@janman I personally don't try to parry the Bagmen because they hit so hard if you mess it up. I found it easier to just wind up and hit them with a big attack while they're still sluggish, then immediately circle around their back as they will always do their enrage animation after getting some damage. The trick is to expect it, not react to it.
I hope this helps as farming bagmen is a great early way to get Echoes for both levels, bloodvials and the occasional double bloodstone shard.
@janman Heard about you getting caught by the Bagman and that's actually excellent news! Hidden Village is a very good early grinding spot in my experience, especially once you know a way to exploit the Bagmen's AI you can kill em fairly easily if you're 1-on-1.
Here's how to do it: At full health their movement is slow so you can easily find a opening to do a fully charged R2 into their face, once they lose a about 1/4 of their health they will "Enrage", expect this and use the time they execute this animation to circle behind them and do a fully charged R2 into their back, counting as a backstab and letting you follow up with a viceral attack! they will fall down from the viceral attack letting you do one final fully charged R2 as they get up.
Whether this combo finishes them off depends on your damage, but it will severly weaken them at least.
@janman You can press X to skip to the next line during dialogue so you don't have to wait for the NPCs to finish saying their lines. It might not seem that way cause you're still in control of your character when they talk, but it's tru~
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