The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | How To Beat Yetuga (First Boss)

The first boss you come across, Yetuga, serves as a great introduction to Souls-like combat with some well-telegraphed combos, a few grab attacks, and things like that. This guide will show you what he does and how to beat him.

Basic Boss Combos and Abilities

His basic left-right combo is the combo he will spam at you during the whole fight. When you see him winding up his left fist like this and then charging at you momentarily, he will do a significantly delayed slam with his left fist, followed by an uppercut with his right hand. This is always a basic one-two combo with left then right, and the delay on the initial left-hand slam will probably catch you out most of the time. 

You need to wait a bit longer than you feel you need to; you can dodge this by dodging to the left into the open space, and the attack will still miss you, but it is more unreliable. You must dodge through his fist to the right most of the time, and you can weave quick attacks between each dodge. You have time for two quick attacks, but one is more consistent. Parrying works just fine; again, you can get quick attacks between your parries.

When the boss prepares, he positions himself across his body for a right-handed backhand and is about to do a single standalone backhand sweep. This is his other basic combo that you will see often. This is easy to deal with just a single dodge, leaving plenty of time for an attack or two after parrying.

Multi-Hit Combos and Recovery Opportunities

When the boss starts with a right-handed sweep across the front of his body, he performs a four-part combo with four horizontal sweeps, one after the other, in pretty quick succession. After the fourth hit, the boss always slides away and then has a moment while recovering. 

This is a good opportunity for you to get some hits in; parrying works fine for this, but you need to hold your parry up for the last, fourth hit because it registers about three different hits. Learning to recognize this one with that right open swipe will serve you well because there is an excellent opportunity to get up to him and do a fully charged heavy attack on his face after he does this and recovers.

There is another right-handed cross-body backhand where the stance is slightly different, but there is a better cue that you will notice in the second. This one is a five-part horizontal swipe, finishing with one that is particularly strong, and if you successfully dodge or parry, he will have a moment where you can counterattack. 

Notice that little ground slam that he does as he sidewalks; that is what he does before he precedes that cross right backhand, and that is how you can tell that it will be five swipes instead of a single backhand. It is a deadly attack, especially the fifth hit; if you do not dodge it when the boss does this little slam and then roars, he will perform a single both-fisted ground pound. If you find this one a little weird to dodge, you should hold up your guard so at least you are not taking damage, and you can chunk your stamina.

These are what you call the stationary basic combos, but the boss also has a bunch of leaps, gap closes, and throws. The boss will regularly disengage from you and then jump at you, leaping into the sky. When he does that, it is just a single ground slam and leaves a good moment for you afterward to make a full-charge attack. After the same disengage animation, he can also leap at you into a grab attack. With this one, you have to dodge; you cannot parry it. 

If you do not dodge, he will grab you and perform a belly slam animation that is very dangerous and does a lot of damage. Often, in response to you being behind him or moving behind his back, he will do a bum slam on you. This often happens following the leap grab attack because he rolls away from you, and if you follow up behind him, it triggers the bum slam. Nearly always, after he gets up from the bum slam, he makes an attack forward with a little flip that does quite a bit of damage, so you need to be on the sides for this attack.

A slightly different disengage animation is the backward crab walk. When he does that, he is going to charge in a frontal dash across the room, and he often runs into a wall or comes to a stop, giving you a chance to perform a heavy attack on his back, which is very handy. You can also guard the charge, but it will exhaust you and deplete your whole stamina bar, leaving you to recover for a moment; however, you will not take any damage, which is still better than getting hit.

The third disengage animation involves him leaping into the air backward before throwing a rock. When you see that little leap and the rock throw, it is best to dodge the rock. Although you can parry it as you are about to, you will take some damage and frost buildup, so dodging is generally better. Often, after you have performed your first brutal attack—if you notice, after the vicious attack, he will do a little channel and then lift part of the ground to throw it at you—you need to be aware of that big slam. You can dodge or parry into that guard, and there is plenty of time before and after each of those to get some extra damage in.

Another attack to note is his frost breath, which he always uses towards the end of the fight, probably at a low health percentage. You will take heaps of damage if you hang around in those circles. If you get caught on the right-hand side, you can dash out quickly, but since it is a frontal cone and he always goes right–left as you are looking at him, you want to move to the left straight away. Once you dodge out to the side of his leg, you will have heaps of time to get some extra attacks in, such as a full-charge attack plus a few quick attacks.

Kill Example and General Commentary/Tips

As you watch the kill example, you should always try to get quick attacks in between those dodges because every little bit of damage counts and adds up pretty quickly. As for powering and dodging, neither is inherently better; you might find dodging more efficient if you perform it perfectly, but if you do not, you will just get hit. 

Parrying allows you to hold the parry, and even if you do not time it perfectly, you can still mitigate the damage. If you are new and struggling with the timing of the Souls-like combat, you might prefer parrying. 

Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, and later on, there will be different skill points and builds that favor one over the other. Ensure you are abusing these recovery animations; there are a few spots where he has a long recovery, and getting in a few charged attacks during those moments can make a difference. You might even stagger him when that purple bar gets depleted if you are lucky. 

When you get the brutal attack indicator, you do not need to perform the attack immediately; you have time to let your stamina recover, get a few attacks in if you have some spare stamina, and then execute the attack. This will almost fully recover your stamina bar, allowing you to continue attacking afterward.

Equipment and Build Recommendations

There is not much in the way of build discussion because skills have not been unlocked yet, but it is worth noting that you are using the four-piece Hound set, which provides about 15% raw damage against this boss and 20% extra stamina.

I've posted a few build guides, so be sure to check them out from the links below if you do not already have them. When you see the cue of the boss tucking his foot, you will have a good moment to do some damage.

If you found this guide helpful, please share your thoughts in the comments. This guide is designed to give you the detailed information you need to beat Yetuga, and you are encouraged to experiment with dodging and parrying to see what works best for you.

Also, check our The First Berserker: Khazan Review and other guides below:

• The First Berserker: Khazan Beginner's Guide
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | How To Find The Hound Set
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | Best Spear Build and Ways To Play
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | Best Greatsword Build and Ways To Play
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | How To Level Up Fast
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | How To Beat Blade Phantom (Second Boss)
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | How To Beat Viper (Third Boss)
• The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | How To Beat Volbaino (Fourth Boss)