Patriarch

“The Patriarch. This is the Big One. Chain-gun. Rockets. And vicious up close, too!”

– Loading screen hint

The Patriarch is the final boss of Killing Floor, appearing in the final wave of each game. He is the most powerful and heavily armed specimen in the game, being equipped with a minigun, rocket launcher, a cloaking system and three single use healing syringes, in addition to his powerful melee attacks. He is also the fastest runner in the game, easily outrunning all players and specimens, however he makes use of this after being injured either to run and heal or to retaliate against a specific player.

Upon seeing a Pipe Bomb, he may choose to shoot a rocket at it, causing it to detonate. He also uses rockets to destroy doors.

When worn down sufficiently, he will cloak and run away in order to use one of his three medical syringes to heal himself. He will do this twice more, if he is not killed before then.

Biology

Appearance

The Patriarch is a 9-foot tall humanoid with long hair and a well-trimmed beard, wearing a torn-sleeved shirt and a belt. He has a strap belt on his right leg that carries three large healing syringes which he uses to heal up when weak. His swollen right eye hangs out of its socket apparently due to his muscular retinal artery. His left eye still wears the shattered remains of his old glasses. He also has a very large tentacle extruding from the centre of his torso, which appears to hold a stinger beneath a fleshy bulb. He has several other smaller tentacles surrounding it. His left arm has been replaced below the elbow with a nerve-controlled assault platform; housing a minigun and a rocket launcher. His other hand and his feet are mutated into claws.

Behaviour

At the start of the final wave, the player's camera moves to a third-person view of the Patriarch performing his introductory taunt and walking towards the player. The camera will then return to the player character in first person. Upon sight of a player, the Patriarch will either use one of his firearms or sprint towards the player, possibly cloaking himself in the process.

After receiving sufficient damage, the Patriarch cloaks himself, summons specimens to his aid, and attempts to retreat to a safe location in order to heal. After healing, he will often return to the players while cloaked and launch a melee attack, sometimes in the midst of the group. The Patriarch can heal up to three times, and different types of specimens are summoned each time. During his first retreat, the Patriarch summons Clots. During his second, he summons Clots and Crawlers, and during his last, he summons Clots, Crawlers and Stalkers.

Statistics

See the specimen modifiers page for explanations of each field, as well as calculating for multiple players.

	Beginner	Normal	Hard	Suicidal	Hell on earth
Bounty	£1000	£500	£425
£325
Health	2000	4000	5400
7000
Damage (melee)	22	75	93
131
Speed	114	120	138
156
Range	?

Extermination Tactics

General Tactics

It is advised to keep the trader time to a minimum in order to reach and/or fortify a good position in time. The squad should therefore reach the trader before they complete the last wave prior to the Patriarch's.

Try to find cover, even before the opening Patriarch sequence. Occasionally, he may open fire without returning the camera to a player, which makes for an awkward and very dangerous experience. Inversely, if you are quick enough, you may be able to do rough-estimate aim using your player model, and shoot the Patriarch before the sequence is through.

It is advisable to find cover when he stops to ready one of his firearms.

His rocket launcher is often a one-hit kill. Splash damage can also kill in one hit. It can set off laid Pipe Bombs and he can use splash damage to kill players under cover.

His chain-gun, usually fired in two or three bursts. If the target does not find cover quickly, then they will generally incur a great amount of damage within seconds of exposure, and often die on higher difficulties even with high damage mitigation.

If the Patriarch kills a player with his chain-gun, then he will switch to the next target instantaneously without ceasing fire. This can result in multiple player deaths within seconds of chain-gun fire if caught in the open. Even if player crouches behind a small cover, Patriarch will always miss its chaingun attack without changing target.

When attempting to dodge a rocket, be mindful of any walls and obstacles around you. Each rocket has a large splash radius, and can inflict severe damage even when the rocket impact is several metres away. The best way to dodge a rocket is to take cover behind a large obstacle that is at least 5 meters away from the nearest wall from your side and staying on the move. However, the Patriarch can still shoot the ground near the obstacle to inflict damage. From a long distance it's possible to move or jump away from a rocket's path.

After firing a weapon, the Patriarch often charges up to a player while cloaked for a melee attack that knocks the victim backwards. If teammates do not distract the Patriarch, he will usually attack the same target and a second hit often results in death.

After incurring a sufficient amount of damage, the Patriarch will fall to one knee. This is the best time to throw a barrage of grenades to his possible escape routes to clog them up or focus fire. When he gets back up, there is a chance that he will cloak and flee at an extremely high speed to heal. Once he is sufficiently distant from each player, he will stop to inject himself with one of his vials. It is impossible to outrun him while he is fleeing, but players can catch him in the act of healing and interrupt it by attacking him.

If a player successfully damages him to his kneel-down threshold almost by himself/herself, Patriarch will charge at him/her once he's cloaked then he will try to flee after a close-quarters melee attack.

When the Patriarch uses a melee attack, he knocks the player back. If the player jumps immediately before being hit, the player will be knocked back farther with no additional damage from the Patriarch. This would give the player more time to shoot or escape if the Patriarch decides to follow up with another melee attack.

The Patriarch often performs a very high-damage circular melee attack when more than two players are next to him, so keep your distance if you're not a Berserker or Field Medic. Try to avoid his circular attack when it's about to be triggered. Try not to get close to him trying to save another player, both could die from the circular melee attack. The team should leave tanking and distracting to the Berserker as often as possible.

Players can trap the Patriarch by luring him into a room with only one exit, and then welding the exit closed as the Patriarch enters. When the Patriarch takes enough damage and attempts to flee, he will have to stop to break down the door, and can be interrupted by further damage. This is an effective tactic to prevent him from healing. The quality of the weld is generally not important, so a quick tap should be sufficient. If the room is too small, trapping him inside may trigger his deadly roundhouse swing attack instantly.

The Patriarch will attack a door in his path with his rocket launcher if and only if it is welded. During this time, he is rooted in position. However, the rocket inflicts splash damage through some doors, and always inflicts splash damage when the door is destroyed by the rocket. Be careful if you decide to repair a door under fire.

When fleeing from the Patriarch, placing a minimal weld on each door you pass will buy time because the Patriarch will have to destroy each door.

Players using the Commando perk can see the Patriarch while he is cloaked, and can alert the team of where he is going. As his vitality goes down his cloak also becomes more and more visible. When Patriarch is at low health he tends to rely on his chaingun-rocket launcher platform more than melee attacks.

A professional high level Sharpshooter can nail him down with the Crossbow multiple times as he stands up after he goes down on his knees. The crossbow's recoil is manageable once player gets to know where his head hitbox is.

Igniting the Patriarch with Firebug weapons can help players see him while he is cloaked, but the weapons' potential damage output is relatively low and Patriarch will ignore afterburn damage once he's cloaked. It's good to keep him under flames as he's about to break away his escape.

As a Demolitions or Support Specialist it's best to keep grenades for his second or third phase for quick damage spikes and finishing him. Support Specialists should keep a good distance away from the Patriarch and stay behind cover, as they are less effective at dealing damage until the phase.

Demolitions should always lay some pipes at the door gates and should direct the team behind the pipe laid line preferably within' the help of a Commando. When Patriarch blew all the party candles he should carefully stack triple hand grenades before his feet, then aim his M32 or L.A.W on his torso.

Headshots inflict more damage than body shots, but because the Patriarch often moves quickly it is generally difficult to use Sharpshooter weapons effectively with the exception of Dual Handcannons, MK23s and Dual Magnums, which are capable of high DPS without headshots. A Sharpshooter should never try to go face to face with him unless in desperation, and should always use rifles and other spike damage weapons in his/her arsenal.

A Berserker should always seek to engage him in a melee fight from behind when he's kneeling, preferably with the help of healing grenades. Still, a smart Berserker or even a Field Medic can evade his claw and tentacle thrust attack and keep him busy on his way to escape route with quick melee hits while rest of the team focuses fire to bring him down.

A level 5 or 6 Support Specialist armed with AA12 Shotgun and Hunting Shotgun can output great damage in a short amount of time by emptying the AA12's drum and then switching to the Hunting Shotgun for its secondary fire. A level 4 Support Specialist can employ a similar tactic with the AA12 and Combat Shotgun.

Pipe Bombs Tactics

Players have full control over their character during the Patriarchs' introductory sequence, so they can run and plant Pipe Bombs while the camera is fixed on the Patriarch.

It is not recommended to place Pipe Bombs excessively close together; each time the Patriarch incurs damage from a Pipe Bomb, he gains temporary damage resistance against them, which stacks with each consecutive blast. The Patriarch will be immune to Pipe Bombs after incurring damage from 14 Pipe Bombs simultaneously and loses resistance over time at a rate of 33% per second. Hence, the Patriarch will incur full damage from each Pipe Bomb if they are each detonated 0.225 seconds apart.

The Patriarchs' rocket splash damage can prematurely detonate Pipe Bombs. Since he fires these rockets at players and welded doors it is not recommended to stand in places that will cause the Pipe Bombs to get caught in the rocket blasts, or to place Pipe Bombs near welded doors; they will be detonated, potentially wasting the bombs and injuring or killing the player who placed them.

If you can, place the Pipe Bombs where you think that the Patriarch will walk pass. Be noted that the Patriarch loves explosion, so to avoid him blowing your Pipe Bombs and YOU (also your teammate in a Friendly fire server), place pipebombs where the patriarch can't destroy the Pipe Bombs with his rockets. One of the tactic is to place it near the door and remember NEVER WIELD THE DOOR! The patrairch will open the door with his rocket launcher which can blew up the pipebombs! You just place on both sides of the door, front and back. Close the door without welding it.

The Patriarch won't shoot any rockets or minigun until he opens the door, making the Pipe Bombs safe (unless some teammate who's stupid or mean enough to stand near it and lure the patriarch to blow up the Pipe Bombs.

If you place the Pipe Bombs in a long hallway, when the patriarch charge at you he can run pass the Pipe Bombs without worry and can result in all of your Pipe Bombs to blow up without dealing much damage to your target. When you place the Pipe Bombs beside the door, the patriarch will NEVER charge at you until he's close enough to open the door which is close enough for your Pipe Bombs to do the job while the patriarch is walking slowly.

It must be noted that if the room has 2 exits and only 1 is guarded by Pipe Bombs it's recommended for you and the other players to watch the other door or to just put another Pipe Bomb set there. However, standing right next to an unguarded door can often result in the patriarch ignoring the door that's guarded by the Pipe Bombs. Another thing is if the patriarch is chasing you it can result in your escape path's block because when you try to run on the escape path that has Pipe Bombs, when the patriarch is close to the Pipe Bomb it can result in you blowing yourself up! Be cautious!

Background

Kevin Clamely, the Patriarch's original identity, was the CEO and founder of Horzine Biotech, the company responsible for the outbreak in London. He was hired by the government to create the perfect soldier—something that wouldn't experience pain or fear, and wouldn't question or reason. London was to be used as a staging ground—a test of Horzine's accomplishments. Kevin thought of the clones as his "children" and "family" because they were the only companions he had left.

Sergeant Masterson was Horzine's last project before the outbreak. He escaped from the Biotics Labs below the city through the sewer system to the city above, hoping that he could rebel against his mad creators. Sadly, this is what Kevin wanted all along; Masterson led his soldiers into combat, and they were killed just as Kevin had planned. With the British Disaster Response Force eliminated, nobody could stand in the way of the clones.

Horzine's methods were deemed too immoral even for such a controversial project, and were shut down. However, the project didn't want to be shut down. In a second complex deep underneath the city of London, the experiments continued.

Eventually, he realized that his work was in jeopardy. His scientists were leaving and he feared that someone may reveal his secret work to a world that wouldn't understand or even allow it. In a final act to save his dream, he asked the remaining scientists to take the most advanced pieces of technology at their disposal, and use the methods they had perfected over the course of their work to implant them into him:

An updated version of the cloaking device used on project Stalker

Three modified neuro-stimulation systems similar to those used on project Guardian

A nerve-controlled weapons platform on his left arm.

Finally, he underwent the same "gene-enhancing" process that all the specimens underwent, but with all the safeties off and the process running at full capacity. As Kevin walked out of the test chamber, he knew he had become as perfect as any human could hope to be.

When humans started murdering his "children", he knew that it was time to take the fight to them. Armies fell before him, none seemed to be able to kill him, or even harm him. He would continue his work alone, and create and protect more of his specimens until the day someone could finally work out how to kill him.