Attack Patterns
| Attack | Type | Damage | Counter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cryo Cannon | Beam, slows on hit | High, rapid ticks | Break line of sight behind pillars |
| Ice Grenade | AOE, leaves cryo pool | Medium, freeze buildup | Dodge roll out of indicator circle |
| Frozen Slam | Close-range AOE | High, guaranteed freeze | Keep distance, don't melee him |
| Maliwan Minions | Add spawn | Low, annoying | Clear for Second Wind opportunities |
| Energy Nova | Full-arena pulse | Medium | Time jump over shockwave |
Farming Strategy
Tbh this is legit one of the fastest boss farms in the entire game like once you get the route down it's kinda ridiculous how quick it is, the spawn point at the Athenas fast travel station is literally 10 seconds from the arena entrance which is insane, you just run forward drop down and you're there with no loading screens no trash mobs nothing, and honestly for the actual fight you wanna use shock weapons to strip his energy barrier first because that shield is basically impenetrable from the front, then swap to incendiary for his health bar and he goes down fast, I mean like really fast if you've got decent gear. Also his shield only blocks frontal attacks so you can just circle around him or use homing weapons like the Carrier and the tracking missiles will hit him from behind while you're just kinda standing there, pretty funny tbh. So if you keep getting frozen which happens to me constantly, grab a Snowshoe shield or an Ice Breaker artifact for cryo resistance and it makes a huge difference, like night and day honestly. But yeah the farming loop is basically spawn run kill loot quit repeat and you can do the whole thing in about 45 seconds with a decent Moze build at M6, maybe less if you're really optimized and get lucky with the shoulder hitbox trick
Dedicated Loot Table
| Weapon | Type | Element | Drop Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faisor | AR | Any | 10% |
| Firestorm | Sniper | Incendiary | 10% |
| Kaoson | SMG | Any | 10% |
| Tankman's Shield | Shield | N/A | 10% |
Best Weapons for Captain Traunt
| Weapon | Type | Synergy | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Radical | Pistol | Shock splash strips shield fast | Maliwan |
| Plasma Coil | SMG | Highest shock DPS, deletes shield | Maliwan |
| Hellwalker | Shotgun | Incendiary one-shot after shield break | Jakobs |
| Flipper | SMG | Charge shock/incendiary to cover both phases | Maliwan |
| Carrier | AR | Homing missiles bypass frontal shield | Atlas |
Detailed Fight Strategy
Alright so the arena is basically a big rectangular courtyard with pillars scattered around and honestly you wanna be using those pillars constantly, like literally every 5 seconds you should be repositioning behind one or you're gonna get frozen and then you're dead and it's just not fun, Traunt opens the fight by walking toward you while firing his Cryo Cannon which is this blue beam that slows you on the first tick and freezes you by the third tick so just don't let it touch you at all break line of sight the moment you see the blue beam wind up because I've died so many times thinking I could tank one more tick and nope frozen dead and that's the fight. But anyway when he throws Ice Grenades you'll see a white circle on the ground about 2 seconds before it lands, dodge roll out of it but here's the thing most people miss and tbh I missed it for like my first 20 kills too, the grenade leaves a cryo pool that lasts like 8 seconds so don't roll back into that spot or you're just gonna freeze anyway and look like an idiot. Also the arena has these raised platforms on the sides and I've found standing on those gives you a much better angle for shooting over his frontal shield, kinda cheesy but it works so whatever. His Energy Nova has a pretty obvious tell, he raises both arms and there's this blue pulse that travels outward, you can jump over it if you time it right or just stand behind a pillar but honestly I usually mess up the jump timing and eat the nova to the face. The Maliwan minions he spawns are more useful than dangerous tbh, they're basically free Second Wind tokens so leave a couple alive if your health is getting low, you know what I mean. So once his shield breaks he gets way more aggressive with the Frozen Slam and he'll rush toward you and the slam has a surprisingly big radius, like bigger than the visual effect suggests and I've died to that more times than I can count because I thought I was far enough away and then boom I'm on the ground. And honestly the fight gets easier in the second half because he has less shield to hide behind so you can just unload on him, but you still gotta watch for those slam rushes because they come out faster when he's enraged and it catches you off guard and you're just dead and then you're running back from the spawn point again which takes 10 seconds so it's not the worst walk of shame in the game but still annoying
Best Vault Hunters for This Boss
Moze absolutely destroys Traunt and I mean like it's not even fair, Iron Bear's Vanquisher Rocket Pods with shock damage strip his shield in like seconds and then you can swap to incendiary miniguns to melt his health bar before he even knows what happened, plus the best part is Iron Bear can't be frozen so his cryo attacks are totally wasted on you and you just sit there laughing while he tries to freeze a giant mech. Zane is also super strong here because his Digi-Clone can draw aggro while you flank behind the shield, just pop the clone in front of him and circle around and his AI falls for it every single time which is honestly hilarious, the guy just shoots at a hologram while you empty mags into his back. Amara does fine I guess but she's not the fastest, Ties That Bind can link Traunt to his minions which is decent for bonus damage but you're gonna be spending more time dodging cryo attacks than actually DPSing and that gets tedious after a while. Fl4k is honestly kinda rough unless you have a really optimized Fade Away build, the issue is Fl4k has no innate cryo resistance and his pet dies to the Energy Nova constantly which means you lose all your pet bonuses and you're just a squishy sniper getting frozen over and over, if you're running Fl4k bring an Ice Breaker artifact or you're gonna have a bad time I promise you that. IMO the ranking for this fight goes Moze then Zane then Amara then Fl4k and it's not even close tbh, Moze is like S tier for this boss specifically and the others are just running catchup
Mayhem Mode Differences
At Mayhem 4 and above Traunt gets a pretty significant health bump and his cryo attacks freeze you faster, like where it took 3 ticks to freeze before at M6 and above it's basically 2 ticks and you're frozen which is just brutal, the Ice Grenade pools also last longer and cover more ground so the safe zones in the arena shrink noticeably and you find yourself running out of pillar cover way quicker than you expect. Mayhem 10 is honestly a different fight entirely, his shield health scales way harder than his regular health so if you're not bringing shock weapons you're gonna be there for like 10 minutes just chipping away at his shield and wanting to uninstall the game, ngl I tried it once with a pure incendiary build and it was a complete disaster. The modifier rolls matter a ton too, if you get Floor is Lava or any modifier that forces you to keep moving this fight becomes genuinely annoying because you can't just camp behind pillars like you normally would. Holy Crit is actually amazing for this fight since he has a big head hitbox and you can just farm crits all day. But if you roll Dazed and Infused or any elemental resist modifier just reroll honestly because you need shock and incendiary to both work at full power and if either one is gimped the fight takes forever. Big Kick Energy is kinda funny because his Energy Nova shockwave sends you flying across the arena and you're just bouncing around like a pinball, not the most efficient but pretty entertaining I won't lie
Speed Farming Tips
This is honestly one of the fastest boss farms in the entire game once you get the route down, the spawn point at the Athenas fast travel station is literally 10 seconds from the arena entrance and there's nothing between you and him, you run forward drop down and you're there with no loading screens no trash mobs nothing it's beautiful. With a decent Moze build at M6 you can do the whole loop in about 45 seconds, spawn run kill loot quit repeat and you're just printing legendaries. The real key to speed is bringing a Shock Flipper or Free Radical to strip the shield then something like a Hellwalker or Light Show for the health bar and you swap between them with muscle memory after a few runs. Don't bother killing the minions unless you need a Second Wind because they just waste time and you're trying to be efficient here. If you're on console with slower load times the Carrier is surprisingly good because the homing missiles keep dealing damage during his immune animations and every second counts when you're farming. And here's the real speed trick most people don't talk about, you can shoot his shoulder from the side while he's focused on the center of the arena and the shoulder hitbox doesn't have shield coverage so you're dealing direct health damage from the start, I've shaved like 5 seconds off my kills just by opening with shoulder shots and honestly it feels like cheating but it works and Gearbox hasn't patched it so whatever, I'll take it
Common Death Causes
The number one thing that kills people on this fight is getting frozen, once you're frozen Traunt usually follows up with a Cryo Cannon beam to the face and you're dead before you can break out and it happens so fast you don't even have time to react, so equip something with cryo resistance even a green Ice Breaker artifact makes a huge difference tbh. The second big killer is his melee slam and the hitbox on that slam is honestly bigger than it looks, if you're even slightly in range you go down and I've tested this, like I was clearly outside the visual effect and still got one shot, so don't try to melee him just don't it's not worth it at all. Another thing that catches people off guard is the minion wave combined with an Ice Grenade, you're dodging the grenade indicator not watching the adds and they just pew pew you to death from the sides and you're sitting there wondering what killed you, so clear a couple minions when they first spawn don't ignore them completely. And the Energy Nova has killed me through pillars more times than I'd like to admit, the nova can clip through thin cover if you're pressed right up against it so stand a step back from the pillar when you see him winding up, learned that one the hard way after like 30 deaths. Last thing his shield blocks frontal damage completely and I see so many randoms just dumping entire mags into the front of his shield wondering why nothing is happening, flank him or the fight takes 5 times longer and you'll be there all day. But yeah if you just stay behind pillars bring shock weapons and don't stand in the cryo pools you'll be fine, mostly, probably, unless you get unlucky with the modifiers and the minion spawn timing and the slam hitbox and all that stuff you get the idea