How to defeat Tentacles, Shadow of the Undergrowth in Ship of Fools

Ship of Fools is a unique nautical rogue-like where the player must sail out on the waves and fight back the creeping darkness. If you sail into the darkness on the Forgotten Waves, you’ll soon find yourself toe-to-toe with Tentacles, Shadow of the Undergrowth. A terrifying beast that will be sure to capsize your vessel and leave you floating all the way back to the Great Lighthouse. Here is how to defeat Tentacles in Ship of Fools.

How to defeat the first boss in Ship of Fools

Preparation

Before you set of with the intention of felling this Eldritch horror, you’ll need some upgrades on your ship. Don’t worry about sand dollars or harpoons, as they won’t be necessary when destroying the boss. All you need to be focusing on is buying Plank Soup, at least twice, to gain an additional two hitpoints. Additionally, you should upgrade your cannon at least a few times at the armoury.

You could upgrade as much or as little as you want, but these upgrades provide you with much more realistic chances without having to grind loads for tendrils.

The approach

If you are determined to defeat the boss, then you should try to bee-line towards the darkness. This will meet you with less encounters which could mean you suffer less damage.

Before you do, however, really try to grab the ammo type that you can see highlighted in pink on the map. You could be benefiting from an extremely powerful ammunition that could swing the fight in your favour. Without it, your shells will hardly be doing any damage to the beast, and you’ll be there for a while.

Try not to be tempted by other attractive tiles, and go straight for the boss. That is unless you are confident in your abilities, and there is a guaranteed plank of wood nearby. Having wood spare will really help you out.

Related: Ship of Fools Review: Foolish Fun and Fiendish Fights

The fight

Stage One

So, you’ve sailed straight into the darkness. Right into the beast’s domain.

The first stage sees you having to defend your boat from tentacles. One hit from you will damage the boss and cause the tentacles to retract into the water. You will have to keep beating back the tentacles, otherwise they’ll charge up to hit your ship.

If a tentacle is curling forwards or backwards, then loosen a salvo towards it. Most times it’ll dip back into the water, but sometimes you have to repel the tentacle away from your ship. The tentacles will keep circling the boat, ducking in and out of the waves.

You will have to keep picking up your turret and bringing it back and forth to target the tentacles that are about to hit the ship. So quick thinking and button mashing will be necessary to beat them back. The auto-turret fires too slowly to rely on shooting back the tentacles. If you have any powerful ammunitions, this is the best stage to use them.

Stage Two

When you have dealt enough punishment to the tentacles, the camera will pan. Make sure your auto-turret is facing that direction at least. The giant maw of the beast will reveal itself, but you will have hardly time to shoot at it as it will unleash dozens of larvae upon your ship.

Allow the auto-turret to shoot at the beast whilst you stand back and use your paddle to repel as many of the projectiles towards the boss as you can. Simply swat away the larvae that land on your ship.

It will soon retract back under the waves, and the tentacles will return. You must do the same as you did in stage one, just focus on the tentacles that will hit your ship and ignore the others.

These stages will keep repeating until the health has been whittled down. It may take a while, unless you get lucky with the ammo drop on the approach. Best of luck!

Keep an eye on Gamer Journalist for more gaming and Ship of Fools content, such as combat tips and tricks.