Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy Boss Video Guide
[video coming soon]
Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy Fight Strategy
The Best Tips for Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy:
- Rykard is very weak to Frostbite, therefore inflict it at the beginning of the fight to increase damage.
- Use the Serpent-Hunter Great Spear found at the beginning of the boss' chamber.
- The Great-Serpent Hunt weapon skill stuns Rykard for a brief period of time, opening him up to a weapon skill combo or a charged heavy attack. This stun occurs regardless of poise damage, and provides an opening for casting/combo attacks.
- Use the Great-Serpent Hunt skill in the 2nd phase to interrupt Rykard's Rancorcall (the one that releases dozens of homing skulls). This will stagger him and prevent the rancor skulls being released.
- Carian Filigreed Crest can help by lowering the FP consumption of skill.
- Use the Mimic TearSpirit Summon while equipped with Serpent-Hunter to significantly reduce the boss' difficulty.
- Because the fight does not begin until the player gets close enough to Rykard to activate him, a player can fast travel out of the boss arena immediately after picking up the Serpent-Hunter. Visiting a blacksmith to upgrade the Serpent-Hunter before fighting Rykard will make the fight easier.
- If a Starlight Shard is used once at the beginning of the fight and once more during the transition from God Devouring Serpent to Rykard, Lord Of Blasphemy the Serpent-Hunters ash of war Great-Serpent Hunt can be used repeatedly to stun both phases of the boss, typically preventing him from attacking. Of note is that you should step back between attacks to prevent yourself from stepping into the lava pool.
- Avoid trying to walk directly up to Rykard, since he's surrounded by lava that will continuously damage you and stagger you out of attacks.
General Strategy
Rykard is first encountered as the God-Devouring Serpent in his initial phase. For details on the first phase, check out the God-Devouring Serpent's page. This section focuses on Rykard's second phase as Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. At the start of the boss fight, make sure to pick up the Serpent-Hunter Great Spear from the corpse in the boss chamber. This weapon has a unique interaction with the fight, creating a blade of light with each attack, significantly extending its range and allowing you to damage Rykard from outside the magma pool. The spear's moveset includes a three-stab combo with escalating damage, a two-hit heavy slashing combo with increasing damage on the second hit, and a two-attack special move with a long wind-up that costs FP.
Success in the Rykard boss encounter relies on managing area effects and dodging his wide, slow swings. Always dodge roll away from the direction his sword is swinging. Dodging in the same direction as the swing increases the chance of getting hit, which can be devastating. Debris falling during the fight may obscure your vision, so stay focused on Rykard to anticipate his attacks.
Rykard's slow attacks create frequent openings for you to land a hit with the Serpent-Hunter. Avoid being greedy; focus on movement, learning his patterns, and dodging. Once you have his patterns down, you can consistently poke him between his actions. Hitting Rykard in the head multiple times with the Serpent-Hunter will briefly stagger him, giving you a chance to deal significant damage.
In his second phase, Rykard occasionally raises his sword high, summoning dozens of large, flaming skulls that rain down from the sky, most of them homing in on you. Use the Great-Serpent Hunt skill to stagger him and interrupt this cast, which takes 3-4 seconds to complete. The skulls explode shortly after reaching their target or hitting the ground, so time your dodge rolls or sprints to avoid damage. Rykard will continue his regular attacks during this phase, which persists for a long time. If not defeated, he will eventually channel flames into his sword for a massive overhead cleave.
Cheese Strategy
Rykard can be made significantly more easy by summoning the Mimic Tear Spirit while equipped with the Serpent-Hunter. The Mimic copies your current equipment and this extends to the blade of light functionality of the Serpent-Hunter. The Mimic will attack of its own volition and you will still need to dodge the boss' attacks properly but having what is essentially a second player firing blades of light at him will massively cut down the amount of time and effort required to defeat the boss.
Melee Users
Though there is a weapon provided at the entrance of the arena, you can still fight Rykard with other weapons if you want. With melee weapons, it's best to use frost weapons since that's a weakness of his, but using bleed works too. The magma under him doesn't deal much damage so with a bunch of health flasks and health you can easily tank through it (provided your armor and/or resistances are high enough). Get right up close and hit his body. The only downside to this is that you will take constant chip damage due to the magma you're standing on (sometimes cancelling your attack mid animation), and it'll be hard to see what attack he's doing. He also will keep sliding away, especially in phase two. A plus is that he won't be able to hit you much when you're there.
Magic and Ranged Users
Due to the special weapon used, HP flask charges are more useful than FP flask charges.
If the player wants to beat Rykard without Serpent-Hunter, it is crucial to use main weakness (Frostbite) and boss large size. This makes Borealis's Mist, Pest Threads and Ancient Dragons' Lightning Spear (Incantations) a good choice. In case of sorceries, Ranni's Dark Moon paired with Rock Sling is a good call.
Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy Attacks & Counters
| Attack
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Description
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Counter
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| Sword Combo
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Rykard's most common combo involves swinging his sword from the left to the right, then right to left, ending in a stab in front of him. Note that the second swing has a slight feint where he first slams the blade's side on the ground before swinging it across to throw you off your dodge timing. Sometimes, he will not perform the stab and other times, he will perform a fourth attack by pulling the sword upwards directly after the stab, causing the ground to erupt in the area.
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Dodge towards the direction his sword is coming from during the swings. His stab travels more to your right side so dodge to the left.
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| Stab Combo
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Rykard holds his sword to his side in preparation for a stab. He then proceeds to quickly stab at the ground in near his target three times. He will sometimes perform a fourth upheaval attack, pulling his sword from the ground and causing the ground to erupt.
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Sprint or dodge far to the side.
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| Sword & Snake Bite Combo
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Rykard swings his sword from the left and follows up with bash with the serpent's head from the right. He finishes off with a lunge from the serpent head coming from the left.
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Same as his sword combo, dodge towards the direction each attack comes from.
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| Magma Leap
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Rykard leaps either forward or backwards, sending out volleys of magma in random directions upon impact.
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Maintain distance from the magma pool and move as the magma flies out.
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| Groundshock
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1st phase only. Rykard plunges his serpent head into the ground, then after a moment pulls it up to send a magma shockwave AoE attack forward in a cone shape over the earth.
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Very difficult to dodge, can't be rolled through or jumped over. Possible to avoid by sprinting sideways if timed immediately as the animation begins. Use weapon guard (L1) to reduce damage taken if you miss sprint timing.
Using Vow of the Indomitable or Raptors of the Mist will allow you to dodge it.
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| Rykard's Rancor
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Rykard extends his head forward and releases a small flaming skull from his mouth that creates a fire trail along its trajectory. After a short delay, explosions are released in a cascading fashion along the trail. Note that these skulls also appear from the ground periodically, with varying trajectories.
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Simply avoid being anywhere near the trail.
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| Snake Bite
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Rykard flips his head to the left, revealing the serpent which subsequently lunges forward to bite you.
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Time your dodge to the left side.
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| Rancor Storm
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Rykard raises his sword high above to his side, appearing to empower himself. Many large flaming skulls will then rain down from the sky with the bulk of them flying towards you and exploding after a short delay as they reach their target or impact with the ground. This rain of skulls will continue for quite a while and Rykard will continue on with his standard moveset as the skulls rain down.
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Dodge or sprint away from the skulls before they explode. When Rykard is charging, take the time to get as many free hits in as possible before he resumes attacking. Using Great-Serpent Hunt in the beginning can interrupt his cast and will cancel the effects entirely.
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| Taker's Flames
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If not stunned or killed during the Rancor Storm, Rykard will begin the attack by raising his sword high above with both hands, channeling the fire into the blade. After a long moment, he will then cleave the ground directly in front of him, culminating in a fiery explosion that travels forward.
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If Rykard is within 3-4 hits of dying, just finish him off before he finishes charging. Otherwise, sprint far to the side or time your dodge precisely as the blade lands.
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Elden Ring Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy Notes & Other Trivia
- Voice Actor: Simon Gregor
- WARNING! Defeating Rykard will lock players out of completing any incomplete Volcano Manor invasion requests.
- Was formerly called Rykard, Recusant Shardbearer in the 1.00 version of the game.
- Praetor was a status in Ancient Rome that either meant commander or a politician of high rank.
World Changes after Defeat:
- After the encounter with Rykard, you receive the Remembrance of the Blasphemous and you should have Rykard's Great Rune. This can now be activated at the Divine Tower of West Altus.
- After defeating him, you can return to the main chambers of Volcano Manor and speak to the NPCs. After reloading the area, the NPCs will leave the area, with Bernahl leaving a sword at his seat that you can continue buying his wares off of.
- At this point, if you teleport back to Rykard's boss arena, you'll find Tanith feasting upon his remains. If you choose to attack Tanith at this time, you will be invaded by Tanith's Knight. Upon its defeat, it will drop the Aspect of the Crucible: Breath Incantation, and Tanith's clothing set consisting of the Consort's Mask, Consort's Robe, and Consort's Trousers. With this, the Volcano Manor is complete.
- Patches' quest will progress beyond the ability to receive the Magma Whip Candlestick assassination reward.
Dialogue
Introduction:
Hmm... Very well.
You...
Join the Serpent King, as family... Together, we will devour the very gods!
Defeating player:
Now, we can devour the gods, together!
After Fight:
No one will hold me captive.
A serpent never dies.
Ha ha ha...
