Gir-Tab

Description

Gir-Tab is a biomechanoid Variant of Athetos and the game's 4th sequential boss. Its appearance is that of a large, scorpion-like creature with a flamethrower for a tail, a laser canon replacing each claw, and a third canon on its back.

Athetos created Gir-Tab by first cloning himself with one of Sudra's Rebirth Chambers, and then making biomechanoid modifications to the clone.

Gir-Tab is notable for having helped Athetos decipher the Sudran language for use with the Passcode Tool.

Battle

Gir-Tab as seen in his boss battle.

Trace confronts Gir-Tab in the middle-right portion of Kur.

Gir-Tab will fire volleys of energy projectiles from its claw and back canons. From time-to-time, it will also leap at the player, getting in range to attack with its flamethrower tail. Gir-Tab's weak underbelly should be the primary target for Trace. While his cyclops eye is also a weak-point, Gir-Tab keeps it closed and invulnerable most of the time.

After defeating Gir-Tab, the player will be able to enter the next room containing Katrahaska and will also be able to turn on the Repair Drones.

Strategies

Gir-Tab is perhaps the most tedious boss fight in Axiom Verge, due to the fact that you have to play defense much more than you can play offense. Learn Gir-Tab's attack patterns, and he becomes much simpler. However keep pace because he will speed up his attacks when near death.

• The most straightforward strategy to this battle is to crouch low and use either the Nova or Voranj to hit Gir-Tab's underbelly. Watch for Gir-Tab to get low to the ground and use short hops to jump over his low shots. Pay attention to the height of the oncoming fire because he will sometimes switch it up with a third shot at medium level. There's not much to say about his flamethrower attack. Keep your distance and wait it to end. Repeat, and repeat, and repeat and he will eventually go down.
• The above strategy can also be done with the Hypo-Atomizer. However, the weapon is fairly unreliable because it must align perfectly with a small part of Gir-Tab's underbelly in order to hit.
• Another strategy is to start with the above and, if you're feeling confident, go on a suicide attack to hit Gir-Tab's underbelly with powerful blasts from the Kilver. If you have weakened him enough, you will be able to finish him off.
• Similar to the above strategy, you can start off by diving Gir-Tab with the Kilver or Laser Drill. Take off a major chunk of his HP and quickly move to the right side of the room to finish him with the "straightforward" strategy above.