Telal

"He speaks, and he stands on two legs. His weapon looks eerily similar to your own. What happened to this creature?"

Telal attacks Trace, who is hiding in cover.

Description

The Telal Variant is the game's second boss. It appears as a monster with brown skin in hulking beige armor. Telal has yellow growths protruding through the armor and carries a massive laser cannon with both hands. The beast is so heavy that it has trouble moving under its own weight, and can only take halting steps forward and backward. Telal Has 3,000 health.

Telal appears in the note Transcription.

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Encounter

Trace first attempts to reason with Telal, asking "can we just talk it out?" But Telal is intent to kill the "demon" that it sees before it.

Throughout the fight, Telal will alternate between firing small red spheres from weapons mounted on its upper body, to firing large red laser shots from its main canon, which it carries with its arms.

Telal is an incredibly massive creature and the weight of its armor and main cannon means it is not very mobile. The creature walks slowly with halting steps and cannot turn around in its own chamber. This means that if Trace is able to get behind Telal during the fight, it is unable to attack him.

Strategies

Telal's weakpoint is the group of yellow bulbous sacs protruding from its back. There are essentially only two approaches to this battle.

Frontal Assault

When you enter the room, you'll notice two red bubble pillars and a floating platform just beyond that (at the bottom of the first pink grid-like structure in the background). Your goal is to stay on that floating platform for this entire fight.

File:Telal Boss Fight from the front (the "right" way)

When Telal fires the small red laser balls at you, you'll want to jump over the low ones and duck under the high ones. As you jump into the air, you can take shots at his weakpoint. Sometimes the high shots will appear to hit Trace directly in the face, but as long as you're ducking, the hit should not register. Alternatively, you can also jump over the high shots, depending on what you're comfortable with.

When Telal pauses to fire his main cannon, the three large laser shots will pass harmlessly under you. This is your opportunity to unload. If for some reason, you get knocked off the platform, use the red bubbles to jump back up as quickly as possible. You don't want to be caught below.

Telal will begin to fire progressively faster throughout the fight. Just stay calm and time your jumps & ducks, and get in as many hits on his weakpoint as you can.

Backstabber

This method is much easier, but requires that you have full or nearly full health at the start of the battle. You can use the save room or kill the Blue Snailborgs on the path to the boss fight if you need health.

File:Axiom Verge Telal boss strategy from the back

Upon entering the room, immediately go to the right straight through Telal. You'll probably take two hits, but the invulnerability period should ensure you make it behind him.

Telal is such a hulking creature that he is unable to turn around, meaning once you're behind him, you have complete freedom to take him down. Shoot diagonally upward at his back and make sure you keep your distance when he moves so that you don't touch him again. He will eventually back up far enough that you'll need to jump onto the small ledge where the laser gate is, but you should have no trouble finishing him off after that.

Etymology

Telal is the Sumerian word for "warrior".