The KINRANGR GUARDIAN FOLARD boss fight (SPOILERS)

[Rumblyy]

I really like this game, it has some really nice ideas. But this fight in particular just.. exemplifies my issues with the game. We've got a great big knight with an axe, cool. He can shoot out projectiles... interesting, still fine. Oh and he'll have three dogs! Okay... this is getting a little absurd but fine. Oh and they leave ice trails that slow you, build up frostbite and lock you in place and are incredibly difficult to roll through! Okay.. now this is annoying. Oh! And they'll all be guarded by a sheild that you have to pull out your lantern for while being spammed by three dogs nipping at you, a knight spewing projectiles and ice all over the arena to kill a parasite. Okay... this is just not fun. Oh! And if you die and go into umbral? A giant stone monster that spews spectral maggots all over the tiny arena will be there to join the fray!

Guys, this game is overall solid. I very much enjoy it. But your enemy density is absolutely absurd. You've got some great ideas here. But let's calm down a bit with the sheer absurdity of the packed amount of enemies in this game like this please. If you're not playing a big strength/radiant one shot these sorts of fights are utterly brutal.

[Draco100000]

I was surprised by this fight too but the best solution is quite obvious, but tiresome. Idea would be to wait for dogs to approach, dodge them and dodge towards the parasite, do a perfect lamp hit on it and roll like a madman towards the dry ground.

Hardest part is here, you need to kill the damn dogs, ranged is the best to chip away health and leave them 1 hit killable so switch to throwing hand if you are not a mage, you should have unlocked javelins by now, but if you didnt 12 agility and a crosbow helps, pots are kind of ♥♥♥♥ unless you got a improved pot already(which would be amazing). get dogs down in health and try to force 1v1s. Sometimes you need to go back into water so roll around so they go into water and you can go into the terrain again. Dogs sometimes decide to walk around and do ♥♥♥♥, best moment to throw something at one and prime hiim to attack you while the other/s just walk slow. Going into umbral = pretty much death, unless you have an absurd build,which you probably dont because you are posting here.

Last phase of the fight is the easiest, which is fighting the big dude, big dude is just a strong mob with limited moveset and readable attacks, dodging and heavy or dodging and light depending on your weapon should deal with him with ease, without the pressure of the dogs.

Good luck.

[JustRez]

Boss has no phases lol its just a basic NPC mop that you'll find more off the further you progress in the snow area. Dogs are there even if that boss is dead. its an easy fight just roll straight to the other side lamp instandly and 1 tap the doggos ez

[HO ANU]

On some tries i didnt even managed to take out the shield and died before being able to do anything. Eventually i managed to first take out the shield, then the 3 dogs and then the boss without going into umbral.

[.VM8RA]

I just cheesed this guy. go to umbral inside of gate (after edging forward to reveal health bar) snipe the sp3rm with an arrow, then switch to poison bombs.

you can then use the poison DoT to whittle down the boss. After the boss is beaten, the umbral statue is gone, you only have to deal with the wolves (which always respawn in this area)

it's not ideal, if you want to fight it fairly, but it got me past it without tearing my own eyes out, so I'm counting it. This encounter is straight up-BS, so cheesing it is fighting fairly, IMO. Lol.

the original DKS had many cheese fights, and everyone used these cheese strats to just make the game a little bit easier.

TBH, the cheese strats are a big part of a souls like, IMO. It's like the built in difficulty options that they include (summoning, magic/ranged, cheese, etc)

PS: I think you have to go into umbral, after revealing the health bar. if you try and edge forward in umbral, it will aggro. This is what happened for me, anyway. When I tried to reveal health bar first, then go into umbral, the cheese worked.

[Makam]

Well, my solution to this is dual wielding longswords, poles and the likes, so swinging them hits them all!
Really satisfying when the screen fills up with numbers and health bars:)

[Rumblyy]

I managed to get past it with an umbral build. It was just not a fun time.

[Jon Nada]

Did him early by accident cause i didnt knew where to go. Took me some time but i made it wit about 29. Its just annoying cause of the **** doggos

[Draco100000]

Originally posted by Jon Nada:

Did him early by accident cause i didnt knew where to go. Took me some time but i made it wit about 29. Its just annoying cause of the **** doggos

Same here, i couldnt kill the dogs fast because i was low level.

[I_come_in_peace]

Yeah. this was the one fight where I thought it depends too much on luck - rolling towards the Umbral thingy works alright, but destroying it just takes too long and once you're surrounded by wolves there's no dodging out. I might have gone there too early. In the end I was lucky and the game crashed while in Umbral. Upon restart Mr Potatohead was stuck in the wall and without him and no water the fight was quite managable. I'd like to retry it, pitty there's no option for that except NG+.

[mayhem523]

Sometimes you can instastun the doggos with a kick to the head. Then you can do a crit that gives you iframes during the animation. I think it only works when they're wearing helmets, and I can't remember if those ones are or not. When they aren't wearing helmets they're pretty squishy anyway.

[Dorkwing]

Cleared this fight in 2 attempts, just need to plan your movements a bit and dont get greedy until the dogs are dead.

Overall it wasa very simple fight setup.

Thanks devs for trying to find ways to challenge players instead of retreading old ground over and over.

[königplatzen]

When you enter the arena, the big guy comes slowly towards you and dogs keep lying there.
When the guy is near you, you can dodge roll towards the parasite and care about it and the first dog, which is near. Then, can go towards the dry area and fight the rest.

Not very nice this fight, but manageable, except you tried it too early and are underleved.

I think, the bow woman, with the respawning hounds was worse, if you consider the level when you approach them.

[Valandryl]

Originally posted by Rumblyy:

I really like this game, it has some really nice ideas. But this fight in particular just.. exemplifies my issues with the game. We've got a great big knight with an axe, cool. He can shoot out projectiles... interesting, still fine. Oh and he'll have three dogs! Okay... this is getting a little absurd but fine. Oh and they leave ice trails that slow you, build up frostbite and lock you in place and are incredibly difficult to roll through! Okay.. now this is annoying. Oh! And they'll all be guarded by a sheild that you have to pull out your lantern for while being spammed by three dogs nipping at you, a knight spewing projectiles and ice all over the arena to kill a parasite. Okay... this is just not fun. Oh! And if you die and go into umbral? A giant stone monster that spews spectral maggots all over the tiny arena will be there to join the fray!

Guys, this game is overall solid. I very much enjoy it. But your enemy density is absolutely absurd. You've got some great ideas here. But let's calm down a bit with the sheer absurdity of the packed amount of enemies in this game like this please. If you're not playing a big strength/radiant one shot these sorts of fights are utterly brutal.

Like many "boss" fights in the game, this one isn't a real boss fight. It's only the introduction to one new type of elite monsters you'll be facing in the area. And, as such, you better learn to deal with them with extra mobs around, especially dogs.
I admit the parasite was not needed here, but when you know where it is, it becomes a pretty basic fight in the area.

[Kobeth]

I beat this fight 1st try with an inferno build (so one of the worst build in the game). This fight is easy, y'all complaining for nothing.

[404 Error]

Not gonna lie when I first got to this boss I was like "What the ♥♥♥♥ even is this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥?" But as a full Radiance build when I entered the arena I started rolling to the ridge on the left to get out of the water, waited for everything to swarm me and dodged to the parasite & got rid of it. Got back to dry land and used Sanctify to clear myself o the ice and to heal. Beat the dogs ass then took him out as well.

The hard part of the fight is how overwhelming it is. Other than that, it's pretty easy. It actually kinda reminds me of Capra Demon from DS1 by the sheer overwhelming of him and his dogs....wait....that sounds very familiar!