Guides

Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader: How To Beat Forgefiend Boss (Hard) Guide

HomeGuidesWarhammer 40k Rogue Trader: How To Beat Forgefiend Boss (Hard) Guide
Updated Read Time 4 min

Buff. Buff. Debuff.

Game Hub

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader Guide Hub

More guides, locations, fixes, reviews, and updates for Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader.

Open Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader Hub
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader40 articles

Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader is the classic RPG developed and published by Owlcat Games.

The game features hundreds of character interactions, build experimentation, and bosses that can knock your socks off.

In this guide, we tell you how to beat Forgefiend in Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, who’s notorious for being one of the harder bosses to beat in the game.

How To Beat Forgefiend Boss (Hard) Guide

Forgefiend is one of those bosses who can take as much as it can hit. One of the first things you will notice if you attempt to fight him is that he will retaliate every single time you hit him. 

More From This Game

Keep exploring Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader

Open game hub

This means that you have to be conscious of the windows of time you have to dodge, block, and hit again.

Tank Placement

To counter Forgefiend’s initial attacks, take your tank and make sure that this unit is in front of the boss at the start of the fight.

This means that everyone else will be right at the entrance of the room with your tank between Forgefiend and them. This will help tremendously at the start of the fight.

NOTE: However, if Forgefiend gets a good roll for the turn order and attacks first, it might kill your tank instantly. In this case, you’ll really need some luck.

Photo of the tank in front of Forgefiend.

Don’t Attack First

At the start of the fight, don’t attack Forgefiend at all. Just have your tank be beefy enough next to the boss so that the unit can survive the oncoming attacks. Focus on attacking the Vox Skulls first.

Use Endure, Sworn enemy, or anything that can increase the survivability of your tank during this.

This is so that the tank can keep taking the hits while your team does the rest of the work. Therefore, all survivability buffs need to be on your tank for this to work.

Bugs & How to Take Advantage of Them

A caveat to this is that you might encounter bugs during this boss fight. Typically, bosses shouldn’t retaliate for every first attack.

This is because every first attack should enrage Forgefiend and then every other attack in the turn should make it retaliate.

There might be runs where you’ll find Forgefiend retaliates for every attack; however, some players have reported that sometimes the damage he executes doesn’t register at all.

Use this bug to your advantage if you encounter it and keep going for attacks.

A photo of buffs being used in the fight against Forgefiend in Warhammer 40k.

Only Attack Forgefiend Once Or Twice Per Round

Once you clear the field of everything else, you can now focus on dealing damage. Heinrix and Pasqal are two units that are great for this boss fight.

Heinrix has Shield of the Emperor and Word of the Emperor upgrades that you can use to buff the tank.

Moreover, you can also use his siphon staff to drain life from the boss from time to time. Forgefiend won’t retaliate to this attack. Just remember that his primary goal here is to buff your tank.

Pasqal is useful because of his ability to Analyze Enemies and Expose Weakness. This is good for maximizing damage output and reducing Forgefiend’s armor.

The goal is to weaken the boss enough that you can kill it in the least amount of hits possible. 

Step By Step

A step-by-step of the moves you can execute for each turn is as follows:

  1. Use Analyze Enemy.
  2. Use Expose Weakness (every turn or every other turn).
  3. Use Pasqal’s Machine Spirit Banishment (reduces the damage Pasqal takes).
  4. Use Machine Spirit Communion.
  5. Use Heinrix’s Spirit of the Emperor and Word of the Emperor
  6. Attack with the highest damage dealers in the team.
  7. Use Sworn Enemy to buff the tank.

You can do these steps on a loop for every trash-mob you kill. Clear the room and focus on Forgefiend with this same order of steps. 

Each ability will either debuff Forgefiend, or buff your tank to keep him alive. Your damage dealers should then do all the work and absolutely cannot get hit. 

And that’s it for how to beat Forgefiend in Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader! You should be able to kill Forgefiend with only a bit of difficulty and some maneuvering. Get the rhythm of the steps above down and you’ve got it.

READ NEXT: Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader: Melee Psyker Build – Purity In Flame

Reader feedback

Did this guide help?

Choose one option. You can change your vote later, but only one vote counts for this article.

Written by

Amanda Co

Senior Game Guide Writer

Amanda Co creates practical gaming guides based on hands-on testing, clear walkthroughs, and player-focused research for GamesFuze.

More articles by Amanda Co
Next guide to read

Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader: Argenta Sniper Build Guide

Argenta is a Sister of Battle and a bonafide sharpshooter!

Read next
Guides
Join the discussion

Found another tip?

Share your extra strategy, correction, or question below. Helpful comments can make this guide better for everyone.