Calling to mind the repeated battles against the Covenant family from Clive Barker’s Jericho, the rebooted first person survival horror entry Resident Evil 7 pits regular guy Ethan against a clan of evil mutated hillbillies with supernatural powers.
After turning down a super-appetizing human body part dinner, you will actually have to battle the Baker matriarch Marguerite on two separate occasions during the course of the game.
Below we cover the strategies for both of these difficult Resident Evil 7 boss battles in the old house and greenhouse areas.
How to Beat Marguerite in the Old House Battle
The first battle takes place in the old house after finding the Burner weapon. Marguerite will push you back and knock you through a hole in the floor, forcing you to battle an opponent positioned on higher ground while you have little room to maneuver.
For this fight Marguerite doesn’t actually get next to you, but stays up above and sends down swarms of insect creatures to fight you.
Oddly enough, melee attacking the larger insects with a knife seems to be the most efficient way to deal with them. The swarms of smaller bugs however are more easily dealt with by activating the Burner, or with a well-placed shotgun blast.
For Marguerite herself, headshots with a gun are the way to go, but you can also briefly stun her with the Burner. If you are on top of thinning out the bugs and switching over to your gun for headshots quickly, this battle should only take a minute or two before she falls into the pit and dissolves into gross black goo.
That’s not the last you’ll see of her though…
1st Marguerite Battle
Marguerite Greenhouse Battle
The second battle takes a bit more effort than than the first, and it’s recommended you use the crow key to unlock the supply closet area of the drawing room to pick up the grenade launcher before taking on this battle. If you don’t have the grenade launcher, the Burner and shotgun combo is perfectly fine for taking on this second encounter.
After her goo-dissolving antics, Marguerite now sports new insect parts that let her crawl on ceilings and break through walls to reach you, resulting in a much larger combat area covering both floors of the greenhouse.
Your best bet to get in an as much damage as possible before having to relocate is to find a corner segment and wait for her to charge at you, then aim for the head with the Burner to stun Marguerite. At this point, switch to the shotgun or grenade launcher and unload.
As an added bonus, the grenade launcher with fire ammo also stuns for her for a few seconds, so that’s the best way to go while you have the ammo available.
Eventually you will have to relocate as she scuttles along walls and floors to a new position. Stay out of reach of her close range claw attacks and then just repeat the same pattern — stun with Burner or grenade launcher, then fire as many times as you can with the shotgun.
During this repeating process, Marguerite will occasionally disappear and then pop out of various openings – holes in the wall, ceiling openings, doors, etc. — so try to keep your back to the wall and don’t face away from anything she can pop out of.
Keep to headshots and stunning with the Burner and she will go down after a 4-5 minute battle, turning into a petrified husk that breaks apart.
2nd Marguerite Battle
More Resident Evil 7 Walkthroughs
Need help with any other aspect of the game? Check out our other guides so you don’t miss a single element of this comeback for the beloved horror franchise:
- How to find the snake key
- Treasure photo / secret loot locations
- Solving the shotgun puzzle
- Good and bad endings guide
