How to beat the first boss in ‘Feist’

Feist is a brand-new indie title from developer Bits & Beasts, published by Finji. It took six years to bring this fantasy adventure to life, and it’s an absolutely fantastic title. The response from the Steam community has been overwhelmingly positive, with players noting only two negatives about the game: that it is short, and that it is difficult.

Players’ complaints about difficulty stem from the fact that Feist relies heavily on physics-based platforming. The little spiky player character is speedy. Really speedy. The levels can be incredibly unforgiving, so your movement must be precise if you don’t want to take massive amounts of damage from the deadly insects that populate the game’s environment.

Because you’re sure to spend the first screen or two just getting your bearings, the first boss fight in Feist can feel like it comes out of nowhere. Every enemy in the game is as big or bigger than you, but the porcupine-like bosses are large enough to pick you up and toss you like a football. If the going has gotten too tough, here’s a guide to help you out.

How to beat the first boss in Feist

As you play through the game, you’ll come upon traps like this one pretty frequently. Almost anything can trip them: enemies, thrown and pushed objects, and you. You can jump over plenty of them, but some are unavoidable. These, you’ve got to trip. (And from a safer distance than in the image above. Trust me.)

Eventually, though, you’ll run across an oddly-placed trap. Why is this doomy contraption down there? You can obviously just run over it. You don’t even have to try to avoid it!

As one does, I assumed this snare was guarding a secret collectible, which I wasn’t interested in grabbing at the time. Boy, was I wrong.

A few log bridges later, you come upon this gruesome scene. Yes, that’s a little spiky creature like yourself…on a spit. You can’t interact with it – not that that seems like an advisable thing – and running past it reveals …

Excuse me, sir? Can you hold this pinecone?

Mournful as he may look, that porcupine-like creature is not the Ereth to your Poppy. You’ve just interrupted his dinner, and you look like tomorrow’s breakfast. So run. In the opposite direction. Throw the pinecone at him if you dare, but know he’s highly likely to chuck it right back at you.

Also, he’s faster than you. He will catch up. Thankfully, you don’t have far to go.

Remember this? Yep, this is where you’re headed. Just run underneath the log and wait for Mr. Porcupine to get into place. But beware: he can snatch you out of your hiding spot and toss you away, so you’ll need to act fast. Just run over and trip the trap, and…

Poof. The sharpened sticks rain down, turn your porcupine-faced foe into a pile of quills, and you’re free to run to the next level. Pat yourself on the back, bub. You just beat the first boss.

Have you run into another problem with Feist? Leave me a question in the comments, and I’ll try to help!