boss battle – Gamer Peak

Mergo’s Wet Nurse: An Unskilled Guide

Most advice on how to beat bosses in FromSoftware games falls into one of three camps. Camp One: Accurate, but very technical, assuming the reader has accrued some amount of skill. Camp Two: “Git gud”. Camp Three is the most nuanced: “What-are-you-talking-about-that-boss-is-easy!”.

With the exception of the Witches, who I repeatedly beat by running around in circles and swinging carefree, I will always acknowledge that all bosses will be difficult to someone. Flukes happen, different attack patterns suit different play-styles, etc.

However, Mergo’s Wet Nurse initially had me rolling my temporarily-smug little eyes. It took two goes to beat a late game boss and with very little stress. Thankfully, I played the game again and she showed me what she can really do. Turns out, she’d been holding back.

Martyr Logarius: An Unskilled Guide

When discussing “what is the hardest boss in Bloodborne?”, you cannot expect the same answer from everyone. If you miss a trick with an ‘easier’ boss, then it will feel harder to you. If someone confidentially claims one boss is hardest, players around them will be quick to agree/offer up who they think is hardest/explain why that boss isn’t actually hard at all.

For a long time, Martyr Logarius was my hardest boss. By the end of the first playthrough, I had not completed the Chalice Dungeons and DLC, and he remained at the top of my list. He was the only one I doubted I could beat on my next playthrough.

Even when I beat him once, I was not confident. By the end of my second win, I knew how I’d beaten him, and I think I can get you there too.

As always, if I can do it so can you!

Amygdala: An Unskilled Guide

When my attempts on a Soulsborne boss reach the double digits, I like many, scan the wiki articles for what I might need to do differently. For the most part, these are only so helpful, because my level skill limits how I might implement the friendly advice.

In the case of Amygdala, I actually needed to ignore the guidance I first read, because it was making things more difficult than it needed to be. As with most bosses, I found a clumsy, simple, brute force method that works. It won’t work every time, in this case, but it’ll get you there eventually.

Darkbeast Paarl – An Unskilled Guide

When you are given advice on a boss in a Souls game, no one ever says how reliable that advice is. You see, some bosses can be definitely and consistently beaten a certain way. Some require a certain method but it is going to take a few goes to get right. And then there are some where the guidance seems solid, but there should be a list of caveats, addendums and warnings attached.

For example, the way I beat Darkbeast Paarl – with my distinct lack of skill – can be replicated. It is however, not necessarily going to be easy to replicate. This boss is a bouncing, trembling, pinballing, camera-shaking, chaos gremlin. The fight can go your way very quickly, but it can just as easily fall apart.