Laurence, The First Vicar (初代教区長ローレンス Shodai kyōku-chō Rōrensu lit. "Laurence, The First Vicar") is a Boss in Bloodborne. He was added with The Old Hunters DLC.
"I tell you, I will not forget our adage."
"Fear the old blood."
Laurence, The First Vicar General Information
Laurence is the only strictly optional boss in the DLC, as defeating him does not advance the story of the DLC.
Initially the boss room is accessible very early to get the Eye Pendant key item from Laurence's hand, whose body is inactive on the altar. The arena itself is exactly the same as the one in Vicar Amelia's fight.
Once Laurence's Skull is acquired, coming back to the arena and approaching his body will initiate a cutscene, after which the boss and the player will be put into set positions and the fight starts.
This fight has three phases:
- Phase 1:
- Laurence will look and behave very similarly to the the Cleric Beast, having a similar set of moves, but with fire added.
- He will have the same breakable body parts, with the head also being an opening for a visceral attack.
- Phase 2:
- After reaching about 70% health the second phase will subtly initiate.
- Laurence will suddenly gain new attacks, both from the Cleric Beast and his own.
- Becomes far more aggressive.
- Phase 3:
- Around 40% health the third phase is initiated as Laurence breaks his legs and falls down (watch out) and now crawls on the floor.
- He will now continually leave lava behind him, leaking from his lower body, and gain a completely new set of moves.
- None of the body parts can be broken in this stage.
Location
- Hunter's Nightmare, in the Grand Cathedral after the flaming boulder.
Drops
- Beast's Embrace.
- Blood Echoes: NG (29,500), NG+6 and so on (310,045)
Strategy
- Valtr can be summoned for this fight if you have the Impurity rune memorized. His "lamp" is located before the staircase that leads to the boss. Please be mindful that summoning help increases the health of enemies so if your summon does not do enough damage they are just making the fight harder for you. That being said, summons can provide an excellent distraction for the boss while you attack from behind.
- Very similar fight to the Cleric Beast fight from the main game. Stick to its back and attack a few times before backing off. In the third phase Laurence's legs will break and he will continue to fight crawling. The fire spitting can be easily dodged. Watch out for a swift forward crawling attack while Laurence slashes several times in front of him. Facing him, circle him clockwise and try to get to his side to avoid being comboed by the attack. Magic like Executioner's Gloves can make the third phase easier.
Key Strategies
Target Laurence's head with pistols or the Piercing Rifle to stagger him, then follow through with a visceral attack. Staggering him work in exactly the same manner as with the original Cleric Beast; he will eventually repair the damage to his head, allowing you to injure it and stagger him again. You can also injure Laurence's limbs, but unlike most other bosses this will only stun him temporarily and does not actually increase the damage he receives. The Whirligig Saw's transformed L2 attack will quite figuratively tear Laurence to shreds, especially if you've also fortified it with Beasthunter Gems; fast weapons with serrated bonuses such as the Saw Cleaver and Saw Spear are also ideal for dishing out heavy damage as quickly as possible. If you're having trouble with the lava stunlocking you to death during Phase 2, try using a Lead Elixir - it'll give you enough super armor to walk through the flames without flinching, though you'll need to keep a close eye on your HP. The Loch Shield will absorb the impact and most of the damage from his AoE's, though it is NOT effective for blocking the actual, physical swings themselves.
Close Melee Tactic
- This boss deals fire and physical damage, so I'd recommend using the Charred Hunter set which has very good fire resistance. Level 40 vitality should be enough to withstand 2-3 hits with this attire.
- For runes I use Guidance (rally potential +20%), Fading Lake (Fire reduction +5%), Clockwise Metamorphosis (max HP +10%) and using Hunter Axe for its great regain potential.
- Obviously this setup is focused on aggressive attacks and regaining lost health with regain.
- This boss has 3 phases of combat, first phase similar like Cleric Beast fight, in the second phase it becomes more aggressive, and in the third it employs a lot of area of effect attacks.
- The method I found is effective with this setup is dodge to his right side when he attacks and stick behind him always and hack and slash. This will prompt him to swipe with his backhand but you can easily dodge towards the hand he's using.
- The same tactics are used when he changes to phase 2.
- It will come to phase 3 when it loses its leg and lava coming out of its body. Now its attacks will mostly focused in front of him, so it's clear you'll need to keep to its side and hurt him while cycling every time he moves.
- Things to note is dodge to his right if he's attacking with right hand, same goes for left hand (weak spot).
Phase 1/Phase 2 Dodge/Melee - Phase 3 Lure and Run
- Start off with as much fire and physical damage you can get via bloodgems. Suit up in best physical/fire defense gear.
- I was in NG+, around level 170, +10 Whirligig, and doing about 585 per R1 double handed attack. Buffed with phantasm shell or bolt paper about 750.
- Lock on for the first phase and treat it much like the cleric beast fight. Dodge his attacks by dashing back and then on his final swing while he recovers, dash up to him and get 2 good hits in. I noticed that on any attacks where he leaves his left arm (your right) open after an attack, a good R2 attack can stagger leading to a visceral attack for about 3000 damage.
- When he backs you into a corner dodge under his last swipe to get around him and back to open space to back up. I always dashed around to his left side (your right). I found dodging towards his big arm easier.
Phase 3 - 40% Health
- Things get a bit more complicated when he loses his legs. Try to save all your bullets and most vials for this phase.
- Make sure your Blacksky Eye is equipped. You can whittle down health with good shots from this. I found I was dealing just over 100 damage per hit. If you have all 20 bullets, 2000 ain't bad for whats essentially free hits (if you can connect them all)
- I died countless times to Laurence in this phase being backed into a corner and trying to dash out once getting pinned by Laurence and his lava pool. While he is spitting lava or thrashing in the arena unload the Blacksky Eye on him, make sure you are close enough that your shots connect.
- (1) Wait to attack with your weapon until after he is done with his sequence of crawling slashes. I think they come in 5 slashes or 6 slashes. You can usually get a hit when he recovers his last slash with his big arm. Don't get greedy. I'd stick to one hit max.
- (2) There is a none fire slash that he does where he doesn't crawl, He will curl his big arm around his head while recovering and this is the safest time to attack.
- At some point he will start crawling towards you and you will get backed into a corner, but there is an easier way to get around this than it seems. When he starts his slashing crawl, get into a far corner of the room so as to guide him to the corner. Once, he is getting closer, unlock and run a wide arc around him as far from his arms as you can manage. Then book it to the other end of the arena and wait for your openings to attack him. (2) is much less risky than (1), but you get less opportunities. Laurence seems to favor (1).
- I died countless times to him in phase 2 until I thought to play more of a defense game. His attack have so much range and hit so hard, I think its a pretty good route to take.
- Hope that helps out. I hope that you slaughter Laurence with a little more confidence. Happy hunting.
Hit n' Run Tactic
- Keep enough distance that no matter what the boss does he can't hit you with his first move. Don't hang around too far though. If he does the high jump attack you were too far. The plan is to fish out his close range combos and wait in the distance for him to finish.
- Once Laurence has completed his moves run attack with heavy hitting weapon. If you have time do running R2.
- Immediately after your attack get back to the same distance you were before.
- When above 70% health Laurence is pretty passive after his combos so hit and run is easy.
- After health bar drops below 70% boss starts to fall around and gets more aggressive after finishing a combo. It is safest to hit and run after combos like "two punches to the floor + heavy smash" and "heavy left hand smash + out of the ground pull."
- After he loses his legs just stay in front of him and hit and run mostly when he uses his weak hand swipe. Don't go in when he swipes with his better hand but if he punches the floor with it you can hit it after the explosion.
No-lock, Controlled Panic Strategy
- Extensive observation has indicated the worst place to be around Laurence is the 180-degree arc in front of him (I died probably fifty times to him over three days). And while being a bit behind him is somewhat safer, he can still swipe you from there--and if you're locked on and close enough to hit him, the arc on his attacks is enough to hit you. If you're having trouble evading while locked onto him, forego the lock and run past him on his opening attack and get behind him and to his right. He'll have to turn to hit you, usually, and you can roll past his knees, getting into the safe zone behind him. He'll try to turn, but you can stay behind him most of the time, and evade him more easily there.
- When he flurries attacks, keep rolling to the right to stay behind him and with a touch of practice on timing, you should evade his long attack series. Just try not to get against a wall or corner if you can help it, it makes the camera become unhelpful.
- Your choice moments to attack are his three-hit ground slam (he starts off by punching the ground with his skinny arm, then the large one, then doubles up), his two-handed grab move, and if you can attack him enough, any time he's bleeding out, restoring his limbs or fallen over (which he will do if you're attacking his legs/hips, which are the handiest targets from behind.) If you're feeling daring, his explosive palm slam move also provides an opportunity for a hit or two when he's coming out of it--just don't get too close to him before the explosion happens.
- Always, always, always leave yourself a stamina margin. Don't get greedy, he has a lot of health and won't go down quickly. Don't use more than one-half to two-thirds of your stamina attacking him. Leave yourself some to escape him--you can outrun him if you need to heal.
- It helps to have a weapon with a bit of reach on it. The Threaded cane, the Moonlight Sword, whatever works. It'll help tag him sometimes when your spacing is a bit off.
- Once he's visibly under 50% of his health, I found it useful to disengage, lock onto his head, and try to shoot him into being open to a visceral attack. If you get it at the right point of his life bar, you can shorten phase 3 significantly.
- Once he's in phase 3, then you lock onto him--but only when you mean to attack him or he's crawling. Still stay on his right side and try your level best to stay there. Attack after he attacks with his skinny arm--I used the normal-form Strong Attacks of the Moonlight Sword (a straight thrust with a good bit of reach and good speed for as long as it reaches) to get him once or twice when he gave an opening. Still leave a margin, and don't be afraid to break lock and run well away from him to heal and try to bait him into spewing lava so you can approach him again.
"Ranger of Old" Strategy
Preparation: This strategy requires the use of Simon's Bowblade, primarily the use of its bow form. You'll want some degree of Bloodtinge investment (25-30. 50 is ideal.) If you have high skill, Clawmark Runes are an excellent supplement for this strategy.
- Come alone. Additional summons will only serve to make landing the shots you need much harder and make Laurence far more unpredictable.
- Make sure that you have Simon's Bowblade in bow form when initiating the fight and lock on to the upper portion of Laurence's body. (the white dot should be able to line up with his head with positioning and timing)
- Stay close enough that he does not pounce, but just out of reach of his strong arm. You want to bait out the overhead palm smash followed up by the lift and explosion. When you see him beginning the palm smash, dash backwards out of range of the AoE while staying as centered in front of him as well as you can. Initiate a charged R2 just as his hand is lifted off the ground, if timed correctly, his head should lower directly into the arrow's path just as the arrow is released.
- After enough times (two for this player on NG++ with a +9 bowblade at 50 bloodtinge and three +27% attack bloodgems) he will stagger. Do not hesitate: give him a taste of the strongest attack you have. If you're pure Bloodtinge, this would likely be usage of the Chikage, or just use a few charged shots while he's immobile if you want to keep away. A strength-oriented build will want to simply use the biggest and baddest attack they've got with their best weapon. An arcane build will likely be hitting it with either their strongest spell or the Holy Moonlight Sword. A skill build will simply want to visceral him.
- After the first stagger, you will want to do one of two things: either one, stay at about the same range and wait for the head to regenerate or take a few swings to punish him after his attacks if you feel confident enough to dodge any counters Laurence might employ. Eventually his head will regenerate.
- Rinse and repeat this method until he starts crawling around. At this point, you're not going to be going for visceral attacks any more, just damage. If you've followed well in the last stage, you should still have plenty of blood vials and some extra bullets. You're going to need them.
- Stay to the outside of his weak arm at a slight distance, dodging attempts to counter as needed.
- Keep pumping him with arrows, but watch out for when he attempts to charge. If you're standing outside his weak arm, he shouldn't be able to hit you. Just dodge before his weak hand strikes the ground every time to avoid being damaged by the resulting AoE. Don't worry about him managing to maneuver the charge into you, his turning ability is terrible at this stage. Just stay to his side.
- Whatever you do: do NOT let him get you in front of him. If he charges you while you're in front of him, don't panic. Calmly, but quickly dodge perpendicular to the left of his path in time with each "step" until you're outside his turning radius.
"Fireproof Coward" Strategy
- First, make sure you buff your fire resistance as high as you can with your clothes. Harrowed hat and the Yamamura gear worked for me. Bring a weapon geared against beasts and some fire paper. I used a +10 Saw Cleaver on a Strength build.
- Get to the cathedral and summon Valtr. He is your meat shield, albeit a lousy one.
- When the fight starts, Valtr should draw aggro pretty quickly. Circle around Laurence and punish his hind legs. Back off when he notices you or you run out of stamina.
- The goal for the first phase is to wear Laurence down and keep Valtr alive. Hit his back, then back off and heal when things get dangerous. Valtr will generally keep Laurence distracted enough that you can get away with this. Try to keep at least 10 blood vials available for part two of the fight.
- For the second phase, your goal is again to stay on Laurence's backside. Not directly behind him, but off at a slight angle so that you're only getting stunlocked by his flaming diarrhea half the time. The damage you'll take will be minimal with the right gear, and you'll spend your attacks punishing him. For Saw Cleaver the longer second form is more effective here.
- If Laurence is swinging at nothing or Valtr you're fine. If he tags you even once, back off quickly and heal. Make sure you keep your distance until your health is back up, then wait for Laurence to commit himself and dive around to his side.
- Valtr will die at some point, but if Laurence is down by 2/3 of his health you should be fine.
- I had 47 in HP and was around level 105-115 when I beat Laurence on a first playthrough, so your mileage may vary.
Videos
(( Please respect these video posting guidelines))
Moveset with legs 1:st and 2:nd phase
| Attack Name | Attack Description & Counter |
|---|---|
| Sticky left hand fist pound | Laurence screams a high pitched scream and pounds his large left fist in to the ground in front of him, causing splash damage and the fist gets stuck. About 3 seconds later the fist explodes and Laurence returns to his nominal position. Counter: When you hear the high pitched scream, back off somewhat to Laurence's left (your right). After the explosion you have a small counter window. Run for his large left arm. If you are too slow he typically jumps backwards but he might also counter so be careful. |
| Non-sticky left hand fist pound | Laurence screams a medium pitched scream and pounds his large left fist in front of him, causing splash damage. After a brief while he retracts the hand. |
| Two hand grab | Laurence pulls both hands backwards and contemplates his life choices before swiftly closing them together trying to grab you. This grab tracks you. If he manages to grab you, he lifts you up and inflicts tons of damage before throwing you into the ground. |
| One hand grab | Laurence emits a low pitched scream and performs a grab attack with his left hand. The grab attack has a short wind-up but has also has a short reach. Might be followed up with a right hand grab. |
| High Jump | If you are far away from Laurence he will jump up high in the air and try to land on top of you which is an instant kill. |
| Three fist pound | Laurence pounds his right and left fists quickly in succession into the ground and finishes of with a slow two handed first pound. All of these have splash damage, especially the last. Ensure you maintain proper distance You can roll through the first ones with good timing but best practice is just to back off as soon as you see them coming. Counter: After Laurence has finished with the double fist whammy you have a perfect opportunity to put in some hard hits to his head. If he has received enough damage to his head his skull will crack allowing you to perform a visceral attack. |
| Back swipe | If you are behind Laurence he will perform a back swipe with his right hand and may follow up with a swipe with his left hand. These can be rolled through if you get the timing down. |
| Four hand arm swipe |
Laurence will swipe with his right, left, right and left arm in front of him. |
| Four hand arm swipe with collapse (2:nd phase only) |
Similar to the the four hand arm swipe above but instead of the finishing swipe Laurence collapses forward, flails around with his arms and collapses once again. |
| One hand arm swipe (1:st phase only?) |
Laurence screeches and swipes one of his arms, might be followed up with a swipe with the other arm. |
| Dash (2:nd phase only) |
Laurence backs off into a corner and locks onto you and starts to run against you. After some time he will jump and swipe against you. If he connects this swipe it will shave off a lot of your health. |
| Forward jump (2:nd phase only) |
Laurence performs a forward jump and tries to flatten you. |
Moveset without legs (crawling) 3:rd phase
| Attack Name | Attack Description & Counter |
|---|---|
| Crawling Pound Rush | Crawls towards you, pounding the ground with his hands, alternating with each slam. Left, right, repeat. He delays the last left hand pound slightly. This attack can start at any range but mostly if you are far away from boss. You can outrun him if you have the space. He tracks poorly so circling clockwise helps if he gets too close. |
| Right Hand Swipe | Swipes with his skinny right hand and gives an enormous opening. You can hit him 5 times or more for free. |
| Left Hand Smash | Punches the ground creating a small AoE blast. Heavily telegraphed and easy to dodge. Hit the hand after the explosion. |
| Left Hand Swipe (+ Left Hand Swipe) | Swipes with left hand either normally or does a wide horizontal hook. Can perform series of swipe - pause - hook. Best not to try to attack, back up or quickstep. |
| Lava Spit | Spits lava at you that stays on the ground for a while. Dodge behind him and swing away. |
| Lava Charge | Charges at you, leaving a trail of lava behind him. Either stop locking on and run away, or stand close to him and strafe left or right, which causes you to manipulate his movement and force him to run around you in a circle. |
Notes & Trivia
- He seems to be weakest to Physical, then Arcane, then Bolt (the difference isn't huge though) and very resistant to fire.
- Beasts have been strung up and put to the torch all over Yarnham, which suggests that possibly Laurence met the same fate when he came to turn.
- It could be that he resides in the nightmare trapped and smoldering, much like the blood drunk hunters who are trapped hunting.
- Laurence was the first Cleric Beast ever, as according to Laurence's Skull.
- Beast Laurence was destined to reunite with his human skull, but it's unknown if he attacks out of rage or despair or simple mindless aggression.
Gallery
Anonymousstill genuinely one of the best boss themes in video game history holy ****
- Anonymous
Miserable fight. 4 years after beating him and I still think this is dogshit, lazy, asset flip garbage with totally artificial difficulty. DLC is lucky its got the Ludwig fight because this is not it.
- Anonymous
WHY DO ****ING SOULS BOSSES GETS HARDER WHEN THEY GIVE YOU A HANDICAP!?
Which boss theme do you think is better. Upvote for Laurence, down vote for Ludwig
- Anonymous
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
- Anonymous
I don't mean this to be rude or anything, but have you tried....not getting hit....i'
m not joking, like this is one of the few boss fights That I can kill with out getting hit......like....move out of the way for attacks....and stop tanking them.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
By mistake I made the dlc in ng+ for the first time. Laurence took me about 15 tries, too much energy, but the third phase done on the second try, strangely simple.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
took me 2 tries to realize i needed to stop trying to chargeg attack during third phase, put on some fire resistant armor, and beat him 3rd try
- Anonymous
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- Anonymous
I would be completely fine with this boss if you didn’t have to fight him in a tiny room and if you didn’t have to run through 20 ****ing enemies each time you died
- Anonymous
This boss might be a trainwreck in terms of gameplay, but the ost is so good that I can't say he is a terrible boss
- Anonymous
MLGS does wonders on him, projectile lets you visceral even, torintrus also works but torintrus works on every boss
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
***** of a boss to STR users not using H Axe or Pizza Cutter. I cleared him 4th attempt with Skill Main(BeastHunter Saif R1 too clutch). But the patience u need to land a heavy's r1, hooo, takes more skill than a SKILL user. Moonlight is terrible because the sword swingspeed, ur best bet is landing raw L2s and roll.
Also don't lock in this boss, play og Monster Hunter style, his lock-on points are garbage. Roll is much more forgiving than frame perfect dashes needed to dodge his unexpected 4hit/5hit combo
- Anonymous
Play unlocked and start rolling his attacks instead of dashing. For me this helped tremendously in defeating him.
- Anonymous
How's he on fire? Doesn't it hurt?
The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts
- Anonymous
We are born with the blood,
Made men by the blood,
Undone by the blood
Fear the old blood.
-master willem
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This is the actual hardest boss for me, Living Failures and Maria are mad easy, Ludwig and Orphan while really hard clicked with me at some point and dont bring me much trouble anymore but this mf is on another level
- Anonymous
the theme slaps. And if you saw the official lyrics the theme is even better.
And becease it is so great everytime i hear or see the word "saguine" being used i now automatically say "sanctum" after it, to reference this banging theme.
- Anonymous
i need help please as im on NG+4 and am level 356 and cant win lmao ive already tried 30 times and have faled every attempt please help
:(
- Anonymous
Laurence is a positioning based boss in a game that has spent its entire runtime beating the positioning out of you. Hence why so many people dislike him, as you basically have to change your whole playstyle to beat him. I personally really like him, but I’m not sure if he should have been in this particular game. (He’s 100% fair tho)
- Anonymous
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- Anonymous
3rd phase is such a *****, hard time finding openings, also one step in the wrong direction (thanks camera) is enough to get stunlocked by lava, which in turn is enough to let him get two hits, which is enough for you to die after you clobbered him for whats feels like hours just to get him to that state.
Quite disheartening.
- Anonymous
After finally beating the DLC i can safely say i found both Ludwig and Laurence harder than Orphan of Kos. I think i spent almost the same time fighting the latter as the rest of the DLC combined, Maria took 3 tries. At least those human sized bosses you can actually see and thus read most of the time, while with the L brothers you struggle with camera most of all... Can't count the times the screen suddenly turned to a hairy mess just to be two shot by some swingers i literally didn't see coming. And don't even get me started on the perma-stunlocking lava. Even when i beat him on my nth try i felt like RNG was just kind to me, whereas after each attempt at OoK i had learned new aspects of his moveset, making the encounter hard but satisfying overall.
Tl;dr: Laurence sucks. Imho.
- Anonymous
Ludwig vs Laurence in a 2 round twerk-off. Who wins? Second round is with baby oil but Laurence breaks in half (his butt keeps twerking regardless).
- Anonymous
After watching a guide by looks Jr I've come to appreciate this boss a lot more, it's a lot more rhythmic than I took it for. Not hard at all.
- Anonymous
Wouldn't say that he's just an awful boss, I think he's an alright boss with a lot of design flaws. First, his camera. The camera in this fight often is horrendous, making it harder to dodge, due to the small arena. This wasnt an issue with the OG beast, since I feel like it wasn't AS aggressive as Laurence and definitely didn't 2hit kill you or one shot you with counter damage. Rally is also literally useless against this guy, since he just won't stop attacking and you're likely to loose more hp instead of getting some back.second, AOEs are a cheap way to make a fight harder and I personally don't like that. Third, his HP and damage are just bumped up too high. It feels like the soul of cinder where I feel like it should have more hp and damage, just reversed. Him loosing his legs and meeting Laurence in the first place is really cool, but other than that he just feels like a massive middle finger right to the face. Thank God he's optional.
- Anonymous
BY FAR the hardest boss in the entire game. Especially on NG+. My lord, have mercy.
- Anonymous
I was able to finally beat him. Equip your best fire resistance stuff. I always killed the big guy at the gate because he drops 6 healing potions and thats useful if you dont want to farm it elsewhere (first heal up and then pick it up so you still have maximum) then summoned the NPC Valtr. The first 2 phases are quite doable with him, just let him tank it, get behind the firey motherfu*cker and keep doing charged attacks. If you can get to the 3rd phase with 15 potions you are good. Valtr usualy dies pretty quickly in that phase so you dont have much time. Keep using bolt paper in this phase and beat the sh*t out of that a**hole. If you are fast you will take 90% of his HP before Valtr dies and then its the hardest part where you should run away from him to trigger the puke attack - you need to learn his headshake - when he starts doing it just sprint from your left side, get a hit or two, retreat, heal up. If you are feeling brave you can also stay close to him for longer and hope that he will start the circling motion where you can hit him once he finishes. But always have the bolt paper applied in the last phase because you need to improve your dmg output. Good luck hunters.
- Anonymous
This could be a funny bossfight but they fu*ked it up by giving him ridiculous amount of HP.
- Anonymous
This is my personal hardest boss in Bloodborne, possibly souls as a whole, and I have no idea why. On each replay I'm far more terrified of Kos or Ludwig, but end up being taken from behind the hardest by this guy. It's like, I know his moves and tells better than my own name, you could wake me up in the middle of the night and I could still recite the objectively optimal way of reacting to literally anything he's capable of doing. Yet, I'm still incapable of beating him anywhere near consistently. I don't know what makes Laurence so hard execution-wise, but if a gun was pointed at my head and I was told to kill all From Software bosses without dying, I'd be the most afraid of this guy.
- Anonymous
Hardest boss in the game. I beat Orphan of Kos 2nd try, Laurence took me so many attempts I lost count and had his theme song running in my head for a month. Good luck everyone.
- Anonymous
When you know what to do, this boss is not that hard, unlike Kos. And the plan is rather simple:
Weapon - Whirligig Saw (2-handed)
phase 1 - dodge big hand hits to your right, stick to his back (try to just run to it from side, not roll, if he just tries to rotate himself to you), there will be plenty of time to do even charged R2's.
phase 2 - same tactics, try to do damage as fast as possible while rolling around (this tactics works well for me versus aggressive boss phases, Kos 3rd phase is the same)
phase 3 - roll back out of his combo-wombo, otherwise stick to his (left) side and do single hits while dodging his single swings.
NG+/165 lvl
- Anonymous
Don't let you fool by the comment concerning the summoning of Valtr. The fighrt is much easier with him if ypu can't summon a good player to help you
- Anonymous
I remember my first victory against him. In the second phase I ran around the edge of the arena 99% of the time and waited for him to do that one big swipe so I could get a running r2 with a transformed saw spear before fleeing again. A lot of the times when I ran past him he’d hit me with a swipe but I had all extra blood vial runes equipped so I just tanked it. Can’t imagine how long it must’ve taken to kill him.
- Anonymous
Ludwig took me 20 attempts to kill. YAAAOOWWW about 30. This ******* however, took me 3 months and +1000 attempts to kill. I much rather face Midir, Ludwig and Malenia back-to-back than fight this pathetic excuse of a boss once
- Anonymous
A genuinely great fight on a first play through becomes a chore on later ng+ cycles. Simply put, his damage scaling is utterly overturned, and at ng+7 he can one shot characters with 99 vigor, a feat almost no other boss can achieve without counter damage. It’s a damn shame as well, the music is arguable the best in the series, the opening cutscene breathes an enormous amount of personality into the beast, his second phase is shocking and tragic, and lore wise, he’s arguably the most important character in the game, but they simply overdid his damage.
- Anonymous
It's so painful to get One- shoted by him in all his phases. It's pure pain in phase 2 obviously.
- Anonymous
As a bloodborne newbie I actually managed to beat him on first try completely unprepared. Was checking wheather i havent missed some items and sudenly a cutscene... Transformed HLB +10 and it was just an endurance battle.
Few tips, keep your distance, read his attacks, aply hit and run tactic and try to bait his three hit hand combo, after last swipe there is enough time to close distance and get a hit in.
For lava phase, basicly the same, keep your distance, try to bait lava vomit and just circle to your left getting free hits on him. Dont get greedy and dont get cornered! Happy hunting!
- Anonymous
God this boss fight sucked, he's just a recicled boss with more hit points and damage, and ****ing fire. I just got out of fighting the orphan and Laurence took my remaining braincells. At least I got the Beast's Rememberance so I don't have to do this boss ever again.
- Anonymous
Hello, can anyone tell me if im overleveled?? So basically i wanted to check everything before dlc as i supposed it'll be a nightmatre. Im currently level 110 after chalice dungeons (i spend like 3/4 of souls gained from them for consumables lol) and i beat Laurence and Ludwig both 1st try. I feel kinda empty even tho they were awesome bosses?
- Anonymous
By far my favorite boss in the whole game. Should have been the final boss after Orphan; especially when viewed from a story perspective.
I just love this guy so much.
- Anonymous
When I first played through BB i thought this phase 3 was the worst boss I've ever fought. In the past year or so I've replayed through DS1-3, ER and BB. Coming back with a fresh perspective, I have to say this is by far the worst boss. Just ridiculous. I guess just stay to his left (little arm side) and hopefully you can him to keep doing his stampede. Don't worry if Valdr interrupts, Valdr dies pretty fast in this phase. Don't get caught between the lava and a wall
- Anonymous
I don’t understand why people hate Laurence so much, sure he’s tough but he’s not unfa-
*legsplosion*
Oh. I understand now.
- Anonymous
This guys NG+ cycles are pure insanity. I think they cranked his health way too much
- Anonymous
Whirligig Saw +10 with Bolt Paper on a STR build absolutely shreds this sorry Vicar with ease, took me one try after three failed attempts with Amygaldan Arm +10. FYI I have 35 STR.
Be sure to keep it in the transformed state at all times for the Serrated damage bonus (+20&% damage vs. Beasts with Serrated weapons).
- Anonymous
Missing info: during his final phase, he gains the ability to attack your framerate directly
- Anonymous
When I finally beat him after some 15-20 tries my heart was beating extremly fast. The thrill of victory overcame all the frustration.
- Anonymous
What is it about this dude’s three hit swiping combo that kills me so often?? Every other attack I can deal with but that stupid combo just for some reason, always gets me. I think the camera angle doesn’t help where it angles so you can’t see him rev up an attack often until it’s too late
- Anonymous
I like how the cutscene before fighting him makes it look like he drunk off of something with him holding his head like "I had too much blood last night".
- Anonymous
I love that Miyazaki read all our compliments about the Watchdog of the Old Lords and thought "I'll put another 20,000 hp, one shot boss in the game, they'll love this!!"
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
got tips for the 2nd phase.
-stay near his right arm ( the smaller one ) and walk in a circle around him.
- For the left swipe dodge in to the attack
- for the Crawling Pound Rush circle clockwise,If he does 3 pounds he will do a left swipe (same with Left Hand Smash) any more than that he will not.
- ONLY ATTACK HIM 1 to 3 times, It will take a long time but be patient. ( the next list will have how many times you can attack him for each attack, tested with the MLGS)
-Crawling Pound Rush(3 pounds):2 to 3
-Crawling Pound Rush: 2 to 5 ( being his most valuable move)
-Left Hand Swipe:1
-Left Hand Smash:1
- Lava Spit: 1 to 3
-Right Hand Swipe: 2 to 3
-Lava ****: 0 to 1
The key think is don't get greedy,no summons,and listen to the music. I hope this can help you.
- Anonymous
I guess I am the only one who found the boss to be good. Wasn’t anything amazing like Ludwig or Gehrman sure, but still a decent boss. Don’t get the hate at all.
- Anonymous
Bonemarrow ashing your gun and spraying him in the final phase is a good way to shorten the most dangerous part of the fight.
- Anonymous
Same as others, wasn't too difficult for me, but this is one fight where even a npc summon does make a difference and it's well worth the penalty for his health.
In its final phase, 1v1 it's really difficult to find an opening to even hit him. Having a npc summon so he can focus on someone else than yourself, makes the final phase a lot easier as it will provide a lot more opening.
- Anonymous
“laurence don’t do the thing”
>laurence then proceeds to do said thing
- Anonymous
I really beat him first try with a str/arc build using the saw cleaver and ACB, wasn't even too much of an issue, when I finally beat him I was almost disappointed, having heard he was the freak. I still had a really hard time getting good at fighting the Orphan
- Anonymous
Darkeater Midir (from DS3) makes all these bosses look like a picnic
- Anonymous
35 vitality, runes and attite for a total of 450 fire defense and he's doable. It's a hard fight but it's fair. Ludwig was much more frustrating for me
- Anonymous
I struggle with laurence just as anyone else, but i just want to say that his dive attack is the most bs attack in the history of games maybe ever
- Anonymous
Only boss I went out of my way to summon for, and I don't even feel that bad about it. Dude hits harder than a train made of hydrogen bombs...
- Anonymous
Summoning Valtr or anyone online helps a lot i almost killed him 4th try alone and npc/fellow hunter helps a lot, got it my first try after that
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This boss is the only time in any souls game where I had to put down the controller and go watch some **** to calm down before I had an aneurysm.
- Anonymous
Maybe it's because I love Bloodtinge builds, but he honestly wasn't too difficult for me. I used the Chikage and a Beast Blood Pellet for phases one and two, and then I pulled out the Bowblade in phase three, making sure to wait for and opening, and then shooting a charge shot, and once he was one the brink of death, I spammed R1 shots until he died, first try. He's literally just Cleric Beast with explosion hitboxes, so while spacing for attacks, just imagine the hitboxes are Cleric Beast's, but twice as big. Hope any of this helps hunter, may the good blood guide your way!
- Anonymous
This dude made me shake uncontrollably for half an hour straight lmao
- Anonymous
How the **** are you supposed to beat a boss that two shots you and has an exploding arm
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
The only thing i can suggest is to really be up close and personal. I’d attack, then dodge into him as close as i can be when healing. Just be patient and aggressive but don’t get greedy. He hits like a truck
- Anonymous
Although I do find this fight to be both very frustrating and difficult, given the choice between this and Vicar Amelia, I'd pick Laurence in a heartbeat.
- Anonymous
This bastard he not that hard He just hit like a fuking truck sometime his big fapping arms can easily.deleted 90% of my hp and he has a so so much HP but there more! If you fcking dead(Yes you will) You will walk all the way back to him. 2 Hunter , 1 rolling ball and 1 Fcking giant with an axe
Yep I love this game
- Anonymous
This guy gave me way more grief than anybody. Here are some tips fellow Hunter.
Charred Hunter garb, cannon or high damage gun.
Dodge into the arm be is attacking with. If he's swinging his huge right arm, dodge towards your right and through it. Alternate the direction of the dodge when he swings his weak arm. Always try to get behind him to get some hits in. If you need to heal roll away and get some distance, he's not too fast. If you can stagger some of his limbs he will go down, even if you're behind him you can get in front for a high damage visceral attack.
The final phase is not as hard as it seems. Keep a short-medium distance to bait his arm swings. The weak arm swing especially leaves him open to a few free hits then back off and repeat. If he spits blood run around it from the side towards his weak arm and you can get a few hits in before backing up again. Use your cannon or gun when he does a swing that is harder to punish. Good luck Hunter.
- Anonymous
the huge ass hitpoints, damage and the hitbox of watchdog + cleric beast = this thing
- Anonymous
Master Slayem, I've come to bid you farewell.
Oh, I know, I know. You think now to yassify me.
No, but you will never listen. I tell you, I will not forget out yassage.
We are born of the RuPaul's Drag Race Superstar. Our queens yet to slay...
Press the old slay button.
Press the old slay button.
I must take my leave.
By the gods, press it, Yassence.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
y'know I am actually thankful that Laurence exists because he is so ****ing unfun that he actually makes all the crap fights like rom funner SOLEY because its not Laurence
so thank you Laurence you screeching flaming pile of cancer
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I never write on these wikis despite having played half of the soulsbourne games, and I just want to say this boss is utterbullshit, so much ****ing he in NG+ and so much damage for no ****ing reason, it's not hard it's just this boss is so artificially difficult by sheer stats it's so ****ing annoying. Kos, Ludwig and Maria are so fun but this guy makes me punch the monitor. And the fact every slight fire and lava he emits staggers u Is so utter bullshit. Died about 50 times now I guess against this guy on NG+. Other enemies or areas have never even gotten me to half of that count. You can go **** yourself Laurence
- Anonymous
**** this ****ing boss. Last phase has literally no openings to attack. Pretty much the only way to beat it is to summon both a good player and Valtr, then hope they won't die before the last phase. If either dies, might as well restart the fight because if the boss decides to target you, you cannot deal any damage. Not even the Moonlight greatsword has enough range to stay safe from his bs moveset.
- Anonymous
I think this and the depth 5 chalices are the only case of artificial difficulty in bloodborne
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
He wasn’t so hard at all. Ok first Playthrough and 14 deaths but his attacks are predictable and after playing passiv it was very easy to dodge his attacks. But in the end I was to greedy xd and died 7 times in the end.
- Anonymous
Garbage. Just not funLudwig and Kos were difficult but fun. But this man is way to difficult
- Anonymous
hey guys lets represent the most important character in the lore as a cleric beast clone ~ Jim from accounting
- Anonymous
Today I learned that Laurence can grab and toss BOTH you and a summoned helper at the same time. was this a known fact? can all bosses do this? I thought it was pretty insane.
- Anonymous
This ****er has more health than Midir and Ancient Dragon holy ****.
- Anonymous
I've beaten this guy two times, but I just finished my NG+++ without beating him. I don't know if it just got that much harder or I got lucky the first two times, but Jesus ****ing Christ. I didn't even manage to get him to half HP, and this mother***er was taking out 75% of mine with one arm swing. Orphan of Kos is a cakewalk compared to this guy, I think.
- Anonymous
After so many attempts, lost blood vials, close victories met with a panicked death, I finally managed to beat this guy. I had a +6 Whirligig Saw with focus on damage and rally potential (had the Guidance rune too so I just regained health quick when I hit him). Good lord did it feel so satisfying. I was shaking so badly and thought I was gonna fall onto my couch lol. All that’s left is to beat the Orphan of Kos, then I’m off to get the platinum trophy. I’m not thrilled for that fight though, and I need to grind up some blood vials for a while, but I will overcome this challenge.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I just think he’s neat
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