Silent Hill f: How to defeat the Birthing Monster

During your third visit to the Dark Shrine in Silent Hill f, you will be faced with three challenges, the last of which tasks you with retrieving two items that belong to Hinako’s closest friend and partner, Shu. One of these items is guarded by the Birthing Monster, a grotesque creature that carries a woman with several swollen bellies on its back.

Destroy the Birthing Monster’s cocoons

As its intro cutscene ends, the Birthing Monster will spew forth a cocoon. A single blade-legged monster will eventually break out of this cocoon, making the fight more complicated.

To prevent more enemies from spawning, quickly destroy the cocoon and keep an eye out for any more that the Birthing Monster might release throughout the course of the fight. It seems that the mini-boss will only create cocoons if you aren’t actively targeting it, so make sure to stay close and continue attacking.

The Birthing Monster is more of a ranged enemy

The Birthing Monster’s cocoons hatch rather quickly, so there is a good chance that you won’t be able to stop all of its minions from spawning. Regardless of whether it manages to birth another monster, the Birthing Monster will alternate between two ranged moves.

Its most common move is its spit attack, which is telegraphed by blood coming out of the hole in the monster’s face, followed by a quick retching movement. The acid that the Birthing Monster spits out can easily be dodged, giving you ample time to recover or move in for a counterattack.

The second ranged move that you have to watch out for is its scream attack, which it usually uses when you get too close. The Birthing Monster will arch her head back and scream, stunning you for a short while. This attack will also stun the Birthing Monster, but not the blade-legged monsters that spawn from the cocoons.

Given that there is very little time to react to the scream, it might be best not to get too greedy with your attacks and back off once you’ve done some respectable damage. It goes without saying that you should quickly eliminate any blade-legged monsters to prevent them from getting any free hits on you while you are stunned.

The Birthing Monster’s close-range combo is a perfect opportunity to counterattack

The Birthing Monster’s two-swipe combo is its only melee move. Coincidentally, it is also the only attack that can be countered. The monster will shake violently and roar before attacking, signaling that you should counter it with a heavy attack. A successful counter will stun the mini-boss, leaving it open to your attacks.

While the Birthing Monster does not have as complex a move set as Silent Hill f’s Formidable Foes, its ability to spawn more enemies makes it a notable threat. Following this initial encounter, several Birthing Monsters will start to appear throughout the rest of your playthrough. These all share the same move set, so you can use what you learned from the mini-boss encounter to get the upper hand on the latter parts of the game.

Silent Hill f is out no for the PC (Steam), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Silent Hill f producer expected reception to be divided. “We made many bold choices”