The first time you fight a Bloater in The Last of Us 2 is during a flashback at the end of Seattle – Day 2. As Ellie falls asleep, she thinks back to a hotel she and Joel cleaned out two years before the game. As you follow Ellie through the hotel, you’ll face a boss fight in the form of a Bloater.
The battle with the Bloater is the hardest fight you’ve had by far at this point in The Last of Us 2. You can hit most infected with whatever you have, and they’ll go down fairly quickly, but the Bloater takes some strategy to defeat.
How to kill the Bloater in The Last of Us 2
The best ways to kill a Bloater in TLOU2 are:
- Hit it with fire.
- Stay out of its grasp.
- Hit it with more fire.
However, Molotov Cocktails aren’t always plentiful, so read on for more strategies for killing Bloasters.
After you clear the lobby of the hotel with Joel, he and Ellie will continue to try to find an exit to the area. They shimmy through a narrow opening towards the next part of the hotel, and as they’re doing so, the Bloater attacks.
You’ll encounter these powerful infected several times during the game. However, for whatever reason, this particular Bloater seems more potent than your typical specimen. There are regular Infected that spawn in the room from time-to-time that you have to watch out for as well. Just be ready to kill them as normal, and play keep away with the Bloater while doing it.
There are a few strategies you can use for fighting the Bloater boss (and ones you’ll find later in the game), and we’ll start with the cheesiest one.
Let Joel kill it
Joel will fight the Bloater, and you can just play keep away. He’ll continue to blast away at it, and you just have to stay out of the way. I believe you still have to do a bit of damage for the game to play the cutscene marking the creature’s defeat, but you don’t have to do much. Just be careful because when you hit it, it’ll aggro towards Ellie until Joel hits it again.
Burn it with fire
Bloaters are weak to fire, which is the best weapon to use against them throughout the game. In the area in which you fight the creature, there are enough rags and alcohol scattered around that you can craft some Molotov Cocktails. Pelt it with these and shoot it a few times, and it should go down.
Hit and run
If you’re just raving mad and want to take the Bloater on toe-to-toe, don’t. This enemy can slam Ellie to death very quickly, and melee attacks are ineffective against it. If you’re out of Molotovs, aim for its head and run.
Even taking a Bloater on at long-range is dangerous because it will pick pustules off its body and throw them at you. These behave like acid grenades and can cause damage over time to Ellie. If you manage to hit it and avoid its attacks, it’ll aggro to Joel again, and you can repeat the process.
Keep away from the Bloater the best you can and use one of the three strategies above, and it’ll go down fairly quickly.
