How to Beat the Scrapped Watchman
Details:
Health - 8,710
Type - Puppet
Location - Krat City Hall Courtyard
Weakness - Electric Blitz
Drops:
Broken Hero's Ergo
Quartz
Core
Small Wooden Officer Puppet
Overcharged Storage Battery
5,040 Ergo
Movepool
The Scrapped Watchman doesn't have many attacks. They all have long wind-ups and fairly long recovery times, but his size can make them difficult to track in close quarters.
Phase 1:
Melee Combo: The Scrapped Watchman can perform short combos of swipes and slams in melee range. Avoid these by dodging towards each attack. Doing so while locked on will perform a fast dash, which is easier for avoiding attacks.
Overhead Swings: The Scrapped Watchman will perform a combo of three attacks. Each one has a long wind-up, and is signalled by him raising a hand and spinning it before slamming it down. You can dodge the first two, but the third is a fury attack. Dodge backwards for the first two hits, and then run backwards to avoid the fury hit.
Grab Attack: The Scrapped Watchman will pull back one arm before grabbing you and pummelling you on the ground repeatedly. This has a fairly long wind-up, so dodge backwards.
Jump Attack: The Scrapped Watchman will perform a lunging attack if you are too far away which deals high damage. This attack is quite easy to perfect guard, or you can dodge to the side if you prefer. This can be a fury attack, however.
Phase 2: The Scrapped Watchman will retain all of the attacks from phase one, plus the following.
Electric Blast: The Scrapped Watchman will aim at you with one arm and then fire a blast of Electric Blitz damage. Avoid this, or perfect guard it to deflect it back at him.
Shock Rain: The Scrapped Watchman will spit electric bolts around the arena. While performing this attack, position yourself behind him and hit his weak spot - the electric node at his butt.
Area Denial: The Scrapped Watchman can perform a slam that creates an explosion in an area around him. Back away for this until the coast is clear.
How to Beat
The Scrapped Watchman serves as the first real skill check in the game, forcing you to at least acknowledge and try some of the game's mechanics that you may not be used to. Here's how to beat the Scrapped Watchman.
Strategy 1: Run and Bait
Staying at a distance and baiting out the Scrapped Watchman's jump attacks is a perfect way to get some hits in, since this has a few seconds recovery time that will leave you safe to deal some damage. Just stay far away from the Scrapped Watchman, kiting him around the wide arena, and wait until he performs the jump attack. You can either dodge this at the last second or perfect guard it.
Strategy 2: Weak Spot
The Scrapped Watchman's weak spot is right at his butt. It can be difficult to properly get behind him to take advantage of this, but using a summoned Shade will make this easy. Fully charged heavy attacks on this weak spot will quickly break the Scrapped Watchman's poise, allowing for a fatal blow.
Strategy 3: Toe to Toe
The Scrapped Watchman takes a relatively long break in between his attack combos. If you can get the timings down to dodge or perfect guard these attacks, then you will be able to deplete the Scrapped Watchman's poise quickly, allowing for a fatal blow. Learn his attack patterns and when to back away - practise makes perfect!
For all methods, using the Electric Coil Stick is a great way to deal bonus damage. Alternatively, your starting weapon of choice will do, but whatever you use, it is strongly recommended that you level it up at least twice.