Do status effects work?

[awLTR]

Used 5 Shrieking Cores on Hunter Leader AND was using Corrupted Blader Swords through-out the whole fight, and frankly I don't think I saw Pierce proccing even once on the guy?

EDIT: wait, yeah, I get it - consumables were Infection, the weapon was Pierce. Still, it seems ridiculous to hit an enemy with 5 very limited consumables consequetively and not proc the status once.

[Jorister]

Yes. Infection especially makes blader bosses much easier to deal with.
Pierce procs consistently enough if you don't stop wailing on the boss.

[Sleepy_Nex]

Hunter Leader? do you mean the gank boss? then Pierce wouldn't work on them probably. Pierce crystalizes Mud and makes it pierce out. So it should only work on Mud based enemies and not Humans. Not that i tried it but since you say it didn't procc it should be the case.

[Jorister]

It works against both the gank squad and Scavenger Patriarch. I think only pierce immune enemies are robots at the sewers and factory
later edit: I've already had a clip of pierce working against Scavenger, no Hunters though unfortunately and they're dead already
https://youtu.be/ftiJ6Ug9L8A

[Sleepy_Nex]

oh is that so? Then sorry my bad.

[K13Cove]

I'm fairly certain that Hunter enemies, such as the ones encountered in the Withered Forest, also have high Piercing resistance. I couldn't proc it at all on the bulky, cleaver-wielding Hunters. This hypothesis is supported by the Hunter Armour you can obtain for yourself in the same area having the anomalously high Piercing resistance stat of 60.

Either way, Piercing definitely isn't as effortless to optimise as the analogous Bleed in Elden Ring, nor does it appear to proc as easily. Stacking Piercing Claw with weapons that have inherent Piercing (e.g. Stygian Claw) is your best shot at Piercing making a significant dent in bosses.