Councilor Vay Hek

Councilor Vay Hek is the final boss in the Earth system. He is found on the mission Everest. When killed, he has a chance of dropping a blueprint for Trinity Helmet, Trinity Chassis, or Trinity Systems, as well as a chance of dropping Neurodes.

In Update 9.5.2 he was bugged and did not drop his usual loot, which was dropping from Grineer Commanders instead. This bug was fixed in Update 9.5.3.

Appearance and Abilities
Vay Hek has dark grey armor and uses the Hek shotgun, resembling a more dangerous Grineer Trooper in combat. Also similar to his Trooper subordinates, he tends to employ hit-and-run tactics in combat as opposed to the head-on assault of most bosses.

Offensively, his shotgun is much more powerful than Troopers' and can deal over 60 damage per shot at close range as well as having a high fire rate. He can also occasionally throw a grenade inaccurately that can deal around 100 damage.

Defensively, his personal shield has decent capacity, a high recharge rate and very low delay. He also appears smarter than most grunts, and will much more actively switch positions and take cover to avoid being easily hosed with bullets. In addition, Hek's armor is extremely high, which will reduce a lot of damage from non-armor pierce or armor ignore weapons.

In addition, he has the ability to make multiple level 1 duplicates of himself. He also can't be knocked down by heavy weapon ground slams like that of the Fragor. Although some powers can knock him down for about a second and a half.

Councilor Vay Hek, like many bosses, has unique taunts. Here is a list of them:


 * "Grineer foreign policy starts and ends at the tips of my plasma grenade!"
 * "Can't we all just get along? Come give your Uncle Hek a hug!"
 * "You think I'm ugly? Wait till I'm through with you, (player name)!"
 * "Oh look, it says you are next on my hit-list, (player name)!"

Strategy
The fight with the Councilor takes place in a massive cavern with several platform areas lining the walls. Make your way around the outer platforms and steamroll the Grineer troops before engaging the Councilor. If your team includes snipers, use this time to set up position. There is little cover on the main platform; only three closely placed crates.

Due to his shield's high recharge speed, a rifle with high fire rate is crucial to removing it quickly.

Vay Hek's armor is incredibly tough. Even a full team can burn through all ammunition long before his armor gives. Though equipping extra ammo boxes helps, a mid-range firefight is tricky: his gun eats through shields rapidly out in the open. To counter this, it is advised to use a Boltor or Bolto, as bolts have innate 100% armour pierce. It may be hard to hit with though since Hek moves around a lot, so it is advised that at least one to two teammates use other rifles like the Gorgon.

Hek tends to use guerilla warfare by hiding and shifting positions around the two black boxes located on one side of the central stage. A good solo strategy is to hide on the other side of the boxes from where he's hiding and blast him whenever he pops out of cover, using the boxes yourself to regenerate your own shields whenever severely damaged. Mag can use Bullet Attractor to hit him when he is hiding. As well as enableing him to be hit while hiding, Bullet Attractor with Excalibur's Radial Javelin can kill Hek in one or two uses, especially when you have supplementary fire from other teammates. As with most bosses, Decoy and Molt are great for soaking up Vay Hek's attacks, although large amounts of energy might be required to maintain them throughout the fight and he will still seek cover if under heavy fire.

Melee is a good strategy instead, as he has no shockwave stomp attack. Draw him out of cover, circle him closely to avoid his shots, and pepper him with charged attacks. Your proximity keeps him from running to cover to recharge his shield, granting snipers a clear shot. Armor-piercing mods for guns and melee weapons are essential if you are not using Boltor, Bolto variations, the Fragor or Dual Ether.

While he usually prefers to stay on his platform, Vay Hek will occasionally leave it and attempt to chase the Tenno around the boss room. This generally makes the fight easier, as the surrounding terrain provides more cover for the Tenno while impeding his own cover-seeking ability.

As of Update 7.9 a side-effect of the shotgun range nerf/damage falloff in this update, councilor Vay Hek's shotgun was hit quite hard. As of this update, it's perfectly possible to beat this boss solo by standing on the ventilation systems on the raised ground overlooking the boss fight platform and sniping with a fast and accurate weapon, such as a properly modded and supercharged level 30 Latron. Vay Hek almost doesn't move when attacked from this position, and the 30 to 40 meters of distance means his otherwise deadly Hek shotgun does laughable damage.

Hek is affected by Vauban's Bastille ability, and will be held suspended helplessly, allowing clean headshots with no retaliation. Councillor Van Hek is a easy target for high level Nova she would first use molecular prime followed by Anti-mattar drop to quickly kill Hek.

Another Strategy

For this you will need kunai with high damage mods, and the kogake. At the start of the boss fight, kill all the goons as usual, and then sprint quickly up to him and knock him down with a kogake charge attack. Then just keep on firing kunai at him, as this will make him glitch on the floor, as if he were wriggling, and he will only start to get up when you are not kunai-ing him. To keep this effect going, just keep kunai-ing him until he is dead. This is quite and easy tactic, as he will only get you 2/3 times with his shotgun before he is knocked down.

Trivia

 * Vay Hek was the toughest Grineer boss before Update 6, which introduced Lieutenant Lech Kril.
 * Vay Hek was targeted for assassination by Lotus as he is a corrupt diplomat who has assassinated multiple political opponents and is a hindrance to the stability of the system.
 * His shotgun is, fittingly, the Hek.
 * He is also one of the more humorous bosses in the game, with taunts such as "Grineer foreign policy starts and ends at the tips of my plasma grenade!" and "Can't we all just get along? Come give your Uncle Hek a hug!".
 * It seems that while Vay Hek's armor color was changed, his decoys were not updated, meaning that his decoys are now yellow while he himself is dark gray, making the decoys even easier to identify.
 * Oddly, during the lobby cinematic, Hek's decoy is shown instead. This is the only lobby screen, besides General Sargas Ruk which seems to show a Scorch wearing his helmet, that has something out of place.
 * Vay Hek seems to be the only boss with grammar issues, such as when he says:  "oh look, it says you are next on my hit-list", the 'O' isn't capitalized, as it should be. (As of 9.4.1, it is still  grammatically incorrect.)