Alfred is an intensely unfair boss fight unless I'm missing something.

[Sniper Diplomat]

I know he can be easily brute forced on normal mode. I'm running the game on hard without allowing myself to grind for anything and it's really showing the flaws in some of the boss fights. Alfred is the worst so far, with Zengetsu being the most fair (while still being challenging.)

• He starts off by throwing a poison bomb at you before the camera has even refocused on your character. This feels like a bug, tbh.
  
• Constantly running away, which invalidates any melee strategy, BUT he's immune to ranged attacks at a distance (unless they're homing) due to the cylindrical arena. Also hurting melee is his bomb throws which are undodgable if you're close to him.
  
• If he spawns ice shards above you, your only hope is to jump inbetween them, which is really janky since they have unclear hitboxes. He also throws a bomb at you during this, which you probably won't see (and you can't see the floor while jumping!)
  
• Throwing bombs through the wall. Can't even see them.
  
• If you're jumping and he casts ice shards, he will spawn them on top of you, which is a real problem because in phase 2, you have to constantly jump over the slowing zones.
  
• Everything about phase 2 is awful. I can't discern any intended strategy. The only way to damage him is with homing spells, but that's not enough unless you've been grinding power. His attacks and animations are all completely hidden by the white slowdown zones which almost completely blanket the arena. It's a complete visual mess, and even if you do manage to see through it, they still create undodgable situations regularly.

A lot of the bosses have similar issues, but at least you can damage race them. Alfred's cowardly running highlights the problem.

[Palicai]

Just sounds to me like you arent powerful enough, ergo, you HAVE to grind. The gmae is designed for it. Some bosses are impossible without a decent amount of damage and some shards, there isnt enough healing options to survive them.

Theres alot of people who has cleared Nightmare by now, and i assure you, they all grinded out the best gear.

I'm gonna do a Nightmare mode myself, but that will be in coop once it releases, as ive 100% the game pretty much and i dont wanna burn out on it.

But i do agree, Alfred was plain annoying even on Normal with good gear, but not impossible at all. On nightmarea.....yeah i cans ee him beeing VERY hard to deal with without the correct gear so yoou can actually REACH him.

[uriele85]

Jump through the poison bomb as soon as the fight start.
When he run away from you, run in the opposite direction to catch up with him
Use the Shield Weapon (8bit-16bit-32bit)

Shield weapon can guard against all his attach without the need to move away (so you can continue to spam attacks when the ice shard are on top of you head or when he's creating column of fire under you, or even when he's casting a curse bullet).

The only attack I have problem avoid are the long acting ones (the ice on the floor and the poison). Guard avoid you to be hit the first time and you have an invincibility frame that allows you to move out of the pool under your feet.

To get the shield you don't need to grind. Just get the 8bit coin under the bridge and craft the weapon, the 8bit one is strong enough (20-25) to deal with basically every enemy in the game (it might take a bit longer, but you are basically able to avoid all damages without spending MP)

[Sniper Diplomat]

I completed the fight. I'm just saying it's very flawed. I had to use up literally all healing consumables and ethers I had to survive and deal enough magic damage. Running in the opposite direction that he runs never worked for me. He just turns around when he's halfway around.

[Duck]

I've got some tips for this boss:

- use speedbelt and tailwind (from OD, if available).
- get the directed shield shard from shield outsiders, it lets you block attacks from any direction
- don't let the boss face you, stand behind him at all times so his attacks dont hit you
- don't let him drink his power up elixer, stay on him at all times
- flying edge or rhava bural make this fight easier since you can easily attack and move

I beat him on all 3 difficulties without new game plus so I've had a lot of practice. Nightmare was probably the easiest time I've had with him by that point.

[Duck]

Originally posted by Dustin Gunn:

I completed the fight. I'm just saying it's very flawed. I had to use up literally all healing consumables and ethers I had to survive and deal enough magic damage. Running in the opposite direction that he runs never worked for me. He just turns around when he's halfway around.

I'm not trying to brag here but I beat him without using any healing items at all in every encounter. I actually did that for every single boss in hard and nightmare, including the extra bosses. A tough fight does not mean it is flawed.

[Sniper Diplomat]

Originally posted by Aspie:

Originally posted by Dustin Gunn:

I completed the fight. I'm just saying it's very flawed. I had to use up literally all healing consumables and ethers I had to survive and deal enough magic damage. Running in the opposite direction that he runs never worked for me. He just turns around when he's halfway around.

I'm not trying to brag here but I beat him without using any healing items at all in every encounter. I actually did that for every single boss in hard and nightmare, including the extra bosses. A tough fight does not mean it is flawed.

You didn't make an argument against it being flawed, and considering the nature of grinding in this game, saying you didn't need to heal doesn't mean much potentially. There's undeniable visual problems and many situations where attacks can be undodgable.

[Duck]

Originally posted by Dustin Gunn:

Originally posted by Aspie:

I'm not trying to brag here but I beat him without using any healing items at all in every encounter. I actually did that for every single boss in hard and nightmare, including the extra bosses. A tough fight does not mean it is flawed.

You didn't make an argument against it being flawed, and considering the nature of grinding in this game, saying you didn't need to heal doesn't mean much potentially. There's undeniable visual problems and many situations where attacks can be undodgable.

Okay.

Point 1: you can dodge his poison at the start very easily. You can just cure the poison with a mithridate right away and take zero damage anyway.

Point 2: get movement speed increases. I beat him with melee very easily.

Point 3: they're easier to dodge than you describe. If you can't, use the directed shield shard

Point 4: Why is the enemy out of sight?

Point 5: Can agree with this point. This kind of thing can happen with a lot of bosses though. Should be able to avoid this by using directed shield or beast guardian as you jump.

Point 6: I beat him with melee on this phase pretty easily. As for being unable to see attacks, see my point about staying behind him at all times when you're close to him. I didn't have any trouble anyway seeing his attacks.


Also, on nightmare you can't gain any levels (not even your familiars) so the amount of power you can attain is limited to your progress in the game. The most I did was make the food recipes I had unlocked, keep my armor updated, and get shards I wanted. I didn't grind much until after I beat the game.

[JHarlequin]

You were just unlucky, it wasn't a flawed fight. While some of the fights are surprisingly difficult compared to the shard delivery services that a few fights are, that doesn't mean that any of them are flawed.

The biggest problem I really have with any fight is when the enemy just keeps walking or running into you rather than attacking. Having every attack and attempt to run away interrupted because the enemy is just walking is an annoyance.

[d_valroth]

When I faced him, I used the double jump's down kick to rapidly close distance with him, got right in his face, and let him have it with Welcome Company and the mini-Crissaegrim. (I'll remember it's name at some point.)

[RobDeLaMorte]

It really is an obnoxious fight isn't it? Can't even timestop that old bastard or anything. >.>

For me it seems like it's just an annoying dps battle more than anything. If you don't have some really high damage attacking thing (Preferably with no animation and some faster movespeed) then you just end up being status defected a ton and it dragging out for aaaaages.

[Nanashi]

Originally posted by Dustin Gunn:

• Constantly running away, which invalidates any melee strategy, BUT he's immune to ranged attacks at a distance (unless they're homing) due to the cylindrical arena. Also hurting melee is his bomb throws which are undodgable if you're close to him.

That's kinda the point, isn't it? You aren't supposed to constantly hit him. Run up to him and hit him once before he flees again.

Also the bombs aren't undodgable. The projectiles aren't incredibly fast. Usually there is enough time to jump over it. At least when you expect it which you always should in that fight.

Being stationary is your death.

[ImHelping]

He's basically designed to prank projectiles from long range. He's awkward rather than hard, though poison is real nasty in this game if you take it for granted.

I just rushed him and force fed him arrows and whips at point blank range but I also had a lot of pasta buffs since I love cooking.

Browse your shards for anything you have that is notably effective point blank. If all else fails, go back to your initial fire shot ability since that's a close range shotgun even with some light upgrades.

Superior versions like arrows won't help if you keep firing them too far for him to be on a viable angle, so if you have issues the shorter range on fire shot or similar may actually help force your hand to attack him "right".

He may be designed to LOOK like he is "Anti melee", but in practice he is anti long range (I didn't experiment with homing attacks or full screen attacks, to be fair). Weapon wise, If you have trouble staying next to him, maybe consider slow but large damage melee weapons rather than "death of a thousand cuts" you can't keep on top of him with.

That said, he doesn't play by the rules of most of the game. So can not blame anyone for finding him awkward, regardless of how easy a time I had.

[Tobycars]

I used flying edge to poke at him from a distance. After a minute or two his moves become very easy to read, so it just becomes a game of pokes as he runs around.

[DarkTroZo]

Melee is THE strategy to kill him easily :facepalm:

[sofia ciel]

Have you gotten and upgraded Riga Storaema shard from the Nyabon enemy? It tracks along the floor at higher ranks in a way where you can easily fight Alfred from afar.