Dark Souls' madafakin' Capra Demon

[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.

 

[Edl01]

The Capra Demon gave me a ton of trouble because I couldn't block him with my shield, he just broke my guard.
I eventually went and grinded for a while so I could have reasonable amount of Stamina and after that is can fairly simple. The only problem is that first attack and trying to not get stuck in the corner.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

The first 10 seconds decide the fight. If you manage to kill the dogs then the Demon himself is pretty easy. Just make a beeline for the stairs when you enter then draw the dogs upstairs and kill them. Then the rest of the fight is very manageable.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Took me 4 tries the first time. Best strategy for non-Hidden Body users: As soon as you step in, back into the right-hand side of the doorway, the Capra should miss you, be blocking to deflect an attack from the dog, then kill the dog, all of this hopefully before the Capra is ready to swing again. Roll or block your way to the steps, back up them whilst luring the other dog, then kill it before the Capra gets within striking range. Now it's you and Capra. If you can roll dodge, have at it and watch your stamina. If you can't, ascend the stairs, block and wait for Capra to jump off, then plunge attack him, repeat until dead. Good luck!

The things that still get me even today are the Bed of Chaos (there's just no helping it), O&S with certain builds, and the infamous silver archers. Generally my strategy for them is now leg it through the lesser demons and try to roll through the arrows once I get to the ledge at the top, then try to parry the silver knight to the right off the ledge, obscured from the second by a column. Then if I'm feeling lucky go and dispose of that one as well. The critical moment is right at the top, where a slight misdirection in shield can cause you to fly off the edge if you get hit. It's ridiculous.

I used to have trouble with Havel until I learnt how to parry him. On my last run I beat him with an unupgraded fire axe, base stats and the grass crest shield, so that's the difference parrying makes.

 

[Weaver]

took me tons of tries, to this day I have more trouble with him than almost every other boss.

 

[runic knight]

Okay really? I know its entirely possible to do this, but on your first run? did you just read the entire wiki? I have a hard time believing this, but if its true than props to you.

I'm not sure what part you find hard to believe. The fact that I went for Anor Londo before killing the Capra Demon? That I had Quelaag's Furysword when I came back, or the fact that I figured out the fight is pretty easy once you know how to play the game?

All those were true. I didn't read the wiki, and had the tendency to get hopelessly lost. On my first playthrough, I went into Blighttown via the Valley of the Drakes, then went down into the swamp, and up into Blighttown itself. Worked my way through the entire thing to encounter a close door. I figured, this is the wrong place to be, and went all the way down to the swamp again. After that, I went into the Great Hollow because it seemed like an interesting place, and got to Ash Lake. There I found a hydra. That hydra pissed me off, so I had to kill it. At level 30-ish, with a drake sword.

All of that happened before I killed Quelaag. Things like that just tend to happen to me. I like exploring.

Probably that on your first play through you avoided the depths entirely (since if I recall right, you need capra to drop the key to get to them to get into blight town afterwards. This means you have the master key as a gift and snuck in through Drake valley. Quite possible, but that sort of knowledge suggests you either used a walk through or played the game some before. Furthermore, the fact you found a boss but didn't stick around to beat it and instead wandered around elsewhere to find the back door in also suggests aid of some sort there, as that starts being a lot of luck. Though as even he agreed, it is possible, as even on my first play through, a master key seemed the best gift to start with and wandering around would lead to the valley of drakes eventually. I just don't get the mindset that would have you find a boss, but after a few unsuccessful attempts, see you wander off elsewhere.

 

[Alcaste]

On almost all of my new characters he gives me trouble. Relatively speaking, I had more trouble with him than I did with Ornstein and Smough (though I've only got that far with one character. My others might have more trouble with them). It's that initial charge that gets you, for sure. And the walk, of course. At least there's that gate shortcut, but having to go through all the dogs again is a pain.

 

[Alcamonic]

On my first try I thought "oh cool, fog, I wonder what is it in her- Oh, I died before fog disappeared"

Then, lo and behold, my happiness when I stumbled upton that juicy stone armor in the forest area. Suddenly, I became a living tank, who cares if I couldn't roll against him or barely move!

 

[GameMaNiAC]

Just want to jump in; how much of a time sink is this game?
Been really looking into it because it looks brilliant to be honest, but I'm curious about how much bang I'll get for my buck?

And also is it the sort of game that's best in marathon stretches or little and often?

Massive time sink if you get into it. I think out of my eight or so characters, I have more than a weeks worth of time spent on the game. You are free to go at your own pace, and depending on how thorough you are a play through could last several days.

Beautiful, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Ordered a copy for £20.
I'm the sort of player that explores every nook and cranny on the first couple play throughs.

Wish me luck!

G'luck, man!

You're going to need it, trust me.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Both pre and post patch, I rarely had problems with him. The dogs cheesed me off a bit, but once they're dead, he's easy.

 

[Quazimofo]

Just want to jump in; how much of a time sink is this game?
Been really looking into it because it looks brilliant to be honest, but I'm curious about how much bang I'll get for my buck?

And also is it the sort of game that's best in marathon stretches or little and often?

I'd say little and often, though little is relative since it can sometimes take a long time to get from checkpoint to checkpoint, let alone entire areas.

Game's pretty damn long too. Speed runs of the whole thing, skipping a good few of the bosses and some whole areas, take upwards of an hour. As far as I know, there are..[small]asylum, taurus, gargoyles, quelaag, iron golem, o&s, seath, sif, 4 kings, firesage, centipede, bed of chaos, ceaseless discharge technically isn't, pinwheel, nito, gwyn[/small] like 15 mandatory bosses without glitches. And there are at like half a dozen optional ones.

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?

took me like half a dozen tries. Early levels, the over hand hit you cannot block, and he likes to start with that, so right at the start you need to dodge quick and either go up the stairs or just to the other side of the room to kill those dogs. once they are done, he is straightforward and pretty easy to dodge, since he hits slowly.