How to beat the Queensbury Crypt (Duchess) boss in Mina the Hollower

The Queensbury Crypt boss in Mina the Hollower is the Duchess, or rather, a twisted approximation of her. Depending on where you went first, this boss fight is likely your first big combat trial, and it plays a little trick that might tempt you into using more of your resources earlier than you should.

Below, we break down how to beat the Queensbury Crypt boss in Mina the Hollower, including her attacks and how to counter them and the best ways to prep for this fight.

How to prep for the Queensbury Crypt boss (Duchess) in Mina the Hollower

There are a couple of things to prep before you enter the boss arena. Make sure to unlock the Underlab respawn point near the corridor that leads to the boss. It’s to the left of the room with the mummies, in the room where you’ll also find the Duke. Otherwise, the closest Underlab is at the Ancestral Chamber’s entrance, which isn’t too far away, but it is inconvenient.

At the top left of the corridor that leads to the Duchess’ statue, you’ll see a cracked gravestone. Hit it with your weapon to reveal a bubble with a sidearm in it. The available sidearm rotates, so wait for it to cycle through to the one you want. For this fight, we recommend using the Mist Jar sidearm so you can gain plasma without having to land a hit. It makes learning the Duchess’ patterns easier and gives you some breathing room to heal without taking risks.

In the middle of that corridor, on the left, is a cracked wall. Bust it to get the statue’s head, which you’ll need to drop onto the statue in the next room to start the fight.

Your trinket selection is likely to be rather limited at this point, but there are a few you can use.

• If you’ve run into the children attacking the rabbit and manage to defeat the rabbit, the Lace Glove you get is a helpful bonus, as it raises your attack level by one. They sometimes appear in the Eastern Heath outside Ossex and the Western Wilds, on the other side of Ossex.
• The Seismic Belt, which you can purchase from Susan at the trinket store in Ossex. This one lets you emit a burst of energy while burrowing, and it damages nearby foes.
• The Chain Capacitor increases your attack power when you land consecutive hits on enemies without missing. You’ll get this one from the Choppe Shoppe minigame in the Eastern Heath, a location behind a kear block next to the Underlab that’s right before Mourner’s Mile.

How to beat the Queensbury Crypt boss (Duchess) in Mina the Hollower

Image: Yacht Club Games via Polygon

The Queensbury Crypt boss has two phases, and both forms use different moves. In the first phase, the Duchess is basically a moving statue, and she relies on a jump attack and her mace to deal damage.

• Mace swing: The Duchess gathers her strength for roughly two seconds, then lunges forward and strikes with her stone mace. You can burrow under and pop up behind her to avoid this attack and get yourself within easy range to launch your own attacks. The Duchess will always move toward wherever you were when she started the wind-up animation, so you don’t have to worry about her changing direction at the last second.
• Jump: The Duchess jumps up, moves a short distance, and drops down dealing damage. The range is quite small, so just move away from wherever she’s jumping to avoid getting hit. When she lands, move in for a few strikes.

The arena is covered in pressure panels that, when you or the Duchess step on them, trigger arrow traps. The arrows are fired out of the wall at the same level as the panel, so as long as you keep moving, they shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If moving out of the way isn’t possible, you can burrow under them, jump over them, or hit them with your weapon to shatter them.

Image: Yacht Club Games via Polygon

When you deplete the Duchess’ health bar, the battle pauses for a moment while she transforms. The second half is more challenging, so if you haven’t already added more plasma and are still working with a maximum of three, try to avoid using more than one vial during the first half if you can help it.

The statue sprouts a mess of tentacles, while its head pops off and moves independently. The head is invulnerable, so don’t waste your time attacking it. The tentacle-statue’s attack pattern changes, too.

• Tentacle strike: The boss stands still and coils its tentacles for a second before thrusting them out on either side. A small one pops out at the top, too, so your best bet for avoiding damage is to position yourself at a diagonal angle above or below the boss.
• Tentacle eruption: The statue plunges its tentacles into the ground. One will pop up and deal damage where you were last standing, so make sure to keep moving. Burrowing is the safest evasion option, since it lets you move quickly. In the moment after a tentacle pops out of the ground, you have time to land one hit on the boss before burrowing and moving again.
• Jump: The Duchess does a little hop when you get too close. It doesn’t have the range of the jump in the first phase, though.

Image: Yacht Club Games via Polygon

The pressure panel threat remains in this phase, and there are more of them, which the Duchess, in her more erratic movements, is likely to trigger more frequently.