Dark Souls' madafakin' Capra Demon

[viranimus]

So fellow Escapee, how long were you stuck on this overgrown goat?

I've been trying to kill him for 2 hours and can't seem to get him. I'm playing a SL 27 thief and he owns me everytime.

I think it's bound to be the worst and cheapest boss in gaming history due to the two chihuahuas, the small arena and the dumb camera angles.

After how many tries did you manage to down him?

LOL I put him down on the first try. Capra is one of the few I encountered that I didnt at least need a second try on.

Really it baffles me why people have so much trouble with him. Yes there are yard trash mobs. Yes the camera is rough in such tight confines, but come on, its basic evade till you get an opening in a very firmly rectangular room.

Is that really the problem? Inability to adapt to a camera? I dont know, it really didnt seem that big a deal for me. I simply ignored the camera, stop trying to look at the mobs, move on the assumption that they were on me when I couldnt see and waited for openings to attack when I could see. I have to assume people are too busy fuxing with the camera and in the process leaving themselves too open.

 

[Sordin]

I usually have a bit of trouble when starting a new character but once the dogs are dead he is insanely easy. I usually just go up the stairs stay on the arch kill the dogs then wait for him to come attack me a few times and fall off then I plunging attack him. Rinse and repeat. Of course getting onto the stairs is the difficult bit but time your dodges right and you can pull it off.

 

[Broderick]

Capra demon?

Pfft.

I'm still stuck on those two gargoyles.

Yes, I do suck that much.

Though, I will say that previously, I had went the wrong way and attempted to kill the capra.

And that was the first time I rage-traded in Dark Souls.

I have promised not to do it again. It's like doom. I love it BECAUSE it kicks my ass. Like stockholm syndrome. For games.

...Ravenholm syndrome?

The gargoyles can be hard if you do not take out the first one quickly before the second one spawns. The second one only spawns when you get the first below 50% health, so take your time before then. If you have not upgraded your weapons, you should probably do so to make it easier on you. The following information is information spoilers; if you wish to find out stuff for yourself, please disregard the following. You can upgrade your weapons by finding andre in the undead parish(initially, before buying a weapon smith box), or from rickert in the new londo ruins(area with the ghosts below firelink shrine). Get to your weapon of choice to +5, and maybe get a resin if you have one. Pop it on your weapon and your are good to kick some gargoyle tush.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Capra took maybe 5 times because I had no idea what the room was like or that there were stairs. Basically as long as you can avoid getting stunlocked by the dogs long enough to take them out its easy.

With Kalameet I was really dissappointed. I had watched the pc release of the DLC on a livestream and it took the guy maybe 40 tries to kill it and get the tail. I did it the first time with my Great Scythe.

On Seathe I always had a hell of a time cutting his tail. I'd not be hitting the tip and end up killing him instead of the tail. Pricilla's is even worse if I can't one shot it before the fight starts >_<

The only bosses I had a hard time with were the Centipede Demon, the Firesage, and 4 Kings. Centipede because of the small area and his ass taking up most of the screen made it had to see anything. Plus on my first playthrough all he did was spam the grab move over and over. Took me like 30 tries.

4 Kings, when I'm NOT using magic is always a *****. Only fight in the game that ruins my otherwise good runs. They bring my game to a crashing halt every time, and I always need several attempts. I hate how its basically just a DPS check, you need to just tank the damage and go nuts on them as fast as you can. You can try dodging but I suck at it in that fight, and they like to use that aoe/grab quite often on me. The fact that you really can't judge your distance due to the abyss is the most annoying part.

Getting the Shrine Guardian's tail was also a real pain.

Nito is weird in that sometimes I can kill him in under a few sec, and other times he just manages to spam the blade eruption and juggle me to death.

 

[runic knight]

well, you can play online and summon someone, the signs are usually right at the front of the fog gate. That makes the fight a lot easier assuming you can survive the first 10 seconds for the other guy to walk in and take the dogs down.
Single player, it is trickier. Kite around, use the stairs, kill dogs off before the demon, you'll do alright.
Got his second attempt myself. First I just got staggered and then couldn't roll far enough away from a jump attack. Second was close but managed to kill him with the stairs tactics.

 

[Candidus]

I'm playing a SL 27 thief and he owns me everytime.

Heya.

Characters in DS become far more powerful based on equipment than based on SL. On your second run, you'll probably find that you only increase your SL in order to meet the demands of your desired gear, or for a *slight* increase in stamina and HP. I've got a PvE pyromancer that does about 1,100 damage per hit with a +5 lightning Zwei and Power Within. I'm on NG+ and I'm Slevel 18. Some people have gone to NG++ at Slevel 7, and perhaps even lower.

My advice for this fight is to grab a +5 weapon and +3 your armour. Go to the merchant in the tunnel before the depths and pick up a modifier as well, to increase the damage of your weapon further.

When the fight starts, run forward and a little to the right. It'll probably do a leaping swing. Wait until it's begun tracking your movements while swinging before you roll. Too soon and he'll hit you.

If you get past him, you've basically won. Sprint up the stairs and get on the arch over the door to your right. The dogs will be able to follow you. Kill them. When the demon swings he should fall off the stairs into the space beneath the ledge. Do a plunge attack, rinse and repeat. Good luck!

 

[SwimmingRock]

Not to be all gloaty or whatever, but I don't understand why people have so much trouble with the Capra Demon. I beat him on my first try with only 2 Estus and honestly thought he was like a mid-boss or something. I was baffled when the internet appeared to agree he was the worst ever. It's Boba Fett all over again.

As for beating him, just keep running up the stairs, shoot him with arrow, then roll down once he gets up there. He'll do a jump attack to get down, which leaves him vulnerable to melee for a short bit. Run up the stairs again. Repeat. Piece of piss, me old China.

 

[Casual Shinji]

There's your problem; You're a thief. Suggesting you probably don't have the best defenses. In which case Capra will slaughter the shit out of you. Either summon some online companions to help you or, if you have the Master Key, circumvent him entirely by going down to the New Londo Ruins, through the Valley of the Drakes, and straight to Blight Town.

Or you can start from scratch and play as a tank, making the fight (and most other Boss fights) way easier.

 

[Lucid_Camel]

Dude if its the black Skull 2 sword guy, run back up the stairs, there is a little edge to the right let him follow you, then jump down the fall should hurt him a good enough amount, then go back and up the stairs and let him follow again and jump off, repeat till he's dead. U might need some healing potion but this makes the fight easy if not repeative

 

[IronMit]

on my first playthrough I needed like 8 x with my faster character . It was very very frustrating. Second playthrough I tanked him with my warrior with black knight sword and stone armour. But I got the crest in the forest to get said armour.

Tips;

you really should run straight up the stairs but you may find your path blocked;

Build - you are using a thief so I guess tanking is out of the question. Have you considering swaping in a bigger shield for the higher stability. or upgrade a shield. This will ensure he doesn't guard break you in 1-2 hits. Balder shield dropped by the bigger shielded balder knights is a decent shield. rare drop.

roll speed - if trying to make a mad dash to the stairs - under 25% equip burden for faster running and roll speed.

Strategy - I found NOT locking-on at the start and rolling to the left asap helped me reach the stairs. Locking on-and off against bosses at the right time is very very useful and most players don't even consider it.
also releasing block so your stamina regenerates between his slow powerful hits.

If you manage to get up the stairs- if you stand at just the right spot on the ledge...the capra will walk half way up the stairs jump at you fall down and be open to a plunging fall attack

summoning - people leave summoning signs before the fog gate and the other shortcut entrance

armour - There's elite knight armour, eastern armour and stone armour all in the forest. Might want to considering changing armour for the fight.

If your a bit of a sorcerer - fighting the hydra in the basin and then the crystal thing , will unlock the opportunity for more spells. one of them being hidden body. The dogs won't run at you immediately if you cast this before stepping through the fog gate.

 

[King of Wei]

3 or 4 tries with my first character. Remember he kicked my ass twice with a thief around the same level as the OP, then I bought aural decoy to try it out and owned him while he was attacking the decoy. Since then I've beaten him with an SL 10 thief with just the knife, but aural decoy was a godsend when I was still learning the ins and outs of the game.

 

[Joshimodo]

First time. Dodged the dogs immediately, took them out pretty quick. Ran up, dropped down and hit him again, dodged his strikes, and kept laying into him.

Same with the Four Kings, did them first time and I didn't even know if I was hurting them properly.


Ornstein and Smough were a pain in the ass at first, took me the most tries of any boss (3 or 4).

 

[Caedus]

I'm playing a SL 27 thief and he owns me everytime.

Heya.

Characters in DS become far more powerful based on equipment than based on SL. On your second run, you'll probably find that you only increase your SL in order to meet the demands of your desired gear, or for a *slight* increase in stamina and HP. I've got a PvE pyromancer that does about 1,100 damage per hit with a +5 lightning Zwei and Power Within. I'm on NG+ and I'm Slevel 18. Some people have gone to NG++ at Slevel 7, and perhaps even lower.

My advice for this fight is to grab a +5 weapon and +3 your armour. Go to the merchant in the tunnel before the depths and pick up a modifier as well, to increase the damage of your weapon further.

When the fight starts, run forward and a little to the right. It'll probably do a leaping swing. Wait until it's begun tracking your movements while swinging before you roll. Too soon and he'll hit you.

If you get past him, you've basically won. Sprint up the stairs and get on the arch over the door to your right. The dogs will be able to follow you. Kill them. When the demon swings he should fall off the stairs into the space beneath the ledge. Do a plunge attack, rinse and repeat. Good luck!

So in the end I managed to kill him with the help of a fellow player I summoned. Felt great to look at this fucker disappear into thin air.

I'm still fairly new to the Dark Souls universe so I didn't know leveling wasn't as important as upgrading gear. I'll look into it asap.

 

[anthony87]

Second try for me. Killed the dogs as soon as possible then I'd kite the Capra Demon up the stairs, when he gets to the top you just drop off the ledge, the demon will drop off after you and he'll be stunned in his landing animation for a few seconds. Plenty of time for you to get a few hits in and run back up.

Yeah it's cheap but fuck it, he died. ^_^

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Ok, time to fucking brag.
I did that ***** in on my first try.
Yep.
I first tried the capra demon, no walkthroughs / faqs, just me being my usual scared whimpy Dark Souls self, aka, walking in there with a Balder shield (I think?) and the Estoc.
I slowly stabbed him AND his chihuahas to death, whilst managing to do the most important thing.
To not get hit.
You may build a monument to my brilliance now.

EDIT:
Boy was my face red when I found out about the "kiting" strategy...

 

[MrBaskerville]

I got him pretty fast the third time around, when you survive the initial attacks, it gets a hell of a lot easier to deal with. If you go up the stairs, he can´t reach you^^.

 

[In Search of Username]

I don't remember exactly, but it took me a lot of times I think. These days I can do it in one attempt, you just need to dodge his first attack and get upstairs and you've done the hard part.

On the topic of hard parts of the game, how did everyone do with those ridiculous archers on the ledge in Anor Londo. I just lost 72000 souls to them today because I'm a moron and was trying to save up to buy loads of shit from the Giant Blacksmith, instead of just levelling up like I should. Still haven't actually made it past them this playthrough because I just rage-quit after a while.

Oh, and the Four Kings, now THEY were what gave me most trouble. Must have tried that fight about a hundred times, and when I finally won it was more luck than having actually gained any skill at it.

The archers are actually kinda easy, after you figure out how they work.

What you want to do is first run up the first stretch to the tower that blocks you from both of them. Honestly, I would probably try to get below 50% weight with a shield and sword. Wait on the back right side of the tower, and once an arrow hits the building, just run your ass off to the guy on the right. Once you get to the top ledge, run with your shield up toward him (You will most likely take an arrow to the shield, so make sure to hug the wall) and wait for him to pull out his sword and shield. In this position, the other archer cant hit you, so you just have to take the one in front of you out.

The other guy is up to you if you want to take it. Its just a soul on the corpse, nothing special.

But the four kings... yeah... the four kings can go and jump into the lava in lost izalith.

This is the tactic I use but he always ends up either knocking me off no matter how much I hug the wall, or I end up knocking myself off by accident trying to attack. I honestly wouldn't mind the part if they weren't so fucking hard to knock off once you got to them.

Glad someone agrees on the Four Kings, they are my worst nightmare. I swear they made the whole area leading up to them one of the easiest in the game just to lull you into a false sense of security (I've heard people describe this section as really difficult but I don't see why, the boss has always been the only difficult part for me).

 

[loa]

It's all about getting some poise so the dogs don't stun you (wolf ring), dodging the first blow, running up the stairs and killing the dogs.
From that point onward, he's a joke unless you haven't fully learned how blocking/dodging works.
For example equipping a shield with some actual stability so you can actually block his attacks helps if you're not confident dodge rolling.
He's a 1 trick pony and once you got that figured out, he may still get you by sheer luck but is a hell of a lot less scary.
Really, the dogs are the real boss.

You don't know true pain until you solo'd ornstein and smough. Ain't no "easy way" for those unless you summon.

 

[Denamic]

Took me three tries on my first ever playthrough. He's just far more aggressive than what you're used to by that point. Just pay attention to how he moves, and which attacks you can block, and you can easily take him out without even taking damage. He's not hard, and he is certainly not cheap by any means. I understand the attractiveness of faulting the game on your failure, but it really is your own fault.

 

[NWJ94]

I have a somewhat unusual story about the Capra boss, I actually killed him on very first attempt. I wasn't particularly good or high level, I didn't know he was coming up, didn't know what to do, or anything. I just walked through the cloud, panicked and frantically dodged to one side, missing his first attack, and somehow managed to roll past the dog too. Not sure what to do and desperate to put a little distance between the two of us I kept backing up and by sheer dumb luck backed up the stair case, killed the dogs as they ran up and released how to beat him.

So yeah, in a remarkable analogy to a lot of my games I managed to stumble ass first into the correct solution.