Vicar Amelia is an innocent overgrown Golden Retriever of a boss in Bloodborne. She must be defeated to progress the world to nighttime, applying some crucial changes to the game. Don’t let her harmless looks get to you, she is a vicious beast, ready to rip you apart at a moment’s notice.
With the help of this detailed article, you will tame this she-beast and put her to rest once and for all.
Fighting Vicar Amelia
The cutscene preceding the boss fight will show a frail woman transforming into this monstrosity. Even though she has left her humanity behind, she still clutches onto a Golden Pendant a reminder of times before the madness overtook this world.
As for the boss fight, it’s all about reacting to her series of swipes, slams, and slashes. Her attacks have a wide variety, able to catch you wherever you stand in the arena or near her. For this reason, you have to rely on your dodging skills rather than look for some safe zone.
She has two phases, but they are largely the same other than the addition of a few new combos and the ability to heal herself. She doesn’t have anything drastic up her sleeve. It is a very straightforward melee engagement designed to test your dodging skills.
Here are some tips you can use when facing Vicar Amelia in Bloodborne:
- The boss is super weak to Fire Damage. Bring in a few Fire Paper to the fight, and things will get much easier.
- Molotov Cocktails used after dousing her with Oil Urns have their benefits, like staggering her, but her health is too gigantic to make any meaningful dent.
- Bring in the maximum number of Blood Vials you can carry. You will need it!
- Weapons with the “VS Beast” attribute will deal more damage to the boss.
- Her legs are her weak points. Dealing enough damage to them will drop her to the ground, opening the window to perform a Visceral Attack.
- Her head is the real weak point. The only way to get to the head is to deal enough damage to her legs or arms. When she collapses, it is your time to go crazy on the head.
- Unlike other bosses of this type, avoid sticking to her backside. This will obstruct your view from any incoming attack.
- Higher-reaching weapons like the Threaded Cane in whip form will attack her head even when she is standing.
- The Numbing Mist will stop her from healing if used at the right time.
- You can not summon other players during this fight if you haven’t opened the giant gate in the Central Plaza in Cathedral Ward.
- You can summon Old Hunter Henriet to make this fight incredibly easy.
Boss Strategy
As mentioned before, this fight is there to test your mettle i.e. dodging skills. Parrying with the gun is not helpful in this fight. There are no two ways to it. Apply Fire Paper to your weapon to deal the most damage. Her health pool is surprisingly huge so get ready for a lengthy fight.
The trick is to watch for windows in between her attacks to deal damage of your own and go back to a defensive stance. Don’t overextend your combos, only 1 or 2 hits in not more. Her attacks come out fast so you need to conserve your stamina to dodge them effectively.
Dodging into the attacks or towards the boss is recommended. This way, you will always be positioned next to her after her attacks to exploit the small windows. The arena is pretty narrow, so your dodging game should be on point; otherwise, you’ll corner yourself, spelling disastrous for you.
Distancing yourself from her will force her to use lunging attacks and shockwaves that are quite lethal or give her an opening to start healing in the later stages of the fight. Stick to her like glue, do not let her heal as it will only prolong the fight.
It is an exercise in attrition so keep up the pressure and use everything we have stated before to give you some edge during the fight.
Moveset
Here are all the attacks you have to look out for:
- Ground Claw: Claws the ground with her right hand.
- Reaction: Dodge right.
- Backhand: Swipes her hand backward.
- Reaction: Dodge right.
- Swing: Swings her right fist in front. She might chain the Ground Claw or Backhand attack after this attack.
- Reaction: Dodge right.
- Slam: Slams her left hand once on the ground in front. If she uses her right hand for this attack, she will perform three consecutive slams.
- Reaction: Dodge to the side. For the three slams, dodge and back off or position yourself behind her to deal some damage.
- Bite: She swipes her head straight in front to take a bite out of you.
- Reaction: Dodge to the side and avoid her front side.
- Hug: Opens both her hands wide and then tries to grab you in front of her. The grab attack is quite lethal.
- Reaction: As soon as you see those arms open wide, dodge to the sides.
- Double-Fisted Slam: Joins her hands together and raises up to slam them right in front. The attack sends a straight medium-range shock wave.
- Reaction: Look at her as she rises up and as soon as she reaches the max height dodge to a side.
- Lunge: Runs all fours towards you and leaps in the air to deliver a fist.
- Reaction: When she is about to land, dodge to the left. The recovery after this attack is long so exploit it effectively.
- Double Swipe: Uses both her hands to swipe in front.
- Reaction: Dodge to the side.
- Turning Backhand: If you are behind her, she will use either of her hands to perform a backhand sipe to catch you.
- Reaction: Dodge into the direction the attack is coming from.
- Reposition Backhand: Performs a lefthand backhand swipe followed by a jump away from you.
- Reaction: Dodge to the side.
- Wide Sweep: Uses her long arms to sweep the area in front of her and even some of her sides.
- Reaction: Dodge right into the sweep.
- Healing: Joins her hands and emits a light that heals her.
- Reaction: Move in quickly and start attacking her to stop this healing.
- Massive Combos: In the last stages of the fight, she will start chaining together multiple attacks mentioned above.
- Reaction: React accordingly.
How to Cheese Vicar Amelia
The Vicar Amelia cheese in Bloodborne is only possible after you have activated the boss fight and have either died or teleported out. The fog gate must be present for the cheese to work.
Go up to the fog gate and position yourself right at the left corner where the fog gate meets the pillar. The exact location can be seen in the picture above. Position yourself in the corner in a way that there will be the pillar in front and still get the option to Traverse the fog gate.
Press the X button, and you will move through the pillar and into the boss arena. If you do it right, the boss’s AI will be broken, and she will stand in place and not attack. You can keep attacking her, and she won’t react. The boss’s health bar won’t appear during this time, but you should just keep attacking her until she dies.
If this doesn’t work, then simply quit the game, load back in, and try again.
Rewards for Defeating Vicar Amelia
Defeating Vicar Amelia will net in 15,000 Blood Echoes along with a Gold Pendant. Consume the Gold Pendant from your inventory to transform it into a Gold Blood Gem. Equipping this gem to your weapon will increase its damage against beast-type enemies.