Halo 5 Guide: How to Beat Warden Eternal

Warden Eternal will quickly become the bane of most Halo 5 players’ existence, as the boss appears a few times throughout the campaign. Defeating him seems easy enough, but can actually be quite tricky, especially on the harder difficulty levels. By the end of the game you’ll actually be going against a bunch of Warden Eternal avatars, making combat even more difficult. To help get you through, here are some general tips for how to beat him. These should apply to all of the encounters you have with Warden Eternal within Halo 5: Guardians, so be sure to follow them each time.

The key to beating Warden Eternal is to hit the big glowy bit on his back, as is so often the case with video game bosses. However, hitting this is almost always difficult. Unless you are playing cooperatively, Warden Eternal will almost always be facing you, making hitting his back nearly impossible. If you have standard weapons though, you pretty much have to hit it if you want to finish him off any time soon.

To try to improve your odds you can find a nice, out of the way place to hide and take potshots as you get a look at his back. You’ll want him focusing on your team, rather than you, so direct them with the D-pad, either having them move to the other side of the map, or directing them to attack Warden Eternal, distracting him from you. Once you see his back just fire as much as possible.

This is if you are stuck with standard weapons though, which you definitely don’t have to be. In every encounter with Warden Eternal there are weapons strewn across the map. They can be found in Forerunner stations located at key points in the battlefield. The main one you want to find is the one containing an Incineration Cannon.

This Forerunner version of the rocket launcher is extremely powerful, and can even deal a large amount of damage from Warden Eternal’s front. Find one, and another should be right across from it, with some encounters having multiple Incineration Cannons. If you can get a shot at his back then do so, but otherwise just charge up a full shot and fire at his mid-section. This should do a ton of damage and trigger his recuperation animation, allowing some more damage to be done with regular weapons.

Keep grabbing Incineration Cannons and firing as close to his weak spot as you can and you should take him down, but you’ll have to remain alive long enough to do it. If you’re dying often, then here’s some additional tips for how to stay alive and take Warden Eternal down.

One new feature of Halo 5: Guardians is that your team can revive you. You can do the same, keeping them active in battle, but even if they die, they’ll respawn a moment later. To keep yourself up and actively attacking you’ll want at least one of your team alive to revive you if you get smacked down. The more available the better, as they might have trouble getting to you, but having at least one is essential. You can also have them stay near you, only if you have the Incineration Cannon with enough ammo, by directing them to your location with the D-pad.

In some encounters there are higher locations you can reach, often with pillars or walls to hide behind. You’ll want to use these to avoid Warden Eternal’s shots and sword swings, as they can down you extremely fast. Playing a bit of chicken actually works well, circling pillars, and staying slightly higher than Warden Eternal, then firing whenever you have a shot and a fully charged weapon.

Follow these tips and you should take out Warden Eternal pretty easily, unless you’re on Legendary, in which case…good luck. Coop really makes him easier, as you can split up and take out his weak spot one at a time, but if you’re all alone, just follow these steps to victory.