Bloodborne: How to Beat Darkbeast Paarl

Darkbeast Paarl is a pain for so many reasons. He would be a difficult enough boss if it were just his lighting fast attacks, speed, and erratic movements you had to contend with, but he also resides in an area where the difficulty spikes somewhat, depending on your level. In this guide we’re going to show you how to beat Darkbeast Paarl in Bloodborne.

How to beat Darkbeast Paarl in Bloodborne

By the time you’ve reached the location Darkbeast Paarl resides in, Hypogean Gaol, you’ll have defeated a couple of bosses and will be feeling a little more confident in your understanding of how one stays alive in Bloodborne. I hope you enjoyed this brief confidence because you can now kiss it goodbye. Hypogean Gaol shelters a number of enemies who are fast, durable, and can kill you with one hit. Seriously, don’t let anything in that place get too close. Keep your weapon extended!

The only redeeming feature of Darkbeast Paarl is that he is located pretty near the first lamp in Hypdean Gaol. Between him and you there are a lot of those quick and powerful enemy types I described above but, rather than waste time and resources fighting them, I suggest you run right past them and head straight for Paarl. Once you drop into his area, any enemies that were chasing you will leave you be. All that’s left for you to do is walk through the mist and begin the fight.

The first thing you need to be aware of with Paarl is that he’s freakishly fast. His attacks are utterly relentless and he moves and jumps incredibly quickly. He can close in on you within the blink of an eye and so you want to be very careful when taking a moment to use a blood vial. His speed also means that locking onto him will make your camera go crazy so you’ll want to fight this one with your camera locked off.

Luckily thanks to his large size, you’ll rarely lose track of him. The speed and ferocity of his attacks means you absolutely DO NOT want to face him head on. It may be tempting to want to smash his face in, but he will defeat you in seconds with his swipe attacks, which are not only fast but deal massive damage.

Paarl has several attacks you’ll have to deal with, swiping, ground pound, AoE blast, leaping, and an electric pulse from his mouth. His swipes consist of him swiping at the player with both his left and right paws, the best defense against this is to dodge backwards. His ground pound is an AoE attack which emits a blast all around him.

He usually employs this when you’re underneath him but luckily it has a wind up time which is easy to see and grants you a few moments to get away. His leaping attack is usually used when you’ve managed to get a bit of distance between you and him and he wants to close in on you.

This attack is best dodged by rolling either right or left. When he emits the electric pulse from his mouth, you’ll want to avoid that and get at him from another angle, from behind is your safest bet.

The best strategy is to try and get underneath him and attack his legs. He is unable to attack you with his swipes whilst you’re underneath him but every so often he will start charging the lightning that surrounds him and use it to damage you.

Luckily, this attack takes a few moments to wind up and you’ll have a few seconds to roll away from him. A few strong attacks on one of his legs will cause the beast to collapse. Once he’s down, you will get a brief window of time to get in front of his skull and perform a visceral attack which will deal a good chunk of damage.

Be aware that once you’re underneath him, you’re still not out of the woods. Paarl is no fool and will often jump away from you when he realizes your tactics. His constant moving also makes his legs difficult to hit, but using this tactic is your most viable option.

After about one minute into the fight, Paarl will stand on his hind legs and infuse himself with more electricity. He will then attack with even more ferocity and range and his swipe attacks will now have electrical waves that you’ll need to avoid, try to get him down to a low amount of health before this point.

It is also worth noting that Paarl, like most enemies, is damaged greatly by being doused in oil and set alight. Throw an Oil Urn at him and then throw a Molotov Cocktail at him to deal significant damage.

Take note though, due to his speed, you’ll want to time your throws carefully. Standard Molotov’s do some damage and adding fire damage to your sword may help a little, but is not a game changer. Damage his legs until he’s stunned and then perform visceral attacks until the creature is dead. Once defeated, a short cut to Old Yharnam will be available.

That’s all you need to know for how to beat Darkbeast Paarl in Bloodborne. For more guides, tips, tricks, and any other assistance you may need, check out our wiki.