Death knockdown with HFB Bloodless Stockade

[Krydx]

Just sharing the results of my experiments (not recorded unfortunately) in case anyone is interested. If you have your own stories about this, please share.

So I think everybody knows at this point that you can knock down and kill Death at Fortress of Remembrance with Holy Focused Bolt if you do it right (normal mode, wait for the circling around animation and approach from the shadow), but what about Bloodless Stockade?

It's not an idle question, because I'm leveling mage 101-200 and can't use any big hitters like Bolide or Gicel (which is the one I've seen used on Death in BS).

So I wanted to try knocking it down the waterfall with HFB. The problem is: in any position I've tried it just wouldn't knock him down or stagger. I concluded that I don't have enough stagger power and got 2 barbed nails and cursed king belt, which added to the total of 652 stagger and 602 knockdown (I don't have BBI3 staff yet).

After 10 or so attempts on normal mode, I switched to easy (not sure if there's any difference in knockdown, but sure no difference in XP gained, so it's fine). The problem is, all the guides say that you have to get him to the right side of the waterfall, but it just didn't work for me: he never fell down.

Finally I tried the left side and it worked on the first try. Maybe just luck, but I managed to stagger him first during the lantern attack, so he lowered himself (his head was about the same level as me) then the second or third HFB sent him down.

Well, nothing more to say, just wanted to share. If you have any advice or would like to point to a more simple solution, feel welcome.

[Borch TrzyKawki]

someone in comments on wiki mentioned that grand ingle from up close was working better thna holy focused bolt, i never tried death on hardmode but on normal mode i noticed its much easier to stagger with preemtion bonus, i was able to stagger lock him for a while that way, but usually he finally managed to break off before i killed him with bolts as they dont deal too crazy dmg even with periapts and its hard to spam them fast enough.

[zadymek]

Your only issue with Death is damage. If you deal damage you can knock it dow...back, you want to knock it back. And its stats are the same in both difficulty modes.

Use 4x Demon's Periapt if you cannot hurt this pathethic poor excuse for an enemy I guess. Or be stealth. Or use Grand Ingle up close, or whatever.

[gammav]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9CnKcPLuj8

[Krydx]

Originally posted by Borch TrzyKawki:

someone in comments on wiki mentioned that grand ingle from up close was working better thna holy focused bolt, i never tried death on hardmode but on normal mode i noticed its much easier to stagger with preemtion bonus, i was able to stagger lock him for a while that way, but usually he finally managed to break off before i killed him with bolts as they dont deal too crazy dmg even with periapts and its hard to spam them fast enough.

Thank you, I'll try grand ingle (though I'd have to replace one of the barbed nails, so not sure, I'll try both high and grand and see which works better).

Originally posted by zadymek:

Your only issue with Death is damage. If you deal damage you can knock it dow...back, you want to knock it back. And its stats are the same in both difficulty modes.

Use 4x Demon's Periapt if you cannot hurt this pathethic poor excuse for an enemy I guess. Or be stealth. Or use Grand Ingle up close, or whatever.

I used periapts, but I didn't see the difference. Are you sure periapts affect knockdown or stagger at all?

Originally posted by gammav:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9CnKcPLuj8

Thank you for the video! I'll definitely try that too

---

Update. Did it a 2nd time, with High Ingle even, but took a lot of spells. I tired Frigor too, I guess it needs ground to appear, so it didn't work so well over the waterfall.

Did it 2 more times with HFB (even with no periapts). The trick is go to the left side of the waterfall first, when he goes his lantern attack (better have sobering wine), then he flies away for some reason, then you turn to the right and he appears again, and turn away from you, that's where you strike. He also gets stuck just below the ledge with only his head visible, that's the best time to knock him down.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Krydx:

I used periapts, but I didn't see the difference. Are you sure periapts affect knockdown or stagger at all?

No, they don't.
But the they make dealing damage possible. And if you DO NOT deal damage, you cannot stagger/knockdown the target. Except with bows for some reason.

[Krydx]

Thank you to everyone who answered, anyway, I'm level 200 now so I guess next time I'll have to kill Death honestly to get the loot. Now I just need some level 3 stuff

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Krydx:

Thank you to everyone who answered, anyway, I'm level 200 now so I guess next time I'll have to kill Death honestly to get the loot. Now I just need some level 3 stuff

Hmm, you are yet to get lv.3 loot but are level 200 already?
Goodluck with Pawn hires.

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

If you want to gimmick your way to max level, just save yourself time and use a save editor or dinput8. No one cares and you can be max level in less than 2 minutes.