This guide is mostly aimed at the players that are comfortable with the game and are trying to learn more. Understanding your class's role in the Patriarch slap-down match and the special moves your class specializes in can improve your teamwork and gameplay and hopefully allow you to take down more Patriarchs.

The following is a collection of tips and tricks I learned from leveling my perks up to level 6, playing on HoE servers, and research done on forums and interwebs. Most of them I try to verify myself by either testing it in-game or finding the code, but there may be some "knowledge" I throw out there that is not accurate, so if there are any corrections or anything you feel should be added, feel free to leave them in the comments section below or message me and I shall update this guide accordingly.

Note: I try to give credit where credit is due. If I don't specifically say who it's from and I don't specifically say I came up with it, I probably found it somewhere on the interweb and forgot who originally posted it.

Edit: Aug15,2014—added Zed-gun uses in newly-added Perk Neutral section. (Credit: Bob of Mage for suggestion)

The Patriarch is unlike any of the zeds that came before him. As the big-daddy of the bunch, he has quite a bit of tricks up his sleeve.

The Patriarch has medical syringes by his side that will allow him to heal up to three times during the confrontation. Each heal is triggered when he reaches a certain percentage of his maximum health. You can tell when he is going to heal because he gets on one knee, cloaks, and tries to run away to safely heal.

• First heal: 80% max. health
  
• Second heal: 50% max. health
  
• Third heal: 31.25% max. health

Each syringe will restore 25% of the Patriarch's maximum health.

The amount of health the Patriarch has depends on the difficulty level and number of players. According to the wiki-page:

"The base hit points of the Patriarch is 4000; its total health on normal with one player, and for every additional player 3000 hit points is added. This figure is then multiplied by 0.5 on beginner, 1 on normal, 1.35 on hard, 1.55 for suicidal, and 1.75 for hell on earth."

Players

Beginner

Normal

Hard

Suicidal

Hell on Earth

1

2000

4000

5400

6200

7000

2

3500

7000

9450

10850

12250

3

5000

10000

13500

15500

17500

4

6500

13000

17550

20150

22750

5

8000

16000

21600

24800

28000

6

9500

19000

25650

29450

33250

Source[www.kf-wiki.com]

From my experience, although difficult to achieve for an extended period of time, it is possible to distract the Patriarch to prevent him from healing for a while. But once the healing animation starts, the healing cannot be prevented (verification would be nice). However, he is still vulnerable to attacks. Lob a few grenades where he's healing, as he won't be moving for a few seconds.

Not a Patriarch-only ability, but there is a section of the code that shows that for every melee kill a zed makes, the zed regenerates a portion of its health.

Forum Source[forums.tripwireinteractive.com] Credit: Scary Ghost

Key Points:

• Health regained is 10% of the current health
  
• Health regained is not capped at max health
  
• Regained health only applies to total health, not head hp
  
• Only triggers if current health < 90% of max health and from a melee kill
  
• All specimens have this behavior

Also worth mentioning here is when the Patriarch runs to heal, he summons others zeds to help him.

• First heal: Clots
  
• Second heal: Clots and Crawlers
  
• Third heal: Clots, Crawlers, and Stalkers

Only becuase I couldn't fit everything into one section.

Although the Patriarch does have certain randomness in his attacks, he is relatively predictable. At the start of the final wave, the camera will change to a 3rd-person view of the Patriarch taunting the players. Take that moment to get an idea of where he spawned relative to you and plan your attack.

NOTE: You can still move and attack during this short sequence. If he is within firing range, you can attempt to get a few cheap-shots in. But get out of his line of sight before his taunt ends or the camera will not switch back to you during his first attack.

Demonstration: Skell makes use of that time to attack the patriarch. Note even Skell sees from the Patriarch's perspective as he does this.

After his taunt, the Patriarch will slowly wander the map heading towards the players. Once he sees one, he will either:

• Fire his mini-gun
  
• Fire his rocket
  
• Charge while possibly cloaked (attempt a melee attack)

Each is accompanied with a distinct voice/sound. Here are a few examples:

• Charging Mini-gun:
  
  • "Time for a more direct approach."
    
  • "This is the end of you!"
• Loading Rocket:
  
  • "One in the pipe."
• Cloak and charge:
  
  • Grunt or growl of some sort... You'll have to listen for it.

(View a full list here[kf-wiki.com].)

Edit: I can only get the Patriarch in test-map to say "One in the pipe" when loading a rocket. Never have I heard him say otherwise while doing so. The other saying from the wiki that he supposedly says while loading a rocket are removed. Credit: Felix

Whenever you hear one of these, you should know what to expect and take any necessary actions before it's too late. This typically involves running away from your pipes and finding cover.

While flying through the air, the rocket can be easily avoided, like the husk fireball, by jumping in the air. However, when the rocket makes contact with anything, the area of effect is pretty large. It even causes damage to things around the corner and through thin walls. It will also detonate any nearby pipes.

Even if the door in between you and the patriarch will save you from a rocket, the door won't protect the pipes.



If he needs to get through welded doors, even those slightly welded, he will use his rocket to blast them open. If he is close enough, he will take damage from his own rockets.

Sidenote: When placing pipes next to doorways with the expectation that the patriarch will step on them, do not weld the doors. The Patriarch will blast rockets at welded doors and detonate any pipes on either side. If the doors are not welded, the Patriarch will walk right up and take full damage from the pipes. Take note, swinging doors can push pipes around.

I don't know if it is just me, but if the Patriarch sees you and pipes nearby you, he will generally fire his rocket to get rid of the pipes (devastating for you if you are near your own pipes).

The machine gun is shot in bursts aimed at a specific player. He will cancel the machine gun animation early if he loses the line of sight of all players, takes enough damage to need to heal, or if anyone deals any melee damage (even with a measly knife).

The Patriarch has three melee attacks. Once he gets close enough he will either (in order of damage from least to greatest):

• Thrust with tentacle from his chest
  
• Swipe with claw/arm
  
• Radial Attack

The first two will send the victim flying (even farther if the victim is mid-jump). From experience, although the tentacle looks like it has a farther reach, the swipe actually reaches farther, deals more damage, and is tougher to avoid. They both come with a slight visual warning, such as the wind-up of the arm or squatting slightly before the tentacle attack.

The radial attack was added fairly recently to counter a "cheap" Patriarch-takedown strategy involving all players surrounding the Patriarch so he could not escape. Now, when the Patriarch senses at least three people in his personal-bubble, he will, with little-to-no warning, do a devastating 360-degree arm swipe that can insta-kill a fully-armored berserker. Keep that in mind especially in tight-corridor confrontations—it can easily lead to a team wipe.

When pipe-bombs were first introduced, a "cheap" tactic to taking down the Patriarch involved strategically laying a ridiculous amount of pipe bombs down to insta-kill the Patriarch. To nerf this strategy, this scaling was implemented: first pipe bomb does normal damage, then each subsequent pipes do 7.5% less damage. This means after 14 pipes, they do no damage at all. There must be at least 3 seconds between explosions to do full damage.
Source: Scary Ghost's Video

Locking

Seen by some to be a glitch in the Patriarch mechanic, the Patriarch will always attempt a melee attack whenever a player gets too close to him (unless he is in a middle of another attack or healing himself). If timed perfectly, any player can constantly get in the attack-zone then move out of reach before the melee attack happens repeatedly and keep the Patriarch from moving.

Demonstration

It takes practice to be able to do it consistently, but this is the general technique: every time you move up to trigger his melee attack, you pretty much touch the patriarch before back-pedaling. Then repeat.

The next trick is actually starting the process. If the Patriarch is calmly walking, it's fairly easy to hide from view until he is close enough to start the process. The challenge comes when he is charging at you. One way to take this is to run right into him to kill his momentum, then immediately back away. To ensure you get out in time, you should be backing up as soon as you run right up and hit him. If you hesitate, he'll catch you flat-footed. The other way is to jump back as soon as he swings his first attack, but in this, there is bit of a risk you won’t get back in time to initiate the lock.

The general rule I use to decide if I should kill his momentum or backpedal:

• If he is cloaked, kill his momentum
  
• If he is not cloaked, backpedal and pray

SUGGESTION: If possible, practice on a server where you have at least some latency; the timing will be different compared to practicing in solo mode. Though it is suggested to do it with a melee weapon because of the speed bonus, with enough skill, you can lock with any weapon as long as you move fast enough (i.e. switch to the knife between shots).

Example

EDIT [Jan 15, 2013]: Due to the recent update, other contributers and I have noticed bugs in the Patriarch animation when attempting to melee lock on multiplayer servers. If you are first starting out learning how to lock the Patriarch, trying it out on solo is recommended.
(Thanks to #SirJr175 for bringing this to my attention)

LOCKING TAKE-DOWN STRATEGY

• Solo: just as in the video, every time you sneak in, take a swing.
  
• Multiplayer:
  
  • (at least) One melee-locker: Only once and while Patriarch is locked in place, everyone else "safely" unloads on him.
    

    Sidenote: Many suggest not using grenades or other explosives during this process. This doesn't disrupt the lock [verification would be nice], but it could mess up the player doing the locking due to smoke obstruction.

    EDIT [Jan 26, 2013]: The gernades can also bounce the Patriarch around and mess up the melee locker that way (Thanks to ToeKneeAy for bringing this to my attention)

  • Three (or more) melee-lockers: see section Gang-Banging.

Gang-Banging

Gang-banging, otherwise known as AoE Lock, is a fairly new strategy that has surfaced in the forums. Designed in response to the Patriarch's radial attack, it essentially is multiple players simultaneously locking the Patriarch while triggering his Radial Attack. This method takes considerable coordination and skill from the team of at least three players.

Demonstration

Tips

• Focus more on synchronized movement than on attacking;
  
• Pay attention to Patriarch's animations, they differ in duration;
  
• If you're a medic, it's better to use faster-swinging weapons (e.g. a katana) because you can toss a grenade quicker. Or, if there's more than 3 players, it's probably better to just stand aside and toss grenades if needed.

This method can either let you win flawlessly, or fail miserably. This seems to be very effective because not only is the Patriarch locked in place and simultaneously taking damage from multiple players, but the one attacking from behind is giving double-damage than normal.

Pipe-Bomb Hat

If you watch the video, it tells you everything you need to know. In summary, this method allows you to personally deliver a large number of pipe bombs to the Patriarch. If successful, it is a happy day for all your teammates and a great way to finish the game.

Random tips:

• There is no need to stack more than 14 pipes; the pipe-bomb damage scaling renders the pipes past 14 to do no additional damage.
  
• Don't try this solo if you expect to win, for apparent reasons! (You do not stay alive long enough for your win to count)
  
• It is best to walk up to the Patriarch after others have dealt damage to him. Although the pipe-hat may do a ton of damage, it is rarely enough to one-shot the patriarch on higher difficulties.

Goomba Stomp

Named after Mario's tactic of getting rid of goombas, the strategy involved somehow getting on top of the Patriarch and constantly jump on him, dealing damage with your weapon of choice, the most common being one with continuous fire, like flame-thrower or chainsaw.

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that what I am describing is the Poga-Stick. A true goomba stomp involves dealing damage from the bounce itself. Typically done by getting caught between the Patriarch and a door-frame, you bounce up and down at insane speeds and the impact damage will eventually kill the Patriarch. This tactic as been patched long ago by making the door-frames a tad higher. Credit: AlexRobinet

NOTE: This tactic has been patched with update 1045, after the 2012 Christmas Event, and is not nearly as effective as it has been and a lot tougher to successfully pull off. But if you are able to pull it off, even for a few seconds, it has a certain awe-factor to the rest of the team.

Getting on top: It is/was possible to do so unassisted where all you had to do was stand there, then jump forward when he ran up to you and he'll hit you upwards and run underneath and you could land on him. Now, the Patriarch hits you slightly away from him when you try to jump so you can no longer get hit straight upwards. There was a comment posted about having to time a strafe backwards before jumping forward, but I have yet to verify this. It is recommended to have a ledge or a wall behind you to cancel the "slightly-away" portion.

But even if you can get on top of him, the "glue" effect that used to be there when you had the primary-fire button held is no longer there so you have to manually adjust yourself to stay on top of the Patriarch, which makes it tougher to stay on for an extended period of time.

What it used to be:


What it is now:

Only because I can't fit everything under one section.

Hiding

More of an individual tactic, but the Patriarch will not attack what he cannot see. Warning: Ninja moves required.

Demonstration (Skip to 10m 30sec for the important part or click Link)

Demonstration as level 0

Kiting

Kiting referes to the tactic of running ahead of the zed in a large enough circle around the map that they will trail behind you like the tail of a kite allowing you to turn around occasionally and strategically erradicate them.

With the Patriarch however, it is required to have cover when kiting, and to keep a good-deal of distance between you and the Patriarch as you deal damage from afar. It is often the tactic used by the lone survivor (typically medic with a crossbow) to send in the finishing headshots. Those that have died and spectating can help out by looking around the map and point out rare armor and ammo spawns.

The key to this method is time; it will take a lot of time.

Demonstration:

Trapping

Lure Patriarch into room with everyone, weld all entrances, once he needs to heal, he'll spend enough time trying to escape by blowing open a door rather than continue attacking while taking damage from others. Just a little tap of the welder is enough to keep the Patriarch in, so you don't have to spend a lot of time welding. But don't weld too little as clots might be helping take down the door.

Demonstration:

Tanking

Not necessarily a take-down strategy, but it is helpful to know what the term means. Tanking refers to jumping purposely in harm's way to become a meat-shield in an attempt to protect someone/something more important, such as another player or a pipe bomb.

Understanding class strengths will help assign a role in taking down the Patriarch. Here are a few tips I have for each perk.


Sharp Shooter:
Perhaps the most straight-forward perk against the Patriarch: SCORE HEADSHOTS! Ideal conditions includes knowing where the Patriarch will be coming from, stand in the back so the rest of the team becomes a shield, and snipe him from a distance. The Patriarch tends to charge after whoever recently did a lot of damage (you) so pray and hope the rest of the team covers you.

As for weapon of choice, you'll definitely want a weapon with high damage per second (DPS). M99 definitely deals a crazy amount of damage, but the cost, weight, and reload time of the weapon allows for some debate about it's reliability. A crossbow with other weapons is the common choice, especially on harder difficulties where money is scarce.

Random Bug: The sharp bonus disappears and any perk at any level deals the damage when "headshotting" the Patriarch while he's firing his chaingun. There does not even play the "crunchy" headshot sound. Notice the damage difference as Falz demonstrates.

Source[forums.tripwireinteractive.com]

Support Specialist
Definitely does not have the range of the sharp shooter, but is devestating in close quarter combat. It goes without saying, but be sure to assist in the strategic welding of any doors in preperation. It is advised to stay hidden from the patriarch, possibly toss a few gernades to aid in the ranged damage (a level 6 support has 11 gernades, might as well use them), until the Patriarch comes into your range, then unload onto him.

Popular weapon choices include the AA12 and the Hunting Shotgun. If you cannot hold both, the AA12 is recommended over the HS under normal circumstances. The rate of fire makes it very versatile and devestating. Although it is worth mentioning (or so I have been told) a well-placed hunting shotgun alt-fire on the Patriarch on any difficulty is enough to get him to his knees. [verification would be nice]

Due to the Support Specialists huge carrying capacity, it is not rare finding Support players with interesting loadouts. Although the two weapons previously mentioned definitely provide the most damage, other useful weapons include the ZED gun with the radar to spot the Patriarch before he spots you, or a crossbow to add range to your abilities.


Berzerker
The Berzerker has an even shorter range than the Support Specialist and REALLY excels in close quarter combat. For the average Berzerker, it's best to stay hidden from the Patriarch's ranged weapons, help clear out the zeds summoned by the Patriarch between encounters (so others don't have to waste expensive ammo/pipes), tank/take a few hits from the patriarch for another player, and chip in whenever. Yeah, that's about all the berzerker is good for during a Patriarch round...

UNLESS the Berzerker has the means to LOCK the Patriarch! Having a good melee locker on the team can make a HoE Patriarch confrontation a walk in the park. With resistance to all damage and a speed bonus with a melee weapon in hand, melee locking the Patriarch is DESIGNED to be done with a Berzerker. Be sure to let the rest of the team know of your intentions, asking them to refrain from using grenades if they distract you and to not fire on the Patriarch until you safely have him in a lock. Hopefully they listen, which might not happen in a public match.

As for the weapon of choice, any weapon above a machete works fine. Just alt-fire the Patriarch in the head as often as you can.


Commando
Although machine guns are excellent for taking down trash zeds, they aren't powerful enough to confidently take on the Patriarch alone. But the advantage Commandos provide to the team is their ability to see the cloaked Patriarch and how much health he has left.

Many experienced Commandos have keybindings that let the team know how much health he has left, typically to let them know when he is under half health and when he is close to death so the team knows they are doing well and a final push can be worth it.

Seeing what direction the cloaked Patriarch goes to heal is beneficial and is a good time to shout directions into your mic or madly type the directions.

Being Commando does have it's benefits when melee locking. Since the trickiest part is starting the lock from a charging and cloaked Patriarch, the lock is easier to achieve if you can see the cloak as Commando.

Due to the Commando's passive ability for quicker reloads, the ZED gun might not be a bad idea, as the typical reload of that weapon is lengthy. As for other guns in their perk, those typically used are the SCAR and FNFAL. Unload both on the Patriarch without reloading in between to assist in quickly taking a lot of health off.


Firebug
The Firebug deals with fire and can light the Patriarch on fire so anyone can see where he goes if he cloaks and runs without needing a Commando yelling out abstract directions. Be sure to make use of tossing grenades and triggering them with your weapons to do extra damage to the Patriarch. The Damage Over Time (DoT) with the grenades are very effective. Many times, if you light him up as he goes running to heal for the final time, he will die from the DoT before he gets a chance to heal.

Typical weapon loadouts include either a flamethrower or Husk Gun with dual flare revolvers (Husk Gun for increased damage, flamethrower for easier "light-up-the-Patriarch" tactic). With the flamethrower, it's possible to do the rare Goomba Stomp and achieve a highlight in the Patriarch fight.

Only because the guide wouldn't let me fit everything under one section.


Demolition:
I must be honest. Out of all the perks I've listed, I believe I have become Demolition most during the final round. However, I feel like I know very little about how to assist the team as a demo. It is often on solo or with one other person. I choose a spot to fortify, typically close to the final trader with limited entrances, and lay pipes at all possible entrances, and hide. When the Patriarch tries to get to me and doesn't see me, he walks into the pipes and pop goes the Patriarch.

However, I'm pretty sure that's the biggest advantage Demolitions have against the Patriarch: laying pipes strategically to do the most damage to him. When pipes are placed, they are most effective if:

• Patriarch does not set them off prematurely with his rocket
  
• Patriarch will calmly walk up to them and take all the damage like a boss (instead of charging through them)

To achieve those, the Patriarch must not see anyone from afar to trigger his rocket launch and to continue walking calmly towards the team (and the pipes). One way this is done is placing pipes around unwelded doors/open doorways the Patriarch will probably walk though and stay hidden.

Keep note you should distance yourself from your own pipes.

Other weapons besides pipe bombs that are generally good to have is the M32 or the LAW. The long reload time of the LAW and disappointing lack of damage if your shot misses makes the M32 a more recommended weapon, although be aware spamming is not always the best idea, as it provides the Patriarch with ninja-smoke cover.


Field Medic: Perhaps the most versitile class during the Patriarch battle due to reinforced armor and extra speed. There is no one way of saying "this is how to be a medic during the final battle" because it is highly dependent on other factors such as map, location, and the other players' classes. But one thing for sure: be sure to heal others whenever you can.

A general list of possible roles of the Medic besides the obvious healing:

• The extra speed allows the Medic to lock the Patriarch for others to unload on him
  
• The reinforced armor makes it friendly to tank a hit for another important player (use wisely)
  
• With a crossbow can effectively snipe from afar with the extra speed to help stay alive
  
• Small weight of medic guns allows Medic to pick up more powerful weapons dropped by fallen comrades
  
• Can use the ZED gun with radar while still running at a decent speed

Regardless to say, Medics can virtually use any weapon and if played smartly, be very effective.


Perk-Neutral weapons:

I have mentioned the ZED gun several times and wish to elaborate on the weapon usage.

To the right is the Zed Eradication Device, aka ZED gun. It is perk neutral and does not get any bonus besides faster reload by commando and headshot bonus by sharpshooter [attempting verification]. Its primary fire fires energy balls and it's alt-fire attempts to "zap" zeds into stasis. The alt-fire must be held for a length of time before statis takes hold of the Patriarch. Aim for the head, as the length of time is drastically shorter. Alt-fire in bursts to maintain stasis.

Demonstration:

Note: Make sure NOTHING breaks the beam during that time. No players, zeds, or other map artifacts.

During a boss fight, if a player is able to put the patriarch into stasis, the Patriarch will be visible even when cloaked, run slower, attack slower, and take 1.25x damage as long as the stasis is on.

For more information on the ZED gun or more information of it's useage against the patriarch click dem linkies.

(second link is apparently visible to friends only... will ask my friend to make it public)

To the right is the DLC Zed Eradication Device MKII, or as I call it, ZED2. Besides the higher rate of fire, faster ballistic velocity and less recoil, the stasis-triggering ability is next-to-useless useful during patriarch fight. Even with the coordination of two players with the ZED2, the Patriarch will not get into stasis.

Edit Oct. 14 2014:

Been meaning to update this for a while, but if you fire two shots right up against the patriarch, regardless of perk, you can put him in stasis. As demonstrated to the left:

Also, this gun can be used to prolong the stasis set by the ZED1.

Best wishes!

This section is for map-specific strategies I have witnessed and/or tried and/or was suggested as good tactics on taking down the Patriarch. There may be certain overlap between map strategies, in which case I'll refer one to the other.

This section will probably never be done, but having a collection of possible tactics at our arsenal is very helpful.

Feedback: should there be a difficulty/fun meter for each strategy or will the description be enough?

===================================================================

Abusement Park

Aperture

Many Supports with Hunting Shotguns
Note: not everyone has to be support nor all have HS, but the point is to deal a lot of damage quickly, and that meets the criteria.
Follow the Trapping strategy at spawn-point.

Bedlam

Hold off in an area where you can see (not too dark) and have a corner to cover behind, so the areas left and right of spawn works, balcony works for the most part, the courtyard if the patriarch is down on your level, but definitely don't try holding off in the pool party: too open and holding lower level is not in your best interest.

Biohazard

Biotics Lab

Crash

Departed

Farm

Filths Cross

Forgotten

Foundry

Fright Yard

Hell

Hellride

Hillbilly Horror

6 Medics with dual flares:
On the big roof in the middle of the map, fire away at the Patriarch. As he chases a medic (who ceased fire and is running away), the others shoot the Patriarch and then he will follow someone else (who in turn runs away) while others keep shooting, etc. The extra speed and armor of the medics, along with each other's healing abilities, makes this plan possible. As added bonus, when the Patriarch is on fire, he is visible even if he cloaks.
(idea offered by Apoc)

Hospital Horrors

Ice Breaker

Ice Cave

Manor

Moon Base

Mountain Pass

Offices

Santa's Evil Lair

Siren's Belch

Steamland

Stronghold

F*ck this map

Suburbia

Transit

Waterworks

West London

Many Supports with Hunting Shotguns
Note: not everyone has to be support nor all have HS, but the point is to deal a lot of damage quickly, and that meets the criteria.
Follow the Trapping strategy in the church.

Wyre

Hold off on the roof of that lone building. Patriarch is very easy to spot from up there, easy to avoid his minigun and rockets, but the lord have mercy on your soul if he ever gets up there with you guys.