Evolve Guide: How to Play as the Goliath

The Goliath was the first monster revealed for Evolve and it certainly lives up to its name. The Goliath is a big, hulking beast that’s capable of dealing massive damage to unsuspecting hunters. At stage 1, it starts off small and fast. But as it evolves into its latter stages, the Goliath quickly becomes an aggressive tank that can take its fair share of hits before it goes down.

While the Goliath can’t do anything quite as fancy as raining electric jolts down onto its enemies like the Kraken, or sneak around as effectively as the Wraith, you can be damn sure that it’s a vicious beast that can tear you apart.

In Evolve, the Goliath’s has four different moves that you can put your skill points into: Rock Throw, Leap Smash, Fire Breath, and Charge. Just taking a quick glance at these four moves, you can tell that the Goliath specializes in getting up close and personal with the hunters. Without a doubt, this is a monster that you wouldn’t want to be trapped in an enclosed area with.

If the idea of getting all up in your opponents’ faces and throwing them around as you absorb a ton of damage sounds enticing to you, read on, and learn more about the Goliath’s aggressive play style.

Rock Throw

The Rock Throw ability allows you to do exactly what the name suggests. Goliath breaks the ground and grabs hold of a boulder before hurling it straight at its enemies. This move is especially useful when you have a group of hunters spraying bullets at you from a distance.

Rock Throw does massive damage with a direct hit, as well as moderate damage to the surrounding area. I’ve found that the move works especially well in narrow corridors and tight corners too. With Rock Throw, Goliath can easily push back a group of hunters in a confined space and give you an edge in battle. The move can also be useful for attacking hunters attempting to fly quickly towards you with their jetpacks.

Of course, there is a downside to using Rock Throw. While it is pretty effective at quickly clearing out a cluster of hunters in a confined space, lifting up the boulder takes a couple of seconds and will leave Goliath exposed to the hunters’ attacks. As such, you’ll probably only want to use this move in narrow spaces when you’ve got enough armor to absorb the damage.

Rock Throw works pretty well with Leap Smash. Once you’ve scattered the hunters with a well-aimed boulder, close the gap between yourself and the enemies with Leap Smash and wreak some havoc on them.

Leap Smash

The Leap Smash ability launches the Goliath high up into the air before he lands back into the ground with a devastating attack. This attack is particularly useful for the Goliath as you’ll be able to cover a pretty large distance and get to the hunters quickly. As you upgrade Leap Smash, the damage of the attack will increase, and so too will the area of the splash damage, making it an effective move for crowd control.

You’ll find that Leap Smash comes in handy when you’re dealing with hunters that have the high ground. Hank, the first Support character you unlock in Evolve, has the Orbital Barrage ability that can cause you a world of pain if you’re not paying attention. The upside to this situation is, Hank needs a vantage point to get a good aim with the Orbital Barrage. When playing against a party with Hank in it, it might be a good idea to be aware of his position and Leap Smash your way up to him when he looks like he’s about to unleash Orbital Barrage.

Leap Smash is an all-around useful traversal ability that can allow you to close distances in a short period of time, as well as to get away from your enemies if you’re ever in a pinch.

Fire Breath

Now this is where things start to get interesting. Fire Breath allows Goliath to breathe fire at the hunters (duh). Unfortunately, the attack range of Fire Breath isn’t all that impressive at level 1. If you’re intending to fry a group of hunters quickly and efficiently, you might want to consider maxing out this skill when you can, just so it’ll be effective even at a longer distance.

Fire Breath is a great attack to fall back on when the hunters have you pinned down, or if you’re trapped in a narrow space. You might not always have the time or the armor to hurl a boulder at them with Rock Throw, and this is where Fire Breath comes in. The ability will quickly decimate all opponents within range and give you an opportunity to escape.

There is a downside to this attack, however; Fire Breath will leave the back of the Goliath completely exposed as you execute this attack. So if there are any stray hunters who aren’t in your line of fire, this attack will give them a great opening to attack you from behind. Should you find yourself in such a precarious position, don’t forget that you can always leap away immediately after the attack either with Leap Smash or simply tapping the jump button to safety.

Charge

With Charge, you can rush towards enemies in a straight line and deal a large amount of damage to anyone standing in your way. It’s a great attack for sure, but it requires some precision on your part.

The biggest drawback of Charge is that if your attack misses, Goliath will be left open to attacks for a few seconds before recovering. The chances of you missing the attack are rather high too, considering that the hunters can always dodge out of your way swiftly right before you hit them. When used offensively, Charge can help you knock hunters off a cliff or to break them up if they’re in a cluster.

The biggest appeal of Charge is that it can also be used as a defensive maneuver. Jumping around constantly will quickly deplete Goliath’s stamina and prevent you from making a speedy escape. Just like Leap Smash, Charge is another useful traversal ability that can help you create some distance between yourself and the hunters if you happen to take too much damage.

Killing Hunters as a Goliath in Evolve

As with most of the monsters in Evolve, a lot of the advantage for monster players lies in drawing the hunters into narrow ravines and choke points so that you can deal damage to their entire party in one go. Charge is especially helpful in these instances, as there’ll be little room for the hunters to maneuver, and it’ll be much easier to aim your attacks at them.

As the Goliath is a specialist in close quarters combat, your objective should be to try to attack a good number of them at the same time. Of course, there are certain classes that you should prioritize when engaging with them. The first hunter you should try to target is the Support. Whether it’s Hank, Bucket, or Calbot, they all have abilities that can either deal heavy damage to you, or pinpoint your location for the other hunters.

Hank, in particular, has the shield projector which can protect other hunters for a period of time. By taking him out first, you’ll be removing the first line of defense for the rest of the party. After eliminating the Support, your next focus should be the Medic, as she will no doubt try to make her way to her fallen comrade and revive him. At this point, the Goliath can position himself next to the hunter’s body and fend off the rest with an attack like Fire Breath or Rock Throw.

Once you’ve taken care of the Support and Medic, the Trapper and Assault hunters will be left pretty much defenseless until the next dropship arrives. If things should go south in your skirmish with the hunters, don’t forget to utilize the Goliath’s traversal abilities like Leap Smash and Charge. You have the ability to jump from one high point to another, and you can easily use this to your advantage whenever you need to disengage from a fight.

Of course, this is just one of many strategies that you can employ when playing as the Goliath. Feel free to share any other monster tips you have in the comments section down below.