Lords of the Fallen: How to beat Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal

Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal is the first major boss that Lords of the Fallen throws at you. After you've made your way through Redcopse village and had your ass handed to you by the Lightreaper, you'll find Pieta blocking the entrance to Skyrest Bridge. This saint doesn't number among the game's hardest bosses, but she appears early enough that you're likely still getting used to the game's mechanics.

Pieta has two phases: one where she walks around fighting you normally, and a second where she sprouts a pair of wings and starts throwing out all sorts of Radiance spells and phantoms. It sounds challenging, but she isn't too hard to beat once you learn to deal with her. So, here's how to beat the Lords of the Fallen Pieta boss so you can enter Skyrest Bridge.

Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal tips

While I'll go into more depth on each phase lower down, here's a quick summary of the tips that might help:

• Stick close: Pieta's worst attacks tend to be from range, especially in the second phase, so stick close to deal damage and bait out her basic combos for you to parry or dodge.
• Use fire: While Radiant spells aren't especially strong here, burning Pieta will continue to deal damage even when she isn't close to you. You can find fire salts in the lava by the entrance to the arena or get the Raw Mangler Axe as a random drop from the double axe-wielding enemies in the village.
• Slow and steady: In the second phase, Pieta will generally move around a lot. Keep closing the distance and attacking to bait out those basic attacks you can parry. Don't forget to attack after you've parried or blocked to recover your withered health.
• Soulflay: You can use the umbral lamp's Soulflay ability to pull Pieta's soul out and deal damage to it. Do this by holding CTRL and clicking RMB, or holding L2 and pressing R2 on a controller. Be warned that this will wither your health a bit, though.
• Summon: If you're really struggling, you can summon the Iron Wayfarer at the entrance to the boss arena. Just look for the moths outlining his form.

Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal first phase

The first part of this fight isn't too complex since Pieta only has a few attacks. You can also speed things up by applying salts to your weapon for extra damage, or by bringing a fire weapon like the Raw Mangler Axe.

In terms of her first-phase attacks, she'll either:

• Use her basic two-slash combo—this is your best opportunity to parry her.
• Hold her sword up and then point at you and fire a beam of light.
• Jump up into the air and slam down, creating a small AoE. Occasionally she'll follow up with a second slam, but this is a really good opportunity for dealing damage or staggering her with charged attacks.
• If this phase goes on for a while, she'll throw a bolt of light into the ground that tracks you after a short delay. Simply dodge to the side when it's close.

Generally, you'll want to stay close to Pieta throughout the fight to keep attacking and bait out her less dangerous, basic attacks for you to either parry or dodge. If you are parrying, it's relatively easy to stagger her for a critical strike, but you'll have to make sure you're attacking after each combo to recoup the withered portion of your health bar.

Every time she hits you while blocking or parrying, a portion of your health will turn grey, showing that it's withered. Provided you continue to block and don't take any extra damage, your entire health bar can be withered, but periodically attacking will recoup that withered health, making sure you don't immediately die the first time you get hit.

Once a third of her health is gone, it's time for the second phase.

Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal second phase

This phase always starts the same way: Pieta raises her sword, plants it in the ground, and creates an AoE explosion, before flying down the centre of the arena with her new wings, leaving swords of light in her wake. After a short delay, these will slam into the ground, so make sure to stand off to either side.

She'll continue to use her previous attacks, but the new ones you need to watch out for are:

• Summoning phantoms: There are a few variations of this, but Pieta will summon either one or two phantoms of herself to mimic her attacks. I'd suggest dodging these instead of trying to parry, and making sure you've got some distance from Pieta so she can't follow up with her own attack as well.
• Light swords: Pieta will repeat her light sword attack from the start of the phase, but with the two phantoms doing it instead of her. It's easy to anticipate this, as she'll disengage and fly off to the far end of the arena. Simply stand in the centre so you can easily move to whichever lane the phantoms don't choose.
• Homing bolts: Pieta will throw two bolts of light into the ground which will track you after a short delay. Just wait till they're close then dodge out of the way.

Since Pieta moves around so much, it can be hard to get damage in, but closing the distance when you attack will allow you to parry her basic combos and deal damage after she does her slam attack. Generally, this phase is about patience, dealing damage when you're close, and learning to cope with her more dangerous attacks when she flies away.

Once you finish the fight, you'll get a Vestige Seed and some Umbral Scourings. Make sure you switch to the Umbral and use the lamp to Soulflay the memory at the end of the arena. This will give you Remembrance of Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal, allowing you to purchase her weapons, armour, and spell once you unlock boss weapons later on.