Dragon's Dogma 2 How to Get Preserved Medusa Head
Getting the Pristine Medusa Head has been a big challenge in the Dragon's Dogma 2 community, and it has been quite unclear how to actually get it. However, this guide will outline exactly what you need to do to get one of the most powerful items in the game that has the ability to one-shot almost any boss easily!
Everything you need to know about Medusa
Info:
Medusa is a powerful, quite well-hidden boss enemy in Dragon's Dogma 2. There is only one in the game - you encounter her at the very beginning during the introduction and she escapes during the fight, and can then be found Caliginous Depths, a very small cave in south-west Battahl.
As you might expect, Medusa's weak spot is her head, which is central to this guide and we will cover how to lop it off best further down. She is also very weak to lightning, so it would serve you well to have a Mage in your group that can buff your weapons with this elemental damage.
Medusa is fairly slow and doesn't have many attacks, meaning this fight shouldn't be overly challenging as long as you are relatively careful.
Moveset:
Petrifying Gaze: Medusa's famous move; her eyes will glow bright reddish pink and light will beam forwards, scouring the ground like a floodlight. If it latches onto a target, she will keep them in her sights, slowly turning them to stone. It takes a few seconds, and if you escape the light, the petrification effect will slowly dissipate. If it fully activates, you die.
Decaying Arrows: Medusa will raise her bow and fire arrows at targets. Each arrow will leave a pool of writhing serpents that will build up decay. If you are afflicted with this poison, you will slowly take damage, and if you are hit by it again, you will take massive damage very quickly.
Throw: If you climb aboard and cling to the humanoid-looking top part of Medusa, she will fling you off, causing a fair amount of fall damage. This is an occupational hazard here and will happen, so try to have a Mage at hand to heal through this.
Tail Whip: If you are too close to the snake part of Medusa's body for too long, she will coil her tail slightly and then whip it outwards, dealing high damage and knocking you back. This is highly telegraphed, so you should be able to stay out of range of this easily.
Claw Swipes: Medusa will slash forwards with her claws multiple times. She's usually too high up for this to actually hit anything, so I wasn't overly concerned and never got hit by it.
Coil: Medusa will coil herself up one of the pillars in the room very slowly, allowing tons of time to get some damage in. While she is up high, she will fire arrows and cast petrifying gaze. These are easily avoided by getting behind a pillar.
Where to Find Medusa in Dragon's Dogma 2
In order to fight Medusa, you will need to find your way to Caliginous Depths. This is a relatively out of the way dungeon that consists of one large room to fight the boss in along with a small alcove at the back containing a chest.
If you head down the southern road from Bakbattahl past Digger's Cave, Pilgrim's Peril Cave and Canyon Cave, you will soon come to a fork in the road near a campsite and the Riftstone of the Fanged. Take the western path, which will lead you across the river and up a mountain path. The path actually leads to Dragonbreath Tower, but you will be splitting off onto a side-road shortly after entering the path, before you reach the Riftstone of Perseverence and its campsite. You can go and use these and then backtrack a little if you wish.
You will encounter some basic enemies along the way. You will know you are going in the right direction if you start seeing stone statues hanging about, serving as breadcrumbs leading to the famous Gorgon Medusa. You will reach a cave with more of these statues scattered outside of it. Medusa lies within, and at the back of the boss room is a single chest.
How to Get Medusa's Head
So, getting the head itself may sound like a simple task - hack at her neck until it comes off. However, there is a trick to it, and it isn't such an easy task. Here's why.
Don't do too much damage!
If you stroll up with three Pawns all dealing damage to Medusa, then even if you manage to cut her head off, the resulting item will most likely be the Withered Head of Medusa. That's because you actually need to cut the head off before you have depleted her second health bar, and if you deal too much damage to other parts of her in that time, her health will likely be significantly lower than this by the time you cut it off.
Don't bring too many Pawns!
So, you actually need to be careful about what Pawns you take in. I actually dismissed two of mine and rebuilt my Main Pawn into a Mage with only healing abilities. I also kept her under the "Stay" command until I needed a heal, meaning she just stayed at the entrance watching the fight. If you set it up like this, you will be the only one dealing damage, meaning you can focus it entirely on Medusa's head and not run the risk of dealing too much damage too early to different parts of her.
Vocation is important!
So, after performing a fair amount of testing, it was determined that the Vocation that you choose is important for this. As a Mystic Spearhand, I tested going into the fight entirely solo and only ever dealing damage directly to Medusa's head while clinging on. I slowly got through every one of her health bars and killed her, head still attached. So, Mystic Spearhand is not ideal for this.
The Magick Archer had the same effect - I locked on and attacked only her head, and it never came off, all the way up until she died. The Archer actually did manage to take her head off, but it was after far too much of her health had been depleted and I only got the Withered Head of Medusa. The Trickster and Mage Vocations, of course, aren't even worth trying. It is technically possible with a Sorcerer, but it is incredibly difficult to target the head with most spells.
The best Vocations to use to successfully cut the head off Medusa as fast as possible are the Warrior, Thief and Fighter, in that order. Warriors almost trivialise the attempt, but only if they use a slashing weapon like a Greatsword. How to actually do it is the same across all three Vocations.
How to cut it off:
So, if you've made any attempts so far, you'll know Medusa has a habit of flinging you off before you get much damage in, and doesn't afford any non-clinging opportunities to hack at her head. That's fine though - there's a great strategy that will make the job easy.
If you stay at range from Medusa, she will just alternate between the same two attacks; her decaying arrows and the petrifying gaze. As soon as you see her begin to aim her bow, or as soon as she starts getting ready to begin the petrifying gaze, close the distance fast and grab on. She will stay in both of these attack animations for a long time - moreso with the petrifying gaze - and that will give you tons of time to climb up.
You need to climb up high and make sure you are positioned actually at her head. Hitting her human body will not work; you must attack the head itself. Cling onto it without positioning yourself over her eyes since that will get you petrified fast, and just start hacking with your basic attack. Don't use any fancy attacks - just keep using that simple basic attack.
It is unlikely that you will lop her head off the first time before Medusa flings you off, but you just need to rinse and repeat. You should be able to cut it off before the second health bar is depleted with tons of health to spare. Just be sure that you do not attack her at any other time, not even a little bit. Only ever attack her head while clinging on during her bow attacks and petrifying gaze attacks.
Rewards:
Medusa will automatically die once her head is cut off, and her body will fall to the ground after a delay. If you check the body itself, you have a chance to gain the following items:
Ferrystone
Medusan Spellbow
Granite Medusa Bone
Ring of Motility
Blighted Arrows
Dragon's Gaze
Monster Hide
The head itself actually falls to the ground separately, so do not forget to pick it up! If you managed to lop the head off BEFORE Medusa depleted her second health bar, you will gain the Preserved Head of Medusa, but if you took too much health off her, you will get the Withered Head of Medusa.
Keeping it fresh:
The head of Medusa will decay like a meat item. In fact, it decays incredibly quickly, taking less than a day to deplete from Preserved Head of Medusa to simply Head of Medusa, only a few hours to deplete to Withered Head of Medusa, and then less than a day to deplete to the useless Decayed Head of Medusa.
In order to keep the head fresh, you need to put it in storage. It will decay in your inventory or the inventory of your Pawns, but in storage it will stay in whatever state it is in when you put it there indefinitely. So, you have two options.
Option 1: Use a Ferrystone to fast-travel to Vermund or, if you were wise enough to place a Portcrystal there, Bakbattahl. Head to the inn or your own house, manage storage, deposit, and stick the head in there. Now you have a nuke weapon that you can grab and take to whatever fight you need it for.
Option 2: Sacrifice a Pawn. If you have any Pawns available that you didn't dismiss, or if you use the Rift Stone just a little up the path from Medusa's cave to summon one, you can drop Medusa's head into their inventory. Then all you need to do is throw them off a cliff or into the Brine or something - kill them fast, and their inventory will be transferred to your storage, including the Head of Medusa. It can safely stay there until needed.
How to use the Head of Medusa:
In any state other than decayed, the head of Medusa can be used to petrify an enemy, turning to stone and allowing you to kill them instantly with one hit, smashing them to pieces. You may think that it would be far too OP for that to work on bosses and that it likely only works on minor enemies. NOPE!
The Head of Medusa can be used to petrify any enemy. Cyclops, Minotaur, Griffon - even a Drake! In fact, I tested it by grabbing the head from Medusa and then continuing up the mountain path to Dragonsbreath Tower. If you have progressed a certain main quest in Melve, there will be a special Drake there, and the head worked on him. The head even works on Medusa herself! Keep it in storage for 7-14 days and go and use it on her to get the Eye for an Eye achievement!
All you have to do is go into your inventory, click on the head and select "equip". The head will now be on your belt, and looks pretty cool. When you actually want to attack an enemy with it, go into your inventory again, click on the head and select "Brandish". You will now hold the head up high in front of you, and the pink-red petrification gaze will now beam forwards, and if you keep an enemy in that light for a fair few seconds, they will be turned to stone. Simply hit them once the process is complete, and you will instantly kill them.
You can actually do this to fully complete the "Sculptor's Block" quest. A sculptor in Bakbattahl wants to observe a Griffon, and states that the best way would be through this method.