Anyone else find kuroki extremely hard?

[eepy83]

damn

[JAG]

Kuroki is indeed a roadblock for many. She's the first boss to really introduce low-hitting attacks, so if you haven't learnt how to avoid those yet (for example, from Flashkicks and Disciples), then you're in for a rough time. The range of her attacks also makes her difficult to approach, especially if you don't know how to avoid them.

Aside from "just learn the avoid directions and/or deflect timings", one piece of advice is to approach her with a weapon. Blocking with one in hand will prevent chip damage, and will build your structure bar slower, so you can just hold block until the end of a pattern, avoid the last attack, and then punish. Rinse and repeat.

For phase two - Weapon Catch is a useful skill to have, and she's really susceptible to attacks like Crotch Punch and Duck Strike when she's running up to you.

[𝕊𝕠𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕒]

Originally posted by big poo:

damn

Skill issue detected
Git gud recommended

[Vinik]

Err in normal ? Because im in Disciple (easy) and she s almost easy, she dont atttack in Low :D so i guess you re in normal ? By the way i have few Low-Kicks to dodge in Disciple but i restarted in normal with my skills unlocked from other save :)

[Frid]

Originally posted by Vinik:

Err in normal ? Because im in Disciple (easy) and she s almost easy, she dont atttack in Low :D so i guess you re in normal ? By the way i have few Low-Kicks to dodge in Disciple but i restarted in normal with my skills unlocked from other save :)

easy mode is like fighting a punching bag.
Normal is a bit nuts.

[eepy83]

Originally posted by Vinik:

Err in normal ? Because im in Disciple (easy) and she s almost easy, she dont atttack in Low :D so i guess you re in normal ? By the way i have few Low-Kicks to dodge in Disciple but i restarted in normal with my skills unlocked from other save :)

im on normal, im not an easy boy

[MrZeruel]

My first fight with her I went in the prime of youth and left like an old man yelling to the clouds... So nope, you're not the only one. I'd say the is probably the toughest boss (Yes I said it) and a huge difficulty spike

[opvaskebjørn]

besides the obvious, yknow, avoid her attacks, there are two strings you can bait out really easily with a specific distance. if you go into training and spawn her you can see what i mean, but when you're about a mid range from her she will almost always do the low high low high combo so it's easy enough to avoid that consistently. she might sometimes then follow up with a high low low high low combo which, once again, is very predictable from her. when you're in melee range she'll either do high high low or some attack into that combo, or high high high high.

in general i'd avoid being too close to her just to lessen the amount of attack strings she'll be able to use.

[MrZeruel]

Well, all bosses have patterns after you train against them, but the first time you encounter her it is a huge difficulty spike

[opvaskebjørn]

Originally posted by MrZeruel:

Well, all bosses have patterns after you train against them, but the first time you encounter her it is a huge difficulty spike

so true. her first phase even on disciple i would say is the absolute hardest boss to beat perfectly of any boss or enemy across any difficulty for me.

[samcrystal1]

Do better, try harder!

[Doing gens, you?]

Straight up just need to learn her pattern and parry her attacks. It's a big step up from Sean who had pretty simple very telegraphed combos, and only introduced a sweep and occasional poke later, whereas she's somewhat swinging all over with multiple lows, and attacks are harder to read since she's swinging a blade attached to a line rather than a staff.

Attack very infrequently, only when you're sure she's done comboing. Just focus on parry timing her weird swings and you'll beat her. Second phase is a joke for the most part.

[Bobby Cobras]

my two cents is watch the direction of her attacks (horizontal vs vertical). Anything horizontal, dodge back. Without knowing her timing, you'll be able to dodge 60% of her attacks and it'll let you learn the timing of the whirling blades. For vertical attacks, left and right dodges will do the same thing. After a few rounds you'll be confidently dodging majority of her attacks. Phase 2 I find is easier with parries and knife catches. Her rush attack is 5 in a row followed by that dropkick, you gotta learn the timing for that one. But keep closing distance and use your dodges and you'll be in good shape.

[JAG]

Originally posted by Bobby Cobras:

Anything horizontal, dodge back. Without knowing her timing, you'll be able to dodge 60% of her attacks and it'll let you learn the timing of the whirling blades. For vertical attacks, left and right dodges will do the same thing.

I'm afraid that won't work. There are at least two patterns in Kuroki's first phase that contradict this — Low High Low High and High Low Low High. Both patterns consist of wide horizontally slashing attacks that can't be dealt with by just doing high avoids (not dodges, that's a different mechanic altogether).

Also, common misconception — side avoids aren't a thing in this game. Left, Down, and Right are functionally the same. The only two directions are high and low, it just so happens that one of them has three available inputs.

[opvaskebjørn]

Originally posted by JAG:

Originally posted by Bobby Cobras:

Anything horizontal, dodge back. Without knowing her timing, you'll be able to dodge 60% of her attacks and it'll let you learn the timing of the whirling blades. For vertical attacks, left and right dodges will do the same thing.

I'm afraid that won't work. There are at least two patterns in Kuroki's first phase that contradict this — Low High Low High and High Low Low High. Both patterns consist of wide horizontally slashing attacks that can't be dealt with by just doing high avoids (not dodges, that's a different mechanic altogether).

Also, common misconception — side avoids aren't a thing in this game. Left, Down, and Right are functionally the same. The only two directions are high and low, it just so happens that one of them has three available inputs.

the tl;dr of what this jag guy is trying to say is just learn parry timing to cheese instead of directional avoids 🙃

[sling_shot]

Playing on normal, I found low attacks too hard to read to the point of questioning why so I gave up on that so my probably terrible advice is to go the good ol' "deflect as much as you can, tank through and beat her with a baseball bat" strat that sure it'll get you killed 2-3 times but gets the job done. It'll work for Jinfeng as well, took me 3 tries.

Phase 2, not even worth mentioning. Basically Sean with a couple of extra steps.