Lords of the Fallen is the newest entry in the long list of high-quality Soulslike games released this year. Despite not reaching the top of that list, it comes close. What the gameplay leaves wanting, the environment and atmosphere make up for. The game features stunning vistas in the background and a grim-dark medieval aesthetic.
Lords of the Fallen’s first few bosses aren’t the hardest ones around, but they can be challenging for new players. The second main story boss, the Congregator of Flesh, has a massive body that makes him incredibly intimidating for anyone not familiar with monster-type bosses.
General Tips
- Stay on the right side of the boss and lock onto it’s appendage rather than its front to help dodge it’s major attacks.
- Don’t be intimidated by the size of the boss and stay composed. If you get pushed up against a wall, it makes the camera go crazy. In such cases, just leave your block up and try to get out in the open.
- Use your long-range option whenever the boss is far away, but remain alert for any attack cues from it as well.
- Parrying the attacks will fill up the boss’ posture meter, letting you deal a devastating blow once it overflows. However, remember to pile on attacks in between to recover withered health.
- If you’re facing issues getting the timing for the parry down, equip a shield to reduce the damage you take from normal blocks.
- The boss will run away from you quite often. Use this window to heal up and use poison removing consumables as needed. Chase down the boss if you don’t need to heal.
Attack Patterns
If you’re familiar with large monster-type enemies from other games, there’s nothing special about Congregator of Flesh. However, it might seem like a formidable enemy at first. Once you have it’s attack patterns down and figure out the timing to dodge or block them, you’ll realize the name of the game is hit boxes.
- General Attacks: The Congregator of Flesh does two different types of swipe attacks, one from either ‘hand.’ You can tell which one it’s going to do by the movements of its appendages right before the attack starts.
- Poison Wave: After you’ve whittled down the HP of the boss by around 30-40%, it will start to do a Poison Wave attack that will cover a significant portion of the map. You can dodge this if you are close to the side of the boss, or if you are far away.
- Slam Attacks: The Congregator will try to slam into you in a variety of ways, whether it’s a full body slam, a fist slam, or a jumping leap. All these attacks are easily dodgeable, especially if you stay by the boss’ side. Watch out for the Boss’ leap attack which can skewer you and deal a lot of damage, often killing you outright.
- Charge Attack: The boss will charge at the player from across the map. You can easily avoid this attack entirely by staying near the boss’ side. If you see it getting ready to start the attack, run closer to its side — if possible — and dodge right as the attack animation starts.
After a certain amount of the boss’ HP goes away, it will start to cover the arena with poison. Use Poison resistance or status cure potions (available from the NPC vendor right before the boss fight area) to deal with the poison build-up.
How To Cheese The Congregator of Flesh
The strategy during the two ‘phases’ of the boss are pretty much the same throughout. As soon as the fight starts, you’ll want to run to the back of the boss, towards its right flank, and deal damage to its appendage. This will let you dodge most of the major attacks and basically cheese the entire fight.
If you decide to go this route instead of staying in front, you’ll need to be wary of the boss rolling over you. However, there’s enough time to dodge or parry the attack without any issue once you get used to it. In the second phase, the boss will also jump and slam into you, so you’ll need to keep an eye out for that.
Boss Rewards
Defeating the Congregator of Flesh won’t give you a lot of goodies, just a few Umbral Scourings and a Vestige Seedling. You can use the Vestige Seedling in the now-empty boss arena if you want to. The Umbral Scouring can be used to purchase weapons and armors from the Umbral Entity in the hub area.
You can Soul Flay the stigma in the area to get the ‘Remembrance of the Congregator of Flesh’ and 2x Umbral Scourings. If you offer the Remembrance to Molhu, you’ll unlock Flesh Tide (Umbral Spell) and Saint Latimer’s Relic Spear (STR/RAD weapon).