Now this is a boss fight that will be remembered through the ages. Lady Maria of The Astral Clocktower is a supercharged Hunter in Bloodborne. The beginning of the fight is relatively easier and ends with a blazing bloody bang literally. Do not take this corpse lightly for she is an apex predator even after passing away.
For such a breakneck boss, there are a few glaring weaknesses we can exploit. So read the whole guide to make this fight a breeze.
Fighting Lady Maria Of The Astral Clocktower
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower is a crazy boss. She uses her Hunter knowledge and weapons to perfection. She is fast, has multiple quick attacks, and later down the line she uses blood and fire to turn this fight into a spectacle of sublime slices. And to top it off, she has a staggering 3 distinct phases.
She begins the fight with the pistol in her off-hand and a Rakuyo in her primary. This weapon is like a normal katana-like sword that breaks apart into a dagger in one hand and a sword in the other. She transforms this weapon on the fly in this phase of the fight. She uses both the swords and the pistol like a Hunter should and the fight is pretty ordinary for now.
The next phase sees her stabbing herself with the dual blades causing a small blood AOE. From here on, she ditches her pistol since all her regular attacks are heightened with a much longer reach due to the blood effect. She adds new attacks into the mix that come out fast and the reach is insane.
Speaking of insane, the third phase begins with her hovering off the ground with another bloody explosion which is much larger. The lethality of her attacks turns up to 100 with the addition of fire on top of the blood effect. Every attack ends with a delayed fire trace and the range of each attack is even more extended.
Needless to say, this roller coaster of a fight only goes up and up with no downtime in the middle. You need to be on top of your game to face her mano a womano.
Or you can use a nifty little trick that I didn’t even know about when I faced her for the first time. It makes this fight trivial as hell. Check the boss strategy section below for your answers.
Here are some tips you can use when facing Lady Maria Of The Astral Clocktower in Bloodborne:
- She is weaker to Bolt Damage compared to rest but not much. Buff your weapons with Bolt Paper to exploit this weakness.
- You can parry her attack in all her phases and that too quite easily.
- A quicker weapon is recommended for this fight.
- Dodging to the left side to negate most of her attacks.
- The Augur of Ebrietas spell makes this fight incredibly easy.
Boss Strategy
We won’t go over a strategy for all the different phases and changes in the moveset as they will be redundant if you employ these simple tactics. It’s all you need to do regardless of her phase. This strategy is almost a cheese in my opinion but not really since you are using the normal mechanics of the game against her.
What you should be doing is go in and attack her 2 to 3 times and start spamming your firearm. The Blunderbuss’s wide spread shot works really well in this fight. By doing so, you will parry most of her incoming attacks more often than not. As soon as she kneels after the parry, go for a Visceral Attack.
As she tries to recover herself, keep attacking her. When she gets back up, start spamming fire, and she will go down again, and you can continue to Visceral Attack her to oblivion.
You might have to fire the weapon twice or thrice in later phases, and she will eventually stagger, leading up to a Visceral Attack.
Some of her attacks might still hit you while you are spamming fire but you can recover that health by Rallying through the Visceral Attacks. If you run out of bullets, just press the Triangle to replenish 5 bullets at the cost of some health.
Another cheese is possible if you spam the Augur of Ebrietas spell. This spell will throw her down once, and the next time, she will stagger, and you can perform a Visceral Attack.
You can keep doing this for the first two phases, and in the third phase, she won’t stagger, but she will keep falling. Keep spamming and this enormous challenge of a fight will be over before you even know it.
Rewards for Defeating Lady Maria Of The Astral Clocktower
Once you defeat Lady Maria in Bloodborne, you’ll receive 39,000 Blood Echoes and the Celestial Dial. Use the Dial to interact with the giant clock behind Maria’s throne to gain access to the Fishing Hamlet.
Furthermore, you can now buy the Lady Maria Hunter Set from the Insight Bath Messengers in Hunter’s Dream.