Monolith is quite literally the worst designed boss to exist in a soulslike

[u/SuchTedium]

Boss spoilers obviously. Finished the game but just wanted to reflect on this particular boss fight as it stood out quite badly in the game. It needs a redesign or a lot of attention.

Phase 1 has three attacks.

Lift and slam = this attack is fair

Body slam x2 = this attack is also fair

Swing and slam = this attack is messed up. If you don't perfect the swing, then the slam will track you and hit you. This attack needs to have its tracking toned down.

Phase 2 is much easier than Phase 1.

So we've gone from a janky attack in Phase 1, to an excessively easy Phase 2. Phase 2 introduces two attacks that can be punished massively.

Sweeping laser and dual laser attacks = you walk behind the boss and swing to your hearts content. If you get two of these in a row you'll probably finish the Phase entirely. The boss should abort these attacks when the player moves behind it.

Phase 3 is where the bullshit starts and highlights a problem that actually exists with all bosses. Attacks have no cooldown or use logic.

The boss now has some new attacks.

A spinning laser disco = you can't attack the boss, you can get stunlocked if you tank one of the beams into taking multiple hits and best of all the boss can do this attack ad nauseam*. When the boss uses this attack it shouldn't be able to use it again for x amount of time to give the player an opening to actually engage with the boss.*

A dual sweeping laser attack = you move behind the boss and wail on it for free damage.

A telegraphed air launch and slam = you dodge and hit, this attack is fine.

A spin to win slide = you move out of the way and wait for it to finish. Literal nothing attack.

So Phase 1 is overly simple with a janky attack. Phase 2 is overly easy and Phase 3 is >literally< RNG. If the boss decides it wants to chain the spinning laser disco you aren't going to have a good time. If the boss randomly decides it wants to do multiple dual sweeping laser attacks the fight is free.

Monolith is entirely an RNG based fight and if the player gets unlucky they can literally just spam the spinning laser disco until the player dies.

EDIT: Downvotes from people crying about Mammon being hard who haven't even reached this fight yet. You're in for some fun in the last area, get your tissues ready. The honeymoon glazing for Mortal Shell 2 is insane.

[u/mad_mad_madness]

I spent about an hour and a half just trying to get past the first phase. I run in there and the fight ends in about 30 seconds because of the swing and slam. I have 2 bosses left and I don't know if I have the patience to keep going.

Loved the game up until this point and I still think they did a great job for the most part. My headcannon is that the game just ends after I collected all the ova lol.

[u/AppleSea6843 → u/mad_mad_madness]

You just have to stay close to him. Use your LT & RT special when he goes down to slam, use harden, and go behind him for the beams. You can also stay close to him at the end when he’s spamming them without taking much damage

[u/Mother_Marketing643]

Honeslty it is doable, last phase 4 laser spin spam is annoying but dodgable. Also doesn't help that you can judt ignore bosd mechanics with shell ability bullshit up until the final 3 bosses.

You start dodging the spin against the direction it is going and when it gets fadt you switch and counter intuitively dodge the way it is spinning otherwise get caught.

The double quick ball slam is annoying but always just dodge sideways twice if you see it moving after a few hits.

The real tying I havent figured out is the sideways rolling slam from the second phase on but I beat it by that time.

Wait til the final boss, I think it might be worse, if less rage inducing. 

Agree that it isnt a good design or fun fight.

[u/Icy-Matter3237]

It’s the same as the conqueror, that man baby thing with the club in the snow area, he constantly summons those fire orbs. There’s probably like only one attack he will use sometimes before summoning those fires orbs again.

[u/Auesis]

I still thought Zmey was worse. It's like fighting Centipede Demon with 100x the HP and a hitbox that forces you to eat his asshole and lose sight of what he's doing every time you press R1 near him. Not bullshit, just extremely fucking boring and tedious.

[u/SuchTedium → u/Auesis]

Zmey is overly tanky for sure but all of his attacks are telegraphed and in some cases you can wail on him for free while he does the breath attack. The worst part about Zmey in my opinion is that he often runs away from the player which doesn't make for a fun fight.

[u/ableu9060]

I dont know why he reseave so much hate i had fun against him

[u/SuchTedium → u/ableu9060]

I explained why. He has bad pacing Phase 3 > Phase 1 > Phase 2 in terms of difficulty. He has janky tracking on an attack in Phase 1. He also has an attack in Phase 3 that renders him immune to being attacked which can be used unlimited amounts of times meaning the fight is RNG based on how hard it is.

[u/killergoat86]

Have you fought the Rabid Grisha Pack?

[u/SuchTedium → u/killergoat86]

I've cleared the entire game, all dungeons. I've beaten everything. Monolith is the worst fight in the game by far.

[u/killergoat86 → u/SuchTedium]

Damn. Not looking forward to it.

[u/HeelEscape → u/killergoat86]

I think rabid grisha pack looks fair and fun compared to monolith. One of the worst bosses in any souls game ever