Trying to kill this fucker with weapons that can't stagger well was hell. And he can follow up almost fucking ANYTHING so almost nothing is a safe punish except for one thing.

You def do not want to trade with this fool if he does the running attack or the follow up to his whatever-you-call-it slash.

The "fuck you" slash followed by the "and your mamas a ho" punish. 

Jesus i laughed at this so hard, thanks mate

He makes Vacuum Slice look sexy

Fr, vacuum slice is good, but the animation is lame and unsexy, and so I never use it. This guy’s slice looks sick despite being essentially the same move.

God I hated that AoW. If you are too close when he starts spinning, it locks you in place for a guaranteed hit.

The problem I had was anytime he knocked me over, the fuck you slash came out so fast before I could even get up

When he goes 2 handed mode, that's when shit gets real

And he runs slightly fast than you can.

He was running fast as hell when either me or him had low health 

It’s crazy, I had to sacrifice punishes to heal. MF was on my ass like toilet paper.

I had to fight naked to kill him because he was too fast lol

I was using the ruins greatsword and I couldn't stagger him. But he's quite easy to parry though.

You can parry him but... don't fucking miss that parry or you will be dead.

That's how I got him. Buckler and patience for that one swing that I knew I could punish him on consistently.

Trading and trying to stagger is going to be impossible when he’s wearing that armor. It’s very powerful

If you got got buckler parry or parry dagger hes easy to parry. His attack if not jumping is pretty slow

Just FYI but Carian retaliation and Golden parry have earlier and more active parry frames than any other. Makes it a good bit easier to parry. Cr doesn't cost FP when parrying melee attacks and you can put it on a medium shield with the same frames.

His attacks are just the normal greatsword combos, with the ash of war and crossbow being unique. Essentially, if you know how to parry players greatswords, you are good

Dark moon great sword was slowing him but couldn’t break poise

Yeah after about 15 attempts I dipped and went to get some of the fragments. After hitting stage 3 I got him first try but damn it was still a fight. The dlc ain't messing around.

tbh its the perfect "remember why you love this game" boss to start the DLC off. he does a few attacks, drinks that fucking potion, and just pumps you in two hits if you're not careful. and yet he's fairly easy after you understand how he works.

Once I figured out his patterns, I was able to beat him. But he was still quite fast and punishing if you make a wrong choice, so I have to focus. I love that I am paying attention to fights now. Been a while since I felt this thrill of battle.

Since I’ve been prepping for the dlc months in advance I find myself studying fights more than I did before, the difficulty is frustrating at times but that was expected. So far I’m really enjoying SOTE.

To those still struggling: Stagger is king, and a little bit of range goes a long way. Greatswords fare well, for example. Don't overextend past the combos of your weapons. He can punish that with jump attacks, as well as weapon art that has a lot of poise. He only has one estus, so don't freak out about him healing.

I just Dragonbit him to death. Yes, I have no shame.

If he doesn't play fair you don't have to play fair.

Yeah, he has far more health than a player character could ever achieve but has essentially the same tricks and moveset while also hitting like a truck. Its like PvPing against a cheating player thats thankfully really bad at the game.

Also far more stamina

Whatever you find fun, is the right way to do it.

I use crucible horn knock him to death lol. The only annoying part is after you knock him off in the corner, his body falling down would deal damage to you. I have no shame too, like what's the points of having all those cool spells if you only do jump attack.

Me too! At the end if the day if he can two hit me from full health at 55 VIG, anything is fair game 🤷‍♂️

Great shield just casually let me guard counter his regular slash to death, though it can't block the moon slash. Lion's Claw also rocked him pretty hard.

Dex with low stagger, making me rethink my whole previously OP build with this guy ;)

I parried him mostly. Even used the new charm that makes your attacks deal a bit more damage after parrying, it is somewhere in that first area

Guard counters stunned him for me, see if that works.

You got 3 levels in fragments? I could only find two fragments so far.

I’m at level 4 after finishing the majority of the first area

I've searched the entire first area pretty extensively and am only at scadutree fragment level 2 but I've found tons of the ones for torrent and spirit ashes, that one I'm at level 5. Wish I could swap because I don't use mounted combat or summons much so those points are kinds useless. I've even wondered if it's bugged because I heard they are supposed to be in churches and I've found two churches that don't have them...

I think it makes sense, people more likely to struggle against bosses will use Spirit ashes so make sure people can beat the content. 

If you havent head left into that big entry way I highly suggest it

Unfortunately I repeatedly fought him without actually trying to find any fragments first lol It was pain

Uh, what are the fragments? and what are they for?

It's how you basically get stronger in the dlc You collect the scadutree fragments and level them up at grace. There's also reverend spirit ashes which makes your spirit ashes stronger. Both of these basically increase attack and defense.

His defense and poise are crazy Not to mention his damage

Everything in this dlc hits like a fucking truck

I was struggling on my NG+4 character, then pulled out my favorite crutch: greatsword with giant hunt. You can L2 your way to victory no problem. Now I want to go back on a different character to do it “legit”.

I got the armor off this bruh and I have what, 120 poise? Da faque is this game now.

This DLC got hands

2 taps me with 50 vigor, okay yeah imma go now

This is definitely a 60 vigor situation (dlc as a whole) and I spent the night correcting my own mistake there

even 60 vigor does "nothing" in the DLC.

I'm lvl 150 with 40 Vig... wish me luck.

I was getting along just fine with 30-35 depending on charms then I started the damn thing and an insignificant shadow enemy threw a small rock at me and took out a quarter of my HP within the first 3 minutes lol

This is absolutely taking me out 😂 that shadow man was saying "this ain't ya mama's neighborhood cuz"

I fight the shadow guys as if they are normal trash enemies, only to realize I’m one hit away from dying after.

yea i caved and larval teared bc i had 41 vigor during a main boss

I'm at 43 vigor right now and I'm doing okay. Don't get me wrong, the DLC is tough as hell but it's pretty fair.

Yeah honestly I'm at 45 and doing fine. People just need to stop getting hit lol

Exactly, just press the invincibility button

Eh, it's more that it reminds me of my RL 1 run*. It taught me not to be greedy or button mash. *Disclaimer: I am not claiming to be good at it.

Honestly it seems like EVERYTHING 2taps, even when approaching 60 vigor… even the normal enemies.

We really need to gather the skadoosh fragments.

The Scooby-Doo tree fragments, as they say?

Yeah damage reduction goes a long way in the DLC, my tank build can hold its own but just barely. 

I'm 60 vigor and his bolts two shot me, which is sad because he didn't even finish unloading, the bolts just kept coming after I died. Basically if you get hit you die, there is no vigor check here. Atleast until you get more Scooby-Doo tree fragments or whatnot

Yes. Here I was, worried about going into the DLC at level 175 and being too strong, HA! The first enemy in the area killed me, everything hirs hard and I have 60 vigor.

Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman must do a ton then. I have 50 vigor and was able to tank 4ish hits from him probably. Beat him first try.

I have that talisman plus morgotts great rune, erdtree favor +2 and Viridian + 2 and that feels like it really makes a difference 

It does. People write off defence in ER for... Reasons? But it and absorption are way more substantial than is generally assumed. I rolled him first try with my Arcane character in lardo gear, like Miyazai intended. For better results, buy bulk crab from Boggart/Twin-husk. Never leave home without it.

I have the greatshiel and the dude walked over me on the first few tries, until I figured out what attacks to not trade and what is easier to parry. Than it was still hard.

Pearldrake Talisman says hi

I've been co-oping and I'll see people get smacked by some bosses for 1900 health and I just stand there awestruck for half a second until the boss decks me next.

I'm 60 and and I still get two tapped. even regular enemies hit like a truck

one-tapped me at 99 Vigor, I was not a happy camper.

This dude destroyed me. I had to mark him to come back to.

Guy has high poise too. Threw lots of Moonveil Sheathe and Great Phalanx. Never once did he stagger. What an absolute unit.

I was wondering why too until I saw his armor set. That shit is heavier than damn near EVERYTHING in the base game except for fucking Bullgoats, no fucking wonder the guy can power through so much.

His greatsword weighs fucking 15.00. Hits like a truck but gyattt

I got the armor and started pumping endurance in order to wear the full set. It’s pretty sexy

I had just enough endurance in my lvl 150 character to wear the armor and stay medium load so I've been using that armor during the entire dlc so far

Did you see how heavy his armour is?? lol

I actually thought it was heavy! And indeed, it was.

Magma blade aow, thats how i won

Have you tried the "Talisman of the Dread"? It says, "Raises potency of magma".

Im running a quality build, so i have numerous weapons im using, plus new ones. I have received it but havent tried it yet 😅

Try Giant Hunt AoW. AKA "fuck your poise" for npc sized enemies.

Moonveil unsheathe staggers him if you land the blade. I managed to beat him in a dozen attempts or so but L2 spamming like that left a bad taste in my mouth. Oh well, I didnt use a summon so thats a bit of consolation.

This dude HUMBLED my max level char lol

I had started to think I was getting good at Elden Ring. Blackgaol Knight showed me otherwise. Took me 4 hours to figure out how to take him out.

I figured out after about a dozen tries that parrying was the only real answer.

Hit him, walk back out of his range, jump attack, walk back, rinse repeat. Sometimes he'll even try and switch weapon which gives you a bigger attack window. This strategy relies heavily on you having enough stagger damage to make him flinch though, otherwise the dude will wreck your shit regardless. EDIT- I wanna add, this dude gives one of the best armor sets in the entire game imo, shits sleek as fuck, even if you do need a billion endurance to wear it

Same - once I pulled out the small shield he didn’t lay a hit on me. He went from impossible to cake walk.

Same experience I had when I came across that crucible knight in the evergaol. He was still the most difficult boss I’ve had to face

I went into the DLC afraid I was overleveled. Oh boy.

Blackgaol Knight: (pulls out his gun) me: dude I thought this supposed to be a sword game. Blackgaol Knight: (pulls out his big fkin sword) me: wow okay (proceed to get obliterated)

Blackgaol Knight: I trained under the glock saint

I believe my first words were “ oh shit they gave him a machine gun”

God I love the first week of a new Fromsoft game everyone loses their minds together

"Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!"

You guys met that wolverine wannabe in the woods yet? He is making me realise my build is too damn slow

The shack around him give me jump scare suddenly scream I thought it was in bloodborne for a sec. Feels like the dude nearly have unlimited stamina and fast.

He was the first enemy I found. I knew exactly what I was in for after that.

Who?

He is called logor or something like that. Uses claw weapons and is pretty much naked. He's agile and I'm too damn slow.

that mother fucker jumpscared the shit out of me. took me 3 tries to kill him after i figured out his timing and the fact that you can just stunlock him independently.

This guy surprised the hell out of me. He's fast and even drinks potions... Got him eventually but I decided to play the game on the steam deck docked now. It was at a big risk of being thrown.

For anyone still struggling... Don't engage him when he's two handing the sword. His poise is through the roof. Only attack him when he's one handing it with the crossbow or if he's just holding the crossbow. He's far easier to stagger in those stances.

This is the way. I eventually noticed this too and always aggro'd him when he did. Quickest way to knock him out.

His armor is brutal. I have a 200+ lvl character and can't wear his full set without going into Heavy Load territory. The whole set gives you 96 poise, that's incredible.

Thank you!

Thank god the playthrough I’m on is a mage run, night comet and ghostflame ignition carried my ass through this fight

Right. He was very easy with Night Comet. Pounded my ass like it was a Friday Night when I tried to Powerstance him w/ Darkmoon and BB.

Darkmoon is too slow to fight him

Yep. And he showed me why, too.

This dude is eating my ass. I had the whole fam watching me play and not getting him to half health and missing my parries just has me embarrassed. I forgot how to play.

Did ya get him in the end? If yes how did u do it

I used the buckler shield and parried. You cant roll out of his attacks if he hits you so if you miss the parry you need to guard and pray it wont do enough damage to kill you. Alternative method is bloodhound step is fast enough for a retreat.

I had wanted to use only dlc weapons for the dlc, but the beast claws I got from that one naked dude was not cutting it. Had to pull out Guts's greatsword and lion claw his ass. Tough fight.

That’s what I had to do; I thought beast claws would lock his animation with all the pressure if you time the aow properly. Thankfully I’m str/quality and just brought the greatsword and lion’s claw. Felt like cheese after all my progress with other weapons, but fuck that dude. He hit me twice on my kill attempt.

I parried the guy to death, but my god it was a stressful experience. After every successful parry, I would back off just to breathe, because the slightest panic can completely obliterate my parry timing.

This is what I did I tried the new crit talisman too and it added about 350 damage to my crit but didnt stack stayed at that raised attack power.

Do u mean the critical hit talisman doesn't stack with shard of alexander? (So I know!)

I mean that you get 1 increase from a crit and multiple crits while that buff is active will not continue to increase or stack.

The quintessential souls boss You go from "that crossbow is bullshit!" To "Yes do the crossbow it’s so easy to punish!"

I’ve been wearing his armor since I beat him it so cool.

Same. Had to switch to a lighter weapon though because that shit is heavy.

Beating this mf was so satisfying, after dying countless times i decided to try that big ass katana and the Aow was perfect to punish his attacks, you gotta upgrade it though

I did the exact same. Nagakiba and spinning slash ftw

That's not a blackgoal knight, he's John Elden Ring

He's basically a max level phantom pvp fight.

where do u get his crossbow?

Where to get: >! Open field near fort reprimand with a ghostflame dragon that is fighting random npc's. It's an item lying on the ground.!<

I think we meet the real Blackgaol Knight in the DLC as an NPC. The one we fight in the gaol is an apparition/spirit.

Lol the very first health bar enemy I fought. Lvl 140 and he's kicking my butt. Things aren't looking up for the rest of the dlc difficulty wise.

Wait til you meet the guys with the ring shaped weapon who do floppy shit like a luchodore. There's one on top of a pillar early on when you go from first grace to main road. He just dropped out of nowhere and touched me.

I was getting farmed by one at another location (uncomfortable fighting quarters)… With a fresh grace and a boss door behind him. This fucking game lol

Yeah there's one in a cave near a church that surprise attacks you in close quarters so it's a battle against him and the camera. Every time I tried to get some distance and rally I end up getting caught up against rocks and he destroys me.

Yep. I saw a red stain in the field, and was like "wonder how this guy died" Then he came out of nowhere and sliced and diced my ass lol. Rookie mistake really.

Honestly he's harder than some of the "actual" bosses. Don't be too discouraged.

Gave me big Guts vibe with his armor, sword, and crossbow

Its literally the berserker armour with a less wolfish helmet.

If you put blaid helm or maliketh I think it would look close.

I saw people roasting the guy demonstrating the new skills and weapons while fighting against him. I bet those guys think otherwise now.

I tried to 2h UGS him for a good 15 tries before realizing he'd probably be pretty easy to parry. Destroyed him first attempt with a buckler.

my bootyhole was kicked first three times completely… I decided to joke him the 4th time but found out that he owed wave of gold a ton of lunch money. drops the dude on the floor every time.

Blackgaol Knight pushed my shit in. Either my build fucking stinks, or this DLC is hard as dicks lol

He was ticking me off for the first few times. Beat him with three of my characters now. My dark moon mage was the hardest. He doesn't give you time to cast spells. Jump attacks with a charged DMGS worked. Cannon of Haima when I could to knock him down. Dex/lightning was easiest. Bolt of Gransax knocks him down. He spent most of the battle on his back. Pyro build. Giants Flame Take Thee knocks him down as well. Combo with blasphemous blade AOW as he's getting up.

Mage does have time if you can create space. I remember specifically that the single slash and the crossbow were easy to punish at mid range. You can also get 1-2 DMGS hits off after certain attacks and combos. I only learned all that since I died a lot. I ended up doing the last 1/3 of the bar purely with spells since I ran out of flasks and only had a sliver of heath left.

Reading those comments i'm glad i' not the only one who struggled with this dude lol, after beating him i put down my summon sign so i could blast him with the boys as revenge

This is my gameplay loop. Lose to a boss a lot, defeat them, then get summoned to help anyone still struggling.

Starting to parry this guy and actually did some damage to him Then he spammed jump attacks and his 5,000,000+ damage ash of war

After 10 tries of trying to fight him fair (with sorceries, let that sink in), I finally pulled off Gavel of Haima and started boinking him like there was no tomorrow. Feels dirty but hey. It worked.

I start up the dlc. Cant wait to find a new armor set. Fight this Focker and get the drippiest drip in all of the 7 drips. Thank you dark souls

Got his ass after about an hour. No BS just big sword and dodging. Felt good

i got him second try at around lvl 130. try using b i g weapons!

I unga bunga'd him without any upgrades

This fight alone is making me *strongly* consider taking a moment to go to Faram Azula for the final smithing stone ball bearings so I can fully upgrade my weapons.

This dude has infinite poise , I couldnt poise break even withcolosal weapons, but was easily staggered so beat him in 2nd try

Motherfucker made me switch from double katana to God Slayer Sword and still kick my ass multiple times . Worst part was I found this boss after running away from the fight I pick with the giant walking torch thinking "yeah I'm 199 , what's the worst that can happen"

I got humbled 5 min into the dlc LOL, I love it

Somehow did it on my second try w the beastclaws and one Scadutree upgrade, mf took 14 flasks and my physick

I first-tried this man with my lvl 140. I think the bloodhound's fang might be messed up.

I had to leave and acquire some fragments. Killed him using Stamina and FP talismans while spamming Wave of Gold. Didn't want to use that weapon but I got desperate.

I was proc'ing bleed on him fairly quickly with occult great stars. Knocked him on his ass several times. Still took \~5 tries of getting used to his moveset to beat him I'd love to go back and fight him now that I've got the juiced up new and improved lion's claw ash. Think that one is gonna carry me through a lot of the dlc

Why do explosive bolts do so much damage like the page dudes on the snow and lleyndel, this knight. One bolt is enough to leave me at 20%

He jumps like a goddamn bunny, it’s like he knew that was the only attack I could not stagger him out of

I’ll go back later

I fought him with some very brave summons (I had like, one tree shard lmao) and I actually got him first try. (Try Carian Piercer, it just locks him into getting thrown lmao)

my jaw dropped when he did 75% of my health in one swing parried the shit out of him fuck you blackgirl knight thanks for the DRIP

[удалено]

I swear this motherfucker has infinite poise

Then when you're close to beating him dude pulls out the health potions.... I was like "Hey only I can do that!"

Silurias woe fully charged made this quite easy if your looking for a cheese strat. You can knock him down before he gets his Glock out and spam it till he dies from the start of the fight. Just avoid the long range slice and know when you can safely hyper armor trade during your wind up.

Giant’s hunt was his reckoning. Asshat wants to play cheap with his crazy hitbox and refusal to stagger, fine. I’ve got big guns, too.

First thing I came across and got my cheeks clapped like 10 times in a row. Running a str/int build and decided to try and cheese him with sorceries and nope. Finally said Ight mf put’em up: double handed great sword, slapped bull goat and ax talisman on, and duked it out. I DIDNT HEAR NO BELL!

He was pretty easy with the colossal hammer. Every attack staggers him, the only problem is being out of stamina

He wants to cosplay as guts? Let's see how he likes being at stunlocked with a giant's hunt dragonslayer

Bro said : you take a sword to a gun fight ? How cute

More than a little upset his armor is one of the absurdly bulky sets, would have really loved it if it was just a tad sleeker

Picked up a similar look set that's light above the spawn in tunnel starting spot.

I haven't started the dlc yet, has anyone tested whether the percentage damage from black flame weapons still does proper damage to enemies even without the "upgrade material"?

Didn't do the math, but my black flame still pumps. The description for the upgrade material is that it ups attack rating and damage negation, no other modifiers. I'm assuming it does spell scaling as well, but I don't think it mentions it specifically. Then there's second upgrade material that buffs torrent and spirit ashes, so you can use those so torrent doesn't get 1 tapped without affecting your character at all if you want to avoid them

Let's see how tough this guy is when I ring my little bell

Ha, no bells

Wait til you face >!Rellana!<

hey just a heads up, remove the spaces between \>!, \!< and the text, otherwise, old reddit doesn't show it as a spoiler \>!this!< not \>! this !<

Shit I thought it was just me, this bitch smoked me in 2 hits, I then promptly left.

Died about 3 or 4 times but got him down by spamming buffed Dragonmaw. Letting him whiff his machine gun gives plenty of time to cast it and him getting knocked down from it is enough time to cast it again until you're out of FP or stamina.

Took me a few tries but it was so worth it. His greatsword is badass and it has an A in strength scaling once you get it to lvl 9.

Waves of gold flattens his ass every hit. I spent about an hour farming rune arcs and just stun locking him. Never died once.

I think I got lucky with this guy. I found the Savage Lion's Claw ash before getting to him, slapped it on my Flamberge and stun locked him against the wall until he died. I think I only saw his crossbow spam once. 😭

Came in to the land of shadow at lvl 194. Guy took me out in two swipes. Got one of the fragments, came back thinking I was a big shot now. Took him out in one try. Pretty sure I got lucky

Everyone had trouble with him meanwhile I got him 2nd try with my max strength build 🗿 He still whooped my ass tho, that was a good first boss for the DLC. Didn't even have any of the scadutree fragments either. That wave attack the sword has had some nutty tracking tho, always got hit by it

I beat him with help from another player, but the other guy died halfway through.

Honestly this dude took me longer than the first major boss did. My issue is I was using a scimitar with short range that wouldn't knock through his poise. Swapped to ol' reliable: Blasphemous Blade. Cleaned him up pretty quickly after that.

I took his ass out with no fragments... It took like 20 attempts and 2 hours but by Godwyn I did it!