Mastering Bloodborne: How To Defeat The Watchdog Of The Old Lords

Unfortunately for those looking to murder the disappointing 2014 Ubisoft open-world game, this article has nothing to do with that. Instead of burying Aiden Pearce and his largely stale GTA-clone under six feet of dirt, we're going to be discussing how to defeat a much cooler Watch Dog: Bloodborne's Watchdog of the Old Lords. While you may just want to stare at this lava-coated hound out of admiration, it's probably a far better idea to try and kill it, as it has some extremely powerful attacks at its disposal. If the above image was any indication, fire-based attacks are not going to work at all during this fight, so make sure to have a standard weapon or an Arcane-enhanced weapon with bolt capabilities rather than one with flame-based damage. Owning an outfit that counteracts flame damage will also help here, and there are a number of options you can purchase and find in the later stages of Bloodborne's campaign.

The name of the game here, much like with other bosses, is to be able to side-step and roll quickly while managing to get quick attacks in here and there. All of the Watchdog's attacks are pretty blatantly telegraphed, with her lava-spewing move being so simple to avoid that it isn’t worth talking about (just dash to her back, giving you time to do damage in the process). A great deal of her attacks are going to be easily avoided by dashing backwards or sideways, based on the attack radius, so make sure that you’re either locked-on at all times or are good at re-positioning the camera after rolling. A simple exploit, which is made much easier after reaching a high enough level, is to position yourself under the Watchdog and swipe wildly at her stomach and limbs. This is an easy way to take at least 50% of her health away, which makes the rest of the battle a mere formality. Still, if you’re not willing to take this risk, you can always wait for her to charge at you before dashing to the side, pinning her up against a wall, and unleashing a full flurry of melee moves.

After the Watchdog of the Old Lords reaches 50% health, she gains two moves that can quickly kill you if you’re not careful. The first of these, her explosion attack, is by far the most lethal move in her arsenal, as it produces a blast that can instantly kill you if you aren’t strong enough. The easiest way to counteract this is to simply be aggressive to the point where she’s dead by the time she aims to unleash it, but if you aren’t powerful enough, dodging backwards to the edge of the arena works just fine. The second new attack gives the Watchdog the ability to bite at you in rapid succession, and while dodging does work, it’s definitely possible to be caught in the midst of these bites in the middle of a roll or side-step. Once again, getting well out of her way is going to be your best bet here.

Whether you went at this fight very aggressively or super conservatively (these are the two best techniques, anything in the middle is pretty risky), sticking to a plan will ensure that the Watchdog of the Old Lords is dead soon enough. Take the new Chalice that she drops and prepare for more randomized goodness in the near future.