Xesht’s opening phase gives you a chance to see most of his mechanics before doubling them up on you. Here are his attacks and mitigation strategies for each of them:
Sonic Wave Finger Gun
Xesht will begin channeling a ball of sonic energy which deals significant Physical damage. There are two mitigation strategies:
The easiest is to circle behind him as he fires and is very low risk.
The other is to dodge roll as he releases the projectile. The best direction to dodge is perpendicular to the projectile but you will be safe so long as you are tucked when the projectile passes over you.
Dodge left, right, or ideally dodge-roll behind Xesht when he channels the sonic finger gun
Triple Blast
Xesht telegraphs this attack by showing two glowing lights at the end of his hands. Be careful, this attack is much more dangerous than the Sonic Wave Finger Gun. He will fire three times, rotating quickly towards you again in between rounds.
The best way to avoid this attack is to stay close and time your dodge rolls past Xesht to force him to spin around for the next shot. Roll back behind him again inbetween rounds. It will require multiple dodge rolls to successfully mitigate, though most characters can survive one hit. If you are far away from him you can still successfully dodge the attack by dodge-rolling perpendicular to the blasts.
A successful dodge roll ideally behind Xesht during the Triple Blast
Tul Icicles
Xesht will summon the other breach bosses to deal with you periodically. Tul is telegraphed by a large gray hand with puppet strings rising through the floor.
She will shoot freezing icicles at you, make sure you have a Freeze charm on. There are two ways to mitigate this attack and either could be easier depending on where you are relative to the hand.
If the hand is close, its easiest to dodge behind the hand where the fan of projectiles cannot hit you. It rotates slowly so you are out of danger quickly.
The other mitigation strategy is to run far away down a hallway where it will be easier to side-step the icicles.
Tul’s hand will shoot icicles towards you, duck behind the hand or distance yourself
Esh Summon
Xesht will summon a blue hand from the floor to deal lightning area damage to you and apply the Shock ailment. This is one of the easiest attacks to avoid. A small circle indicating where the lightning wave will spawn is shown on the ground. You can either step outside of it or dodge-roll through it.
Step outside the blue circle to avoid the lightning damage and shock
Chase
Xesht will periodically drop through the floor and chase you with hands. If he catches you he will slam his hands together doing physical damage.
This attack is easy to run away from and he will tire of it after a few seconds. You can also attempt to dodge out of it if you don’t want to wait but getting the timing right can be tricky.
Luckily Xesht tires of the chase pretty quickly
Xoph Fireball
Xesht will occasionally materialize a fireball above his head which he drops in front of him. This attack is easy to dodge behind or just step out of the way. Once it explodes it will leave burning ground which can still damage you for several seconds, so make sure you don’t find yourself loitering.
This fireball is easy to dodge but deals a lot of fire damage.
Hand Slam
Xesht’s most dangerous attack is a Hand Slam. He will summon a large pink hand through the floor and channel standing still. You will be able to see a faint shadow of the hand floating above your head as you move around.
After a few seconds he will quickly close his hands and the floor will simultaneously light up with the outline of the hand. You only have a split second to dodge out of the way so be ready.
The hand will be a different orientation each time and you’ll want to dodge away from the fingertips, perpendicular to the orientation of the fingers. You won’t have enough dodge-roll distance to roll forward through them. There are two important signals for this attack, numbered one and two in the image below.
Take note of how Xesht’s hands are OPEN here while he is channeling and the shadow following you.
Look for these two signals that the slam is coming; either mean its time to move