You likely fought at least one curseblade before, since one waits for you at the entrance to the Realm of Shadow. However, you haven’t fought this one: with enhanced stats and the ability to shroud itself in darkness (rendering it invisible), Bonny Gaol‘s Curseblade Labirith can get players trouble if they find themselves lost in the fog.
General Tips
Curseblade Labirith has a fairly short melee range with most of its attacks; a long enough weapon can out-range it, and many attacks can be avoided by creating distance.
Labirith has poor poise and is easily stance broken, so long as you apply pressure.
When Curseblade Labirith disappears, listen for an audio effect to know when to dodge, in case you can’t see it.
Summons make short work of Curseblade Labirith.
Blocking is effective against Labirith, so long as you pay attention to your “Bleed” meter.
Strategy
The Curseblade Labirith is an enhanced version of the enemy type that you likely saw right at the beginning of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. And you’ll see one of those enhancements right away; as soon as you end the arena, Curseblade Labirith will fill the room with darkness and disappear. During this process, you will have more than enough time to summon a spirit ash or apply buffs (and a well-upgraded spirit ash will make this fight a cakewalk).
A few moments after disappearing into black mist, the Curseblade will reappear just a moment before it attacks, which you should immediately dodge out of the way of. Because you can’t always rely on seeing where the curseblade reappears, you should listen for the sound effect of it fading back in, and dodge when you hear it. You can repeat this step whenever the Curseblade disappears, which it can do whenever the room is dark.
Apart from that, Labirith has a few unique aspects that you can exploit to defeat it. Most notably: all of its combo attacks, where it strikes more than once, have a pretty limited range. With a long enough blade, you can exploit this and interrupt it, but in general rolling or running away, once you are out of range to begin with, will keep you safe.
For spellcasters, this means that getting away as it starts a combo and then using the end of its combo to pile on spells is ideal. For melee users, this means that you can either out-range the Labirith with a long blade, or simply wait until the end of its combo to dive in and punish its rather long recovery window. In any case, the Labirith also has low poise, and so can be stunned for a while (so long as you stay at the ready for its block and counterattack).
Another very good option is to parry, which you can do for any of Labirith’s attacks where its feet stay on the ground. This can be absolutely devastating against the Labirith’s relatively low health pool.
In general, so long as you keep up the pressure and avoid his teleportation attacks, you should be able to take on the Labirith. It has low health and low poise, so once you start to get ahead, it can snowball. If you are struggling to find openings amidst its quick attack-patterns, though, simply bringing any equally-fast spirit ash (like Black Knife Tiche or Jolan/Jolan and Anna) will enable you to truly dominate it.
Moveset
Darkness Shroud: Labirith shrouds the arena in darkness, turning invisible until it attacks. When the entire arena goes dark, wait until you see Labirith and dodge. Alternatively, hold a shield at the ready.
Darkness Teleport: While the arena is already dark, Labirith will vanish in a black cloud, only to appear above you to attack. Like the previous move, be ready to dodge when you see Labirith or hear a sound, or keep a shield readied.
Curseblade Twirl: Labirith will spin 4 times, slashing with each spin, pause momentarily, then spin 4 more times. At the end, Labirith will jump up and slash downward. Continuously dodge backward from each spinning attack, then dodge into the final downward slash to punish.
Jumping Leg Grab: Labirith will jump in the air, then hurl toward you, spinning its legs to catch you between them. If it succeeds, it will launch you forcefully into the ground as a grab attack. Dodge into Labirith as soon as it hurls toward you.
Spin and Kick: Labirith will jump in the air, then descend toward you with 3 spinning slashes. After landing, they will jump up again and bring their foot straight down at you for a kick. Dodge into this attack as Labirith passses you, then into its foot as it descends. You can also block this attack.
Slashing Combo: Labirith will slash with its blades four times, with a small delay between the first and second strikes, or between its second and third strikes. The range of this attack is very limited, but has two variants (a 1-234 attack, and a 12-34 attack). Dodge away from each slash aside from the final one, which you should dodge into. You can also parry or block this attack. If you move far enough away, Labirith can end this combo early. If you remain close, it can extend it by another strike.
Overhead Strikes: Labirith will raise both of its blades, bring them down quickly. If you remain close, Labirith will bring them back up with a backstep. Labirith has 2 variations of this attack, one for closing distance and one when you are already close, but they are dealt with the same. Dodge, parry, or block the swipe down. Then dodge or block into the second attack up so you can punish as it backsteps.
Block Counterattack: If you hit Labirith enough, it may put its blades up to block an attack, and then immediately swipe up at you after you hit. If your attack gets blocked, immediately dodge to the side or prepare to parry its counterattack.
Black Spew: Labirith will spew black mist in front of it, which will damage you if you are hit by it. Simply walk away from the cloud and don’t enter it. Make sure not to dodge into it if Labirith follows up with an attack.
Throwing Knives: Labirith will spin backwards, tossing 2 small knives at you. If you see Labirith spin back, dodge to the side or block immediately to avoid chip damage.
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
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