This is a guide for players on a first play through who are overwhelmed by the ED 209 boss battle at the Steel Mill.

Personally I struggled to defeat the thing by using the default method: running from cover to cover as it's destroyed by the ED 209, while throwing explosives at it and scavenging for OCP Recovery Charges and higher damage guns as needed. There's several issues with this method, but it really comes down to two:

Robocop is slow and the ED 209 never stops firing.

What that means is that Robocop is taking constant damage as he moves around and because he moves slowly, he's in the stream of fire for longer. The ED 209's cannons can also detonate explosive objects Robocop picks up to hurl at it. An explosion early in the game can easily take off half of Robocop's health.

ED 209 also has multiple attack phases, so it hits hardest at the end of the fight when health attrition has gone through Robocop's OCP Recovery Charges. Additionally, for players trying to use the Van/Crate Cover method, the ED 209's rocket barrage has a chance of looping a rocket around and hitting Robocop directly or through splash damage.

The cover-to-cover and hurling explosives method can certainly work (as better players than me have shown on YT), but I struggled with it and stumbled across a more efficient alternative.

Skills:

Engineering - 2 points.

The Dash move is very useful in this fight.

Points in Armor, Health and Combat would obviously help as well, but aren't necessary.

PCB:

Tier 3.3

1. When the fight starts, Dash up to the front of ED 209 and stand right in front, between its two cannons. ED 209 can't hit Robocop with its guns from here.

2. Melee attack the ED 209. It doesn't seem to matter where it's struck: Robocop's melee attack will do very little damage but will stagger the ED 209 for a tick.

Critically, Robocop's melee attack interrupts the ED 209's stomp AOE attack.

ED 209 telegraphs its stomp by rearing up on its left leg. Be sure to melee attack while it's rearing up.

3. When the ED 209 staggers in a downward direction, use the Auto 9 to blast its front grill. You can get 1-2 bursts in before needing to melee again.

Robocop's attack loop is: melee to stagger, spray the grill with bullets, melee to interrupt the stomp attack, melee again as necessary to bring the grill down and blast it with the Auto 9 again. You can use other weapons if you've picked them up, but the maxed out Tier 3.3 PCB of the Auto 9 works very well.

The 3.3 is needed for its Auto Reloader node, as Robocop's reload speed of the Auto 9 (at this point in the game), is just *slightly* too slow to complete before needing to melee again to interrupt the ED 209's stomp.

4. If you miss a melee hit (or the game glitches, as it does) and ED 209 lands a stomp that knocks you back, immediately Dash back to the ED 209. Do it fast enough and the ED 209 may not land a shot on Robocop. Try to be lined up with the open areas, so Robocop doesn't get caught on any environmental objects. Heal as needed while melee attacking ED 209.

Takeaway: the further away Robocop is from ED 209, the more damage ED 209 can land on Robocop.

By literally getting up in ED 209's grill, the number of hits ED 209 can land on Robocop is drastically reduced. Trying to evade ED 209 by moving around the room results in Robocop being exposed to a constant stream of fire from ED 209 (and thus damage.) This method keeps the player in the fight much longer and the ED 209's health falls fast when the grill is under a nearly constant fire from the Auto 9.

With no points in Armor, Health or Combat, I ended the fight in ~2 min and used only two of the three OCP Recover Charges I had when the fight began. I didn't need to pick up anything during the fight and didn't use any of the environmental explosives.

Warning: DON'T switch PCB boards in the fight. I tried that during one failed attempt and this resulted in the Auto 9 not reloading or firing after. Switching from a scavenged weapon to the Auto 9 or back causes no issues.

This was just a quick guide I threw together to help anyone else who got stuck here. I haven't play tested this method extensively, so improvements probably can be made.

I hope it's helpful to some!