After choosing your starting path and making your way to the circus area, you’re faced with the first big challenge in Lies of P: the Parade Master. This big clown is here to show you what a real punchline looks like. And damn, it hurts. It’s time to crash his party and conquer your first real adversary once and for all.
Parade Master First Phase Guide
Before heading in, make sure to spend as much Ergo as you can. You should have just enough stats if you’ve beaten most of the enemies around the Krat Station, but you can always come back and grind a little more if you’re feeling like you need some extra potency to your hits. Focus on leveling Technique if you’re armed with the Sword or the Rapier, or increase your Motivity if using the Greatsword.
The merchant next to the Stargazer sells you the weapons you didn’t pick at the beginning of the game for 300 Ergo each. You can pick these up and try them out to see if you do better with any of them.
For starters, I recommend going with the Sword as it’s agile and makes dodging a breeze. You can keep some distance from it and still hit the Master after he misses one of his thrusts.
His main attacks are a slam with his left hand and a double-arm ground slaw. If he glows red while doing that second attack, it means it’s the Fury Attack version. It ignores Iframes and your guard from your dodges, but you can parry it if you time your defense correctly.
You might wanna take some time to learn how to parry in this fight as his attacks are quite predictable. Alternatively, you can dodge some of his attacks in his direction instead of away from it. This makes counterattacking easier. His left-arm slam is the easiest attack to do that. Just dodge to your left (while facing the boss) as he’s open for some time.
You should mostly use regular attacks, but always try to go for a Charged Attack after dodging his Fury Attack to start breaking his stance. Successfully parrying also helps stagger the boss quicker. Once you see it trembling and/or a white glow around its health bar, go for a Charge Attack to bring him to his knees and use a Fury Attack for massive damage.
Don’t get greedy with attacks here. Hitting him twice between his attacks is more than fine. Boss fights are a test of patience, so don’t get desperate.
Parade Master Second Phase Guide
Once he’s around 50% HP, he slams his cage at you (easy to dodge) and uses his own head as a beating stick. Now the real test begins.
His attacks are just as slow as before, but hit a bit harder. He also gets access to a sweeping attack he can do after jumping to the ground, so wait until you’re sure you can punish him. Guarding an attack is better than failing to parry it, so allow yourself to tank some hits if you have at least two Pulse Cells remaining in this phase.
You might have also filled your Fable Arts bar. When timed correctly, it can easily stagger the Parade Master after he’s vulnerable, leading to a quick victory in his second phase. If he’s low enough, a single Fable might be enough to finish him.
The screenshots above display the exact moment I killed him. All I did was use a single Level 3 Fable Art. If you have enough gauge and see him this low on health, you can probably go for the kill.
It might take you a few tries, but this is the perfect introductory battle for the game, and you’re rewarded fairly well. Just don’t use that Ergo just yet! Keep calm and you can eventually get over your first roadblock. And don’t worry, there will be plenty more of challenges, so stock up on items and level up as needed.
