To dispel the sandstorm impeding your progress, you will need to find the Horn of the Vastiri… or failing that, craft a functional facsimile thereof. To do this you’ll need to find various components, one of which being The Flame Ruby, the objective of the quest A Crown of Stone. Of course, such relics aren’t likely to be unguarded, and this page will provide strategies for besting Zalmarath, the Colossus in Path of Exile 2.

Page Breakdown¶

Zalmarath, the Colossus Location¶

After fighting [Jamanra, the Risen King] at The Halani Gates and having your progress impeded by a sandstorm you’ll need to travel to three different regions in search of components required to craft the Horn of the Vastiri. One of these regions is the Valley of the Titans, where you’ll need to search for several Ancient Seals that will open the way to a new dungeon, the Titan Grotto. Zalmarath, the Colossus dwells in the Titan Grotto.

Zalmarath, the Colossus Boss Strategy¶

The one unique characteristic of Zalmarath is its sheer size - it lives up to the epithet “the Colossus”, that’s for sure! Once the surprise wears off, this is a fairly standard boss fight - Zalmarath has strong melee attacks, and due to its size these attacks cover a fair bit of ground. In addition, Zalmarath can shoot out lasers, beams of energy, summon adds and chip away at the battlefield itself - standard stuff. Zalmarath even has a bit of area denial and damage-over-time, but these attacks are relatively rare. All of Zalmarath’s many attacks will be discussed below:

Stab and Rake¶

Zalamarth is titanic, and so are his armaments. Fortunately his sword is broken, but even the sad remnants of this weapon are still dangerous, and Zalamarath will use it to stab into the battlefield, then drag the sword across in a straight line, either pulling the blade towards the colossus or dragging it away. Be mindful of this attack, as it can deal massive damage - we’ve seen 500 Life vanish in a single stab! Zalamarath will likely do this attack several times in succession.

Arm Sweep¶

Your massive foe will drag an arm across the battlefield, dealing heavy damage if you happen to get caught in this sweep. Zalmarath can sweep his arm frontwards and backwards, and this sweep takes up around a third of the battlefield near the colossus. Later in the fight, Zalmarath will start using his sword to stab the ground near where the arm sweep ends - clearly hoping to use his arm to corral you into his stab.

Arm Slam¶

Arms aren’t just for sweeping, they’re also for slamming! Zalmarath can elbow the battlefield, sending a shockwave forward across the battlefield. There’s not a lot of buildup for this attack, so you’ll just have to stay on your toes, but Zalmarath seems to target the edges of the battlefield with it most often.

Bolt Barrage¶

Zalmarath’s size is sufficient to make most of his melee attacks functionally ranged attacks, as well - with the moderately sized platform you’ll fight him on, you’re rarely out of reach for most of his attacks. That doesn’t stop him from having some proper ranged attacks, however, including the ability to spew forth waves of reddish energy bolts that travel along the ground of the arena in erratic patterns. They don’t deal significant damage, but their sheer number and meandering trajectory can make it hard to dodge them all. Zalmarath will often move around the arena while unleashing this attack, sometimes taking up a new vantage from which to continue his assault.

Laser Beams¶

You’d think that given Zalmarath’s size, his sword, and his ability to emit energy bolts, that he’d have enough attacks. Certainly he didn’t need, say, face lasers, right? Wrong. Not only can Zalmarath shoot laser beams, but he’s got several different ways he can use his laser beam. The first and most common use is to simply shoot the ceiling with his laser, causing boulders to rain down momentarily afterwards, dealing moderate damage if they hit. Zalmarath isn’t restricted to using his lasers on rocks, however - he can also target the battlefield directly, burning lines across the ground from end to end. At the far end of the battlefield the beam will diffuse into a shotgun type effect - you definitely do not want to dodge away from this attack, so dodge above or below the beam, instead.

Fissure Punch¶

In addition to all the attacks above, Zalmarath can punch the edge of the battlefield, causing two fiery fissures to spread out from the impact site, forking their way across the battlefield and dealing damage if you touch the fissures. These don’t last long, however, as flaming chasers will appear at the impact site when the fissures reach the far end of the battlefield, causing the fissures to erupt along their length. None of this is hard to avoid, serving as an otherwise rare area-denial attack.

Baleful Gaze¶

Zalmarath’s laser gaze taken to its extreme, your colossal foe will stab his broken weapon into the center of the battlefield and charge up a massive blast of energy that will sweep across the entire arena. The only safe place is behind his implanted weapon, but just to complicate matters further, some Vril Apparitions will spawn to harass you, even if you hide. Get behind the weapon to avoid damage from the laser blast and focus on cutting down the Vril Apparitions, which can inflict freeze, if this all wasn’t bad enough.

As you can see, Zalmarath is a complicated foe with quite a few attacks. The platform you fight him from is of moderate size - large enough to dodge Zalmarath’s attacks, but not so large that you’re ever really out of reach. As the fight goes on, parts of the battlefield will break off, reducing the space you have available, but even if this fight drags on a few minutes, you shouldn’t really have to worry about the floor falling out from under your feet. It probably won’t be the thing that kills you, given Zalmarath’s damage potential, especially with his sword stabs and rakes. Keep an eye on his sword attacks and as a general rule, dodge up or down, not forward or backward, with the lone exception being Zalmarath’s arm sweep attacks.

Fell the titan and he’ll drop The Flame Ruby, the prize you need to construct the Horn of the Vastiri.