The Bloodhound Step is perfect for agility-based builds, as it applies a Sharpness affinity to your weapon and pairs especially well with fast, close-range weapons. It has a modest FP cost, allowing it to be used dozens of times in combat without an Azure Flask.
The tricky part is getting this: Tracker’s Step requires defeating a particularly strong Night Cavalry boss in northeast Calydus. If you want to get your hands on Tracker’s Step long before you can fight the late game boss, there’s an effective way to beat the Night Cavalry, earning you Tracker’s Step and 40,000 Runes for your trouble.
Bloodhound Step Ash of War: features and description
Proximity: Hooked on
Weapon types: All melee weapons
Using FP: five
Here is the in-game description for the Bloodhound Step:
A skill that allows the user to temporarily become invisible while dodging at high speed. Moves faster and goes further than a regular quickstep. This skill can be used to bypass captured targets.
By holding the direction on the analog stick while activating Tracker Stride, you can control the direction of the dash. This is effective for dodging enemy attacks at the right time.
Bloodhound Step Ash of War locationIn order to hunt down the Tracker’s Step, you’ll need to travel to northeast Caelid, the treacherous part of the map if you’re at the start of the game. You need to get to Lenne’s Rise, located east of the large bridge leading to the Bestial Sanctum. Its proximity to the Animal Sanctuary actually makes it easier to access Lenn’s Rise if you carefully explore the much safer Limgrave, as it has a dispatch gate that teleports you straight there.
To find the sending gate, head north into the gorge from Marika’s Third Church of Grace and head east a bit until the gorge ends in a dead-end. You will find the sending gate right in front of you.
Once you teleport to the Beastshrine, head south across the large bridge and head east to find Lenne’s, Ascension Blessing. Once there, take a rest and set the time for the night. The Night Cavalry boss will spawn on the smaller bridge directly to the north.
Bloodhound Step Ash of War: How to beat the Night’s Cavalry boss
The boss of This Night’s Cavalry is tough: at least in terms of HP, he is much stronger than Godric. It also strikes hard, so you’re in for a tough fight if you want to take on this Night Cavalry. Fortunately, there is an easier way.
While at Lenne’s Rise, use the crafting menu to craft some Poison Pots or Poisonbone Darts if you have the recipe and the required ingredients. This is not required but will help speed up the process. You should also create some Nullify Boluses if you have the means and equip your best armor and talismans with immunity stat. Dried meat for immunization can also help boost your immunity for a while.
With your new poison items in your inventory, drive up to the Night Cavalry boss and pelt him with one or two items, then run up the hill to the north. This path is littered with poison traps and small enemies that jump on you. The enemies themselves are easy to dodge, but you really want set traps, and the Night Cavalry hurries on your heels. Your goal is to poison the Night Cavalry boss because then his health will continue to decrease. Try to dodge his attacks as you go uphill. If you have armor with decent immunity, you can probably avoid being poisoned yourself, but if you get poisoned, use neutralizing boluses.
Once you reach the top of the hill, the Night Cavalry boss will either turn around or respawn on the bridge, but it will retain its poison status. Climb down, hit him with another pot of poison, and repeat the cat and mouse chase up the hill. Eventually, the poison will drain him and he will die, rewarding you with 40,000 Runes and Tracker’s Step.
In fact, you may not have to wait long for the poison to finish its job: I only took off half the health of the Night Cavalry boss when he just randomly died on me, and I’ve read reports that the same thing happens to other players. Respawning with a poisoned status applied can result in the boss’s instant death. But even if it isn’t, the poison will eventually do its job.
This is not necessarily the only way to defeat this boss without a protracted fight:
- You can also climb the tree above the bridge and attack the boss with ranged weapons or magic spells to deplete his health.
- You can maybe knock him off the bridge and kill him with the right moves (it’s definitely possible with the Night Cavalry in Limgrave).
But the poison method is definitely effective if you don’t mind dirty fighting. It’s a FromSoftware game: anything is possible.
