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A Scourging of Snakes is the penultimate (second to last) story quest in the Wrath of the Druids DLC. This is the only time you can kill The Oak, the leader of the Children of Danu. Check out the guide for A Scourding of Snakes in our Wrath of the Druids Walkthrough.
Complete the Quest Children of Danu
You must eliminate all 10 Children of Danu to unlock the quest Amber Sun. The Children of Danu quest becomes available upon completing the story quest, Potion of Blood. You can kill most of the Children of Danu without having to do any other quests. However, you’ll be unable to complete the Children of Danu quest until you’ve killed The Oak in the quest, A Scourging of Snakes. Check out the Children of Danu – Locations and Guide page for the quickest ways to find and kill all the Children of Danu!
Amber Sun – Return to Deirdre
Once you’ve killed all the Children of Danu and collected the 10 Bloody Amber shards, you’ll unlock the quest Amber Sun. To begin the quest, deliver the 10 shards to Deirdre at her house in Asfinn. Deirdre will use the shards to create a special potion that will allow you to fight Balor. You don’t have to fight Balor right away though. Deirdre will ask you if you’re ready to fight. If you chose no, you can return to Asfinn later and speak to Deirdre again to begin the fight when you’re ready.
Defeat Balor
Balor, champion of the Fomorians, is said to be the embodiment of the sun’s power itself. He’s killed all who have challenged him and continues undefeated to this day. With the help of the mythical spear Gae Bolg, Cu Chulainn was able to wound Balor before perishing. The spear, Gae Bolg, remains pierced in Balor’s back. Eivor can attempt to defeat Balor to retrieve the weapon.
Balor has a power level of 469! He’s giant and wields a sword just as big as he is. His size doesn’t impair his speed. He’s still super fast and can swiftly leap and dash across the arena. Remain locked-on Balor to see his movements. His giant sword also makes him have to do a giant windup before using it. Use this to your advantage!
Don’t bother blocking or parrying. Most of Balor’s attacks will bulldoze through even heavy shields, so ignore using a shield. Prioritize the lack of a shield by dual-wielding another weapon on your second hand or leave it empty to maximize your speed. The best defense against Balor is to dodge and evade his attacks. Then strike him after he’s missed you. The Brush with Death skill is super useful here. It slows down time briefly if you dodge just before an attack lands on you.
Balor Unmasked
Once you’ve depleted about a quarter of Balor’s health, he’ll remove his mask and switch up his attacks. His sword can unleash magic attacks. These come in two forms. One is a large circle around Balor, and the other is a straight sword slash across the arena. The area that they’ll impact will glow! When you see these coming, dodge!
He’ll also shoot a light beam from his face for a few seconds. He’ll chase you down with it. The stone pillar in the area will not provide you with much cover because the beam destroys them fairly quickly. Your best defense here is again to dodge and keep moving. Once he stops, you can attack again.
After removing his mask, you’ll be able to see Balor’s three weak points with your bow. Shooting all three will give you a small window of time to do a stun attack that’ll do some decent damage. You do not need to hit these weak points to defeat Balor. They’re just additional weaknesses that you can exploit to damage him. The three weak points are on: his back (where the spear is), his left knee, and his right elbow!
Once you’ve defeated Balor you’ll earn Gae Bolg! It creates a lightning strike that shocks the enemy after 3 consecutive hits! This inflicts a great amount of stun damage! The consecutive hits count even if you strike the enemy’s shield! Once you’ve received your weapon, speak to Deirdre to complete the Amber Sun quest!