How to Defeat Rattlecage the Earthbreaker in Path of Exile 2

Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker, is a difficult fight, but most of it hinges on your Trial of the Sekhemas run in Path of Exile 2. However, learning all the attacks and fight mechanics will definitely help you beat the Rattlecage boss, even if you had a mediocre Trial of the Sekhemas run. Here’s how to beat Rattlecage the Earthbreaker boss in Path of Exile 2.

How to Beat Rattlecage the Earthbreaker in Path of Exile 2

As you may already know, Rattlecage the Earthbreaker is the final boss in the Trial of the Sekhemas. This means that even if your character can handle a lot of Rattlecage’s attacks, your Honour is what you need to manage.

For melee characters, the fight becomes extremely difficult because you are forced to go near the boss who has multiple AoE attacks that can destroy your Honour. Even if you can tank some of the damage, you want to avoid them as much as possible to save Honour.

The best tip for the Rattlecage boss is to use some Relics that increase your Maximum Honour and Honour resistance buffs for your Trials run. This will help you reach 500-600 Honour consistently before the boss fight, and hopefully even have some helpful boons like reducing the enemy’s action speed.

If you have a good start, it is all about dodging incoming damage to prevent your Honour from hitting 0 during the Rattlecage fight. The boss doesn’t have “strong” attacks. There are definitely bosses you have encountered previously that hit harder than this.

However, the struggle comes from the number of incoming attacks that are constantly ongoing, which aim to chip away at your Honour. During your first try, don’t worry about losing, as you don’t need to beat Balbala again to get the token. You can just talk to Balbala and ask for a retry.

Related: Can You Increase Your Flask Slots in Path of Exile 2?

Rattlecage the Earthbreaker’s Attacks

At the start of the fight, Rattlecage always starts by exploding it’s body, causing explosions nearby. It’ll explode three times, and each explosion will have a bigger radius. Just stay away from the boss as far as you can. Rattlecage will also do this attack randomly during the encounter, and you can always look at its body (it starts burning up red) to know when it’s going to use this attack. This takes around 150+ Honour if you get hit, so make sure to dodge it.

Rattlecage also slams the ground with its two hands, but you can easily telegraph all the melee attacks as the boss is extremely slow. For ranged characters, you really don’t have to watch out for any attacks as long as you keep kiting while attacking.

For melee characters, you want to hit and run diagonally to avoid the smashes. However, it is easier said than done. Most of the damage isn’t dangerous when it comes to damage output, but you’ll constantly see your Honour get chipped away when you take damage.

The most dangerous part is the erupting fissures that spew flame around the arena. When you get hit, these remove a small amount of Honour, but it also debuffs you for a few seconds, taking 4-10 more Honour from you. You don’t even feel the damage sometimes, especially if you have good defense at this point in the game.

However, it is annoying to get hit, especially when you are dodging the Rattlecage’s attacks. It takes a good start (starting the boss fight with a lot of Honour) and a lot of kiting and dodge-rolling to beat Rattlecage. When you get used to the attacks and finally get a good Trial of the Sekhemas run, you’ll eventually beat Rattlecage and earn that ascension like a champion.