Kangui is one of the easier bosses in Nine Sols. He only has a single gimmick that is easy to understand and deal with. He might look intimidating, but he is all bark and has no bite. It is better to go through this guide and end his suffering quickly and continue on your journey towards more rewarding bosses in Nine Sols.
Kanghui in Nine Sols
As you are escaping the Prison in Nine Sols, you’ll encounter Kanghui. He is a giant mutated dog-like figure that is trapped inside a contraption, tortured to produce the guards for the Prison. He doesn’t hold any Sols, yet he is a mandatory boss who blocks the exit out of this area.
He’ll drop the Noble Ring upon defeat, whose only purpose is to be recycled at the 3D printer in the Four Season Pavilion to get 2,000 Jins.
Kangui doesn’t fight for himself, unlike other bosses in Nine Sols. His gimmick is that he continuously spawns regular enemies from his mouth who’ll do his dirty work for him. He’ll spawn different types of enemies: dogs who’ll charge at you, fliers who’ll fire projectiles at you, and in the second phase, he’ll spawn a Jailer who’ll use his dagger and blade disc to attack.
The Jailer can’t be killed. Once he’s defeated, he’ll slowly regenerate.
He has three phases in total, with slight variations. Each phase transition occurs once you lower his HP to around 50%. At each transition, all the enemies on the screen will die, and two hacking stations will pop out on either side of Kanghui. You must hack the station to begin the next phase. After both stations are hacked, the third phase ends with Yi dropping a giant blade on him, ending his life for good.
Boss Strategy
The best thing you can bring to the fight against Kanghui in Nine Sols is the Cloud Piercer Arrow for the Azure Bow. This will help you clean the mobs in an instant.
Other than that, it’s all about knowing the attacks of the spawned enemies and quickly dispatching them. The Bullet Deflect Skill is also useful for sending the fliers’ projectile back to them, and it comes in handy if you are out of arrows.
It is recommended that a hit-and-run strategy be adopted for this fight. Your main goal is to finish off Kanghui’s HP quickly. Stick to the corners of the arena so that you don’t get surrounded by enemies, but rather, they only come from a single side to make things more manageable. Try to run to either side while attacking the boss along the way.
Stay focused on the boss and largely ignore the enemies. Only deal with them using the Cloud Piercer or if absolutely necessary.
Hack the terminals as they pop and repeat the aforementioned tactic quickly, and soon, the boss will be done for.
Here are all the attacks you must look out for when facing Kanghui and his minions in Nine Sols. We have also included the appropriate ways of reacting to them:
| Attack | Description | Counter |
| Fliers (All Phases) | These enemies will shoot projectiles at you. He will spawn up to four fliers at any given time. | Deflect the projectile back to the enemies to hurt them. The better strategy is to fire a Cloud Piercer arrow mid-air from one side of the arena. This will take out all the fliers in one single swoop. Especially handy when the arena is filled with fliers. |
| Dogs (All Phases) | These enemies will constantly run and charge at you while scratching. They can also attack while stationary. | Deflect them as soon as you see them charging at you. You can even jump over them and not bebothered by them. A well-placed Cloud Piercer, nearer to the ground, will take out all the fliers and dogs in a shingle shot. |
| Jailer (Second Phase Onwards) | This is a mini-boss type enemy you must have encountered in the Prison. He can’t be killed. He has a three-hit dagger combo that has some slight delay between swings. When you are farther away, he’ll throw his disc towards you, which will boomerang back to him, hitting you again on the return flight. He’ll die once Kanghui is defeated. | You can deflect the initial two hits of his combo with ease and back away for the final strike. His disc can also be deflected easily; just be careful to turn around and deflect again as it returns. While regenerating, you can continue to hit him to extend his revival or lower his revived HP. Cloud Piercer works wonders for him, too. Shoot it at the right time; the whole arena will be clean of enemies. |
| Giant Spikes (Second Phase Onwards) | In the second phase, he’ll occasionally puke red stuff on the ground beneath him. After some delay, the red pool will burst giant spikes in a wide area. | This attack does friendly damage. When you see him vomit, lure the other enemies in its radius and watch as the spikes destroy all of them. Don’t try to block or jump over it. Just stay clear of the area until the spikes disappears. |
Kangui in Nine Sols will beg you to kill him and free him from his suffering throughout the fight. Do him a favor and finish him quickly. This boss fight isn’t memorable enough to relish, and his constant cries for help are emotionally taxing to prolong it any further.