How do I defeat Jormungandr, the snake/worm boss at the end of Chapter 2?

Question

Jormungandr, the boss at the end of Magicka's Chapter 2, has me stymied.

Vlad, who has assured me that he is not a Vampire before running off, informed me that this worm's weak point is his head.

Well, that's all well and good, but I can't reliably hit his head.

What I'm doing so far:

I can stay alive pretty much indefinitely with a basic shield spell and my life regen staff, but as a war of attrition, this is going to take forever. It seems like using an Area-Effect Earth Magick will always force him to go above ground, and after that, if I'm lucky I can get off a lightning spell that might hit him for a few ticks. But this is whittling down at his health at a pretty pathetic rate, so I'm sure I'm missing something here.

Beam spells just go right through the body, and I can't angle them upwards, Sprays have insufficient range, and my attempts to channel a 'bomb' type spell generally get interrupted before I can power enough range into them.

Answer 1

Letting Jormungandr run into barriers seems to be an effective tactic. I used stationary shields (E + right click) and stone walls (E + D + right click) and just let the worm run into them. They do pretty decent damage all by themselves. With E + 4*D you get even stronger stone walls, those work particularly well.

Just running around and covering the whole area with stone walls ensures that Jormungandr will hit something when he surfaces.

Answer 2

I used the 5 charge stone method. Basically, stand near him when he pops out and charge up with the mouse cursor right where he is coming out of the ground. As soon as he lowers his head to strike you, release it. It should do a couple thousand damage.

Answer 3

One very easy way is to use the Grease Magick (located in chapter one on the eastern side of the large river just outside the starting area). When you see the boss coming out of the ground, just drop some Grease and set it on fire. Then run around to lure him into striking you so that he'll put his head into the flaming grease when he does. Being covered in burning grease doesn't make him retreat into the ground, so it's possible to kill him in a few seconds using this method (though more likely he'll duck into the ground first).

Answer 4

There are several ways to beat this boss.

To hit the head with spells, you should wait for it to bow down. You can then just target a spell in that direction and you will hit it. This is useful if you want to use beam attacks. For lightning attacks, you can first cast water on it and then the next time use lightning/lightning beam to cause a lot more damage.

Another way is to wait for its melee attack and cast a stone wall right in its path or wait for it to go underground and cast it right on the spot where it tries to come above ground. It will receive massive damage every time it hits its head on the wall.

Answer 5

The most damaging single-target projectile in the game is earth + 4x ice. This will kill him in 2 hits - the first does about 2/3 of his life, and the second finishes him.

Use haste and run around until you see a stationary dust cloud - this is where he will appear. If you want to take a more active approach, you can cast an earth or earth/ice barrier (earth + shield or earth+ice+shield) in his path while he dives around - if he strikes one it damage him a little and then force him to surface.

The moment you see the stationary cloud get a moderate distance away from him (not too far or he'll spit poison!), summon the elements and begin to charge facing him. I recommend getting either directly above or below him, so that it's easier to judge where his head is and you dont miss. Release the earth/ice spikeball when his head goes down and he is about to strike at you.

If you do this correctly he dies extremely fast - good if you're trying for the "mission improbable" speed run achievement!

If for some reason you cannot get this method to work, here are some alternatives:

• Enchant your sword with the steam + steam + lit + lit + arcane uber damage combo and sword him when his head comes down. This takes the guesswork out of aiming left/right, but dont get too close or his head will knock you down when he gets low before he actually strikes. Respectable damage.

• Place arcane mines (plus other elements if you're feeling creative) below him so that his head hits them immediately when he comes down to strike you. You can enchant a mine combination into your sword to deploy them in a line between him and you for better accuracy. Moderate damage, plus a little extra if fire is in there.

• Rock shield in front of him as he is about to strike you. He takes damage when he strikes the wall. This method is slow, but fairly safe if you heal poison spit damage.

Hope this helps!

Answer 6

I ended up beating the boss by using aoe arcane spells. The key for me was waiting until the boss came up, and then using a 5 charge arcane bomb. As long as you keep up the self-shield, you shouldn't have to worry about getting hurt.

I read about people using a 5 charge stone throw to kill him just a few shots, but I found it too unreliable (I'm sure it was just me doing it wrong though).

Answer 7

Repeat these three steps:

1. Run around until he appears above ground.
2. Get within a short distance of him and begin charging an Earth shot (5 elements with at least one Earth) aimed at his body. You want to be close enough that he will lunge instead of spraying poison. You will learn this distance through trial and error.
3. When he hisses he will lunge shortly after. Fire your charged shot at his body when he lunges and you will strike him in the mouth. Once again, you will learn how to time this through trial and error.

Most Earth shots are powerful enough that they kill him after about 2-3 hits and they interrupt his lunge attack. Experiment elements on top of Earth; 4 Ice tends to work well if you have fast enough hands. You may use another spell to interrupt Jormungandr but I recommend charged shots; take advantage of the time that he idles above ground before attacking.

You can also try laying a rock between you and the snake and charge your Earth shot. The snake will lunge and collide with the rock, hopefully destroying it. If you have good timing and fire your Earth shot shortly after then will get hurt from both the rock and your shot. This would kill him twice as fast, and you won't take damage if you screw the timing up because the rock will soak his lunge.

Answer 8

I beat him by filling his mouth full of lightning then putting up a shield that he would hit as he attacked. And when he does the jumping around put proximity based spells on the ground.

Also, I spam healed myself and kept my shield up. There probably is a better way but, it worked.

Answer 9

I found the best way is to mix arcane, fire, and earth and wait for him to try to snap at you. It does a bunch of damage and the arcane magic mixed in makes him stop attacking so you don't get poisoned.

Answer 10

I used [shift]+Fire continuously when he was above ground until he died.

Answer 11

i used ARSE mines (ARSE shift right click) he was dead with two charges!!!