During the Dead Space remake’s fourth chapter, “Obliteration Imminent,” you’ll have to face off against a Brute necromorph in the Ishimura’s Main Atrium. You’ll find it when you make your way to the Bridge to speak with Hammond, and then head back to activate the elevators.
Our Dead Space Brute guide will tell you everything you need to know to prepare for and win the boss fight.
Be prepared
Before anything else (you might have to revert to a previous save), clear the items around the Main Atrium. Working roughly counterclockwise, you’ll find Flamethrower fuel, some Credits, more Credits, Ripper Blades, and more Ripper blades.
This fight is way more imposing than it is difficult, and, once you learn the tricks, you won’t need to prepare much at all. Until then, and with all the panicking and fleeing and shooting wildly that goes along with learning, let’s talk about what will help you out in the Brute fight.
- Ammo. The best ammo is the ammo you have, so there’s no wrong answer here. The Flamethrower works well in this fight, as do the Pulse Rifle’s proximity mines, but even just a few clips of Plasma Cutter ammo will get you through.
- Stasis Pack(s). You can get through this fight with one (unupgraded) charge of Stasis, but a refill will make your life a lot easier (and remember you can refill your Stasis automatically with the triangle/Y button if you have a Stasis Pack in your inventory).
And that’s it, really. Healing is obviously always good to have on hand, but with a careful approach, you can get through this fight without taking (much) damage.
Hit the weak spots on its back
The Brute is heavily armored, so you can’t rely on shooting off limbs as it charges at you. Attacks from the front are going to bounce off its armor. Thankfully, as Hammond points out a minute or so into the fight, it’s got weak spots on its back — one in each armpit and a pair on its hip (butt) region.
We’ve got a couple options for getting at them:
- Flamethrower. Since the Flamethrower is a little more area-of-effect, you can blast the Brute with a continuous gout of flame — the fire will hit the weak spots even from the front. Flamethrower fuel is pretty scare at this point in the game, though.
- Pulse Rifle. The Pulse Rifle won’t do much (any, really) damage from the front, but the alternate fire proximity mines are a good way to get past the armor. They eat up a ton of ammo, though.
- Stasis. By far, the best way to deal with the Brute is to hit it with Stasis. Hitting the Brute with Stasis means you can use any weapon to deal your damage from the back.
Strategy for the Brute in Dead Space remake
The Brute is an aggressive boss, but it’s not particularly fast — and you can sprint backward and sideways. You’re not going to run circles around it or anything, but you can (just) manage to avoid most attacks by running away.
If you get too far away (or if it just feels like it), the Brute might spit a ball of poison (acid?) at you. This is easy enough to sidestep, but you can also catch it with Kinesis and launch it back — and it does a lot of damage. It happens too rarely to rely on it for the fight (it takes four good hits from the spitballs to take it out), but it’s a great way to deal a ton of damage while also saving ammo. When you see it winding up to spit, hold L2 to prepare and aim a bit up to catch the spitball in its arc.
Hit the Brute with Stasis. This is the most important advice here. Wait for the Brute to close in, hit it with Stasis, and strafe around to the side. Your targets are the lumpy (gross), glowing, yellow pustules (gross) near its armpits and butt — technically, it’s kind of more on the hips and backs of its legs, but(t), c’mon.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24387961/Dead_Space_Brute_Stasis.jpg "How to defeat the Dead Space remake’s tough Brute boss (1)")
Target the butt first. Hitting the weak spots on the Brute’s back lets you remove limbs just like other necromorphs, so your first goal is to get the legs off and slow it down. Any weapon works here (but there’s a certain satisfaction to the Ripper’s blades).
Aim for the armpits next. After the legs, move your aim to the (back of the) armpits and just unload whatever weapon you have handy. If you have more Stasis, hit it again and keep shooting. If you don’t manage to put it down before your Stasis charges run out, you’ll need to fall back on catching the acid balls it spits (which works quite well, actually), the Flamethrower, or the Pulse Rifle’s Proximity Mines.
Hit it with Stasis again before it gets up. If you have the charges, keep hitting the Brute with Stasis before the previous charge wears off. With some careful aiming and a few blasts of Stasis, you can put down the Brute before it ever even attacks you, like in the GIF above.
