Two of these enemy archetypes are the Fisherman and Executioners, two very similar melee-focused bad guys capable of squishing even experienced Outriders in a single blow. While a lot of how you deal with them will depend on your class and apocalypse level, there are a few definite tips we can share to get through these tough encounters. First off, just like in the rest of the game, a life-leech primary or secondary weapon is absolutely essential. This is because both the Fisherman and Executioner enemies are absolutely surrounded by other, smaller enemies who will pressure you with constant damage. Make sure to top up your health with life-leech, healing mods and skills as much as possible.
How to beat the Fisherman in Outriders
As you explore the creepy abandoned fishing village of Driftwater, Tiago tells you the legend of the Fisherman’s ghost who wreaked their revenge on the Insurgents for destroying Driftwater. Well, you’re fighting them, or at least it seems like it. The Fisherman’s boss arena can be difficult to deal with and is the first thing you should try to turn to your advantage. While it might seem contrary to logic given he’s a melee enemy, once the Fisherman appears at the bottom of the area next to the jetty, rush to meet him and use any zoning, freezing, or slowing skills or abilities you have to keep him in place. Really, in this fight it’s the Ironclad and Scorcher enemies that are actually the main problem, since they can spam you down almost instantly and stun you with grenades that stop you from firing - which means you can’t life-leech and will probably die. By meeting the Fisherman at the bottom of the area, this gives you somewhere to backpedal as your freeze and slow skills recharge. As for damage, the Fisherman is a humanoid enemy so you can score easy critical damage with headshots. While they’re slowed, use any damage buff skills you have, such as Twisted Mags on the Trickster, then dump as many buffed-damage bullets into their head as possible. Doing so at close range means you’ll hit more and do more damage. This should rush them down very quickly, or at least get them down low. Once the setup wears off however, backpedal to reload and redeploy your skills. Make use of any shield generation you have access to, since this will help reduce the pressure from the onslaught of other smaller enemies. Once the Ironclads and Scorchers start spamming their grenades, use the whole wide-open boss arena to dodge, but continue to focus your fire on the Fisherman until they go down - otherwise your damage will spread too thinly and you will get overwhelmed. When the Fisherman is down, defeat the rest of the enemies as normal.
How to beat Executioners in Outriders
Later in your adventure you’ll come up against very similar melee enemies with even more powers, and sometimes even multiple of them at once: Executioners. These guys have a nasty habit of not only killing you in one hit when you’re not expecting it, but stunning you for what feels like forever to do it. Generally, the advice of slowing them then unloading clips of buffed-damage bullets into their head stands true. However, another thing that bears repeating is that you can dodge roll. This is done by double-tapping a direction on WASD on PC, or with a dedicated button on a controller/console. This is pretty much the only way to get out of the huge range of the Executioner’s stunning and A-o-E damage attacks and is very rarely a necessity throughout the rest of the game, so you might not even remember you can do it. So approach the Executioners as you did the Fisherman - dumping as much damage into them as quickly as possible - but the presence of mind that you need to dodge roll out of the way when you see the red circle appear on the floor, otherwise you’re in trouble or straight-up dead.
