How to beat the Once Human Treant boss
The hulking Treant boss in Once Human looks tough but isn't actually that hard to kill
Beating the Once Human Treant boss isn't as hard as it seems, but you need to first remove its invincibility and make sure you focus its weak points. This boss is the regional Great One for the Broken Delta area of the map, found within the Gaia Cliff Monolith. While its recommended for two level 20 players, you can quite easily solo the Treant boss, so long as you come prepared.
Once Human Treant preparation
The Treant Great One boss in Once Human is actually pretty easy to fight so long as you come prepared and don't waste time. Before you even get into the fight, you need to make sure you have a solid medium-long-range precision weapon on you – an assault rifle, LMG, or even sniper rifle will be useful here. Obviously, make sure you craft and carry as much ammo as you can carry too.
Additionally, a close-range weapon, such as an SMG or shotgun, will also help, but your melee weapon can work in a pinch. Finally, make sure you've got some healing Activators and Adrenaline Shots to keep you in the fight. Adrenaline is especially important if you're under-levelled as these will allow you to self-revive if you lose all your health. Remember, there are basic workbenches inside the Monoliths, so make sure you use those to craft what you need before beginning the boss fight.
How to beat the Treant in Once Human
Now you can enter the rift to fight the Treant. First you need to jump in the dark pool and then walk into the vent that's glowing red and blue (these are gravitational anomalies). Jump while standing in this anomaly and you'll be shot up with a boosted jump, letting you reach the platform that leads into the main boss arena. After a cutscene the Treant will appear but will be dormant and invincible. Here's what you need to do to beat it:
- Start by taking out the three tangles vines around the perimeter of the arena to make the Treant vulnerable to damage. These large, black, tentacle-like vines are all found on the upper areas surrounding the Treant – one on top of the collapsed bridge, one on top of a rock formation, and another on top of cliff near a crashed oil tanker. You can use the nearby gravitational anomalies to jump up and reach them.
- Once vulnerable, you've got two minutes to deal as much damage to the Treant as possible.
- After two minutes are up, the Treant becomes invincible, and you must destroy the three vines that have regrown in exactly the same spots as before. Repeat until the Treant is dead.
Once Human Treant tips
Of course, such a large boss won't go down without a fight, so here are some specific tips on how to deal with the Treant's attacks and its weaknesses:
- Aim for the glowing, red, woman as this is the Treant's weakpoint. She's quite awkward to hit, particularly at ground level, so make sure you either stay on the high ground and snipe from afar or stand far back and pepper the weak spot with gunfire.
- Jump over the Treant's shockwave attack. The attack that caused me the most trouble was the Treant's ground-pound attack, which it does three times, sending a powerful shockwave each time. You can jump over this attack but the timing is a bit finicky, so this is why having Adrenaline Shots is helpful!
- Look out for it charging up its laser. The Treant wails a bit and leans forward slightly before the woman start firing a deadly laser at you. Make sure you dodge roll to the side and even towards the Treant to get out of the line of fire.
- The Treant can be staggered, letting you deal easy damage. I've not figured out if there's a specific trigger for this aside from just dealing lots of damage, but staggering the Treant makes the fight significantly easier. The stagger doesn’t extend the two-minute damage window, so you'll want to damage the Treant as much as much as possible early to ensure get the maximum benefit of this easy damage period. Use it to heal up too!
- Shoot Cyst Seeds to create shields that protect you from attacks. These dangerous-looking plants look like they'll hurt you but it turns out they provide really useful protection that you can shoot out of.
Once you've defeated the Treant in Once Human, you can grab some loot from its remains. You have the option to either "Control" the Treant by spending a Controller or "Eliminate" the Treant for free. Controlling gives you the best loot and more of it while Eliminating just gives you the base rewards. I opted to control the Treant and got 20 Stardust Source, 8 Weapon Mod Parts, a Tier 2 Recurve Bow, two Melee Amplifier Mods, 12 Electronic Parts, and 800 Energy Links. I also secured the Harveseed Deviation.
Using a Controller – this is an inventory item and isn't the same as Once Human controller support – to get the most loot isn't essential on your first go against the Treant boss but you might want to consider saving your Controllers and using them when you're farming bosses in the endgame for the best possible loot.
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Will Sawyer is a guides writer at 12DOVE who works with the rest of the guides team to give readers great information and advice on the best items, how to complete a particular challenge, or where to go in some of the biggest video games. Will joined the GameRadar+ team in August 2021 and has written about service titles, including Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Warzone, as well as some of the biggest releases like Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, and God of War Ragnarok.