Where the fight happens and what to bring
Bitores Mendez is the chief of the village — the guy who stares at you across the dinner table in chapter 1 and finally fights you in the lava barn at the end of chapter 6. He's the first real "puzzle boss" in the Remake: there's a correct way to use the room, and brute-forcing him with handgun rounds will get you killed.
Walking into the barn — go to the merchant first. If you haven't upgraded your shotgun's damage since Chapter 4, this is the time. Mendez phase 2 rewards burst damage, not sustain.
Phase 1 — Humanoid Mendez
He starts on the ground floor as a normal-sized humanoid. He's tanky but his attacks are telegraphed.
- Lunge grab: he winds up by stepping back. Sidestep right and pump 2–3 shotgun shells into his head as he recovers.
- Overhead slam: big windup. Step back, shoot once for the stagger, follow with a melee.
- Flash grenade: briefly stuns him. Use one immediately to set up a melee, especially on Hardcore.
Phase 1 ends at roughly half HP. You'll see him crouch and start to transform — this is the most important moment in the fight. Run to the upper floor now. The transformation slam clears the ground floor entirely.
Phase 2 — Stilts Mendez
After transformation he splits at the waist and uses the room itself as terrain. He'll move between floors using the support beams.
The safe pattern, repeatable indefinitely:
- Stand on the upper-floor balcony, opposite the side he's climbing on.
- As he reaches the top, shotgun his head for stagger + chunk damage.
- The moment he starts climbing the side you're on, run around the loop to the opposite side and reset.
- Frag grenades during his transition between floors do major damage — he can't dodge mid-climb.
He's climbing your side — go now. Don't try to squeeze in one more shotgun shell. The damage he does on contact at this range is a one-bar reset on Hardcore.
Use the room
- Oil drums on the ground floor: explode them when Mendez is adjacent for big damage.
- Ceiling planks on the upper floor: shoot the supports while Mendez is below — they fall on his head.
- Herbs and ammo are scattered on both floors. Loot between attack cycles, not during them.
Knife use and parries
The Remake added knife parries. Mendez's overhead slam in phase 1 is parryable with a fully upgraded knife. Don't try to parry the lunge grab — the timing is awkward and the punish for missing is the OHKO grab animation. Save the parry for the slam, which is consistently telegraphed.
What Sidekick AI does in this fight
The fight has two moments where players consistently die: the transformation animation (if you're still on the ground floor) and the stilts climb (if you misread which beam he's on). Sidekick watches the screen and calls both out loud — "transform incoming, get to the stairs" / "he's climbing your side, rotate." That's the difference between farming Mendez and losing 20 minutes of progress.
Summary
Mendez rewards you for using the lava barn the way the level designers built it. Phase 1 is about controlled handgun headshots and flash grenades; phase 2 is about the upper-floor loop and the ceiling drops. Sidekick AI's vision pipeline is genuinely useful here because the fight punishes players for staring at the wrong half of the screen — and the AI never has to glance.