One of the bosses that Eldest Souls allows players to challenge is Hyem of the Frigid Waste. Although one of the smallest bosses physically in Eldest Souls, Hyem proves to be one of the toughest fights in the game. His fast-paced combat combined with icy attacks makes it difficult to keep up, but with enough patience, Hyem can be brought down just the same as any other boss in Eldest Souls.
Eldest Souls is the latest in a long line of recently released souls-like games, bringing quick action style fighting as a boss-rush game. After the first couple of fights, Eldest Souls offers some freedom in which boss players can fight next. This allows for a change in case a boss proves to be too challenging, providing a unique experience in every playthrough.
Hyem of the Frigid Waste is arguably the most challenging boss to beat during the first playthrough of Eldest Souls, with the exception of the final boss Eksyll - Princeps. Hyem doesn't have a large attack pool, but he makes up for it by almost never standing still and dealing massive damage with every blow. Every attack he lands slows the hero down. This stat affliction is indicated by a small icicle icon that appears over the player's head whenever they're hit. Once Hyem lands three strikes he'll pause for a moment, charge up his icicle-spear arm, and slam it into the ground. As a result, a large, pointed chunk of ice springs up from the ground at the hero's location - dealing massive damage if it isn't dodged in time.
Another attack to be wary of is Hyem's three-part tundra attack. The arena itself is divided up into six alternating colored sections in a circle, forming a light blue and blue pattern. Like the fire-flash attack of Eos, God of Unity, Hyem's attack begins with flashing ice over the three sections that he'll cover, then launching his attack. This attack will always cover the same three colored pieces. For example, if the ice flashes over the light blue area then that means only the light blue area is about to be covered in ice.
His frigid tundra attack is one of the easier attacks to predict, but harder to dodge. He begins by pulling back his hand, queued by a bell-like sound, and pushes the hand forward, firing off a blizzard that covers part of the map in ice. The attack extends in a triangle formation from his location towards the hero, so the more map Hyem has at his disposal the wider the attack spreads from his hand.
The Frigid Waste god also has a dash-and-slash attack, similar to that of The Guardian's in Eldest Souls. Followed up by the slash is a frigid-air current attack that covers as much area of the map as the slash itself. Additionally, Hyem's other direct attack involves him jumping to wherever the hero is and slamming down into the ground. Like all of Hyem's attacks, getting hit by this slash, jump-slam, or the air current will trigger the freeze stasis effect, and it begins to set up for one of his two largest attacks.
As Hyem attacks, he'll be spawning floating icicles around the outside of the arena. Once enough spears have spawned in he'll freeze the hero and send the spears in a straight line across the map, in whichever direction the spears are facing. After this attack is over ice runes begin to spawn at the hero's location. This prepares the field for Hyem's other large attack, and after four runes have spawned in he'll stop in place, and cover those areas in ice.
Like many of the Eldest Souls bosses, once Hyem reaches less than 50 percent of health he proceeds to attack more aggressively. Two slash attacks, two air current attacks, and both of the three-part tundra variations will always occur back-to-back. Additionally, Hyem will hurl three icicle spears at the hero. He'll set up for his largest attacks, but this time he'll set up more icicle spears and the runes will cover more surface area.
There are two huge openings to attack Hyem, at the very start of the fight and during his transformation. He takes a long time to begin both stages, enough time to utilize Charge attacks into Bloodburst attacks. Using the Windslide skill tree is the best option for this fight, as it's possible to set up three levels of Storm's Eye before Hyem even attacks. This will deal massive passive damage over time, and it takes some pressure off of needing to attack him directly at all times.
Once the frigid Eldest Souls boss begins to attack, it's best to use a Charge attack and then relocate quickly while Bloodburst is active. Reposition and use the Bloodburst attack to reset the Storm's Eye timer. Keep in mind that every hit taken means slower mobility, and if three hits are taken Hyem will use the ice spear from the ground attack. This attack can always be dodged if a dash is used once Hyem's arm is charged up.
Most of Hyem's attacks just require a dodge or reposition. For example, once the audio queue is heard, or his hand can be seen winding up, get behind Hyem as quickly as possible to avoid the frigid tundra attack. Avoid his three-part tundra attack by relocating to the parts of the field that won't be covered in ice.
Lastly, free damage is available during the rune phase if everything is timed correctly. As runes spawn in on the hero, they'll remain inactive until the Eldest Souls boss launches his attack - unless they spawn in and are touching another rune. Two runes touching will cause them to explode, leaving less for Hyem to work with during this attack phase. Try to spawn the first two runes near each other, and the third in the middle. This will cause all three to explode, leaving one rune left to spawn in. Put it as far away from Hyem as possible, and when he begins to activate it attack him with Charged and Bloodburst attacks.
Eldest Souls is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, and PC.
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