WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Resident Evil Village, available now.
One of the earliest of Mother Miranda‘s House Lords to menace Ethan Winters in Resident Evil Village is Karl Heisenberg. A mad scientist who commands an army of werewolves and mechanical monsters forged in Heisenberg’s sinister foundry, Heisenberg displays the ability to control metal telekinetically with his mind with enough aptitude that it would impress Magneto. And after narrowly escaping Heisenberg’s clutches at the start of the game and defeating the other Lords, Ethan is approached by Heisenberg with an offer to enter an alliance. Rejecting it, the two finally get their epic showdown in what is easily the strangest boss battle in all of Resident Evil Village.
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After navigating Heisenberg Factory and destroying many of the grotesque monsters that Heisenberg developed, Ethan is reunited with Chris Redfield. After revealing to Ethan the truth behind Miranda and why exactly he attacked Ethan’s home in the prologue, Chris gives Ethan a makeshift tank he’s repaired and instructs him to escape and stay out of his way rather than engage Miranda to rescue his kidnapped daughter Rosemary. Bursting free from the factory, Ethan discovers Heisenberg waiting for him, using the mutagenic properties of the mutamycete mold and his magnetic powers to transform into a towering behemoth comprised of flesh and metal to challenge Ethan directly.
The tank is fitted with both weapons, a machine gun and a conventional cannon, both sporting infinite ammo. The machine gun doesn’t have any cooldown time, while the cannon takes several seconds to reload between shots. This means Ethan needs to fire at Heisenberg constantly with the machine gun over the first stage of the battle, while the cannon should be focused on raining artillery fire right on Heisenberg’s mutated head. Most importantly, the tank has a guard function, not unlike Ethan’s usual tried and true move to reduce damage. This is crucial to protect Ethan while strafing circles around Heisenberg, constantly facing and firing upon the mutated villain.
When the battle begins, stick mainly to the machine gun as Heisenberg is deceptively agile, making his head hard to hit with the cannon. Pausing only to guard against Heisenberg’s attacks, Ethan should blast his opponent with the cannon when Heisenberg menacingly charges him while brandishing his large chainsaw. After repeating this strategy for several cycles, Heisenberg will try his own defensive techniques, protecting himself with planks but leaving enough gaps to continue to fire upon him. As a frustrated Heisenberg hoists Ethan over his head, fire the cannon down on him, breaking free but losing the tank.
Now on foot, there is ammunition and explosives from the various scrap strewn around the battlefield, but it’s important to keep moving; Heisenberg can cover ground quickly — fast enough where Ethan should run left and right when Heisenberg lunges, rather than straight back — and deals out plenty of damage if he stays close. Heisenberg’s head remains his weak point, and the grenade launcher and upgraded sniper rifle can slow him down and really dish out the damage.
After dealing enough damage to Heisenberg — the mechanical monster is predictably a bit of a bullet magnet — the villain throws Ethan into the air in another scripted sequence. Reuniting with the functioning bits of his tank, Ethan fires one final shot at Heisenberg’s head, finally dealing a mortal blow to the mad scientist. And with Heisenberg destroyed, the way is clear for Ethan to finally take on Miranda himself and put this nightmare to rest.
Developed and published by Capcom, Resident Evil Village is available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia.
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