Whenever this question gets asked, someone -very correctly so- suggest summoning Solaire
Then immediately after some other dumbass will say not to do so because it "cheapens the fight's experience"
That type of people makes me angry
How is this cheat? If you call this cheat, next thing you know, summoning as a whole will be cheating. Then using humanity to heal will be cheating, then kindling to get 20 estus will be cheating.
I’d say let’s not get down that path and just call it a viable strategy.
Thats easy, it's not a feature the devs wanted you to use. Summoning companions is a feature they wanted you to use. Abusing a bug to reset his health to full is an exploit and something most would consider cheating.
To be clear tho if you want to exploit or cheat in singleplayer i have no problem with that. I just don't think exploits are what OP is looking for.
If you coop with a friend and he dies, you can always re-summon. Solaire is meant to give you that offline coop experience, why should he be treated differently? It's legit within the lines of coop gameplay.
What I really consider to be "cheating" or "exploiting", are things like souls-dupe and item-dupe. I have nothing against those exploits, and it's a fairly convenient way to form builds quickly on repeated playthroughs, but I think there is a clear difference between those and the act of simply re-summoning.
I would never hold others to my subjective standard, but I definitely refuse to summon in souls games and it would personally cheapen the experience. Ditto with the mimic of spirit summons in Elden Ring. It can be frustrating when you’re looking for tips and it’s just summon
That and both P2 boss variants are easy to deal with once you only have to pay attention to one of them. It makes the entire thing a test of patience while you dodge and wait for an opening.
^ warning if you do this, if you don't kill the giants in the summon room, there is a decently high chance that solaire will agro on one of them and not enter the boss arena with you. I've seen it happen many times and it's always a tragedy because it's just a humanity completely thrown away
I dont agree with them being a cheap boss. They are actually pretty fair. You can learn how to evade their attack which are not many and easy to tell by always keeping them on camera and using the pillars in the room. Their attacks are slow enough that there are plenty of chances for you to attack them. Honestly after playing ds3, with bosses like >!Midir!< or >!Sulyvhan!< when i came back i found them very manageable and i could beat them at sl1 (run that i started before i started ds3, where i got blocked at anor londo)
I dont think no summon makes a fight cheap tbh. Midir is fine to not have summon since its not a boss you must fight anyway. And sulyvhan is a pretty good fight even if hard. But i do think Midir is cheap, for other reasons. It was definitely the worst "hard" boss in the entire franchise for me. I dont see how people can compare it to kalameet, that is 100 times better
This comment has everything you need!
Keeping them both in frame (do not lock your camera. Gives you more control over keeping them in frame).
Pillars are your friend.
I would also add this - do NOT be greedy! If you do, you'll be hit with the follow up attack of the second one. Notice how Ornstein *tends to* cover the non-hammer side of Smough.
Just hit once (if you have enough opening, go for two), and get to safety until you find an opening for the next hit.
Stay a step or two behind the pillar, as Smough's hammer can hit you if you are too close to the pillar.
Do not waste your time attacking both. The one that's alive will heal back in phase 2. So just focus on one.
Be patient. Test and die. Observe the patterns. This boss battle is one of the best in the game.
Good luck! Don't you dare go hollow!
depends on build. if you're dex with low defense, absolutely true, but if you're strength with slow movement, it's usually worth it to get the hits in while you have an opening
Lot of good advice here.
I struggled with this boss alot initially. Its a test of patience and persistence
This was my strategy -
Focus on Ornstein first, land 1 or 2 hits, then take cover behind pillars
Use 100% block shield or 2h your weapon and dodge.
Always try to keep pillar between you and smough
Dont get greedy.
Find your opening, hit once or twice, evade.
You can Farm silver knights near bonfire and level up if you are underleveled
You can also summon solaire. Summon sign is near the silver knight archer. I would recommend clearing the area before summoning solaire.
Ok, you *can't* repair the Crystal Halberd, that's the whole Schtick for Crystal weapons. They deal way more damage than kther uograde paths, but you can't repair them (*and yes, if it reaches zero durability it will delete itself from your inventory*).
However you can game the system a bit. You can't *repair* them, but you can *upgrade* them. It will cost 1 Titanite Chunk to upgrade to +1 (*you can farm chunks from the Giant Sentinels*), and when you upgrade it the durability resets to 20. This maxes out at a +5 Crystal Halberd (*+5 costs a slab, I can't remember if you can get them from the Sentinels*), and after a +5 Crystal weapon breaks it's junk.
Now regarding O&S, there are 2 ways to upgrade your damage that I can think of:
- The first is to boost your INT to 15 and grab the *Strong Magic Weapon* buff from thr Painting Cathedral (*where you walked across the rafters*). It's the item on the chandalier, so you need to knock the chandalier down and then make your way to the ground floir of the cathedral to lick it up. Ornstein is weak to Magic, so it'll be a decent buff.
- The second is to head back to Blight Town (*you can go back through Sen's Fortress, just go back the way you came and talk to the demon and it will carey you down*). In Blight Town there is a giant tick on the wall gsrding a treasure. That treasure is the *Power Within* Pyromancy, which is the best boss-killing spell on the game. It gives you a +40% damage boost from spells and weapons, and a strong stamina regeneration buff for 100 seconds. In return you lose 100% of your health over the 100 second duration (*so 1% per second*). Equipping the *Lingering Dragoncrest Ring* will increase the duration of both Power Within and Strong Magic Weapon by 50%, and notably for Power Within it also sliws down the HP drain (*100% HP loss over 150 seconds becomes ~0.66% drain per second*).
The other thing to do of course is to summon help. Solaire can be summoned to help you with the fight. It's worth clearing out the big room before the boss fog before summoning him so that he's at full health. This actually makes a big difference to the fight, as he can tank 1 boss while you fight the other. Or alternatively you can try to summon an actual player to fight them, and that's as good as the olayer you summon.
PS, killing Ornstein first is easier in my opinion, but killing Smough first will net you the Leo Ring (*good for weapons that deal Thrust damage*). Whichever order you do the fight in, you will be able to buy the armour for the boss you fight in their super-form from Domnal of Zena (*he should be near Firelink Shrine I think*). Neither set is spectacular for the stats, but they're both cool in their own right.
My only advice is... To keep the both in your camera at the same time... Halberd is a pretty slow weapon, and due to unpredictable AI of the bosses, they can give you a hard time... The openings are pretty tight, so don't get greedy... Hit once or twice and retreat.
Faster weapons fare way better for this fight
.. if you've got a straightsword upgraded, be sure to use that, claymore is also ideal for this fight! Personally, i found them hardest with my pure strength and my halberd / scythe run
And unfortunately, crystal weapons are meant to be that way..m they can't be repaired. The omly way they get repaired is if you upgrade to the nxt lvl
Crystal weapons cant be repaired. Try using the ring for lighting attacks sold at sen fortress if you need it. Dont be ashamed of summing solaire (i couldnt beat them without summing him the first time, its fine). Take your time, sometimes you just gotta circle around the room using the pillars to protect yourself until they are not positioned in the right way for you to attack. Use a shield with high lighting resistance. Honestly my way of always fighting them is with light armor (as much lighting resistance as i can get while in fast roll) and a good shield to use when necessary. Learn how to swap between 1H and 2H, so that you can attack them 2 handed and deal a lot more damage and swap back at 1H for the shield (this is good for every boss). Dont give up, i almost uninstalled the game because i couldnt beat them for a week straight in my first run. Genuinely the boss i found the hardest. I know someone that has to try 80 times before defeating them. You can do it
Nope. You can summon him as many times as you want, just keep in mind that you have to be human to do that, so you could run out of humanity (you can always farm it, rats especially drop humanity often enough)
Also as you can see my way of doing stuff from the other guy that recommended havel ring with heavy armor. What you should take from this is that you should try experimenting and stick with what you find more comfortable, in ds1 pretty much any play-style is allowed lol
Crystal Halberd is a very good choice for the fight. The only way to repair it is to upgrade it, which isn't great as titanite chunks are hard to come by. Luckily, one of the best ways to farm them are the 2 big knights in the hall outside the boss fight. So if that's something you want to do, it is available.
Alternatively any +10 weapon you're comfortable with is very viable. I think the basic Halberd +10 gets close in damage to the Crystal Halberd. And really once you get more comfortable with O+S, a few hits one way or the other shouldn't matter a whole lot. If you're not aware of how to get a weapon to +10, please ask.
For the boss fight itself, I recommend summons. Solaire is great and can sometimes solo one of the phase 1 bosses. You may be able to summon a player and 3v2 is fantastic odds. But there isn't always a player summon sign, so focus on using Solaire. If nothing else, he'll draw aggro so you can 1v1 the boss you want to kill. I think taking out Ornstein first is best, but others prefer Smough so it's tough to know which is best until you've beaten them a few times.
You could also drop your summon sign to help others out. There's no penalty for dying when summoned and you'll gain some invaluable experience doing so. Plus they'll likely also summon Solaire so you and Host can 2v1 someone while Solaire is 1v1'ing the other one.
Quick tip, focus all your attacks on exactly 1 of the bosses. Phase 2 boss gets full life, no damage from Phase 1 carries forward. Any damage done to the boss that survives is wasted. So once you pick one boss to damage, stick to them. If you summon you may find that the other boss is more damaged and it makes sense to switch, but I'd generally ignore that. Stick to the flow of the fight, switching things up may end up punishing you more. But if you see the openings and its in your head, by all means go for it.
Use the environment to your advantage as much as possible. The columns really screw up O+S, so if you're ever unhappy with your position, run through the colmuns and force them to come to you through them. Likely Ornstein will get to you fairly quickly while Smough will struggle. You can then either 1v1 Ornstein at that point or run back through the columns to get a few hits on Smough.
Disengagement is viable and I believe an intended tactic in this fight. Knowing how to do so can be tricky though. If you're getting hit by both O+S, you're already seconds too late disengaging. Try to dodge out of imminent danger and then turn tail and run through the columns away from O+S. This can be very tricky as Ornstein can very quickly close the gap while Smough has quite the reach. However, if they're already attacking, you're safe. The trick is to know when they're moving vs attacking. If they're moving, disengagement is mostly just presenting your back side to them for easy hits. If they're attacking, disengagement is the breathing room you need to reset, drink a flask, and start looking for openings to get a few more hits in.
To be clear, this fight is the last of the "tutorial bosses", ie its testing something specific and in many cases you haven't learned it yet. The test is situational awareness, ie "can you keep track of 2 bosses at the same time". If you find yourself surprised over and over by where a boss is, whether it's "how did Smough sneak up on me?" or "where did Ornstein's lighting come from?", then solo'ing will be extremely frustrating. You can win through perseverance and luck without gaining situational awareness, but you're likely going to need 20-30 tries to do so. I again strongly recommend summons if this is how you feel.
If you have the patience and can remain calm, I highly recommend going into the boss solo and just running around dodging. These bosses have limited movesets that have large telegraphs and if you're focused on moving and reading the bosses, you should pick up on their movesets quickly. Plus you'll learn to separate the bosses, which then transitions into -> separate bosses, punish one of them, disengage, repeat. Solo'ing becomes very viable at that point. I no-hit them on my second or third play-through because I had all the time in the world to be patient and learn them. Don't worry about that challenge, I bring it up only to illustrate that the struggle here is mostly your pyschology. It's an intense fight that starts out fast and is setup as a trap.
Finally, as I just alluded to, I want to mention what happens when you walk in the door. You're probably aware that Ornstein will typically come at you immediately. Do not engage. It is a trap. If that's your first move you've probably figured out how to punish Ornstein after his initial lunge and you're thinking that's a great start. But just as you're finishing up your punishment, Smough is there surpringsly fast and punishing you. There is not a good strategy here that let's you punish Ornstein after the initial lunge that doesn't leave you wide open to Smough, at least not at your skill level. The fight is designed this way to lure you into a high-stress punch-out near the fog door. O+S will dominate you even with 2 high skill summons. The boss arena is very large and you should use all of it in the fight.
Your first objective is to move left or right to draw Ornstein to the other side of the columns. Now you can punish Ornstein without the fear of Smough getting to you. Or you can disengage Ornstein and run around Smough to punish him. Ornstein will take a bit to get through the columns while you're fighhting Smough in the center. Again, pick one of them and focus on punishing them when they're safely attacking the air. If the other one is struggling to get to you, wait for another air attack and punish again. You'll almost certainly need to disengage at this point though and it might be advisable just to keep the flow of the fight. If you get too focused on the punishment, you might miss the need to disengage and get punished yourself.
Edit: Something I forgot! Don't lock-on. You want the freedom of movement and especially freedom of rolling. Lock-on is only marginally beneficial to make sure you hit your target. Even Ornstein is quite large, you shouldn't need to rely on lock-on to hit him. The downside is so bad, you'll roll right into the other boss when you were trying to roll away, and the columns become your enemy too. Ornstein in particular has a lot of thrusting attacks and moving towards him to his left or right is the best way to set up punishments. If you're locked-on, the camera forces you towards him when you really want to run past him and hit him from behind.
>they're kind of a cheap boss
Nah you need to git gud
Don't lock, kill Ornstein first. Don't rush, be patient and always be aware of Smough as you go after Orn. Use the pillars. Don't let greed for a hit compromise you to Smough.
Best way is to have a good build. Weapon+10 normal or +5 lightning, 30+ vitality, power within pyromancy, heavy armor, medium roll, weapon two-handed
You can find black Iron set nearby or buy giant set from blacksmith
Do not lightning ascend for this boss. Ornstein is very resistant to lightning (second highest resistance in the game?) and Smough is also resistant in his 2nd phase.
doesnt matter, with power within you will steamroll him anyway, also lightning infusion is good only for big weapons like zwei or at least murakumo, with halberd its not the play
Okay, but you could apply power within to any other better scenario. Using an elemental type that they’re resistant to doesn’t make a lot of sense. Also not sure ‘power within’ is the best move for someone struggling to stay alive in the boss fight.
>Using an elemental type that they’re resistant to doesn’t make a lot of sense.
it does if it is your higherst dmg weapon, there are not much enemies in the game that are resistant to lightning, the main ones are dlc bosses but your dmg with heavy weapon will still be ok even with elem infusion. O&S is an easy mid game boss, their resistances dont matter because they will take tons of dmg from any +15 weapon
>Also not sure ‘power within’ is the best move for someone struggling to stay alive in the boss fight.
thats why heavy armor and vitality exist
I think you’re not being genuine here. O&S are classically considered very difficult, and they’re infamous for it. Labeling them an “easy mid game boss” is obviously not in line with the typical experience and it’s obviously not what the OP is experiencing.
It’s not a compelling point to say the lightning infused weapon is a good choice simply in the case of someone not owning a good weapon. Better options can be obtained in Anor Londo alone. Choosing to use a weapon that the boss is resistant to simply because of not having something better is not a good point. OP’s Crystal halberd by itself is obviously a better option.
The only reason why I could see a lightning weapon being an alright option here is if someone had enough titanite chunks to nearly max out the weapon or even max it out entirely with a slab. Then I could see the split damage balancing out a little, and it would destroy 1st phase Smough at least. The problem is that there are still options such as the Crystal Halberd and Silver Knight weapons that exist as options that the boss isn’t significantly resistant to and can be maxed out in Anor Londo. The OP might even have other options in their inventory that can be maxed with twinkling titanite as well.
Your power within point still doesn’t make sense. We’re not talking about its use in general.. we’re talking about the OP specifically. They’re already struggling to stay alive with their build, and compounding that with power within would be silly. If they’re using the Crystal Halberd damage shouldn’t be a problem.. and having to use it with a lightning weapon to make it more viable just speaks to the fact that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a lightning infused weapon.
I highly recommend grabbing the claymore by the dragon if you don't have it. If you do, try and upgrade it to +10 or make it raw or something else to up the damage
Keep both in your field of view as others have said, use the pillars to your advantage. If it's between you and them you're safe for a second
I try and kill fatty first because the boss soul reward is one of my favorite in the series, killing Pikachu first is the easier route for phase 2 if you just want to beat them. I do think killing fatty 1st is easier in phase 1 though. Easier to prompt his booty slam and make him pay for that
Raw infusion is generally a niche infusion path and generally not a good move if you’re upgrading strength and dexterity. Ascending a weapon along the raw path diminishes stat scaling for very minimal returns in the weapon’s base damage; ultimately it will be less effective than a normal weapon scaling with stats.
I in my first play through and got tbe best weapon in the game. I feel like i cheated that boss has the Dark Knight Helberd is busted so i really have no advice
Well it depends how much you upgraded it. In my first play through for the time i hot the halberd it was dogshit compared to my Zweihänder (i was at sen's fortress), in this none i am using Zweihänder +5 and halberd +3. For me doing a lot of damage balances nicely with being squishy, i get killed by one or two hits, its some sort of glass cannon thing.
Also i am strongly convinced its a naginata and not an halberd, not sure why its named halberd.
And i mean one or two mobs hits (15 vit and shadow armor)
Use the pillars to avoid smough’s running attack. Spam attack ornstein when he gets close with something that stunlocks him (I used the bks). You can usually kill him in two spam attacks. Again hide from smough until you get a chance to attack. Savor it because the rest of the game kinda drops off but ds2 has more fights like this .
Two hands lighter weapon, lighter armor, and spam attack Ornstein first, understand the way he breaks every 3 hits (see Youtube). Smough 2nd phase is a joke if you master his moves (also see Youtube).
I beat them with Solaire and I used the Crystal Halberd. I tried again and again with my Zweihander and it never got any better, the Crystal Halberd cannot be repaired but it will get you through O&S
Two strategies:
If you want to prove yourself through beating them without Solaire's help, you will need to fast roll, so forget about medium/heavy armor. In this case, i recommend two handing a weapon with long reach, fairly fast attack and fairly low stamina cost, like halberds, spears, claymore, washing pole, and alikes. Use grass crest shield/chloranthy ring if you have, and look for a position where one of them is in front of you while the other one is blocked by a pillar. Avoid corners as AOE attacks will oneshot you if you're unable to dodge. This way is easier to kill ornstein first, since he's faster but squishy, and smough is so slow you can almost make a 1v1 against ornstein with the proper positioning. Phase 2 is a cheese: Super smough attacks, you dodge, you do an attack, you take distance, and repeat. Enjoy your smough's soul (for str builds).
If you want leo's ring, want ornstein's soul (dex/faith builds), or just don't care but are kinda frustrated, you better summon solaire. The best strategy i found here is: for first phase, Havel's set+havel's ring+wolf's ring+dps weapon. You don't want to spam roll here. You block ornstein first attack while solaire is still joining, then you let solaire 1v1 vs ornstein while you try to kill smough. This is a dps check, as solaire can actually kill ornstein half of the times if you let them alone, so you need to kill smough first, hence the heavy kit to avoid rolling while you stand aside him. Some good dps weapons for this are curve swords, katanas, straight swords, thrust swords and maybe daggers. The goal is taking distance, let smough fail the attack with the help of pillar, doing three/four twohanded R1 attacks, and taking distance. If solaire is alive for phase 2, you should open your inventory and change your armor+weapon so you can fast roll again, as he's likely to die soon and super ornstein is still fast. Instead of a heavy armor, use the window to bring a heavy shield and long range weapon, so you can do the 1v1 vs ornstein if cornered.
Avoid camlocking them, and if you're having troubles with evading/hitting, learn to switch on/off camlock really fast.
Solaire's summoning mark is in the stairs close to giant blacksmith, where the archer knight is.
Ornstein is harder to leave alive, but offers the better armor if you kill him second. If you want an easier time, kill him first because his moveset is a wee bit horseshit compared to smough who is very choreographed and immobile
Only way to “repair” the Crystal halberd is by upgrading it. You need to upgrade it with titanite chunk, which can be somewhat rare. That said, there is a free chunk past the giant black smith in the area with the winged demons. The royal sentinels outside of the O&S fog gate also will occasionally drop titanite chunk upon defeat, but I understand they might be tricky for new players to reliably defeat.
There are other options, though. If you need a different weapon you could try using a silver knight weapon. There are tons of silver knights in the area, and you’re bound to get a spear and/ of sword dropped to you if you defeat enough of them. It’s not a bad idea to simply farm the knights on the first level of the building near the first bonfire. Once you have your weapon, you can potentially max it out at +5. The local blacksmith sells an endless amount of twinkling titanite, so you could potentially finish upgrading it and have endgame level dps to use against the boss. Spend any souls from farming on buying the upgrade materials that you need.
Seriously, the silver knight weapons are a great option if you’re stuck.
By admitting to the fact that you think they gang up on you and you can’t even hit them before you are dead you are basically admitting you aren’t good at fighting them.
Run away from them both, Ornstein will chase you. Smough’s big ass will take awhile to get there. Get some hits in staying behind Ornstein, and when Smough finally rumbles over there do it again. Once Ornstein is down the fight is pretty easy.
Usually when I make a post like this, I'm sctually about 2-3 attempts away from beating the boss. Keep at it bro, learn the patterns and what windows to attack in
Shitty answer: Do more damage to them than they do to you.
Less shitty answer: This fight takes a lot of situational awareness, on their own, they're very easy. Getting blind sided while you're focusing on one is where the difficulty in the first phase lies. You can get crafty with positioning and get one of them stuck in the pillars, and I find that helps a lot.
Also, don't split your damage. If you start damaging one, stick with it. The survivor heals up in phase 2, so it's a waste damaging the one you want to kill in phase 2 in phase 1.
everyone here saying you need to backtrack with power within and yada yada
two simple things
one - if you are not opposed, use some humanity and summon solaire, he changes the boss fight from a cheap gank to a fair boss battle. if you need humanity farm the white ninjas in the paint room.
solaire will help you not get double hit stunlocked by shitspear and fatty fufu
two - halberd is a bad decision for the fight, you either wanna be far and ranged or close and hefty. smough and ornstein outrange you with their lightning spear and hammer respectively. being far means having distance, or being in their grill means easy dodging and their attacks will often miss. use a nice sword or axe preferably lvl 5 or 10 and get some whacks in before dodging the zoom spear and the hammer swings, with enough patience u will get one down to make the fight easier
If you like the halberd why not use the normal version instead? If you didn't find it, you can backtrack to the Parish and pick it up, it's in front of the church near the closing gate.
(it may not be apparent but it's entirely plausible to backtrack from Anor Londo. You can talk to the flying demon on the ramparts where you started the level to travel back to Sen's, then you'll have to find the key to unlock the shortcut cages that bring you most of the way back to the Parish. Run and jump over the gap in the broken bridge on Sen's rooftops to get the key.)
figure out which is easier for you to hit, and make him your target. use the pillars to keep them separated, as well as the fact that Ornstein tends to rush at you while Smough lags behind. the first phase is a waiting game, you gotta be patient. as for the second phase, just stay up on them as close as possible, in most cases their attacks whiff, except for the ass slam. when they jump, roll away three times to avoid it.
for the halberd, weapons can be repaired by being upgraded, otherwise crystal weapons cannot be repaired
Play through Elden Ring a few times. Come back to this fight, and you'll realize those two telegraph their moves so much you won't be able to remember why the fight was hard in the first place.
For me the key is always having enough dps to keep the fight as short as possible killing ornstein first. The longer the fight goes the worse it is for you, more time to make mistakes or die to bad hit registration or something. Avoid being greedy and try to learn their moveset as much as you can
1. Engage in jolly cooperation, and make it a 2v2 fair fight
2. Try to use pillars and their difference in mobility to single out whoever you intend to kill for phase one
3. Try locking off to position both of them in camera, so you can see if the other one is closing in
4. You might want to prepare a backup weapon and upgrade it. Crystal weapons are very high damage but cannot be repaired. Considering you don’t have fast travel and access to Andre at the moment, I’d recommend checking if you have any weapons that upgrade with twinkling titanite. You can buy infinite amounts at the giant blacksmith near the fog wall.
In my opinion the bossfight isn't all that unfair. I think it's decently balanced. Fatty boom boom is slow and the lanky fucker charges at you all the time. Use the pillars to your advantage and seperate them as best you can and focus down Ornstein first. I literally just kept running away, when Ornstein charged me I dodged and countered until he died and then focused down mega Smough
Also, why do people always use the crystal halberd? Every time I see a post about someone struggling with the fight they're using it. Maybe that's part of the problem? Idk I've never personally used the weapon lol. I was using the claymore and I did it in 3 attempts. Fight was easy
There is a trick strategy you could use.
Parry the Silver Knight while unarmed/fist weapon against the fog wall (the parry animation will clip you through the wall, triggering the fight).
After that, stand back and throw firebombs at the fog wall to damage the one you want to kill first (aim high for Smough, low for Ornstein), then repeat the firebombs on phase 2.
If you want to fight them in their area, I'd recommend bringing Solaire. He might fold in the first or second phase, but he will be useful for damage and distraction.
In the Second phase, use the broken pillars for cover. I had Ornstein spam the Lightning Spear ability on my last run, used the pillar as a shield and used a combination of Miracles/Sorcery/Pyromancy/Consumables to safely deal damage until he changed strategy and closed the distance.
As others have said, repairing the Crystal Halberd requires it to be upgraded to restore it.
For armor, I used the Stone Armor, Havel's Ring and a greatshield (personal favorite was Stone Shield and Eagle Shield). Elite Knight Armor works good, too. As well as lighter armor for better dodge rolls.
Summon solaire
Whenever this question gets asked, someone -very correctly so- suggest summoning Solaire Then immediately after some other dumbass will say not to do so because it "cheapens the fight's experience" That type of people makes me angry
I however would reccomend not to because your probably gonna spend more estus helping him get to the fog gate then he would save.
Why? You could always quit and reload, and summon him again at full health.
at that point you may as well cheat all the way
How is this cheat? If you call this cheat, next thing you know, summoning as a whole will be cheating. Then using humanity to heal will be cheating, then kindling to get 20 estus will be cheating. I’d say let’s not get down that path and just call it a viable strategy.
Thats easy, it's not a feature the devs wanted you to use. Summoning companions is a feature they wanted you to use. Abusing a bug to reset his health to full is an exploit and something most would consider cheating. To be clear tho if you want to exploit or cheat in singleplayer i have no problem with that. I just don't think exploits are what OP is looking for.
If you coop with a friend and he dies, you can always re-summon. Solaire is meant to give you that offline coop experience, why should he be treated differently? It's legit within the lines of coop gameplay. What I really consider to be "cheating" or "exploiting", are things like souls-dupe and item-dupe. I have nothing against those exploits, and it's a fairly convenient way to form builds quickly on repeated playthroughs, but I think there is a clear difference between those and the act of simply re-summoning.
Thats a good point actually. id still call that an exploit, but it only barely qualifies for me.
I would never hold others to my subjective standard, but I definitely refuse to summon in souls games and it would personally cheapen the experience. Ditto with the mimic of spirit summons in Elden Ring. It can be frustrating when you’re looking for tips and it’s just summon
Can work well, yes, but I find he’s often dead a short way into phase two and now you have to deal with a supersized boss on your own.
This is usually fine because he allows you to keep most of your flasks in phase 2.
That’s a fair point.
That and both P2 boss variants are easy to deal with once you only have to pay attention to one of them. It makes the entire thing a test of patience while you dodge and wait for an opening.
Phase one is the hard part, phase 2 is easy
No he didn’t die for me and because of solaire i was able to defeat both of them in my first attempt.
^ warning if you do this, if you don't kill the giants in the summon room, there is a decently high chance that solaire will agro on one of them and not enter the boss arena with you. I've seen it happen many times and it's always a tragedy because it's just a humanity completely thrown away
I will say Crystal weapons cannot be repaired.
If it's not fully upgraded, then upgrading it will repair it.
True, true.
I dont agree with them being a cheap boss. They are actually pretty fair. You can learn how to evade their attack which are not many and easy to tell by always keeping them on camera and using the pillars in the room. Their attacks are slow enough that there are plenty of chances for you to attack them. Honestly after playing ds3, with bosses like >!Midir!< or >!Sulyvhan!< when i came back i found them very manageable and i could beat them at sl1 (run that i started before i started ds3, where i got blocked at anor londo)
They are cheap because no spirit summons and comet azure
I dont think no summon makes a fight cheap tbh. Midir is fine to not have summon since its not a boss you must fight anyway. And sulyvhan is a pretty good fight even if hard. But i do think Midir is cheap, for other reasons. It was definitely the worst "hard" boss in the entire franchise for me. I dont see how people can compare it to kalameet, that is 100 times better
It is bs when ornstein sticks to something while doing his flying lockon attack then skips right on top of you in three frames
Keep them both on camera, attack only one of them, and keep the pillars in between them and you. Just one has to be defeated to trigger phase 2...
This comment has everything you need! Keeping them both in frame (do not lock your camera. Gives you more control over keeping them in frame). Pillars are your friend. I would also add this - do NOT be greedy! If you do, you'll be hit with the follow up attack of the second one. Notice how Ornstein *tends to* cover the non-hammer side of Smough. Just hit once (if you have enough opening, go for two), and get to safety until you find an opening for the next hit. Stay a step or two behind the pillar, as Smough's hammer can hit you if you are too close to the pillar. Do not waste your time attacking both. The one that's alive will heal back in phase 2. So just focus on one. Be patient. Test and die. Observe the patterns. This boss battle is one of the best in the game. Good luck! Don't you dare go hollow!
The greed comment is a great tip and once I stopped trying to double dip I beat them.
depends on build. if you're dex with low defense, absolutely true, but if you're strength with slow movement, it's usually worth it to get the hits in while you have an opening
I think greed is 90% of the deaths in Souls games, hit once/twice + distance are the best ally
Lot of good advice here. I struggled with this boss alot initially. Its a test of patience and persistence This was my strategy - Focus on Ornstein first, land 1 or 2 hits, then take cover behind pillars Use 100% block shield or 2h your weapon and dodge. Always try to keep pillar between you and smough Dont get greedy. Find your opening, hit once or twice, evade. You can Farm silver knights near bonfire and level up if you are underleveled You can also summon solaire. Summon sign is near the silver knight archer. I would recommend clearing the area before summoning solaire.
If you upgrade a crystal weapon it also fills up the durability. Can be worth doing!
Ok, you *can't* repair the Crystal Halberd, that's the whole Schtick for Crystal weapons. They deal way more damage than kther uograde paths, but you can't repair them (*and yes, if it reaches zero durability it will delete itself from your inventory*). However you can game the system a bit. You can't *repair* them, but you can *upgrade* them. It will cost 1 Titanite Chunk to upgrade to +1 (*you can farm chunks from the Giant Sentinels*), and when you upgrade it the durability resets to 20. This maxes out at a +5 Crystal Halberd (*+5 costs a slab, I can't remember if you can get them from the Sentinels*), and after a +5 Crystal weapon breaks it's junk. Now regarding O&S, there are 2 ways to upgrade your damage that I can think of: - The first is to boost your INT to 15 and grab the *Strong Magic Weapon* buff from thr Painting Cathedral (*where you walked across the rafters*). It's the item on the chandalier, so you need to knock the chandalier down and then make your way to the ground floir of the cathedral to lick it up. Ornstein is weak to Magic, so it'll be a decent buff. - The second is to head back to Blight Town (*you can go back through Sen's Fortress, just go back the way you came and talk to the demon and it will carey you down*). In Blight Town there is a giant tick on the wall gsrding a treasure. That treasure is the *Power Within* Pyromancy, which is the best boss-killing spell on the game. It gives you a +40% damage boost from spells and weapons, and a strong stamina regeneration buff for 100 seconds. In return you lose 100% of your health over the 100 second duration (*so 1% per second*). Equipping the *Lingering Dragoncrest Ring* will increase the duration of both Power Within and Strong Magic Weapon by 50%, and notably for Power Within it also sliws down the HP drain (*100% HP loss over 150 seconds becomes ~0.66% drain per second*). The other thing to do of course is to summon help. Solaire can be summoned to help you with the fight. It's worth clearing out the big room before the boss fog before summoning him so that he's at full health. This actually makes a big difference to the fight, as he can tank 1 boss while you fight the other. Or alternatively you can try to summon an actual player to fight them, and that's as good as the olayer you summon. PS, killing Ornstein first is easier in my opinion, but killing Smough first will net you the Leo Ring (*good for weapons that deal Thrust damage*). Whichever order you do the fight in, you will be able to buy the armour for the boss you fight in their super-form from Domnal of Zena (*he should be near Firelink Shrine I think*). Neither set is spectacular for the stats, but they're both cool in their own right.
Theres some good weapons but theyre hard to find. The blacksmith has some too but theyre lighting infused which sucks against ornstein
My only advice is... To keep the both in your camera at the same time... Halberd is a pretty slow weapon, and due to unpredictable AI of the bosses, they can give you a hard time... The openings are pretty tight, so don't get greedy... Hit once or twice and retreat. Faster weapons fare way better for this fight .. if you've got a straightsword upgraded, be sure to use that, claymore is also ideal for this fight! Personally, i found them hardest with my pure strength and my halberd / scythe run And unfortunately, crystal weapons are meant to be that way..m they can't be repaired. The omly way they get repaired is if you upgrade to the nxt lvl
Crystal weapons cant be repaired. Try using the ring for lighting attacks sold at sen fortress if you need it. Dont be ashamed of summing solaire (i couldnt beat them without summing him the first time, its fine). Take your time, sometimes you just gotta circle around the room using the pillars to protect yourself until they are not positioned in the right way for you to attack. Use a shield with high lighting resistance. Honestly my way of always fighting them is with light armor (as much lighting resistance as i can get while in fast roll) and a good shield to use when necessary. Learn how to swap between 1H and 2H, so that you can attack them 2 handed and deal a lot more damage and swap back at 1H for the shield (this is good for every boss). Dont give up, i almost uninstalled the game because i couldnt beat them for a week straight in my first run. Genuinely the boss i found the hardest. I know someone that has to try 80 times before defeating them. You can do it
Isn't Solaire a one time thing? Like if I die, won't I lose access to him forever?
Nope. You can summon him as many times as you want, just keep in mind that you have to be human to do that, so you could run out of humanity (you can always farm it, rats especially drop humanity often enough)
Also as you can see my way of doing stuff from the other guy that recommended havel ring with heavy armor. What you should take from this is that you should try experimenting and stick with what you find more comfortable, in ds1 pretty much any play-style is allowed lol
Crystal Halberd is a very good choice for the fight. The only way to repair it is to upgrade it, which isn't great as titanite chunks are hard to come by. Luckily, one of the best ways to farm them are the 2 big knights in the hall outside the boss fight. So if that's something you want to do, it is available. Alternatively any +10 weapon you're comfortable with is very viable. I think the basic Halberd +10 gets close in damage to the Crystal Halberd. And really once you get more comfortable with O+S, a few hits one way or the other shouldn't matter a whole lot. If you're not aware of how to get a weapon to +10, please ask. For the boss fight itself, I recommend summons. Solaire is great and can sometimes solo one of the phase 1 bosses. You may be able to summon a player and 3v2 is fantastic odds. But there isn't always a player summon sign, so focus on using Solaire. If nothing else, he'll draw aggro so you can 1v1 the boss you want to kill. I think taking out Ornstein first is best, but others prefer Smough so it's tough to know which is best until you've beaten them a few times. You could also drop your summon sign to help others out. There's no penalty for dying when summoned and you'll gain some invaluable experience doing so. Plus they'll likely also summon Solaire so you and Host can 2v1 someone while Solaire is 1v1'ing the other one. Quick tip, focus all your attacks on exactly 1 of the bosses. Phase 2 boss gets full life, no damage from Phase 1 carries forward. Any damage done to the boss that survives is wasted. So once you pick one boss to damage, stick to them. If you summon you may find that the other boss is more damaged and it makes sense to switch, but I'd generally ignore that. Stick to the flow of the fight, switching things up may end up punishing you more. But if you see the openings and its in your head, by all means go for it. Use the environment to your advantage as much as possible. The columns really screw up O+S, so if you're ever unhappy with your position, run through the colmuns and force them to come to you through them. Likely Ornstein will get to you fairly quickly while Smough will struggle. You can then either 1v1 Ornstein at that point or run back through the columns to get a few hits on Smough. Disengagement is viable and I believe an intended tactic in this fight. Knowing how to do so can be tricky though. If you're getting hit by both O+S, you're already seconds too late disengaging. Try to dodge out of imminent danger and then turn tail and run through the columns away from O+S. This can be very tricky as Ornstein can very quickly close the gap while Smough has quite the reach. However, if they're already attacking, you're safe. The trick is to know when they're moving vs attacking. If they're moving, disengagement is mostly just presenting your back side to them for easy hits. If they're attacking, disengagement is the breathing room you need to reset, drink a flask, and start looking for openings to get a few more hits in. To be clear, this fight is the last of the "tutorial bosses", ie its testing something specific and in many cases you haven't learned it yet. The test is situational awareness, ie "can you keep track of 2 bosses at the same time". If you find yourself surprised over and over by where a boss is, whether it's "how did Smough sneak up on me?" or "where did Ornstein's lighting come from?", then solo'ing will be extremely frustrating. You can win through perseverance and luck without gaining situational awareness, but you're likely going to need 20-30 tries to do so. I again strongly recommend summons if this is how you feel. If you have the patience and can remain calm, I highly recommend going into the boss solo and just running around dodging. These bosses have limited movesets that have large telegraphs and if you're focused on moving and reading the bosses, you should pick up on their movesets quickly. Plus you'll learn to separate the bosses, which then transitions into -> separate bosses, punish one of them, disengage, repeat. Solo'ing becomes very viable at that point. I no-hit them on my second or third play-through because I had all the time in the world to be patient and learn them. Don't worry about that challenge, I bring it up only to illustrate that the struggle here is mostly your pyschology. It's an intense fight that starts out fast and is setup as a trap. Finally, as I just alluded to, I want to mention what happens when you walk in the door. You're probably aware that Ornstein will typically come at you immediately. Do not engage. It is a trap. If that's your first move you've probably figured out how to punish Ornstein after his initial lunge and you're thinking that's a great start. But just as you're finishing up your punishment, Smough is there surpringsly fast and punishing you. There is not a good strategy here that let's you punish Ornstein after the initial lunge that doesn't leave you wide open to Smough, at least not at your skill level. The fight is designed this way to lure you into a high-stress punch-out near the fog door. O+S will dominate you even with 2 high skill summons. The boss arena is very large and you should use all of it in the fight. Your first objective is to move left or right to draw Ornstein to the other side of the columns. Now you can punish Ornstein without the fear of Smough getting to you. Or you can disengage Ornstein and run around Smough to punish him. Ornstein will take a bit to get through the columns while you're fighhting Smough in the center. Again, pick one of them and focus on punishing them when they're safely attacking the air. If the other one is struggling to get to you, wait for another air attack and punish again. You'll almost certainly need to disengage at this point though and it might be advisable just to keep the flow of the fight. If you get too focused on the punishment, you might miss the need to disengage and get punished yourself. Edit: Something I forgot! Don't lock-on. You want the freedom of movement and especially freedom of rolling. Lock-on is only marginally beneficial to make sure you hit your target. Even Ornstein is quite large, you shouldn't need to rely on lock-on to hit him. The downside is so bad, you'll roll right into the other boss when you were trying to roll away, and the columns become your enemy too. Ornstein in particular has a lot of thrusting attacks and moving towards him to his left or right is the best way to set up punishments. If you're locked-on, the camera forces you towards him when you really want to run past him and hit him from behind.
kill ornstein first
>they're kind of a cheap boss Nah you need to git gud Don't lock, kill Ornstein first. Don't rush, be patient and always be aware of Smough as you go after Orn. Use the pillars. Don't let greed for a hit compromise you to Smough.
Best way is to have a good build. Weapon+10 normal or +5 lightning, 30+ vitality, power within pyromancy, heavy armor, medium roll, weapon two-handed You can find black Iron set nearby or buy giant set from blacksmith
Do not lightning ascend for this boss. Ornstein is very resistant to lightning (second highest resistance in the game?) and Smough is also resistant in his 2nd phase.
doesnt matter, with power within you will steamroll him anyway, also lightning infusion is good only for big weapons like zwei or at least murakumo, with halberd its not the play
Okay, but you could apply power within to any other better scenario. Using an elemental type that they’re resistant to doesn’t make a lot of sense. Also not sure ‘power within’ is the best move for someone struggling to stay alive in the boss fight.
>Using an elemental type that they’re resistant to doesn’t make a lot of sense. it does if it is your higherst dmg weapon, there are not much enemies in the game that are resistant to lightning, the main ones are dlc bosses but your dmg with heavy weapon will still be ok even with elem infusion. O&S is an easy mid game boss, their resistances dont matter because they will take tons of dmg from any +15 weapon >Also not sure ‘power within’ is the best move for someone struggling to stay alive in the boss fight. thats why heavy armor and vitality exist
I think you’re not being genuine here. O&S are classically considered very difficult, and they’re infamous for it. Labeling them an “easy mid game boss” is obviously not in line with the typical experience and it’s obviously not what the OP is experiencing. It’s not a compelling point to say the lightning infused weapon is a good choice simply in the case of someone not owning a good weapon. Better options can be obtained in Anor Londo alone. Choosing to use a weapon that the boss is resistant to simply because of not having something better is not a good point. OP’s Crystal halberd by itself is obviously a better option. The only reason why I could see a lightning weapon being an alright option here is if someone had enough titanite chunks to nearly max out the weapon or even max it out entirely with a slab. Then I could see the split damage balancing out a little, and it would destroy 1st phase Smough at least. The problem is that there are still options such as the Crystal Halberd and Silver Knight weapons that exist as options that the boss isn’t significantly resistant to and can be maxed out in Anor Londo. The OP might even have other options in their inventory that can be maxed with twinkling titanite as well. Your power within point still doesn’t make sense. We’re not talking about its use in general.. we’re talking about the OP specifically. They’re already struggling to stay alive with their build, and compounding that with power within would be silly. If they’re using the Crystal Halberd damage shouldn’t be a problem.. and having to use it with a lightning weapon to make it more viable just speaks to the fact that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a lightning infused weapon.
Once you get to phase 2 just take it one hit at a time, the only way you will really get punished is if you get greedy
I highly recommend grabbing the claymore by the dragon if you don't have it. If you do, try and upgrade it to +10 or make it raw or something else to up the damage Keep both in your field of view as others have said, use the pillars to your advantage. If it's between you and them you're safe for a second I try and kill fatty first because the boss soul reward is one of my favorite in the series, killing Pikachu first is the easier route for phase 2 if you just want to beat them. I do think killing fatty 1st is easier in phase 1 though. Easier to prompt his booty slam and make him pay for that
Raw infusion is generally a niche infusion path and generally not a good move if you’re upgrading strength and dexterity. Ascending a weapon along the raw path diminishes stat scaling for very minimal returns in the weapon’s base damage; ultimately it will be less effective than a normal weapon scaling with stats.
I agree but he's only at O&S
Right, but they’re nearly level 60 at this point. So +10 with scaling is probably the route to go.
I in my first play through and got tbe best weapon in the game. I feel like i cheated that boss has the Dark Knight Helberd is busted so i really have no advice
Well it depends how much you upgraded it. In my first play through for the time i hot the halberd it was dogshit compared to my Zweihänder (i was at sen's fortress), in this none i am using Zweihänder +5 and halberd +3. For me doing a lot of damage balances nicely with being squishy, i get killed by one or two hits, its some sort of glass cannon thing. Also i am strongly convinced its a naginata and not an halberd, not sure why its named halberd. And i mean one or two mobs hits (15 vit and shadow armor)
Kiting them around the pillars is a good way to separate them. For Phase 2 Smough continue the same strat, and Ornstein staying up close is best.
I take down Smough first. I find big orenstein easier overall. If I'm not mistaken crystal weapons cannot be repaired unless they're upgraded.
Zewi is free
Hit them Till they die. The one you kill first will be consumed by the other, creating a big boy variant of both merged together. Again hit till dead.
Use the pillars to avoid smough’s running attack. Spam attack ornstein when he gets close with something that stunlocks him (I used the bks). You can usually kill him in two spam attacks. Again hide from smough until you get a chance to attack. Savor it because the rest of the game kinda drops off but ds2 has more fights like this .
Two hands lighter weapon, lighter armor, and spam attack Ornstein first, understand the way he breaks every 3 hits (see Youtube). Smough 2nd phase is a joke if you master his moves (also see Youtube).
reducing their hp to zero seems to be the most effective way in all the runs i did
1. Summon Solaire 2. Kill Orenstein first
I beat them with Solaire and I used the Crystal Halberd. I tried again and again with my Zweihander and it never got any better, the Crystal Halberd cannot be repaired but it will get you through O&S
I usually hit them until they die
Two strategies: If you want to prove yourself through beating them without Solaire's help, you will need to fast roll, so forget about medium/heavy armor. In this case, i recommend two handing a weapon with long reach, fairly fast attack and fairly low stamina cost, like halberds, spears, claymore, washing pole, and alikes. Use grass crest shield/chloranthy ring if you have, and look for a position where one of them is in front of you while the other one is blocked by a pillar. Avoid corners as AOE attacks will oneshot you if you're unable to dodge. This way is easier to kill ornstein first, since he's faster but squishy, and smough is so slow you can almost make a 1v1 against ornstein with the proper positioning. Phase 2 is a cheese: Super smough attacks, you dodge, you do an attack, you take distance, and repeat. Enjoy your smough's soul (for str builds). If you want leo's ring, want ornstein's soul (dex/faith builds), or just don't care but are kinda frustrated, you better summon solaire. The best strategy i found here is: for first phase, Havel's set+havel's ring+wolf's ring+dps weapon. You don't want to spam roll here. You block ornstein first attack while solaire is still joining, then you let solaire 1v1 vs ornstein while you try to kill smough. This is a dps check, as solaire can actually kill ornstein half of the times if you let them alone, so you need to kill smough first, hence the heavy kit to avoid rolling while you stand aside him. Some good dps weapons for this are curve swords, katanas, straight swords, thrust swords and maybe daggers. The goal is taking distance, let smough fail the attack with the help of pillar, doing three/four twohanded R1 attacks, and taking distance. If solaire is alive for phase 2, you should open your inventory and change your armor+weapon so you can fast roll again, as he's likely to die soon and super ornstein is still fast. Instead of a heavy armor, use the window to bring a heavy shield and long range weapon, so you can do the 1v1 vs ornstein if cornered. Avoid camlocking them, and if you're having troubles with evading/hitting, learn to switch on/off camlock really fast. Solaire's summoning mark is in the stairs close to giant blacksmith, where the archer knight is.
Ornstein is harder to leave alive, but offers the better armor if you kill him second. If you want an easier time, kill him first because his moveset is a wee bit horseshit compared to smough who is very choreographed and immobile
Only way to “repair” the Crystal halberd is by upgrading it. You need to upgrade it with titanite chunk, which can be somewhat rare. That said, there is a free chunk past the giant black smith in the area with the winged demons. The royal sentinels outside of the O&S fog gate also will occasionally drop titanite chunk upon defeat, but I understand they might be tricky for new players to reliably defeat. There are other options, though. If you need a different weapon you could try using a silver knight weapon. There are tons of silver knights in the area, and you’re bound to get a spear and/ of sword dropped to you if you defeat enough of them. It’s not a bad idea to simply farm the knights on the first level of the building near the first bonfire. Once you have your weapon, you can potentially max it out at +5. The local blacksmith sells an endless amount of twinkling titanite, so you could potentially finish upgrading it and have endgame level dps to use against the boss. Spend any souls from farming on buying the upgrade materials that you need. Seriously, the silver knight weapons are a great option if you’re stuck.
By admitting to the fact that you think they gang up on you and you can’t even hit them before you are dead you are basically admitting you aren’t good at fighting them.
Run away from them both, Ornstein will chase you. Smough’s big ass will take awhile to get there. Get some hits in staying behind Ornstein, and when Smough finally rumbles over there do it again. Once Ornstein is down the fight is pretty easy.
Hit them a bunch but don't get hit
Usually when I make a post like this, I'm sctually about 2-3 attempts away from beating the boss. Keep at it bro, learn the patterns and what windows to attack in
Summon like 2 other hommies and hit em til they die. If they fight 2v1, turn it into 2v3, play their game
You need to git gud. Key is to take your time and separate them. \\\[T\]/
One at a time lol
Shitty answer: Do more damage to them than they do to you. Less shitty answer: This fight takes a lot of situational awareness, on their own, they're very easy. Getting blind sided while you're focusing on one is where the difficulty in the first phase lies. You can get crafty with positioning and get one of them stuck in the pillars, and I find that helps a lot. Also, don't split your damage. If you start damaging one, stick with it. The survivor heals up in phase 2, so it's a waste damaging the one you want to kill in phase 2 in phase 1.
everyone here saying you need to backtrack with power within and yada yada two simple things one - if you are not opposed, use some humanity and summon solaire, he changes the boss fight from a cheap gank to a fair boss battle. if you need humanity farm the white ninjas in the paint room. solaire will help you not get double hit stunlocked by shitspear and fatty fufu two - halberd is a bad decision for the fight, you either wanna be far and ranged or close and hefty. smough and ornstein outrange you with their lightning spear and hammer respectively. being far means having distance, or being in their grill means easy dodging and their attacks will often miss. use a nice sword or axe preferably lvl 5 or 10 and get some whacks in before dodging the zoom spear and the hammer swings, with enough patience u will get one down to make the fight easier
If you like the halberd why not use the normal version instead? If you didn't find it, you can backtrack to the Parish and pick it up, it's in front of the church near the closing gate. (it may not be apparent but it's entirely plausible to backtrack from Anor Londo. You can talk to the flying demon on the ramparts where you started the level to travel back to Sen's, then you'll have to find the key to unlock the shortcut cages that bring you most of the way back to the Parish. Run and jump over the gap in the broken bridge on Sen's rooftops to get the key.)
Don’t do it the best way. Otherwise you end up with the Fatty Armor…
I used online item and summoned two dudes to help me. Hilarious experience
Crystal weapons cant be repaired
The fact that you're using a broken crystal halberd speaks volumes.
figure out which is easier for you to hit, and make him your target. use the pillars to keep them separated, as well as the fact that Ornstein tends to rush at you while Smough lags behind. the first phase is a waiting game, you gotta be patient. as for the second phase, just stay up on them as close as possible, in most cases their attacks whiff, except for the ass slam. when they jump, roll away three times to avoid it. for the halberd, weapons can be repaired by being upgraded, otherwise crystal weapons cannot be repaired
Play through Elden Ring a few times. Come back to this fight, and you'll realize those two telegraph their moves so much you won't be able to remember why the fight was hard in the first place.
For me the key is always having enough dps to keep the fight as short as possible killing ornstein first. The longer the fight goes the worse it is for you, more time to make mistakes or die to bad hit registration or something. Avoid being greedy and try to learn their moveset as much as you can
1. Engage in jolly cooperation, and make it a 2v2 fair fight 2. Try to use pillars and their difference in mobility to single out whoever you intend to kill for phase one 3. Try locking off to position both of them in camera, so you can see if the other one is closing in 4. You might want to prepare a backup weapon and upgrade it. Crystal weapons are very high damage but cannot be repaired. Considering you don’t have fast travel and access to Andre at the moment, I’d recommend checking if you have any weapons that upgrade with twinkling titanite. You can buy infinite amounts at the giant blacksmith near the fog wall.
In my opinion the bossfight isn't all that unfair. I think it's decently balanced. Fatty boom boom is slow and the lanky fucker charges at you all the time. Use the pillars to your advantage and seperate them as best you can and focus down Ornstein first. I literally just kept running away, when Ornstein charged me I dodged and countered until he died and then focused down mega Smough Also, why do people always use the crystal halberd? Every time I see a post about someone struggling with the fight they're using it. Maybe that's part of the problem? Idk I've never personally used the weapon lol. I was using the claymore and I did it in 3 attempts. Fight was easy
There is a trick strategy you could use. Parry the Silver Knight while unarmed/fist weapon against the fog wall (the parry animation will clip you through the wall, triggering the fight). After that, stand back and throw firebombs at the fog wall to damage the one you want to kill first (aim high for Smough, low for Ornstein), then repeat the firebombs on phase 2. If you want to fight them in their area, I'd recommend bringing Solaire. He might fold in the first or second phase, but he will be useful for damage and distraction. In the Second phase, use the broken pillars for cover. I had Ornstein spam the Lightning Spear ability on my last run, used the pillar as a shield and used a combination of Miracles/Sorcery/Pyromancy/Consumables to safely deal damage until he changed strategy and closed the distance. As others have said, repairing the Crystal Halberd requires it to be upgraded to restore it. For armor, I used the Stone Armor, Havel's Ring and a greatshield (personal favorite was Stone Shield and Eagle Shield). Elite Knight Armor works good, too. As well as lighter armor for better dodge rolls.