How To Save Holly (Timeline Shift Decision) – Code Vein 2

Saving Holly is required to unlock the secret ending in Code Vein 2. The quest is long with many boss fights, time travel, and large areas to explore. It takes many hours to complete, and finishing the quest will help you to progress towards saving Josée, along with the other characters, to reach the ending. In this guide, we will show you how to save Holly, defeat the bosses to unlock the main boss fight, and reach the secret ending in Code Vein 2.

How to Save Holly: Secret Ending

This quest will start when you reach the Undead Forest in the main story. While exploring, you will reach Plagued Village. Just outside this village, there is a Withered Greenhouse. Inside the greenhouse is Holly’s Cocoon. Interacting with it will send you to the past, and you will wake up in the past inside the Sanatorium. 

Inside the Sanatorium, you will meet Holly and speak with her. After the conversation, she wants to heal you using the hot spring. First visit two hot springs and then return to the Cave hot spring. Once this is completed, there will be a boss against the Resurgence Zealot. 

After the fight, meet with Licorice. He will travel with you to 3 main areas in the Undead Forest:

• The Forest Complex
• The Amusement Park
• The Abandoned Church

Each of these areas is big, filled with enemies, and has a boss fight. These boss fights are Holly’s Pathos. You need to defeat all 3 Pathos bosses, and once they are all defeated, return to the Withered Greenhouse and interact with Holly’s Cocoon to start the main fight.

All Boss Fights in Holly Quest

In this quest, to get the secret ending, you need to travel in time and defeat four main bosses. It starts at Holly’s Cocoon in the Withered Greenhouse and leads to a battle against Holly the Reaper, Retainer of Idris, Camillo, and the final boss Hero Holly.

The First Boss Fight – Holly the Reaper

This fight is a tough battle, so make sure you come prepared with your best gear. After defeating her, speak with Monica. She will tell you to collect Camillo’s Pathos to move forward. These Pathos are found in:

• Rune Town
• The Sanatorium

You need to defeat the enemies in these areas to unlock all of Camillo’s Pathos. Once you have collected all the Camillo’s Pathos, repair the Blood Code. After this, return to the Withered Greenhouse and activate the Faded Bond to travel back in time. 

How to Defeat Holly the Reaper

In this fight, use fast weapons with quick recovery animations to attack Holly. Use Blood Code that increases your agility or helps you recover stamina faster. It is also recommended to bring healing items, as Holly can deal a lot of damage to you. Rune Blades are one of the most useful weapons against Holly. They will deal a lot of damage and have the highest stagger in the game.

Phase – l

Holly uses many magic spells that can quickly deal damage to you if you are not careful. When you see a blue glow in her hands, it means that she will be casting spells now. Dodge it early to stay safe. 

After some time, Holly will teleport to the centre of the arena. She will cry out loud, and it will start a big area of effect attack that can continuously deal damage. To avoid it, stand on the flower beds around the arena, and the attacks will not hit you.

Phase – II

In the second phase, Holly will bring a clone of herself. Both of them will attack you at the same time, but the clone has low health. So, kill it as soon as possible. Holly can summon the clone again, so if it comes back, kill it as quickly as possible. 

In phase ll, Holly will use her scythe and deal close-range attacks. Parry her attacks, which will give you an opening to counter and deal damage. She will also shoot out a straight line of toxic venom on the ground. To avoid it, stay right in front of Holly when she starts attacking. You won’t be hit by the venom, and you will get an opening to attack her.

Holly the Reaper Rewards

When you defeat Holly the Reaper, you will get 35,280 Haze and the Holly the Reaper’s Blood Code. The Blood Code is mainly for dexterity and Willpower. Therefore, it is a good choice for players who like fast and skilled combat.

• No Conditions: You get a +5 bonus to Dexterity and Willpower without needing to meet any special requirements.

• Dexterity Margin 10: While charging your Forma, you gain higher resistance to Disruption, helping you stay stable during intense fights.

• No Overburden Effect: Your attack power increases, but there’s a trade-off – Forma abilities activate a bit slower.

This Blood Code will increase the attack damage, so that you can hit the enemies much harder. However, your Forma abilities will activate slowly, so you need to be careful with your movements. Defeating the Holly the Reaper will unlock the Penitence achievement.

The second Boss Fight – Retainer of Idris

There will be another boss fight with the Retainer of Idris. He takes damage through his tentacles. Direct attacks don’t deal much damage to him. Keep your distance and wait for him to attack. You will know he is about to attack when he shows his tentacles. Use bows or ranged attacks on the tentacles to deal damage. 

After defeating the Retainer of Idris, you can travel back in time. Then go to the Sanatorium and meet Holly. From here, chase Camillo through the Sanatorium underground labs. This will lead to a boss fight against Camillo. Camillo switches between strong close-range attacks and ranged attacks. So, it is better to dodge his attacks rather than try to block them.

How to Defeat Camilo

Camilo is a beast-like boss that uses Golden Claws and a mask. To defeat him, use the Rune Blades, Twin Blades and the Halberd.

Camilo will try to close the distance between you very quickly. In its charge attack, it will rush towards you after a couple of seconds. Move sideways to avoid getting hit, and once his back is turned, you can deal some damage. 

Camilo will start by charging his right arm and deal four quick hits, and after that, he raises his arms and smashes the ground for the final hit. Dodge his first four strikes and avoid the final strike. 

Sometimes he will roar and then jump into the air to slam the ground. Keep moving to avoid his attacks. When he has 50% health after roaring, he smashes the ground to summon a spike in your position. Move constantly to avoid getting hit by the spikes. 

Camilo can also swing a rock pillar, and you have a small amount of time to attack him when he is lifting the pillar. After that, dodge the attack to avoid damage.

Camilo Rewards

After defeating Camilo, you will get 40,425 health and unlock Lost Camilo Blood Code. The Lost Camilo Blood Code has high strength and vitality. 

• No Conditions: You automatically gain +6 Strength and Vitality, with no special requirements.

• Vitality Margin 15: While using charged attacks, you get higher resistance to Disruption, making it harder for enemies to interrupt you.

• No Overburden Effect: Your balance stays active even when you’re not attacking, helping you stay steady and avoid being staggered.

This Blood Code focuses on strong offence and solid balance. It gives you high strength and vitality. It increases balance during charged attacks, which makes it easier to deal damage to the enemies. 

How to Defeat Retainer of Idris

The Retainer of Idris is an outer-world boss that blocks your path to Holly’s timeline. This boss fight will start after you touch Holly’s Fading Bond. The Two-Handed Sword, Obliterator Axe, and the Twin Blades are the best weapons to deal damage to the Retainer of Idris.

Phase – l

Idris the Retainer is very slow, so you need to have good mobility so that you can easily dodge its charged attacks. The safest place is behind the boss’s legs. Attacking the legs will disable it, giving you an opening to deal damage. After some time, the boss will create a distance between you, so run towards it again to hit his legs. His yellow tentacles are his weakness, so attack them whenever possible.

Phase – ll

Once the boss drops to 50% health, phase II will start, and the tentacles will turn red. The boss will place many small glowing trees around the arena. Destroy all of them as soon as they appear. Many of the boss attacks involve slamming its tentacles into the ground. When this happens, take advantage of the opening and attack the tentacles.

Retainer of Idris Rewards

Once you defeat the Retainer of Idris, you will get Idris’s Talon. It is a powerful two-handed sword. This weapon scales with strength and some dexterity. Its strong attack that slams the blade with a lot of force, and if charged, your character will jump forward before smashing the sword into the ground, dealing more damage.

The Final Boss Fight – Hero Holly

Outside the Sanatorium entrance, interact with the Cocoon in the final. This will start the final fight against Hero Holly. Defeat her, and the quest to save Holly will be completed. Hero Holly can deal damage at any range due to her Melee and Gatling Gun attacks. So, keep your distance and use the bow and ranged attack to deal damage to her. 

How to Defeat Hero Holly

Use Lou as your partner and equip the Idris’s Conceit Bequeathed Forma. It applies Slow Damage over a wide area. You can also use Lou’s Superbia Bloodline Blood Code to deal with Charged Drain Attack. Use Rune Blades, Twin Blades and the Bayonet to defeat Hero Holly.

During the first phase, Hero Holly will not deal a lot of damage. Use this time to deal as much damage as you can. Don’t move far away from the boss, as it will start the machine gun attacks, which are harder to dodge. 

If you get caught in the machine gun, then remember Holly has three attack patterns:

• Sweeping barrage – bullets sweep from right to left. You can dodge under this.

• Direct shot – aimed straight at you. Just sidestep to avoid it.

• Sit-and-sweep – Holly sits, fires straight, then sweeps her arms outward. You need to sidestep the first shot, then dodge the sweep.

Holly’s melee attacks deal damage in front of her. This will make a safe spot directly behind her where you can attack without risk. Here, you can also use your partner to draw her attention. In the meantime, you can deal damage. As Holly is fast and moves continuously around the arena, it is helpful to deal Slow Damage to heal yourself and deal more damage to her.

Hero Holly Rewards

Defeating the Hero Holly will give you 40,425 Haze, and you will unlock her Blood Code. Holly’s Blood Code is useful for long-range attacks, and it comes with very high willpower. However, it will also drain your stamina. It will increase the attack power of the MK Rosenritter Formae, making it good for taking out groups of enemies.

• No Conditions: You get a +6 bonus to Dexterity and Willpower automatically, with no special requirements.

• Any Overburden Effect: When your LP (Life Points) is low, the Ichor Cast cost is reduced, letting you keep using skills even under pressure.

• No Overburden Effect: Your MK Rosenritter Formae attacks deal more damage, making it especially strong for ranged or group fights.

The Blood Code will increase your stats. Also, when you are low on health, it will make using the skill easier. It also increases the damage of your ranged Formae.