Forspoken Tanta Prav boss tips and strategy
How to survive trial by water.
Tanta Prav is the second of the Tantas you face against in Forspoken. As the Tanta of Justice who once maintained peace in Athia as both judge and juror, she has however, like her fellow Tantas, become corrupted with a personality split between her old self and a new raging persona.
You will face her in Chapter 8 once you’ve explored the region of Avoalet. As someone who claims to want Frey to stand trial for the murder of Tanta Sila, Forspoken’s first major boss, it’s fair to say that this is a bit of an unconventional boss fight, so this guide will prepare you for the water and ice-based Tanta of Justice.
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How to prepare for Tanta Prav in Forspoken
You will fight Tanta Prav in Chapter 8 of Forspoken. In fact, the entire chapter is dedicated to this fight the moment it begins, so you will need to be prepared before you conclude Chapter 7.
In Chapter 7, you will be searching for Ballow Resin in Avoalet. When you have found enough from one of the Ballow trees, you will receive a prompt to warn you that the story will advance. This will be your chance to either craft healing draughts or upgrade your spells with Mana (if you forget, you’ll still be able to access the Magic Menu during the fight).
You won’t just be fighting Tanta Prav but also her minions, who are vulnerable to fire magic, so upgrading Sila’s Magic is recommended if you haven’t already done so. Upgrading Arc Slice to Lv. 3 is ideal for close-range attacks, although a good ranged attack is equally important, so upgrading Blast Slice will also be beneficial. If you’re short on Mana, remember you can convert any of Frey’s Magic back to Mana and use these points instead. Alternatively, you continue seeking out Mana pools or completing optional quests and challenges in Athia.
Once you’re ready, return to the tree with the story waypoint and a cutscene will take you to Avoalet Castle where Prav’s retainers will bind you before escorting you into the castle to apparently stand trial for the murder of Tanta Sila, taking us to Chapter 8.
How to overcome the trial by water in Forspoken
As mentioned, facing Tanta Prav in Forspoken isn’t a typical boss fight. She will make Frey stand trial, though this isn’t like the courtrooms Frey is used to back in New York, in practice it’s more of a show trial played out in a cutscene that will have you eventually fighting for your life rather than prove your innocence.
Eventually, Prav sends Frey into a large water bubble, which actually houses a round arena where you will face trial by water, which essentially has you taking on waves of enemies.
The first wave is Prav’s enforcers, four of them spawning around Frey. They’re bow users who focus on ranged attacks, but who can also leap in the air to avoid your melee strikes. In any case, they’re easy to take down with fire magic so just take each one down one by one up close.
The second wave will have Frey back in the centre while two rings of mountain goats spawn around you. There’s more enemies than the first wave but you can also get them closer together, so attacks that can multiple enemies like Arc Slice comes in handy, as does buffing your attacks with Crucible.
For the third wave, Prav summons more of her minions, this time a mix of her bow-armed enforcers and two arbiters, who wield the scales of judgement on one hand and an axe with the other.
Try not to get too close as their axes can hit hard, and when they kneel down they’ll charge up a deadly ice-based AOE, which is your cue to back away. Arbiters are also resistant to your spells from the front so you’ll want to dash around them to hit them from behind. To manage the crowds, summoning your own help with Legion can also help.
Once the arbiters are down, taking down the archers should be as straightforward as before, except you’ll notice a few are also stationed on the balcony above. Switch to Blast Slice and make sure you’re locked onto the archers. Then hold and release R2 to throw a magic spear at them. They’ll be vulnerable to the fire damage once the spear explodes moments after finding their target. A few of these will be enough to take down each archer.
After you’ve taken this wave down, be ready for the real trial.
How to defeat Tanta Prav in Forspoken
Despite overcoming the trial by water, Tanta Prav isn’t so just after all, her raging oppressive side still determined to have you executed. So now it’s time to take the fight to her.
Prav flies into the arena and her main attack is a big blast of water that looks as powerful as a huge beam of magic. The good news is that she has a long charge-up animation for this and the attack also lasts a good couple of seconds, so it’s very easy to dash around her then go for close-up Arc Slices from behind. You can do plenty of damage on her from two of these attacks enough to stagger her for a killer blow.
With about two-thirds of her health bar left, Prav floats higher in the air for her next phase. To attack her now, you’ll need a ranged spell so switch to Blast Slice and charge up spears to throw at her. This is actually an easy phase as she seems to be distracted, rambling while sending ice magic up to the water ceiling above (well, technically, you’re actually on the ceiling this whole time).
You can carry on with the offensive until you notice that icicles are actually being produced above you, and at some point they’ll all come crashing down. You can try and get back when this happens, use Screen from Frey’s Magic, or just make sure you have a healing draught to hand. In our case, we find that damaging Prav enough here will also cause her to drop back down, leaving her open to another killer blow, which will restore Frey’s health anyway. In any case, you should be able to deal plenty of damage that will take another third off Prav’s health before she tries to charge up more icicles.
For her final phase, Prav uses her powers to grab Frey into the air, casting her up into the water, which also brings us back to the arena’s original orientation. You’ll be floating in the water with circular platforms around you, but, since you’re helpless in the water, quickly swim over to a platform before Prav begins her attacks as she’s still got quite a few tricks up her sleeve.
Prav flies around at greater speed pelting you with ice magic. She’ll also charge up her deadly water beam again from her first phase. As you don’t have the room to dash around her anymore, it’s better to keep your distance on a safe platform and then lock onto her to fling more Blast Slice spears at her.
Prav can also trap Frey in a water bubble suspended in the air, during this time you can’t move or hit her. She’ll send bubbles towards you that inflict damage, until she drops you back in the water and follows up with a nasty ice attack from above that comes down in the centre of the arena before spreading outwards.
While Frey is powerless inside the bubble, she can still burst the attack bubbles with Arc Slice and the moment you’re dropped, immediately swim to a platform for safety before the water freezes up. As long as you’re on the platform, the ice attack that follows shouldn’t hit you.
In addition to this, Prav also summons a water sphere that expands then explodes. Cuff will advise you to destroy the sphere, although we find you can just carry on flinging Blast Slices at Prav and if you keep a safe distance you won’t get caught in the blast.
One other move Prav has is summoning water to shoot out from several of the platforms, which flings you up in the air, though the water itself doesn’t damage you. It’s also telegraphed on the platforms beforehand so you can easily jump to a different unaffected platform and just continue your ranged spell attacks.
All these moves, coupled with Prav’s greater manoeuvrability make her harder to hit, as well as causing this phase to drag out a bit longer than the other ones, but just avoid and counter her tricks, and attack when you get an opening and the Tanta will soon be stopped in her tracks.
Forspoken has arrived and we have boss strategies to help you defeat Tanta Sila, Tanta Prav, the Senseless Savant and the final boss. Before facing these bosses, however, you may want to learn how to craft, upgrade your gear and find all of the Founts of Blessings. Meanwhile, understanding fast travel and clearing Monuments will also help you in Fray's journey across Athia.
Forspoken Tanta Prav reward
With Tanta Prav defeated and drowning in the prison of her own making, Frey will absorb her power. You’ve now unlocked Prav's ice and water-based magic set for your own. This also includes the ability to manipulate gravity so that Frey can glide across the surface of water, which would have come in really handy in that boss fight.
Prav’s Magic skill tree also includes spells the Tanta of Justice had previously used on you, such as Oubliette, which traps enemies in a water bubble and delivers explosive damage once hit, while you’ll also be able to gain new abilities from the Founts of Blessing.
With two Tantas down, there’s just another two to go in your journey in Athia.