In Lords of the Fallen, Iron Wayfarer is not just a random NPC who gives you hints related to the Umbral realm, but he also turns out to be one of the game’s main bosses and progression blockers near the end game. Even more so, the Iron Wayfarer’s quest leads to the Umbral ending in the game, and therefore, understanding how to beat this boss will benefit players.
The boss’s size and attacks may not look intimidating, but the narrow arena makes beating Iron Wayfarer a challenging encounter. That is why we have laid out the best strategy to kill him in the game easily.
The Iron Wayfarer Boss Overview
The Iron Wayfarer is a human-sized boss who wields a hammer and uses one-handed attacks only. For the most part of this boss fight, his movements are slow, and he occasionally dashes towards you if you maintain a long distance from him.
His go-to and only attack pattern is using the hammer initially, and he infuses this with fire damage as the fight progresses.
Iron Wayfarer applies fire status effect elemental damage to his weapon that lasts for some time only. After that, his attacks deal a lot of burn damage that could kill you instantly.
Even though the boss is slow, wields a one-handed weapon, and does not have a lot of tricks up his sleeve, the narrow and corridor-sized arena makes the boss fight a challenging encounter. On top of this, when the Iron Wayfarer covers his weapon with fire and lands multiple fire-based ranged and AoE attacks, this turns the boss fight into a nightmare and makes it very hard to survive.
With or without the fire damage attack, the go-to combo of Iron Wayfarer is launching three combo overhead hammer attacks. Dodging all three is very easy as they have very slow animation, and you can predict each one of them before they land.
Depending on your progression, the Iron Wayfarer boss either uses Wither or Fire elemental attacks to buff his weapons. If he has Mark of Adyr before you reach the boss fight point in the game, expect him to use the fire elemental attack. If he doesn’t have it, he will buff the hammer with the Wither status effect.
Regardless of the status ailments that the Iron Wayfarer uses, Fire or Wither, neither makes the boss fight any less challenging than it already is. There is one catch: he can not kill you if you block his attacks using a shield or your weapon if Iron Wayfarer uses wither-based magic to buff his hammer.
On the contrary, if the boss has Mark of Adyr, blocking the fire-based attacks builds the status meter, and you take damage eventually as the meter is filled.
Another attack the Iron Wayfarer throws in the mix is the lunge attack, and this can not be blocked, but you can dodge it easily. If his weapon is not buffed, you will only take physical damage. However, if the boss repeats this attack while having the weapon buff on, you will take fire damage, and there will be a fire splash attack a few seconds later after landing the hammer.
If you keep attacking using a melee weapon, Iron Wayfarer will do a kick attack to knock you back and maintain some distance. This is usually followed by a charged hammer-spinning attack as well.
Iron Wayfarer brings a new range of attacks after he takes some damage and buffs his hammer with fire or wither damage. For starters, he will do a Fire Strike attack that bursts into a fire AoE damage wherever the hammer hits the ground. There is at least a one-second delay, which gives you enough time to dodge away from it and not get concentrated by its blast zone.
After that, Iron Wayfarer will deal three combo attacks of ranged damage by striking his hammer to the ground. Each strike starts a fire stream that rushes toward you, followed by blast damage. So even if you dodge into it, you will escape the first attack but will take the blast damage.
The best method not to take a hit during ranged Fire Stream attacks of the boss is to either dodge left or dodge right. Rolling in these directions will also help, but positioning is the key. If you roll into the walls, the AoE blast will eventually catch up to you. So make sure you are positioned properly and not running into walls.
During the last 20 percent health or below of Iron Wayfarer, you will notice the boss will do a total of six Fire Stream attacks and basically catch almost the whole boss fight arena into the fire. Dodging in these circumstances is very hard, but if you position yourself to always dodge from walls to the center, the blast attacks will not catch up to you.
The Iron Wayfarer Boss Fight Strategy
There is no easy mode in Lords of the Fallen, and certainly, there is no easy way to kill the Iron Wayfarer boss, as most of the strategies get limited due to the small-sized boss arena. Even though this is just one-phase boss fight, getting through it requires a strategy, and without it, killing the Iron Wayfarer would seem almost impossible.
For starters, equip AoE spells if you rely on radiance, umbral, or inferno spells the most throughout your journey in the game. Since the arena is small in terms of length and width, the only sane approach here is to damage the boss consistently and slowly. This is better achieved if you utilize AoE spells, as ranged ones will not offer enough utility.
Consecrate is a fantastic AoE radiance spell that places a holy sign on the ground and damages any target that steps in it. The tight boss fight space that makes this whole encounter intimidating will no longer feel the same as your AoE spell will slowly chip away the Iron Wayfarer’s health​​​​​​.
Alternatively, use the Orius’ Judgment spell to strike the boss with Radiant magic bolts if you do not have the Consecrate spell in your inventory. The only downside of using the latter spell against the former is that Consecrate stays on the ground for a long time, so you do not have to cast it frequently.
If you use an Inferno class or build character during the boss fight, then equip Cataclysm, Seismic Slam, Infernal Hounds, or Magma Surge spells to make the boss fight easier. Alternatively, Umbral class characters must equip Graveyard Fog, Martyrdom, or Putrefaction AoE spells to capitalize on the damage output and kill the Iron Wayfarer quickly.
For melee class characters, using the shield will benefit if the boss has Wither elemental buff. If Iron Wayfarer uses fire magic to buff his hammer, then wielding two weapons will offer better utility against the boss, as you do not need to block the damage and focus only on dealing more serious damage per hit.
For sword users, the best strategy will be to land two to three quick one-handed weapon hits and retreat. If you keep hitting, the boss will start his combo, and it is not easy to break it without using the Umbral lamp.
Do not bother using a bow and arrow, as the boss will dodge most of these predictable projectiles right away. However, javelin weapons with a poison cloud or other status effects can be used to damage the Iron Wayfarer. Just manually target and throw near the boss to release the status ailment cloud and damage him in the process.
Stock up on as many healing items as possible before the boss fight. If you have healing spells, at least equip one just in case you run out of Sanguinarix.
Rewards For Defeating The Iron Wayfarer Boss
After you have defeated the Iron Wayfarer boss, you will get the following rewards in Lords of the Fallen.
- The Iron Wayfarer’s Hammer
- Vestige Seed
- Rune of Adyr