This is one tough mother, even without a head. Get too close and you’ll be swatted away by its massive arm. Stand too far away and you’ll be cursing as your sluggish rockets miss by miles. Take cover behind a pillar and you’ll be stabbed through solid concrete. So just keep moving.
Take advantage of the weaponry around you. Using your handheld machine gun is impractical, so search for any nearby VS. The rocket VS are particularly effective, but Gatling guns work well from a distance.
If you‘re having trouble hitting the Akrid head, take out its orange leg first. That will buy you a precious few seconds to put some heavy artillery down its neck-stump. When the Akrid pauses to charge up its right leg with flame, the only way to stop it from firing a homing fireball is to hit the leg with a rocket. Alternatively, grab a shield if you can find one and take cover behind it.
There’s a three-man VS located on the eastern wall. Jump in, but don’t activate the VS until your allies get into the gunner seats. This mech makes the battle much easier, just remember bail out if your VS life bar gets low and make repairs or risk losing the VS. When the Akrid takes enough damage, it will actually grow its head back and start spitting flames. Keep up the assault to take it down.
Episode 3 Chapter 1 Boss Akrid
There’s no way to take this behemoth down at this point. Your objective is to simply hold it off until the charge meter in the upper left corner hits 100%. The Akrid will surface behind the train periodically and try to swallow two cars at a time. Do nothing, and the Akrid will eventually devour your entire train. Take your pick of several fun ways to stop it.
Unload cargo. Once you know which side of the train the Akrid has surfaced on, shoot the two glowing orange barrels on that side of a cargo car. Doing so will dump the red explosive cargo. Time it so that the cargo falls just before the Akrid bites down, sending the explosives right into its mouth.
Fire rockets or VS weaponry. Hold your fire until the Akrid is just about to bite down and shoot it in the mouth. Once the charge meter is full, run back to the chopper at the front of the train.
Episode 3 Chapter 2 Boss Akrid
After taking out the enemy soldiers, two Akrid will appear on the ridge and blow up your train. Once they jump down, make sure to keep an eye on both of them. They like to charge and will destroy any building in their path so don’t bother with cover.
When they rear up, the Akrid will do one of two things. It could be preparing to charge, in which case you need to make sure you’re not in front of it. It could also start squealing, in which case you need to stand still and stop shooting to avoid being attacked.
The trick is to get close, wait for the Akrid to stand up, then fire a heavy weapon such as a rocket launcher or VS shotgun right into its gut. This should knock it down, giving you great opportunity to get more clear shots at the stomach.
