The Breaker boss bears some resemblance to Left 4 Dead’s Tank boss. Since both games had the same creators, it was highly likely that they would bring it back.
The Breaker is terrifyingly powerful, especially when paired with corruption cards like The Fog. They have swift and powerful attacks that are hard to predict.
In this guide, you will learn how to beat the Breaker in Back 4 Blood.
This will show up multiple times during the campaign, and each encounter will be different because of the environment and corruption cards, but having a good understanding of how to defeat it will be extremely useful.
What is the Breaker?
The Breaker is a unique Ridden boss you will encounter in the campaign. It will show up as early as the Clean Sweep stage in Act 1, just before you fortify the library. It is different from when you beat the Ogre boss as the Breaker is a lot faster but not as tanky.
It has a lunging attack which will keep every Cleaner on their toes even if they are not the nearest one from the Breaker. This special mutated Ridden has a few weak spots, and since it is a lot smaller than the Ogre, it might be harder to hit for a few players.
Breaker Fight Strategy
The Breaker fight strategy is simple. Every time the Breaker makes its lunging attack or slams the ground with its enormous fists, it staggers for a short time. You will see the Breaker stay stationary on the ground with its fists down.
Since the boss is always highlighted, even if there is a dark fog on the map, you should see the opening to shoot the Breaker’s vulnerable parts.
The stagger time is really short so, you will have to do it consistently and do damage in quick bursts. The vulnerable parts are on its back, shoulder, and chest.
If your team starts to stick together closely, you might all get cleaved down together by the Breaker. It is best to split away from each other but not far enough where you cannot support your teammates or shoot the Breaker when it lunges at a player.
The fog will be a problem here as it obscures the vision of your teammates and their health status as well. It is best to throw all your offensive utilities as soon as the Breaker jumps and attacks.
If you throw a frag grenade and it directly hits the Breaker, he will kneel and will be a sitting duck for your whole team. Every Cleaner should unload everything on the Breaker’s weak or vulnerable spots. There should be enough spots for each Cleaner to hit from different angles.
However, using a pipe bomb is almost impossible. It takes around 5 seconds before it explodes, and the Breaker will already be moving around attacking other players. These Breakers are extremely fast even when they are not attacking.
If you manage to kite the Breaker on the pipe bomb upon exploding, it should do the same thing as the frag grenade and stagger the Breaker.
It is also important to note that special Riddens like Tallboys, Stingers, Stalkers, and Reekers will constantly spawn during the fight. Since that is how the campaign works, they will respawn no matter the situation. The frequency depends on the difficulty level.
Always keep an eye out on teammates. If there is a fog, you will not be able to see your friends when they are incapacitated by a Stalker or being crushed by a Tallboy. Keep your eyes open for these special Ridden, and you can ping them so they get highlighted for the other Cleaners.
On a higher difficulty level, they recover slightly faster from their staggers. It will take a while to get used to the timing. You can go for the safer strategy of just waiting for the attack and shoot when the Breaker is on somebody else or is recovering from its attack.
Since it is not as tough as the Ogre, you should be able to save more ammo in this boss fight even on higher difficulties. As long as you are hitting all your shots, the Breaker will be faster to beat and more ammo efficient.
Just be careful when you play on higher difficulties. There will be friendly fire, and when the Breaker lunges at other Cleaners, you might constantly be shooting your teammates without realizing it.
Does the Breaker Drop Loot?
Just like the Ogre boss fight, the Breaker does not drop anything. However, there should always be a nearby area where you can get more ammo and replenish supplies.
Since most of the areas in the campaign are widely open, you can explore more to search for resources.
If you end up using all of your remaining ammo for the boss fights, the rest of the run will become harder. Resource management is vital in all survival games since you will not replenish anything after beating the Breaker unless you find other supplies.
Final Thoughts
Beating the Breaker will be easier if you play with your friends. You can have a consistent voice communication with each other which will help with the fog.
It is also nostalgic to see Left 4 Dead’s Tank resembling the Breaker from Back 4 Blood. While they are two different enemies, you can see the creators’ improvement to add more variety to the game.
