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The bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree, Elden Ring's latest DLC, are way harder and more aggressive than the ones from the base game. The prime example of a hard boss in this From Software's masterpiece is without doubt Messmer the Impaler, the boss you'll have to defeat in order to progress through the story and access the final area of the game.
This boss will test your patience, determination, and nerves all the way through the fight, so prepare to get extremely frustrated, and if your nerves are not your strongest side, maybe even some flying controllers and whatnot.
If you're finding this fight unbearable and keep getting smashed by this extremely annoying boss, here are some tips to help you get through this fight and defeat Messmer once and for all.
How to Beat Messmer the Impaler
Provided you make some talks earlier, you will be able to summon Hornsent to this fight; however, I missed that opportunity and was still able to defeat him with the help of my Mimic Tear, of course.
Do not be ashamed to go for summons in this fight; this boss is so aggressive and his attacks are so devastating that the summons are some sort of evening of the odds, so to speak. Keep in mind, however, that each summon (Mimic Tear excluded) reduces the damage to the boss by half, so an already hard fight will become even harder.
Messmer is extremely vulnerable to bleed, so the weapon of choice for this fight should be the one that inflicts bleed damage; in our case, it is Rakshasa's Great Katana, a great weapon you'll fall in love with as soon as you start using it. If you don't know how to find this weapon, follow our guide.
Before entering the battle, make sure to equip Dragoncrest Shiel Talisman for physical damage negation and Flamerake Talisman (preferably the +3 version) for fire damage negation. Also, make sure to mix Flask of Wondrous Physick with Opaline Bubbletear for damage negation and Spiked Cracked Tear for boosting the charge attack. Buff yourself up, and enter the fight.
If you do everything correctly, you'll have enough time to summon Mimic Tear and dodge the first two attacks (see the video for reference). Learn to dodge the first plunging attack with the exploding one to follow, land one hit, and dodge away.
Mind his grab attacks; those can be devastating. See in the video that I was caught twice by them; luckily, I had a full health bar; otherwise, it would be a very short fight.
Whenever you're hit, try to heal, and once the boss's attention is turned to your summon, use a jump attack. Once the bleed builds up, he will receive huge damage.
After the boss loses half of his health, the second phase commences. In this phase, we don't have any special advice except for the one at the beginning of the phase. Dodge the first snake attack, immediately roll towards the boss, and land as many hits as you can. Those will take a huge toll on his health. Dodge immediately after that, because he will summon snakes right after.
In this phase, Messmer becomes extremely aggressive. Try to keep the distance and let him focus on Mimic Tear. Once he does that, run towards him, land a hit or two, and back out.
One more thing that is of extreme importance is your Scadutree Blessing level. For this fight, it should be at least 12, so if you're underleveled, explore a bit to find enough Scadutree Blessing Fragments to enter this fight fully prepared. If you want to see how we managed to defeat Messmer (not our proudest moment in gaming, but he's down nonetheless), watch the video we've posted above.
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