I appreciate that this is meant to be a hard game, but I am having a super hard time with the first boss. I think I’ve tried about 40+ times and unable to make any progress. Parry timing feels inconsistent - sometimes I can parry instantly, other times I can’t & just get slammed. Sometimes I am able to doge attacks, sometimes not. Using an xbox controller.
Please consider adding an optional easier difficulty setting - with slightly more forgiving timing windows and more player health.
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Easier setting isn’t going to happen, but they should add some “organic difficulty sliders”. Such as summoning a coop (player / NPC), providing some free food when you have zero food left, clear description of how to farm more exp (start a new realm with the same character), providing more weapon options (they did this yesterday)
For now:
- I heard you can kill him quite easily with throwables, in case you still have some of those.
- stay far away until he is tired and laying down. His doesn’t jump across the entire map, so you can be safely out of reach for all his attacks (and quickly jump in and get 1-2 hits in when he’s recovering stamina)
You got this
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Honestly, get mostly naked and dash dodge his attacks. Focus on avoiding damage first of all, and then do damage when it’s safe.
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ok, I must be over 100 attempts now - I just can’t seem to do enough damage to him and go down to his hits way too easily.
If I go in with all my armour, I’m slower & can’t seem to dodge as easily, but get staggered and go down just the same as going in naked. Wearing armour just means more gear gets damaged, and I don’t have any money left to repair anyway 
I watched a vid on youtube where he didn’t have nearly as much trouble, but it also looked like he wasn’t taking as much damage / wasn’t getting staggered as much as me. I think he was level 5, while I’m only level 3 - but I’ve pretty much cleared out all the areas I’ve been though.
Honestly, if I could get a refund now & be done with it, I would
Yea same here, after I hit my 50’s my reflexes and coordination took a shit and left the building! But as others have said try and keep your distance, or the naked option as described? I haven’t tried to fight him yet but I can guarantee multiple failure’s and lots of rage 
Good luck and you got this, if you feel yourself getting angry maybe put controller down for 2 mins, walk away then come back a minute or 2 later as the rage will only make you fail more, trust me I’ve been there 
If this is your first souls-like, it is completely normal that you are struggling with that boss. It is a very good souls boss if you ask me.
Here are few tips I can give to you if I may:
-Go do some leveling.
-Never be on heavy equipment load.
-Definitely use a faster weapon if you are having hard time, slow weapons requires more knowledge of the fight if you ask me.
-Use throwables to set him on fire.
-Give at least 3 points to HP.
If you need help with anything else or any questions, feel free to ask 
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Oh one more thing which is kinda important; dodge behind the boss, not backwards!
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Thanks for the advice, but where can I do leveling? all the monsters are dead. There is only 1 other really strong, tough guy in the cave that I can’t beat either.
I’ve got 12 Health, 12 Stamina, 12 Strength, 13 Dex.
I can take about 2 hits from the boss and that’s it, I’m dead.
I’ve run out of money, so can’t buy any more explosives and can’t repair my gear.
It almost feels like there is some random delay in my parry or dodge input. I’m using an xbox controller, but it feels so random whether I actually get to parry or dodge or get hit. The bosses attacks have such a large AoE that it’s really hard to avoid. If I get hit once, I’m unable to dodge or parry the next attacks, and then I’m dead.
Whats your equid load and weapon youre using? And enemies respawn after a while too, though not too fast
I’ve got claymore and sword + shield.
If I play the dodge game, I run out of stamina, or he clips me and that’s the beginning of the end.
I am unable to parry reliably. I watch the anims and the vfx, but I either hit the btn a fraction too early or a fraction too late and one failed hit spells doom.,
I’m calling it quits.
Steam says I’ve spent 3+hrs stuck on this boss - nothing I do seems to make any difference.
If this is the first boss, I’d expect the game to only get tougher from here and there is no way I’ll be able to keep up.
It sucks - the game looks fantastic. I was getting sucked in. It’s just too hard, and I don’t feel like there is any way for me to learn what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong.
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Stock up on a bunch of bombs. Is it cheesy? Yes. Does it get you past him so you can delve deeper into the actual game without spending hours on one fight? Yes.
I’ve got some tips! And a technique to help you:
make sure your equip weight is Normal and not Heavy or you’ll take a massive stamina penalty. Definitely don’t use the Claymore. Sword and shield,
You must not run out of stamina. Your stamina recovers VERY quickly as long as you don’t totally run out. This is absolutely key. You must put your shield down when you’re not expecting a hit, or your stamina will not recover.
Here is what I would suggest, and what I do when I’m stuck on a Souls boss: ‘Fight’ him without attacking. Learn to dance with him without getting hit, which will help you to learn to manage your stamina. It’s also free- because you don’t need to use any healing. Doesn’t matter if you mess up, just keep working at it.
This is also lower stress, as a result of being free.
Do not spam dodge - learn to time it. You can use two if you need to make distance, but you should almost never dodge more than twice in a row.
Once you know how to avoid his attacks, you can try it while attacking. I’m a long-time Souls veteran, and this is always my technique if I’m stuck on a boss. First learn not to get hit, and then you’ll naturally learn when you can attack.
Don’t attack until you run out of stamina! Learn to mind the green circle that shows your stamina level.
And don’t be defeatist- you can definitely beat this boss.
This stuff will become muscle memory- I assure you.
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He’ll need to learn the ropes sooner or later, and this is as good a place as any. This is a great boss fight, but it’s not a super-hard boss fight. (As Souls bosses go)
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You’re not alone. It’s very frustrating and the last thing you want to hear is a gatekeeper telling you to get good. I will not do that. I will instead tell you I created a new realm (starting on the beach again) and leveled up to get more points in stamina and health. I then went back to my first realm and attempted the boss again.
The extra stamina allowed me to parry more without getting staggered so quickly. Got lucky with a few rolls and rune shots to finally beat it. People that say “just parry” are not considering that each player likely has different stats.
In my case, my stamina was too low to do more that one, maybe two parries before it staggered me. And once staggered, game over. If you’re too heavy, roll and parry is just not an option. No stamina, no attack, ya dead. Too light, good luck unless you’re perfect and take no damage.
My final weight when I killed it was 2 sections, barely under the third “too damn heavy” section.
I struggled there until I fought him totally naked… it is a lot easier with light weight as you can dodge a lot more often, especially with heavy weapons thay require a lot of stamina to attack.
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I’ve had two friends bounce and requests refunds because of Warrick. The issue isn’t the difficult per se. It’s the lack of healing materials. They completely ran out and had no path to getting more. The whole zone was farmed. They went from LOVING the game to being so angry they demanded a refund.
Here is my proposed short-term fix: the blacksmith should notice if you have <6 food, take pity on you, and give you food. This ensures the player has healing and they don’t get “stuck”.
Long term I’m not sure what the right design for food is. I’m not convinced that flasks aren’t better. But either way lack of food is a total shelf moment right now. It’s a problem.
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In case you’re still stuck, here’s how you can farm more loot/exp:
- create a new realm (from the login menu)
- play that realm with existing character
- rinse repeat as long as needed
Your problem isn’t damage. Your problem is that you take damage.
The first boss is very simple, all you need is to dodge his attack once, and hit back once, the rest of the time - restore energy.
Start with evasion training. Don’t attack him for 2-3 minutes and just dodge attacks. Use only one dodge (2 if you make a mistake). Press the buttons, understanding what effect you expect. Don’t press dodge 5 times in a panic, press 1 time at the moment when you need to dodge.
Keep eye on the green bar.
Please note that dodging multiple attacks is very difficult - it’s easy to run out of energy. Therefore, try to stay closer to the enemy, then you will only have to dodge 1 attack. There is a nuance here, but you will learn about it when you confidently lower the boss’s health to half without damage, and you yourself will find a solution.
As a weapon (despite the fact that all the advice you were given above is quite reasonable), I recommend a two-handed sword - this is what I used to kill the boss without damage at level 1, wearing only underpants. It deals 7-8 damage, and this is enough to defeat the enemy with 1-2 mistakes.
The most important advice is - don’t look at the boss’s life bar, don’t change tactics because the boss has little life left - concentrate on dodging and methodically deal damage.
P.S. But it seems to me that your build is broken. It might make sense to start over and pump all the stats into one parameter, depending on what weapon you prefer.
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I found the parry to be WAY too inconsistent using LT. There is some sort of horrid input lag and using LT is incurring a huge dead zone. If the parry were moved to LB it would be, I hope, more consistent.
I opted to dodge and was able to beat him but it definitely took multiple attempts. When I noticed that I could repair for free I took the opportunity to not heal and make attempts to learn his patterns. Eventually I could get him down a good chunk of health before I would die and then I tried and used healing. On the second healing attempt I was able to get through.
I think you can get through it. It will just take some experimentation to figure out what works best for you. As someone else said, I wouldn’t expect a difficulty slider for this game, but tuning it to be just right (challenging but not punishing) is what the EA is about so its great to put your feedback in.
I don’t mean this to be belittling at all, but this wasn’t a super-hard Souls boss. It’s worth learning to fight him on the game’s terms- it’s a gentle gatekeeper. Nothing wrong with your route though.
That said- ‘learn to parry the boss’ wasn’t the most helpful advice… That’s advanced. You want to avoid, block in a pinch, and learn to attack at the right moment.
You do have to learn to manage stamina- at this point in the game, that means NOT having a heavy loadout- that is a pretty touchy balance early on.
Glad you got him!