Bosses

Black Mask puts a 50 million dollar bounty on Batman's head on Christmas Eve, and eight assassins come to collect. Five of them stand between you and the end of the story; the rest, along with a few Gotham regulars, wait behind optional Most Wanted contracts. Our eight boss pages cover Killer Croc, Deathstroke, Copperhead, Bane, Firefly, Deadshot, Lady Shiva and Anarky, and this guide arranges them the way you meet them: a fight card first, then the tell each boss gives away and the answer that punishes it, the bugs our writers ran into, and what changes in New Game Plus.

The fight card

The Mad Hatter also ends in a confrontation, but it is a single Reverse Batarang rather than a fight, so it lives in our walkthrough guide. Penguin never fights you at all: his Most Wanted contract is the hunt for six arms caches.

Reading the tells

Every boss in Arkham Origins telegraphs, and our pages keep returning to the same handful of signals. A blue counter icon over Bane means you can counter the punch; a red one means a charge you must dodge. Red lines above Firefly mean a flame burst is charging. A white flash from Copperhead is her sprint attack. A yellow dodge indicator over a knife carrier calls for a blade dodge, Y plus the left stick on an Xbox pad. Grabs by Killer Croc, Copperhead and Bane end in a button prompt you tap your way out of. New Game Plus removes the counter icons entirely, which is why the I Am the Night page insists you learn the timings first.

Story bosses

Killer Croc

Croc waits on the Blackgate roof once Black Mask escapes by helicopter, and normal punches do nothing to him; you cannot counter him either. Each time he charges, jump over him and cape stun him for a beatdown, or wait for a missed swing and stun him while he recovers. Midway through he picks up a propane tank: hit it with a Batarang for heavy damage, because on hard the blast takes half your health if it lands on you instead. If he grabs you, mash the prompt before the bite lands. Henchmen join the fight partway, so keep Croc centered on screen and counter the others as they come. Beating him makes him talk about Black Mask and the other assassins. Full details are on the Killer Croc page.

Deathstroke

The second story boss punishes both timidity and greed. Counter, then land no more than three or four hits before he counters you back. The quickdraw Batclaw (L2 and Triangle) catches him off guard from outside melee range, and a Batarang followed by the Batclaw while he evades works as well. Cape stuns do nothing to him. He speeds up after each smoke bomb and flurry: the second phase costs him his mask, the third puts a sword in his hand and lets him grapple explosive barrels toward you, which you can counter and throw back. Beating him earns One Eye Open; beating him untouched earns Point Counter-Point. Our Deathstroke page has the phase-by-phase breakdown.

Copperhead

After you capture Roman Sionis in the Steel Mill, Copperhead poisons you and then stalls you on the way to Alfred's antidote. She multiplies into clones until you find the real one. The trick is to dodge-roll while dropping Explosive Gel, lure the pack onto it and detonate: only the real Copperhead is dazed, so go in with your fists the moment you see her. Below half health she adds a sprint attack signalled by a white flash. Taking out every clone restores you to full health, which matters when the sprint has already cost you. The Copperhead page also covers her New Game Plus version and two bugs, invisible clones and a missing next objective.

Bane at the Royal Hotel

Bane's punches can be countered but his charges cannot, and attacking him without a setup earns a damaging grapple. Wait for him to charge, sidestep once the charge actually begins rather than during the wind-up, then land an ultra cape stun (only the third cape hit needs to connect) and beat him down. Venom turns his health bar green and makes his punches uncounterable; the window for the stun comes right after you escape his grab. At a third of his health he throws you onto the terrace, a checkpoint where he fights alongside thugs and charges three times in a row before a leap, and the landing is your opening. Shock Gloves weaken him, and Glue Grenades can hold the thugs still. See the Bane page for both encounters.

Firefly

Firefly wires the Gotham Pioneer's Bridge with four bombs; disarm them all and the fight begins. Dodge-roll when the red lines appear, quick-fire Glue Grenades until he is stuck in the air, quick-fire Batarangs while he hangs there, then pull him down with the Batclaw when the prompt appears. Two cycles take half his health and he torches the bridge, so grapple, run the girder and take cover behind the van to reach phase three, where fire grenades join the flamethrower. The finale is a ride behind him along the bridge with two counter prompts to avoid the terrain. The Firefly page recommends the Batarang upgrade for this fight alone.

Bane at Blackgate

The first phase repeats the terrace: three charges, a leap, a stun. Once he loses a third of his health your Shock Gloves stay active for the rest of that phase. Then TN-1 turns him into something immune to every attack you have. Hide, move through vents and under floor gratings, throw Smoke Pellets or a Glue Grenade if he spots you, and lead him past an electrified door with a silent takedown; three of those end him, and only the Joker remains. Detective Vision gets jammed halfway through, and the Disruptor clears it if you would rather not fight blind.

Most Wanted bosses

Deadshot

An S.O.S. in northern Bowery after Copperhead turns out to be a SWAT trap, and then a crashed helicopter that Deadshot brought down with a ricochet from miles away. Follow the trail to the Gotham Merchant's Bank. You cannot face him: his laser sight means a shot, and he is immune to most attacks, inverted takedowns included. Glide behind him for a silent takedown before his men arrive, retreat to a gargoyle, and use the fire extinguisher across from the left vantage point for a wall of smoke on his way downstairs. After three takedowns new enemies arrive with a disruptor and mines; after that he takes a hostage, and being seen fails the mission. The Deadshot page includes the fix for the mission not appearing.

Lady Shiva

Shiva finds you first: a crying baby in a pram under The Bowery's glass dome after your first meeting with the Joker at the bank. Counter her ambush and she sets two Tests of Worth, a cop hanging above an electrified pool in the Diamond District Shopping Complex and a blood trail to his partner. The fight itself in the Wonder Tower lobby is a counter clinic against sword-carrying assassins; at half health her martial artists arrive, and countering their counters takes two presses. It ends with a katana quicktime sequence. The Lady Shiva page notes the rewards: 30,000 XP and the Critical Strikes upgrade.

Anarky

Anarky unlocks after Deathstroke, and you only reach him by disarming three timed bombs across Gotham. The courthouse fight in Park Row is the easiest boss in the game: weak thugs in phase one, knife carriers and thrown Molotovs in phase two, then Anarky himself with a stun gun you cannot counter, so do not pull him in with the Batclaw. He cannot block, so cape stun him or vault over him and hit from behind, or simply beat all his henchmen, which also ends the fight. The Anarky page covers the fight and our Anarky Bombs page the run-up.

Rewards tied to the bosses

Boss bugs and the workarounds

New Game Plus and I Am the Night

New Game Plus removes counter prompts and makes enemies hit harder, and I Am the Night demands you finish it without dying. Our pages single out three fights. Deathstroke becomes muscle memory; the tell is a slight slowing in his animation, which is the safe moment to press counter. Copperhead needs Explosive Gel quick-fired across the whole arena, or a Concussion Detonator that clears five clones at once. Bane is the run-ender: sprint at him and evade only at the last moment so he cannot redirect, spend a 5x multiplier on the B+Y takedown immediately, and rely on Vent, Grate, Silent and Corner takedowns once TN-1 makes him untouchable. The I Am the Night page adds a permadeath trick: reload from the last checkpoint quickly enough after dying and the game reloads before it wipes the save.

Frequently asked questions

How many assassins are there?

Eight carry Black Mask's contract: Killer Croc, Deathstroke, Copperhead, Bane, Firefly, Deadshot, Lady Shiva and Electrocutioner. Five are story fights, Deadshot and Shiva are optional Most Wanted missions, and Electrocutioner, whom you defeat at the Royal Hotel for his Shock Gloves, has no dedicated page. Anarky and the Mad Hatter are Most Wanted villains outside the contract.

Which fights can I skip?

Deadshot, Lady Shiva, Anarky and the Mad Hatter are all optional, as are Penguin's arms caches. The story bosses cannot be avoided.

Which boss is the hardest?

Our Deathstroke page calls him far more demanding than Killer Croc, and our I Am the Night page names Bane as the fight most likely to end a no-death run. Anarky and the Mad Hatter are the easiest by a wide margin.