Lieutenant Blade Boss Guide in Grounded 2

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Gear Up

Location

Strategy

Lieutenant Blade Drops

Lieutenant Blade is an O.R.C. Praying Mantis Nymph boss in Grounded 2, near the end of the early access. Found after you defeat the previous two scorpion bosses, this boss can be easily overlooked and missed altogether if you aren't careful. While defeating Lieutenant Blade isn't mandatory, defeating him ensures he won't respawn if you decide to explore the outdoor area again.

He also has important drops for some of the better end-game weaponry available. This guide will provide a brief overview of how to defeat Lieutenant Blade, which can be applied to other bugs of his typing in your gameplay.

Gear Up

Armor and Weapons

Armor Sets: Lieutenant Blade has a powerful slash attack with its front pincers that can decimate your health quickly. Using parts or the full Acorn Armor Set will increase your damage resistance with each successful block. If you're challenging the end game with a team, the Ladybug set will have the effect of leading the boss away from your teammates and focusing on you instead. The full Ladybug armor set will also grant you Scarlet Embrace, which will heal you slightly when you successfully block attacks.
Weaponry: The Glacial Sting is a great option to reuse against this boss due to Blade's weakness against fresh-based attacks. Lieutenant Blade is also weak against slashing attacks, so bring along a melee weapon like the Crimson Saber or Northern Shredders. The Northern Shredders do take pieces from Northern Scorpions, but if you defeated Nitro and Turbo earlier, you should have enough of their drops to craft them.

Provisions

Food: Bug Roasts, Mite Loaf, and a Canteen with water to keep your hunger and thirst up. You may have gotten better food items a little earlier, like the candy bars and Gnatchos. It's best to save them for the fights ahead instead of wasting them on Lieutenant Blade.
Green Machine Smoothie: Boosts stamina recovery rate and heals.
Buggy Buddy: Bring your Ant mount to get rid of any surrounding roots when traversing before and after the boss fight.

Location

Lieutenant Blade is located within a small flower garden, cut off from the rest of the main lawn of the Command Center.

First, go towards the first checkpoint within the hedges and locate a branch right below the checkpoint and hop down onto it.
Follow the branch leading upwards, defeating any O.R.C. bugs along your way.
Find the gnarled roots and have your buggy buddy chomp them away. Make sure you go to the checkpoint first, to make your buggy stay. If you try to enter the Checkpoint with your buggy mount, it can glitch and return to the nest instead of waiting outside. This will prompt you to run back to your base to retrieve your mount from the nest, as you cannot progress to the boss without the ant.
After the gnarled roots are gone, follow the thin stick down to the picnic table and look around the area.
You'll see a red ribbon laced around the garden, ride your mount to climb upon the ribbon, and find Lieutenant Blade on the dip in the ribbon and prepare for a fight.

Strategy

Lieutenant Blade has a similar playstyle to other Praying Mantis Nymphs, except his health bar is twice as long on average and his aggression is elevated due to the O.R.C. Receptor on his head. He will block incoming attacks on his face and eyes with his raptorial arms, protecting his one glaring weak spot. When he reveals himself, he'll screech, having a small chance of knocking back the player.

You'll want to kite backwards when he lunges forward and slashes at you before leaping back in to swipe at his eyes. You can also perfectly block his swinging attacks for a chance at a stun.

Perfect block Blade twice, and the mantis will drop to the ground stunned for at least 4 seconds, giving you time to slash at his exposed head. Be aware that when he recovers, he'll slash his arms at the players in a three-sweep combo; left, right, double slash downward. If he catches you with his double slash, it'll be enough to knock you away from your ant mount.

Do not let him be alone with the ant for long, or he'll down it due to the large difference in their attack power. To draw his attention away, throw a few pebble spears to divert his attention to you instead.

Kite around the back when Blade is low on health and slash at the back of his legs to bring him down and finish the boss off. Make sure to have enough bag space or mount space for the harvest remains, as the drops can create the Mantis Blade, the best weapon in the game in its current state.