How to defeat General Altan Boss in Rogue Prince of Persia

General Altan is an intimidating boss fight in Rogue Prince of Persia. Of the actors introduced in the game, they look by far the least human and arm their monstrous bodies in boss fights. Similar to Berude and Baatar, you need a lot of mobility and awareness of their attack patterns.

The trick to winning this fight is to use the arena to your advantage. In Prince of Persia fashion, once you get the hang of dodging through walls and ceilings, this fight becomes a much easier and possibly more reliable way to reach the palace than challenging Berude.

How to get to Altan

Altan can be found in public bathsan alternative third level to the Outer Walls. The easiest way to reach this place is over the edge of the village and the level of the aqueducts.

Access to public baths requires the accumulation of some additional progress milestones. It appears to be available after you beat Berud the first time.

If you haven't rescued Shahin yet, this route is also the perfect setup to continue this quest, as you'll need to interact with NPCs and locations in both of these areas before reaching the prison, the next area after the public baths.

The best loads for fighting Altan

As an alternative to the first boss, you don't want to devote too much of your upgrades and skills to specifically defeating Altan; there's still a lot of content to go through after winning, and not all loadouts will help you against later fights like Baatar. Certain power-ups and equipment will help you defeat him the first time and give you leeway as you learn his attack patterns.

Anahita's upgrades are a good choice for the encounter. You'll almost always have a full set of potions going into battle, maximizing your survivability. Anahita's Blessing reduces damage taken in water.

While he is normally unreliable, he will functionally always be active in this encounter. Anahita's radiance is also consistent a technique for breaking the protective aura which does not depend on Altan using a specific attack pattern.

Anahita's buffs are also a great choice to fight Altan, who is unable to leave the healing bath without his curse worsening. His entry in Nyamtur's volume notes that he is afraid of people “stealing his body-healing fluids”.

Verethragna's upgrades also work well and are useful against later levels; Tool attacks are great for safely damaging Altan between his attacks, and Verethragna's Vitality allows you to slowly regenerate energy while dodging and keeping your distance.

Genius of Verethragna greatly increases tool damage; this doesn't give you enough ranged power to never need your normal weapons, but it does allow you to attack during patterns that would otherwise be too risky.

The most powerful weapons are those that allow elemental synergy attacks. A poisoned claw is best for thatas it can inflict its condition over a long distance. The Incense Burner is a close second, but requires good timing to stop moving and ignite, so pair these weapons with Medallions, which can give you additional elements like Resin to create high-damage combos.

Another set of weapons are those with extra range: Altan's slow projectiles and wide swings do just that dangerous to use short weapons like daggersbecause they give you less time to run after an attack.

For the tools you want to access ranged attacks or mobility options.

• Chakram can consistently hit the enemy multiple times when their position is static and Altan rarely moves. The bow is a simpler fire-and-forget weapon that you can weave in whenever you have energy.
• Berude's Gauntlet can be used while jumping over a vertical wave for a risky counter attack while a secret spirit can increase the amount of time you stay airborne in case you swerve too early or too late.
• Avoid using a saw blade or grappling hook against Altan. The backswing of the saw blade can easily hit you when you're worried about dodging other attacks while the hook doesn't deal a lot of damage without having to mix in environmental hazards.

Altan's attack patterns

Altan's attacks are all themed around either his tentacles or the water he depends on. His combat has a strong emphasis on vertical dodging, Most attacks target either the ceiling or the floor and are easy to avoid if you switch between them.

Altan's second and third phases

After losing one third of your health, Altan becomes temporarily invulnerable until he gets a chance to start his second phase. Most of the attacks remain pretty much the same, with the addition of his water spears when standing in the middle of the room. At this stage, he will strike five times in a row.

This repeats when he only has a third of his health left, further boosting his attacks but not adding any new moves. Water Spear now hits eight times.

The most notable change in Altan's attack pattern is vertical waves will now be used repeatedly in rapid succession. First twice, in its final phase a third wave was added. You will no longer be able to jump over the first wave and then immediately counterattack, but you must stay on the ceiling until all the waves have passed.

Vaulting over Altan is still a viable way to avoid vertical waves only when on the edge of the arena. If you climb over it in the middle of the arena,
it changes the direction of the second and third waves.