How to defeat Brumak, the first major Gears Tactics boss

Each of Gears Tactics' acts end with an exciting boss fight against some kind of massive and terrifying creature. The first major boss in the game is Ukkon's Brumak, a large creature that can launch rockets, stomp its massive feet, and shoot directly at your units. You might recognize the boss from the game's trailer, but fighting it can still be a bit daunting your first time through. Here's how to manage it.

Brumak is a slow-moving but hard-hitting creature that's in the center of an H-shaped map. It has a health bar split into three stages and is damaged by hitting the Imulsion tanks on its back. It also has guns on each arm that you can destroy. To combat the player, it will shoot suppressive fire, stomp on nearby players, and fire missiles that take a turn to deploy and hit their target.

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In general, avoid the missile salvos and hit the Brumak in its weak spots, but here are some tips to keep in mind when entering the boss fight:

4. Start the fight will a full squad with high health

You can give yourself a leg up in this first boss battle by playing well in the level preceding it. While the Brumak fight has its own checkpoint, it comes at the end of a long chapter. Your health and ammo carry over to this fight, debuffs and all. If any of your characters were downed in the preceding level, you'll be going into the Brumak fight with a health disadvantage.

The Brumak hits hard and enemies spawn on both sides of the map every couple of turns, so you'll want to go in with as much help as possible. Go in with four characters at full health will give you more leeway if you mess up or your characters keep missing their shots.

3. Spread out your units

The Brumak moves around a lot and has several area-of-effect attacks, so it's best to spread your units out so they aren't wiped out together. Each attack should only be focused on one unit, which will allow you to last longer even if someone is downed. The Brumak will always turn around whenever its Imulsion tanks are hit, so having characters on all four corners of the map is helpful so they can easily flank the enemy. It's best to put one healer and one heavy hitter on each side of the map.

2. Close Emergence Holes ASAP

Emergence Holes, from which new enemies emerge in Gears Tactics, will eventually spawn on each side of the map. These will generate additional enemies and while the first wave is inevitable, you can close off any more reinforcements by tossing a grenade in the Emergence Hole to destroy it. You may feel inclined to focus all your firepower and grenades on the Brumak, but that isn't the best idea. Save your frag grenades for these Emergence Holes, and close them as soon as you can.

You'll still have to deal with a couple of enemies in addition to the Brumak, but closing the Emergence Hole quickly will prevent you from being flanked or overwhelmed as badly as if you ignored it. Each character has at least three actions a turn, so you'll still be able to move into a better position or damage the Brumak once you close the Emergence Hole.

1. Use damaging abilities at the right time

If you've been filling out your units' skill trees, some of them will have special abilities that can buff your characters or deal extra damage. These are great to use against the Brumak, but they're best used at the start of each phase. If the Brumak's health bar is already on the lower side, you might waste a majority of your damage output if you execute the move then.

Damage does not carry over, so a lot of the damage you deal may end up not counting if the only has a sliver of health left. Considering that these abilities take multiple turns to recharge, using them too late in the previous phase can actually put you at a disadvantage at the start of the next one.

By keeping all four of those tips in mind, you should be able to take down the first major boss of Gears Tactics. It can be quite challenging for first-time players, but as long as you remember to balance attacking the Brumak with everything else you have to deal with, you should be able to take it down after just a couple of attacks.

Gears Tactics will be released for PC on April 28, 2020.