If you thought fighting Kiana was a tough time, just wait until you reach the next major boss in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown—Azhdaha, the Darkest of Souls.
This daunting reptilian beast is one of the more difficult bosses in The Lost Crown, and you’ll need all the help you can get to defeat it.
How to prepare for the Azhdaha boss fight in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Getting ready for the Azhdaha boss fight isn’t solely about maximizing your damage output; it’s more about ensuring your survival to counter Azhdaha’s attacks effectively. To prepare optimally, visit The Haven and the Mage’s Magi Emporium. Prioritize getting extra healing potions and enhancing potion efficiency.
Make sure to visit Kaheva’s Forge for upgrades to the Blessing and Wolf-Bride amulets, both of which should be among your equipped gear for this encounter. Apart from these amulet upgrades, the following amulets for this boss fight will do you wonders:
- Blade Dancer
- Void Blade
- Verethragna’s Wrath
- Turning Wind
- Will of Rostam
- Wolf-Bride
- Dragon King
- Mount of Damavand
Wearing all simultaneously is not an option: We recommend a selective approach based on your individual skill. If you’re adept at dodging and avoiding damage with the right weapons, focus on power, but if you find yourself taking lots of damage, the defense route is more suitable.
How to defeat Azhdaha in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Phase one
Azhdaha employs a variety of unblockable attacks, including sweeps with her bladed tail and lunging bites from above, which are challenging to evade. It’s advisable to have a Shadow of the Simurgh teleport ready for quick escapes if you consistently get hit.
After the lunging bites, Azhdaha pauses on the ground, giving you an opportunity for a few combo hits. But, you can inflict the most damage when she hangs her head in the air, making the Four Royal Stars Amulet particularly advantageous in this phase.
The head’s positioning makes it a prime target for the Shabaz’s Spirit Athra Surge. Diving under and unleashing the upward blast can deal significant damage, but ensure Azhdaha hasn’t pulled her head back for another attack.
During certain moments, Azhdaha leans her head back, emitting a blast along the ground. Creating a Shadow point to teleport to the other side of its face as it sweeps can help you avoid the attack.
One of her more threatening attacks involves emitting a screech and summoning large glowing orbs in a row, with red columns indicating impending explosions. These orbs can’t be destroyed with arrows or parried, and there’s no room to dodge or teleport away. Instead, use the Dimensional Claw on one as it drops to remove it from play and stay safe from the ensuing explosions. Afterward, you can fling it at Azhdaha’s head to deal damage.
Phase two
Azhdaha will initiate a Reckless Attack when you reach phase two of the boss fight. The towering serpent will first attack you with a tail whip, followed by a lunging bite. You need to dodge Azhdaha’s first attack, then parry the bite to perform a Vengeful Counter and deal significant damage.
Like all Reckless Attacks, Azhdaha’s eyes glow yellow when initiating the attack. Azhdaha will sink its tail in the ground, then try honing in on your location to emerge from the soil. After the tail shows itself, it will fire projectiles from both sides of the battlefield. Sprint away to avoid taking damage from the tail drill. Parry the projectiles that come out of its tail to neutralize any incoming damage.
Similar to phase one, Azhdaha will try to bite you, but the bite attack consists of two consecutive strikes. Dodge away from its bite and keep your health up throughout the battle. If you can spare an Athra Surge Gauge, use Bahman’s Breath to recover from any damage taken and deal explosion damage if Azhdaha comes near its area of effect.
Phase three
For the final phase, Azhdaha enhances all the attacks she was already using while also slightly changing up her laser pattern. This might sound overwhelming, but it really comes down to playing smart. Instead of having extended openings, attacks are frequent, and slightly more involved.
Sometimes, avoiding her attacks in phase three can be rather challenging. The beam pattern is designed to punish you by following the previous path, and her other attacks are hard to avoid, too. But, as long as you play smart, avoid unnecessary confrontation, and always save your Athra Surge for the right moment, you should walk away alive.
On defeat, Azhdaha will not meet her demise, and will instead engage in conversation with the mortal Sargon. Communicating in cryptic riddles, Azhdaha gives you four Celestial Arrows, and tells you that four Celestial Guardians are the barriers preventing you from altering the past to save a single life. Shooting a Celestial Arrow at each of them is the key to changing fate, and one of these Celestial Guardians is located just to the west of Sargon’s current position.
Tips and tricks to beat Azhdaha in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
There are a few useful techniques you can use throughout the Azhdaha boss fight to speed up your journey to a victory:
- Azhdaha’s face is always in the middle of the action. Surprisingly, you can jump and hit her face to deal damage when it’s in the right position. It’s only safe when the boss moves back a bit.
- Make sure to block Azhdaha’s yellow attacks and use its own projectiles against it. Those are the main moves that hurt, so turning them back is a big win.
- Go for Athra Surges that don’t move much or do big damage to one target. They work best here since the other surges don’t do much damage in this fight.
All rewards for beating Azhdaha in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
As you leave the area, you’ll find a prize waiting for you in a chest: a Soma Tree Flower. You get this reward even though you didn’t kill Azhdaha, which is pretty neat. Additionally, you’ll also receive four Celestial Arrows, as stated earlier.
