Puppeteer fight is just plain bull

[reidj062]

So at first it becomes clear that this is just like the chains earlier- switch to Antea to see them, then switch to Red to shoot them. Annoying but doable.

Then you realize that there's about a hundred chains on her. So you have to either memorize which tiny chain is the weak link or hit it in the few seconds it remains visible as Red. More annoying.

Then you realize that you have to hit that specific link at a SPECIFIC TIME, within a few seconds of a particular boss attack, and that's the only time she's vulnerable.

So to reiterate: you have to view the weak link as Antea, switch to Red, keep in mind which chain is the weak link, wait until the chain is weakened, then shoot that link within a few seconds, while also dodging melee and ranged attacks. Then reload, dodge some more ranged and melee attacks, switch back to Antea to locate the next link, dodge some more, keep in mind where the weak link is, shoot at EXACTLY THE RIGHT MOMENT (God forbid you take a minion hit during that time or be forced into dodging at that second) and dodge some more. And for all this switch-hitting, dodging and reloading, each hit takes out a mere 10% of the boss's hits. And this is the ONLY way to decrease the boss's health.

Oh and there are no save points during the entirely of this chore of a boss fight.

F it, I am switching to story mode for this one.

[Illuminary]

The only part of that fight I found annoying was looking for Antea in the dark. Pure rifle build flattens the adds asap giving you more time to worry about dodging anything or looking at the chains. I opened all the doors unfortunately before releasing Antea on the final banish and didn't bother with any adds until the lights were on.
It's not really a hard fight, just need some patience.

[reidj062]

The minions in the dark seemed underpowered, so I didn't mind that part. Nor is rifle build vs. melee an issue here- the power of the rifle has no effect on the damage dealt to the boss. The problem is the game trying to get you to do 10 different things at once, while switching between a character who can see the target and one who can hit it.

Also, Antea, jeez. I get her getting grabbed the first time. Second time though? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Took me two tries on story mode. Way harder than The Beast or any of the other bosses I'd fought.

[Jindrik]

Not sure what the issue is- you can most of the time pre-reveal the weak link before it gets vulnerable, also the weak chain that is about to get "vulnerable" even does a slight flash and dangles-. I've beat this boss on both normal and hard with barely any challenge and some challenge in the sense of boss hitting like a truck. Other than that, the chains are super easy to spot early and deal with, without having too much issues with dodging the atks. The boss also telegraphs very well what kind of atks its going for so dodging shouldn't be an issue either. And the adds are finite, not sure how many but like 6-8 I think?

So you struggling with this boss is only a you issue or skill issue there. I've seen far more bs bosses in souls-like games with more demanding mechanics and attack patterns than this.