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The looming face of Andross is the final boss of Star Fox on Switch 2.
Encountered at the end of Venom, there are two versions depending on whether you take a normal route, or end up at Venom 2.
Not only do the tunnels on the way to the boss differ, but the hard version (also known as Andross' true form) has an additional second phase to overcome. This guide explains how to beat Andross in Star Fox, whichever route you're playing.
How To Beat Andross
The regular and hard route Andross battles differ. First, let's go through how to beat 'regular' Andross.
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To begin, make sure you pick up all the rings, power-ups, and bomb in the tunnel on the way to Andross to give you an advantage.
As for the boss itself, the key to fighting Andross is shooting the eyes. Do it enough times and he’ll rub his face with one hand while exposing the palm of the other hand. Shoot these palms to damage Andross.
Repeat this until both hands are destroyed. In between these will be energy attacks from one of the hands; fly sharply away from the direction it comes from to avoid damage.
If you are consistent enough with the eye attacks, you should avoid an attack where Andross breathes in, pulling you forward. Fire a bomb to stop this, and if you don’t have any, you can sometimes avoid it by putting on the brakes and pulling to the side - but it’s best to keep stunning Andross to avoid this entirely.
Once both hands are gone, direct your fire at Andross’ face until it’s destroyed, revealing a brain-like interior that charges the screen. Sharply move to the side to dodge this, then fire once more to complete the battle.
You're done with Star Fox. Well done! Now, time to play a hard route run if you haven't already, where you'll end up facing a more challenging version of Andross on Venom 2...
Best Venom 2 Tunnel Path
A key difference between Venom and Venom 2 Andross is how the encounter starts, with a series of branching paths giving you bonus power-ups if you go the right way - and a premature encounter with the boss if you don't.
There’s lot of outcomes and varying possibilities, but we’d recommend the following to get two laser upgrades, a health bar increase (from three gold rings) and an extra bomb: Left, Right, Left, Left, Right, Right.
The route you choose doesn't affect the boss itself, but can give you a significant advantage by picking up more items en route.
How To Beat True Form Andross
For true form Andross, the first phase is largely the same as regular Andross, where you aim at the eyes until a palm is exposed, allowing you to shoot and destroy it, before eventually dealing damage to the face - all the while avoiding an array of attacks.
The second phase is where you take on Andross' brain in All-Range mode. The first step is to shoot the eyeballs, which range around the arena while being connected to the brain. The only difficulty here is trying to get a clear aim on the eyeballs themselves. Try and boost away then circle round, and use the lock-on shots to get them.
Once done, the second and final step is to shoot the lighter-coloured region of the brain underneath at the back. You have to do this while the brain is moving around and teleporting - usually triggered when you miss and hit other parts of the brain - so as with the eyes, the best strategy is to boost away a medium distance, then U-turn or turn around sharply, to give yourself as much runway for an attack as possible.
This also prevents you colliding into the brain, which sees you trapped underneath for a few moments, draining your health.
Once done, you then have to escape via the tunnels, following another ship. Boost enough so you can see the ship ahead of you and the branching paths they take, and keep this up until you reach the end. And with that, you’ve completed the game. Well done!