Monday 16 December 2013

Dark Souls Boss Profiles: Bed Of Chaos



Bed Of Chaos
HP: 1
Skills: Arm swipes*, Arm Smash, Scythe slash, Fireball rain, Flame pillars*
Souls: 60000

Difficulty: 2.5/5
Times died on 1st playthrough: 5



This is actually one of the most annoying fights in the game depending on how you trained yourself mechanically while playing it. You may be good enough to dodge incoming attacks from both Ornstein and Smough, or you may be able predict and counter every attack from The Four Kings, but nothings ever prepared you for the Bed Of Chaos. This is the first boss in the game that requires you to do nothing but dodge, run and jump. Fortunately for you this is the only boss in the game where you can make progress even when you die, but unfortunately, its also pretty damn cheap, because you'll be falling to your f**king death more than you will be actually dieing from its attacks. Practicing jumping before attempting this one, or you WILL rage.



Chop chop chop the branches.

There's really not much to this battle other than being a great wood chopping festival. During the entire fight you'll be running around to the 2 chop points, trying not to get hit. The attacks from the boss themselves aren't too devastating at first, but as you get rid of the 2 limbs at the 2 chop points, the boss's attacks become a lot more ferocious. When its 2 limbs are down, the entire boss room makes you feel like you're playing Touhou.


Arm Swipes* - The boss swings its arm horizontally, trying to hit you. These do moderate damage at best, but will knock you quite a ways back. This is a very cheap attack to deal with when there are a lot of holes on the floor, you'll EASILY get knocked into a hole and get killed. This happens even when you're blocking, so dodging them is the way to go.

Arm Smash - The boss smashes its arms on top of you, doing heavy damage. 

Scythe Slash - Every time you destroy one of the chop points, a scythe will spawn on the boss and it'll start slashing you with it. Its vertical but has a path of flame that appears behind it as an aftermath. Easy to dodge.

Fireball Rain - When both chop points are down and the boss has 2 scythes it'll start using this to flood the arena with mini danger zones. The fireballs alone don't do too much damage but can disrupt your footing.

Flame Pillars* - Rings of flame appear below your feet and will explode into deadly pillars after a few split seconds. Dodge away. These are especially dangerous when you're on your way to destroy the core of the Bed Of Chaos, there's nowhere to run or dodge in this situation.



The entirety of this boss is like a mini stage, think of it as "Dark Souls"'s answer to Dragon God from "Demons' Souls". The moment you enter the boss room, the boss starts to attack you. Your job is to get rid of 1 limb by chopping the branches around it and then chopping off the main root, then run to the other limb, get rid of that limb using the same method. Finally, a hole will break open at the central floor, opening up a branch that leads to the core of the boss. Jump onto the branch, enter the path, go pass even more branches, then hit the core once to defeat the boss.


The start of the battle is the easiest, as it only has its arms to swipe and smash you. These are easily avoided, and there are no obstacles on the map. Defeating the first limb will cause the room to begin collapsing. The floor will start to fill with holes, which falling down will mean instant death. A scythe will spawn on its back, gaining it access to a new attack, Scythe Slash, which should pose no problems as of yet. Its arm attacks get more dangerous, especially the swipes, since it has a good chance to knock you down into the holes. Note that your progress for the boss is now saved, so if you die and come back, the limb you just destroyed will remain so.


Back tracking to the start of the boss room without dieing will be quite a feat, and when you finally do so, you can make your way to the second limb. More holes will pop up, so be careful not to get swept into them by the arm attacks. Once you take down the second limb, your progress is saved once again, and the boss will spawn another scythe to attack you with. Dealing with 2 scythe attacks can be rather dangerous, so you can start to be wary of them for now. The map will also start spawning more holes than before and it will be VERY easy to loose your step and fall to your death now. It also gains 2 attacks, Fireball Rain, which will probably be slightly annoying, and Flame Pillars, a highly telegraphed move that hits for huge damage. Make sure you roll away from these while you can.


When you see this, its time to haul ass before the fire comes.

Your final step is to get back to the start of the boss room, and the central floor will crumble, revealing your path to victory. Jump onto the branch (I failed here so many f**king times), and start to haul ass. Because as you cut down your path to the main core, the Flame Pillars will still try to reach you. Take too long, and you'll receive damage from the pillars, either heavily damaging you or killing you. Once you are at the end, the core only needs one hit to take down.


With this, I've covered all the soul lords. Its time to end the game....to the Firelink Shrine! Talk to Frampt (or Kayle, if you decide to side with the Dark stalkers), and present all the soul lords to the lord vessel to open up the path to the Kiln Of The First flame, the final area in the game. Oh yes, the Bed Of Chaos gives you 60000 souls.


Peace.