Video
Difficulty
Probably on the harder end if you tend to take your time with bosses and read their attacks. The First Sinner fight definitely relies on your reflexes to react to area denial attacks. Personally took me my second try to beat, but results may vary.
The runback is also trivial—you might think you’ll respawn on the Slab’s bellway bench, but the game does a “hard rest” point just outside the First Sinner’s subzone. All you need is go in and fight the boss.
Loadout
Traversal skills
- Clawline. Incredibly important for gap closing after evading attacks from the First Sinner. I’ve used it multiple times to sneak some hits in before First Sinner blinks away.
Clawline easily cancels the bind, or other similar tools
The First Sinner does something similar to Hornet’s Bind ability. Fortunately in my two tries I’ve never seen it complete and managed to cancel every single time. Maybe it heals or does a run-ending attack? I’ll leave it to you to look it up / experience it for yourself.
Upgrades
- Needle upgrade 3. Deal more damage / makes the fight shorter. Already did the first two Pale Oil upgrades (see Courier’s Rasher run if you’re having trouble).
- Pouch Capacity 3 and Tool Damage 2. Would also make your tools more viable.
- Seven masks. Would most probably be doable with fewer plus Shattered Mask, but I don’t like running that once I got more than six masks (then I prefer the Multibinder).
Crest and tools
Just the default loadout I’m using—nothing special, except for a few:
- Evolved Hunter’s Crest. While I take significant hits in this fight, helps pump up the damage even more.
- Tacks. Used this on the last phase as I don’t get any hits in as often as the previous phase.
- Sharpdart. Easily my favorite Silk Skill. Provides i-frames, easy repositioning, and deals decent Needle damage to the enemy.
- Memory Shard. Helps deal damage when you’re getting dealt damage. Helps compensate for mistakes made particularly from attacks with light damage (1 mask).
- Cogfly. A recent favorite. Gets a number of hits in when you’re not in range of attacking. Don’t over-rely on its damage as you need to hit to regenerate your silk.
- Magnetite Dice. Saves you sometimes.
Tips
- The fight inherits a lot of its moveset from the Widow boss. Things you need to look out for are the telegraphed area denial needle attacks and First Sinner’s constant blinking.
- It pays to be aggressive in this fight. The First Sinner blinks so fast, you probably won’t have time to sneak even a single hit in. The Clawline as mentioned helps close gaps faster.
- Just like the Widow fight, there are only a few moves you could consistently parry. Way easier to simply evade or pogo / downwards attack the First Sinner’s moveset.