Can't beat first boss

[Craig]

Any tips for the first boss (yes the first. I know I suck)

[Metro]

First boss is basic Dark Souls strategy: dodge or block when he's swinging and take one or two swings at him after he's finished his attacks/combos. Repeat as necessary. Make sure you regen your stamina in between.

[Yvvyyy]

Giiiiiiiiiiiit guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud-

besides that, um... I guess parrying isn't an option for beginner -I'll assume you are since you're having trouble with Gundyr

Soo.. I would recommend continuing to circle and roll towards his right(your left) when he attacks, as most of his attacks come from that direction, making you get out of the 'hit box' of his halberd faster than if you'd be rolling backwards or to the right.

But honestly, the real way to get through first boss will be git gud. If you can't beat him, you will get stuck quite often along the coming challenges- but if you put time to it and get used to the controls and stuff while fighting Gundyr, you'll find that first few bosses afterwards will be alot easier, and will help you get along the way.

[Vinyltavia]

its a culmination of things you learn from the basic and most outlined tutorial this game has to offer.
take what you've learned and apply it.
I'm not gonna give you specific advice because there is no room for you to grow to tell you what to do.
rather, what would you do and how should you approach this based on what you've learned so far?

[Stellar Fox]

dodge dodge hit, repeat

[Rookie]

Parry

[Mike]

First of all, pick deprived. Despite not looking like much, that character packs a major punch. From tries so hard to fool us... Next, do NOT lock on. Also, trade with gundyr, don't forget to not use estus as gundyr will see y as an honorable opponent and go easier on you in uhhh champion gundyr boss in the untended graves .

[Aaron]

Which class are you using?

[Craig]

Originally posted by -Aaron-:

Which class are you using?

Knight

[PoweredByPiltover]

There's only one way to beat Gundyr and that is learn what works. This is Dark Souls, which means you're gonna die over and over and over until you learn each area. For this very reason, victory tastes extremely sweet in the entire series.

That said, if you really do needs tips on what you should be trying, learn how to properly roll. Rolling is the most basic dodge in the game and learning how to roll at the exact moment an attack is about to hit you is the difference between life and death in a lot of situations. If you time your rolls perfectly, you'll negate any damage the hit would've done.

Since you're a knight, also try blocking with your shield. A good shield can block all physical damage at the cost of some stamina upon getting hit.

Wait for gaps in his attack patterns and hit him while he isn't attacking.

For the 2nd phase of the fight, stay close to him and dodge at the moment he's about to fall down on you. You don't want to stay too far away because he gains massive range to his attacks.

Good luck, and welcome to Dark Souls 3.

[PissythePanda]

Rolling is a boss killer. His first form isn't too bad and you can easily just keep hitting him. His 2nd phase (around half hp I think?) is pretty weak to fire damage, so firebombs (you can find some on a corpse before his fight) and pyromancy, if you started as a pyromancer, will destroy that form.

[Aaron]

How is it going?
It took me like 6 attempts before I could kill it, just manage to keep all your Estus until 2nd phase and you'll do it
His first phase has slow attacks, it's a pattern
Try to dodge only the attack you see, don't panic roll since you'll run out of stamina
You can also use your shield if you are not sure about rolling but rolling is a better option since it takes less stamina
Don't get greedy, just roll and attack 1-2 times then dodge again

[the entire population of russia?]

Hey, sorry if no one is really helping, the community can be a bit toxic at times. The first boss has a sweet spot behind him and to the right a little bit while hugging really close to him, hit him once or twice, and keep circling to the right trying to remain in his sweet spot and staying close, when you see him rear back, be ready to roll, or you might even get it if you just start rolling then and roll multiple times, you can block probably 1 or 2 of his hits with your shield before running out of stamina, so that's also an option.

When he transforms stay in that spot, when he raises up move towards his tail, not away from him. otherwise stay in little sweet spot just behind his left shoulder. Hit him when you get the chance. when you are in that spot he'll to a super fast swing in his second phase that pretty much no one can dodge, don't worry it does minimal damage compared to his other attacks, and once he does one you can start wailing on him because he's not about to attack again for a good 7-10 seconds.

Hope this helps, precise timing is aparently what a lot of people use, but it's real hard to master, and i don't think you shoud be expected to learn it so well just to play the game, i know i don't have it mastered. Positioning, and lucky rolls have goten me through th game a few times.

[A-Silly-Bun-Bun]

As knight try and unquip your gauntlets and helm itll lower your equip load a bit. What that means is faster rolls slightly more Iframes . Dont be afraid to start again on a fresh character (for gift get black firebombs for phase 2).

Try out a different starting class you may find it easier than the knight (avoid thief, deprived as they are the hardest to start out on)

Tips for the game

Focus more on rolling than blocking. This is so that you can get used to rolling, the sooner you get this down pat the easier life will be, as a lot of it boils down to not messing up a roll.

Once you have that down you may never need to block again or you can just put blocking back into your strat

Dont get greedy with attacks always watch your stamina,
For gundyr you can easily get 1-2 hits in and have plenty left for dodging.

Keep at it the more you fail the more you will get used to every little thing, like learning gundyrs attacks.
If your getting frustrated take a break and come back to it.

You can typically dodge to your left safely for gundyr as most of his attacks are wide sweeps which means you will be rolling under his halberd. (Feel free to correct me if im wrong on this im writing this from memory)

Once you learn his attacks, bait the ones your most comfortable with (his leap is a good example of this, to bait it just get far away from him)

And when you get further in the game don't automatically use a summon for a boss always fight the boss a few times by yourself to learn it and get a feel for the fight, this also helps not be super dependent on summons and being carried through the game . If it keeps beating you ember up and summon somone if you feel the need or are just sick of the fight.

This is long sorry

[Mike]

Originally posted by PotatoLord27:

First of all, pick deprived. Despite not looking like much, that character packs a major punch. From tries so hard to fool us... Next, do NOT lock on. Also, trade with gundyr, don't forget to not use estus as gundyr will see y as an honorable opponent and go easier on you in uhhh champion gundyr boss in the untended graves .

Don't forget, backsteps are very good.

[PMA]

I finished the game twice before, I played it for the first time on steam yesterday and I have to confess, I died to that first boss, just try to go full health with all estus flasks. Now if there is one thing you need to know to finish this game easily, its dodging, u just press that space button at the right times and any boss is going to be a joke even on NG+, or even better, parrying, but I have never really mastered parrying, dodging is much easier but less effective. For the first boss its really basic dodging but you need to know his patterns, how many times he hit, when he stops, u just destroy him and back off until he makes this leap, dodge it, hit him then just keep dodging or blocking and keep on destroying, I would suggest getting comfortable with pressing f and switching to double handed especially on knight, when hes attacking get the shield on for more protection but when u r attacking if u can 2 hand it, its much more effective, especially if you can time ctrl shift attacks right, but thats just making it complicated. You can easily win this boss if you just dodge then hit and repeat, you just have to be wary of his patters, and that goes to all bosses, next will be vordt, all you have to do is dodge then hit his a**, just stay under him all the fight and when he does that freezing channel u go behind him and destroy him, keep dodging and gl fam.