How to Beat Praetor Rykard
14 April 2024 at 12:34:15
Details:
Health: 30,900 (Phase 1), 59,200 (Phase 2)
Resists: Fire
Weakness: Serpent-Hunter, Head Shots, Lightning
Immune: Madness
Rewards:
130,000 Runes
Rykard's Great Rune
Remembrance of the Blasphemous
Best Strategy
Rykard follows a theme that is seen in several bosses through FromSoft's titles, the most notable of which is Yhorm the Giant from Dark Souls 3. These bosses are designed to have massive health pools, devastating attacks and high resistances, making them seemingly impossible to beat, but with a built-in weakness.
In this case, that weakness is Serpent-Hunter, a spear found at the front of the boss room when you enter. You can pick this up and equip it without upsetting the boss. All attacks from this weapon have a special animation during this boss fight alone, and as part of this, deal incredibly high damage and can near-on stunlock the boss to death if used correctly.
The Ash of War of this weapon is particularly good at this. Lock onto the head in both phases and keep using the fully charged Ash of War or heavy attacks, and the God-Devouring Serpent and Rykard will both regularly get stunned, opening them up for further heavy attacks.
This is more than enough to trivialise the fight, but picking up the Serpent Hunter and then dying or porting out will allow you to upgrade it if you wish, making the fight even easier.
Cheese Method:
The same as above, but get the Mimic Tear first. Equip the Serpent Hunter and then summon your Mimic, granting both of you the special effects of the weapon. Both the God-Devouring Serpent and Rykard will be completely stunlocked for the entire fight while both you and your Mimic use Serpent Hunter, and it's likely Rykard will not get an opportunity to attack.
No Serpent Hunter:
Maybe you accidentally sold the Serpent Hunter, traded it to a friend, or just want a challenge. Rykard can still be defeated without it, but his massive health pool demands a new approach.
The magma around the boss deals gradual damage over time, but it isn't much. Equipping decent fire resistance and having plenty of health flasks and health recovery spells can trivialise that part. Rykard will also struggle to hit you with most of his attacks while you are up close and personal. The issue is dealing enough damage to Rykard.
This is easily remedied by making use of status effects. Rykard is most notably weak to Frostbite, which will take chunks of health off him each time it activates. Equipping fast weapons that deal Frostbite build up will make this fight far more practical. Bleed also works, but he has somewhat higher resistance to that, but using both is bonus. It is also possible to apply poison, scarlet rot and sleep to Rykard, but again, he has high resistances to these.
Movepool
God-Devouring Serpent:
Magma Hurl: The Serpent will coil and push its face into the ground before throwing a wide arc of magma in your direction. Your best bet to avoid this is either to use the environment for coverage, or to block the attack, as dodging it can be difficult.
Grab Slam: The Serpent's head will rear up before lunging to grab you. If this gets a hold of you, it will slam you into the ground twice, dealing damage once, before throwing you down. This deals very high damage, and can be tricky to get the dodge timings down on. When dodging, do so towards the direction the head is coming from to reduce the chance of getting caught.
Bite Combo: Rykard will do a lunging bite from one side to the other. This can be followed up in a combo of up to three hits, with a delay on the third, so be prepared to dodge at the right time.
Lava Slam: The Serpent will slam its head down on the ground to create a spray of magma in a wide arc in front of it. To avoid this, you must dodge forwards through the magma balls.
Poison Pools: This attack leaves pools of poisonous spit on the floor, and it can be tricky to see how wide these pools are. They deal high damage and build up the poisoned status effect quickly.
Thrash: The Serpent will raise its head sideways before spinning in a circle, throwing magma in random direction. Creating some distance and using the environment for coverage should protect you against most of the damage.
Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy:
Combo: Rykard can perform three different sword combo attacks. The first is a slash from his right, then left, and then a stab in front of him after a delay. The second is a swift three-hit stab in front of him, and the third is a swing from his right followed by a hit from the snake's head and then a lunging bite attack as well.
Lava Slam: Rykard will raise himself up high before jumping, either attempting to hit you or create distance from you. When he lands, magma will be sprayed out in many directions. Make sure you get away from him in plenty of time for the slam to avoid the subsequent magma balls.
Skull Storm: Rykard will raise his sword high in the air and channel for a long time. When finished, flaming skulls will begin to swarm slowly from above, tracking you heavily and exploding when they get near you or the ground. It is very important to keep moving if you wish to survive, and you must keep your eye on Rykard to prepare for the next attack.
Taker's Flame: Very similar to the Ash of War on the Blashphemous Blade. Rykard will follow up his Skull Storm attack by channelling a blast from his sword. He will slam it into the ground and create a fiery shockwave in a line forward, dealing incredibly high damage. You must dodge this sideways at the last moment.
Rykard's Rancor: Similar to the spell you can get from the Remembrance of the Blasphemous, Rykard will spit out a slow-moving fiery skull projectile. This will travel loosely in your direction, and after a few seconds, the trajectory it took will begin exploding, starting at its point of origin and ending at its destination. Get will clear of the blast radius.
Shockwave: Rykard's secondary serpent head will plunge into the ground and then rip itself out with a shockwave moving forward. You cannot avoid this attack by dodging or jumping, so your best bet is to sprint to the side as soon as you see Rykard start to perform the animation. If all else fails, block.