Killing Floor 2 is in Early Access!
There have been a number of changes to the Killing Floor model, but the basics have stayed the same – it is still a six-player co-op wave-based zombie survival shooter with a final boss that tends to wreck everyone’s winning streak.
These days a full game consists of 7 waves versus 10, and Zeds won’t just die off one by one if you get too far away from the action. The boss, Hans Volter, pops up in the 8th wave Boss round alone, and for the most part it will just be your team against Hans – you will get a few critter spawns, but they’re easy to clear out.
Tip for all players (regardless of class):
- Bring full armor
- Buy a medic pistol (HMTech-101 Pistol)
- I also suggest a really big gun (e.g. the AA12) if you can afford it.
- I recommend at least one medic on the team, and a commando.
There are four phases to the Hans boss battle, and these correspond to what color his chest glows:
Green > drain > Yellow > drain > Orange > drain > Red
Hans Just Spawned (Green Phase)
The fight begins with Hans spawning in a random point on the map – usually relatively close by to where your team is holding out waiting for him. He will approach you quickly but leisurely, and it’s easy to hear him coming since he talks constantly and doesn’t cloak.
At this point, he will still be in his relaxed state and will use a combination of acrobatic melee attacks, gas grenades, and dual StG44s. The only light coming from him will be the green glow of the implant in his chest.
This stage of the boss fight is simple – avoid as much of his barrage as possible, keep your health up, and shoot him as much as you can.
Yellow Phase and Orange Phase
If you don’t have a commando in your party, the easiest way to gauge how much health he has left is by observing what color he is glowing.
As you keep damaging him, Hans gets more and more dangerous – when he starts glowing yellow and starts crackling, he starts throwing frag grenades and more gas grenades. When he turns orange, he starts moving faster and chasing after players. At this stage you can still outrun him and sidestep him and his melee attacks.
Red Phase
When he starts glowing red and crackling, he enters his berserk mode where he starts sprinting after you and uses mostly melee attacks and grenades.
Drain Mode
In between these four phases, Hans will do a drain attack (3 total) in which he will switch into a different berserk mode. Frantically yelling about needing to drain someone, he will conduct a clawing grapple and latch onto one player to drain their health.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT SHOOT HIM.
When he goes into this berserk mode and starts dashing around trying to drain someone, he gains 85% damage resistance. Your bullets do 15% damage.
Note: It’s possible to kite him and kill him in spite of the 85% reduction (a large team of supports with AA12s for example) but I haven’t seen anyone do this yet. Frankly, this probably shouldn’t be attempted until you’ve got a reasonably high perk level and aren’t playing in a PUG.
Since this is a time in which he remains stationary, many teams just end up wasting ammo on him with very little effect. This time should be spent healing the drained player (the medic pistol comes in handy here).
When he lets go, his health resets to 100% and he starts taking damage normally again although he will have moved onto the next color phase and its corresponding extra damage.
The moment he lets go, the drain victim should start running as far away from the boss as possible (unless you have a good team and have healed you up to full) because Hans does a short animation for a few short seconds before he starts attacking again.
All other party members should take advantage of these seconds to unload on Hans as much as possible.
One of the easiest strategies is simple: bring a medic SMG and an AA12. Everyone.
It’s best if you’re a commando since you get increased weapon damage with all weapons, but this isn’t necessary. Unload on him with the AA12 until he switches colors, switch to medic guns and let him grab someone, and then switch back to AA12 to unload again.
This strategy is harder to achieve the harder difficulty since AA12s are pricey and Hans is both faster and has higher health.
Other Things to Keep in Mind
If you are the last player on the team, it is still possible to kill Hans. Generally there will be enough people left to have taken him down into the red phase, and a sizeable chunk of his health, but you can still live through one of his drain attacks if you keep your health up.
I have also heard that it’s possible to parry his lunge attack. You can accomplish this even if you aren’t a Berserker, just use your knife.
Remember to keep running around large objects to buy yourself enough time to heal afterward.
It is also handy to use doors to help kite most of his damage and gain time. You don’t need to weld them, just close them in his face to make him pause. Do note that his grenade spam can clip through these doors, so just close the doors and keep running, keeping close to cover.
Good luck!
Many thanks to Aetherdryth, Zietlogic, and Tantric for helping me with in-game fact-checking (and also for playing with me!).
For other helpful articles and guides for playing Killing Floor 2:
- Class Guide – Berserker, Commando, Medic, Support
- How to Kill Zeds, Scrakes, and Fleshpounds
- Early Access FAQ and Common Issue Fixes
- Online Matchmaking and How to Find, Join, and Make a Server
- How to Play on Hell on Earth Difficulty
- How to Level Class Perks
- Do’s and Don’ts in KF2
Published: Apr 26, 2015 05:46 am