Karkinos

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Karkinos
Death faces Karkinos
Characteristics
Race	Earth Crag
Gender	Female
Size	Giant
Eyes	No visible eyes
Means of Travel	By Foot
Status
Affiliation	Unknown
Relatives(s)	Crags (Offspring)
Armament
Main Weapon	Claws, Horn
Armor	Heavy
Type of Attack	Melee
Skills	Unpenetrable armor
Relations
Enemies	Death

Karkinos is a large monstrous rhinoceros beetle-like creature that lives in the Drenchfort, she is the main boss of that level and is overall the forth main boss of the game.

Darksiders II

Not much of Karkinos is known in game, it appears to be responsible for the lack of water in the Drenchfort area, after the Rider defeats her, the water is freed.

Strategy

Battling Karkinos is very similar to War's battle with the Broodmother in Darksiders. Death cannot harm Karkinos directly, since her armor is impenetrable to Death's attacks. In order to hurt this creature, Death must wait until the creature does a charge attack and avoid it so that it will ram into a wall, stunning it, afterwards a set of eggs will fall, which the Rider must use the creature's eggs falling from the ceiling and roll them directly at it. Once hit, the beast will fall and reveal her weak spot, her underbelly. During the battle, Crag eggs that are missed or that miss Karkinos will hatch into monsters that will attack Death. The best strategy is to dash at any newly hatched Crags and hit them with a hammer (their health is in the 300's) and then double-strafe (side-dash, juke) to avoid Karkinos' dash attack. Karkinos can also do jump at a decent height and do a ground slam that can create a shock wave, or can go to her hide area, sink in and create a series of wood vines that travel along the ground. This boss can be defeated at level 4, though it is recommended that you level up to avoid unnecessary fast travel trips for supplies. For killing Karkinos the player will receive the Masher of Karkinos, a hammer-like secondary weapon. It will also granted the player an access for releasing the water flow.

Darksiders 2 Karkinos Apocalptic

Trivia

• When reading the Masher of Karkinos description, it is revealed that "Karkinos" is the name of a fortress. The link between the creature and the building is not explained.
• The strategy used to defeat the creature is almost the same as War's used to defeat the Broodmother in the original installment.
• Curiously, even when Karkinos is gone, a few eggs remain hanging in the boss chamber.
• Karkinos is a Greek word meaning "cancer", referring to both the disease and the constellation.
• Karkinos is probably Corrupted, because she used the same attack as Gorewood and Absalom.

Glitches

There are five main noted glitches during this fight.

1. The Never-Start: As you enter the room, Death's foot will glitch through the floor during the mini-cutscene. This is the mark of the Never-Start, at this point, no matter how many times you roll the first egg towards Karkinos, she will not rise from the ground, your strikes will register on her, but (because her weak spot is her belly) will have no effect. A reload, or even a restart, might be required.
2. The Never-End: This glitch starts with Death floating over the aforementioned floor during the same cutscene. Afterwards, you may awaken Karkinos, however, none of the Crag eggs will tip her over and the battle will continue until you die. Thus far, reloads are ineffective. You must restart the game and try again.
3. Failure to Finish: The most notable cause of this glitch is the V-sync function, but it may happen without ever activating it. This glitch renders you unable to complete the boss sequence. Defeating Karkinos will not trigger the gate or door sequence to allow you to exit the room and collect your rewards and will continue to be unable to save (since all of these things are triggered by a single event, one missed is all missed). Reload or restart required.
4. The No Damage: Karkinos' health will be at zero, but the death cutscene/action sequence will not play, instead, Karkinos will still be up and running, and the Crag eggs will immediately hatch upon rolling. Karkinos will also have a damage boost, doing around 1,000 to 1,500 damage per run, making dodging a necessity. This can be fixed by restarting the boss fight, fast traveling will just cause Karkinos to be at full health, but the glitch will still continue.
5. The egg will never hit glitch, Karkinos raises up at the same time the egg hatches leaving you in a never ending battle.