How to fight The Assassin?

[Tsuki Zero]

As of this new update, bosses and enemies have become tankier, but The Assassin goes way overboard with its grabs and poorly telegraphed attacks. Any idea on what to do?

[偉万]

If you got no stutterings and have fast fingers, any shield that can parry will help you a lot.
With new mechanics you can block literally all her attacks, both melee and ranged.
Main part here is just try more and more and learn all her attacks.

Many people, as I can recall, use Bear Traps to lock her unable to turn.

Somebody just going into Survival biulds. When you have a lot of hp, you can bear many of her attacks.

My usual strat is any shield, any fast-swing melee weapon (if I went Brutal build), and Phaser (second skill usually for stats, or for synergy).

[Dinomelt]

I can't seem to beat her either. Can anyone make some kind of stategy guide or attack pattern guide?

[偉万]

I will try to write down her attacks pattern, not sure if I correctly recall every little thing.

1st phase: she just trying to shorten the distance and punch you with one hit. Sometimes (not sure, I usually fast lower her hp) she can run to the corner of the room and throw shuriken (not sure if she trying to hook you here)

2nd phase: begins with "rotating shurikens" animation (they will be thrown afterwards), so then her basic attacks are the same, but instead of one hit she deals two hits, and instead of one shuriken she throw three, after shurikens it is normal to hook you (you can either roll or parry a hook). If you get catched, then you can only parry (cos you're rooted) or freeze/stun her. Sometimes she perform dash attack through all ground space. You can either parry or dodge it.

3rd phase: begins with cutscene and rotating shurikens again. Now the main numbers are three for melee hits and five for shurikens (still parryable). Also, if you just evade dash (not parry it), she might use it again. Don't forget that she able to turn to you when she performing regular melee strikes (but they still have strange hitbox, so I usually roll away). Also there are some falling swords, but they're dodgable, I usually not paying attention to them.

Important things:
1. If you have no shield or don't have any freeze/stun or just bad at parrying, then evade all hooks. If you got hooked, her next attack is devastating!
2. As for me, I usually not trying to dodge shurikens with jumps, only parry; because at late phase she might catch you with hook in air.
3. Try not to attack her from melee range if she begun her regular melee streak (she can turn to you on any attack). It stuns/interrups you, so you can just watch your hp draining until she finishes.
4. Try to exactly parry her dash attack. As I said, if you just dodge it, she can immediately permorm second and you just won't have time for performing second roll.
5. Shurikens are easy to parry/deflect. Just listen to sounds and catch the phythm.

And the most important:
This game is about dying;
Your training course is battle field;
Just die, ressurect and die again;
Every death will teach you something;
That's the spirit of the game.

[Tsuki Zero]

Had two Heavy Turrets (one of which Colorless), >15 Survival points, a colorless Assassin's Dagger and a Spike Shield... Destroyed her by sheer turret DPS. Did I mention I encountered 3 Cursed Chests? Lucky day~

[Dinomelt]

Thanks 偉万! Really helpful! Another thing too that I found out on my own: her dash attack isn't guaranteed damage if you don't have a stun or parry. Just double jump over it! She'll usually try a hook straight after though, so be careful

[Maverick]

I just fought her for the first time a couple moments ago and got her down to her last "phase" fairly easy. I had a colorless Infantry Bow VII and a freeze blast VI. I'm not very fond of active skills unless they're good enough to force me to pay attention to them so I wasn't using mine. People give freeze blast crap, but it worked wonders for me so far. If I was any more used to the Assassins attacks I most likely would have won. freeze/stun is a very good go-to