annihilation is horrible

[kaincypher]

I'm a half decent player, but I've joined dozens of different groups. Nobody has beaten this ♥♥♥♥ boss. The first half is easy, even if the boss attacks are cheap as hell (in that even with light armor and full dodge bonus traits fail to actually dodge their AOE attacks). I've gotten past this, so many times. Phase 2? Pure ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. They basically put you in a tiny box where the boss can one-shot the entire party. Not fun, not well thought out.

[ZenienSight]

"Git gud" lol

No but seriously, you just have to be patient. Keep trying I believe in you, even if you take hours upon hours. Try to learn and don't just panic because red is flying all over the place. Listen, there are sound cues (along with wind-up animations) to when the boss attacks. Turn off in-game music.

When he's glitching out between forms don't just spam dodge and hope you'll be ok; actually look and react. And also, swap up build styles, maybe you and your party will perform better if you go healer and focus on reviving and healing others. Or if you're playing solo, take a breather and go play some adventure mode and find new gear. Come back when you're feeling more confident in your skills and your gear because he ain't going nowhere.

When my brother and I tried it first, we couldn't beat him in 5 hours day 1; two days later, we beat him in under 1 hour. He's hard, like Fatalis on Monster Hunter: World, but he's definitely do-able and a real challenge. I genuinely look forward to beating him in Nightmare and Apocalypse.

[Gul Bjorn]

it's easier solo.

[Bootleg VHS]

The damage scaling in multiplayer is really wonky in general. In Singleplayer, you can recover from mistakes (assuming you're not on Apoc). So I'd recommend just beating it alone, then resuming multiplayer afterwards if you plan to keep going.

[dotVeskan]

Beat the boss but i agree with op the boss has very cheap and rather unfair mechanics throughout
this and red prince take the cake for silly dumb and questionable boss design
large sweeping attacks and mechanics that force you into small areas to have to try and avoid these attacks
red prince's annoyance was exacerbated by lag causing his hit boxes to linger while he already starts his walking towards another player animation
same issue with annihilation 2nd phase and its sword swing having larger hit box requiring not only precise timing but timing earlier than in solo play to not get hit by this attack.
Rest of the game is great but cheap mechanics like these 2 bosses are a stain.

[Aria Athena]

Originally posted by Bootleg VHS:

The damage scaling in multiplayer is really wonky in general. In Singleplayer, you can recover from mistakes (assuming you're not on Apoc). So I'd recommend just beating it alone, then resuming multiplayer afterwards if you plan to keep going.

I really dislike the damage scaling tbh. Take Annihilation for example. You learn the fight, you feeling comfortable with all his moves and you decide to join a co-op group. All of a sudden you have ping, possible lower fps, you are looking at his back which you've never seen before and now his attacks also 1-shot you.

[count_zakkula]

Best fight in the game tbh. Hitboxes are fair, sound cues are excellent. All attacks readable. No ads. Great music.

[Valerie]

Managed to do it in coop with another friend and it wasn't easy. The second phase really is just a cluster f-ck of attacks. I basically tanked the ones I had no idea how to deal with and dealt with the sword swipe + the orbs that can one shot. Along with just CONSTANTLY dodging even if I don't know is happening. Lol

[Miauteusz]

You can roll through everything and the timings are consistent, the boss fight is spectacular and excellent. Funny to see so many people calling themselves "decent" and blaming game design or whatever instead of learning the fight.

[Postman Pat]

Originally posted by Apokryf:

You can roll through everything and the timings are consistent, the boss fight is spectacular and excellent. Funny to see so many people calling themselves "decent" and blaming game design or whatever instead of learning the fight.

It really is one of the best boss fights I've ever done. Easily up there with Friede, Midir, Gael.

[Paulie]

Originally posted by dotVeskan:

Beat the boss but i agree with op the boss has very cheap and rather unfair mechanics throughout
this and red prince take the cake for silly dumb and questionable boss design
large sweeping attacks and mechanics that force you into small areas to have to try and avoid these attacks
red prince's annoyance was exacerbated by lag causing his hit boxes to linger while he already starts his walking towards another player animation
same issue with annihilation 2nd phase and its sword swing having larger hit box requiring not only precise timing but timing earlier than in solo play to not get hit by this attack.
Rest of the game is great but cheap mechanics like these 2 bosses are a stain.

they should take off red prince's curse and nerf his overall damage if they're gonna make an unavoidable AOE that pushes you to the center to fight him (the only safe place from his melee attack is behind him.... )

[Sigvuld]

Every day that passes I am increasingly shocked at how much people are struggling with Annihilation, presumably FromSoft game veterans, while I, someone who was only capable of beating Elden Ring via cheesing with the Blasphemous Blade, took literally 5 attempts to beat it solo

I don't get it

The boss's attacks are all, ALL heavily telegraphed, even with loud and distinctive sound queues, the phase transitions are SUPPOSED TO BE momentarily overwhelming, and yes, the fact it swaps between phase 1 and 2 attacks is purposefully meant to throw you off. I think you're confusing your encountering a boss with pretty creative and funky mechanics (for a Souls-like boss) and having a hard time with the boss being badly designed

Learn from your mistakes and stop blaming the game for your refusal to do so, if someone like me, ME, can handle it without cheese, any of you can

[Magical_JiJii]

Its a fun fun for sure. Is it hard? At least not to me. Grab more trait points or relics is my opinion.

Awww the color! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is always an excuse.

[KeyboardBerserker]

I struggled with this boss due to having only sniper weapons leveled. too slow to reliably destroy the 2nd phase orb spam. I came back to it after leveling up my lmg and did recoil/spread build. I was able to burn him down pretty reliably. On light roll with the ring that gave shield for stamina use I could just neutral dodge out of most attacks.

tldr level your weapon to at least 19 in adventure mode.

[Le Hatch]

Step 1: Don't do it co-op. Ever. Having a single weak link means it will drag out and the longer it drags the more likely you will ♥♥♥♥ up.
Step 2: Attune your ears to listen to the shrill notes amidst the bassy bgm. You hear that, you hit your dodge key, even if your back is turned.
Step 3: Bring *something* that can wipe out large clusters of the orb adds.

Additionally:

-Don't rush to phase him. If you have some good survival skills on CD wait around until they are up, since the first ~30 seconds at the start of phase 2 is the real challenge to stay alive in
-Use the moments where you are in reality in P2 to heal/grab ammo and focus less on dps then, he has a lot more breaks between his attacks during the reality time vs the digital time
-Play Invader with (optionally) the dodge window ring. I swear to god it was like that archetype was made to fight this boss with the dodge window increases and the decoys baiting swings in the opposite direction.

[Ro]

Angry?
I was angry once.
They locked me in a room.
A red room.
A red room with red lasers, red swords, red floors, red backgrounds, red boss, red boss bar, and red roots.
And red rooms with red lasers, red swords, red floors, red backgrounds, red boss, red boss bar, and red roots make me angry.