WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Resident Evil Village, available now.
As soon as Ethan Winters stumbles into the sinister, snowbound setting of Resident Evil Village, the hapless protagonist quickly learns about the legend and legacy of the town's matron figure Mother Miranda. Presumably a benevolent presence that keeps the villagers safe from the ravenous monsters that prowl across the countryside, Miranda abruptly turns on the town and its denizens, as hordes of beasts grow increasingly violent and raze the village completely. And with Miranda herself serving as the game's final boss fight, she appropriately is the hardest battle in the entire game. Here's how to take the insidious witch down for good.
Miranda was revealed to have survived for over a full century, thanks to her contact with a mutamycete mold growing beneath the village. After losing her daughter Eva to the Spanish flu, a grief-stricken Miranda discovered that Eva's consciousness could be transferred to a new host body through experiments from the mold. Miranda's resulting experiments spawned an entire generation of monsters, including her four House Lords presiding over the surrounding area, and would inspire Oswell E. Spencer in his own twisted experiments through the Umbrella Corporation. After discovering the truth about his own connection to the mold, Ethan takes on Miranda in a rematch at a ritual site where the witch is plotting to transfer her daughter's consciousness into the body of Ethan's infant daughter Rosemary.
Miranda is the deadliest foe that Ethan encounters in Village, capable of killing him effortlessly in a couple of blows and able to cover short distances quickly, especially as the fight escalates. With this in mind, come into the final battle with plenty of healing supplies, ammunition and upgrades for both the sniper rifle and the magnum. Explosives also come through in pinch, so come with plenty of pipe bombs and use crafting materials to make explosive rounds. As this is obviously the final confrontation in the game, don't skimp out in your last interaction with the Duke; stock up as much as you can. As with previous boss battles, it behooves the player to keep as much distance between Ethan and Miranda as possible, with Miranda often dealing out a nasty second blow after an initial twirling attack.
Shot at Miranda's white body from a distance with the sniper rifle and/or magnum, sprinting away whenever she gets remotely close to Ethan. Whenever Ethan does endure a hit, immediately heal up, as Miranda's follow-up blow will likely kill him on the spot. Anticipate Miranda's trajectory as she attacks when employing explosives to ensure the blast radius will be long enough to do significant damage. After a short, secondary twirl or charge, it takes her a moment to turn and face Ethan.
When Miranda comes up the face of the cliff to rain death from above, sprint from one end of the battlefield to the other to avoid her attacks. Additionally, Miranda causes trees to grow up from the mold across the battlefield, so use them as cover to evade her devastating acid attack, firing at her from between branches or just peering around the trunk.
As the battle comes to a bloody end, Miranda ensnares Ethan with roots growing from the mold around his feet and forcibly drags him closer to her for the kill. As soon as control is restored, keep shooting at Miranda's torso and head with the magnum to finally kill her. There are two windows within this final stage of the battle where this needs to be done. As soon as Miranda takes that last bullet, the damage has been done, and the evil witch has been slain in a bloody mess.
Developed and published by Capcom, Resident Evil Village is available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia.