Karen Travers (Boss) | Scarlet Nexus Official Wiki

Video Strategies

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Strategy Writeup

Renowned as the most powerful Septentrion in the OSF, Karen Travers is by far the strongest boss Yuito will fight against. He is encountered multiple times in the story - once briefly on the Kunad Highway during "Inside Upside Down Reality" in Phase 3, and on another instance on the Bridge of Purity at Arahabaki during "Eternal Vow, Eternal Bond". The first encounter with Karen is not much of a fight, but a glimpse of his powers where Yuito is meant to be defeated for the story to progress. The second encounter is also written to be a total loss on Yuito's side, however the player must fight the first class Septentrion until his health has been reduced by half. 

 

First Encounter (Kunad Highway, Phase 3): 

The battle against Karen Travers is programmed to be a complete defeat on Yuito's side. Therefore, the entire goal of the battle is to stall and damage Karen for a period of time until the next cutscene plays, allowing the story to progress. Players need not worry about dodging all of Karen's skills or bursting him down, as his abilities are far beyond that of the entire platoon's combined, hence defeat is imminent. 

Karen will continuously teleport throughout the battle. Not only will he use it to evade, but will also instantaneously blink back with no pre-cast animation to barrage his target with melee attacks. This is difficult to react to as it happens very quickly, but players can attempt to predict and preemptively dodge just a split second before he teleports, or "pre-strike" in front or behind themselves to land a lucky hit. 

A more impairing power to watch out for is Karen's lightning attacks. He will regularly charge up 3 giant lightning spheres that track targets, and will unavoidably hit, knocking down the target for many seconds. Karen can also jump up into the air abruptly and call upon lightning bolts to strike a wide area in front of him. Although none of his skills can be interrupted, they do have a pre-cast - raising his fist before summoning the Lightning Orbs, and jumping into the air before casting Electrical Discharge. Players can take these as warnings and pressure Karen with melee strikes, and in response, he will often teleport backwards. This will cause him to be far away from Yuito when he casts the attack, giving Yuito a change to use Psychokinesis to attack, and more time to run away from them. 

When enough time has passed, Karen will enter into his Brain Field state. During this state Karen's attacks largely remain the same, however he will relentlessly spam his lightning attacks without restraint, leading to all member's defeat. At this point a cutscene will play, ending the battle and progressing on with the story. 

 

Second Encounter (Arahabaki, Phase 9):

Although still an inevitable loss, this encounter will be an actual battle against Karen. Karen differs from other Bosses in that he does not have Crush Gauge, leaving the player no chance to chunk his health with with the Brain Crush move. However, during this phase the player will have access to Assault Vision, which can greatly enhance the effectiveness of Yuito's combat capabilities against Karen. 

Karen will blink around the arena even more frequently than the first fight, making it near impossible to land any melee hits on him. The only window of opportunity to land a few hits on Karen is after he uses his mid-air Electrical Discharge skill, where he will kneel on the ground for a few seconds as he lands. Leap onto him and land a few slashes if in range, or throw nearby crates at him with Psychokinesis. If possible, answer to Tsugumi Nazar's call right away to fire her Assault Vision gunshots at him, which will further stun him, allowing the player to follow with more attacks. Shortly after landing, Karen will blink near Yuito to execute an ice-based attack, freezing the ground over a huge area that grows underneath you,  then summoning giant ice spikes to pierce out from the ground. The only way to evade the incoming ice spikes is if you can start running sideways right away when you spot Karen freezing the ground with his hand. You can achieve this by keeping an eye on him once you finish attacking him after his Electrical Discharge attack. 

At roughly 80% health, Karen will enter into his Brain Field state. Not much is different about Karen's attacks in this state, as he merely teleports and chases you down even more. Continuously dodge his attacks with side dodges and Perfect Dodge, and chunk his health a little at a time with regular attacks and Tsugumi's vision.  Eventually, when Karen's health is reduced to 50%, the battle will end and the cutscene will reveal Yuito and his platoon's complete defeat in Karen's hands yet again. 

 

Final Encounter (Sumeragi Tomb, Phase 12):

Karen Travers is encountered as the final boss of the game in the Sumeragi Tomb. In the first phase, Karen will fight using a combination of all the attacks he displayed in the first two encounters, in addition to a new move, Eruption, where he is stagnant as he becomes immune to attacks, before stomping the ground to release an eruption around himself, knocking up and damaging units within. A frequently executed move, this attack is quite difficult to avoid once caught within the radius when casted, but players can run away preemptively when they notice Karen becoming immune to damage as he charges up the skill. Ironically, during this battle Karen will use his Teleportation skill more passively than the second encounter, allowing the player to use SAS: Velocity to catch up to Karen after he executes attacks. Another advantage the player has this time is having access to all the SAS abilities since the full platoon is present. One such ability that enables Yuito to sneak up on Karen Travers is SAS: Invisibility. Since Karen only blinks away in response to attacks throughout this fight, the player can hide in stealth, approach Karen and unleash a charged attack from behind. 

When Karen's health is roughly at 70%, he will activate his Brain Field. Both during and after this state, Karen will teleport slightly more frequently, and use more lightning-based attacks, such as releasing the tracking lighting orbs and striking foes with Electrical Discharge after blinking away. Fortunately, players can utilize abilities such as SAS: Sclerokinesis to negate the lethal effects of those persistent lightning orbs. Bare in mind that when SAS: Sclerokinesis is not available, use alternatives such as SAS: Velocity or Perfect Dodges to evade Karen's and his clones' charge attacks. This is because while lightning orbs are tailing you, a charge attack will knock you down, leaving you vulnerable to the incoming stuns from all 3 orbs, resulting in a stun-lock and death from accumulated damage. Maintain pressure using SAS: Velocity after dodging attacks, or SAS: Psychokinesis if at range to continue dealing damage to Karen. 

At approximately 30% health, Karen will use Psychokinesis in a fashion similar to SAS: Psychokinesis - he will pull all nearby objects to levitate around him, spinning as he hurls them at you consecutively. During this stage, players should focus on running and evading, as the levitating boxes around Karen will likely prevent all kinds of attack. Right before the respective box is thrown, it will be highlighted in red, prompting the player to dodge. If hit by any of the boxes, a cutscene will play, featuring Karen using a Brain-Crush-like combo on the player, dealing roughly 70% damage of the respective character's health. Quickly heal up with Medium Jelly, and counter pressure with previously mentioned SAS abilities. At this point, Karen's Crush Gauge should be depleted soon. Proceed to win this first stage of the fight against Karen with Brain Crush. 

The next cutscene will begin, revealing Karen's past memories and pain manifesting as 5 giant, masked statues. In this second phase, the player does not fight Karen himself, but rather, against these statues one by one, each defeated through using the same attack pattern.. During this battle, Karen will be unconscious, hidden behind one of the statue's metal fan as he controls these statues with his mind. Defeating each statue will knockdown the metal fan, exposing Karen to damage for a long duration. The metal fan will then resume position as the next statue readies itself to fight the player. 

These 5 statues will start off as mere holograms holding a flower in front of their faces. Each statue will then take turns materializing, turning the flower into a mask as they appear to fight the player. The fight will always start off with the statue spawning a specific, large object on the arena, such as a Big Dipper Fan, Anchor Crystal,  Column Crystal, etc. When these objects spawn, a timer will appear on the object, and the player must fully deplete that object's health bar with attacks before time is out. Doing this will allow the player to throw the large object at the respective statue, causing its mask to fall onto the arena. The player must then hold down the (LT) button in order to lift the mask and smash it down onto the ground with Psychokinesis to destroy it. The impact from the smash will send out a shockwave, knocking down all statues and the metal fan protecting Karen, allowing players to stack damage on him for a set duration. Once Karen's body begins to release dark matter, you will receive a prompt to back up from Karen, and the next statue will materialize with a new mask as the cycle repeats. 

Some of these statues will spawn its respective object on the arena with false copies, leaving the player to guess which object to destroy as the timer counts down. Use SAS: Clairvoyance to see through the disguises and destroy the real object before time is out. Additionally, in the battle against the last few statues, a untargetable shadow of Karen will cast attacks to disrupt the player from destroying said objects, as well as charging up Psychokinesis to throw the statue's mask. Make sure to use SAS: Sclerokinesis and SAS: Velocity to avoid Shadow Karen's attacks, and if the objects are obstructed by lightning fields, use SAS: Psychokinesis to destroy them instead. Fully deplete Karen's health in between battles against each statue to progress onto the next phase. 

With most of his powers exhausted, Karen will resort to using some form of dark illusion to isolate the player from the rest of the team. In this third phase, the battle will begin with the player fighting against Karen alone, with all forms of SAS powers and communications disabled. The goal here in the beginning is to merely survive, allowing the respective character to read out the monologue in prompts. After dodging a few of Karen's blinks and melee attacks, a cutscene will play, showing the timely entrance of Hanabi and Shiden, saving the player from Karen's attack and automatically dealing damage. As the fight goes on, Karen will often be automatically countered by pre-determined cutscenes, featuring the entrances of  other OSF members. At this stage of the story, you can begin to counter pressure and defeat the weakened Karen with ease as you will have near perma-access to all SAS abilities. As Karen is finally defeated for good, the system log will display the reward of 70,00 EXP and 50,000 kins received for defeating this final boss. 

 

 

Attacks & Counters

 

Karen Travers (Boss) Lore

Major General Karen Travers commander of the 2nd Regiment of the OSF Army, as well as the order of the 1st Class of Septentrions. He is also the older brother of Luka Travers, and a good friend of 1st Regiment's commander, Fubuki Spring. He is eventually revealed to be cooperating with Seiran in secret, and announced a public rebellion against the OSF in Suoh  during Phase 3 of the story. Yuito's platoon encounters him at the parking lot on Kunad Highway during "Inside Upside Down Reality" in Phase 3, where he completely obliterates the entire platoon before he makes his escape. 

On the Bridge of Purity in Arahabaki during Phase 9's "Eternal Vow, Eternal Bond", the platoon comes face to face with Karen again. Despite Yuito's persistent plead for an answer, Karen insists on not revealing his motives and his plans. The two clash again, and Yuito, along with the help from his teammates, manage to put up a fight against the unmatched Septentrion this time. Karen mentions how Yuito's powers has exceeded his expectations, before binding the entire team with Red Strings as he teleports away. 

Karen does not appear again until Phase 12, during "Path to the Future and Freedom" at the Sumeragi Tomb. The entire platoon endures a prolonged, epic battle against this final boss in the ancient tomb, until they finally prevail with their combined SAS powers and an unbreakable team bond. Fubuki arrives just in time to reunite with the defeated, lost Karen, and persuades him to help close the Kunad Gate, putting an end to the impending apocalypse. 

Karen Travers (Boss) Notes & Trivia

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