How To Beat The General Altan Boss In The Rogue Prince Of Persia

General Altan is an intimidating bossfight to approach in the Rogue Prince of Persia. Out of the cast introduced to the game they are by far the least human in appearance and they weaponise their monstrous body in the boss fight. Similar to Berude and Baatar, you need a good deal of mobility and an awareness of their attack patterns.

The trick to winning this combat is using the arena to your advantage. In fitting Prince of Persia style, once you master dodging across the walls and ceilings this fight becomes much easier and perhaps a more reliable route for reaching the Palace than challenging Berude.

How To Reach Altan

Altan can be encountered in the Public Baths, an alternate third level to the Outer Ramparts. The easiest route to reach this location is through the village outskirts and aqueduct levels.

The access to the Public Baths does require accumulating some other progress milestones. It appears to become available after you’ve defeated Berude for the first time.

If you haven’t yet rescued Shahin, this route is also the perfect setup for progressing that quest as you’ll need to interact with NPCs and locations in both of these areas before reaching the prison, the next area after the Public Baths.

Best Loadouts For Fighting Altan

As an alternative for the first boss, you don’t want to dedicate too many of your upgrades and skills to specifically beating Altan; there’s still plenty of content to go through after winning, and not all load-outs will help you against later fights such as Baatar. Certain upgrades and equipment will help you with defeating him for the first time and give you leeway as you learn his attack patterns.

Anahita upgrades are a good choice for the encounter. You’ll almost always have a full set of potions going into the fight, maximising your survivability. Anahita’s blessing reduces damage taken while in water.

While normally unreliable, in this encounter it’ll functionally be always active. Anahita’s radiance is also a consistent technique for breaking protective auras that isn’t dependent on Altan using a specific attack pattern.

Anahita upgrades are also a flavourful lore choice for fighting Altan, who is unable to leave the healing bath without his curse worsening. His entry in Nyamtur’s tome notes that he is fearful of people “stealing his body-healing fluids.”

Verethragna upgrades also perform well and are useful against later levels; tool attacks are great for safely damaging Altan between his attacks, and Verethragna’s vitality lets you regenerate energy slowly while dodging and keeping your distance.

The Genius of Verethragna greatly increases tool damage; this won’t give you enough ranged power to never need your regular weapons, but lets you attack during patterns that would otherwise be too risky.

The strongest weapons are those which enable elemental synergy attacks. The poisoned claw is the best for this, as it can inflict its status at long range. The censer is a close second but requires good timing for when to stop moving and ignite it, so pair these weapons with medallions that can give you additional elements, such as resin to create large damage combos.

Another set of weapon choices is those with extra reach: Altan’s slow projectiles and wide swings make it dangerous to use short weapons like daggers, as they give you less time to get away after attacking.

For tools, you want access to ranged attacks or mobility options.

• The chakram can consistently hit an enemy multiple times when their position is static, and Altan rarely moves. The bow is a simpler fire-and-forget weapon that you can weave in whenever you have energy.
• Berude’s Gauntlet can be used when jumping over a vertical wave for a risky counterattack, while the stealth spirit can increase the amount of time you stay in the air in case you dodge too early or too late.
• Avoid using the saw blade or grappling hook against Altan. The saw blade’s backswing can easily hit you when you’re worried about dodging other attacks, while the grappling hook doesn’t do much damage without environmental hazards to combo with.

Altan’s Attack Patterns

Altan’s attacks are all themed around either his tentacles or the water he depends on. His fight has a strong emphasis on dodging vertically, with most attacks targeting either the ceiling or floor and being easily evaded if you swap between the two.

Altan’s Second And Third Phases

After losing one-third of his health, Altan will become temporarily invulnerable until given the chance to start his second phase. Most attacks remain broadly the same, with the addition of his water lances when standing in the middle of the room. At this stage, it strikes five times in a row.

This repeats when he has only a third of his health remaining, further intensifying his attacks but adding no new moves. The water lances will strike eight times now.

The most notable change in Altan’s attack pattern is the vertical waves will now be used repeatedly in quick succession. Twice at first, with a third wave added in his final phase. You will no longer be able to jump over the first wave and then immediately counterattack but must stay on the ceiling until all waves are past.

Vaulting over Altan is still a viable way of evading the vertical waves only when he is at the edge of the arena. If you climb over him in the middle of the arena,
he will change the direction of the second and third waves.