gorecyclops all the [calm] Cyclops tactics suddenly start to take effect. This way one discovers a way of the weak for arguably the most fearsome beast of Bitterblack. Important note: Armed Gorecyclopes may attack indefinitely (probably a glitch) and overall feel like they are never get exhausted. Probaly because there's usually not enough space for them to rund arund so, sniping from any cheesing locations will hardly make them tired. But if they do they clearly signal their tiredness like all Cyclopes.
 * finally there is a intermediate state between the two, exhaustion. The phase that fastens raging and calm Cyclop's states. How does it work? Simply, piss the giant off and in time it'll get tired, will stop and start to breath heavily. It may eventually start to rage again (mandatory with Gorecyclopes), but generally it'll calm down.


 * Exhaustion is the phase that everyone benefits as in this state Cyclopes are vulnerable the most. They hardly move, doesn't grab, just stand and breath heavily.

2. There is major difference between armored and unarmored Cyclope. BTW Lightning based attacks, the ones regular Cyclopes are weak to, seem to inflict a Thundershock to Armored Cyclopes more easily while their helmet is still on. Go figure.
 * Obviously an armored one can take more punishement where it's covered, but sometimes also, and there's definitely a hitboxes glitch involved, can take more hits/debilitation on it's unarmored parts.
 * And if it has a helmet on it'll be painful to manipulate this one other than simply kiting.
 * Unarmored Cyclope is just the walking target, easy to stagger/ knock down and hurt, but also very easy to disarm as it has no armor mitigating stagger/knockdown power of incoming attacks.

3. There is a slight difference in approach to armed and unarmed/disarmed Cyclopes. Important note: actually running constantly between Condemned Gorecyclops' legs and provoking it to stomp and ground smash is an excellent way to exhaust it within limited space, in like 30 seconds.
 * armed ones have higher reach and damage obviously, plus they are more mobile when attacking. But also are more quick to get exhausted. And, for some reason, are more quick to ignore climbers and calm down if they loose track of the enemy (when alone simply climb on Cyclops' back or hide from Gorecyclops). In general it is good to keep a medium distance from armed Cyclops as it should be outmaneuvered rather than attacked or run from - running to its left leg while it's preparing to charge may provoke its ground smash - which is very inaccurate attack with quite long pause afterwards. At worst it'll start stomping which is also easy to avoid. This is the best time for melee attackers to attack Cyclops' legs as it attacks in just one direction and it takes some time for it to turn around back to its opponent/s.
 * disarmed ones are more quick to anger but their sight range seems reduced. Thus their attacks are stationary and less accurate, they don't charge at enemy, instead they come close to its position and start swiping the ground around. And if their club lies on the ground they are more willing to simply ignore everything around and attempt to retrieve their weapon.This phase may be used for preparation of some long charging skills or sniping Gorecyclops' mask's straps.

4. There is a minor change in damage between night and day with armed Cyclopes, due to their club dealing Fire damage at night. And since Bitterblack was suppose to be all one long twilight Cyclopes there have their clubs always lit. Again, with the exception of Gorecyclopes whose clubs are never lit - cause they were living in the dark and don't need light I suppose.

5. Finally there are small differences in mechanics between Armored Cyclopes and Armored AKA Condemned Gorecylopes:
 * the face cover, Gorecyclops won't take it off when climbed. It has to be removed by cutting its straps (side straps I mean, the upper one seems glitched).
 * armor mechanics. At first glance it suppose to work similar... It can be rend and even leaves the same loot. The differences appear when it comes to nuances as Gorecyclope's armor can't be damaged directly and it actually deals damage to climbers. Also Gorecyclope's armor does not fall off upon rending. Due to striking similarities I assume most of the differences are a result of a glitch.
 * Condemned Gorecyclops starts chained to environment most of the time. But then again, it's a scripted behaviour. There are even some funny glitches involved.
 * Hint: unchain the Gorecyclops, then find a spot on a map where you can wait and save. Then load and check out the Gorecylops.

As we are done with the nuances, let's get to tactics. Everything below applies to all kinds of Cyclopes:

1. Stagger.

If you don't know, Stagger and Knockdown states are connected, usually Knockdown comes one powerful blow after Stagger, especially when it comes to large creatures.To stagger a Cyclops simply apply enough stagger power to it. Weak spots work the best. Notably eye, but feet work good too.

Now, shooting an eye may prove to be a very hard task when Cyclops is raging, but with some knowledge of Cyclopes' animations' patterns you can spot few oportunities for a clear shot: BTW Cyclopes have three kinds of Grab attack: one for climbers (it'll try to eat the victim), one for frontal attackers (squeezing) and one for the ones it'll grab while on its knees (ground pounding). The third one is glitched and may deal unusually wide AoE damage.
 * right after the Cyclops has stood up it'll do a taunt (two, maybe even three times ..or zero if the glitch occurs ;)
 * right after it picked up its weapon it'll gasp exposing its eye
 * it can gasp at attackers randomly too, usually after a barage of missing blows or being staggered
 * at the end of its "getting pissed" animation it'll stop and present its face
 * when it missed its grab it'll look at its hand and present the eye too
 * afer it'll perform a long jump its head will be still for a while
 * when it'll grab a Pawn there's a good opportunity for an eyeshot

And actually Cyclopes have two different stagger animations when it comes to eye attacks. One short with two very wide swings, second longer with a more advanced "choreography" - usually produced by hitting than e eye during the first one.

2. Where does the Knockdown step in?
 * Right in the middle of Stagger animation for instance. Just mind that it'll be hard to efficiently attack an eye, so one has to aim at other exposed bodypart/s.
 * Another way to knockdown the beast is to wait till it's tired and then attack its exposed bodypart/s.

Important note. Depending on a choice made Cyclops will fall differently (in general, the guy is glitched remember?): Now, there is a minior nuance here: whether the Cyclops will fall on its face or its back clearly depends on something, but test results, ti hitting it from the front and from the back, are inconclusive. Generous hitboxes I guess ;) Just mind that with this form of fall the clock is ticking and one has a very limted time to take some actions.
 * hitting its legs will make it fall to its knees. This is the best position for ranged attackers as Cyclops will stay that way for some time. Just mind that if attacked once but strong enough, the Cyclops will stand up immeditely. As the battle progresses however, the Cyclops may take two, even three strong hits before standing up. Mind that in this position it still can grab the attacker and hit climbers situated near its hurt eye. This manner of falling damages its leg armor.
 * hitting anything above legs will most likely result in Cyclops falling flat. It'll stand up in no time, but before that it will be completely defenseless. Great oportunity for melees I guess. This manner of falling damages its arms armor.

3. Limitations. Just like many other large enemies, Cyclopes can't be Staggered/Knocked down during recovering animations, while already lying and also during lying down voluntarily. Additionally, they can't be disarmed when recovering (or on their knees ofc).

Summary

Personally I find knockdown tactics the best possible against this type of enemy. It saves a lot of time and, potentially, curatives. Also, I have a hard time recalling any other tactics, other than simply damaging it till it dies that is :)

Bonus: how to glitch the Gorecyclopes into calm state? Technically you can't. But you can try, two ways:
 * 1) The smaller ones randomly calm down mid battle, so just fight and hope for the best. But more effective/universal will be to find a far spot and wait till you'll be able to save. Save, then load and there is a chance that upon doing so you'll meet a calm Gorecylops. At certain maps, like Midnight Helix, simply reentering may do the trick too. Or not, it's totally random as stated above. If the glitch won't happen withn few tries try after again after few days. But if it'll happen that'll mean you're in the sweet spot and from now it'll become virtually epidemic (I was a real nightmare whan I was rolling "They Crawl" video).
 * 2) The above doesn't work with chained Condemned Gorecyclopes, I mean actually condemned not the running free ones mind you. Why? Cause upon loading the game they get resetted and become chained again, sometimes in very strange places - it depends on their position mid saving I suppose. Anyway, to make a chained Condemned Cyclops calm you have to interrupt its rage initiating script. It requires more stagger power but the method is far more viable than simply hopin for the best. How to do it?
 * As you may have noticed the beast is perfectly calm when chained (eye doesn't glow red), and when sufficiently damaged rends it bindings.
 * Immediately after that the script kicks in and Gorecyclops starts to get pissed and grabs its cudgel. If one will be able to stagger it out of this animation - the time passes as soon as its eye starts to glow - one'll have a calm, sumbissive and most likely unarmed, Gorecyclops.
 * This "nirvana" will last as long as one will abstain from applying crushing blows to its eye ...when it is conscious ti when it can actually react with "ouch my eye" animation. So, to prolong the state simply attack an eye when it's fallen flat.

Bonus

As mentioned above, some of Cyclopes mechanics apply to Golems fights. Most notably the ways they can fall. Just instead attacking certain regions of the body of staggered Golem one has to attack certain discs ...attack discs in certain order that is, as they are finite. What are the benefits of applying such strategem? Idk, ever had a problem destroying hand or foot disc? Fell the Golem flat and you won't.

Plus there is the rage mechanics that works very similarly too.

BTW Metal Golem is constantly raging while the Golem's not. A coincidence?