Once you have worked your way through The First Berserker: Khazan‘s Forgotten Temple dungeon, you’ll find yourself facing off against Viper. This foe has an expansive moveset, and is capable of closing large distances in the blink of an eye. Worse yet, once you think it is finally over, he reveals his second form.
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This guide will break down Viper’s many attacks, show you when he is vulnerable, and help you overcome this dangerous dragonkin. While this is unquestionably a tough fight, we can see you through it and help you take victory by the fangs!
This guide was written without utilizing the Spirit of Assistance, and on the normal difficulty. So, these strategies should be viable in every scenario.
Recommended Build For Viper
While there are a number of builds that can work well in this fight, I found that the Greatsword was the most effective weapon, especially since a charged heavy attack will disrupt most of Vipers attacks in his first form. If you decide to go with the great sword, make sure you invest in Manifest Power and the Ghost Arm Block skills. That way your charged attack will hit harder, and you will be able to block while charging it.
Viper’s second form will be unphased by charged greatsword attacks, so don’t bank on disrupting him once he is in that beefed-up form.
However, no matter which weapon you use, make sure to invest in less stamina cost from both dodging and guarding. The more stamina at your disposal, the better. Additionally, you’ll probably want to enhance the damage of javelin throws, as there are a number of great opportunities to land it. Increasing spirit gain is also valuable for that same reason.
Viper’s First Form
Viper will swing wind up (to the left), then deliver a horizontal slash which will transition into him swirling his spear above his head before pausing and delivering a second large slash. If you use a perfect guard on both of these attacks, you’ll be able to punish Viper after that second slash.
If Viper doesn’t start swinging his spear above his head, then he is going to follow up with a second quick slash. So, stay deadly aware of what he does after that first slash, as that quick second slash is hard to block if you aren’t anticipating it.
Another two-hit combo that Viper likes to use sees him spin his spear in front of him before he spins around and delivers a large horizontal slash. Perfect guard these attacks, and you can punish him after that second slash.
When Viper aims the point of their spear at you, they are going to stab at you twice before delivering a horizontal slash. Perfect guard these three attacks and you’ll have a perfect opportunity to follow up with an attack of your own.
If Viper winds up their attack to your right, they are going to deliver a large slash and then hop away. When he hops away, he’ll sometimes throw his spear at you. So, when he lands after that backward hop, keep a keen eye on him. If he winds up, he’s going to throw the spear at you. If he does that, dodge through it, chase him down, and deliver an attack.
The Second Phase Of Viper’s First Form
Once you have removed around a third of Viper’s health, he’ll start spinning his spear around his body, creating a whirlwind. If you are close to him, you will be sucked into this attack and take damage. So, if you see Viper doing this, run away. While he is spinning that spear around, he is a sitting duck, so you can light him up with javelin throws. You can hit him with quite a few of these.
After he gives himself the whirlwind buff, he’ll start performing an attack where he leaps high up into the air before plunging down on top of you. This is actually good news for you. Just dodge the moment before he lands, and he will be wide open for a big attack.
He has another leaping attack where he will scamper to his side, then lunge at you with a slashing attack. He’ll often perform this attack twice in a row. When you see Viper kneeling down at a distance, with one hand on the ground, he’s going to perform that lunging attack. If you start sprinting to your side, it will make this lunging attack much easier to dodge.
Viper will also gain another long-range throwing spear attack. If you see him charging up an attack at a distance, prepare to dodge that spinning spear. For this projectile, you’ll always want to dodge to your right, as Viper repositions himself, causing his boomeranging spear to come back to your left.
If Viper spins backward, then he is preparing to lunge forward with a stabbing attack. This is one of the scariest attacks he has, as it does a ton of damage. Don’t try running away, as he will catch up to you. Instead, dodge toward him and to your right as he is lunging toward you with his spear. Once you have the timing of this attack figured out, you’ll be rewarded with a great punish opportunity.
Viper’s spear tip will glisten the moment before he lunges at you. You can use that as a cue to avoid this attack.
When Viper slams his spear down to his side, he’s going to spin his spear around between both arms and then he’s going to perform a five-slash combo. When he is engaged in this sequence, he is stuck in place. So, you can run away and toss javelins at him during this entire sequence. Moreover, you can rush in after the fifth swing to deliver a big attack, as he’ll be quite vulnerable. So, try to get into range as he is nearing the end of this combo.
Viper’s Second Form
Once you defeat the second phase of Viper’s first form you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that you are only halfway there. While this is, unquestionably, a bit deflating, his second form is definitely less scary. For starters, Viper’s attacks will now have much worse range. When he wants to get in close, he will have to run into range. You should take advantage of this by always being outside of his sword slash range.
He will slash with his sword twice. While you can use your perfect guard to block these attacks and then punish him accordingly, but you’ll probably be low on health, so playing things a little more cautiously makes more sense. When he is doing this two-attack combo, you can throw a javelin or two at him. Occasionally, this two-hit combo becomes a four-hit combo, which will cause him to stumble forward, leaving him super vulnerable.
When Viper runs at you to close that distance, he’ll either slam his fist down, or perform an upward slash followed by a downward fist slam. You’ll know the upward slash is coming if he is dragging his claw while he runs at you. Perfectly dodging either of these will leave him open to a big attack.
He also has an unblockable Burst Attack, but this is a very short-range fist slam. So, if you see that sign indicating a burst attack is coming, keep a little distance, then move in and punish him with a big attack.
The Second Phase Of Viper’s Second Form
Viper will enter into the second phase of his second form once you have his health down to around half. At that point, he’ll do the same thing as before, creating a whirlwind around himself. However, unlike last time, this doesn’t just give him new attacks. It will also cause the arena to go pitch black. He’ll now start using his first form’s lunging attacks all over again.
Instead of trying to perfect dodge or perfect guard these lunging attacks, start running to the side, and he will miss most of these lunging attacks. After you dodge three or four of these lunging attacks, and a running attack or two, he will use his jump attack again. However, this time, after landing, he will slam the ground and cause an explosion all around him. So, dodge the jump attack, then get a little distance, and rush in after the explosion to land a big attack.
The darkness will fade after he performs the jump attack, but he will now start using his jump attack and lunging attack for the remainder of the fight. Otherwise, he is the same as he was before he caused the storm. Just keep yourself at the right distance, and punish his big attacks when they whiff, and you’ll be golden.
Defeating Viper will reward you with Hismar’s Scale, the Fallen Lord’s Spear, Fallen Lord’s Shoes, Necklace of Good Fortune, Augment of Wisdom, and three Transmutation Mists.
