I've been having a surprisingly (I'm not really a gamer) easy time with hard mode so far until Rufus. I rage quit after 2 hours of following other guides and failing miserably, then trying my own strategy and getting SO close until Rufus and Darkstar pingponged me. I'll try your method tomorrow when I am no longer seething. Rufus, buddy, I love ya, but please, for my sanity, cooperate tomorrow. 😔
You’re simply a lifesaver my dude. I combined this strategy with saving the lvl3 limit break for Darkstar and caught them both in it and it was over before you knew it. Thanks for this guide!
I fell just short with that so swapped to speed demon keychain and Gilgamesh summon. Gilgamesh took them both out lol. This video got me there tho, what a chore of a fight
You can still tripple slash "tread softly" if you put elemental materia s2 × thunder in your armour slot. It's electro damage, and once you're immun to it, you are also imun to its stun. Ask reno, he hates that trick.
You have the best guides. Your Roche one was the only one I could find that actually explained what to do. I had no MP left when I got to him and so many guides just showed them beating him in a minute but didn’t explain anything. Appreciate your videos and the details.
Thank you! All your boss guides (from Dyne to Rufus) worked for me, you're a lifesaver! Although, not perfectly executed as yours but still managed to beat them with your guide.
Thanks for all your hard mode boss guides. I've used them quite a bit, particularly Dyne (Ch 8), Roche (Ch 11) and now Rufus. Honestly this fight was very intimidating at first and did take me longer to clear than any of the bosses so far, but that was mostly due to having to master the block timing when he shoots his weapon. For anyone else still stuck on Rufus, I sort of modified this strategy to suit my style. When I used triple slash on him I would just hack him with Cloud's sword 7 times after the triple slash. This is the number I determined was safe and I could still block him when he shoots. About 1 second after the 7th hit, he'll shoot. Once you get this block timing down, if you do a perfect block you'll take no damage and instantly recover an entire ATB. That was the key to being competitive, since I was wasting a lot of ATB on Chakra or Healing spells just to stay in the fight. Enhanced Expeditionary Medal is also a must imo. I was able to get off two limit breaks in the 2nd phase when he brought out Darkstar, and on the second one I had them both so low the limit KO'd both of them. I had around 500 HP left and had taken Rufus' ultimate attack head on twice (luckily had ATB and could instantly cast healing spells to get back to full HP). ATB Boost materia was also huge for me in this fight. Rufus is a tough boss for sure but work on your evasive movements and block timing, once you master that he is not as scary as he seems. Also thanks to everyone in the comments about messing up the retry battle in the menu and having to play the Turks again. I made this mistake in previous chapters that had multiple bosses at this end, but this was one that I especially wanted to avoid that. Thanks to all of your comments I had good awareness not to do it this time
What things did you have that let you charge limit faster? I never get limit in this fight. By the time I do I would be able to stagger him the second time and kill him that way.
@@DannyPotato For the most part you build limit in this fight by blocking Rufus' shots and taking damage. Obviously you don't want to take damage because of how aggro he is, so it's primarily going to come from getting perfect blocks on his shots. Especially when he just shoots between his named attacks, if you can get blocks on those it'll build the limit way faster. But you absolutely must get a block when he shoots after you pressure him with triple slash, those are freebies once you understand the timing. I had the same problem building limit when I did this. Luckily between blocking and taking his ultimate attack head on, I was able to get two limits and the second one was good for the KO. As far as items on my build that increased the limit gauge, I didnt have any. Enhanced Expeditionary Medal just gives you the Level 3 limit from the beginning but you still have to fill the gauge during the fight.
This is exactly what I was looking for! The gimmick builds I found just don’t mesh well with my play style and I really just wanted tips for improving my skills to beat him without having to use builds that aren’t familiar to me/don’t feel natural
Raged so hard and then I beat him with this loadout after a couple tries, triple slash as he’s beginning a special move really made the difference for me, had no idea I could interrupt him
Appreciate this dude! I’ve been breezing through hard mode for the most part but I got stumped by this part in particular! But your technique was easily to follow and was able to beat it immediately after. GJ on this one.
Wow! This is the best one I’ve seen. I hated this fight even before without any guides. I did check 2 strats where it wants you to attack after his abilities, but it’s not that good. This one is the best! I finally beat him! Thank you!
THANK YOU FOR BRINGING UP THE TRIPLE SLASH. All other guides say to just triple slash when he reloads. It made this fight so much longer than it needed to be, I literally beat him two tries after watching this
@@mamoruchiba752 the game specifically says AFTER he attacks, not during or before, so still, this guide specifying to use it as soon as you see the name of the move pop up is still valid
Thank you so much for this! This fight was driving me mad! 😡 I tried a few other videos but they weren’t working for me, but managed this strategy on my first try! 🙌🏻
Highed reccomend enhanced expeditionary medal and then farm limit gauge by blocking in phase 1 so you have a full limit gauge for phase 2. Then once you stagged him in phase 2 use infinity blade into lvl 3 limit.
Okay so I fought Elena and Rude for an hour and a half, and Rufus for an hour and a half, and then went to reset and accidentally hit restart from first battle. I rage quit. I went back and used these techniques and beat Rude and Elena in less than five minutes and got Rufus in about ten. Thank you!
Man I can't thank you enough, I was beyond discouraged because I just couldn't beat him on hard no matter how much and hard I tried, for like an hour flat just about; I needed to see this more than you know, now I feel hopeful I'll be able to beat him; I never thought to focus thrust and triple slash him while he's attacking or right after evading it, plus it's been taking a lot longer for my atb gauges to fill up I see why now! I'm gonna try again tomorrow with this strategy as well as the Aeroga magnify one or kinda mix them; do you got Discord by any chance?
Just beat him using a fair amount of this strategy guide. Finding when I can use focus thrust was absolutely pivotal. I used heal/regen with quickcast and haste. ATB boost saved my bacon a few times too. That 2nd stage was utter trash. So glad I saved Gilgamesh for the 2nd round. Absolutely crucial that he pressured them and I had a Cross Slash in the bank. Still came down to a last millisecond focus thrust to stagger him and finish him off. I was a fraction of a sec away from being countered like a bum. Soooooo relieved.
Amazing video. Thank to you this fight was so much easier. I staggered and got Rufus down to the minimum then when darkstar entered, I saved my limit break, unleashed on rufus and the battle was won! Thank you!
Still dying. I know this works cuz I've almost gotten it a few times. I keep forgetting to put triple slash back on my shortcuts each time I have to redo it. I see his health sub 10% and I get excited, lose focus, and get careless
Guide helped me get close after about a dozen tries and resetting my loadout over and over again before Rufus just decided to not get pressured when I hit him with Triple Slash when he had a sliver of life left, killed me, and then I accidentally restarted before the battle with Rude and Elena. Hours of my day wasted. I'm done with this for a long while. Edit: I finally got a good pattern similar to this vid and managed to finish him off. I will never play this Chapter on hard mode ever again. Lol
Great video. I was doing this on hard and blew all my MP on the Turks because I'd forgotten all about Rufus. I'm using the queued Chakra trick to get better healing when I have 2 bars.
Just wanted to say great hard mode guide. This fight was my least favorite aside from ruler of outer worlds and the games final set of boss fights. They went from Pt.1/remake being a fun challenge to get plat, on to rebirth being a literal slog of drawn out mini game hell and tedious and pointless quests that felt more like chores than actual video game fun. I hope they don’t continue this lame trend for part 3. The legendary and brutal challenges weren’t rewarding in my opinion it was “how can I brumal spam my way to victory or use lame repetitive tactics. Not saying it needed to be easy but Remake/pt1 had the right balance. Even Weiss and Pride and Joy felt good to overcome vs this game it’s terrible challenges and boss fights on hard mode. That’s just my personal opinion and experience I hope many had fun because I didn’t on hard. Now I just resent this game and I did finally get plat by using this guide and other creators for the challenges etc. thank you for such a nice upload. Let’s hope part 3 isn’t so miserable.
After watching this, i have spent 2 1/2 hours raging because of getting stun locked to death in phase 2. Everytime i try to dodge the assault attack, it catches me mid-roll anyway. I'm so frustrated. Regardless of what I do i get stun locked to death. Would be great if I didn't have to change my loadout after every attempt
This fight is made harder because of how fast his stupid ass is with his attacks. You choose the wrong ability at the wrong time and you get F’d. Then when you get to the damn dog, they purposely made it so you can’t see whether or not the dog is attacking you cause it goes off screen. It’s so sadistic.
Agreed! But damn this fight was harder than Malenia, and I’m talking both melee and magic based builds in Elden ring. Rufus adds artificial gimmick difficulty by randomly making the countering mechanics different than any other fight in the game. Of course it’s much easier once you know what to do but still didn’t feel fun or satisfying to win like it was with Malenia, countering her aggro was hard but with the right weapon arts she is a cake walk vs Rufus the dufus where it felt like I just learned gimmick spam counter.
Think i lucked out and first timed it. I found the Turks harder. I ate a lot of dirt at the beginning of the fight but adapted as it went on and i rememeber his deal from part one and the dynamic mode run. He honestly reminded me more of a Sekiro boss. The key was to learn exactly when his short punishment windows are, when you cant attack him or should dodge rather than block and not be punished by him. My Cloud had no magic materia save for Barrier. The rest was command and complete materia mostly. Chakra most important Darkside Enemy skill (sonic boom primarily) ATB stagger Skill master Strength Up maxed Precision def Steadfast block First strike Thats what i rememeber off of the top of my head. Gear. Igneous saber for max attack One of the grade XII or XIII armlets Enhanced Karmic Cowl (i think) Video is on my channel. Im not a youtuber but i like archiving fights I enjoyed. I'm not a particularly skilled player so i think the materia and equipment loadout carried me.
I wish I could practise the second phase parrying the dog without going through the first one every time. The dog attacks pretty often before Rufus uses a move.
Just want to say thank you so much for your hard mode boss videos. Such great advice and they’ve saved me a lot of time and frustration. I do want to ask: what camera settings do you use? I can’t seem to keep Rufus in the frame. I understand that him moving so fast and frequently is part of the difficulty, but it seems like I’m using my right toggle way more than I should be. It makes dodging/blocking pretty difficult. Maybe I just need to be patient and practice more.
I set the distance to 3 (max) and keep everything else default. I tried the manual camera movement with the right stick, but it got annoying since you constantly need to readjust when changing targets.
Thanks for not using items that I do not have at the moment, the god tier weapon that starts with a G. Almost every youtuber review of the boss fights has it equipped.
Bro just trivialised him when i just brute forced it... aggressive ATB recovery, chakra heals outpacing his damage and parrying/punishing when i could.
Just use enemy skill plasma, it pressures Rufus and you can use multiple thrusts to stagger in first phase. Should be able to stagger continuous in 2nd phase but I was lucky I didn't need to you thrust to break free. Lastly use your ultimate. Clouds non wind element ATB can pressure but didn't always work and Rufus is quick at times!.
This. Plasma Discharge + Steadfast Block means that blocking his attacks will get you enough ATB to pop, which will pressure him for free if he's close enough. You can then mash on him for a good bit for pressure and another pop, or you can go right into Focused Thrust.
Definitely saving this on my phone because I had to leave my home pissed off unable to beat him in hard mode. Once I get home I'm triple slashing the shit out of him. (I still dont understand how I beat him in dynamic it just sort of happened 😂😂) Also mad the devs didn't think oh you changed your loadout just before his fight. Sorry it wont save do again. . .oh you lost do it again and again and again. Still though out of the whole game I still believe minigames are the hardest thing to finish 😂😂
It took me 4 long hours to beat him on hard! You lose a lot of times until you get better. but I think nothing is more difficult than the piano mini game
Rufus just cheats. He ignores the game mechanics about 75% of the time and just hits me even when I'm dodging, or counters even when I catch him after an attack or on Reload. Also, Cloud has a nasty habit of charging forward to strike instead of using his air slash after I dodge. This strategy is helping, I'm making more progress, but it is a frustrating fight. Edit: I did finally beat him, Equipped the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal, and saved my Limit Break for Dark Star. Then summoned Bahamut to finish the job. Had to play very conservatively to make sure I lasted until Bahamut used Giga Flare.
@@yoshieggshaha the only way I was able to do it was stay close to him and as soon as he ended an ability that forced him to reload I would start braver before reload even popped
Same lol you actually wanna stay close to him bc of this, now of course this needs knowledge and timing but it's a dance and a fun dance on top of it. Only videos I see are: run away and pressure him lol
@@TheOfficialNewboh see you too figured out that you have to stay close and dance with him. Well I don't expect much from people nowadays, they want everything to be easy lol (aside from those hardcore gamers)
Equip fire and elemental on your armour. Elemental should be at least 2 stars by hard mode so at least no damage from think fast. You can then braver through it and stagger him. Keep moving around at distance, equip steadfast block and precision defence and get good at blocking the normal shots he does when he comes in. I used darkside + strength up materia along with the sleek sabre with both attack power buffs and the draconic ring to build limit break during 1st phase. That way when dark star comes out you can sonic boom for the brave status then cross slash Rufus to kill him (or nearly) in 1 shot 2nd phase
How do you gain access to the enhanced crafts? Im in hard mode byt only the Genji items are listed as new crafts. Edit: you get the enhanced recipe from one of the Gold Saucer or Corel Prison arena rewards. Dont recall which
The limit break accessory isn't even that good that's what's sad. If it gave us the level two or level 3 limit break immediately would be worth it to the only point of it now is for easy content or limit siphon use planet protection for gimmick fights or fuckin rising fury with expeditionary medal on the other character or two in order to be able to cast semi effective limit breaks which were seriously nerfed in this game along with most other things
I beat Rufus on hard mode thanks to your guide. I don't think the difficulty spike is the problem it's just that you need to go through the Turks everytime you want to attempt to beat him on hard mode that makes it annoying to practice
"No MP required." Do people even use MP? The game is set up so that it's not even worth using in most cases. The only time I ever do is to heal outside of battle or when I'm wanting to be a mage.
@@Akihito_Kanbara Don't bother saving Elixirs or rare consumables for Hard Mode (if you plan on playing Hard Mode). You can't use them at all, and MP becomes a precious resource.
@@TSouL22 oh my bad completely missed it says Hard Mode. I'm still sitting in Ch.13. unfortunately won't be going any further after finishing the story because Dragons Dogma 2 is going to consume my life for the next few months 🤣
Did you beat mythril golem on hard without any MP? I thundaga’d the sh*t out of its head over and over until it died . Would have been a struggle otherwise.
Ye doesnt work for me , the peice of shit rufus just keeps on sliding into me until he counters me and keeps damaging me , i cant even beat his first phase
Love ff games but not great video game player. These fights make me stop playing. I quit. Not trying any more ff games if the normal difficulty is this difficult.
There's an easier difficulty made for people that don't like that kind of challenge. Tbh normal mode is okay. Too bad you had to quit this amazing game.
Ty sir! 🫡 Not only was this fight annoying, I also had to redo the first fight because i clicked the wrong option to continue from rufus. I was heated 😂