Maiden Astrea and her savior and worshipper, Garl Vinland, are technically two bosses In Demon’s Souls, but you kill either one, and the other refuses to fight. While this might be the most interesting fact about this boss battle yet there is much more to it. This fight is not particularly a difficult one but preparing well makes it that much easier.
To arm you with all the right knowledge about Maiden Astera and Garl Viland, we present you with this comprehensive walkthrough.
Fighting Maiden Astrea, Garl Vinland
Maiden Astrea is quite similar to the Old Monk. She is helpless and unable to fight hence she calls forward her loyal acquaintance, Garl Vinland. He is her knight in shining armor (literally) and wields the legendary Bramd with a shield.
Garl is laced with armor from head to toe and can easily block your physical attacks with his shield. He is not the most agile but surely makes up for that with his brute force. The swampy arena where you will fight him makes things slightly harder but it is nothing you cannot handle with a bit of preparation.
Here are some facts about the two bosses you should keep in mind before you jump in head first:
- Maiden Astrea does not attack you, and if you kill her first, then Garl Vinland will give up as well.
- If you kill Garl Vinland first, Maiden Astrea will take her own life when you get close to her.
- The worshippers you encounter in the arena are harmless at first but attack you halfway through the battle.
- Garl Vinland is the only threat in the whole interaction and is not particularly weak against anything.
- Both bosses can heal themselves if you leave them unattended for a specific time.
Moveset (Garl Vinland)
Since Maiden Astrea is harmless, we will only be covering the moveset of Garl Vinland. The Bramd is his main weapon so the moveset main revolves around that. Here is everything you need to know:
- Brmad Smash: He will raise his weapon in the air and smash it downwards. Due to the overall weight of the weapon, this attack takes a long time for him to recover from.
- Reaction: As soon as he raises it in the air, he cannot cancel the attack. Roll forward and get behind him to do your own attack.
- Bramd Slam: Garl will swing his Bramd in a diagonal direction.
- Reaction: This can easily be dodged by rolling in the opposite direction.
- God’s Wrath: This is a well-known spell that creates a force field around the caster and damages anyone who comes close.
- Reaction: Due to the long casting time, you can roll forward and hit Garl to cancel the spell or if you are too late in the animation, you can simply take a few steps back to get out the AoE.
Strategy
There is no one way to defeat Maiden Astrea and Garl Vinland in Demon’s Souls. There are multiple choices but all of them lead to the same outcome. We are going to discuss each one of them one by one.
Kill Garl Vinland
Once you are past the fog gate, kill the worshippers so they don’t become a hassle later on. Then walk down the path on your left, and at the end, you will find Garl waiting for you.
As soon as you engage in battle, he will do either one of his two physical attacks. Both of these have a long window between him engaging and actually landing the attack.
Once he raises his Bramd above his head, roll forward, get behind him, and start attacking from the back. During every one of his attacks, his back is the most vulnerable part of his body. You can attack him either with magic or physical attacks.
You will have ample time to strike more than once until he turns around. If you have a heavy melee weapon, you can knock him down on the ground as well. As soon as he turns around to attack you again, roll forward to get behind him and backstab him once again.
You can continue to do this until he no longer has any HP left. Then you can walk up to Maiden Astrea and she will commit suicide. She sometimes also uses God’s Wrath if you are close enough but the battle is already won.
Kill Maiden Astrea
If you choose the alternate path of not killing Garl Vinland but rather dealing with Maiden Astrea directly then the story unfolds a little differently. While doing this might prove to be a challenge because Garl will not let you do that to her lover and companion.
There are still ways to do it. To do this, you will need Fire Storm. You can use the first one on Garl. That will knock him out for a short while. Run around him and straight to the Maiden. Cast another Fire Storm on her and one should be enough to take her out.
If one isn’t enough, you can cast another one which will surely put her out for good. Once Garl Vinland sees that she is dead, he will no longer engage in battle and will just stand on the side.
How to Cheese Maiden Astrea, Garl Vinland in Demon’s Souls
This whole interaction between you, Garl Vinland, and the Maiden Astrea can be wrapped up easily if you do things a certain way. If you do this, you will never have to engage in any sort of combat and all you need is a bow and lots of arrows.
Once you get past the fog gates, kill the worshippers and walk down the left path. Make sure you do not go past the slight drop because that’s what Garl will engage in battle. If you are standing correctly, the Maiden should be in your clear line of sight.
Take out your bow and arrow and start raining arrows onto the Astrea. She will heal herself often but the damage you deal will be much faster than she can heal. Once she dies, Garl will lose all hope and you won’t have to fight him anymore.
Rewards For Defeating Maiden Astrea, Garl Vinland
Fighting the Maiden Astrea and Garl Vinland will net you the following rewards:
- x1 Pureblood Demon’s Soul
- x23400 Souls
- +45% White World Tendency
If you killed Garl first, you can get yourself the Bramd and the Crest of Vinland shield. Don’t worry if you avoided killing him. You can just reload your game after the Maiden is dead and Garl will no longer be there but the drops will be.