Borderlands 4 Skyspanner Kratch boss guide

Towards the end of Borderlands 4’s Shadow of the Mountain main story mission, you’ll come across the Skyspanner Kratch boss. It’s easily one of the most annoying fights in the game; there isn’t much ammo in the room, there’s poisonous, damage-dealing water on the ground, and it’s a Kratch. It flies around the room, spits smaller Kratches at you, and in general, is a nuisance.

All of the difficulty of the Shadow of the Mountain mission went into this one boss fight, apparently. While it’s not the hardest boss in the game, Skyspanner Kratch can definitely feel infuriating in the Borderlands 4 campaign. Here’s how to overcome it.

Where to find Skyspanner Kratch in Borderlands 4

You can’t miss the Skyspanner Kratch, in Borderlands 4; you’ll find it right at the end of Shadow of the Mountain. Before you can get into Defiant Calder’s office, this gigantic Kratch will swoop down.

(Fight begins at 1:08:17)

There’s a platform in the center of the room with a hole in it, but I found it was easier to spend more time on the larger platform that is straight ahead from where you enter the room. It took a few tries but we got him down. Here’s what we know about this infuriating bat enemy.

Skyspanner Kratch’s attacks in Borderlands 4

The Skyspanner Kratch fight in Borderlands 4 isn’t really a complicated one. It’s only got a few attacks it can hit you with, but every single one is infuriating. While this boss does have two health bars, it doesn’t introduce anything new in the second phase of combat, luckily.

Those balloons are thankfully, very slow (Image via 2K Games)

However, playing as Vex made this fight much easier, because the Specters could shoot away and inflict a variety of elemental damage; though as a fleshy enemy, its weakness is Ignite.

Skyspanner Kratch launches a repeated sonic blast attack to try and knock you down into the water.
Skyspanner Kratch spits out a swarm of mini-Kratch enemies that deal damage on contact.
Skyspanner Kratch will fly in a circle, launching mini-Kratch enemies connected to balloons. These trigger a different element every time this attack is used, when destroyed or when they hit the player.

Tips to defeat Skyspanner Kratch in Borderlands 4

Skyspanner Kratch really doesn’t do a lot of direct combat with you in Borderlands 4, but don’t let that distract you. Its most dangerous attack is when it scrunches up its tail/tail sacs. It then spits out a bunch of tiny Kratch enemies that act as missiles.

If you see this scrunching up, the boss is going to squirt out Kratch Missiles (Image via 2K Games)

As soon as the boss does this, or I see the mini-Kratch bombers, I double jump and glide away, to try and get out of the line of fire. This attack deals tons of damage, so you don’t want to be in the way.

Its other truly devastating attack is a very slow one. Occasionally, Skyspanner Kratch will fly around this Borderlands 4 arena, and release balloons with Kratch attached to them. They will slowly float towards you, and all have the same element that triggers when they explode.

If you’re having trouble staying alive, try to keep one or two of these around as a Second Wind enabler. What I do though, is grapple to the far platform (the larger one), and open fire on them from there. You’ve got more room to stand, and won’t get knocked back into the poison when he uses the Sonic Blast.

Just keep moving between platforms when necessary, and open fire on the huge bat (Image via 2K Games)

Sonic Blast will repeatedly bombard you, and while it doesn’t do damage, it does push you back constantly, to try and drop you into that poisonous water below. If you’re falling, you can grapple if you see a Grapple Point, at least.

You’re going to want to be mobile in this fight, jumping between platforms, and hitting the Skyspanner Kratch as often as possible. The only real bad part is that this boss can die and drop down in the poisonous water, and when that happened to me, I couldn’t find the loot it dropped.

Check out our other Borderlands 4 guides and features

About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 15 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

Jason places high value on accuracy and relevance in his write-ups. He achieves this with thorough research to sift facts from rumors. One of the biggest highlights of his career is his interview with Canadian pro wrestler Kenny Omega about his inclusion in the Like a Dragon game series. He is also good friends with journalist Kazumo Hashimoto, who he admires for the kind of stories he works on and his deep ethics.

A true cinephile, one of Jason’s primary hobbies involves enjoying cinematic experiences. He also loves reading, be it fiction or manga, when not working. Additionally, he streams on Twitch and posts his gaming insights on YouTube.

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Edited by Jason Parker