Stellar Blade showcases some very strong narrative prowess with its take on the Soulslike trend of multiple endings. Players can choose between three different ways for their journey to end, based on their engagement with specific characters during the story. In typical Soulslike fashion, however, there’s a bittersweet element to each ending in Stellar Blade. And the enigmatic Scavenger Adam is at the center of it all. Spoiler warnings for the guide ahead, as we dive into the final chapter of Stellar Blade, and the boss fight that caps it off.

Throughout Stellar Blade’s story, Adam is an important member of the faction of survivors at Xion, introducing Eve to Orcal and even assisting her with her retrieval of the Hyper Cells and Alpha Naytiba Cores that grant her access to the Elder Naytiba’s Nest. 

Hiding In Plain Sight

Depending on the choices you make in the story, the fate of Lily, your engineer and former member of the 5th Airborne Squad hangs in the balance. Simply ensure you have maxed out your Affinity with her while also grabbing the Iberis Code before the game warns you about its Point of No Return.

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After taking the elevator to Spire 4 in the story mission, Eve learns that Adam is none other than Raphael Marks, the Elder Naytiba who chose to sacrifice humanity’s surviving remnants to save them from the EIDOS program – and fight the Mother Sphere.

After explaining his motivations, Adam offers Eve a couple of choices for humanity’s future – and extends his hand to her. Eve’s next move is up to you. Any Exospines and Gear that improve dodging and parrying can be very helpful here, along with the Focus Boost skill. Choose not to take Adam’s hand, and you begin the story mission EVE Protocol, locking you into the Return to the Colony ending for Stellar Blade. This grand finale sees Adam and Eve go head to head in a battle of truly biblical proportions.

How to Defeat Adam (Elder Naytiba) in Stellar Blade

After he effectively pins down Lily, Adam barely puts up a fight against Eve. Instead, he attempts to pacify her and bring her around to his way of thinking. Unleash your best basic combos here, aiming to build up your Beta Guage and Burst Skills as much as you can. Once you deplete all of Adam’s health, Lily returns to the fight, and Eve begins to understand the extent of Adam’s powers. After an incredible cutscene, Eve takes on Adam’s Elder Naytiba form.

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In a callback to some of the best angelic bosses of the hack n’ slash genre, the Elder Naytiba comes with an array of armaments with multiple hands to wield them on its right side while the wings on its left side act as a shield while unlocking aerial mobility for the boss. What’s worse, the Elder Naytiba can teleport and even summon lesser angels in a move that can insta-kill Eve if she fails to interrupt it. We have quite the fight on our hands!

For starters, it can be beneficial to patiently test the waters out, taking a few attempts to get used to Elder Naytiba’s attack patterns. Look for the yellow glow on its body or weapon to know if you need to dodge or parry respectively. This strategy should gradually allow you to master perfect parrying against the Elder Naytiba’s many onslaughts with its sword and spear. Watch out for its teleporting attacks for opportunities to perfect dodge or punish attacks with Blink and Repulse.

Once you “get good” with handling the Elder Naytiba’s parry rhythms, its time to focus on opportunities to deal a bit of damage. Constant parries and dodges open up the Elder Naytiba to Retribution Attacks while you can unleash Beta Skills right after parrying or dodging one of his attack chains for some great damage.

It can get very tempting to keep spamming basic attacks but while the Elder Naytiba is slow to attack, each strike takes a lot out of Eve’s own HP. Limit your combos to two or three strikes, allowing you room to dodge or parry and unleash attacks that the Elder Naytiba cannot punish.

The Shield Breaker Beta Skill can help with wearing down the Elder Naytiba’s shield while Shock Wave can help inflict the Down Status on him, giving Eve another window to deal some damage. As you begin to whittle away at his health, mixing up your basic and Beta attacks with dodges and parries, the Elder Naytiba suddenly retreats to a distance, taking to the sky.

He proceeds to summon glowing orbs of light that are as ominous as they are beautiful. Shoot them down as quickly as you can, taking care to avoid the glowing trails of light that stream out from each one as it goes down. Linger too long and Eve gets hit by an unblockable attack that outright kills her. It’s worth checking out! It’s also important to remember that most of his ranged attacks that remain in the ground explode a few seconds after impact and can deal some serious damage if you get careless.

By being cautiously aggressive and wearing the Elder Naytiba down, you trigger a QTE to finally take down the boss, and earn the Return to the COlony trophy for your trouble. And that brings you to one of Stellar Blade’s three endings. You could explore its world a little more, or dive into New Game + for more unlockable content and more endings. Or maybe you’re considering revisiting every outfit’s location for some new variations, perhaps?

Whatever you choose to do, our Stellar Blade guides are sure to help!