The earliest Gigant is one that may taunt you for a long time. It’s virtually impossible to beat Mantis when you first journey though Sandinus Ravine in Calaglia, but later in the game he is a far more manageable foe.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to beat Mantis in Tales of Arise.
- RELATED: Tales of Arise review (spoiler-free)
What level to beat Mantis?
Since you’ll encounter Mantis early in the game, it’s a long time before you’ll be capable of defeating him. Mantis should be beatable at around level 40, but can be taken down earlier if you know what you’re doing and you don’t mind the battle lasting a while. It’s plausible from around level 35 onwards.
Without spoiling anything, there’s a long period of time when fast travel becomes unavailable at the fifth realm. When you have passed this segment and finally have access to fast travel again, it should be a decent time to take him on.
How to beat Mantis – Preparations
When you’re at a suitable level, Mantis isn’t anything special but there are some preparations that should assist.
Make sure you have Alphen, Shionne and Rinwell in your party. The fourth party member doesn’t matter too much, though generally Dohalim is a good choice for Gigants as you’ll have two healers. Kisara’s Boost Attack will be handy here, but she obviously doesn’t need to be in the party for this.
Also be sure to cook a meal beforehand. Personally I would recommend your best meal that increases elemental attack, such as Ice Cream (cooked with Rinwell for added effect) or anything better if you’ve progressed far enough in the story to unlock Fancy Parfait. Otherwise, your best regular attack boost is fine – using Law to cook for a bigger increase.
Aim for his Core
Like with any boss or Gigant, you should always focus on the core, which must be manually targeted first. Mantis has a core on his leg, so hack away until you land the all-important Core Break and incapacitate him. As soon as you manage this, smash him with Flaming Edge extensions with as much power as you can muster. Keep an eye on his leg and as soon as the core regenerates, retarget it and try again.
Learn Mantis’ attack pattern
Mantis only actually has four main attacks to worry about:
- Charge attack – this can be avoided by running away and dodging continuously to the side. However, the best thing to do here is to utilise Kisara’s Boost Attack if you have it available, inflicting a Boost Break and giving an opportunity to land some further blows
- Slash attack – Mantis will slash at least once, and sometimes twice. He’ll raise one claw and slice at you, often following up with an identical attack with his other claw. This is easy enough to avoid once you nail the timings, and you just need to be wary about counterattacking in between the attacks. You’re better off waiting a moment to make sure he doesn’t attack again. Once he’s slashed twice, you’re good to go
- Ground smash – This attack starts similarly to the double slash, but this time Mantis will lift both his claws and bury them into the ground, causing a ripple along the ground. You should avoid this by dodging to the side before getting behind Mantis and railing on him with as much as you can. Mantis will be out of action for quite a while so this is your best opportunity to strike
- Ranged slash – if you’re keeping your distance, occasionally Mantis will slash from afar, blasting a sharp ranged attack in your direction. Keep the camera pointed towards him as much as possible so you can see this one coming and dodge it. Generally it’s best to be relatively close to Mantis so this one is only dangerous when you are retreating to heal up
Use Wind Attacks
Mantis is weak against wind, so you should spam artes of this element. You can manually turn off any of Rinwell’s offensive artes that have different elements, and this can be done beforehand or even mid-battle from the menu.
Whilst controlling Alphen, you should have a few wind-based artes which can be used to good effect. Once you’ve dodged an attack and gone behind Mantis, you can start with Severing Wind, let Alphen drop about half-way down and then repeat aerial artes like Hurricane Thrust or Void Flash. Remember you can also use other characters’ Boost Strikes mid-combo to replenish Alphen’s AG and keep the attacks going.
Use Boost Attacks wisely
There are two Boost Attacks that will serve you well here – Alphen’s and Kisara’s.
You should use Alphen’s whenever it is available, because it will always inflict a Boost Break and knock Mantis down. The only exception for this will be when he is glowing blue in overlimit state and Boost Breaks are impossible.
As for Kisara’s, don’t use this until Mantis is charging at you. Since the timing is important, you should never use this at any other point. If you are using Boost Attacks to make the most of a core break or boost AG, always prioritise other characters.
Like a Core Break, a Boost Break is always a good time to expend your HP with your most powerful Flaming Edge extensions, since you can perform these uninterrupted before retreating and getting healed by Shionne or Dohalim.
Take out the bees (with Boost Strikes)
At the mid-way point of the battle, you’ll be prompted to perform a Boost Strike. After this point, Mantis will summon a few bees to assist him, and this is the toughest part of the battle as you’ll have the annoyance of these enemies along with Mantis.
They aren’t particularly strong so you should take them out as quickly as possible. The best tactic is to try and lure a few of them together before blasting them with Shionne’s Boost Attack. If you can knock a few down at once, follow up with a fully-charged Flaming Edge and they’ll be defeated quickly.
Otherwise, when they’re on low health, try and fill their Boost gauges with artes like Sword Rain: Alpha. Finishing these off with Boost Strikes will have the added benefit of harming the other bees as well as Mantis himself.
Once this is done, it should be plain sailing. Repeat the previous tactics and continue to avoid his attacks, which won’t change throughout the battle. Mantis will shortly be defeated.
How to beat Mantis at low level
Can it actually be done? Believe it or not, it is theoretically possible to beat Mantis early in the game. I’ll confess I haven’t done this myself, but there are some examples online showing Mantis defeated.
This is only possible before Boost Strikes are unlocked (Boost Attacks are fine), since a Boost Strike is triggered when Mantis is on half health which results in the bees arriving. Adding these into the fray at low level effectively makes the battle impossible. However, before you can Boost Strike this prompt never happens and the bees are not summoned.
Basically, the only way to beat Mantis is to run around the edge of the screen with Alphen and allow Shionne to shoot him from the middle of the battlefield. She only does single figures with each hit, so it’s attritional to say the least. Nonetheless, if you lure Mantis to the outskirts of the screen, there is a sweet spot you can find where Alphen remains just outside of Mantis’ range. The Gigant keeps chasing after him but never attacks or changes course to Shionne.
Eventually you can whittle down his health and beat him without ever attempting a manual attack yourself. Also, it’s easier to do this after Zephyr has left your party. Otherwise, he interrupts the flow of this technique and is better off simply being KO’d.
How long does it take? Just a paltry 19 hours or so. To make matters worse, you only gain about 3 levels for winning! It’s really best not to bother, and wait until you are at least in the mid-30s.
Complete the Giant Zeugle Hunt quest
If you haven’t already, then you should head to Ulzebek and talk to Harried-Looking Member. This quest is available very early in the game, so it’s probably been incomplete and bugging you for a while.
Once Mantis is defeated, you can head back and finally finish this one off. The rewards for beating Mantis and clearing this quest are 12,600 Gald and 380 SP. If you didn’t unlock it previously, you can simply find it and complete it immediately.
Recap
Here’s everything about our Mantis strategy recapped in a nutshell.
- Wait until around level 40 to take on Mantis
- Include Alphen, Shionne and Rinwell, and only enable Rinwell’s wind artes
- Target the core on Mantis’ leg at all times
- Dodge Mantis’ attacks and counter with Alphen’s wind artes
- Use Boost Strikes from Alphen whenever available and Kisara when Mantis is charging
- Take out the bees as quickly as possible and finish Mantis off
Hopefully our guide of how to beat Mantis in Tales of Arise was helpful. If so, check out some of our other tips and guides below:
