Elden Ring Blasphemous Blade: Exploring Volcano Manor
There are two main routes to Rijkaard.
Neither is particularly easy or fast, and both require you to reach the building’s main entrance. Volcano Manor. You can get there by completing Rhia’s quest in Liurnia of the Lakes, or simply by finding the front door in the northwest corner of the Altus Plateau. Talk to Tanith and join the estate as there is no penalty for doing so. The first path to the Rijkaard boss room is complete all Tanith invasion missions, after which she will teleport you to the Place of Grace right next to Rijkaard’s misty door. Duels aren’t too difficult, but you’ll need to complete Lindell, Royal Capital Legacy Dungeon and reached the Giant Mountain Peaks for the last kill.
The other way is to simply complete the Volcano Manor Legacy dungeon.
There’s nothing stopping you from doing both, and there are decent rewards and interesting points of interest associated with both routes, unless you want to head straight for the Blasphemous Blade. To start the Volcano Manor dungeon, enter the first available door on the right in the hallway from Tanith’s room. There is an illusory wall at the back of this room and you can jump into it to access a secret passage.
Make your way through the passage after defeating a few giant slugs
And a Bloodhound Knight and you will find yourself in Grace Prison City Church, the beginning of the Legacy Dungeon. Hence Volcano Manor is a full FromSoft level, comparable in size to Stormvale Castle, and there is also a difficult God’s Skin Noble fight the boss on the way to Rijkaard. Follow the branching but still the relatively straight path of Volcano Manor like any Souls Dungeon dungeon and you will eventually find a portal after the Eiglay Site of Grace Temple. This will take you to the same pre-boss checkpoint as completing Tanith’s quests.
Elden Ring Blasphemous Blade: Raykaard’s Beating
Rykard is currently one of the hardest bosses in the game, rivaling Margit or Starscourge Radan in difficulty. He is also unique in that he has a special weapon with a power that can only be used in this fight: snake hunter a large spear that will be immediately in front of you and to the left when you enter the boss room, but in front of Rijkaard’s aggro.
Similar to the Storm Ruler from Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls 3, it sends out blows of wind with every hit, helping you take on a hard-to-reach boss. The snake hunter does not require stats, and his special attacks for Rijkaard do not seem to benefit from scaling or blacksmithing. Don’t upgrade it if you don’t want to keep using this great spear after the boss.
Here are my tips for Rijkaard’s first health bar, God Devouring Serpent:
- A great combo to use is Snake Hunter’s weapon skill, which will stun Rijkaard in both phases, followed by two quick attacks. This string is safe to perform at the very beginning of the fight, when the snake wakes up, and after each of its combos.
- Save your Miraculous Cure and Potion for Phase 2 if possible.
- It attacks with long delays and in most cases it is safer to dodge backwards.
- After depleting his health, you will have enough time to use Physick and heal before the second phase of the cutscene begins.
Here’s how things change in the second stage, Ricard, Lord of Blasphemy:
- The weapon skill will still stagger, but you will have fewer windows to use it, and Rijkaard now retreats when stunned. Normally, I could only land one hit after I staggered.
- His most common combo is a left slash, then a sword slash to your right, and a backslash. Dodge after he hits the ground with his sword.
- His firestorm attack is timed rather than based on his health. It worked for me twice in one fight.
- The flaming skulls that rain from his firestorm don’t damage you on contact, but instead start a short-timer until they explode. Keep moving during his firestorm and focus on dodging Riikard’s attacks. The firestorm ends after about half a minute, and then you can continue the fight.
- Upon reaching half health, Rijkaard will mix his sword combinations with snakebite attacks in the first phase.
Defeat Rijkaard, then bring his memory to Enya for the Blasphemous Blade.
Elden Ring Blasphemous Blade stats and moveset
The Blasphemous Blade skill, Taker’s Flames, allows you to send out exploding skulls, which probably gave you a lot of trouble in the Rijkaard boss fight. These are the requirements:
- Strength: 22 points, with the D scale rising to C at +9.
- Agility: 15, with the same scaling to Strength.
- Vera: 21 points, with D scaling, up to C at +3, B at +10.
