Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC guide: How to defeat Cinderclad Monolith

The Cinderclad Monolith is one of the very first major bosses you will come across in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC. And despite it being one of the earlier bosses, the Cinderclad Monolith is easily one of the toughest encounters in the entire expansion, surpassing most of the boss and miniboss encounters in the game, apart from Lydusa.

While the DLC's final boss - Lydusa still reigns as the most challenging encounter The Forgotten Kingdom has to offer, the Cinderclad Monolith is a close second, surpassing the Stonewarden and even the previous DLC's final boss, the One True King.

What makes the Cinderclad Monolith most challenging is the nature of the boss fight, which is more of a puzzle than a traditional boss battle, akin to the Labyrinth Sentinel in the base game. Here's a comprehensive guide on how to easily defeat the Cinderclad Monolith in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC.

NOTE: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer's opinion.

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How to defeat the Cinderclad Monolith in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC?

The Cinderclad Monolith is located at the end of the very first dungeon you visit as part of the main questline in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom. Although you can beeline straight to the boss as soon as you start the DLC, I recommend taking the time to explore the area, since, in the same area, you can also unlock the Invoker archetype.

The build I used for the boss fight. (Image via Gunfire Games)

While Invoker isn't necessary to defeat the Cinderclad Monolith, having that archetype equipped does make things a bit easier since it allows you to use your skills faster with a significantly reduced cooldown. Certain skills like that of the Ritualist, Archon, and Challenger can help against the boss.

That being said, I fought the Cinderclad Monolith with my Challenger and Handler hybrid build and didn't face much of an issue whittling down its health bar. Much like the Labyrinth Sentinel, the Cinderclad Monolith only takes damage if you target its weak point(s), which it constantly shifts around making it harder to get a proper lock on.

Here are a few tips that should help you easily defeat the Ciderclad Monolith in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC:

• There are essentially two weak points on the Cinderclad Monolith, the first being the crystal that it brandishes across different rotating layers of its body, and the second being the inner core, which it only reveals after you deal significant amounts of damage.
• Your primary objective against the Cinderclad Monolith would be to target the crystal, which constantly shifts around different layers of its outer shell. I recommend using a rapid-fire weapon with an elemental mutator.
• The Cinderclad Monolith has an AOE attack which it spams almost constantly. Fortunately, this attack can be easily avoided if you dodge at the right time. The waves from this attack are a bit delayed, so don't spam the dodge button. Instead, press it right before the wave reaches your in-game character.
• The second and much more damaging attack that the Cinderclad Monolith does is where it sprouts two massive tendrils and does a slam attack followed by a swipe. The Monolith only does this attack when its health reaches at or below 50%, i.e., the second half of the boss fight.
• To avoid the tendril attack, you can dodge through both the slam and the swipe attacks, which is the easier and more efficient way of dealing with this attack. Or, you can shoot the tendrils to immobilize them, which can be quite tough due to the AOE attacks.

The Cinderclad Monolith is one of the toughest bosses in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom. (Image via Gunfire Games)

While the Cinderclad Monolith isn't technically a true boss fight akin to the Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC's Stonewarden or final boss Lydusa, it still is quite challenging, setting a bar for difficulty in the expansion.