How to beat the Door Guardian in Lies of P

If you’re made it this far in Lies of P, you’ll have felled countless monstrous bosses through sheer force of skill, will, and determination. But shortly after reaching the gates to Arche Abbey in Area XI, you’ll encounter a boss that forces you to adopt a completely different strategy: The Door Guardian.

You’ll quickly find that your normal attacks barely make a dent in the Door Guardian’s enormous health bar. On top of this, its attacks inflict Shock, a status effect that slows your stamina regeneration as long as you have any buildup whatsoever, which makes it frustratingly easy to get caught in its sweeping strikes.

Despite all this, the trick to beating it is remarkably simple, and if you use our strategy, the Door Guardian is actually one of the easiest bosses in Lies of P.

Door Guardian boss strategy in Lies of P

The trick to beating the Door Guardian is to attack its exposed right leg. After dealing enough damage to its right leg, you’ll stagger the Door Guardian and it will fall over, becoming briefly vulnerable to a Fatal Attack. This will deal a huge chunk of damage to the boss—around a third of its health bar. It took me three Fatal Attacks to finish off the boss, with the last one only taking off a small chunk of health, and it’ll probably be the same for you.

That said, attacking the Door Guardian’s right leg can be easier said than done. Attacks with its crystalline arm inflict Shock, and as long as you have Shock buildup, your stamina regeneration is significantly slowed.

It’s easy to take multiple hits, run out of stamina, and end up dying because you can’t roll. For this reason, make sure to equip your best Shock-resistant parts, as well as parts that mitigate Blunt damage, to give you the best chance of survival.

When fighting the boss, keep your distance. It deals a lot of damage, but it’s very slow to move and track you. It helps to have the P-Organ upgrade that lets you sprint for longer.

Run around the boss at a distance, bait its attacks, then sprint toward it to score a few hits on its exposed right leg before it recovers and starts attacking again. Try to stay behind it if possible, as it’ll take an extra few fractions of a second for the boss to turn and face you.

While you’re at range from the boss, it will sometimes try to close the gap by rolling at you. The Door Guardian’s roll attack is fast and highly damaging, so sprint to the side and double-tap dodge to roll at the last second. You’re unlikely to be able to outrun the Door Guardian’s roll, so rely on the iframes from your own roll to avoid damage.

If you’re still struggling, try adding Fire to the mix. The Door Guardian is weak to Fire, and takes extra damage from all Fire attacks, so it might give you the edge you need. I used the Salamander Dagger upgraded to +10, which gave me all the damage I needed to take the Door Guardian down in just a few attempts.

There’s only one phase, so there’s nothing else you need to worry about—just stagger the Door Guardian three times, get three Fatal Attacks in, and you’ll dispatch it without too much trouble. Using Fire weapons, grindstones, or throwable items might help you stagger it faster, then you’ll be free to explore Arche Abbey to your P-Organ’s content.