Steven Armstrong is the US Senator from Denver. He is considered a shoe-in for the 2020 Presidential Election. The Senator has used his senatorial influence to aid both the World Marshall and Desperado PMCs. This has gained him quite a bit of money which he is using to try and start a new era of War in the hopes of creating a new freedom where men would be free from fighting and dying for the ideals of others.
Combat
The first part of the fight is typical melee fare. He'll attack with physical attacks, most of which can be parried and countered. He does have a couple of unblockable attacks but he glows yellow for a moment before and gives you plenty of time to prepare. If you are close then it usually results in an explosive attackoutward from him, otherwise it will be a charge attack similar to a Gekkos. Get him down to about 92% for a quick break.
After the break, you'll have to fight Armstrong barehanded. It's much the same fight but you aren't intended to win. After you've been beaten, you'll have a quick time even where you need to:
- Rapidly tap Light attack
- Rapidly tap Heavy attack
This is where the fight proper starts. His attacks will change significantly at this point. He will also have new defenses. The most important one to remember is that your aerial attack where you perform a charging kick towards your enemy will never land and will earn get you a little banged up so don't perform it at any point.
The first attack is a quick ground attack. When he does this, a stream of fire will break out of the ground as it comes towards you and it will be followed closely by a second stream. There are two other varieties of this which take a little more time for him to execute. One of them causes to large sets of explosions similar to the one he just performed except it creates geysers the remain for a short period. The up side is that they move out in straight lines that create about a 150 degree arc. The other will create lines across most of the ground and these lines will shortly errupt. Simply stand in a spot with no lines to avoid this.
After performing either of the two alternate attacks, especially if you are caught inside the arc (which can obscure your view of him), he'll perform a charge attack. THIS charge attack is now something you can parry and even counter (but he still has the unblockable version as well) so be prepared to block in the direction he started the Geyser attack from. If you are OUTSIDE the arc then you can Ninja Run over to him and start a combo instead which should prevent his charge attack.
There's also an explosive attack similar to before where he will cross his arms over his chest and start to bend forward a little bit before striking outwards. There's not much you can do except for run and if you happen to be in the middle of a long animation, you're kind of in trouble so try to avoid attacks with long animations if possible.
He also has an attack the requires you to execute a couple of QTEs and if you perform them correctly, you can deal some extra damage to him. However, after you've done so, you'll be left without your sword. The sword will usually be directly behind you so if you run towards the screen and hit the B button, you should pick it up. At that point, you'll want to run somewhere else because he'll likely follow up with an attack.
At certain intervals, (the first is after about 160% health), he'll leave the arena andtoss some objects at you. This isn't entirely different from what Monsoon did BUT it will require extra precision. The objects he throws must be cut in a very specific manner sort of similar to when you fought Sundowner. Cut across all of the boxes indicated to clear that object. There will be three in all and when you cut through all three, he will come at you with a dash attack. Stay in Blade Mode and hit his head to stop this attack. If you succeed in completing this sequence, not only will deal a good 20% damage to him and avoid damage yourself, but four Repair Nanopastes will land on the ground! Don't get cocky though because this fight is far from over.
He'll acquire a new ability at this point as well as using the unblockable chargeattack more frequently. He now has the ability to heal himself. The move draws green ribbons of energy towards him and during this time, almost every attack will either be parried and countered. If you try to hit him from the front with a blade mode swing, he'll stop it and damage you before resuming his healing. The solution is to hit him with Blade Mode in the back. When you attack from the back, you'll see a red square. Hit that with Blade Mode to stop his healing.
Recognizing these moves is key and it may take a few tries before you've both recognized them and conditioned yourself to act appropriately. Otherwise, the rest of the fight is similar to what you've already done and will test your ability to parry and counter at the appropriate times. Once you get his health down to about 15%, you'll start the final QTE:
- Shake left stick
- Blade Mode his right hand
- Blade Mode his left hand
- Heavy Attack + Activate
- Rapidly tap Light Attack
- Blade Mode chest repeatedly
Congrats! You've completed the game and finished a rather tough fight.
