Developer FromSoftware has made a name for itself by designing some of the best combat and boss encounters over the last decade of gaming. This has continued to be the case with the most recent title Elden Ring, but some bosses from the developer's catalog still haven't been surpassed, such as many of the encounters Bloodborne throws at players.
One particular boss that continues to stand out among fans is the Orphan of Kos, who acts as a perfect secondary climax to the game after being introduced in the Old Hunters DLC. This is thanks not only to how perfectly the boss fits into the lore of Bloodborne, but also to the impressive difficulty that the Orphan brings to the end of this additional content.
Orphan of Kos Forces the Player to be Aggressive
As any veteran Soulsborne player is always happy to explain at any given moment, it's always better to dodge toward the fastest and most powerful bosses. However, while this might already be common knowledge for players, few bosses quite hammer this strategy in harder than the Orphan of Kos. This is because, where Bloodborne's Old Hunters DLC already pushed players towards fast-paced and aggressive gameplay, Orphan of Kos combines a hyper-speed moveset with punishing distance attacks.
Many enemies in Bloodborne have different ways to rush in on the player and force them back into combat immediately, but not all have the ability to pull back on their own and throw attacks from a distance. In contrast, Orphan of Kos is able to throw bloody projectiles, which can be used after jumping into the air and pushing backward while slamming its weapon into the ground where it had previously stood. Some of these attacks allow the boss to both control the pace of battle and keep the pressure on while the player attempts to retreat and heal. It's this control of the battlefield and utility at any distance that helps make Orphan of Kos one of the most powerful bosses in Bloodborne.
Beyond the ability to fight at any distance, however, the Orphan of Kos also had lightning-fast attacks that would often chase players as each attack brought them farther and farther forward. This is one of the main reasons that the dodging forward method is so important in this fight. As some Bloodborne speedrunners have proven in world-record strategies, dodging directly into each of Orphan of Kos' attacks will open the boss up for punishment, both after a combo has ended and even in the middle of the long strings of attacks.
Orphan of Kos' Second Phase Forces Players to Pay Attention to the Environment
In addition to having a hyper-fast moveset that keeps the player under pressure from beginning to end, Orphan of Kos is also one of few enemies that use its environment to its advantage. Many of the boss arenas in Bloodborne are mostly empty rooms that essentially act as a big, free stomping ground for the giant bosses to flail around in. However, some notable bosses like Orphan of Kos, Witch of Hemwick, or Father Gascoigne include some environmental factors that players need to pay attention to, like gravestones or broken scaffolding.
The biggest way that Orphan of Kos forces players to pay attention to the environment mostly comes in the second phase, although the edge of the map can instantly kill an unprepared player who falls into the water. In the second phase of the fight, Orphan of Kos gains the ability to summon a lightning strike into the open water at the edge of the arena, which then crawls up the beach and all the way to the entrance of the area. There is both a visual and audio tell for when this attack starts, but without looking out towards the beach, the player won't know how to avoid the attack.
To make this one specific attack even worse, the Orphan of Kos is able to start another combo in the time while the lightning crawls up from the beach. This is one of the most dangerous showings of how Orphan of Kos embodies the aggressive combat of Bloodborne that inspires similar titles, sometimes more than entries in the main Dark Souls series. The fast pace, punishing moveset and aggression of the Orphan of Kos comes together so well to perfectly cap off the Bloodborne experience after completing the rest of the base game.
Bloodborne is available for PS4.