If you decide to save Noah in MagMell’s past, then you’ll have to fight Franz the Dejected Assailant and win. Unlike the first fights in Code Vein 2, Franz is fast and challenging. This time, you need to be ready to dodge and parry attacks if you want to survive to the end of the fight.
Franz the Dejected Assailant Phase 1
After getting Lou the Forma she needs, returning to the past from the present will make you face Franz, as the fight stands between you and the exit of the storage tower.
Franz has two phases. The first phase includes a mix of melee combos, ranged golden bullets, and charges.
For melee attacks, Franz will do a whirlwind, which you want to dodge by moving back. Then, he has two-strike and three-strike combos. The two-strike combos are two slashes, which you can parry or dodge, and the three-strike combo ends with a sword strike or claw slam into the ground in front of Franz. For that, you want to dodge to the side, then take this chance to get some attacks in while he stands back up.
The ranged attack has Franz fire three golden bullets at you. He can perform this while standing, or while hovering in the air. You want to dodge towards him, as you get another chance to attack him once he’s locked into this attack.
Finally, charge makes up the last of Franz’s phase one attacks. Franz charges towards your location, and this is often followed up by a whirlwind or a combo attack. If it’s just the charge, then you can dodge to the side and attack him. However, if it’s followed with melee attacks, you’ll need to dodge or parry through the full combo before retaliating with your own hits.
Franz the Dejected Assailant Phase 2
Phase two starts around the time Franz is brought down to a little more than half health. You’ll know for sure when it begins because there’s a cutscene and his head is no longer attached.
First, Franz still uses the attacks from phase one in the second phase. The biggest difference is that his attacks evolve so his charge is a teleport instead, he adds an uppercut that has a massive distance it affects, and the golden bullets are now lasers.
For the teleporting attack, Franz always follows it up with two claw attacks. One is just a slash, but the second one is a claw smash that has another burst of AoE damage that’s delayed from when he hits the ground. You have to dodge out of the way for the smash or use your stamina to block it.
Then, you have the lasers. Franz has multiple attacks that use them. There’s one quick shot that’s similar to the bullets from before. However, he also has a larger laser burst from his claw, and it’ll knock you back. The larger laser can also be cast at you after Franz teleports behind you. Instead of dodging towards him, you want to move to the side.
Additional laser abilities include a double sweep, which is the quick shot but with two short bursts that have a small, sweeping range. Here, you want to go toward Franz or away from him, unless you want to use stamina again to block it.
The last laser ability is an AoE. Franz holds up his head, and a bunch of lasers shoot out in the direction it’s facing. This is a great chance to deal damage, as Franz is locked into the attack and you have a decent safe area around him to use in order to avoid damage.
Tips for Fighting Franz
This is a fight where being defensive is going to be a more reliable approach than being aggressive. Take your time and focus on damage mitigation.
There’s no enrage timer or anything of the sort, so you can drag out the fight and play it safe. Prioritize avoiding damage, and then use the windows of opportunity that come from Franz’s ranged attacks and charges whittle down his health.
If Franz switches to focus on Noah, you get a window of opportunity to attack him without the pressure of dodging for a few seconds.
I liked having the Twin Fangs of the Lone Wolf pre-order weapon for the fast attacks, but some players seem to prefer using a two-handed weapon. The tough part with that is being able to switch from attacking to dodging, which is much easier when you have one-handed weapons instead.
It’s the first fight in Code Vein 2 that truly feels challenging. If it feels like too much of a challenge, you can go to the present and farm Haze to level up, making it a bit easier to survive when you return to face Franz again.
