Rusted Moss – How to Access the Secret Survival Boss Fight

A straight-forward guide on how to access the fight between the deserter and her hunter.

Preface

Note: Credit goes to Mango

Obvious spoilers ahead, I tried to keep it ambiguous in the title but that’s all getting thrown out the window from here on out. Anyways, before you can access this fight you need to encounter the two combatants three separate times each while you’re out exploring the world. The two can be found somewhat naturally depending on how you progress through the game, but in case you’re missing only a couple encounters or you’ve just avoided talking to them throughout the whole game, we’ll go over each of their separate encounters first.

We’ll start off with Eli’s encounters, since her second one is a bit of a doozie.

Eli

Location 1: Mossy Hills

It would be VERY impressive if you managed to miss Eli at this first location.She stands right next to the fae statue and directly above a teleporter. Odds are by this point you’ve already chatted her up if you’ve been playing the game for at least 5 minutes, but let’s just keep this here for completion’s sake.

Location 2: Lab

Eli’s second encounter has a few different parts to it so let’s break down her situation.

Eli’s been imprisoned in the Lab and you need to bust her out. To do so you’ll need to break the target to the left of her cell, but it’s currently being blocked by leaf blocks. To get rid of the leaf blocks you’ll need to hit the leaf switch in the green room squared above, but to access that room you’ll first need to shut off the power to the entire lab…it’s quite a tall ask, especially since the only thing you’ll be getting out of all this is the Fae of Love trinket…rough deal.

I won’t go into details on how to do every little thing in the lab, I trust you to be able to figure out the fine details, but the general order of how things will go from the start of the lab to breaking Eli out is:

• Hit the 3 big targets to unlock the route to the generator
• Defeat Spirella to shut off the generator
• Frantically run to the leaf switch in the green room while avoiding big worm friend.
• Frantically run back to Eli’s cell and unlock her cell.

After you unlock Eli’s cell, help her up and collect your trinket, lord knows you’ve earned it.

Location 3: Barrow’s Ceiling

Eli’s final location is quite convenient, being relatively close to where the actual fight will take place. On the west side of Barrow’s Ceiling, Eli will be waiting by the fae statue, looking forward to going down to Elflame. Wish her luck on growing tomatoes and with that all of Eli’s encounters have been handled.

That’s only one half of the coin though, now it’s time to handle Nell’s encounters. Don’t worry, her second encounter is not nearly as labor intensive.

Nell

Location 1: Factory Roof

Starting off, Nell is in a similar hard-to-miss spot just like Eli’s first spot. Nell is pretty much in the center of this room, directly right of the fae statue. Give her a quick chat and be on your way.

Location 2: Lake

Nell’s second encounter is much simpler compared to Eli’s. You will need the rocket launcher and enhanced grapple if you don’t have either of those already.

The encounter starts with Fern and Puck hearing a cry for help from the bottom of the vertical shaft. To get up to the higher area, you will need to do a charged rocket jump. To do so you just do a charge jump like normal, run toward the opening in the ceiling, then jump and shoot a rocket at your feet at the same time.

After getting up here just continue climbing the shaft until you reach the top, and interact with Nell to help her up. She’ll then give you the Fae of Hate trinket as an added bonus.

Location 3: Living Quarters

Nell’s final encounter is over in the living quarters. To the room left of the forest cafe, you’ll find Nell taking a break and reminiscing about a faerie tale. Go listen to her ramblings and you will have fininished all of Nell’s encounters.

With both Eli and Nell’s encounters explained, it’s time to get to the juicy part: the actual fight!

Accessing the Fight

Location: Elflame

Once you’ve done all the encounters for both Eli and Nell, it’s time to actually get to the fight. Teleport to the quarry and hop down to Elfame below. If you haven’t been exploring Elflame prior to this you’ll need to take the long way around to unlock the gate to the left. If you’ve already done this though great! All you have to do is head left, up, and left.

If you enter this room and neither Eli or Nell is present, that means you’re missing an encounter, go back and double check you aren’t missing any. If they are both there though, then congratulations, get ready to watch the two shoot the crap out of each other! While you are unable to directly damage either of the two, you can sway the match by grappling either of the two away or into enemy fire. It’s definitely not as simple as it sounds, especially since it’s a lot easier to simply avoid getting shot yourself. You’ll get an achievement regardless of who ends up winning, so pick your favorite and be the biggest nuisance you can!