I went with Waste of Skin as my starting class and first boss is literally making me rage (fought him 20+ times). I know how to parry and riposte the boss (at least I think I do because he goes into stunned state and I hit for around 250 dmg), but the damage I'm doing doesn't make sense for a 1st Souls boss. I'm hitting the guy for around 30 dmg and a quick estimation of his health after an opening parry of 250 makes it seems like he has around 2000 HP. After the first parry he enrages and stays enraged so I don't see many parry opportunities after that.

This can't be right can it?

I haven't played the game yet, but I'm gonna say there is something you are missing. Soul Level 1 runs show you don't 'need' to level at all. Especially this early, being underleveled shouldn't give you insane trouble.

I fought the first boss at level 10. I had upgraded my saw cleaver once. Not sure how, but I beat him on the first try. Make sure you buy the set of gear from the shopkeeper in Hunter's Dream, because it's dramatically better than the stuff you start with.

The second boss gave me a bunch of trouble. Took about 10 tries.

I haven't bought any gear. That might be it because his hits just wreck me and the low dmg dealing on my part from Waste of Skin isn't helping.

@golguin: I found that when I fought him, his quicker attacks did maybe 1/5 of my bar and were pretty easy to recover from. It was only his bigger wind-up/glowy attacks that did dangerous levels of damage, and I found those pretty easy to avoid once I saw them.

So yeah, it sounds like a lack of armor is doing you in.

At a couple points in the fight, he'll drop to his knees and seem to catch his breath. If you run up to his head and press R1 (while not moving maybe?) you'll do a flashy critical hit. Other than that, just keep dodging and only attack when you feel comfortable. No more than 2 hits. Going for a 3rd usually gives him time to wind up an attack and hit you as you're recovering from your 3rd attack.

I just stayed under him and behind him. He barley hit me. And I would do a quick 3-4 combo and then dodge around. I never did more than 45 damage. It took a while.

First time after getting all armor and HE'S FUCKING DEAD. No gun, no molotov, no parry until end (parry caused him to enrage with broken face). This boss gets crazy if you parry him at the start. My final move was a parry on his ass to kill him though. My hands are shaking. Also got it all on stream :D.

Upgrade your weapon, dodge more. I dunno what else to tell you.

Goddamn Cleric Beast.

Makes me miss the Capra Demon.

@golguin: Congratulations, fella! Yeah, getting that armour set turns the game around. I will however encourage you to use parrying on upcoming bosses, the next one in particular.

The problem with the fight was no armor and using a parry at the start so the whole fight was enraged. No parry meant his moveset was manageable.

cleric beast is first boss difficulty wise, Papa G is the second one if that helps, also get the music box to help in the Papa G fight third phase

Supposedly oil urns and firebombs really wreck Cleric Beast's face. I'm about to try that myself after devoting some time to upping Vitality.

I used to play ranged mage in souls games. This whole forced melee thing is killing me and the first boss is fucking me so hard

Try different tactics. When you're having trouble with an enemy use different types of attacks. Fire, slashing, piercing, blunt and try out different weapons. The axe is just the best early game weapon IMO but go with what you like best.

Yeah, 10 molotovs and some oil urns will obliterate him. I had actually fought him all the way down to like 30% before I even tried then I finished him in 3 molotovs from there. Cleric is not really hard, you just have to stay behind him and outside his front arc.

The guy Penguino thought was the first boss though is a beast, took me three attempts. The souls he rewards are laughable too. Mostly my experience with this game so far is this. If it is a monster it is a chump unless it moves fast or has a gun+range on you (that includes bosses). Anything that looks or acts like a hunter.... your ass is about to be handed to you on a platter (unless you are co oping) hope you got max healing pots going in.

I killed him without the music box, but I just saw someone use it while helping to coop the boss. Interesting thing. Need to get it.

So I don't know if you guys are talking about the same boss but... the first one I got to was in some graveyard and he looks like another hunter and is super aggressive. Is that the first boss? Or did I miss a turn somewhere? Cause I don't see where else I could go.

I am so happy I play these games blind and offline first time. Got no clue what you are talking about, feel great I took him down the old fashioned way.

Had no idea you could even parry boss attacks.

Hmm. Just did it on first try surprisingly. Level 10 with no upgrades or anything I guess. I did find a set of Hunter's Armor in a sewers area. I used up a bunch of vials I guess but the gist of it was just dodging and then I'd find a moment and say "F IT!" and charge in, smash him up, and usually when I'd do the vertical slice (Im using axe) and hit his face, he'd drop down and then you can walk up and R1 him in the face to do a bunch of damage. Normal attacks weren't doing jack. Didn't do any parry's that I'm aware of.

That's the second boss

Well shit... the hell did I miss then? I did this in Dark Souls 2 as well. Somehow my dumb ass always manages to find ways to get to places I'm not intended to be in yet with these games.

This is my first souls game and I haven't even found a second lantern yet. My choice is now 2 giant werewolves or creepy basement. I chose the werewolves the first time. I'm going to try the basement.

@nophilip: Once the boss gets in that stage he annihilates me. I kinda dislike farming for blood vials it's kind of annoying, but should be remedied when enemies drop more souls later on.

@golguin: Optional Tough fight but I think the two wolves are actually harder if you fight them both at once at low levels. The boss gets easier at like 70% as far as I can tell (whereas a later boss gets ridiculously hard at 30%). Oh right the lock on button is basically a "kill yourself" button in a lot of scenarios.

If your thread title posts that you may be "underleveled"...you should probably post your level.

farming vials is pretty easy once you unlock the shortcut to the central yharnam (sp?) lantern. You just go there, go through the short cut to the elevator. Couple big guys that are easy to pick off one on one. They normally drop 2 or even 3 vials per kill.

@karkarov: 2 or 4 I believe, they are the easiest enemies in the game though.

What i do, but load times make it more annoying lmao. Without spoiling where can i upgrade, or will it come eventually? My weapon broke too...

I haven't seen a way to upgrade vials yet but I am just running around Old Yharnam/Cathedral. I have found a "stronger" healing item but it is no where near as plentiful. You can upgrade weapons pretty much right out the gate once you visit the dream that second time. It is that work bench on the right side wall of the church in the dream. You can repair there too.

Wait Papa G isn't the first boss? Yep this is a Souls game alright. I haven't even seen Cleric Beast yet.

@karkarov: thanks man

No he is definitely the first real boss, he is technically the second one you are intended to encounter. He is almost as tough as Flamelurker for when you meet him, almost. Probably about on par with Smelter, maybe a little lower.

I wouldn't say that.... the villager dudes are not exactly posing a big threat outside of the ones in huge groups like 4+

@karkarov: Well I mean in general not counting birds/solo villagers (of the weakest variety)/similar tripe. I'm pretty sure a wolfmanguydude could take on like 6 or 7 consecutive big fat guys and win for comparison's sake.

Lol fair enough. I find slow movers in this game a joke. There are two variety.... short fat guys, and stupidly tall giant dudes. Giant dudes you just circle strafe with a decent weapon (I like the spear saw) and the short ones you just two hand charge hit them with the Kirkhammer. Once you have the timing down you almost never get hit and if they live through the first hit at all the second one will end it.

I'm in the same boat. I kept wondering why something wasn't adding up.. My first boss was also Papa G, and I beat him on the third try. I had him on the second one but I suddenly lost camera lock and as I was desperately trying to click in R3 to gain lock again AND avoid his attacks the camera just kept centering instead. Good ol' Souls camera..

It took two parries in his third phase and that was it.

Guess I missed the doggy thing on the bridge.

Why do you guys keep saying that ;p? You can't parry in BB. You can stagger them if you hit them with a charge attack from behind or at the right timing though.

Well I call the gun shot a parry because it's essentially a parry.

Thanks to the power of the PS4 I was able to record my amazing fight as I cheese him first two phases by running around some tombstones, but here is the part where I "parry" him.

EDIT: I can't seem to Spoiler block the video so here is the link in case someone didn't fight him yet.

LINK

@karkarov: because it's a parry. It's literally the exact same thing as the souls game just you use a gun instead of a shield.

Edit: Nevermind. Think I remembered.

Guys, Chalice dungeons are the shit.

... so I've missed the first boss somehow and beat the 2nd boss already? The graveyard boss. Well now I need to find out where the first boss is! It feels like the game is super linear up so far so I have no idea how I could skip a boss fight.

Also, I cheesed the crap out of that boss. Getting him stuck on geometry so I could whip him from a distance was fun.

The second boss is kicking my ass. Time for a break and regroup tomorrow night.

I missed the first boss too. I'm surprised you consider it linear. I always felt like there were too many sprawling directions to go in.

@hollitz said:

I also missed the first boss completely, glad I'm not the only one. Went down in that house, saw that it connected up, and just started going off exploring all the other areas it linked up until I ran across the second one. Took some leveling and quite a few tries but I took him down. Then I realized that I must have missed something based on the little I'd heard of the first boss, went back and completely destroyed him first try.

Waste of Skin is a weak build for a second playthrough and/or skilled players that want a bigger challenge.

Buy the equipment sold at Hunter's Dream, it's helps a lot.

Upgrades and repairing can be done in the Hunters Dream. Go up to the house and look at the tables.

Finally beat the Cleric Beast, then found my groove and dispatched the second boss F.G. in a few tries, I'm now exploring the second area.

This game is starting to click with me.