The Rotten |
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| HP | 7,080 | 10,620 (NG+) |
| Weakness | Thrust, Lightning, Bleed, multi-hit AOE attacks |
| Resistance | Strike, Dark, Poison |
| Immune | None |
| Respawn | NO |
The Rotten is a Boss in Dark Souls 2 (DKS2). The Rotten, a grotesque amalgamation of stitched-together corpses, reigns over the ominous Black Gulch. Swinging a massive cleaver, this colossal entity deals devastating blows, featuring a lethal grab attack. Its grotesque form wields a large Butcher's Knife in one arm, while it crawls with the arms of the deceased in the place of its legs. Bosses are unique and challenging Enemies that drop Boss Souls capable of being transformed into powerful Weapons, Spells, and Items for the player.
Dark Souls 2 The Rotten Information
The Rotten is a boss in Dark Souls 2. A hideous monster made of corpses stitched together, that rules the Black Gulch. It carries a large Butcher's Knife in one arm, and crawls using the arms of corpses where its legs would be.
The arms can be cut off to reduce the lethality of the Rotten, preventing it from using the Butcher's Knife. However eventually they will grow back. The left arm will drop a Pharros' Lockstone once cut off.
- The Rotten embraces all, in the sanctuary for all things unwanted or tossed away.
The Rotten Location in Dark Souls 2
- Area boss of the Black Gulch, below The Gutter.
The Rotten Drops in DKS2
- Soul of the Rotten
- Old Dead One's Soul (NG+)
- Souls: 47,000 (Standard Game) - 94,000 (NG+) 117,500 (NG++)
Dark Souls 2 The Rotten Attacks
Description |
Counter Measures |
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| Forward Slash | The Rotten slashes straight forward as many as three times with its Butcher's Knife. | - Rolling to its left could be a viable option. - Blocking could be a viable option. |
| Horizontal Slash | The Rotten slashes once horizontally with its Butcher's Knife. (Note: The Horizontal Slash has two versions: One from right to left, and another from left to right at a slight upward angle. | - Rolling to the opposite direction of swing could be a viable option. - Blocking could be a viable option. |
| Pummel | The Rotten pounds the ground with its left fist if the player is close. | - Rolling could be a viable option. |
| Side Pummel | The Rotten pounds both fists, in succession, into the ground at its sides. | - It's possible to run/roll towards its back/front and land a few hits. |
| Grab | The Rotten swings its left hand when in close range to grab the player. Cannot be blocked. | - Rolling could be a viable option. |
| Sludge Wave | The Rotten slams its Butcher Knife into the ground to shoot out a cone-shaped projectile of sludge. | |
| Acid Spit | The Rotten grabs its chest and spits out ball of acid a couple meters in front of him. Can spit twice very quickly. | - Just keep some distance. |
| AOE Blast | The Rotten charges then releases a high-damaging Dark AOE blast 360° around him. | - Run as fast as possible! - As a last resort, block the explosion with whatever you have at hand. It may mean the difference between life and death. - It's possible to dodge through the explosion. |
| Forward Slash + AOE Blast | The Rotten charges his cleaver with the same energy from the AOE Blast. First he swings the cleaver vertically, and then the AOE blast occurs on the location of impact. Used when low on health. |
Souls Awarded
| Bonfire Intensity | Souls Awarded |
| 1 | 47,000 |
| 2 | 94,000 |
| 3 | 117,500 |
| 4 | 129,250 |
| 5 | 141,000 |
| 6 | 152,750 |
| 7 | 164,500 |
| 8 | 188,000 |
- No changes to souls awarded beyond Bonfire Intensity 8.
NPC Summons
Lucatiel of Mirrah
Lucatiel of Mirrah can be summoned for this fight, provided the player has exhausted her dialogue in the hidden pathway in the Black Gulch. Her summon sign is located near the Hidden Chamber.
Lucatiel, as in all of her appearances, can be very useful during this fight by distracting the boss. She will not do a large amount of damage, but she does have a vast health pool and can withstand a pretty good beating while the player deals damage to the Rotten.
Lone Hunter Schmidt
Lone Hunter Schmidt can be summoned for this fight. His summon sign is located before the Razorback Nightcrawlers, near jars.
Schmidt is not especially durable and doesn't do very much damage, but he can still be useful as a distraction while the player attacks.
Bashful Ray
Bashful Ray can be summoned as a Shade between the two Razorback Nightcrawlers near Lone Hunter Schmidt's sumon sign.
Strategies
Wear light armor with the Old Leo Ring and use a thrusting weapon (for example, a Rapier). Since his attacks are very slow, there is a larger window to take advantage of the Leo Ring's counterattack damage bonus. Roll from his attacks and just jab away but keep an eye on your stamina. Keep in the middle so the flames can't hit you.
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Arm chopping strategy
Using a weapon with an arcing overhead attack can make it easier to remove his limbs. A Bastard Sword one handed heavy attack (R2 on PS3 and RT on Xbox) was effective at doing this and caused heavy damage. If an arm is lost he will still try to attack with it but it will be meaningless to the player. If left alone for too long he will regrow the limb.
Keep load weight under 55% for effective dodge rolls. Armor not necessary, shield should be used for absorbing minor damage taken.
Line boss up with a pathway that has no fire pits either behind or in front of you, utilize this as your fighting area (as if on a narrow bridge). KEEP A LOOK OUT for overhead swinging attacks, you need to be vigilant and notice when he's readying his swing. After most attacks you will have 1 or 2 hit window in which you can hit and immediately dodge or walk backwards to avoid damage. *Suggestion, when boss uses Acid Spit use it to utilize heavy hits.
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Easy spell strategy
Equip Lion armor for casting speed buff, priest hoodie really helps to get more spellcasts. Any type of magic works, you have to be a little bit good at pulling off dodges, just don't be afraid. In particular, Soul Vortex is incredibly effective due to his large frame allowing the vortex to hit many times. Bait him to attack if needed, be aware and watch your bars. Check the second video for the kill footage.
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Poke strategy
Wear light armor, and wield a very long ranged fast melee weapon, such as a spear, lance, or Halberd. Walk close to him and bait an attack, then quickly back up to evade it, rolls aren't necessary and can even be dangerous. While using light armor simply sprinting back should be enough to dodge his attacks. After he attacks poke him for some damage, heal, or get away from walls. This strategy is great for dodging every attack he has except cone wave, which can either be blocked by a powerful shield or dodged, though be mindful of the fire pits. Please note; locking on to this boss is a bad idea, and this strategy is best used with weapons that deal heavy damage in 1 hit rather than damage over time.
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Co-op strategy
Best implemented with a phantom being the melee bait for ranged/casters. Bait gets The Rotten to aggro on him and begins to circle without locking on. The Rotten will often keep focus on the bait and follow across the arena allowing him to be drawn away from walls and other players. This also allows the bait to stay just out of range of his melee attacks while still distracting him if desired( works best if other players are ranged/casting to prevent an unexpected shift of aggro). If he moves to attack another player then the bait dashes in an hits him until he follows the bait again. In the event the host is also melee then the bait just circles close in to The Rotten while the other players attack from the other side and repositions The Rotten as needed. - Priority of the bait should be keeping The Rotten's attention over doing damage with most attacks following the Poke strategy.
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Miracle strategy
Heavenly Thunder miracle can easily cheese this boss to near death. 4 casts of Heavenly Thunder (44 faith) will reduce the boss' hp to 1/3 of its maximum health.
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Greatsword Strategy
Bring the boss to center of the arena and lock on. Stay close and rotate clockwise. By doing this, you can out-turn him and most of his attacks will miss, allowing you to deliver 1-2 strikes after each. With luck, you will be able to chop off his sword arm this way. Be wary of his AoE attack, which will still hit you reliably.
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Soul level 1 strategy (mace)
Run up to him and lock on. You should circle his right all the time, baiting his attacks and rolling through. His recovery is slow enough to get a few hits in, but don't be greedy. Keep doing this until he's got about half his HP left, when will start doing his AoE attack. This will kill you if you are too close. After each of your attacks, lock off and run away from him. He may do his AoE attack, but if you are far enough you will be safe. Following this method, you can gradually chop his HP away while taking no damage, granted you dodge well.
The Rotten Video Strategies in DKS2
The Rotten Hints in DKS2
- When trying to cut off The Rotten's arms, try to fight without locking-on. You could also use a weapon with good vertical reach.
- The Rotten is immune to Dark Fog and Toxic Mist.
- The Rotten has high resistances to non-physical damage, but has a weakness to thrust damage. Try using a rapier or a spear for a good damage output.
- When backing up, The Rotten will move his left hand in front of him. Long reach weapons such as spears can attack the hand at least once per animation without fear of a retaliatory attack.
Dark Souls 2 The Rotten Bugs
- If you are on the fire and he grabs you, you'll continue to take damage from the fire for a few seconds after. He'll then hurt you with his grab attack and it's basically a 1-Hit KO.
The Rotten Trivia in Dark Souls 2
- The Rotten's moveset is modeled after Gravelord Nito from Dark Souls, of whom he is a reincarnation.
- There is a lone person sticking out of The Rotten's left shoulder. This is possibly Pharros, who is likely controlling each move The Rotten makes. (Needs Confirmation)
- The Rotten shares some of Nito's movesets, such as dark explosion, grapple attack, and the way he swings his knife (or possibly related to Milldred).
- During the opening cutscene, it is trying to replace a broken statue's head, suggesting it cares for the statues, or where it lives.
AnonymousEasiest boss to farm imo, his moveset is very pathetic and easy to roll even someone like me can do no hit againts him
- Anonymous
His sword arm can be chopped off. I killed him shortly afterwards don’t know what will happen
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Brain use strategy: let him swing at you and hit him while his arm is down; exit his range after this and repeat until a loud metallic noise plays. This prevents you from taking damage from one of the easiest bosses in the game, hope you can do it
- Anonymous
Not immune to Dark Fog like the notes section says. Just used it in them, it just takes two casts
- Anonymous
For anyone who finds him hard...
Use a shield. A shield. There are lots of them. Big and small. You can upgrade them. They block damage. They block.
All ganks are hard countered by shields. Huge boss smash? Shield. Lots of dogs? Shield. Gank boss? Shield. A grab? Okay, shields don't help with that one, you got me.
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Use Ricard's rapier in your right hand and powerstance it with another rapier. Then slap on the leo ring and spam L2s. You do the regular powerstance rapier strong attack while only consuming the stamina you would for a singular stab of ricard's
- Anonymous
Jesus phuck. Tbh I've cheesed every boss so far, so this was a bit of a shock. Couldn't roll far enough, couldn't run away fast enough. Death after death after death. Forced me to change my whole set-up. Lightest armour and an ultra greatsword with lightning paste. Still burned through seven +2 estus and about 6 radiant lifegems. Yes, I suck. But my Mom says I'm cool.
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Circle to the right, dodge his attacks, 1-3 hits while Rotten recovers, repeat, victory.
- Anonymous
Overall a fairly easy boss, his attacks hit pretty hard but aren't hard to dodge as long as you have decent ADP, (and unless you're clueless or an absolute masochist pretty much everyone who doesn't want to suffer will usually have at least decent ADP) and if you manage to cut his cleaver-wielding arm off he pretty much becomes helpless outside of grabbing you with his empty hand if you haven't cut that off as well since he'll still try to swing at you with his now useless stump of an arm, and you can melt through him quite quickly with a well-upgraded weapon especially if it has a thrust attack of some kind
Beware of his grab tho, the hitboxes on that attack are absolute bullshit.
- Anonymous
Pathetic, unoriginal and lazy even by Dark Souls 2's standards. This moron dropping a great soul is just hilarious
- Anonymous
Rotten makes more sense as a Gutter boss than a Gulch boss IMO because of his design mainly, thoughts?
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Like how whereas Most of the Great Soul bearers aren't the same as their original owners other than bearing similarities, The Rotten is straight-up basically the same thing as Nito just he's and amalgamation of corpses instead of skeletons, just like Nito he's hidden deep underground in a dark cavern, he's just sorta chilling down there doing his own thing without a care in the world for what's happening outside, and he rules over the domain where the dead go, hell he even has the same death miasma aoe blast that Nito does, might as well rename him to "Beeflord Meato"
- Anonymous
Much like the Pursuer, his attacks aren't too difficult to dodge provided you're not too reckless and panicky, but his grab seems to have pretty jank hitboxes, like he reached his hand out to grab me and it passed over me like it missed and then suddenly I got teleported into his hand, I swear to god, why do grab attacks always have to have extremely janky hitboxes that longer for way too long ontop of doing massive damage most of the time?
- Anonymous
I like how this mf straight-up wrings you out like a wet towel when he grabs you, Grab attacks are always so comically brutal, like they REALLY wanna try and make sure you won't get back up
- Anonymous
"The left arm will drop a Pharros' Lockstone once cut off" Anybody can confirm this?
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If you ever need to get to Drangleic Castle as soon as possible, always go for this guy. Especially useful if you just need the spells Wellager sells in NG++ for achievements (and thus the plat)
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I just had a thought. The Rotten clearly cares for the poison statues. So I was wondering if the player were to make it to The Rotten boss fight without breaking any statues, would it react diffierently? Has anyone tried this possibly not worth the effort task?
- Anonymous
For anyone curious, using a bonfire ascetic will not reset the primal bonfire if you lit it already; you can safely upgrade the area and not reset your progress.
- Anonymous
Fought him like 10 times to rush to Chancellor Wellager for the final spells for platinum. Soul vortex takes way too long to cast and doesn't really do much more damage as Crystal Soul Spear or Soul Spear so it's not really worth using here (if you have them of course). And if you have trouble fighting him try to switch over to light roll as said here cause that'll definitely make it much easier. If you have a 100% physical block shield you may also want to use it to block any attacks you don't have time to roll through but definitely don't try to depend on it too much cause his attacks take a ton of stamina to block.
- Anonymous
LUCATIEL OF MIRRAH was NO help at all! She just splat in early fight and then you deal less dmg .. don't waste her here
- Anonymous
You will not take any more of my human effigies… ok maybe just one more
- Anonymous
Doing Lucatiels quest and let me just say you’re better off summoning her at Lost Sinner and Flexile and isi g a bonfire aesthetic for either or for her 3rd summon requirement. This broad goes all main character on me and takes off to re clear the whole zone en route to the boss fight. Un-real.
- Anonymous
I burned a bonfire ascetic at Black Gulf entrance, the fogwall is there but the rotten hasn't respawned? Do I need to burn one at the second bonfire or do I need to open up the Sunken King DLC to respawn him?
- Anonymous
The Heide Lance is amazing for this fight. Any attack will do decent damage. But the R2 on the Heide Lance hits like 4 times in a row and it SHREDS the Rotten. Each R2 with take out a huge chunk of life. The safest approach is just to pull out a great shield (I used the Twin Dragon Greatshield) and circle left around him. Stamina management is super important here because his attacks take out massive chunks of your stamina. Make sure to only use the R2 right after he's finished an attack or combo because it takes awhile to finish. Always try to make sure you have stamina left for a roll. You'll probably need to mix up blocking and rolling through attacks. Also, watch out for the grab attack he does with his left (your right) hand. It cant be blocked, does big damage and can easily drop you into a pool of fire.
- Anonymous
In NG+ and beyond, does he drop both the Rotten and Old Dead One souls? I am trying to find out if I only get one of each boss soul per save file.
- Anonymous
Ok idk who updates this page to say he is immune to dark fog and toxic mist, but he isn't immune to any of the 3 poison mist type spells
- Anonymous
Someone mentioned Greatsword thrusts so that's what I did, gottem 1st try :)
(Two handed, forward roll, attack)
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I'm about to **** all over this boss with my 40 DEX and +10 Rapier
- Anonymous
This boss can be a nightmare if you are underpowered for it, he's tanky and he delays his attacks in weird ways, besides that if you have the right adp and damage it's a pretty easy boss
- Anonymous
"Since his atacks are very slow"?! WTF? Are we talking about the same boss? He perfectly locks on you and has also quite the range. Difficult af.
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For anyone still trying to complete her questline. Make sure you kill any of the Darksuckers in close proximity. While doing another playthrough of DS2 I always try to complete her questline, the loss of souls didn't bother me. But I found out that she obsessively attacks the Darksuckers hiding in the Tar which seems to be useless because they don't aggro from her presence. This resulted her being stuck in combat outside the fog gate.
- Anonymous
Lucatiel died by poison outside the boss fog wall as soon as i killed the boss so idk if it counts to her quest :(
- Anonymous
Wait a minute is he weak to/take more damage from old whip? He is hollow right? Can someone comfirm pls?
- Anonymous
My reaction when I first walked through the fog gate and saw the cutscene was just me screaming “nope” at the game while I ran around the arena, then I got my bearings and it was a pretty easy fight
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Should I try using a bonfire ascetic to get the Crypt Blacksword? Probably would fail lots though...
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"**** you I used bonfire ascetics to kill the rotten and bypass 2 thirds of the ****ing game"
- Some ******* about what makes a speedrun fun to watch (Grinding)
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lets give the rotten credit all those mindless hollows stuck together are still synchronized enough to actually swing the arms good for them
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if you are struggling with the runup, save the fragrant branch of yore you got at the start of the area, and use it to get the hidden bonfire. You'll have to run past 3 statues, and no enemies.
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The trivia about Pharros is ridiculous. Rats drop lockstones too don't they? Are all those rats Pharros too?
- Anonymous
The fact that this***** happens in six flaming tar pools makes it so much harder than the fight actually is.
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Is it possible to summon a real player for the rotten, or can i summon just the 3 NPCs?
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In SotFS ALL the shattered statues and everything resets back to normal if you die. ***** this whole place.
- Anonymous
I have no Problem with the fight but to get there is a painfull walk
- Anonymous
I bait-rolled him and spammed the everloving Sun out of him with 16 fireballs and 4 Lingering Flames. While each one did little against him (and that's with a +5 flame, penal cuffs and 30+ Fth, base Int) it added up enough for me to finish him off with a couple sword swings. Easy boss for casters. Could probably have done more damage with 6 lightning spears instead of the fireballs, but oh well.
- Anonymous
would have been neat of he could rip his corpses off to aim him in battle
- Anonymous
Everyone saying the boss is slow and easy to dodge with rolling but with 16% encumberment my rolls don't dodge any attacks. He continues to turn locked on to me even on the down swing. And the NPC that was supposed to be able to help me isn't there. This is the hardest boss fight I've been in in all of dark souls 1 and so far in dark souls 2
The boss is very, very slow. Slow enough that, if you do get hit, which shouldnt be often, sprinting across the room and chugging Estus works well.
- Anonymous
Just did this boss, finished with a final spear hit whilst he hit me, when I respawned the fog wall was still there but when I went through he wasn't. Got his soul in my inventory but didn't get the soul reward. Sad
- Anonymous
The old whip does absurd damage to him, i have t power stanced but it only took like 6 hits to beat
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Easy strategy. Equip lion mage gear. Staff and vessel shield on back. Use Gowers ring of protection and great heavy souls arrow. Cast spell...run...cast spell...run..use crimson water to replenish spells. I’m a heavy melle character and this was a cake walk.
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Is It normal that after the fight there is a corpse on the ground with a Pharro's Lockstone? Happened to me after i killed him with the Basic Ultra Greatsword...
- Anonymous
basicly the easiest of 4 old ones. he may appear terryfying, but after spending some time in game he became so easy to me, i started to farm him instead of burning ascetics in other areas. with mimics head and serpent ring, and with "breaking" the old undead and the rotten souls i earned ~315.000 souls per fight.
tactics im using -
light or medium armor (to leave yourself "backdoor" in case you time ti wrong or had to scratch your nose) and my favourite scythe of wants (nashandra soul, 240 physical dmg and 200 dark per normal hit), weight 55% with third dragon ring, energyrestoring ring, silver serpent ring and carryweight-increasing ring.
rotten is big, fat, strong, and PATHETICALLY SLOW. for each of his attacks you have enough time to roll->lighthit->lighthit->move back and restore stamina. eventually if you get hit you will end up with around 10%hp, so just time it correctly this time and do roll->drinkestustwice.
his attack are so clearly telegraphed and he cant hold them back like smelter demon, so you should make over half of fight without getting hit or eventually getting hit once and drinking estus.
(now its where it gets tricky.)
if you dont know what to do or expect - roll. allways. dont waste time to think or analyse. when rotten is doing unknown to you animation - roll back and slithly to side immediately. as he would use his AOE. after fighting him tens of times i eventually came into conclusion:
>all of his attacks give you enough time to hit him twice, but allways conserve energy for at least 2 rolls.
>his basic attacks and grabs can be allways dodged with rolling sideways, and still keeping close to him for hits.
>his dark-sword-pulse can be avoided with two rolls, direction - towards him 1:30 o`clock, first roll when his blade reaches peak above his head.
>his AOE blast can be dodged with two rolls backside or radius 5-7 o`clock, if you need to avoid firelakes.
- Anonymous
When you cut off The Rotten left arm an hollowed corpse appear with a drop. The drop is a Pharros lockstone. This should be enough of a confirmation right?
- Anonymous
Everyone says this boss is a huge joke but honestly, his AOE burst is a bit hard to dodge. I recommend the Hexers gear for this fight along with a fire protection ring. The most damage you receive (if you got the dodging timed right) is rolling around in the burning oil. Pity it doesn’t hurt it.
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For some reason the spot to summon npc's to help me isn't there?
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The 2 phantoms you can summon are the most useless I've ever seen. One does 0 damage and the other keeps commiting suicide. I'm q pure mage wtf am I suppose to do ?
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The best tactic is to cut his right arm off, that makes him infinitely easier
- Anonymous
The Rotten is not immune to dark fog, it just usually takes two casts
- Anonymous
Thank you so much I was struggling with this boss and I didn't know about Lucatil once again thx
- Anonymous
the souls awarded for killing the rotten on bonfire level 7 is 123,375. not 164,500. the entire chart is off by a few tens of thousands.
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Dark fog works. Just gotta cast it twice. Nobody likes to try and out last that long. But thought it was worth mentioning
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the great sword strategy is such trash staying close causes me to get stuck on his arms then i get screwed over constantly
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The shield is broken for this fight. Just circle around boss until you have a window and only drop if you need to regen stamina.
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After the primal bonfire their a thing that says examine I do it and it leads me to a place how do I unlock the door plz
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Xbox one Mary Jane Tokes need help with rotten have 1099870 soul memory msg me
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It's not pharros his name is Larry. He came to start a new life for himself after the divorce but soon became addicted to green blossoms. As the debt piled he had to sell his body....literally.
- Anonymous
Found you can dodge most of his attacks by rolling into him.
- Anonymous
it's useless to shield his attack for this boss, i advise to roll. even rolling is hard because he always hit you so it's hard to dodge, but the satisfaction of beating this boss (don't mention the poison statue thing)
- Anonymous
I'm playing on the PS3, don't know if there are platform differences, but you can dodge roll through his attack and to his back. (Whichever arm is attacking, roll towards it because he usually lunges forwards and grantin you acces to his back) No the time for him to return to his normal state is minimal so you could easily squeeze two-three attacks in if you're fast enough. Just keep repeating for most of his attacks and whenever he does an AOE (If he does one) Back off and hit him with some ranged attacks. Hope I helped!
- Anonymous
Im almost done with my journey and my summon sign can be found at certain boss gates. Just look out for a Ruin Sentinel wielding a large sword!
rtsr + leo ring + ricards rapier + magic weapon/gold pine resin - MELTS HIM
takes some time to no hit him but since burning a few bonfire ascetics anyway oneshots you without huge investment in vig, so rtsr is a way to go
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