Table of Contents
General tips
If you are familiar with the Ratchet & Clank franchise, chances are you’ll feel at home with the controls right away, but still, you’ll have to be mindful of the new mechanics such as the new evasion “Phantom Dash” and the new repertory of weapons.
The very first priority should be your main gun; in order to upgrade your equipment, you’ll need collectable crystals found around the different planets and level up them, which is done by beating enemies with them, so instead of wasting your resources in the first gun you get, keep exploring and buying weapons until you find the one you are the most comfortable and save crystals.
The phantom dash is tricky to use; getting the timing right won’t always be easy, so don’t rely on it all the time but rather, as a way of getting farther away quicker, the normal jump is enough to avoid most attacks. As a last piece of advice, the game can be quite challenging even in its balanced difficulty; in every scenario, be it major or mini-bosses, there will be crates with ammo and life that will spam constantly, don’t let your health and ammo run away to start paying attention to them! While the game looks at its best in the Fidelity mode, there’s no beating the smoothness of the performance, 60fps, mode or the almost unnoticeable performance RT mode that offers the best of both worlds.
Mini-boss fights
In Rift Apart, you’ll encounter a bunch of mini boss fights, with most of them being rather simple, after a couple of minutes, you’ll have noticed their patterns by yourself, the best advice here is to be mindful with your distance and use a combination of weapons that allow you to get an opening between enemies and another for long range attacks, perhaps a third choice for those cases where the ammo just isn’t enough should do
Dr Nefarious
During the prologue, We’ll get the return of Dr Nefarious, who will steal Clank’s Dimensionator and start the whole adventure. So, naturally, He is the first boss in the game. This first encounter will have him in a tanky ship where all you have to do is keep constantly shooting while avoiding his attacks; sometimes some small enemies will spam, so make sure to always keep the camera on Nefarious’ ship; it’s easier to shoot him directly while beating the small fries with your wrench attack.
Seekerpeede
Your first boss fight as Rivet, the Seekerpeede, is a gigantic ship that will interrupt a conversation between Rivet and his newest friend Clank. This one is a very dynamic boss fight that starts with a persecution segment and carries you through the entire planet. The ship attacks with missiles and some long-range attacks where it comes close to Rivet, the trick here is to get far from it to easily avoid its rockets and attacks; short-ranged weapons aren’t useful here unless there are no other options, its attacks are too hard, and it moves around too much for it to be worth it so instead keep a distance and don’t forget to jump! Be ready for how dynamic this boss fight can be
Francis
After some progress, Rivet will encounter an old acquittance; Francis is a pirate ready to use his dirty tricks against you. In order to reach him, you’ll have to beat some bronze levels in the arena previously showcased during the State of Play from a couple of weeks ago. When you encounter him, his pirate troops will make sure this isn’t as easy as a head-on-head fight with Francis would be; these pirates come directly at you, so the best choice is a short-range weapon and explosions, after beating his troops with him around, He’ll throw a bigger pirate that is actually a mini-boss that, while tough, can be beaten with the steps described in the mini-boss fights section.
Dr Nefarious 2nd Round
In the same arena as Francis Dr Nefarious will fight you once again, this time its Rivet’s turn to kick his ass, He will fight while in air so your best shot are long-range weapons, as intimidating as He could look this boss fight is quite easy, He’ll keep constantly shooting and grabbing explosives which you can either evade or use at your benefit to make them explode as He grabs them, He will also quickly approach to perform a direct attack which you can evade with phantom dash
Emperor Nefarious Final Round
The Emperor Nefarious is the counter dimensional version of our classy Doctor, as his title implies, He succeeded at conquering his dimension, and now is willing to expand his ambition and invade the rest of dimensions, starting with Ratchet’s. Emperor Nefarious isn’t playing around, so the fight starts with him awakening a gigantic mecha version of himself, which Ratchet will take care of.
This fight starts with battling at a safer distance against a part of Mecha Nefarious, first his arm and then his head, these two parts have different attacks and stages where a long-range weapon will be required, this part is rather tanky but detecting attack patterns you shouldn’t face many issues. The battle continues with Ratchet entering in Mecha Nefarious’ chest and attacking his robotic heart directly, this part is quick but you can die quite easy, the platform you step on will start falling down so be mindful of your environment and don’t stop shooting.
Now that this mecha is done, Rivet with a little help will face Emperor Nefarious, this boss fight is quite similar to Dr Nefarious 2nd Round, but this time around his attacks are way more powerful, has more health, his moves are quicker and the fight itself more frenetic. He’ll fight in mid air but will always keep a close distance so any weapon of your choice should do, just be ready for a long boss fight where you’ll likely run out of ammo and remember that phantom dash is a must! No matter what keep him on sight, don’t doubt in shooting him and only phantom dash can keep you safe from his close-range attack which deals an absurd amount of damage.
Without further spoilers, be ready for a frenetic adventure filled with incredible fights and outstanding visuals all the way through! If you are one of the lucky people who managed to get a PlayStation 5, this is a must-play adventure.
You can check out our full Spoiler-Free Review of Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart by clicking here.
