Bosses through Melee: World 1, Boletaria hints and tips for Demon's Souls

Bosses through Melee: World 1, Boletaria

This is for those of you who get stuck on a boss because you don't have magic, and are told to "Just use Soul Arrow till it's dead! :p" whenever you look for help. People like me.

This covers the bosses of 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3.

1-1: The Phalanx: Shields, up! The Phalanx is covered with Hoplites, the spear wielding blobs you fought on the stairs not too long ago. Keep your guard up, and avoid as many attacks as possible. The Hoplites attack individually, and all dish out piercing damage, which means you're going to take damage even if your guard is up. It'll be reduced damage, but this is Demon's Souls. Minimize the amount of hits you take.

As you guard, circle the room, rolling when you have to. As you move, take out the Hoplites that the Phalanx leaves behind as it moves with you. As the Hoplites diminish, you should see a blue core. Taget it, and hit it as hard as possible. If you still have Turpentine, use it here. The Phalanx will take some heavy damage from the hits you land.

Remember, do not let the Hoplites scatter around the room. They have quite a bit of range with those spears, and the last thing you need is to be hit from all sides. You also can't heal safely if there are Hoplites all over the place. Try to contain them to a small portion of the room. Also remember that the Phalanx will start regenerating Hoplites after a minute or so, so once you reveal that blue core, you'll want to finish the fight quickly. Move fast, but don't rush, otherwise you're liable to get yourself killed.

1-2: The Tower Knight: This guy isn't as tough as one would think. The first priority is the crossbowmen on either side of you. Dash up a set of stairs, and take them out. Also take note of the numerous safe spots they provide. The safest area is the walled off section that makes the corner. The stairs go all the way around, so don't worry about backtracking. Once the crossbowmen are taken car of, move on to the Tower Knight. He has three attacks I can think of.

He will use a Soul Arrow type deal with his lance. This is telegraphed by his lance beginning to glow blue. Just run and, if you have lighter armor, roll to avoid this attack.

He will attempt to stab/slash you with his lance. Fair amount of windup time, if you see him getting this ready, either run through his legs, or get the hell out of there.

He will raise his shield up, then slam it down for an Area of Effect(AoE) attack. Same as above to avoid.

He may also accidentally step on you, so watch out for that. Don't hold it against him, he's a giant!

The best way to kill him is to get behind them, which is easiest to do by running through his legs. If you get stuck between his leg and shield, don't worry: He'll most likely raise his shield up and lunge forward with it, allowing you to get behind him. Once behind him, attack his heels. Those are his weak spot. As you attack, you should see blue Soul Energy start coming out. This means your attacks are hurting him. After a few more hits, he will fall down. This can, and will, hurt you. Don't let him fall on you. Once he's down, go ahead and hit his head. That's his other weak spot. When he gets up, back away, as he'll always do his AoE attack after standing. Repeat until he dies.

Remember: You don't have to fight these bosses in order. Feel free to hop around worlds to pick up some better equipment and stats first.

1-3: The Penetrator: This guy can be tough. One way to make it easier is by saving Biorr in 1-2 with the keys from 1-3 beforehand. If you haven't done this, and don't want to, I suggest you put on some light armor, as you'll need to be rolling a lot. If you don’t have any, don’t panic, you’ll just have to time your rolls more. The Penetrator has very wide attacks, and is more than capable of hitting more than one person at a time. He’s also capable of destroying the statues around the room, so don’t expect them to offer any protection for healing. One more thing to remember is that he can-and will- kill you in one hit with his “Penetrating Stab”.

He has a basic slash that has some windup time, and a large area that it hits. He usually follows this up with a second slash, so don’t rush in after he attacks.

He also has a spinning slash, which is telegraphed by his sword starting to glow blue while he raises it up. He will then spin and bring sword around in a downwards arc. This has a slightly larger hit area than the normal slash, but it’s not too devastating. You can avoid this by being very far away from him, or being directly behind him.

His last attack is particularly devastating. It is very likely to kill you in one hit if you don’t avoid it. His sword will start to glow, and then he’ll raise it up and lower the point. Then he thrusts forward. Remember that you cannot block this attack. Also note that while it’s very powerful, it has a very narrow damage area, and can be easily avoided by moving continuously to the side.

This guy is dangerous, but workable. He’s very slow, and has a lot of windup on his attacks, and that allows you to get to safety before launching a counter-attack. The best time to attack him is right after he uses his Penetrating Stab. The attack has a long recovery time, so you can dart in to land a few hits, then dart back out before he knows what hit him. You may also be able to hit him from behind, but you have to be careful not to stay to long, otherwise he will hit you with the spinning slash. If you have Biorr with you, you can either hang back and let him deal with the Penetrator, or you can just nail the Penetrator repeatedly in the back.

Remember that you can only fight the Penetrator after you’ve beaten the last boss of another world.

If you want to kill the ed Dragon with melee as well, you're in luck. All you need is a large sword, such as the Bastard Sword you picked up earlier. On the first bridge segment you'll see a bunch of burned bodies. Stand just to the left of the bodies that are crossed over each other to form an "X". You should be right by the head that is on the upper left of the "X". This puts you in a position to hit the dragon's tail as he flies by. Becareful though, because a little farther to the left or forward and you'll be in an area that the dragon hits with his feet. You will also have to readjust yourself after each swing to compensate for the step forward.

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