To think, the Shadow Keep seemed to be going so well, and then you run into a vicious, fiery, reptilian wall. Messmer is just an absolute unholy nightmare of unorthodox timing, neverending combos, health-sapping flames, and massive one-shot explosions. All thatâs before the giant snakes start getting involved. Even with our guide, youâre in for a hell of a time trying to take down Messmer the Impaler, but weâre gonna give you all the tools you need to chew up Big Red and spit him out.
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Before we get down to business, itâs worth noting that while Messmer is a required boss, heâs also a boss with whom you can procrastinate. There are multiple entrances and exits into the deeper areas of the Shadow Keep, and Messmerâs room is not the only route. To be specific, the area beyond the KeepâThe Ancient Ruins of Rauhâcan be accessed and explored long before you technically need to kill Messmer. So, if youâre struggling, itâs not the worst idea to move on for a bit, get a few more upgrades, then come back to try again. Now, if youâre truly ready to look death in his horrible reptilian face, letâs go to work.
Messmerâs Abilities, Explained
So, just to show you he ainât messing around, Messmer will immediately jump out of his seat and divebomb you with his spear, which will then explode after a two second delay. From there, phase one is mostly variations of two-to-four-hit spear combos that look more chaotic than they actually are. Theyâre still chaos, though, thanks to the fact that he often enchants his strikes with massive bursts of flame magicâeither as a single orb, or an obscuring, damaging wave, much like the fire knights youâve been killing in the Shadow Keep the last few hours.
Messmer also punishes folks who stay at range in the same way, with fire spells that can seek you around the arena at the same time heâs spamming combos. The fire does eventually go out, though, and for a brief moment, heâll come at you like any old random spear-wielding knight, with the exception of a move where he drags his spear on the ground for an upward swing.
He does, however, have two lethal aces in the hole. One is a grab attack when Messmerâs hand glows red, that ends with you getting impaled for a one-hit kill. The other is maybe the most absurdly OP boss combo in the game that isnât Maleniaâs Waterfowl Dance: A forward rush that leads to his leaping in the air, delivering a berserker barrage of strikes, before firing a dozen spears into the ground, all of which explode. This attack is evil, and Hidetaka Miyazaki is an evil person for putting it in the game.
After heâs down to half health, a hellishly gross cutscene occurs, and itâs time for Messmerâs anaconda to give you âooooh.â Nearly all the attacks are the same, including starting the phase with a divebomb attack, except that now thereâs less fire and more Messmer turning into a giant snake. There are also a couple of new ones, one where the snake will zip across the arena two or three times, causing massive damage. Alternately, Messmer will disappear into a black hole of shadows on the floor, and pop back out as the snake for two game-ending hits.
How To Defeat Messmer
Before you walk in the door, youâre gonna want to do some prep work. As you might expect from a guy bringing this much literal heat, youâll want to fortify yourself with all the fire and physical damage protection you own. Going tanky with your build has its uses in this fight, but you still want to keep a medium roll. Since most of Messmerâs hits will end you in two strikes no matter what armor youâve got on, donât panic too much if youâve got to take a hit in stats. As far as weaponry/magic, heâs weak to Frostbite, but heâs also susceptible to Bleeding. That said, even though Messmer can be stance brokenâand God it feels good if you can manage itâyou still want a weapon capable of quick recovery time between strikes. Plan your weapons and magic accordingly. Rellanaâs Twin Moons spell actually works wonders here if youâre able to time it right and survive long enough being that vulnerable.
If youâve progressed the Needle Knight Leda questline far enough and let Hornsent live, good news, heâll actually be available as a summon for this fight. Heâs functionally utterly useless, other than keeping Messmer distracted, but hey, in chess, the pawns go first. Same goes for Spirit Ashes, though summoning them is trickier than normal here, since 50 percent of the time Messmer will come for your neck the second you peek your head through his door. If you walk in, and you see Messmer light up, donât even bother trying to summon yetâdodge the initial dive, then dodge again to get out of the blast radius before making the call. Tank players can eat the bomb damage, but the blast can still put a major dent in your stamina. You definitely donât want this, given Messmerâs gonna come out of the blast area swinging.
When the proper fighting begins, youâll be on this cramped little bridge area before the main arena, which sounds like a terrible place to be trapped with an enemy as wild as Messmer. As counterintuitive as it seems, though, this is actually the best place to fight him, especially once youâve got your Spirit Ashes up. Once Messmerâs in the main arena, heâs got all the space in the world to dodge, backstep, and cast fire spells to keep you at bay, all while making swings with his spear that you canât capitalize on because heâs too far away.
Wrangling him in the starting bridge as long as possible means heâs got nowhere to go where neither you nor your summons canât touch him. If youâre aggressive enough, this can result in Messmer getting absolutely jumped in a corner the longer he refuses to turn his attentions to you. So, once youâve dodged his initial dive and called your Spirit Ashes, your job is to play goalie at the bottleneck for the rest of the arena, circling around Messmer to either block him back onto the bridge when you can, or bait him back into the corner for Hornsent or your Spirit Ash to keep busy. If youâre a tank, you can use a Greatshield against most of what he tries against you, at the cost of a chunk of fire damage if the flames are on. Once you know when his combos end, he takes some pretty extensive stagger damage from Guard Countersâthese are easier to smack him with on the bridge since he canât fly out of range. That does mean, however, that you better have his moveset scouted to a science.
His fire spells will eat a lot of real estate on the bridge, and if he puts up his wall of flame, you need to strafe off to one side before he lunges his spear out. If Messmerâs preoccupied with Hornsent or your summon, however, feel free to smack him once or twice while his backâs turned, but no more than twice at a time so you can prepare for his next move. Spell-casters may have to wait longer for Messmer to make a mistake, but the right spells can damage him enough to make it worthwhile. When Messmerâs flame is out, heâs just another asshole with a spear. Melee users can dodge his longer combos and get some solid hits in while heâs still lunging ad nauseam. His longest flameless combo is a whopping five hits, with a delay on the third hit you can use to dodge around to his back. His grab attack is, indeed, deadly, but itâs also very well telegraphed. This is why you donât want to get too crazy with multiple hits at a time
The big problem is his barrage attack, which, most of the time, will come for you specifically over the summons. The major sweeping strike that starts it is tricky to dodge, but once he takes to the air, you actually want to dodge forward and to the left or right of him instead of back, since the barrage creeps towards you when it starts. If youâre lucky, you either dodge the vast majority of the barrage, or take a hit from the fringe of it. Tanks can roll out and possibly eat the stray hits, but no matter what, youâre still gonna need to dodge the divebomb and explosion after. Make sure you have the stamina for that.
How To Beat Messmerâs Second Phase
Phase two is a âsecond verse same as the firstâ situation, where most of Messmerâs moveset carries over and are joined by his new snake-based attacks. But, despite the intimidation factor of the snake, this is actually the easier phase. Yes, Messmer will be out in the open, but a bunch of his strikes now end with his turning into a giant snake. That transformation has a longer recovery time than Messmer had in phase one, which meansâif youâre close enough when he landsâheâs wide open for some free hits. Just donât get greedy.
Youâll be able to test that theory right away when the snake comes in for a divebomb straight after the cutscene. The snake starts out some distance away, so thereâs a little bit of telegraphing when itâs coming down. Same as before, dodge the landing, pause, then dodge the explosion. When the explosionâs done, run in for two or three hits.
Beyond that, even more good news: heâs less spammy with the fire attacks, which means youâre fighting him like a knight for more of the time. Of course, now he really is out in the open, so youâre mostly looking to capitalize when heâs locked into a combo rather than wailing away. Thatâs still balanced out by the fact that his snake attacks leave him vulnerable. Those snake attacks are fast, however, so learning the wind-upâwhere the snake coils back against the arena wall, baring its fangsâis crucial. Heâll fly at you one to three times before Messmer has to shift back into semi-human form. Tanks can eat the snake attacks without breaking a sweat, but everyone else will need quick reflexes. Still, ending up right next to him when he lands means you can lay a serious smackdown on him. Phase one requires smarts. Phase two mostly requires patience.
Your reward, aside from some absolutely shattered nerves, is a whopping 400,000 Runes, and the Remembrance of the Impaler, which you can turn in for Messmerâs spearâcomplete with an Ash of War that duplicates his barrage attackâor an incantation called Messmerâs Orb, which summons one of those massive divebomb explosions.
Youâll also get an item called Messmerâs Kindling, which youâll be using at the apex of the Ruins of Rauh to burn away the Sealing Tree blocking entrance into the Tower of Shadow. Fair warning: once you burn the tree, youâre effectively locked out of any further progress with several of the major NPC missions (basically, anyone who was under Miquellaâs spell before he broke his Great Rune). So, you might wanna handle those before you go running off to burn yet another giant tree.
