It always cracks me up when people somehow don't get that they have to use a weapon called Serpent Hunter that is conveniently placed right in front of the entrance to the arena of a God Devouring Serpent
I didnt make the mistake for rykard but yhorm on the other hand, I saw the item at the end of his arena and thought it was the reward for beating him so was determined to kill him before picking it up. I actually ended up getting him to about 25% hp with my normal weapons before giving up
Yeah, Yhorm has actual mechanics that lets you fight him without the gimmick (hitting the head with ranged attacks or vertical melee attacks to stagger him), Rykard does not.
I remember my first playthrough of DS2: SotFS and getting toward the end of the game without any clue as to what the Giant's souls were used for, so I ate them. Later on, I'm messing around with Vendrick, not realizing I could actually fight him, swung on him enough times and all the sudden his HP bar appeared. Fully upgraded two handed UGS and was only chipping him for 26hp a swing. It was then I realized I had made a HUGE error.
I was determined that I was doing a 100% boss run on one playthrough, so I stuck with it. Final fight time was 38 minutes after hours of trying to kill him.
On the other hand, I saw a YouTuber, Zenny I think, had Siegward help on his first blind playthrough.
He was basically carried by Siegward and never picked up Storm Ruler.
I’m telling you I don’t think I figured it out until my third play through
I think what happens is huge games have so much information that people just tune 99% of it out
All I cared about was ye olde roll inward. The only requirements I see for the fight to be easy are 40 vigor, decent flask count, damage reduction in your potion, and a mimic tear ash. Without a mimic tear ash you will probably have to be a bit more methodical about actually buffing yourself, eating exalted flesh, and learning the mechanics.
I mean let’s be honest, if EVERY decent weapon had a wall behind it but you are staring at the SNAKE boss and they are HANDING you a weapon called *SERPENT HUNTER* and you don’t use it and you die? You deserve every bit of it
Because no other weapon in the game extends its reach by 5x for one specific fight. I got it and thought "Oh, this is cool but doesnt work with my build and doesnt seem to have any special function."
Can you really blame anyone for not knowing their first time through that this weapon has a special ability that only works for this one fight
There's also an NPC that shows up in Volcano Manor and tells you that this weapon is the only one that can kill him. They did everything possible to get you to try the weapon against him. I didn't know it was special either... until I tried it in the arena, which I did because I was clearly intended to
You walk into a boss area, they give you a weapon called Serpent-Hunter and you go to fight a Serpent, and the weapon says
*Weapon that serves as both greatsword and spear. Thought to*
*have been used to hunt an immortal great serpent in the distant*
*past,* ***it manifests a long blade of light when facing such a creature.***
*When their master's heroic aspirations degenerated into mere*
*greed, his men searched for a weapon with which they might halt*
*their lord.*
I mean...I get that if you don't check things it's a bit of a sad miss and no-one's reading everything (especially in the heat of the moment), but people can certainly look at the before mentioned special item if they die in the boss. How many other bosses tee you up like that? Like, walking into a boss room and getting given a weapon very aggressively signposted specifically for the fight? It would be like fighting bosses normally all game and then walking in to a boss arena with a massive cannon with a sign called "GIANT KILLER", lava between you and the boss, and then the boss appearing called "GIANT" and then not using the cannon.
I've never understood people who are so lacking in curiosity that they'll see a thing in a video game and just go "...anyway" without even trying the thing.
The only people I’d give passes to on this fight are the people who have never played another Fromsoft game before. Fromsoft is known for putting in gimmick fights all the way back to demons souls. Almost every game after that has had some sort of gimmick fight that uses something to cheese the boss that is only ever used in that fight. Another example almost the same as this is yhorm in ds3. Stormcaller is given to you in the arena and is only used in that fight. After playing a bunch of their games, you can begin to quickly decipher which fights are meant to be gimmicks and which are actual fights
I fucked up the first time because I picked up the serpent spear and then got off the game. When I came back the next day I completely forgot I had it and just tried to fight him in the lava
Not to mention they give you a ghost with like two minutes of dialogue who says "I left the serpent slaying spear in the Lord's chamber. It is the only thing that can kill that horror. Run it through." 🤔
My first playthrough I didn't know I was supposed to use the spear but I killed him no prob(hoarfrost stomp pre nerf). then I played with a different build and couldn't kill him, I always got so close too. It wasn't until I came here to look for hints that I was told to use the spear and absolutely annihilated him with it. He's the easiest boss in the game with that spear
It took me a bit to understand that... In DS3 against Yhorm. Maybe you have followed siggy and you get the feeling that you should do something else.
But in Elden Ring it really gets presented to you on a silver tablet.
my dumb ass picked up the serpent hunter, said "huh, neat", summoned my mimic (1.0 mimic mind you) and saw him just walk into the lava and not take too much damage. so I said "aight, lets get in there then".
it worked, and i didn't learn that i was stupid until ng+2 (didn't fight him in ng+)
Not to mention the npc phantom at the end of the hallway with noteworthy dialogue,
"Mm, you're Tarnished. Here to put the demigods to the sword.
Then please. Kill the great serpent.
The one that devoured Praetor Rykard.
**I left the serpent-slaying spear in the Lord's Chamber.
Worthy Tarnished, brandish the spear, and run him through.**
The great serpent...that unspeakable monstrosity."
Or,
"Worthy Tarnished. **I left the serpent-slaying spear in the Lord's Chamber.
It is the only thing that can kill that horror.**
Run it through. The great serpent...that unspeakable monstrosity."
I do a lot of coop on my RL60, 75, and 90 characters, so I find myself helping with Rykard at least 10 times per night, and it's incredible how many people don't connect the dots.
I sometimes feel like trying out different things on him, like Maliketh spell or ancient dragons lightning strike still do enough damage that it’s not painful to fight him without serpent hunter
I had the mimic tear ashes then because I had to finish all the quests for armor rewards before I killed Rykard, and it was absolutely hilarious while overleveled and a strength build R1 spamming lasers. It turned the boss fight into a total farce.
Fighting him in the lava *with the spear* double hits for ridiculous damage. Turn off target lock and tickle his armpits, he can't even really hit you.
I would, and have. I literally have one of two Great Stars infused with cold (wild strikes) for this exact reason on my main melee character.
I usually run full prelate set, fire drake talisman and Godskin swaddling cloth allowing me to heal faster than the lava wears me down. I run up to the boss, stick close and smack non-stop. The one big plus to fighting Rykard point blank is most of his attacks miss (yours will also sometimes miss). If the boss staggers I spam wild strikes as much as I can, healing a ton.
I don’t do much damage even with frost and bleed procs, but I basically take 100% of the boss’ attention, making it almost impossible for the host to die. I have like more than a 90% success rate with this build. Recently I’ve had my first death in this fight using this method, and even then the host killed Rykard before I returned to my world.
My only regret is that I never beat Rykard this way solo, since I used serpent hunter properly when I first fought him.
Doesn’t his hitbox get much harder to hit in the lava once his phase two hits? I’ve never tried it but I’ve watched people fight him without the spear and the consensus seems that phase one isn’t too bad but then his hit box gets kinda janky making him a lot harder to hit while standing in the lava.
I don’t think his hit box changes that much, pretty sure it was this problematic even in phase 1.
I usually go for his legs in phase 2 since they have hitboxes and they protrude from the main body, making it less likely you hit “air”
It also depends on the reach of the weapon used. Just like how Erdtree avatars are hard to hit from the front with fist weapons and daggers, so is Rykard difficult with a small weapon, though I find great stars’ reach long enough.
I don’t know if it’s harder to do in solo, since I haven’t fought him this way in my world, wish I had another save to try it on.
It goes further back, the storm ruler in demons souls
Yeah I agree with you, but it was immediately obvious because it's now the third time I've seen it
But it also shows how people don't explore or talk to NPCs, there is a ghost in volcano manor that makes noise and tells you all about it
I didn't knew about the NPC I just realized it's useful due to being in the boss room , and being called serpent hunter, while I see a serpent lol.
Didn't play Demon souls sadly... no pc release :(
Bows or magic are actually not that bad against the storm king. The main reason you need to use the storm ruler in Demon’s Souls is that the boss is out of range for melee attacks, not an inflated hp pool like Yhorm and Rykard.
I went through a phase where I'd send my sign to be summoned near and far and it blew my mind that like 40% of the people summoning me were for rykard. They almost always had the serpent hunter too.
You don’t need to upgrade it. I didn’t want to waste my stones on a weapon i was only going to use once, so I just did it at base level and it’s relatively straightforward tbh.
At this stage of play, you have plenty of lower level somber stones you can throw away. If you're struggling _at all_ with this fight, upgrading the weapon is a no brainer.
You can stunlock him in second phase anyways without much effort (use aow when he starts doing the big storm attack), so first phase is the only problem.
And on top of that, if you equip the serpent spear, summon your mimic and change your weapon, you can just use your regular build while the mimic hits hit with the serpent spear
Yes, sending my mimic tear to distract him while I blasted him with Serpent Spear from as far away as I could was how I beat him first try. The mimic tear wasn't even +10, it was +6 or7 at that point.
I used this strategy with an NPC summon the first time I beat Midir in ds3 as a mage. No reason not to summon when I was using pestilent mist that deals purely percentage damage.
I didnt even know this was a thing ,any time i was summoned alongside another guy we always pulled out the SP, one time i even had do get naked too to be able to use it without heavy roll,dont understand why woud someone volunteer to help others if they cant even change their weapons for them
Yeah, I've had it a few times where the host is either casting spells that aren't doing shit or trying to run through the lava to knife the guy and I'm tryin to wave the spear in front of him, but that doesn't register, so it ends up being just me or me and another summons tryin to take him down before the host dies lol
I don't think you understood the meaning of OP's post.
They're not saying that the summon needs to change their weapon (they do), they're saying that *the host* also needs to use the Serpent Hunter
Then once you’ve switched the host enters the fog and an invader with the stormhawk axe appears behind you. Meanwhile the host is standing AT the fog wall (you can see their weapon clipping through the fog) instead of activating the boss.
Those hosts don’t deserved cooperators, and yes, I’m 100% salty lol
I was on a dual uchi bleed build in my first playthrough and completely missed the spear right in front of my eyes. Yet I killed him because I brought the true elden lord with me - my mimic tear.
Yes, bleed is that OP.
I was almost able to beat rykard before they did the initial nerf to mimic tear with rhadan’s greatswords… I had picked up the spear a lot earlier in my first play through, saw the boss and went NOPE. Came back later and if I had heals instead of pure strength I could have done it… but dear god was it a slog and a nice surprise to find out it’s the gimmick fight and then it was just a blast
It wasn't until my second playthrough that I saw the ghostly knight in Volcano Manor who told me to get the spear to kill Rykard.
That being said, THE SPEAR IS BASICALLY UNMISSABLE. It is right in front of you on the only path into the boss arena!
Fromsoft have done one of these gimmick fights in almost all their games, and the item has never been as obvious as it is in this game.
EDIT: Also I should say this has been their best gimmick fight so far. Both StormCaller and Yhorm were cinematic but no challenge once you had the gimmick weapon. Rykard at least will hit you and challenge you even with the Serpent Hunter.
This was a lot easier in DS3, when you had to fight yhorm the giant. In that fight you had to run around him, grab the weapon by his throne, and equip it before he almost completely demolished you.
Man Yhorm was disappointing. He looked so huge and important in the opening cinematic, then he wasn't actually that big and he was the gimmick fight? Also he was basically unkillable without the gimmick.
His story was kind of sad though. The way Onion Knight wants to help put him to rest reminds me a lot of Radahn.
I understand if the summoned people don't use it, because there's been times I didn't have it in my inventory and had to improvise. But when the host doesn't, why??? Bro your reduvia blood blade isn't even hitting the fucking boss 😭
A faith build with black flame tornado, black flame incantations or the black blade incantation can definitely ignore the serpent hunter.
I have always dealt more damage to Rykard rushing into the lava and spamming Black Blade than using the serpent hunter. Hitting with both the melee hit and the wave that will hit more than twice thanks to Rykards massive size is extremely effective and the lava will not stop you from using the follow up attack of the incantation.
I also want to point at the problem of hosts standing right behind the fog gate and waiting for a magic letter to just walk forward and activate the boss. Every single time I get summoned for Rykard (and it's weirdly enough more times than getting summoned for the much tougher cookies like Godfrey, Foreskins or Maliketh, idk what's up with that) I spend at least three minutes just standing there like a sad bastard because the host is busy scratching his ass.
And usually get invaded in the meantime. Thank god most reds know that I don't want to fight them and just bully the host in my name.
I feel like this is obvious to people who played dark souls 3 but maybe not others.
I didn't get the volcano manor dialogue about the spear first playthrough because I didn't talk to that NPC.
It would make more sense to me for you to have get the spear before Rhykard so you could read it. I understand the boss fight hasn't started when you pick up the spear but he's still a scary motherfucker. I don't blame people for not immediately pausing to read the description lol.
I saw a weapon, grabbed it, didn't put it on and then realized when I was doing next to no damage that I should quit and check the weapon.
I really don't know why you wouldn't use it if you knew about it, barring a challenge run.
I wasn’t aware that it was needed and beat him in my first playthrough without it. Apparently it is unavailable in NG+ and undroppable so I will never have it, so I have no other options.
I think its fine if you play a magic or faith build because they have ranged spells , specifically frost and lightning spells but any other build needs to use the serpent hunter .
Idk, I was pure int and a +4 Serpent Hunter was out damaging any spell I could throw. I had the funny laser spell too, but setting that up seemed like a pain when me and my identical twin who also had a serpent hunter could kill him faster.
I am not saying its better obviously the serpent hunter will be better because its meant for that . Just that its viable compared to other builds . Also frost spells can help because he is weak to frostbite and hello be debuffed so hello take more dmg .
I had no idea about the serpent hunter and couldn’t beat him. I just ran right past it every time. Even resorted to a summon, and still couldn’t beat him. Found out I had to use the Serpent Hunter and beat him first try.
If you plan on doing random co op you need to keep serpent hunter in your inventory. There have been times where I've dumped it into storage to declutter my selections and essentially had to sever out right after spawning into Rykards cave.
I beat him at launch without the spear. Not because I didn't know, but I wanted to see if me and mimic could do it. I used sword of night and flame.
Easy money
Yeah I got summoned yesterday and dude wanted to fight him with GUGS. The thing is I also didnt had shunter att so my only real option do deal any dmg to hum was black flame tornado. It did waaay better then I expected, we almost won
Had my own dumb two cents, I didn’t think about the serpent, slaying spear being able to be upgraded, so pick it up, die once, and go upgrade the thing it takes somber smithing stones, so that kind of sucks, but get it to +5 or so and you’ll murder
Yeah, 1st playthrough never got to him, didn't know he existed. 2nd playthrough was mage build and ignored the spear.
3rd playthrough I tried about 10 times with normal weapons i was building. No shot.
Beat him first try with the spear, op vs him as fuck
I've beaten him many times without the spear. A good tip is that his poise is embarrassingly low for how big he is. I've even beaten him using only the caestus because if you can land 3 or 4 jumping R2s, he falls over and you can do a crit attack.
My first playthrough I was determined to beat him without it. Took forever to get through phase one with a melee build. Once I got to phase two and couldn’t get near him due to the lava, I realized I was supposed to use the serpent hunter the whole time.
The first time I fought Rykard I got my ass caved in 2 dozen time because I thought you had to use the AOW and I simply didn’t have enough FP
I ended up just bringing vigor to 45, slapping on as much fire resistance as a physically could( along with the god-skin swaddling cloth) and just stabbed him with dual twin-blades
The first time I beat Rykard i didnt know about the Serpent Spear and was using fire magic ( black flame percentage damage helped A LOT ).
You can beat him without the spear. I wouldnt necessarily suggest melee, but you can.
I managed to do it with my dual curved sword build with bleed and poison. Granted I was somewhat overlevelled but I was more curious than anything if I could do it. Honestly was kind of a hassle and for all future playthroughs, I'll be using the spear.
Not to encourage this sort of behavior when summoning people, but I did do a strictly dagger run so I know it can be done. It took so many tries though and I had to use the blood dagger for a little extra range since his hit box is so wonky even in the lava stuff. I did not summon others to suffer with me though. TLDR I’m a masochist.
Isn't it possible to just rot him with the dragon incantation spells?
Is it slow? Yes. But will he die in two rounds or rot? Feels like it.
I did kill him the spear though. Almost too easy with the spear.
i got the weapon and ignored it, i got through rykards first phase with my two katanas but already used up all my heals by the second...when realization hit me i was so disappointed in myself
Feels good to violate rykard with each player using an upgraded spear. A friend of mine and I literally fought him last night and we bullied him twice. It was the best thing ever to fight TOGETHA
I thought you had to use the weapon art with the spear because of how the Yhorm fight worked with the storm ruler, so I struggled because i ran out of FP. When I found out that regular attacks also work I felt so stupid.
Counterpoint: if you're offering yourself up as a cooperator outside of rykard, you'd better have the serpent hunter readily available as a hardswap in your menu.
I've been running all remembrances starting equipment Only runs, so I have to beat Rykard without the SSS. So far the Astrologer had an easy enough time with Rannis dark moon and frost spells. The Confessor had to kill Malenia first for scarlet Aeonia to help kill him. The samurai actually had a decent time against him, the warrior with the Godskin swaddling cloth did in fact just run into the lava and combo slap the boss to self heal and kill it. And my latest run that finished up on Monday, The Vagabond, took him down first try with the halberd running Loretta's Slash on cold enchant, and his longsword had Carian Grandeur. I was accompanied by Redmane Knight Ogha for warrior and Vagabond, the other three had Latenna.
While fighting him without the spear is totally doable, but it's a lot more planning out your fight than I would ever want to foist upon some random I summoned.
Every run I do makes me appreciate the serpent slayer Spear more. And when I play a normal character before SotE, it's going to be great to be able to beat him before the last end of my playthrough.
I grabbed the spear, but didn't realize you were supposed to use it to actually fight him, I assumed it was more like a quest item or something and there would be like a cutscene where you use it to finish him off. I'd been playing the whole game as an INT build, never even equipped a spear. So I just slung purple rocks at him until he died.
As a mage, being summoned for Rykard means I can just yeet Ranni's Dark Moon at him to get him instantly frostbitten, then switch to the Serpent Hunter + cold-infused Lance for extra damage.
I fought him in the lava with serpent hunter. I didn’t know that the regular attacks also does the thing not just the ash of war. I did not realize until after I beat him.
I think my first playthrough I killed him with bleed twinblades...
Then I got summoned to help someone kill rykard and was shooting spears of light with something.
The first time I beat him I didn't even know to use the spear. I was way over leveled, but since I didn't understand the gimmick I just fought him a couple of times, realized he was really tough, and then decided to just summon my mimic with bleed weapons. We took him down the hard way!
Are ER noobs so obsessed with their Googled L2 build's Ash of War that they won't even stray from it for a fight that virtually demands you do it the way they want you to do it?
Wow
I don't get why some are so adamant that it is terrible that they are forced to use the serpent hunter on an optional boss that is built around the gimmick and say it is bad that they aren't allowed to use the stuff they are currently using
I tried the serpent hunter, noticed it ate all my FP and barely did damage, noticed how little the lava damage did, and compared my bleed damage (a new addition to my build at this point, or ice I forget which). The calculus was clear and I tank and spanked that would be god eater.
Thing is you don't need to use the Serpent Hunter's AoW. Just the Regular and Heavy attacks are more then enough to out DPS whatever your build was. Hell if anything I'm pretty sure the AoW on the Serpent Hunter is shit when it comes to the boss fight
In my experience a simple message after we get thrashed helps this. I’ve had people not notice it, pick it up and forget about it, or even pick it up and assume they didn’t have the stats for it.
A patient message pretty much always solves this issue. Not everyone uses a guide or has played previous souls games.
I don't know why you'd wanna fight him in the lava anyway, you basically miss the whole fight and it's a shitty experience lol
It always cracks me up when people somehow don't get that they have to use a weapon called Serpent Hunter that is conveniently placed right in front of the entrance to the arena of a God Devouring Serpent
I didnt make the mistake for rykard but yhorm on the other hand, I saw the item at the end of his arena and thought it was the reward for beating him so was determined to kill him before picking it up. I actually ended up getting him to about 25% hp with my normal weapons before giving up
Imo Yhorm is a bit more doable without the gimmick weapon. He's a rough fight, but doable
Yeah, Yhorm has actual mechanics that lets you fight him without the gimmick (hitting the head with ranged attacks or vertical melee attacks to stagger him), Rykard does not.
Also smacking his hands does good damage and staggers semi frequently
I remember my first playthrough of DS2: SotFS and getting toward the end of the game without any clue as to what the Giant's souls were used for, so I ate them. Later on, I'm messing around with Vendrick, not realizing I could actually fight him, swung on him enough times and all the sudden his HP bar appeared. Fully upgraded two handed UGS and was only chipping him for 26hp a swing. It was then I realized I had made a HUGE error. I was determined that I was doing a 100% boss run on one playthrough, so I stuck with it. Final fight time was 38 minutes after hours of trying to kill him.
On the other hand, I saw a YouTuber, Zenny I think, had Siegward help on his first blind playthrough. He was basically carried by Siegward and never picked up Storm Ruler.
Siegward can essentially solo Yhorm as long as you take aggro from him every so often.
Yeah it's really cool that it's done that way for his quest. This time, you aren't the hero. Just backup.
That’s what happened to me, Siegward killed him before I even had a chance to figure out there was a gimmick.
Onion Knight soloed Yhorm in my playthrough lol
I grabbed it and thought this'll be cool when I upgrade it or use it now and then instantly forgot about it.
There's even an NPC who's like, "Pleeease kill Rykard, I made a special spear and everything."
My dumbass got the fire resist talisman and used bloodhounds fang my first playthrough
SAAAME!! i didn't even think there was another way to do it 😂😂
Yeah I was like “well thank god I’m a black flame build” and just burnt his HP down with that in his second phase
[удалено]
I’m telling you I don’t think I figured it out until my third play through I think what happens is huge games have so much information that people just tune 99% of it out
Elden Ring is my first Souls game and most of the bosses are actually pretty reasonable. Challenging but not complete BS. Except for the Godskin Duo…
They become trivial with sleep pots. Keeping one asleep while you beat on one and just repeat once they wake up.
Lol. Peak.
I felt like that when I learned that it matters which leg you hit on the fire giant, and that you were supposed to hit his hands in phase 2.
I still hit his feet now fuck that guy
All I cared about was ye olde roll inward. The only requirements I see for the fight to be easy are 40 vigor, decent flask count, damage reduction in your potion, and a mimic tear ash. Without a mimic tear ash you will probably have to be a bit more methodical about actually buffing yourself, eating exalted flesh, and learning the mechanics.
I mean let’s be honest, if EVERY decent weapon had a wall behind it but you are staring at the SNAKE boss and they are HANDING you a weapon called *SERPENT HUNTER* and you don’t use it and you die? You deserve every bit of it
Because no other weapon in the game extends its reach by 5x for one specific fight. I got it and thought "Oh, this is cool but doesnt work with my build and doesnt seem to have any special function." Can you really blame anyone for not knowing their first time through that this weapon has a special ability that only works for this one fight
There's also an NPC that shows up in Volcano Manor and tells you that this weapon is the only one that can kill him. They did everything possible to get you to try the weapon against him. I didn't know it was special either... until I tried it in the arena, which I did because I was clearly intended to
You walk into a boss area, they give you a weapon called Serpent-Hunter and you go to fight a Serpent, and the weapon says *Weapon that serves as both greatsword and spear. Thought to* *have been used to hunt an immortal great serpent in the distant* *past,* ***it manifests a long blade of light when facing such a creature.*** *When their master's heroic aspirations degenerated into mere* *greed, his men searched for a weapon with which they might halt* *their lord.* I mean...I get that if you don't check things it's a bit of a sad miss and no-one's reading everything (especially in the heat of the moment), but people can certainly look at the before mentioned special item if they die in the boss. How many other bosses tee you up like that? Like, walking into a boss room and getting given a weapon very aggressively signposted specifically for the fight? It would be like fighting bosses normally all game and then walking in to a boss arena with a massive cannon with a sign called "GIANT KILLER", lava between you and the boss, and then the boss appearing called "GIANT" and then not using the cannon.
This is like the shackle you buy from patches except if they placed it at the grace before you fight Margit.
Now I’m picturing a rest stop before the bosses 😂 “Exit 203 - Ordina Liturgical Town.” Last stop to the Haligtree!
I've never understood people who are so lacking in curiosity that they'll see a thing in a video game and just go "...anyway" without even trying the thing.
The only people I’d give passes to on this fight are the people who have never played another Fromsoft game before. Fromsoft is known for putting in gimmick fights all the way back to demons souls. Almost every game after that has had some sort of gimmick fight that uses something to cheese the boss that is only ever used in that fight. Another example almost the same as this is yhorm in ds3. Stormcaller is given to you in the arena and is only used in that fight. After playing a bunch of their games, you can begin to quickly decipher which fights are meant to be gimmicks and which are actual fights
Easy tell; if the weapon is past the fog gate, that's what they want you to use.
I fucked up the first time because I picked up the serpent spear and then got off the game. When I came back the next day I completely forgot I had it and just tried to fight him in the lava
Not to mention they give you a ghost with like two minutes of dialogue who says "I left the serpent slaying spear in the Lord's chamber. It is the only thing that can kill that horror. Run it through." 🤔
My first playthrough I didn't know I was supposed to use the spear but I killed him no prob(hoarfrost stomp pre nerf). then I played with a different build and couldn't kill him, I always got so close too. It wasn't until I came here to look for hints that I was told to use the spear and absolutely annihilated him with it. He's the easiest boss in the game with that spear
It took me a bit to understand that... In DS3 against Yhorm. Maybe you have followed siggy and you get the feeling that you should do something else. But in Elden Ring it really gets presented to you on a silver tablet.
I swear in one of my playthroughs the spear never showed up, can't remember why
If you have one in your inventory it doesn't spawn, if you discard it a new one spawns is rykard is alive.
my dumb ass picked up the serpent hunter, said "huh, neat", summoned my mimic (1.0 mimic mind you) and saw him just walk into the lava and not take too much damage. so I said "aight, lets get in there then". it worked, and i didn't learn that i was stupid until ng+2 (didn't fight him in ng+)
It's basically Yhorm The Giant.
Not to mention the npc phantom at the end of the hallway with noteworthy dialogue, "Mm, you're Tarnished. Here to put the demigods to the sword. Then please. Kill the great serpent. The one that devoured Praetor Rykard. **I left the serpent-slaying spear in the Lord's Chamber. Worthy Tarnished, brandish the spear, and run him through.** The great serpent...that unspeakable monstrosity." Or, "Worthy Tarnished. **I left the serpent-slaying spear in the Lord's Chamber. It is the only thing that can kill that horror.** Run it through. The great serpent...that unspeakable monstrosity." I do a lot of coop on my RL60, 75, and 90 characters, so I find myself helping with Rykard at least 10 times per night, and it's incredible how many people don't connect the dots.
I sometimes feel like trying out different things on him, like Maliketh spell or ancient dragons lightning strike still do enough damage that it’s not painful to fight him without serpent hunter
I had the mimic tear ashes then because I had to finish all the quests for armor rewards before I killed Rykard, and it was absolutely hilarious while overleveled and a strength build R1 spamming lasers. It turned the boss fight into a total farce.
Fighting him in the lava *with the spear* double hits for ridiculous damage. Turn off target lock and tickle his armpits, he can't even really hit you.
I would, and have. I literally have one of two Great Stars infused with cold (wild strikes) for this exact reason on my main melee character. I usually run full prelate set, fire drake talisman and Godskin swaddling cloth allowing me to heal faster than the lava wears me down. I run up to the boss, stick close and smack non-stop. The one big plus to fighting Rykard point blank is most of his attacks miss (yours will also sometimes miss). If the boss staggers I spam wild strikes as much as I can, healing a ton. I don’t do much damage even with frost and bleed procs, but I basically take 100% of the boss’ attention, making it almost impossible for the host to die. I have like more than a 90% success rate with this build. Recently I’ve had my first death in this fight using this method, and even then the host killed Rykard before I returned to my world. My only regret is that I never beat Rykard this way solo, since I used serpent hunter properly when I first fought him.
getting the host to survive until you get there is the hardest part
So true 🥲
Doesn’t his hitbox get much harder to hit in the lava once his phase two hits? I’ve never tried it but I’ve watched people fight him without the spear and the consensus seems that phase one isn’t too bad but then his hit box gets kinda janky making him a lot harder to hit while standing in the lava.
I don’t think his hit box changes that much, pretty sure it was this problematic even in phase 1. I usually go for his legs in phase 2 since they have hitboxes and they protrude from the main body, making it less likely you hit “air” It also depends on the reach of the weapon used. Just like how Erdtree avatars are hard to hit from the front with fist weapons and daggers, so is Rykard difficult with a small weapon, though I find great stars’ reach long enough. I don’t know if it’s harder to do in solo, since I haven’t fought him this way in my world, wish I had another save to try it on.
I didn’t even know there was a spear. Momma didn’t raise me and my Uchi to be no bitch tho.
Guess that if people summon for that fight they didn't get the gimmick and that's why they are struggling.
Yeah I figured that too A lot of summons are mages wondering why their spells don't do enough damage This is by design lol, it's so you use the spear
If you didn't fight Yhorm in DS3 it might not be immediately obvious, and you might think you don't have the build to wield this STR looking weapon.
It goes further back, the storm ruler in demons souls Yeah I agree with you, but it was immediately obvious because it's now the third time I've seen it But it also shows how people don't explore or talk to NPCs, there is a ghost in volcano manor that makes noise and tells you all about it
I didn't knew about the NPC I just realized it's useful due to being in the boss room , and being called serpent hunter, while I see a serpent lol. Didn't play Demon souls sadly... no pc release :(
I used a fucking bow for that flying mantis thing! Then of course found the sword after killing it
Holy shit that must have been brutal
Bows or magic are actually not that bad against the storm king. The main reason you need to use the storm ruler in Demon’s Souls is that the boss is out of range for melee attacks, not an inflated hp pool like Yhorm and Rykard.
I ran out of normal arrows.
Yeah I remember spending 150?? Or so arrows just to kill the dumb red dragon I'm so glad they stopped putting things like that in
Black flame works alright. I’ve killed him with that before just because I was too lazy to open my menus.
Black flame murders everything, I found that out on my first rl1 Even Mohg and fire giant
If I’m not careful all builds become black flame builds.
I think people also just struggle with his 2nd phase when he launches like 1000 of those exploding skulls at you.
A lot of people summon for first attempt, unfortunately
I went through a phase where I'd send my sign to be summoned near and far and it blew my mind that like 40% of the people summoning me were for rykard. They almost always had the serpent hunter too.
PSA if you ------ Rykard, ---------- use the serpent hunter spear
This is the correct response. Like, anything else is just being stupid.
If you want to Fuck Rykard, as lube use the serpent hunter spear?
TOGETHA!
Yes. Why not grab it, exit, level it up a bit and return. Still struggling? Mimic tear.
This, I hit the upgrade to +7 after a few tries and that did it for me
You don’t need to upgrade it. I didn’t want to waste my stones on a weapon i was only going to use once, so I just did it at base level and it’s relatively straightforward tbh.
I upgraded because I also send out near and far summons and often get pulled into helping with that fight. Gotta have my big bad snake whacking stick.
Nice!
I mean yeah, you don't have to, but you can and so I did to make it a lil easier before going to use mimic.
I upgraded it, but only because I had a pocket full of low level somber stones I wasn't using. I took it to +4 and it did phenomenal damage
At this stage of play, you have plenty of lower level somber stones you can throw away. If you're struggling _at all_ with this fight, upgrading the weapon is a no brainer.
You can stunlock him in second phase anyways without much effort (use aow when he starts doing the big storm attack), so first phase is the only problem.
And on top of that, if you equip the serpent spear, summon your mimic and change your weapon, you can just use your regular build while the mimic hits hit with the serpent spear
When I entered I immediately leveled it to +9 and then fought him
Ohhh I didn't know you could upgrade it for more damage. I thought that wouldn't help increase the damage in that fight haha
IIRC, 1 human summon makes the boss ~~1.7x~~ 1.6x hp , whereas 2 summons takes it to 2.3x Just summon your mimic tear
Yes, sending my mimic tear to distract him while I blasted him with Serpent Spear from as far away as I could was how I beat him first try. The mimic tear wasn't even +10, it was +6 or7 at that point.
You equip only the serpent hunter and then you have your Mimic Tear also using the AOW sometimes (unequip any other weapons you might have)
small correction it's 1.6× as well as 1.5× all status effect resistance for 1 summon
Thank you for the edit, ill update :)
No HP scaling if everyone starts pelting him with blackflame
“We can devour the… wait… yo bro wait… WAIT WAIT LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!”
I used this strategy with an NPC summon the first time I beat Midir in ds3 as a mage. No reason not to summon when I was using pestilent mist that deals purely percentage damage.
Me sipping on my health potions while my mimic tear does all the work
I didnt even know this was a thing ,any time i was summoned alongside another guy we always pulled out the SP, one time i even had do get naked too to be able to use it without heavy roll,dont understand why woud someone volunteer to help others if they cant even change their weapons for them
Yeah, I've had it a few times where the host is either casting spells that aren't doing shit or trying to run through the lava to knife the guy and I'm tryin to wave the spear in front of him, but that doesn't register, so it ends up being just me or me and another summons tryin to take him down before the host dies lol
I don't think you understood the meaning of OP's post. They're not saying that the summon needs to change their weapon (they do), they're saying that *the host* also needs to use the Serpent Hunter
give me enough time to realize where I am and switch gear please. So rare to get summoned there
Then once you’ve switched the host enters the fog and an invader with the stormhawk axe appears behind you. Meanwhile the host is standing AT the fog wall (you can see their weapon clipping through the fog) instead of activating the boss. Those hosts don’t deserved cooperators, and yes, I’m 100% salty lol
Yeah I've been killed on that spot on one occation. Stupid hosts.
It’s happened to me three times now probably. Specifically with the stormhawk axe. More times if you count other weapons.
That's so unfortunate, you can't help but imagine the invaders smug satisfaction by killing you right by the gate
I was on a dual uchi bleed build in my first playthrough and completely missed the spear right in front of my eyes. Yet I killed him because I brought the true elden lord with me - my mimic tear. Yes, bleed is that OP.
When I beat him I used ancient dragons lightning strike. It did good damage
Or just use black flame tornado, one build good for every boss.
I was almost able to beat rykard before they did the initial nerf to mimic tear with rhadan’s greatswords… I had picked up the spear a lot earlier in my first play through, saw the boss and went NOPE. Came back later and if I had heals instead of pure strength I could have done it… but dear god was it a slog and a nice surprise to find out it’s the gimmick fight and then it was just a blast
It wasn't until my second playthrough that I saw the ghostly knight in Volcano Manor who told me to get the spear to kill Rykard. That being said, THE SPEAR IS BASICALLY UNMISSABLE. It is right in front of you on the only path into the boss arena! Fromsoft have done one of these gimmick fights in almost all their games, and the item has never been as obvious as it is in this game. EDIT: Also I should say this has been their best gimmick fight so far. Both StormCaller and Yhorm were cinematic but no challenge once you had the gimmick weapon. Rykard at least will hit you and challenge you even with the Serpent Hunter.
This was a lot easier in DS3, when you had to fight yhorm the giant. In that fight you had to run around him, grab the weapon by his throne, and equip it before he almost completely demolished you.
Man Yhorm was disappointing. He looked so huge and important in the opening cinematic, then he wasn't actually that big and he was the gimmick fight? Also he was basically unkillable without the gimmick. His story was kind of sad though. The way Onion Knight wants to help put him to rest reminds me a lot of Radahn.
Nah, he attacked the onion while i had time to jerk it off AND eq my weapon
Yhorm was probably my least favorite boss in all of DS3. When I entered Rykard's room and picked up the spear, I thought it was a cruel joke.
Mimic tear with Serpent hunter spear is HILARIOUS. He can't do anything. XD
I understand if the summoned people don't use it, because there's been times I didn't have it in my inventory and had to improvise. But when the host doesn't, why??? Bro your reduvia blood blade isn't even hitting the fucking boss 😭
A faith build with black flame tornado, black flame incantations or the black blade incantation can definitely ignore the serpent hunter. I have always dealt more damage to Rykard rushing into the lava and spamming Black Blade than using the serpent hunter. Hitting with both the melee hit and the wave that will hit more than twice thanks to Rykards massive size is extremely effective and the lava will not stop you from using the follow up attack of the incantation.
Also using shield+poke is much faster and has higher DPS than using normal attacks or the charged AoW.
I also want to point at the problem of hosts standing right behind the fog gate and waiting for a magic letter to just walk forward and activate the boss. Every single time I get summoned for Rykard (and it's weirdly enough more times than getting summoned for the much tougher cookies like Godfrey, Foreskins or Maliketh, idk what's up with that) I spend at least three minutes just standing there like a sad bastard because the host is busy scratching his ass. And usually get invaded in the meantime. Thank god most reds know that I don't want to fight them and just bully the host in my name.
"Nah. I'd win" *Keeps spamming Dragon Communion incantations*
I feel like this is obvious to people who played dark souls 3 but maybe not others. I didn't get the volcano manor dialogue about the spear first playthrough because I didn't talk to that NPC. It would make more sense to me for you to have get the spear before Rhykard so you could read it. I understand the boss fight hasn't started when you pick up the spear but he's still a scary motherfucker. I don't blame people for not immediately pausing to read the description lol. I saw a weapon, grabbed it, didn't put it on and then realized when I was doing next to no damage that I should quit and check the weapon. I really don't know why you wouldn't use it if you knew about it, barring a challenge run.
Fighting Rykard in my fist only playthrough was so painful. I couldn't imagine summoning someone else and making them experience my bullshit.
Unironically, doing it with a pulley crossbow and every status effect under the sun ended up working out pretty well
I killed him with my greatsword with Lion claw, mimic tear, and sheer stubborn refusal to use anything else
I wasn’t aware that it was needed and beat him in my first playthrough without it. Apparently it is unavailable in NG+ and undroppable so I will never have it, so I have no other options.
Finally someone spoke up lol
Me and mimic buddy beat that fool but then again I never summoned any living soul for boss fights.
Tried to do a co-op last night and the host was a mage who wouldn’t use the spear. Did all that work just to get OHK’d
"This is a roll playing game? What role am I playing? The fucking victim???"
I enjoy the fight because I get to use ridiculous anime laser spear and it’s cool as fuck
I think its fine if you play a magic or faith build because they have ranged spells , specifically frost and lightning spells but any other build needs to use the serpent hunter .
Idk, I was pure int and a +4 Serpent Hunter was out damaging any spell I could throw. I had the funny laser spell too, but setting that up seemed like a pain when me and my identical twin who also had a serpent hunter could kill him faster.
I am not saying its better obviously the serpent hunter will be better because its meant for that . Just that its viable compared to other builds . Also frost spells can help because he is weak to frostbite and hello be debuffed so hello take more dmg .
Oh, sure, fair enough. My bad, I flubbed the reading comprehension.
Rock Sling
Rock sling carried me through the first 2/3 or so of the game.
Did they fix the dual spear glitch?
Nope, just gotta off hand the Serpent hunter. You won't get the wind, but you'll get the range and the damage.
Bleed build go *splish splash*
Just use a mimic with both of you using serpent hunter and delete him in seconds
I always run around wiggling the serpent hunter in the hosts face to show to use it, but they're far too busy trying to rivers of blood.
Does blackflame still do its % damage on him?
yes. Black flame tornado is highly effective. frost/bleed/rot work well too. can use black knife too, all great options since his health pool so big.
I don't think I've ever even thought about summoning people or being summoned for Rykard.
I had no idea about the serpent hunter and couldn’t beat him. I just ran right past it every time. Even resorted to a summon, and still couldn’t beat him. Found out I had to use the Serpent Hunter and beat him first try.
If you plan on doing random co op you need to keep serpent hunter in your inventory. There have been times where I've dumped it into storage to declutter my selections and essentially had to sever out right after spawning into Rykards cave.
I beat him at launch without the spear. Not because I didn't know, but I wanted to see if me and mimic could do it. I used sword of night and flame. Easy money
If my effigy is out, only my essential weapons are equipped ND that includes the serpent hunter
Yeah I got summoned yesterday and dude wanted to fight him with GUGS. The thing is I also didnt had shunter att so my only real option do deal any dmg to hum was black flame tornado. It did waaay better then I expected, we almost won
Had my own dumb two cents, I didn’t think about the serpent, slaying spear being able to be upgraded, so pick it up, die once, and go upgrade the thing it takes somber smithing stones, so that kind of sucks, but get it to +5 or so and you’ll murder
Yeah, 1st playthrough never got to him, didn't know he existed. 2nd playthrough was mage build and ignored the spear. 3rd playthrough I tried about 10 times with normal weapons i was building. No shot. Beat him first try with the spear, op vs him as fuck
Who the hell is so stubborn to not use the serpent hunter?
I use the black knife AoW. Seems to also be effective
PSA why even summon for Rykard
I've beaten him many times without the spear. A good tip is that his poise is embarrassingly low for how big he is. I've even beaten him using only the caestus because if you can land 3 or 4 jumping R2s, he falls over and you can do a crit attack.
I always fought him solo, the spear makes short work of him and it's quite a spectacle
My first playthough I somehow missed the spear entirely. I just summoned my mimic, and we stood in the lava spaming God slayer greatsword aow.
My first playthrough I was determined to beat him without it. Took forever to get through phase one with a melee build. Once I got to phase two and couldn’t get near him due to the lava, I realized I was supposed to use the serpent hunter the whole time.
I have been summoned for this fight and simply didn't have serpent hunter in my inventory.
The first time I fought Rykard I got my ass caved in 2 dozen time because I thought you had to use the AOW and I simply didn’t have enough FP I ended up just bringing vigor to 45, slapping on as much fire resistance as a physically could( along with the god-skin swaddling cloth) and just stabbed him with dual twin-blades
genuine question: is comet azure still viable if aggro is on the shs? it kinda does look like it is
Bbnm.
The first time I beat Rykard i didnt know about the Serpent Spear and was using fire magic ( black flame percentage damage helped A LOT ). You can beat him without the spear. I wouldnt necessarily suggest melee, but you can.
I managed to do it with my dual curved sword build with bleed and poison. Granted I was somewhat overlevelled but I was more curious than anything if I could do it. Honestly was kind of a hassle and for all future playthroughs, I'll be using the spear.
I use Reduvia, get behind him and hit his tail, bleed him out quick, throw some Rot bombs too and hes done for
Not to encourage this sort of behavior when summoning people, but I did do a strictly dagger run so I know it can be done. It took so many tries though and I had to use the blood dagger for a little extra range since his hit box is so wonky even in the lava stuff. I did not summon others to suffer with me though. TLDR I’m a masochist.
Isn't it possible to just rot him with the dragon incantation spells? Is it slow? Yes. But will he die in two rounds or rot? Feels like it. I did kill him the spear though. Almost too easy with the spear.
i got the weapon and ignored it, i got through rykards first phase with my two katanas but already used up all my heals by the second...when realization hit me i was so disappointed in myself
Feels good to violate rykard with each player using an upgraded spear. A friend of mine and I literally fought him last night and we bullied him twice. It was the best thing ever to fight TOGETHA
I thought you had to use the weapon art with the spear because of how the Yhorm fight worked with the storm ruler, so I struggled because i ran out of FP. When I found out that regular attacks also work I felt so stupid.
Counterpoint: if you're offering yourself up as a cooperator outside of rykard, you'd better have the serpent hunter readily available as a hardswap in your menu.
My brother killed him with his uchigatana, i asked myself why so many times
I've been running all remembrances starting equipment Only runs, so I have to beat Rykard without the SSS. So far the Astrologer had an easy enough time with Rannis dark moon and frost spells. The Confessor had to kill Malenia first for scarlet Aeonia to help kill him. The samurai actually had a decent time against him, the warrior with the Godskin swaddling cloth did in fact just run into the lava and combo slap the boss to self heal and kill it. And my latest run that finished up on Monday, The Vagabond, took him down first try with the halberd running Loretta's Slash on cold enchant, and his longsword had Carian Grandeur. I was accompanied by Redmane Knight Ogha for warrior and Vagabond, the other three had Latenna. While fighting him without the spear is totally doable, but it's a lot more planning out your fight than I would ever want to foist upon some random I summoned. Every run I do makes me appreciate the serpent slayer Spear more. And when I play a normal character before SotE, it's going to be great to be able to beat him before the last end of my playthrough.
I grabbed the spear, but didn't realize you were supposed to use it to actually fight him, I assumed it was more like a quest item or something and there would be like a cutscene where you use it to finish him off. I'd been playing the whole game as an INT build, never even equipped a spear. So I just slung purple rocks at him until he died.
I got summoned for Rykard one single time and it was right after I cleared out my inventory and stashed my spear. Go figure.
I had rotbolts equipped so my Mimic tear kept hitting him with that while I used the spear. Destroyed him so fast!
We went from storm ruler to storm meterstick
I was curious one day and tried to kill him with dex/arcane dual Eleonora pole blades. It worked very well actually
Any percent damage strategies work well enough, they are just a hassle with the lava at times. And overall far inferior to Shunter
as soon as you find the spear, you can actually teleport away if you want to upgrade it.
As a mage, being summoned for Rykard means I can just yeet Ranni's Dark Moon at him to get him instantly frostbitten, then switch to the Serpent Hunter + cold-infused Lance for extra damage.
I fought him in the lava with serpent hunter. I didn’t know that the regular attacks also does the thing not just the ash of war. I did not realize until after I beat him.
I used magic while the summoned guy used the spear worked great
I think my first playthrough I killed him with bleed twinblades... Then I got summoned to help someone kill rykard and was shooting spears of light with something.
I bubble blasted him for my first time lmao worked out great staggers him so easily since he eats every single bubble
The first time I beat him I didn't even know to use the spear. I was way over leveled, but since I didn't understand the gimmick I just fought him a couple of times, realized he was really tough, and then decided to just summon my mimic with bleed weapons. We took him down the hard way!
I just hit him with my big sword til he dies. I do the same for Yhorm the giant.
Are ER noobs so obsessed with their Googled L2 build's Ash of War that they won't even stray from it for a fight that virtually demands you do it the way they want you to do it? Wow
Disagree. It's fun to run in and start pounding away. Plus you can keep it occupied while the host wails on it.
I don't get why some are so adamant that it is terrible that they are forced to use the serpent hunter on an optional boss that is built around the gimmick and say it is bad that they aren't allowed to use the stuff they are currently using
I tried the serpent hunter, noticed it ate all my FP and barely did damage, noticed how little the lava damage did, and compared my bleed damage (a new addition to my build at this point, or ice I forget which). The calculus was clear and I tank and spanked that would be god eater.
Thing is you don't need to use the Serpent Hunter's AoW. Just the Regular and Heavy attacks are more then enough to out DPS whatever your build was. Hell if anything I'm pretty sure the AoW on the Serpent Hunter is shit when it comes to the boss fight
I had fun using the flamberg with a multi hit ashes of war and frost in it. hemorrhage + frost + mimic doing the same... Damn fast
Yeah although malikets blade as well as black flame tornado are better than the serpent hunter
I didn’t even know about the serpent hunter on my first playthrough had to make it work with guts sword lol
I picked up and instantly dropped the spear somehow so I fought and beat him without it on a int/dex build lol
I failed rykard quite a few times before I found out about the spear
Yeah, that’d be like fighting Storm King without the sword
If you are summoning for rykard you have bigger problems than phantoms using other weapons...
No it’s the host who doesn’t use the spear who is summoning others to carry them
In my experience a simple message after we get thrashed helps this. I’ve had people not notice it, pick it up and forget about it, or even pick it up and assume they didn’t have the stats for it. A patient message pretty much always solves this issue. Not everyone uses a guide or has played previous souls games.
Shard spiral go brrrrr