Stuck on first boss

[iavor.diatchki]

So I am not very good with souls like games, but I do enjoy the challenge, at least for a bit. I seem to have gotten stuck with this one though: I've killed everybody on the first island (after the ship), except for 2 enemies: some guy with a large stick in a forest, and what appears to be the first boss.

Now with other games like this (e.g. Elder Ring), if I get stuck I'd just go somewhere else, or go kill some more enemies to level up a bit more, or just keep practicing against the boss.

The problem I am having is that:
1. There are no enemies to kill, so I can't level up, and
2. I can't keep practicing against the boss, because I keep having to collect mushrooms and herbs to make soup, which gets incredibly boring.

Any advice?

PS: Also, for some reason I can't seem to get a shield... I had one on the ship in the beginning, but it got removed when I got to the island, and none of the chests on the island seem to be giving me shields (I've opened them multiple times). Is this intentional?

[Ice-Nine]

You could always just take that same character into a new realm I guess.

[BeelzeBob]

Maybe watch some videos to get some tips on how to beat him?

[Nosferatu Zodd ﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽]

https://youtu.be/hepZXa8GEIU?si=aaGFJsX6LmPFcYe8

Only video i found but this guy is malee, and perry the ♥♥♥♥ out of him lol.

[Norco]

What seemed to work very well for me was dodging towards the boss instead of to the side or away from it. Obviously timing is key.
good luck!

[Husbando]

beat him 1st try

[Bugfinder]

I assume you mean the one after you climb the tower? hes mean he is, and if its any consolation im like a luck away, each time i die, hes got like 2hp..

[Casul Gamer]

Originally posted by Husbando:

beat him 1st try

Watch out guys, we're dealing with a badass over here

[recK]

You can dodge and chip away at him, but it's much better to do a few well timed parries coupled with a focus attack once he's knocked down. You can parry without a shield.
Weird, seems like the loot is quite random then, I found like two different shields on my way to him.

[Lyrel]

Like someone else already mentioned if you feel you need to level up more the only way is to go into a fresh realm with your character.

I think enemies only respawn once you beat the first boss and enter the city.

From my experience with the first boss i can only recommend what i've done. I beat him in meele and did not use parry.

- I ran into him and for the first 1-2 minutes simply watched his attack patterns. not attacking myself just watching and learning the dodge timings with my equip load.
- You also don't need to farm consumables for this if you die just run back and learn.
- if broken gear is an issue do this naked. I know may sound counter intuitive but that way you can learn and don't have to worry about cost.
- Once you feel comfortable start to put in attacks in downtimes between his attacks.
- start with single hits don't get greedy.
- get comfortable with attacking and you can start to do combos of 2-3 hits

[Amoun]

He was difficult. But he can pretty much be murderized by getting parrying down. Parry, then a couple of focus attacks. Rinse and repeat with the occasional dodge. Parry is the key though.

[Mali]

There is a way to 'cheese' this fight. If you still have some money you can buy a bunch of bombs from the vendor(6-7 should do it, 10 to be safe in-case you miss), some cooked food and just use the bombs to bring down the boss whilst using your stamina to avoid his attacks.

[Cetacea]

the biggest challenge of this game: Find herb and cook you ♥♥♥♥

[Lyrel]

Originally posted by Amoun:

Parry is the key though.

That may be the case but for someone struggling with the mechanics per se (which seems to be the case with the op to me) learning to parry on top of everything most of the time will not result in a good experience and lead to more frustration at least from what i've seen so far.

at that held true for every souls game so far.

[Quagimus Decimus]

Originally posted by iavor.diatchki:

So I am not very good with souls like games, but I do enjoy the challenge, at least for a bit. I seem to have gotten stuck with this one though: I've killed everybody on the first island (after the ship), except for 2 enemies: some guy with a large stick in a forest, and what appears to be the first boss.

Now with other games like this (e.g. Elder Ring), if I get stuck I'd just go somewhere else, or go kill some more enemies to level up a bit more, or just keep practicing against the boss.

The problem I am having is that:
1. There are no enemies to kill, so I can't level up, and
2. I can't keep practicing against the boss, because I keep having to collect mushrooms and herbs to make soup, which gets incredibly boring.

Any advice?

PS: Also, for some reason I can't seem to get a shield... I had one on the ship in the beginning, but it got removed when I got to the island, and none of the chests on the island seem to be giving me shields (I've opened them multiple times). Is this intentional?

Make sure to buy any food recipes you can from the smith. Better heals = easier fights.
Doesn't hurt to pop a stamina potion while fighting the boss. It's less about immediate damage, and much more just watching the boss do his combo.. then getting a few hits in. Then just repeating that loop until they're done. Folks are too eager to keep attacking the first boss rather than having a little patience.

[Casul Gamer]

Originally posted by Lyrel:

Originally posted by Amoun:

Parry is the key though.

That may be the case but for someone struggling with the mechanics per se (which seems to be the case with the op to me) learning to parry on top of everything most of the time will not result in a good experience and lead to more frustration at least from what i've seen so far.

at that held true for every souls game so far.

Yeah. It's such terrible advice for a struggling player