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Bloodborne’s Amygdala is one of the Nightmare Frontier’s optional bosses – a name fitting for a place where you can find a creature named after the part of the brain that regulates human fear. Did Miyazaki also get a degree in Neurology? This question remains unanswered.
This whole battle is just a test of patience. You must be brave enough to stand close to this humongous beast and keep still without flailing around the entire arena. The closer you are to her, the better. Once you spot her weak points, you need to make sure Both her head and arms are its weak points and target them relentlessly. Do step away when it’s necessary, though. Don’t be fooled by her lowerish HP bar, as her deadly ranged attacks will put your character to rest.
Amygdala has been classified as one of the most challenging bosses in the entire Bloodborne game. Are we so sadistic as to go up against an utterly optional boss just for the heck of it? If your answer was “Absolutely” or “Well… I guess?”, then you will want to keep reading this guide and avoid going into battle unprepared. Let’s walk you through the basic information, strategy, and move set you should remember to defeat Amygdala.
Amygdala at a Glance
Appearance
Amygdala is a large humanoid-looking Great One with a head full of eyes. She has seven big arms and a laser that comes out of her head.
Lore
When the Great Ones returned to the Cosmos, some were forgotten and remained on the human plane.
Like Ebrietas, Amygdala was left behind by her peers and trapped in the Nightmare world. However, her daughters, being aware and responsible for the care of men, remained hidden in the human plane of existence.
Amygdala did not seek the end of humanity, like her other siblings, but sought the care of men by instilling fear and negative feelings in them. Once in the Nightmare and banned from worship by the Healing Church, she was cast into oblivion from which very few of the faithful saved her. The high priest of her cult, Patches, made it his mission to lure the unwary to the Nightmare Frontier, where the goddess resided, to offer them as sacrifices.
However, the true intentions of the goddess were to test the men and women who dared to confront her. Only the person worthy of overcoming her fears could put an end to her existence and allow her to ascend to the Cosmos by ending her life.
When Patches the Spider sends the Hunter to offer them as a sacrifice to the Great One of Fear, he fulfilled the Prophecy. There, where Amygdala had found confinement, he would find peace and be reunited with his brothers beyond the Dream, in the Cosmos.
Lesser Amygdala
As you make your way to the Cathedral Ward, you will even have a cutscene with what players call “Lesser Amygdala”.
Most players are just taking in the scenery from the Cathedral Ward when they spot their first Lesser Amygdala for the first time. The sight is definitely frightening, as it doesn’t spawn out of anywhere and fight you… she’s just been there the whole time, lurking and watching you.
They can’t really be killed, so you don’t have to worry about them for now.
Location
To get to this area you will need to have a key item in the game: the tonsil stone. This item will be provided to you by talking to the character in the Forbidden Woods inside the cabin with the red lantern by the window. Now, you should head to the Grand Cathedral (which is where you killed Vicar Amelia).
Exit the cathedral and go left, just down the first flight of stairs. Go on, walk down the stairs, eliminate the two hunters, head past the two small churches and go down the stone tunnel. In the area below, you will come across another large church where the “Lesser Amygdala” will be lurking. She will grab you, but ultimately spare you and teleport you to the 1st floor of the Lecture Building, where you will be able to enter the Nightmare Frontier. This is where the real Amygdala is located.
Combat
In combat, she will handle numerous sweeping and jumping attacks against the ground and sometimes shoot a laser beam from her head.
Reward: 21,000 blood echoes and the Ailing Loran Chalice.
Fun Facts
I may not know whether Miyazaki is secretly a Neurologist, but I do suspect he may have drawn inspiration from HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu for creating this beast. The fact that Cthulhu is referred to as a “Great Old One” and Amydgala is a “Great One” leaves almost no room for doubt.
How To Beat Amygdala
The Battle, Explained
- Strategy: Hit her legs constantly to make her fall to the ground and attack her head.
- Weakness: Fire, Bolt, Arcane.
- Strength: Blunt blows.
- Allied NPC: None.
Both areas in which you can encounter Amygdala are pretty annoying since they mess with her targeting. She’ll start hitting the walls at random, and it’s easy for her to get caught on pillars, which seems like a good thing until you realize it’s difficult to hit her head when it’s half clipped into a rock.
What you should know about Amygdala is that her weak point is her head. You can hit her on any body part that is within reach, but that is where you must attack to deal more damage. If you stay far away, she makes an attack with which she usually leaves her head at ground level for a few seconds.
Its attacks, being so large, are slow, predictable, and relatively easy to dodge. If you do enough damage to her hind legs, they will break and crash to the ground, leaving her stunned for a few seconds that you can use to hit her head.
Another way to make her head hit the ground is to stand very close and under her Amygdala. She will jump (having to dodge the fall) and be left for a moment with her head low enough to hit her with a couple of slaps.
Her attacks will change drastically when you do enough damage: she rips off her paws and uses them as weapons. She’s now faster and more accurate at hitting, but she’s still huge, and it will be relatively easy to predict the direction her attacks are coming from to dodge them and hit from the sides. The best thing to do in this part is to look for its back and hit it in the tail. That said, remember that if you used to jump now and then when you were too close, now it will become a regular practice. This means you’ll spend quite a bit of time dodging.
In the end, the basis of this fight is to focus on her leg, riddle it as best you can until it breaks, falls to the ground, hits her head, and repeat when she gets up.
The Strategy, Phase by Phase
Phase 1
Hang around head-on with her, just inside the edge of her leg range. There are a couple of moves you’re looking for her to make. She can make a regular slam attack with two arms, which is very easy to dodge. If you’re confident with your dodge timing, you can dodge straight forward and end up straight in front of her head. Or you can dodge to the side, where you’re free to get hits on her arms. If you’re going for her arms, it’s a good idea to unlock the camera; otherwise, you may miss your window. The second good punishment is when she makes that “pushing” attack where she strikes the ground a couple of times with her arms, she will sometimes hang in the air for a second or two before slamming back down. Same thing, dodging forward is more profitable; dodging laterally is easier.
Phase 2
She adds to her move pool. Her slam attack will now have like, arcane orbs on her hands. These have lingering hitboxes, so be careful, but the strategy is otherwise the same. She’ll also do a relatively slow swiping combo where she uses each of her arms and lowers her head afterward, so she looks for that one. Phase 2 is essentially the same as phase 1.
Phase 3
Her arms have so much range that it’s hard to stay safe. NEVER get your back to a wall in this phase of the fight. I like precisely one window in this phase, and it’s the same as earlier, the arcane orbs slam. If you are EXACTLY head-on with her, like you can draw a straight line from your character’s head to the center of her head, you can dodge forward, be completely safe from everything, and be in position right in front of her head. If you want to dodge this attack laterally, it’s best to move forward and get closer to her first, so you’re past the orb hitbox, and her arm comes right down next to you. She staggers at about ~15% HP remaining if you hit her head, and this visceral will immediately end the fight, so bring some Bone Marrow Ash and when you’re dodging her other, less punishable moves, take some potshots at her head to see if you can get it.
Moveset
That (Goddarn) Jump
This is a very infamous move of Amygdala and probably the culprit for a good majority of dead hunters. There are two recommended ways to deal with it: stand still or run a little past Amygdala’s tail.
If you are under her feet when she took a leap, you just need to stand right where you are. Seriously. Do not move an inch. She will land back on the floor and miss you completely. If you are way too anxious and can’t resist the urge to fidget everywhere in the arena, just roll or move past her tail.
Phase 1
| Attack | Description |
| Laser Beams | Lights up her head for a split second and then shakes it before shooting lasers at you. |
| Frontal Shove and Slam | Shoves upwards with her right and left arms in quick succession. After that, she will raise both arms and lower her head. |
| Upwards Shove | Targets the ground before it and shoves upward with both frontal arms. |
| Slam | Raises her right hand and rears back to prepare for a huge slam. Her right arm will come down, and then she will lower her head. |
| Grand Slam | She raises her arms way up high before slamming them down in an array around her head. |
| Ground Pound | Pounds at the ground in front of it with her palms a couple of times. She will drop her head after this one. |
| Goo Drop | Drops small doses of goop from her head and then a final huge drop that staggers you. |
Phase 2
| Attack | Description |
| Laser bursts | Lights up and lets out short bursts of the lasers. |
| Laser Beam, enhanced | Repeats the laser beam attack from Phase 1 but draws in a straight line towards one direction and then back. |
| Ground Pound and Swipes | Adds some outward swipes to the original Ground Pound attack from Phase 1. |
| AoE Grand Slam | Repeats the Grand Slam from Phase 1, but with Arcane effects. |
| Arcane Ground Pound | Smashes the ground with her Arcane palms |
| Goo Spread | Repeats the usual Goo Drop attack but also shakes her head and spreads some goo to the sides. |
| Repairing | Raises her head and glows in red as she “repairs” herself. |
Phase 3
| Attack | Description |
| Stomp | raises her left foot (sometimes the right) and attempts to stomp you |
Same Boss, Different Level of Difficulty
Nightmare frontier’s encounter boils down to waiting until the right time to attack. However, the Defiled Chalice encounter gets much harder.
The Defiled Chalice is a location in the underground of Yharnan. It is notorious for the considerable increase in difficulty, full of enemies and creatures of the most dangerous. And, uh, yeah… our girl Amy is here.
So, in this arena, your space is going to be greatly reduced and your HP cut in half. Spamming the rolling option to avoid a jump attack is not an option anymore, but you can exploit it safely until you get to phase three. Once she has ripped her arms off, make sure you stay on the safe side of the arena.
Conclusion
After getting crushed to death under those beastly spider legs over and over, I can safely say you need to know where and when to attack. I generally lock onto her body and dodge her from a distance until she does a face slam, then dash in for one hit on her head. Do not try to dodge the jumps. Just stand still, and it will miss every single time.
Once you have armed yourself with enough patience to head into battle and not make rushed, unplanned decisions, you will find the battle quite straightforward. Just mind your step, and don’t get cocky with the head blows.
FAQ
Question: What is Amygdala’s weakness?
Answer: Amygdala’s weaknesses are Arcane, Fire, and Bolt damage.
Question: What do you get for killing Amygdala?
Answer: Once you beat Amygdala, you’ll receive 21,000 blood echoes and the Ailing Loran Chalice.
Question: Where is Amygdala?
Answer: You can either find Amygdala in Nightmare Frontier or Defiled Chalice.
Question: Is there an NPC summon for Amygdala?
Answer: Though not easy, this fight is relatively straightforward, so there is no specific recommended NPC summon for her.
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