Dauntless - Behemoth Guide

This is a strategy guide for the Nayzaga Behemoth in Dauntless, a kill-boss-monster free-to-play game available from the Epic Games Store. We cover various Behemoths in our Dauntless Behemoth Strategy Guide.

Nayzaga

General

The Nayzaga fights a lot like a Quillshot, but its attack frequency is higher, and it has longer Belly Crawl charge attacks like a Gnasher.

Mostly you are watching for a long opening such as when it fires Lightning Spines, in order to unload full combos. At that time, go for the head to build Stagger and keep the pressure up as long as you can.

Opening - Lightning Storm

On Hunts (not Escalations) it always opens with this attack once you are close enough. Basically a wide column of electricity. After hitting it, run away sideways. Or move close to bait it to attack but keep moving so you have a head start to outrun the attack.
Periodically it can use this attack right up close and with little warning.

Lightning Tower / Lightning Spines

The "towers" are just a formation of spines. Commonly they are pairs that periodically generate a blue ball. But if they are a cluster of more spines, destroy them to Stagger the Nayzaga.
Takes a while to fire the spines, during which time it is harmless. The pylons are always fired far away so they are for the moment harmless as well. Get in and attack during this long animation.
If you run into spines, you will take a lot of damage.
You can destroy the spines, but generally they fire only very infrequently so you might be able to ignore them and just avoid the blue balls. Just try to keep them in view so you are not surprised.
The blue balls they fire can be pushed away by an attack, and are blocked by barriers (e.g., if you position the Nayzaga in between).

A Nayzaga's sphere lightning can be deflected toward Nayzaga, but also back toward a the four-pronged lightning towers to deal with them at range.
Deflected lightning can also disable the shields on lightning towers.
When they become aether-charged Nayzagas will build a "super-tower" that's connected to the Nayzaga through the aetheric spectrum. Destroy this tower to stun the Behemoth and cause a lengthy stagger.
A Nayzaga can be interrupted during its belly-slide attack.
The Nayzaga’s physical attacks will shock Slayers when it is aether charged.

General

Fights like a Nayzaga, but relies very heavily on its Umbral powers instead of charging and swiping.
Usually starts with trying to double Belly-Crawl charge.
Has occasional corruption pool attacks.

Enters a Portal

When it enters a portal, there are two possible outcomes: Short portal and tall portal.
The shorter portal means it will just send out a black clone to charge you.
The taller portal comes in pairs for it to charge out of one and right into the other, with you in the middle. If you can interrupt it here, the Portal phase ends.

When moving through portals, the Shadowtouched Nayzaga is briefly vulnerable to staggering hits. Land a strike when the creature is visible to knock it out of this behaviour pattern.
The Shadowtouched Nayzaga creates shadow clones of itself to use as decoys when using its portals. The clones alternate with the actual Behemoth, so if you are trying to ambush the beast be sure you're hitting the right one. The true Behemoth will be much more colourful.