Lies of P’s main strength is its epic boss combat, and the second one might give you a hard time. The Scrapped Watchman is encountered at the end of the City’s levels and features fast and deadly attacks.
This boss fight is a great way to get acquainted with most of the combat features of the game, but it’s also a little more challenging when compared to the first boss. It has two distinct phases: When reaching half HP, the Scrapped Watchman transforms and mixes up his patterns with some new shock attacks.
Make sure you’re well-equipped when preparing for this fight, and spend your Ergo before entering combat. Here are some other tips to help you down Scrapped Watchman in Lies of P.
How to kill Lies of P’s Scrapped Watchman boss
For starters, we don’t recommend spending Star Fragments to get help from a Specter right off the bat. While this can help you breathe a little and get the boss to hit someone else, it won’t help you recognize his patterns.
Once you’ve got the hang of it and you think you have a chance of beating the boss, however, it’s worth summoning if you want a helping hand.
Dodges are easy, but parrying is more efficient
You might have gotten away with spamming dodges for the first boss fight and levels in Lies of P, but it won’t be enough for Scrapped Watchman.
You’ll quickly run out of Endurance, and you won’t have time to reach the boss to hit it before it lands another attack on you. This becomes even more problematic as you progress further into the game.
It’s likely you’ll die fast in your first couple of tries if you try parrying all of the boss’ attacks, but in the long run, it helps you get openings with Perfect Guard, making enemies Groggy and landing strong attacks on them.
Enemies become Groggy when their HP bar is framed in white. At that moment, if you use a Charged Attack, you unlock a strong combo of attacks. You’ll see a red circle appear near the boss’ head for a short time. Hit the boss when in the circle to trigger it. This feature is key to making quick work of the bosses, so the sooner you get the hang of it, the better.
Avoid the grab at all costs
This tip might be confusing after recommending you to parry as much as possible but avoid the boss’ grab attack at all costs. It means making several jumps away from him when you see the puppet lift his arm in successive motions.
This attack animation is like no other, and you learn to recognize it fast because being grabbed triggers an animation showing you being tossed around. This quickly chunks down your health, depending on your gear. I tried to parry it several times, failed and quickly remembered to dodge it after my character lost half HP.
Keep the boss at a distance when he reaches half HP
The Scrapped Watchman enters his second phase when he reaches around half HP. When you get to that point, be careful because he unleashes shocks of electricity everywhere around him.
His attack animation will be fast, so you won’t likely have time to react, which is why it’s better to keep your distance after every hit at that point of the fight.
Avoid shock pools on the ground
When the Scrapped Watchman reaches his second phase, his powerful attacks leave electric pools on the ground. If you parry his attacks and remain there for too long, you’ll receive shocking charges and might get staggered, leaving you vulnerable to the boss’ attacks.
An efficient solution is to parry his attacks and then jump to the side so you still have time to land hits on the boss in short time windows.
Learn the pattern of his slamming attack
At some point, the Scrapped Watchman jumps. It’s hard to dodge his landing because it deals damage in a wide area and he adjusts his trajectory according to your position. We recommend parrying at this point.
After he lands, stand near him instead of running away. Pools of shock damage will appear all around him at close range and long range, but not at medium distance.
