Dead Cells The Scarecrow boss was added with the Fatal Falls expansion. It’s not the final boss of the game by any standard, but it’s certainly a tough one. It mixes up the gameplay just enough to make you question your progress and need to strategize. In this guide, we’re going to cover how you kill this boss. We’ll also throw in some facts you probably didn’t know about it as well.
What is The Scarecrow?
The Scarecrow is the second tier 2 boss in Dad Cells. You can think of it as an alternative to the Giant or Time Keeper. You’ll find him in the Mausoleum. In order to get there, you’ll need the Cultist Outfit that allows you to open the gate in the Undying Shores. You can also access the arena from the Cavern though.
Fatal Falls was the second major DLC for Dead Cells. As a result, this boos provides a challenge on top of all the others present in the game at the time. That’s a lot of challenge and a lot of bosses to compete with.
Attacks and Strategies
The boss has two phases that you need to work though. We’ll cover both of them here.
Phase 1
If you have at least one Boss Stem Cell then The Scarecrow will skip to phase 2 straight away.
Scythe Swing
The boss runs up to players and swings its scythe at them causing damage. You can block, parry or dodge this attack. Play to your current loadout, but any of these tactics will work well.
Seed Planting
The boss throws two or three seeds across the arena. They’ll crow mushrooms. If you interact with the mushrooms, they’ll explode soon after. Before that, a red aura will appear to signal that they’re about to blow. Use this as a way to dodge the explosion when you know it’s coming. This is the best tactic to use.
Shovel Swing
The boss will swing his shovel underground. It’ll periodically pop up as a much larger weapon and attempt to hit you. This attack can be dodged, parried, or blocked. Your best bet is to try to block the incoming damage, but don’t forget to focus on dealing damage to the boss as well.
Flying Sickles
The Scarecrow will jump up and summon two flying sickles in the air. These will fly in an arc move before they reach the edge of the arena. Then, the boss slams down and the sickles return to him. They can cause damage at any point, so you need to avoid them. The best tactic here is to dodge and try to deal damage when you have the opportunity to do so.
Acid Rain
The boss sprouts vines and becomes suspended by them. Then, it’ll summon a watering can and follow the player’s position from above. The water trickling down is acid rain, and it will cause damage if the player is caught by it. You can only dodge this attack, there’s nothing else that you can do. Simply move out of the way and hope that you don’t take too much damage in the attack.
Phase 2
In this phase, Dead Cells The Scarecrow can use all of the above attacks. It’ll also become faster and gain one additional attack.
Pitchfork Jab
For this attack, The Scarecrow is suspended by vines once again. Then, it’ll move towards the player and stab down at them with its pitchfork. Each stab causes a Jerkshroom to be spawned where the pitchfork hit the ground. These are enemies that will take any opportunity to deal damage to the player when they least expect it.
You can parry, dodge, or block the pitchfork jab. The Jerkshroom however is an addition that makes life much harder. It’s best to deal with this enemy and get them out of the way as soon as possible. If you become overwhelmed, then you’ll probably lose the match against the boss.
Best Strategy
The real best strategy with this boss is to play to the equipment you have, and the strengths you’ve developed in the current run. At this point in the game, you’ll have a lot of weapons and abilities to use.
Shields with an effect that triggers upon parrying would be good. These can help massively when you’re being hit with shovel attacks. Since the parry is the best way to get around those attacks.
The Scarecrow has low defense and HP, so anything you have that deals huge amounts of damage is useful. You can knock him down pretty quickly, but you need those high damage-dealing weapons. Kill Rhythm and Scythe Claw are two examples of weapons that will down the boss quickly. If you combine them with a shield, you should have no trouble getting through this fight. Particularly if this isn’t your first time facing the boss.
Dead Cells The Scarecrow Lore
This boss used to be the royal gardener. However, when he was infected with the malaise, he was taken to the Prisoner’s Quarters to die. He did so with the key to the Arboretum. If you visit his body, you’ll notice that it disappears after you have done. At this point, the royal gardener has actually traveled to the Arboretum. He’s left a note here saying that he’s suddenly alive once more, but can feel the effects of the malaise. IT’s starting to change him in some way.
Hoping for help from the locals, the royal gardener moves to the Fractured Shrine. Unfortunately, they’ve already become monsters under the effects of the malaise. He finds the same is true of the apostates in the Undying Shores, his next location in search of help.
Following this, he sees a lighthouse from the shore. He believes that he might find some assistance there. Sadly, he’s been too weakened by the malaise. He can’t go on, especially not as far as this lighthouse. In his final moments, he heads to the Mausoleum. There, he undergoes a full transformation into The Scarecrow. The boss that you have to fight.