Final boss parry timings feel off?

[Skater901]

I've just got to Eigong, and I'm having a really hard time with the parry timings. It just feels... off, like there's attack delays, or something? Every other boss/enemy has had well-telegraphed attacks with consistent timing, so it's mostly a case of learning the patterns. But for this fight... basically every parry I do is imperfect, and idk why. Did anyone else find the timing weird when you first got to this fight, or am I just bad and I need to GIT GUD?

[Scorpix]

Originally posted by MadderPacker:

Originally posted by Scorpix:

SPOILERS FOR GOOD ENDING:

In good ending Eigong, after being defeated, infects black roots with the mutation and the only way to stop spreading the mutation is to destroy exposed core. At the end Yi connects to Shuan Shaun and apologize him that he will need to break a promise.
After disconnecting he picks a special arrow and use it on core which destroys entire station and dark roots and also free all solarians trapped in New Kualuan in endless dream. Without dark roots Yi can join his sister in Afterlife. Because Dark Roots are not taking energy from sun anymore, life on pale blue planet can start blooming again and saved Apeman with Kuafu can rebuild and look forward for bright future.

a small correction is that Fusang was blocking a large part of the sun thus causing an Ice Age on earth, by destroying the Fusang on NewKunlun, Yi let the sun fully shine on earth, thus melting the ice away.

I think I mentioned that Dark roots were taking solar energy from sun and because of that, there was not enough energy to warm up planet and it caused Ice age

[MadderPacker]

Originally posted by Scorpix:

Originally posted by MadderPacker:

a small correction is that Fusang was blocking a large part of the sun thus causing an Ice Age on earth, by destroying the Fusang on NewKunlun, Yi let the sun fully shine on earth, thus melting the ice away.

I think I mentioned that Dark roots were taking solar energy from sun and because of that, there was not enough energy to warm up planet and it caused Ice age

Yup correct, because it was acting like a solar panel, blocking off the sun from fully shining down on earth, thus the earth was not receiving enough energy to warm up the planet.

[Seisachtheia]

I am fighting her right now and yeah there were two things I noticed that are making her difficult.

First, she can animation cancel so some traditional openings you usually get on bosses (their attack has completed but the animation hasn't) aren't there. Eigong will simple cancel out of the animation when you try to attack her, once I realized this I switched up to a more bow heavy style for that guaranteed stagger on the cloud piercer and enhanced qi blast to keep my "quiver" full.

Second, like Fxi, the hitbox for her attacks is NOT what you expect. You can perfect parry her slashes but if you are standing too close to her the hitbox for the attack is actually behind you; so you are parrying the wrong direction. I had to adjust my spacing and be much more aware of it for her because unlike Fxi where it's obvious (because he's so big) it's subtle with Eigong.

I still haven't beaten her, but once I realized those two things I'm enjoying the fight a lot more now. (I am however actively still trying to beat her!)

[Kung Fury]

I have a few main gripes against the boss design :

- Complete randomness of patterns. It's been 2hours that I am trying the boss (don't judge me) and only considering the first phase I have seen combo pattern for the first time after 2h ours of tries. It's satisfying when you master the phase but ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the learning phase feels sometimes so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
- Some of her patterns looks unreadable in 3rd phase. I have reach p3 once a the first combo she does I have absolutely no clue where the attacks come from since she dissapread of the screen and it's just random slash animation.
- Homing attacks : if you dash below her just when she launches attack you think you're safe, guess what magic 1 frame side switch and eat that !
- TP bugs like mentioned above

Learning the fight is nice, but at the same time so frustrating because of that. And more generally I regret such a discrepancy in the game difficulty, like 99% of the game, boss fights included is piss easy and there is just this boss that feels like a real challenge.

[The Comedian]

She's really freaking hard. Phase one is not too much trouble at this point, but in phase two she's demolishing me. And there are so few opportunities to deal damage, unless you land all those unbounded counters.

Originally posted by Kung Fury:

I have a few main gripes against the boss design
- Complete randomness of patterns. It's been 2hours that I am trying the boss (don't judge me) and only considering the first phase I have seen combo pattern for the first time after 2h ours of tries. It's satisfying when you master the phase but ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the learning phase feels sometimes so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Yeah the amount of variance in her attacks is driving me nuts. I'm getting Margit flashbacks. [eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com]

[Phishfood]

I feel like she doesn't have enough animations to give you a sense of when her attacks start, so you just have to remember the timing through trial and error without much visual assistance to help you learn.

[grimgroom]

I wanted to add that I defeated all the previous bosses without using unbounded counters at all. Yes, sometimes I took extra damage, or I was able to get out of an attack with a dash.
And now, approaching this boss at the very end of the game, it TURNS OUT that I can charge this unbounded counter several times while successively repelling attacks. (Yes, of course, I read the description of the skills that I unlocked, but why use them if you can complete the game without it?)
Not only that, it turns out that I can charge a Strong attack and an unbounded counter at the same time! And judging by the few videos, I will have to learn this, but on the very final boss, which does not forgive mistakes.
And I also didn’t use Strong Attack in boss fights. The entire playstyle was based on the "red jade" build with a water talisman, mobility and auto attacks whenever possible. With the addition of Hedgehog and Internal damage parry.
I’ve been on the boss for over three hours now, I’m just learning to press different buttons instead of the ones I pressed 20 hours before (unbound counter and strong attack at once for example, it feels so much off).
It's quite draining and a little unfair for these mechanics to SUDDENLY become key to finishing the game.

[MadderPacker]

Originally posted by Kung Fury:

I have a few main gripes against the boss design :

- Complete randomness of patterns. It's been 2hours that I am trying the boss (don't judge me) and only considering the first phase I have seen combo pattern for the first time after 2h ours of tries. It's satisfying when you master the phase but ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the learning phase feels sometimes so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

I've beaten her twice now in both endings without pressing the attack button, just parry and talisman, and there's an attack pattern in her 3rd phase which I still don't get:

it's that charging attack she always uses first in her 2nd phase. In her 3rd phase, the final attack can either be a teleport slash combo or another charged slash, which is BS because you counter either in veeeery different ways.

[Skater901]

Originally posted by Kung Fury:

- Complete randomness of patterns. It's been 2hours that I am trying the boss (don't judge me)

...

And more generally I regret such a discrepancy in the game difficulty, like 99% of the game, boss fights included is piss easy and there is just this boss that feels like a real challenge.

I'm pretty sure it took me 3 hours to beat her lol, and I only did the 2 phase fight. I can't imagine how long it's gonna take when I try the 3 phase fight...

Also I agree on the difficulty spike, she's massively harder than any other boss. Kinda crazy. I don't hate it now that I've got used to her, but... idk, it's kind of jarring.

[Skater901]

Originally posted by MadderPacker:

it's that charging attack she always uses first in her 2nd phase. In her 3rd phase, the final attack can either be a teleport slash combo or another charged slash, which is BS because you counter either in veeeery different ways.

YES. Even in 2nd phase, SOMETIMES she does red slash, two slashes, red slash, and SOMETIMES she does red slash, two slashes, then dash and triple slash! Stuff like that with basically no warning is what makes the fight borderline unfair, because when you have to charge the Unbounded Counter, you need a bit of warning.

Even in the first phase, the move where she teleports into the air and comes down with a red slash, then dashes and does a triple slash, you have to predict it if you want to Unbounded Counter, because you literally do not have enough time to charge it after seeing her teleport up there. (Unless you have lightning reflexes and were standing completely still expecting her to teleport up, I guess?) She can do it after her Talisman attack, or after her slash-dash move, and in both cases I just pre-charge the Unbounded Counter just in case. But then sometimes that gets you in trouble when she DOESN'T teleport up into the air and changes to a different move.

[The Comedian]

Finally did it. Didn't use the charge attack because it felt awkward holding down the button all the time, just slowly chipped away at her health with basic slashes and water talismans. All in all, not the hardest metroidvania boss ever, but she's up there.

[Kung Fury]

Finally did it too, duty complete; I can rest now.