How to beat the Treant boss in Once Human

The Treant is one tough and creepy customer in Once Human, especially if you’re playing solo. Its battle involves making the monster vulnerable by removing its vines and then attacking during the brief window this enables.

When the fight starts, you need to ignore the monster itself. You won’t be able to hurt it. Instead, you need to find the three “Tangled Vines” and destroy them, which will make the giant vulnerable for 120 seconds.

The vines are all visible from the ground as tall, twisting plants with glowing pink pustules on them. One of them is on the overpass to the North, the other two you can clearly see by looking South from there. To get up to the overpass (and other cliffs), there are bright jets of energy scattered about. They kind of look like geysers. If you jump will standing (or running through) one, you’ll be propelled high into the air and can land on cliffs.

To take down the Tangled Vines you want to aim for the obvious glowing weak spot. Be warned, they will attack you by throwing bubbles of liquid at you, so you are not safe when doing this. However, the bigger threat while attacking the vines is the monsters that still roam about. Keep watching your back.

Once the vines are down, you have 120 seconds (2 minutes) to attack the monster itself. Not to sound obvious, but you’re going to aim for the glowing weak spot here as well. As with most big bosses in Once Human, the part that actually appears somewhat human is where you aim. In this case, it’s a woman growing out of its chest.

It will attack by throwing spores into the air that will slowly float toward you. They’re easy to avoid, but they home in on you and don’t stop when they hit barriers. To stay completely clear, you need to continue moving until they disappear.

You’ll see the woman on the Treant glow very brightly for a very brief moment. The instant you notice this you’re going to want to run to the side and roll to dodge or put something solid between you and the Treant, as she’s about to fire a laser beam at you. This can be devastating, but it is relatively easy to avoid as long as you’re paying attention.

Occasionally, during the battle, you will see a grey-blue fungal growth emerge from the ground. If you shoot these, they’ll create a small bubble of shield that you can take shelter in for a short while. Use moments where you can take shelter in the bubble carefully, and make sure you’re not exposed the next time you see it charge its laser.

After 120 seconds are up, the vines will regrow and the Treant will be invulnerable again. You may need to repeat this process a few times to finish it off.

The easy way to beat the Treant in Once Human

There is a way to make the Treant fight easier if you’re battling it solo in Once Human. This involves bringing a sniper rifle, or some weapon that you’re comfortable using at a distance.

Jump onto the overpass and take out the first vine. Then, instead of running to the next vine, just shoot at it from where you’re standing. If you took out the ambient enemies roaming the area, they won’t respawn (at the time of writing), so you can safely hit the other vines. One thing to note is that the bubbles that they throw at you are solid and block bullets. They’ll be destroyed, but the auto-aim in Once Human absolutely loves them, so you may waste three shots hitting them before you’re actually damaging the vines. It’s still a safe way to get rid of them.

Then it’s time to fight the Treant itself, and my advice is to again remain on the overpass. The overpass has a derelict bus to hide from the laser behind, but it also has a guardrail that the Treant has difficulty shooting its laser through. You can dodge the spores until they disappear, and then start shooting the Treant’s weak spot without having to worry about getting lasered.

Remaining on the overpass is not the quickest way to take down the Treant, but as long as you remove the enemies already on it, it’s definitely the safest way.