A reputable researcher turned supervillain, Poison Ivy is a product of an experiment that got out of control in Batman: Arkham Asylum.
She was locked in her cell at the Penitentiary before Joker injected the Titan formula into her roots, enhancing her chlorokinetic abilities. This allowed her to control plant life on command, releasing toxic spores and take over the entire island. She later threatens to kill Batman before her final target, the Joker.
Poison Ivy is one of the hardest boss fights in Batman: Arkham Asylum. With multiple phases, hard-hitting attacks and the longer duration can become overwhelming pretty quickly.
This is if you don’t have the right strategy. This is where we have you covered, so let’s get into all that you need to know about defeating Poison Ivy.
How to get to Poison Ivy in Batman: Arkham Asylum
To get to Poison Ivy in Batman: Arkham Asylum, head to the central area of Arkham West in Arkham Island. Directly east of the Penitentiary, there is a tunnel entrance leading to Arkham East. There are square arches near the entrance so it is easy to spot it. You will know you are in the right place when Poison Ivy starts talking to you.
The entrance door will lead you to Abandoned Tunnels where you will find a few of Ivy’s mutated pods in your path. Destroy them and follow the trail, it will take you to Arkham East.
Tread carefully since there is a sniper perched on the tower to your left. Go into Detective Mode and wait for him to leave before destroying the pod ahead. Then grapple to the sniper tower to take him. Zipline to the one ahead and take the guard out as well.
Now you are in the clear to destroy the pods in the area. Do this till Ivy speaks to you again and then head up to the Botanical Gardens using the stairs with a huge tree in the middle.
You will now be in the Glasshouse Entrance with thick vines blocking your path. Enter through the window on your left which is easy to miss with the foliage covering it. Follow through the vents and it will take you to another section of the building.
Head down the stairs and through the door, you will now be in Botanical Glasshouse. Head to the upper level and enter through the door on the left end. Use the Batclaw to zipline across the electrocuted waters of the Flooded Corridor.
A plant tendril will burst through a door which will guide you to the boss fight. Enter through the door at the end to trigger the boss fight with Poison Ivy in Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Getting stuck on the way to Poison Ivy
A few players have reportedly experienced a glitch where on the way to fight Poison Ivy in Batman: Arkham Asylum, the pathway is blocked. This is at the Glasshouse Entrance where you need to head down the window on your left.
Though the cause of the bug is unknown, the standard procedures fix it most of the time. This includes reloading an old save, restarting the game, and in extreme cases re-installing it.
If the glitch hasn’t been resolved, unfortunately as of yet, starting over is the only option.
How to beat Poison Ivy on hard difficulty
Poison Ivy is a relatively easy boss to defeat in Batman: Arkham Asylum on normal difficulty settings. She has lower health and summons fewer vines with no henchmen to restrict your movement.
Things take a turn when you start moving towards hard difficulty. The fight takes longer, Ivy has more health and has randomized attack patterns that deal exponentially more damage.
The attack window also gets shorter and you will have to do the whole loop again if you miss your shots. Additionally, your healing is greatly reduced so you can’t just tank her attacks and a strategy is required.
Phase 1
The first phase of the Poison Ivy boss fight includes two types of attacks. The first one is an AoE vine attack where she summons rows of foliage that can trap you in and deal damage. After reaching half HP, she will automatically shift to the second one. This is a projectile attack where she alternates between a spore beam and homing orbs.
Your focus here is to deal small consistent damage over periodic large bursts. The fight is pretty long already and waiting around for the right moment to strike is far from ideal.
Hard difficulty tips
The first tip is to never stop throwing Batarangs at Ivy while dodging her attacks. The Tripple Batarang is the most effective in this case, but you can make do with the Twin one if you haven’t upgraded all the way. To quick-throw the Batarangs press L2/LT and it will automatically target Ivy.
For the rows of vine attacks, you can actually anticipate the next location where vines will appear. Focus on green grass that shows up before the actual vines and then dodge accordingly.
To escape the upcoming vines, just roll, run, or double-jump across.
During the spore attacks, Ivy will expose herself by lowering the plant shield. Landing any attacks while the shield is down will deal double the damage.
However, we strongly advise you to keep shooting Batarangs regardless of whether the shield is open or closed. The opening window is significantly shorter in hard mode so don’t take any chances on your damage.
We found that Poison Ivy starts lowering her shield after the spore beam in Batman: Arkham City. A trick is to dodge the beam and the orb after it and then throw the Batarang. This allowed us to constantly land double-damage shots.
Phase 2
The second phase is pretty much the same as the first except for the addition of her henchmen. They spawn in groups during the AoE attack and die immediately regardless of their health when the spore phase begins.
Hard difficulty tips
There is a cheese if you are low on HP. You can die in the second phase and the fight will restart from the beginning of Phase 2 but with a full Health bar.
Do not fight the henchmen and keep on attacking Ivy instead. They will be killed anyway so fighting them is a waste of time that can be spent on chipping Ivy’s HP instead.
However, the sheer crowd summoned by Poison Ivy in hard mode can get overwhelming. To keep them at bay you can stun the minions by hitting them with Batarangs or push them off the platform to kill them instantly.
You can also trap them in the vine attacks or perform instant takedowns to deal with them quickly.
