Headless Rider / Iron Cavalry Assault Complete Guide: Blue-Flame Motorcycle Raging Flames Arc, Night-Time Trigger, Psyche-Element Tactics

Key Answer: The Headless Rider / Iron Cavalry Assault (Ride Assault) is the Anomaly-warrant Boss on the Coastal Highway in the Interbridge District, and the first clear guarantees the Raging Flames Arc (the only blue-flame motorcycle cosmetic Arc in the whole game). Two trigger conditions: night (not daytime; setting the clock to 00:00 is simplest) + drive a four-wheeled car; tracking the warrant only marks the route and is not required. Weakness Psyche (note the Boss weakness Psyche ≠ the Arc’s Plasma element). One HP bar, with an extra Clone Charge below 50% HP; Tire Crush is the parry signal. Recommended Psyche team: Aurelia + Esper Zero + Haniel + Sakiri.

ℹ Note on the data: the highway is Z42. Warrant Boss levels scale with your own level, which is why sites quote different numbers; only the High-Risk version is fixed, from Lv 45. Reward values are best checked in-game.

A blue-flaming, headless, scythe-wielding ghost-fire motorcycle cruising the Coastal Highway at high speed deep in the night — the Headless Rider is NTE’s most cinematic Boss fight, and it drops the only Arc in the whole game that changes your vehicle’s appearance, “Raging Flames.” This article rounds up the trigger conditions, moveset, parry signals, and Psyche team all in one place.

1. What Is the Headless Rider

Background: Drawn from the classic “Headless Horseman” urban legend (the Western Headless Horseman / the Japanese Dullahan). In NTE it is realized as a blue-flaming, headless, scythe-wielding ghost-fire motorcycle that cruises the Coastal Highway at high speed deep in the night. The player “runs into” this urban legend while driving, and after following it is pulled into an Anomaly space to fight.

2. Unlock / Trigger Conditions (the most common sticking point)

⚠️ Two hard requirements

Tracking the “Iron Cavalry Assault” warrant is not required; it only marks the route and makes the spot easier to find.

Location (defer to the in-game map)

• Region: Interbridge District (the warrant is listed there; the Boss list files it under Unheard Shore), south of Wertheimer Tower
• Road: Coastal Highway (Z42), near the Foxwindow Street / Half-Form Street junction

Trigger steps (step by step)

1. (Optional) Accept/track "Iron Cavalry Assault" → fast-travel to Wertheimer Tower
2. Leave the tower heading south → turn right on the road → up the stairs past the basketball court → vault the wall and glide down to the road ahead
3. Set the time to night (for example 00:00), summon a four-wheeled car, and drive from east to west
4. A blue-flaming ghost-fire motorcycle appears ahead = trigger succeeded
5. Follow it west without passing it → entering the tunnel takes you into the Anomaly space

Driving notes: you do not need to manage the distance, and there is no “Target Locked” mechanic. The rider waits for slow vehicles and the road is a straight line, so you will not lose it; the only thing to avoid is driving past it.

Level: the warrant version of the Boss scales with your level. The High-Risk version starts at Lv 45.

3. Element and Weakness

• Weakness element: Psyche — agreed across all sources; Psyche-element attacks break the stagger gauge faster
• Resistance: no clear resistance is listed, so treat it as having no special damage reduction and just hit the weakness

⚠️ Important clarification: the Boss’s weakness is “Psyche”; the “Raging Flames” Arc it drops is itself a “Plasma” signature weapon (Hathor’s). These are two different concepts, do not confuse them — bring a Psyche-weakness team to fight the Boss, not Plasma characters.

4. Moveset

The move multipliers are unpublished on all sites; defer to in-game. This Boss has one HP bar and no separate phases; the only threshold is that below 50% HP it gains one extra move, the Clone Charge.

High-Risk difficulty: from difficulty III the combo gains extra moves, the warning cue disappears, and a fire tornado is added.

Parryable vs Dodge-Only

• Parryable: the second hit of the combo is Tire Crush, and Tire Crush itself is not the parry target but the signal — when the red warning appears, parry the next hit (the third); the last slash of Flame Drift → Charge Slash can also be parried
• Dodge only: the aerial charge, the triple scythe sweep, the clone charges; and the combo whenever no warning appears

5. Drop Rewards

The first clear always drops the S-rank Arc “Raging Flames” (the core selling point). The rewards come in two separate sets:

One-time warrant rewards

Farming afterwards through Anomaly Hunt

After the first clear you can fast-travel straight to it (no need to wait for night and drive). Each run costs 60 Character Pixels, with no weekly limit. Drops:

• Charging Knight Spark Plug: 5 at Appraisal 2, 7 at Appraisal 4-6, 8 at Appraisal 7
• Hunter EXP, Beetle Coins, Arcane Thread

High-Risk version

Unlocks at Hunter Level 24, from Lv 45. Each difficulty’s first clear gives Annulith 30, Danger Hunt Medals 30 and Fons 3,600.

⭐ Blue-Flame Motorcycle Cosmetic Bonus (the exclusive selling point)

When the character wearing “Raging Flames” rides a motorcycle in the open world, the “blue ghost-flame” exclusive dynamic effect appears (the whole bike is wrapped in blue flame plus a blue-flame trail). It is the only Arc in the entire game (so far) that changes a vehicle’s appearance.

• Motorcycles only: scooters and cars do not get it. The Rover A1 given in the prologue is a scooter; the cheapest motorcycle is sold at Regalia
• The wearer has to be the one riding: Hathor does not switch back to the Rover when she rides, so she is the easiest to see it on; other Plasma characters must be in your party and on the field
• The Arc adds Lakshana-element damage (not “Plasma damage”)

Who can use it

Raging Flames is Hathor’s signature weapon. Other Plasma characters (Nanally, Aurelia, Linko) can equip it too, but the Lakshana damage bonus does nothing for them; Nanally has her own signature weapon, Ready-Ready.

For full Arc details, see the Hathor Complete Build Guide.

6. Recommended Teams (Psyche Weakness)

Core idea: stack a Psyche-element Main DPS + elemental reactions + healing / res-shred.

Free-to-play Psyche Main DPS Team (hits the weakness) ⭐

Aurelia (Psyche, burst Main DPS) + Esper Zero (Cosmos, triggers reactions) + Haniel (Psyche, off-field / mob grouping) + Sakiri (Incantation, mob grouping + buff)

This team needs no spending. Psyche-element characters break the stagger gauge faster and deal the most effective weakness damage. If survival is tight, swap Sakiri for Adler (shield + res-shred). If you did not pull Haniel, you can substitute Fadia (also Psyche).

Advanced: Blackbird Psyche Main DPS Team

Blackbird (Psyche, the Psyche Main DPS since 1.4, T0, not currently pullable) + Daffodill + Haniel (or Fadia) + Sakiri

Blackbird is not currently pullable; without her, use the free-to-play team above.

Jiuyuan + Esper Zero + Hathor + Fadia

The combination GameWith recommends. The Boss moves around a lot, so the Genesis plant’s auto-tracking is very handy.

Hathor Pairing Team (built around Raging Flames)

Hathor (Plasma, motorcycle burst Sub-DPS) + Esper Zero + Aurelia (Psyche, weakness Main DPS) + Fadia (support / survival)

Hathor’s Ultimate “Rider Express” enters and triggers the 5-second Emergency Delivery burst, and Raging Flames’ “enhanced Cyclone Strike after the Ultimate” syncs perfectly with that rhythm; Aurelia fills in the Psyche weakness damage.

7. Combat Tips

Three Steps to Reliably Trigger It

1. Make sure the garage is unlocked (City Tycoon Lv 2) and set the time to night (straight to 00:00 is simplest); for convenience you can also accept and track “Iron Cavalry Assault” first, which marks the route
2. Summon a four-wheeled car and drive east to west south of Wertheimer Tower
3. After spotting the blue-flame motorcycle, keep following it west (do not pass it) until the tunnel takes you into the Anomaly space

Boss-Fight Tactics

• Opening: dodge backward from the scythe sweep; dodge the triple sweep and fire trails laterally, and do not stand on a trail since it explodes a few seconds later
• Combo: when the second hit, Tire Crush, shows the red warning, parry the third hit to stagger it → focus fire; with no warning, dodge
• Below 50% HP: the Clone Charge is added; dodge when the blue telegraph on the ground thins and glows, and stay clear of the explosion points left behind
• Another parry chance: the last slash of Flame Drift → Charge Slash can be parried too

Driving Tips

You do not need to manage distance: the rider waits for slow vehicles and the road is straight, so hold a steady throttle and follow west to the tunnel. The only thing to avoid is passing it.

8. Common Beginner Mistakes

1. Going in daytime — it will not trigger; it has to be night, and setting the clock straight to 00:00 is simplest
2. Riding a motorcycle there — it does not work! Motorcycle / scooter / on foot all fail, you must use a four-wheeled car (the most frequent mistake)
3. No car yet — the garage unlocks at City Tycoon Lv 2
4. Driving ahead of the rider — do not pass it; just follow behind it west
5. Wrong direction — you must drive east to west along the Coastal Highway
6. Confusing the elements — bring a Psyche weakness team to fight the Boss; Plasma is the Arc’s element, not the Boss weakness
7. Treating Tire Crush as the parry target — it is only the signal; what you parry after the red warning is the next hit

9. Related Guides

• Anomaly Boss Complete Bestiary — overview of the Anomaly Bosses
• Serenetti Complete Guide / Mammon Complete Guide — other popular Bosses
• Hathor Complete Build Guide — the owner of Raging Flames
• Vehicles Complete Guide — motorcycles and the blue-flame effect
• Signature Weapon (Signature Arc) Complete Guide — full Raging Flames comparison
• Elemental Reaction System — Genesis / Overwrite reactions

FAQ

Headless Rider data is compiled from public sources including Game8, GameWith, Entertainment Taxi, Bahamut, 4Gamers, HN PlayNews, Loot Buddy, and others. Reward values differ slightly across sites — defer to in-game; the move multipliers are officially unpublished.