Ghostrunner 2: How To Defeat Ahriman

The first boss fight in Ghostrunner 2 gives you a wonderful view of what's to come. With this guide, we will help you overcome the first ordeal in this cyberpunk world!

Ghostrunner 2 How to defeat Ahriman
Ghostrunner 2: How to defeat the boss Ahriman? | © 505 Games/EarlyGame

Ghostrunner 2 is the newest cyberpunk, action-platformer from 505 games and the next installment in the Ghostrunner series, being known for tough and merciless battles. Especially the boss fights tend to be a stress-test for everyone.

The boss fight with Ahriman gives you a good taste of what's to come and shakes you up off the ground and test if you already learned the game's basics. In our Ghostrunner 2 review, you'll also discover if the game caught me off guard and whether the battles are truly tough and without any fairness or not!

We'll show you in this guide how to handle Ahriman the Destroyer and be victorious.

Please be reminded that this article contains spoilers.

Ghostrunner 2: Ahriman The Destroyer

Ghostrunner 2 Ahriman Bossfight
Ghostrunner 2: Ahriman the Destroyer is the first boss in the game. | © 505 Games/EarlyGame

With Ahriman being the first boss in Ghostrunner 2 in the mission "Will Bushido Allow It?" some of you might struggle with him, especially his pattern is far more aggressive than previous enemies. However, once you understand his tactics and how the game's combat and movement work, he's a piece of cake.

This boss fight has two phases, and we'll explain how to handle each one.

Phase 1

Ghostrunner 2 Ahriman Fightpattern
Ghostrunner 2: Downward swing during the boss fight with Ahriman. | © 505 Games/EarlyGame

During my time with the boss fight, the best course of action was to get away from Ahriman, jump backward or dodge the attacks to the right or left. With Ahriman aggressively trying to approach you, you need to get a feeling of his movement. These are his attacks during Phase 1:

  • A downward swing to the ground, landing directly in front of him – dodge this by moving to the right or left, behind him or backward
  • The 360-degress wave of plasma – easily dodged by jumping over it
  • The four projectile will slightly track your movement – dodge this attack by walking diagonally upwards to Ahriman
  • A 3-combo hit as you're for too long close to him – dodge diagonally to safety or execute the perfect-parry

In order to hit him, you need to sneak up on him, attack while he's open to you, and dodge to safety. Once his health is down to 75% Ahriman will blast you away. When he does this, get back on stable ground as quickly as possible and move close to him again. In order to do this, use your grapple, the wall run and dodge the projectiles flying towards you.

Phase 2 is about to happen, but you don't need to face him alone anymore!

Phase 2

Ghostrunner 2 Ahriman Fightpattern Ground Slash
Ghostrunner 2: The 360-degree wave of plasma attack. | © 505 Games/EarlyGame

With the unknown person (also called Bakunin later on) hovering above Ahriman, you'll have back-up for Phase 2, and that's much appreciated as well! Your new friend is able to paralyze Ahriman for a short period of time, giving you the opportunity to attack.

Once he is paralyzed, he will jump away and rotate through the four different attacks already mentioned in Phase 1. Other than those attacks, he'll also cast an AOE ring where you need to grapple at the stranger in order to avoid any kind of damage. I failed this one in particular pretty often, since you need to position yourself close to Bakunin at a specific angle to avoid the aura of the AOE ring – it all depends on your timing, but his help is still much appreciated.

With Ahriman using almost the same pattern in phase 2, you won't have any more trouble and will be able to defeat him swiftly! On an interesting note: If you manage to defeat Ahriman without using the help of your new friend, you'll unlock the achievement "He Just Wanted To Help".

Ewelyn Derc

Ewelyn is a Content Creator at EarlyGame. She's mainly interested in everything that comes from Japan and has to do with JRPGs. But also Souls-like, Indies, Shooter, Rogue-likes, Otome, Visual Novel and more are in her field of expertise....