Arachne is the Neun’s stealth specialist in Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion. She moves with blistering speed, blending Outer technology with the mutations she’s developed from Femto exposure to become a swift, deadly predator. She fights like a hunter, too, so you’ll have to stay ahead of her next move and outsmart her to have any chance when the time comes to face her in battle.
Arachne can be very frustrating to fight against if you aren’t prepared to deal with her, but like most foes in Titanic Scion, a change in your approach can turn a tough fight into a routine skirmish.
Best Build For Fighting Arachne
Armor
Mobility is definitely a big part of countering Arachne’s onslaught, but going for a fully-lightweight build is playing into her hands. Her bow and missiles deal heavy Flinch damage, and a big part of her strategy revolves around staggering you so she can line up a kill shot; mixing in some heavy armor to increase your overall weight can help reduce your susceptibility.
Try equipping a lightweight cuirass, greaves, and helm like the Auxo series to maximize your speed and stamina efficiency, while bulking out your arms with heavy-duty, armored vambraces. If you can, have a double scoop of Caramel and Cheesecake ice cream before the fight to increase your resistance to both Flinch and Stun, which Arachne also uses.
A Gun Vambrace with an Assault Rifle or Machine Gun is a great choice against Arachne, but leave the other arm open for melee weapons.
Arachne’s weapons primarily deal Basic and Physical damage, so look for armor with high Basic Defense and decent Physical Defense.
Weapons
Arachne is more susceptible to Physical damage than to Lasers, so focus on conventional bullets and blades when facing her. It’s absolutely essential that you have at least one ranged weapon with a good rapid-fire capability, preferably two in case the fight runs long and ammo starts to become an issue. As mentioned above, Assault Rifles and Machine Guns are best for this, but a Minigun or even a Handgun can work in a pinch.
Don’t worry as much about raw damage when picking your guns for the fight; look for accuracy and rate of fire instead. The point is to hit Arachne and disrupt her cloaking so that you can pin her in melee.
For your melee weapons, a powerful one-handed Blade like the Hauteclare is the way to go. This will be your main way of dealing damage to Arachne, and you need a combination of speed, damage, and Flinch. Arachne uses lightweight armor, so it doesn’t take much to stagger her, but she can easily avoid slower weapons so you need to be sure you can hit her when she’s within reach. A high Forward Thrust rating is also very useful for engaging Arachne while she’s trying to escape.
Especially avoid Maces in this fight; their knockback combined with the boss’s light weight means you’ll actually send Arachne flying away from you when you manage to connect, robbing you of chances at more damage.
Shoulder Mount And Auxiliary
You can sometimes catch Arachne with a homing missile or a cannon shot, but only if you’re lucky. You’re better off equipping a repair pod like the Devotion to your shoulder mount, since Arachne’s own missiles are hard to avoid, and you’re very likely to take a fair amount of damage during the fight.
On the other hand, you have a few viable options for your Auxiliary system. A Reserve Magazine can help ensure that you don’t run out of ammo, but you should only consider it if your firearms of choice have a low capacity overall. A better pick is grenades, since a quick toss can catch Arachne in an explosion without requiring much precision. She’s susceptible to Blind, so Flash Grenades are a great choice for this.
If you prefer to gamble for big damage, Trap Mines can catch Arachne unawares. Set them around the central ground area of the arena and along the edges of the rooftops for the best chance at getting her to wander into one.
Strategy For Fighting Arachne
Arachne’s approach is to turn invisible, relocate, fire her bow and/or some homing missiles, and repeat until she has an opportunity to either stagger you or catch you with her grappling hook, which inflicts Stun; at that point, she’ll close in for a melee combo with her knife. If you lose track of her, she can be hard to pick up again, especially after she loses about a third of her VP, at which point she jams your radar for the rest of the fight.
To find Arachne when she’s invisible, look for sparkling trails that she leaves behind when she dashes. They fade quickly, but they can give you a hint of where she’s about to shoot from. You can see a glowing outline of Arachne when she’s charging her bow; while you can’t lock onto her unless you fully disrupt her cloak, this is your best chance to do so.
Arachne almost always opens the fight by rushing to the right before taking her first shot. If you anticipate this, you can catch her in a melee combo early and get some solid damage on her before things get going.
When you find Arachne, fire your ranged weapon at her while dashing toward her position; just be ready to dodge left or right when she releases her arrow. As long as any bullets connect, her cloak will vanish, and you’ll be able to lock on. Hit her with as many melee attacks as you can before she escapes — if you manage to stagger her, so much the better. Eventually, Arachne will cloak again (usually after shouting, “Mirror!”); repeat the process until she’s defeated.
Important Details
As the fight goes on, Arachne will start to favor firing from the air over staying on the ground. This can make her even harder to track, so be patient and watch where her shots are coming from. If you need a heal, there are two repair containers in the northeast section of the arena.
If Arachne says, “This might sting,” ti means she’s coming in for a melee combo. Use the opportunity to catch her in close combat, where you have the advantage. She can do a lot of damage if she gets the drop on you, but if you turn the tables this is a much better position to be in than constantly chasing her around.
Rewards For Defeating Arachne
Arachne drops several pieces of loot that let you emulate her speedy, stealthy style. As with all bosses in the game, you’ll need to face her multiple times in the Simulator to be able to get everything once you’ve defeated her in the main story. Her rarest drop is her longbow, Frostbite. It doesn’t have any peculiar traits to set it apart from other bows; just god-tier stats to make it the best bow in the game. If archery is a part of your main build, you’ll want to grind for it.
If you don’t get the bow, Arachne’s handgun Triple Star is a worthy consolation prize. It doesn’t have automatic fire like most handguns, but it deals massive damage to weak points. Try catching an Immortal in a grab then pumping a few rounds from Triple Star into its weak point to deal huge amounts of damage in a short amount of time.
Arachne’s armor set, the Explorer series, are classified as ultra-lightweight. They have low VP and defense even compared to other lightweight armor, but they offer truly exceptional mobility and utility thanks to their astonishingly high non-defense stats like Stamina Efficiency and Aerial Speed. As you can probably guess from how Arachne fared while wearing them, they don’t offer good protection against Physical Damage but their Laser Defense is excellent.
Arachne’s knife, Songbird, is also an available drop, but it’s unremarkable compared to her other loot.
Finally, Arachne almost always drops the Skeleton-10 Factor, which teaches her Stealth Camouflage power when you use it at the Fusion Lab.