Redfall is a game about a small town overrun with vampires and vampire supporters. Whether you’re alone or with teammates, you’re free to explore the town however you want. You’ll quickly become familiar with the Fire Station, where you can access Main Missions.
However, you’ll likely encounter some Side Missions while out and about. There are also other activities to undertake like clearing out vampire nests, cultist bases, or raiding private security outposts. There’s also an important resource that you can hunt for called Underboss Skulls, which can definitely be risky. If you’re having trouble finding them, there are some guaranteed ways to collect some.
What Are Underboss Skulls?
An efficient way to get loot is to go out and defeat enemies. While human enemies will collapse and usually drop whatever they’re carrying around them, vampire enemies won’t. When a vampire is killed, they turn to ash with a chance to leave behind an ash pile that can be searched. These piles usually contain valuables that will be immediately converted to currency when collected.
However, there are special kinds of vampires called Underbosses that drop a Skull when killed. These Underboss Skulls are key items that play a role in challenge events that are unlocked later in the game.
Specifically, you’ll need Underboss Skulls in order to unlock the lairs of Vampire Gods. You’re likely to discover one of these early into the campaign. However, without the means to open the entrance, you’ll have to wait until later to explore them.
How to Get Underboss Skulls
In order to get Underboss Skulls, you need to kill Underboss vampires. These enemies are rare, and act like elite variants as well as leaders. That means that if you’re going to hunt down an Underboss, you’re likely to encounter a lot of vampire and human enemies.
The good news is that Underbosses won’t typically be encountered in the field. You won’t find yourself in a difficult situation by chance. To encounter one of these fiends, you need to undertake missions, particularly those involving Safe Houses.
How to Find Underboss Locations
Early in the game, you’ll be prompted to unlock Safe Houses throughout Redfall. As the name implies, these are safe areas where you, your friends, and NPC survivors can seek shelter and replenish supplies. They will also act as Checkpoints and Fast Travel markers.
Safe Houses can be found while out exploring or marked by mission prompts. When you reach one, you’ll often have to clear out the enemy occupation, turn on a generator, and then enter the Safe House through a marked door. After you do this, you can take on missions from a large map posted on the Safe House wall.
These missions involve making the surrounding neighborhood safer for survivors. They tend to involve investigating certain areas to clear out enemies, shut down devices, or destroy installations. After you do this, the mission will be complete and you’ll be able to return to the Safe House to take on the second part of the mission. Making the neighborhood safer requires you to remove a strong vampire entity, the Underboss.
Once you accept the Underboss mission, you’ll be given a name and a general location where the Underboss lurks. They’re frequently encountered inside large buildings like churches and stores, with cultists patrolling the outside and vampires protecting them inside. It’s best that you clear out as many of the patrolling enemies as possible so that you don’t aggro all of them for the main fight. After that, you can approach the Underboss to catch their attention.
How to Beat The Underboss
The Underboss behaves much like regular vampires, being able to fly around and leap great distances. Depending on their form, they can gain additional abilities such as being able to create a trail of darkness. Their defining ability is a rotating blue shield that has several gaps in it so you’ll need to time your attacks in order to damage the Underboss.
They also have a tendency to flee if they receive too much damage, heading to the high or low ground within the same area. Jacob is a useful character for Underboss encounters since he can tag enemies, while UV weapons and Stake Launchers are useful for slowing these vampires down and eliminating them quickly.
Keep attacking until you get the Underboss into a vulnerable state and then Stake them quickly. These will turn them into an ash pile with an Underboss Skull resting on top of it. Simply approach it and press the prompt to collect the skull.
