How to beat Pyromaniac in The First Descendant

The First Descendant has a long list of bosses to take down, but when you first get to Pyromaniac, it’s likely to be a difficult challenge. If you’re stuck, use our guide for help.

Pyromaniac is the sixth Void Intercept Battle you face in The First Descendant, unlocked by progressing through the main story and completing the White-night Gulch area. Pyromaniac provides a stern test—but we’ve got the details you need to overcome this challenge.

How to defeat Pyromaniac in The First Descendant

Pyromaniac is particularly deadly from close range in The First Descendant, so keep a safe distance and aim for the various weak points across its body—some of which can be removed. The weak points are:

• Sensor (eyes)
• Core Cover (stomach)
• Balancer (knees)
• Shoulder
• Core (stomach)

Focus on the weak points and use your Grapple Hook on removable parts when they appear yellow on your scanner. For Pyromaniac, the removable parts are the shoulders and the core.

Pyromaniac has a variety of attacks that can be extremely deadly, including firing a large ball of fire that spits out smaller balls that track you, a flamethrower, and its gun. Use the large structures for cover, but be warned that many get destroyed when hit.

Periodically, the screen goes white, and you are teleported into the area. After this, an orange area shows—use this as your cue to leave this zone immediately, using your Grapple Hook for an easy escape. After a short period, this zone is set aflame, and if you are in the area, you take sustained damage.

You also need to be careful of Pyromaniac’s burning chains that are placed on the ground, which are circular and inflict damage if the chains phase through you—which is an easy way to be downed, and as the chains will likely remain, makes it difficult for your teammates to revive you.

Whenever Kingfishers are spawned, take time to defeat them quickly so they don’t stack up on you, especially as these provide ammunition and recovery items when defeated.

Best loadout to fight Pyromaniac in The First Descendant

Mid-to-long-range weapons are best against Pyromaniac, due to its devastating strength at close range, so stick to assault rifles, launchers, scout rifles, and sniper rifles if you can. If your strongest weapons are short-range, like SMGs and shotguns, be very careful.

The Tamer is a great choice against Pyromaniac, due to its high damage, large magazines, and fast fire rate. If you gear this towards cold and weak-point damage, you can churn through Pyromaniac’s defenses.

Use any Ice element attacks you can, as Pyromaniac is weak to this attribute, so Descendants like Viessa are extremely effective. If you don’t have any suitable weapons or Descendants, Poison is your next best bet as Pyromaniac has normal resistance—so Freyna is a decent choice.

Any Fire attributes are almost worthless in this fight, as Pyromaniac is very strong against this attribute, and it’s a similar situation for Electric, where Pyromaniac is strong. That’s not to say these are entirely useless, you just need to ensure you have a decent composition in your squad.

Other Descendants who can play an important role in this fight are Ajax, who can provide decent protection with his shields, Yujin for healing, and Enzo for the ammo boosts provided to teammates.

All Pyromaniac boss rewards in The First Descendant

Defeating Pyromaniac provides plenty of drops at level 66, including Reactors, Auxiliary Power, weapons, and more.

The biggest rewards come from interacting with the green orb and using Amorphous Materials linked to Pyromaniac. The ones you need are:

• Amorphous Material Pattern: 036
• Amorphous Material Pattern: 037
• Amorphous Material Pattern: 038
• Amorphous Material Pattern: 039

Rewards from using the above Amorphous Material Patterns include Valby Code and the Executor Blueprint, which can only be obtained by defeating Pyromaniac and opening the respective Amorphous Material Patterns.