Evil West — How to beat The Parasiter

Evil West‘s difficulty has been lenient up until chapter 7, but the first real boss shows up to squash that feeling. Beating The Parasiter in Evil West won’t be quite as easy as you might think, as this boss can seriously hurt you. Therefore, we’re going to break down its attacks and how to hurt it so that you can send the giant beast packing without too much trouble.

How to beat The Parasiter in Evil West

First phase

The Parasiter in Evil West is a giant leech with two tentacles. To do major damage, you need to destroy both of its tentacles and then directly attack the big leech itself. Do note that the big leech isn’t vulnerable, so you’ll need to exclusively hit the tentacles. If the fight seems tough at first, keep in mind that there are multiple ways to heal during it. You just need to stay on your toes. The tentacles have two moves. First, they shoot projectiles at you. You can avoid this by dodging like normal, but it’s better to anticipate it and then shoot the yellow weak point circle. This will not only cancel its attack, but cause it to lie down so that you can get some good shots in.

The other move has them stab at where you’re standing on the ground. This itself comes in two varieties as well: one where they stab into the ground just a single time, giving you an opportunity to attack it, and then another where it stabs three times before staying put on the third strike. You can damage the tentacles however you like. Continuously shooting them with your rifle is a good idea, but you’ll predominately be doing most of your damage either when it’s stunned after shooting its weak point or after it gets stuck in the ground. The flamethrower does a lot of damage here, but you’ll want to save that for a bit.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Stay cognizant

Using your fists is a good idea, but try to save your energy for the last phase. Of course, you can shoot them with your rifle, revolver, and shotgun. But there are a couple more things to keep in mind. When the tentacles get pulled out of the ground, acid gets shot out, so you’ll get hurt if you’re standing right next to them. If you are next to them, get in a few hits and then dodge away so that this doesn’t hit you. Also keep in mind that the tentacle that isn’t in the ground might also be attacking you around the time the other one pulls itself out.

Once you’ve destroyed one tentacle, you’ll get a bit of healing and the leech will start vomiting acid at you. Mash the dodge button to continuously dodge to the other side of the area. Do this and the acid can’t hit you. Once you’ve destroyed both tentacles, the leech will be stunned. Shoot both of its weak spot circles with the rifle and you’ll do a bunch of damage. However, the fight’s just getting started.

After the leech gets back up, it hits the tree beside it, which causes projectiles to fall from the sky. You can see where these will land, but you need to be careful. I advise you tilt the camera above Jesse so that you can see him from top-down and then just walk away from the impact sites. You’ll need to be wary and keep moving to avoid them. Dodge rolling is dangerous, as you can end up right in the way of another projectile. Once this is over, the leech will summon two more tentacles and you’ll have to do it a second and third time.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Phase two and three

In the next phase, a tentacle will become a cocoon on the ground. Get your flamethrower out and burn the sucker. If you don’t, exploding enemies will hatch out of it and rush at you. If you destroy it in time, you’ll get some healing for your trouble. Aside from that, this phase is business as usual. Tentacles will keep dropping in cocoons, so keep destroying them when you see them, as you don’t want to get overwhelmed here.

During the last phase, things kick into overdrive. The two tentacles will start stabbing at the ground in quick succession, so you’ll need to keep an eye on both of them. Even worse, both will put down cocoons at the same time. If that wasn’t enough, those projectiles will start falling from the sky when all of the above is happening. Try to keep a cool head. If you’ve saved your energy up, the electric ground slam move does a lot of damage, so hit the tentacles with that during this phase, as they’ll go down faster. Above all, keep moving. And make sure to try and destroy the cocoons when you’re near them. You won’t be able to get to both of them, but your flamethrower works perfectly for dealing with the exploding enemies when they’re running up on you.

After you shoot the weak spots on The Parasiter a third time, the thing will finally die and you’ll get treated to a cutscene showing Jesse torching the beast. That’s all you need to know to beat The Parasiter in Evil West. It’s a challenging fight, but at least it’s in the rearview.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

And now you know how to beat The Parasiter in Evil West. Be sure to check out our review to see what we think of the game.