Tips to beat Sister Friede OFFLINE

[Rango]

Alright, people. Now I'm feeling quite compelled to ask for suggestions here.

This is the situation:

I just bought the Season Pass after a long time saving money: almost completed Ariandel's DLC and, before going head down to the other DLC, I wanted to finish this one (haven't killed Demon Prince yet as a way to keep Gael summon active for this boss).
As I have NO money to pay for a PS-Plus subscription (not even mention keep the subscriptions active by paying the smallest fee), I'm forced to play Offline only with NPC summons in case of dear necessity.

My character stats and build are as follows:

Pyromancer LVL 111

Vigor: 25
Attunement: 18
Endurance: 18
Vitality: 32
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 30
Faith: 30
Luck: 7

Main gear generally used:

Reinforced dark sword (dark gem) + 10 (as she is weak to Dark attacks)
Chaos dark sword + 10
Pyromancy flame + 10 (mainly Chaos Bad Vestiges and Black Flame)
Black Knight Shield or Crest Shield

Ring of Favor +3
Estus Ring
Scholar's Ring
Ring of Steel Protection + 3

Things attempted thus far:

Until now, I've been taking my time to learn her patterns and not rush the fight out: the same tactic required to beat Nameless King.
Also, I used Divine Blessing and Embers as a last resort way to heal.
However, I still think there's something missing. Dunno if I missed an Estus Flask (13 in total so far), maybe more oomph in my attacks, maybe more stamina or better resistances in armor.

- Black Blade +10 with lightning gem (as a way to abuse bleed and lightning weaknesses)
- Kukris (useful to mark her position when invisible and bleed effect sometimes)
- Crystal Chime +5 (experimenting with buffing spells like Deep Protection)

Restrictions:

- I have no skills for parrying, yet I'm practicing to "git gud" in that sense.
- NO 2 handed heavy weaponry: it may be useful for PVP, but in PVE is not that effective, specially with quick opponents like this one.

Open to any suggestions about what elements should I focus on, disregard or improve.

Regards and PRAISE THE SUN.

[meh]

Remove a few points from vitality and put more vigor

[Endymion Gainer]

First phase, she staggers VERY easily. Be aggressive. When she disappears, she likes to move to the other side of the room; get close to see her again and get free hits. Weak to Lightning.

Second phase, focus on the big guy and not her. Keep him between you and her at all times. He's weak to any physical damage, and the only thing she can hit you with is ice trails. Easy to get out of.

Third phase is largely a faster version of the first with a few new attacks. She's still easily staggered, so don't let her combo up and get you pinned. Still weak to lightning.

[Seferofe]

By your level you should really have 35 to 40 vigour. It'll help a lot in PvE and PvP (if you ever get to it). Though the only thing you could really lower is vitality, which you shouldn't need unless you're using heavy armour for poise (which only helps with large weapons). Also, if you're using chaos and dark infusions just go for the base stats for the weapons you want. Any higher and it's a waste.

[Mike]

Get more vigor and are you on NG+?

[Mike]

Also, backstab fest 3rd phase, stunlock first and storyteller second.

[Brando]

yes backstabs are great for 1st and 3rd phase
1st phase when she disappears, when you find her she should be charging up her grab attack, make your way around her and back stab, followed up by a charged strong attack and a few r1s. you can also block some of her attacks but dont rely on it to much because she can break your gaurd and destroy you
3rd phase you can start off with a back stab, she'll leap into the air, you can roll and stay under her and end up behind her when she lands, can be a little tricky at first but its very useful
try and bait out the attacks you know you can punish her with, and of course take your time and dont get greedy(can support by experience)
good luck

[B.Ombama]

forget parrying her, better focus on backstabbing. when she goes invisible it's either her side dash or, often, right behind your back. check her trails on the floor. at 2nd stage try not get ice spiked while attacking her dad. listen to the audio cues to know when she goes heal mode. at 3rd stage main focus is to evade and try to backstab. worst thing is getting caught in a cut-throat grab. after going invisible she still jumps behind you, so try to watch where she dashes after that.

[Seferofe]

Ah! Something I forgot. When she goes invisible you can tell which way she went. Look at the little snow cloud that appears shortly after she dissappears. It'll either her going left, right, or jumping over you. When you know where she is, run up to her and give her a good couple R1's, it'll stop the 'grab' attack she normally goes for.

[PaulieZero]

For this fight I have always had success doing the following:
Wear Chillbite Ring
Wear armor with decent chill resist (undead legion armor recommended for medium VIT)
If casting with less than 50 Dex, consider sage ring.
Summon Gael

Phase 1:
Mostly backtrack away from Friede. catch her as she comes in for you. This is easier to time with an Ultra weapon 2H R1. Do not rush her unless you are already close and she has just begun her stance and is standing there waiting. When she does the invisibility leap, you will know because she winds up for it, turn around when she is winding up and look for the dust on the floor. If you have surround sound, you can also hear her breathing. go in for an easy 2-Hit combo at this point. With enough patience, you will come to find this phase to be easy.

Phase 2:
Buff with Red Bug Pellets immediately.
Let Gael deal with Friede. If she locks on to you, do not engage and get away from her. Focus on the Father as he is slow and easy to predict. Avoid his mega slam. If you see Friede off to the side praying and glowing, you can swipe her quick (only once to avoid aggro) to cancel her heal.

Phase 3:
Back away from Friede's corpse so Gael de-aggros and doesn't get wrecked immediately.
Buff with Black Bug Pellets.
She will do the mega-awesome cinematic leap attack to start. If you are directly behind her when she lands, you will avoid splash damage. Go in for backstab.
This phase is much harder than phase 1. She has more attacks, and constantly throws ice. Avoid the ice, let Gael maintain aggro. Two hits in a row from you will steal aggro onto you.
If you can, back her into a corner and you and Gael can attempt to infinite combo her.
If Gael goes down, try to maintain medium distance. It becomes a matter of timing your hits and avoiding her combos.
If she does the grab & decapitate combo, you can get out of the decap by slamming roll.

I have played this game for many hundreds of hours, and have all achieves on playstation as well, and I find this fight to be one of the most satisfying to beat. I remember my first character who beat it on first try without any death - I was screaming at the monitor at Friede in phase 3 from past emotional trauma and almost jumped out of my chair when I beat her in 1 try. When you have gotten gud, you too will eventually look forward to the unqiue beauty of this fight. From the screams of rage in phase 2, to the unique moves in phase 3, this one is a fight to remember in the history books.

[Jeremy]

Just here to brag
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312425561

Gottard Twinswords running attack for 1st phase
warden twinblades with carthus rogue on ariandel for 2nd phase
Back to Gottard Twinswords for 3st phase and go for backstabs

[Metro]

25 vigor and 18 endurance at level 111?

[Rango]

Thanks a lot for the quick answers. To brief everything (or add info requested or new questions):

- Respec/lvl up to get more endurance to punish for more time.
- Prioritize frostbite-resistant gear.
- High levels of vitality should only be used for heavy armour and weapons. (Question: how can you use weaker equipment and still be able to split damage [be able to get some hits before needing to drink Estus and not dying in one hit]?)
- 1st and 3rd phase is timing (like in Nameless King) and backstabs (like in Gravetender Champion)
- Here distance is better than shielding (roll-fest)
- No NG, as I want to beat every single one of those bosses before beating Souls of Cinder. However, this isn't my first Dark Souls run (already completed twice in vanilla version).
- Is dark damage not enough for this boss? As to know if I should better infuse one of my dark swords with lightning gem instead of using Black Blade (and its lack of distance). I also considered using Washing Pole to get range, bleeding damage and chance to infuse with lightning gem (double weakness exploit)

[SomethingSomethingDarkside]

Unless you have been grinding to get to that lvl. By 111 you should have all 15 estus +10.

Both estus and steel are useless since you should be avoiding hits and should search to complete the rest of your flasks. Both frostbite gear and ring are moot since the moment you see her spreading an ice path, you should already be out the way or off it. Her attacks don't spread frost all that quickly either.

Toss the black knight shield since you shouldn't be blocking attacks. Can keep crest if you feel you really need the regen.

Stats need to be adjusted. Unless your wearing heavy armor, don't need all that vit. If you can get the prisoners chain

20 lvls saved to be used how you see fit.

Vigor: 25 +5
Attunement: 18
Endurance: 15 +5
Vitality: 15 +5
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 30
Faith: 30
Luck: 7

Without the chain

Saved you 5 lvls.

Vigor: 30
Attunement: 18
Endurance: 20
Vitality: 20
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 30
Faith: 30
Luck: 7

Grab the old witch ring for boosted pyro dmg. If you can't get the prisoners then you have one free ring slot to do with as you please.

When she goes invisible, can run at her so she jumps overhead and turn the camera to follow. Makes seeing where she is more simple since you see the landing site. If she still makes it sideways welp do what you been doing. Not sure if you do it but would recommend getting use to running instead of just walking or rolling in directions.

Might be against it but you should think about investing in a larger weapon. If not an ultra, then a great. She is easy to stagger and her moves leave her open quite a lot. I can say the onyx blade is decent since it is the longest gs, innate dark, plus the fire boost WA. 3 way split but dmg is dmg and it might keep you safely out of range. While a ss is fast, lotta good it does if you don't have extra range and she hits you as well before the stagger. Speed don't fully matter if you can stagger before she attacks. But that's just my thoughts.

[Yal]

Great Chaos Fire Orb is really nice in PvE, enemies turtling behind a shield can't handle it properly (they block it, lose stamina, then lose stamina AGAIN from the puddles and get guardbroken) and more importantly for your situation, it can deal massive damage to big targets like Father Ariandel that gets hit by all three puddles at once. (I managed to oneshot the first big wolf by accident).

You can completely stunlock Friede with the Ringed Knight Paired Greatswords, but I guess they're outta the question since they're Ringed City-exclusive (and also BOTH very heavy AND twohanded).

[Boss]

Not trying to sound like a total jackass. But don't eat 2-4 meals during one weak. Call it a 'diet'. The idea that people can't afford PS Plus is simply ridiculous. Heck, beg on the street for an hour. I understand you don't WANT to pay the money for it, but let's not pretend it costs something that you can't "afford".