As you first start playing The First Berserker: Khazan, you'll probably learn pretty quickly how challenging the game can be. The opening area is a primer for what to expect as you start to advance further, with even the lowest level enemies putting up a tough fight. Much like other soulslike games in the same style, The First Berserker might take a little grinding to buff Khazan up enough to be able to take down larger enemies. By the time you reach the first major boss, Yetuga, you'll know right away if you're leveled up enough.

The First Berserker: Khazan is one of the best Soulslikes to release in years, and the first boss, Yetuga, gives me some major Elden Ring Margit, The Fell Omen vibes in of difficulty. Yetuga is a massive ice-yeti with some serious moves that might seem impossible to avoid, and you'll have to face it extremely early in the game before progressing the story. Fortunately, Yetuga is not invincible, and there are certain attacks you can anticipate if you watch its movement carefully.

Where To Find Yetuga In The First Berserker: Khazan

Clear The Starting Area & Unlock The First Shortcut

The first area you'll explore after The First Berserker: Khazan unlocks is designed to show you the ropes and get you oriented with Khazan's various moves. After being caught in an avalanche and possessed by a demonic ghost, Khazan begins his journey and throws players into the thick of things. You'll face a series of different melee and ranged soldier enemies through the mountains, and run into a handful of monstrous yetis. If you're new to soulslikes, this opening area will prove quite challenging. There's no shame in setting the difficulty to easy, but it's a permanent switch, and you can't change it back to normal.

After progressing far enough through the starting area, you will be able to unlock your first shortcut. It's possible to just make a beeline past the various enemies here and just grab the Blade Nexus points, but Khazan is going to be severely under-leveled for Yetuga if you do that. As with any soulslike experience, your best bet is to level up by gaining Lacrima from various lesser enemies. However, The First Berserker: Khazan awards you Lacrima each time you fight Yetuga, even if you die, so you'll be able to level up eventually either way.

How To Defeat Yetuga

Dodge His Lunge Attacks & Watch Out For Ice Breath

Yetuga has a series of devastating moves that can obliterate Khazan if you're not watching his movement carefully. The most dangerous of these is his lunge-grab attack, where he will posture himself up just before jumping at you. Make sure you dodge this at the last second to avoid being grabbed and possibly killed in the process. He has quite a few other attacks to watch out for as well, such as when he rips a huge chunk of ice out of the ground and leaps into the air to throw it at you.

Timing the dodge to avoid Yetuga's lunge attack might take a few tries, but persistence will eventually pay off.

This can also be dodged at the last second and will give you an opportunity to attack as Yetuga will pause to shake off the ice. He will possibly follow this up with his ice breath attack, which you should sprint away from if possible to get around Yetuga from behind until he finishes the attack. You'll deal more damage in general when attacking enemies from behind, but Yetuga will flop backward on you with his icicle spikes, so be sure to dodge out of the way. He will also follow up the back flop by jumping up and hitting you.

If you happen to get caught in the ice breath attack, you're going to see your Frost meter start to build up, and if it activates you'll start to take damage over time and move considerably slower. Yetuga has a couple more attacks to watch out for, including a snowball attack where he reaches into the ground and throws a chunk of ice at you; you can block or dodge these. Yetuga will also gear up for a series of arm swings that can all be Brink Guarded, and Khazan can get some hits in after while Yetuga recovers.

Look for openings such as during the ice breath attack to get behind Yetuga and hit him with some charged heavy attacks.

Your best bet for dealing damage to Yetuga is to block and dodge his attacks wherever possible, especially the lunge attack and ice breath, while timing your attacks to slowly chip away at his health and status bar. Look for openings such as during the ice breath attack to get behind Yetuga and hit him with some charged heavy attacks. If you have any Concentrated Fire Essence available, use it on Yetuga when he's low on health to finish the job.

Rewards For Beating Yetuga

This Is Just The Beginning For Khazan

After defeating Yetuga, you'll unlock the Ruler of the Frozen Mountain trophy/achievement, and you'll get some nice loot for Khazan's journey, which will surely only get more difficult. Defeating Yetuga rewards the Frozen Mountain Helm and Pants of the Frozen Mountain Set, as well as the Slayer's Ring and two Transmutation Mists. The Frozen Mountain Helm and Pants worn together activates the first buff from the set, which increases health recovery by 20%.

The Slayer's Ring is among the first rings you'll pick up and will come with a random effect. Equipping it along with the rest of your equipment slots will unlock the Fully Equipped trophy/achievement. Defeating Yetuga also progresses the main story and Khazan will move forward to the next area where he will begin his journey outright. The next step in his journey will lead Khazan to the Trials of the Frozen Mountain, where he is saved by the Bantu tribe.

Talk to Quimik the Bantu shaman before climbing the ladder to the trials in the next area to learn more about the ghost in Khazan's head.

They've explained that Khazan must complete the three trials of the Bantu in order to clear the ghost from his soul, and the recommended level for this next set of trials is level nine. You'll want to make sure you have increased your stats and leveled up as much as possible before advancing to the next stages of The First Berserker: Khazan, as Yetuga is only the first of many more challenging bosses to defeat.