How do I beat the first boss (Barrett)?

Question

I'm going into this fight with a single EMP grenade, a stun gun and tranquilizer rifle, and a handgun as my only lethal weapon.

I've managed to use the EMP and the stun gun to lock him down and pump two clips of handgun ammo into his head at point blank. This seems to just tickle him a little bit, and he promptly kills me.

I've also tried to run-and-gun, using the pillars and barricades for cover, but I haven't been very successful at actually damaging him while trying to dodge his gun and grenades.

What strategy can I use to kill him without any high-powered lethal weapons?

Answer 1

Toss a yellow canister at him. Then while he's coughing and cursing you, throw one of the explosive red barrels at him.

If you're on higher difficulty levels than story mode, repeat as needed.

Answer 2

Very simple -- 7 non-stop zaps to the head (or 15 zaps to the body) with the Stun Gun will bring Barrett right down.

If you rush in and zap quickly enough, he won't even get a chance to shoot at you.

Answer 3

Run-and-gun is a pretty good strategy; I've found that weaving between the pillars tends to skew his accuracy a bit as well.

If you haven't looked already, take a glance around the two small rooms in the corners of the larger pillar room - these are chock-full of ammo and, if memory serves possibly some more grenades. You can also shoot the explosive barrels in the room to damage him.

Probably the thing that helped me the most on this fight was throwing/shooting the fire extinguishers found on the corner pillars in the room. This not only freezes him in place while he clears his eyes, but it also makes him lose you, so you can dash off to one of those corner rooms to re-stock, and then come back and shoot him in the face a bit more (I think it helps if you've upgraded your 10mm with the armor-piercing upgrade, but I couldn't swear to this, as I've never faced him without it).

Answer 4

Even on the hardest mode, this method works really well:

1) hide until he starts walking

2) sprint for the room to the far right of where you enter. That is, if you enter from the south, sprint to the north east corner.

3) as you enter, there will be a crate just to your right when you walk into the room. Dive behind that.

4) from this position, he can't hit you with grenades, or his gun, and he's to stupid to enter the room. Wait till he pauses his shooting, pop him in the face with a pistol or a shotgun. About 3 clips of 10mm or 2 clips of shotgun to the head and he'll go down.

5) ???

6) Profit

Answer 5

Deus Ex Difficulty (hard):

Initial equipment: 1 Remote explosive. I think any grenade will suffice.

As soon as the fight starts, use a Remote Explosive at his feet. Then run to the right red barrel and throw it at him. Immediately go and grab the next barrel in the middle of the room (left to you if your are doing it in order) and throw it at him. While he is stunned run to the room at the end where you can grab a hand grenade, an EMP grenade and a shotgun. If you do it right he won't see you. Then throw the EMP grenade at him. That should give you enough time to use another red barrel, and while he is stunned unload a full shotgun clip at his head.

Good luck!

Answer 6

There is ammo in the side rooms, which includes a few EMP grenades. You can chuck either fire extinguishers, exploding barrels, or gas canisters in his face to stun him. EMP grenade him, then unload your best weapon as close as possible. If he grabs you and you are quick, after he picks you up and pulls his gun out you can move to the right, but not the left, it doesn't work.

Answer 7

I more or less used EMP Grenades to stun him, then shot him in the head with the Revolver I picked up earlier in the level. It took me about 2-3 grenades and several reloads, but he went down surprisingly fast when I didn't manage to get myself killed by his grenades.

Answer 8

I know this thread is old, but I do have one other possibility for very desperate stealth gamers: run right into his face and start shooting him in the head, works even with the 10mm handgun. stay as close to him as possoble, for he won't shoot you with his big scary gun, but pick you up and smash you in the face. that won't kill you, you get up and shoot him in the head again while you recover health until he picks you up again. repeat as long as needed and he's down.

Answer 9

I had a hell of a time with this too, because I went into this fight severely under-armed.

The barrel trick worked to a point, but I could never get the knockout punch. After a dozen tries (along with the annoyingly long load time to restart) I found this tip on the Internet that did the trick. It is a cheap trick that takes advantage of a glitch in the game, and isn't very satisfying, but it works. I finally did this because I didn't do enough side quests before fighting him and didn't level up my character enough yet to be very effective against him and I was sick to death of fighting him over and over, especially given the annoyingly slow re-load time to try again.

Here's the trick.

There is a room behind him in the right corner from the perspective of where you are standing when the fight starts. Go there and duck behind the crates (I think they have ammo on them) that are against the wall. If you can get there without him being too close behind you, the AI doesn't seem to allow him to get into a position where he can shoot you.

He will walk right up to the other side of the boxes and eventually throw grenades at you and cause damage to himself because he is too close. The grenades may hurt you a little, but won't do enough damage to kill you and you can regenerate the health fast enough to stay alive if you keep your head down. It takes a long time, but eventually he will kill himself.

If you are impatient, you may want to wait until his alert level goes down and he wanders off looking for you to take a few headshots on him from behind when he is facing away to speed up the process. Just make sure to stay close to your hidey hole so you can take cover when he comes after you. Also, you might have to go aggro him again if he wanders away too far and can't find you then duck back into cover.

Like I said, it is a cheap trick and not fun to play, but if you are just sick of the level and want to get on with the game it works.

Answer 10

The trick is hiding, especially if you are under-armed. Hide behind the crates in the corner rooms and when he is looking for you, snipe him with all you have. Then hide again. Barret is well armed, but not very smart. He is like a dumb cyborg grunt! Out-smart him!

Answer 11

Fire the Rocket launcher at his chest then dive for the ammo supplies to the left. Stock up. Throw an EMP grenade when he's stunned and then use the rocket launcher again. It should be fairly straight forward after that if you avoid his grenades and direct fire. Finish him off with combat rifle fire to the face.

Answer 12

Easiest way by far: Grenade launcher. You can find it and about 3 shells in the complex. I used two right off the bat. It's a long lag time for him after the video, so take advantage: boom! Run to the left crate in cover as he reloads his barret. He will choose to shoot at the right barrier because he was disoriented. His gun will then over heat, so boom, hit him again. If you were fortunate to have 3 shells, repeat. I didn't so I unloaded on him with the combat rifle. When he throws a group of 3 grenades, sprint straight toward him and activate the typhoon grenades. Instant death! If you were too late on the activation and he grabs you, no sweat; activate it as soon as the cutscene finishes.

Answer 13

Get behind the cover directly in front of you. Throw a grenade or mine, any will do then as he recovers flank him and he will lose you. dodge around to the right and keep going till you get to the last pillar, in the corner there is a small arsenal in an alcove, more than enough to kill him, sneak to the edge of the alcove and look around, he should be looking for you in the far corner, simply lob a few grenades at him to soften him up then hide until he is is point blank and pop out and unload with the shotty into his head until he goes down. Throwing the barrels is effective too, just dont go toe to toe.

Answer 14

I hid in a room in the area and when he came around I shot a gas barrel. I popped him in the head seven or eight times with my beefy pistol.

Answer 15

Here's how I did it after a dozens attempts of these explanations.

3 stun gun hits to the face 1 round of combat rifle 2 explosive red barrels to back 4 bullets of 10mm

Answer 16

Barrett slaughtered me every time until I figured out how to use the environment. If you're playing through for the first time and are looking for a how-to, my method requires the turret hacking upgrade and I recommend having an EMP grenade, though it's not necessary.

As soon as the cutscene ends and Barrett starts attacking, throw a grenade (or anything that will stun him for a few seconds) and run like hell towards the back right side of the room (when facing away from the entrance). Climb up the ladder and crouch. Barrett probably will not see you, but if he does, crouching near the wall should make it impossible for him to hit you. Note that the walls separating you from Barrett now can easily be shot through, but no grenades, gas cans, fire extinguishers, etc will pass through. As long as Barrett cannot see you directly, you're invulnerable. This should give you time to plan your next move.

As others have mentioned, this guy is a freakin tank. You can unload clips upon clips on this guy and he'll just keep marching on and asking if you like pineapples. I found that a really good way to soften him up is to sneak to the security computer on the 2nd floor left side of the room (there is a ventilation shaft connecting both halves of the second floor). Hack the computer and open the doors. Barrett will make more stupid comments about how it won't save you and you can sneak into this new room while he's distracted elsewhere. In this new area, there is a security room with a computer inside. Hack it and set the turrets to "enemies". You should be able to see the exact location of these turrets on your minimap in the next room over. Fire off some rounds on Barrett to lure him into this area and once he starts coming over, sneak your way back to the second floor. These turrets will give him a crapload of damage before dying.

After this, you should be able to take him out with a single clip.

Alternatively, you can place the explosive barrels strategically and shoot them as soon as Barrett gets too close. The problem with this method is that you have to be on the ground floor to position these barrels anywhere close to Barrett's patrol/search path.

Answer 17

Here's how I did it.

1. Shoot him with a taser or concussion grenade.

2. 3 shots in the head with the revolver.

3. Victory dance