Amygdala is an optional boss in Bloodborne found in the easily missable Nightmare Frontier. You must have witnessed her lesser brethren while traversing the world but now it is time to face the nightmare itself. Let me come out and say first that this boss is nowhere near as challenging as she looks.
This boss fight is a walk in the park if you only work on a few things when facing her. We are here to arm you with that knowledge and send this handsy girl back to the void.
Fighting Amygdala
By now you should have already noticed the lesser Amygdalas’ in Cathedral Ward or ran from in Yahar’gul. Those are more like aesthetic pieces of environmental puzzles to tackle. However, if you happen to venture into the Nightmare Frontier, you’ll come face to face with an actual Amygdala, and boy what a sight that is.
The boss has tons of arms jutting out of its lean body and a face that resembles an eye-filled tonsil. She is gigantic and intimidating forcing you to stick to her legs. She likes to stretch out her arms to catch you from a distance, shoot lasers that explode after a delay, and jump around quite often in an attempt to crush you.
The second phase of the fight will see her ripping her arms and using them as weapons. She gets a bit more aggressive and has a few new attacks but the fight largely remains the same.
Don’t be scared of the description, for fighting her is quite the opposite experience if you know what you are doing.
Here are some tips you can use when facing Amygdala in Bloodborne:
- She is weak to Bolt, Fire, and Arcane damage. Bring Fire Papers, Bolt Papers, or Arcane spells/weapons to exploit this weakness.
- Her weak points are her head and arms dangling from the sides. Attacking them might be harder but a long-reach weapon with a good overhead swing attack like Ludwig’s Holy Blade will likely hit them easily.
- Her arms sag to the ground a lot, making them an easy target but you are more vulnerable to her arm flailing attacks.
- Her legs and tail receive the least amount of damage. Buff your weapon if you only want to attack them.
- Projectile-based weapons like Simon’s Bowblade can reliably hit the boss’s head.
- A few charged hits to the head will drop her to the ground, opening her up for a Visceral Attack.
Boss Strategy
The best piece of advice for this boss fight is to avoid her front side at all costs. Most of her deadlier attacks are front-facing. Stick underneath her for the most part and you’ll be better off.
Run up to the legs and start whaling at them until they bleed. The legs will receive minimal damage but it is the safest place during the fight. She will try to stomp you which can be easily dodged away if you spot it coming. Keep attacking until there is a blood explosion.
While attacking the legs, you should occasionally move to the arms sagging to the sides. These arms are extremely weak, and if you deal enough damage to them, they, too, will explode, making them even weaker to subsequent hits.
However, standing on her sides will leave you open for her arm-flailing attacks that can hit multiple times. Dodge back to the legs if you see this attack coming.
One important thing to do during her leaping stomp attacks is to stand still when she jumps up and don’t move. More often than not, her leg stomp will completely miss you.
When she is in the air, start charging up your heavy R2 attack, and as soon as she lands, lock on to her head and let loose the attack. Her head tends to be lower when she lands and connecting this heavy attack to that will deal a ton of damage and might open her up for a Visceral Attack.
Speaking of the head, two other attacks drop her head to the bottom when she uses both her hands to slam the ground. When you see this attack, run to the head and start attacking it for the most amount of damage.
Keep a look out for this attack. You can stand in front of her to bait this attack, making this fight even more trivial but you have to be careful of her other attacks, especially the laser attacks.
There is a second phase of the fight where she rips out hands and adds a few new attacks to her repertoire but the overall fight stays the same and the strategy too.
Using Ludwig’s Holy Blade is highly recommended for this fight, as its transformed L2 attack can easily hit Amygdala when you lock onto her after she lands on the ground.
Moveset
Here are all the attacks you have to look out for while facing Amygdala in Bloodborne:
- Stomp: Raises her legs to crush you underneath.
- Reaction: Dodge away when she raises her leg.
- Laser: She has two laser attacks. One where she sends a continuous beam across the arena. The other is where she fires multiple shots directly at you. The lasers explode after some delay.
- Reaction: Start running away from the direction of the laser until it stops. Or stick under her to avoid it altogether.
- Vomit: Pukes out a greyish discharge in front of her that deals fire damage.
- Reaction: Move under her near her legs to escape the pool.
- Arms Swing: Sweeps her hand in front of her. Can chain them with multiple hits if you are close.
- Reaction: Back off out of reach or run underneath her. The palm smash at the end lowers her head leaving it vulnerable to hits.
- Arms Flailing: All of the arms will swing wildly in her radius.
- Reaction: Hard to predict. Place yourself between the feet to completely ignore this attack.
- Thrust: Stretches her arms out to get you from a distance. It ends with a palm slam.
- Reaction: Move under her or back off out of range. Attack the head after the last attack in this combo.
- Palm Slam: Lifts all four of her primary arms and slams them onto the ground in front.
- Reaction: Move under her or back off. Target the head once it is over.
- Leap Stomp: Jumps in the air and drops down on you. She will start chaining more leaps in the later stages of the fight.
- Reaction: Stand still when she jumps. She will miss you if you don’t move. You can attack the head as soon as she lands.
Rewards for Defeating Amygdala
You’ll receive 21,000 Blood Echoes and the Ailing Loran Chalice after you have defeated Amygdala in Bloodborne. You can use this Chalice to create Loran Dungeons from the Hunter’s Dream.