Path of Exile 2‘s boss fights are some of the best in the isometric ARPG genre, and luckily there are tons of them sprinkled throughout the campaign. Almost every area has a unique boss of some kind, while others can be found through the game’s various side quests.
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In Act 2, in the Traitor’s Passage, you may come across Balbala, the Traitor, a djinn who has been locked up for hundreds of years and is in need of freeing. Below, we’ll take a look at where to find this boss, how to beat her, and what the rewards are for doing so.
Where To Find Balbala, The Traitor
Balbala, the Traitor is found in the Traitor’s Passage in Act 2. To get to her, explore around this area until you find you reach the Six Sisters area. Now, keep exploring around here until you find a closed door that leads to the Prison of the Disgraces. Interact with the Ancient Seal to open the door, then remove all three Runic Seals holding Balbala to release her.
Freeing Balbala will instantly start the battle, so prepare yourself beforehand.
How To Defeat Balbala, The Traitor
Balbala’s fight takes place in a relatively small arena, so you don’t have a whole lot of space to avoid her attacks. If you’re playing in a party, this fight can get especially claustrophobic, so take extra caution and mind your positioning throughout.
Rather than moving towards you, Balbala primarily gets around by teleporting right near you before swiping her daggers at you. You’ll need to constantly stay on the move to avoid her teleporting attacks.
Here are each of the attacks Balbala will use throughout the fight, what they do, and how to avoid them.
|
Attack |
Description |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
Summon Spirit |
Balbala will throw down a coin that will summon a Spirit of Balbala after a few seconds. After reducing its life to zero, the Spirit will return to its coin form, then revive after a few seconds. |
This enemy has relatively low health, and should be defeated as quickly as you can, so as not to be overwhelmed. If you run through the coin hovering in the rune, you can prevent the Spirit from reviving. However, as you run through the coin, Balbala will teleport to your position and slam down on the rune, dealing high damage and lighting it on fire. Be sure to roll through the coin to avoid getting hit by this. |
|
Dagger Toss |
Balbala will teleport around several times, summoning yellow daggers in the area. Then, these daggers will rotate towards you before quickly firing, intersecting at your position. |
Watch the position and timing of the daggers, then dodge roll just before they fly at you to avoid them. |
|
Spinning Glaives |
Balbala will toss out several spinning glaives in an area around herself, which deal continuous damage where they spin. After a second, these will fly back to the boss, dealing damage along their path. |
This attack is relatively easy to avoid, but you may get hit with the first throw of one of the glaives because of its fast cast time. |
|
Charge |
Balbala will become invulnerable and charge toward you, dealing damage along her trajectory. |
When Balbala swoops back before the charge, move out of the way of her path to avoid taking damage. |
|
Poisoned Daggers |
Balbala will throw out several daggers in your direction that inflict Poison, dealing damage over time. |
Roll several times in a row to avoid the onslaught of daggers, and use your potion if you’re hit by one to offset the poison damage. |
|
Poison Seep |
Balbala will go invisible as poison begins to seep from the hole in the center of the arena, slowly expanding until the entire arena is covered. Entering the poison cloud will deal damage over time to you. |
To stop the poison from spreading, you’ll need to run around the edge of the arena until you find Balbala, at which point she will throw down a grenade that explodes for high damage. Be prepared to dodge this once you’ve found her. |
|
Ascending Daggers |
Balbala will throw out three waves of yellow daggers that stick in the ground. After a moment, these will fly into the air, dealing damage in the area. |
Move out of the way of the dagger patches to avoid taking damage when they fly away. |
The key to this fight is to prevent Balbala from creating more Spirits, or else you will quickly get overwhelmed with extra enemies. With strong enough AoE attacks, it’s definitely possible to let the Spirits revive and keep killing them. This is actually a decent enough strategy if you need to refill your Flasks during the battle.
Find Balbala as quickly as you can when the poison starts creeping in, as this can quickly lead to death. Doing a quick run around the arena will reveal her position, so don’t forget.
Overall, as with any boss fight in PoE2, you’ll get it eventually. As long as you keep trying, learn from your failures, and don’t give up, you’ll eventually defeat Balbala.
Rewards For Defeating Balbala, The Traitor
For defeating Balbala, you will be rewarded with Balbala’s Barya, a key item for Ascension. With this item in hand, you can go talk to Zarka aboard the Caravan to begin the Ascent to Power quest, which eventually results in the unlocking of your Ascendancy Class.
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