 Maneater |
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| Health | 2790 |  |
127 | ||||
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152 |
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103 | ||||
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152 |
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Strong | ||||
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152 |  |
Strong | ||||
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152 |
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Strong | ||||
| Location | Fool's Idol Archstone (3-2) | ||||||
| Reward/s | Mixed Demon's Soul | ||||||
Maneater is a Boss in Demon's Souls and Demon's Souls Remake. Bosses are special enemies that feature their own arena, a large and prominent health bar with its name indicated, a variety of unique moves and abilities, an ambient boss theme, and an Archstone that appears upon their death. Most bosses appear once the player passes through a fog gate nearby.
Maneater Location
Maneater is found at the end of the stairs, behind fog door.
World 3-2 (Fool's Idol Archstone or Upper Latria)
Maneater Rewards
- x1 Mixed Demon's Soul
- x13880 Souls
- +45% White World Tendency
Maneater Strategies
Video Strategies
Melee Strategy
- Meleeing the Maneaters requires strategy, skill, and patience.
- For beginners, the trick to successful meleeing is to separate the two Maneaters. If you try to melee both at the same time, you will be toast in no time.
- Even with Warding. Be careful not to fall or be knocked off the edge because it's very easy to.
- Cut off the tail first.
No shield melee
- Immediately upon entering the area, run past Maneater to the platform with a large brazier in the middle. This brazier will shield you from its melee and magic attacks. Most of them, anyway. It can and will hit you through it with its ground-based lunging attack, so be careful. You can dodge this reasonably easily, or just keep the central brazier between you and it. The brazier is very helpful in that you can attack almost through the edge of it with some weapons without exposing yourself as much as a direct attack would.
- The real fun comes when he spawns a second Maneater. The strategy only changes in that you should focus on burning down the one you've been damaging because trying to split your damage will just lead to your death. Try not to get it so they will start double attacking you. Many players have died from repeated rushes by both Maneaters. Patience is key here. If they both land at the same time and charge the central area with the brazier, it's best to run down the stairs for a minute. This will usually cause one to fly away again so you can return to the relative safe-zone and continue wearing them down.
- Note that if you've already caught both Maneaters' attention, it may be to your advantage to try to avoid cutting off their tails. As long as one keeps moving, the Soul Arrow attacks are easily heard and avoided, and a Maneater with its tail cut off will be more eager to mob you and use its melee attacks, including the dreaded pounce. It's a matter of weighing your options: If you can reliably interrupt a Maneater as it starts power-boosting, you may prefer having to do that and dodge Soul Arrows now and then rather than run a greater risk of having two Maneaters attack you at the same time.
Shields up melee
- Rolling around to dodge his attacks is asking for trouble. The biggest danger to your health is the environment, so play it safe and only dodge as a last resort. A decent shield and sensible stamina management will negate all of his physical attacks. If you want to make the fight easier just cast Warding. If he connects he will barely hurt you at all, even on NG+ and beyond.
- Note that this is a one-on-one strategy which assumes that you have taken out the first Maneater using the fog gate glitch.
Shield burst melee
- Pretty much the same thing as the shield strategy. Rolling will end badly if poorly done so try to block or dodge by running (not sprinting). When you see him get up and raising an arm simply walk back and when he punches the ground counter with a single swing. When you see him get down go to the side and if you can out of his way, since its the lunge attack. Try to keep your back turned to the fog or the brazier. In here if he lunges he will not fly away. Do the opposite if you need time to heal. When blocking his lunge (if you can't avoid) do it from an angle, not head-on. A heavy weapon, Enchanted will allow you to make the most of his openings, as long as you don't get greedy. Try to go for the tail first to restrict his attacks.
- When he nears 20% health the second Maneater will spawn. You want the first one near you and have good stamina and your weapons Enchanted if applicable. Now use that Stamina and destroy the first one. As long as you don't let him fly away or get your self surrounded this boss should be easy. On NG+ this becomes harder and will require better timing and powerful weapons.
- Firestorm Bait
- Make sure you have the thief ring equipped. When you enter the fog gate, immediately run past the first maneater. He will either pounce or bite himself with the snake. Once he attacks or starts boosting, get right next to him and cast firestorm. It will take out over half his health if you are close enough, even if you have low magic. Then run towards the fire brazier and stand behind it. He should follow you and try to attack. Dodge all of his attacks and he should either fly away or he’ll turn around and walk towards either fog gate. His AI will become screwed up and he’ll just stand there idle, staring at the fog gate. Immediately run up behind him and firestorm again. If you are close enough, he should die. The second maneater will spawn in, and you should repeat the same strategy.
Ranged Strategy
Stealth bow
- Works best in soul form.
- Have Thief's Ring and Cling Ring equipped. Just go through the fog gate and fire at him until it gets right up on you then run to the other side of the bridge. He will have a hard time keeping up with you so you may have to backtrack and lure him a bit but keep repeating the process until they are both dead. If you have a good bow it shouldn't take but a few rounds. Using the Lava Bow it's possible to kill the first one before the second shows up.
Brazier block
- Take out the first Maneater using the above-mentioned exploit (by shooting it with arrows through the fog door). Once you've passed through the boss fog, head to the middle of the walkway. Lure the remaining demon to the ground and keep the brazier between you and it. From here, you should be able to whittle away at his health in sniper mode, without it ever moving from this spot or presenting any danger to you.
Magic strategies
Firespray
- If you have Fire Spray and a good magic score, you can take out the first Maneater very quickly by running past it at the start, turning around and starting to spray it. It'll likely start loping toward you and you can simply back up while continuously spraying it. If you get its health down to 20% or so, regardless of how little time has passed, the second Maneater will show up. Finish off the first one and the second one can be handled using the same strategy. The trick is to find a way to make it jog towards you so you can spray it the whole time you're backing up. Fighting defensively around the central brazier isn't very effective with the Firespray spell as that is better for getting in single shots with Flame Thrower. If you have Firestorm, draw one or both to the central brazier and cut loose. They'll fry in record time. (Note: This works best with a magically inclined character, otherwise I would suggest using the bow strategy.)
Firestorm
- Use Firestorm with damage bonuses like Ring of Magical Sharpness, Kris Blade, Hyper Mode (30% health and Clever Rat's Ring and/or Morion Blade), Insanity Catalyst, and Monk's Head Collar. The first one will die in about one hit, two if it doesn't get the full brunt of the fire, leaving you alone with the second one: use the same strategy. The brazier is still helpful but remember, it will also shield Maneater from your spell. Bring with you a few Old Spice. I find this strategy quick and easy.
Note: Beware that the lunge can and will hit you from outside firestorm's range, most spellcasters can be in serious trouble if hit by his lunge. This method works well as long as you are prepared to dodge Maneater when he lunges.
Stealthy Poison Cloud
- If the above strategies don't work for you or recasting Poison Cloud is causing problems, try this: Equip Thief's Ring.
- First, sprint to the center brazier. Cast Poison Cloud. After he attacks you or flies up, sprint to the other side (opposite where you came in) to the fog. It should give up on you and start moving towards the entrance, but if not, go back to the torch and try again. Now, the spot you want to stay at is between the two broken pillars to the left (if viewed from the entrance side). There's the fog, then a very short pillar "stump," then a higher pillar "stump." Camp out between these and wait.
- The second Maneater will spawn and fly around nearby. Don't move. Hopefully, he'll fly around and come frighteningly close, but give up just before he's within detection range. He should turn around there. Walk (don't run) a little closer until you can lock-on and cast Poison Cloud . Three casts should kill him. After that, walk slowly towards the entrance and hope the other Maneater is facing the other direction. If not, repeat the first few steps until it dies. If it is facing the other direction, dispose of it like the other Maneater. Death Cloud does not affect Maneater.)
Stealthy Poison Cloud 2
- Equip the Thief's Ring and enter the fog. Run past the first maneater but do not go up the stairs. There is a small ledge to the right of the stairs that has a treasure corpse on it. Go and wait by the corpse and the first maneater will lose track of you and stand facing the fog door (back to you) close to the base of the steps. Approach from behind and poison him with Poison Cloud.
- When the second Maneater makes its entrance roar, go back and wait by the corpse. Wait until you stop hearing the second one fly around. This means he has lost you and you can continue poisoning the first Maneater.
Once the first one is dead, find the other Maneater near the other fog door with his back facing you. Walk up and poison him with Poison Cloud. Continue poisoning until dead (or Firestorm him if you prefer). Don't forget to take advantage of using Soul Thirst and all increased souls equipment.
God's Wrath
- This miracle works great when facing Maneater, although keep in mind Miracles take a while to activate and God's Wrath costs 100MP per cast. If you run up to the brazier and use it as a shield you will be able to use the miracle while protected and because this miracle has a range of the whole brazier and is able to go through obstacles it exposes both Maneaters to damage. Obviously, this works best if the player has a high Faith level.
Magical weapons
- If you're having difficulty killing them both using spells, use Warding and a Moon or Cresent weapon combined with some careful rolling to make short work of them. Larger weapons can hit both the creature and its snake-like tail simultaneous, effectively killing two birds with one stone.
Attacks & Counters
| Attack | Counter |
| Ground Attacks | |
| Single Hand Pount: A single attack that can knock you down. | Blockable, dodge roll to either side |
| Double Handed Pount: Jumps and falls down with both hands. | Only shields with the highest Guard Break Reduction can fully block this attack. Dodge roll to either side. |
| Pounce: The Maneater lowers to all fours and pounces at the player character. | Only blockable by the most resilient shields. Dodge roll to either side. |
| Sonic Wave: Emits a sonic wave from his mouth, in front of his position. Deals Magical Damage. | Easily avoided with a back step. |
| Power Boost: The snake tail bites the Maneater, who will glow yellow. It boosts the damage the Maneater inflicts with his attacks. | While the snake bites the demon, it is immobile. Can be interrupted by attacking repeatedly. |
| Aerial Attacks | |
| Double Handed Pound: Jumps and falls down with both hands. | Only shields with the highest Guard Break Reduction can fully block this attack. Dodge roll to either side. |
| Sonic Wave: Emits a sonic wave from his mouth, in front of his position. Deals Magical Damage. | Easily avoided with a back step. |
| Homing Soul Arrow: (Only if the snake hasn't been cut): It fires three green soul arrows that will seek the target. | The homing capabilities of this attack are very limited, dodge roll to the side. |
Maneater Lore
Twin demons who reside high above the Fool's Idol Archstone. They are chimaera-like beasts in appearance, with the body of a beast, bat wings, a serpent in place of a tail, and a vaguely human head with luminous green eyes. Based upon speculation, they are products of the Old Monk's experiments on prisoners of Latria, as he attempted to create demons of his own. The Maneaters can scream sonic projectiles and are adept in melee combat. The serpent affixed to a Maneater's back can spew magic as a ranged attack, and at times, it will bite into the Maneater hosting it, thus imbuing the monster with magic energy.
Maneater Notes & Trivia
When equipped with the Thief's Ring or using Cloak, the Maneater can lose track of you and end up going into a loop of flying, landing, and taking off again. In the worst-case scenario, he will disappear. Additionally, if you strike the Maneater while he is using his power boost such that he falls off the edge, this may also cause him to disappear.
Another funny little glitch that can work to your great advantage is that he'll fly just above your head and use his snake-tail to spit out soul arrows, or whatever they are supposed to be. This means you can hit him very easily with a high vertical slash and ultimately kill him without being hit once. It works as long as he's hovering above you.
Possible solutions:
- Unequip the Thief's Ring.
- If you can spot it, try firing arrows at it. When hit, it should be alerted to your presence and return to the fight.
- Load the game via the menu. Unfortunately, this will cause the fight to start over. Any items used during the fight will not be replenished.
AnonymousFunny thing is, on my first playthrough, beat these knuckle-heads first try, and they didn't give me much trouble. But, uno reverse card on NG+1, they were an absolute nightmare, buffed up the damage on me, and falling off the bridge. I've never seen a gank boss so much more worse than these pieces of crap. But the more I think about it, honestly the hardest boss here is the arena. I'm thinking these guys would be a piece of cake, if the arena wasn't a bridge.
- Anonymous
I love fighting two bosses on a inch wide bridge with no walls.
- Anonymous
I didn't find them that hard, but when I saw the second healthbar appear I stared at my screen like Kanye.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I’d heard this one was really tough, and can definitely se how it could be, but honestly it felt pretty easy to kite them around and separate them as needed. Even running away to heal or cast regeneration was no problem. And idk maybe I was just in the zone but I had a blast dodging and weaving through them and chipping away. As a pure melee this was a very fun fight. I wonder if I’ll feel the same way on ng+
- Anonymous
Beat it on the first try but still a terrible boss. When I almost killed the second one, I had to run around looking for 5 minutes before he reappeared.
- Anonymous
After dying a bunch I upgraded the Mirdan hammer and fought them. Used a bunch of healths but killed the one and got the other to less than a hit away from death.
I than rolled off the ledge. Still processing what happened… I just don’t know.
- Anonymous
Does the poison cloud still work for maneater? I tried it and the maneaers health was not going down. Did it get patched or not?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
My least favorite boss, they are so glitchy, get stuck, and are overall not satisfying. They could just lower the health, replace it with a new boss, and we would probably have a much better boss.
- Anonymous
For anyone having trouble with the red mindflayer on the stairs before the boss, if you wait at the third column going up the last staircase for about 20 seconds, he will turn around and head back up. It is drastically easier to kill with its back starting at you.
- Anonymous
These things can seriously piss off. I've beaten them legitimately before in the original, but nowadays I just cheese them with Poison Cloud, it's just not worth the frustration. A perfect attempt always has the possibility of going down the drain just because you got knocked off the ledge.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I would suggest to use the thief ring despite the warnings in this page.
Having the ring equiped will give you time to heal / resplenish your mana without being continously under attack.
In the worst case scenario (which never occured to me), you always can reset the fight by leaving the game.
- Anonymous
Killed 1st one, died to 2nd and World tendency shifted to pure white. Not sure if it's a bug or not.
- Anonymous
The f***ing fact that this f***ing guy f***ing summons another f***ing guy really f***ing shows that this boss wasn’t f***ing difficult enough, so Bluepoint made the boss f***ing bulls***!!!
- Anonymous
Try fire - 2 handed +4 Dragon Sword for me was good damage (264 heavy attack, if i recall correctly) and staggers them. Honestly, this fight was a joke it was so easy. 2nd try (only death was because the ground slam catapulted me to the edge and when I stood up I fell off the bridge without any input at all, hmph) and only used 4 or 5 late moon grass and some lesser grass to top off my hp a few times. You can literally walk right to avoid some of their attacks, using awareness to not fall off the bridge is key though. All their attacks are slow and easily rolled since the rebuild allows any direction rolls. The original would've been a nightmare with only 4 directions of rolling, so maybe that's what all the griping on here is accounted to.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Why do people delete the "A second Maneater will enter the fight when the first Maneater's health is lowered to 20%, or when 100 seconds have passed" line in Notes & Trivia? In 2020 I read, i see that line, but today I no longer see it. I think that's an interesting piece of information.
Why do people delete the "A second Maneater will enter the fight when the first Maneater's health is lowered to 20%, or when 100 seconds have passed" line in Notes & Trivia? In 2020 I read, i saw that line, but today I no longer see it. I think that's an interesting piece of information.
- Anonymous
Spent the first half of the fight flying then when the second one spawned it came down and charge spammed
- Anonymous
On my first playthrough, I fought these guys overleveled because I saved Latria for later after dying a lot in the Prison of Hope. Killed the first guy before the second could even spawn. And looking at these comments, thank god I did this. Even when I was mopping the floor with them, the AI seemed janky, the animations were jittery (every time it tries to land and lands on a pillar it teleports) and it just didn't seem very fun.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Absolute garbage of a boss. Especially in contrast to any other/newer games. This is a prime example of what From did poorly and only made better, but sadly you still have to deal with a dumb RNG boss in a really poorly designed arena for the mechanics. Nobody can make gold on the first try, shame Bluepoint was presumably told to keep this trash true to original.
- Anonymous
This is one of those fights that I just cannot understand what they were thinking. First off, I think most people hate multi enemy boss battles. They are inherently kind of unfair, chaotic and not fun (that's not to say they can't be well designed though, they just rarely are) . But the much worse issue is the arena. Seriously, who's idea was it to have this battle take place on a narrow platform connected to a narrow circle??? It's beyond frustrating. Even if you do perfectly in combat, 1 single stray hit from off screen that you couldn't see, or 1 mis timed dodge and it can (often is) instant death. Especially since they use that lunge attack so often. I mean couldn't they see how awful and aggravating it was during testing???
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Quick question about the DMG weaknesses; when it says "STRONG" does that mean the enemy is highly resistant to that DMG type or, is that DMG type strong against the enemy?
- Anonymous
On NG+ I used the following strategy.
I had the thieves ring and clever cat's ring. Before the fight I had HP below 30%. Then I ran past the first boss to the brazier in the middle. I hid behind it. At some point the boss loses track walks a bit back to the bridge and turns his back to you. I then ran to the other bridge side to wait till the second boss spawns. Let him chase you till the brazier and hide from him at the other side (the other boss won't notice you even though you stand in his side of the brazier. )
At this point I started focussing on the second boss using magic, hiding behind the brazier from time to time untill he walks back.
After this one died I repeated the same strategy for the first one
- Anonymous
Man, even in the Remake, this fight can REALLY screw you over big time. I feel sorry for anyone that doesn’t have a high damage build doing this fight, you’re in for a nightmare.
- Anonymous
[Remake] I’ve tried politely explaining to these guys that I am a woman, not a man, so we should have no issue. This is not an effective strategy.
Jokes aside, this boss is terribly difficult for me. I beat Flamelurker blind (I like authentic playthroughs) my first time with ye olde trusty Soul Arrow, but even with Firestorm, I. Cannot. Beat. These. Guys. Magic build, decent at timing dodges (not excellent). My main issue is with the AI. It’s really janky and throws me off consistently (but rarely enough that I can’t blame the AI for me needing to get good).
Any tips for the timing and positioning of Firestorm? I know it’s very strong and I’ve buffed the best I can without breaking the ‘story arc’ too much my first playthrough. I also am wondering where the summon signs usually appear for this boss because I haven’t stumbled across any yet but goodness could I use one.
Also nice to know the AI isn’t just targeting me and me alone. Here’s to problematic programming!
- Anonymous
So this was the beta test for the Capra Demon fight and the Anor Londo archers.
- Anonymous
As a mage at SL38 this fight was not hard. I died twice before realizing I shouldn’t roll, but I won in my third attempt. I used the lava bow, thief’s ring and Warding. The second maneater appeared when the first one was with around 30% health and that’s where things got interesting. I ran to the central brazier and kept shooting arrows on the first one while avoiding the second, also reapplying Warding as it wore off. I think that due to the thief’s ring sometimes one of them would just fly away for a while and this was crucial to having time to use healing grass and spice.
- Anonymous
I had heard they were harder in the remake so I was dreading this fight a bit, but it wasn't so bad at all. AI seemed real dumb though and they often flew away randomly which I guess was due to the thief's ring.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I’m in the middle of the boss fight in the remake as I type this because the second maneater fell off the edge and didn’t fly back up and is now nowhere to be found. Not only did they decide not to update the janky AI of the original demon’s souls but they managed to make some encounters worse because this never happened to me in all of my years with the original. I’ll grab some photo mode shots before I exit game.
- Anonymous
So triggering when you’re in the middle of a serious fight with the first guy and all of a sudden he’s just like “nah bro” and flies off leaving you standing there sweating with anxiety knowing the second guy is coming in any moment
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
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- Anonymous
Keeping the original AI was one of the worst decisions they made. Having enemies keep their attack patterns while removing the janky bits isn’t much to ask for. Remake could have taken Demon’s Souls gameplay to an entire new level and Bluepoint have the skills for this but they really sold themselves short here.
- Anonymous
Oh, I feel like a dumbass. I've lost count of how many times I died trying to roll out of the way of their pounce only to fall to my death, and now I've found that the actual radius of the pounce's hitbox is so minimal that strafing should be enough to evade it altogether, so long as you keep close. Preferably to strafe right, since it has that right-handed punch that will otherwise whiff.
A good shield helps in a pinch, too. And the Thief Ring method of separating them. I used Secret Dagger for faster cooldown, finding greatswords to be too slow to reliably move out of the way, but you do you, you frisky slayer of demons
- Anonymous
This boss was kicking my butt in ng+.
What ended up working for me was using the Thief’s Ring to separate them and fighting the first one solo at the very end of the path. This was possible by running all the way through to the far end after the second one spawned. You may have to do this more than once, but it’s possible to separate them in order to fight one at a time. The second one I then fought keeping the brazier between us.
The Dragon Sword +5 seemed like my best option, but it was slow going.
- Anonymous
If you use firestorm, you win. If you don’t, expect to be gangbanged or watch the maneaters constantly fly away like cowards.
- Anonymous
seems to be a glitch when using the thief ring poison tactic. when hiding in the corner if you are targeting the Maneater to cast the spell it will have no effect. you have to go between the pillar and stair opening and blind cast it at it for it to take effect
- Anonymous
does anyone else have this boss glitch all over the place? they walk on air, charge into the ground and get stuck there for a couple minutes, slide up and down pillars like they're pole dancers, etc
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Oh-oh, here they come
Watch out, boy, they'll chew you up
Oh-oh, here they come
They're Maneaters
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