Quick answer: Dusk, the Puppeteer’s summons do the real damage, not him. Watch the giant puppet, the falling hands and the puppet packs while you chase him, and expect a second Dusk with its own bar.
Dusk himself is a small man in gold robes carrying a bell, and he is the least of your problems. He fights through a giant puppet and packs of smaller ones. His own figure is easy to lose behind the things he controls.
Dusk at a glance
- Name on the health bar: “DUSK, THE PUPPETEER”
- Health: 62,520 HP on both Pathbreaker and Wayfarer
- Summoned adds: each has 880 HP in Pathbreaker
- Quest: Secrets at the Heart of the Lake, objective “Explore the canyon to find Dusk”
- Number 26 on the full boss list
You fight in a broad basin of dirt and stone, with clusters of red crystals along its rim and layers of red rock behind them. No pillars or cover interrupt the puppets’ path to you.
The first time you enter, Dusk greets you with this line:
“So you received her message… Has she already been destroyed, body and soul?”
Where to find Dusk
Dusk waits in the shaft pit beneath the Village of Lu’s bell labeled Broken Puppet Pit Entrance. Ring the bell, then step off the deck’s edge toward the shaft. You land directly in the arena without a fatal fall.
There is no checkpoint in the pit. The Broken Puppet Pit Bottom bell is in the arena, but you cannot use E on it while Dusk is alive, so leave it alone. The detour can cost roughly 1,100 of your 1,668 HP on Wayfarer.
If you die, you return to the Pit Entrance bell. Walking off the same edge puts you back in the fight in about a minute.
Dusk’s moveset and attacks
Several of these attacks overlap. A puppet pack can be closing in while the giant puppet swings and a hand hangs overhead. The damage figures below are for Pathbreaker unless noted.
Giant puppet woman
At Dusk’s side stands a towering puppet with long hair and grey robes. She charges and sweeps her arms across a broad area, raising smoke when she lands. She dwarfs Soul many times over, and up close, her body completely hides Dusk from view.
Giant hands from above
A massive detached wooden hand drops into view from overhead, then slams or rakes the ground and kicks up dust. Its fingers hover above you briefly beforehand, making its approach easy to spot. Dusk often flashes red at the same moment.
One slam hits for 512. A run of slams in a single fight can add up to about 1,140.
Pair of white crawling puppets
Two slender, pale puppets scurry in from the side on all fours and reach for you. Between them, they can deal about 680 damage over a fight.
Puppet pack
Dusk summons a pack of dark, man-sized puppets up from the ground. They crowd you and strike quickly, adding to the giant puppet’s attacks. Their hits deal 167 to 256 damage apiece, with an occasional 513; across one attempt, the pack can inflict about 760.
These are the real threat. They also break fast: at 880 HP each, they go down quickly compared with Dusk.
Dusk’s own flurry
Dusk sometimes rushes in at close range, spinning through a multi-hit attack with red trails before jumping away to your side or behind you. He’s fast and stays within reach only briefly.
Red and blue flashes
Both flash colors show up in this fight, and they follow the same rule as everywhere else in the game. A blue flash across the screen marks a parryable hit, so parry it to Ghoststep.
A red flash marks a hit you need to dodge.
The second Dusk
After his health bar has been substantially depleted, Dusk springs high into the air and away. Another bar appears alongside the first, leaving two bars across the screen’s top, each labeled “Dusk, the Puppeteer”. Both bars are full.
Expect a second body with its own bar. When you first see his health get low, the fight is not close to over.
Tips for the Dusk fight
Go in rested with a full gourd. Put the Longevity Tonic in a medicine slot. On Wayfarer, it takes Soul from 207 HP back to a full 1,668 within a second.
Begin your attack as soon as you land. The puppets show up immediately, and spending time roaming before engaging can cost hundreds of HP during Wayfarer’s first 30 seconds.
Set the camera wide enough to keep the giant puppet and the hands in view, rather than framing only your lock-on target. Dusk’s lock-on figure is small and can disappear behind her.
The puppets account for most of the damage you take, so reducing their numbers can be worthwhile. In a brief attempt, Dusk’s bar only loses about 2 to 4 percent; clearing the smaller puppets gives you breathing room more than a chance to rush him down.
Heal before your health is nearly gone: incoming hits or a recent stagger can stop a gourd press from working.
Plan on several attempts. Even at a full 1,668 HP on Wayfarer with Attack upgraded, Soul can go down in under two minutes without timely healing. On Pathbreaker, an attempt can end in about 70 seconds.
What you get for defeating Dusk
Defeating Dusk grants the Puppeteer’s Bell Phantom Edge and the head of the Illusory Pipa. A conversation follows, and then Secrets at the Heart of the Lake moves to its next objective, “Find a way to enter the Heart of the Lake”.
