How to beat the Path of Exile 2 Bloated Miller boss fight

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The Bloated Miller in POE2 is the game's first boss

Path of Exile 2 Bloated Miller
(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

The Path of Exile 2 Bloated Miller boss is the major challenge of the game's tutorial and the first boss fight in all of POE2. A large, lumbering undead that deals in slow, heavy attacks, those who fight at a distance or rely on speed will have the advantage against this big brute, though anybody can beat the Bloated Miller with the right tips and tricks.

That's what we're here to help with: we'll show you how to beat the POE2 Bloated Miller boss fight, regardless of your class, and how you can conquer your way through to the game proper.

Path of Exile 2 Bloated Miller tips and strategies

Path of Exile 2 Bloated Miller

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

The Bloated Miller in Path of Exile 2 is a boss that's much stronger at melee, so you'd do well to stay at a distance and whittle him down, though that's not always an option for certain Path of Exile 2 classes. With that in mind, we've got a range of helpful advice and tips to help any character exploit its weaknesses and beat it.

  • Make sure you're equipped properly. All the weapons and skill gems you found in the tutorial should be equipped in your inventory for the best chance, the skills assigned before you go in. Feel free to practice on the undead outside the arena to make sure you fully understand how they work.
  • Keep your distance where possible. The Miller is more dangerous at close range, though he does have quick charges and a shockwave move to hit players at distance.
  • If you are in melee, get behind him. The Bloated Miller's main attacks are front-facing, so stay behind him where possible.
  • Roll to the sides, not back or forwards. The Miller's attacks tend to extend forward at length but have little width - if you need to dodge, circle around him rather than back and away.
  • When he starts summoning, you don't need to focus on the summons. Exactly how you tackle these minions depends on your class - Witches can use them to create their own undead, for example - but as a rule it's best just to maintain firepower on the Miller while keeping out of the way of the slower summons. If you're playing a Sorcerer or a class with AOE attacks, try to take them down in the same attacks that hit the Bloated Miller too.
  • If you have elemental attacks, keep them up. Most elemental effects trigger on successive strikes, so if you have frost or poison, hit the Miller with that same attack in quick succession for the best chance.

The Miller shouldn't give you too much trouble if you can maintain all this pressure and follow these rules accordingly, and you can always grind in the areas before for an even better chance. You're more likely to struggle with the Path of Exile 2 Devourer boss that comes up in the next mission - but our guide can help you with that. Alternatively, if you're realising you made mistakes in your chosen skills, we can also tell you how to respec in Path of Exile 2 - though spoiler alert, you won't be able to unlock it for a little while.

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Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.