Metyr is Miyazaki’s super monster, and he’s a tough fight. Well, it’s a glove. But we’ll help you figure out how to deal with this monster with the big fingers.
Shadow of the Erdtree taught us a valuable lesson about FromSoftware’s psychopaths: never tell them you like things; they’ll make you regret it later. Everyone loved Alexander’s neighbor in the main game. Now we know a lot more about Alexander’s neighbor and every neighbor in the game—even the optimistic and upbeat ones—is a Cronenbergian nightmare. What a joy.
For example, all of our funny “try to put your finger in a hole” jokes over the years. Hidetaka Miyazaki sat at his desk, nodded his head, said, “Well, I bet,” and put a banished monster made of diseased fingers into a giant hole in the game, because this guy doesn’t respect you, and he doesn’t approve of your zany behavior. The only comfort is that, fortunately, this thing isn’t a thing as long as you’re prepared.
Meter’s capabilities
Metyr will start from a very long distance away, and once you land in the arena, he will fire a sweeping laser at you as soon as he sees you. Once you get close enough, he will jump into the air and try to slam you into the ground with his thumb, one to three times. He may also do a faster, less damaging push using the little fingers on the front, or the larger fingers on his side.
Occasionally, Metyr will reach out to the horrific mass of writhing fingers at his chest and dump them on you before leaping, sometimes even spawning a few scary, German Shepherd-sized hands. There’s also a big stomp where Metyr gets up on his hind toes? Oh my god that thing is disgusting, did I mention that? The actual full arms up front can get in on the action too, either delivering two quick swipes at you, or trying to stomp you one by one before landing a two-handed stomp.
At the 50 percent mark, Metyr goes gravitational. He will generate a black hole on his “tail” that pulses twice before going supernova. After that, he will start pulling gravity attacks from anything that passes for a god’s ass made of fingers. He will occasionally generate mini black holes that explode on contact or after five seconds. He will push the tip of his thumb into the ground and fire a laser for a large area-of-effect explosion. All this is in addition to two tweaks to Metyr’s basic moveset: his laser attack will now fire three times instead of just a single sweep, and his big jump attack now adds a fan spin and slam for more damage.
What’s even more amazing is his massive Desperate Attack where he floats in the air, charging up magic before firing a massive laser at the ground, spinning around the arena with it.
How to Defeat Metyr – Stage 1
It should be pretty obvious if you’ve made it this far that the entire Manus Mithir Cathedral quest is heavily focused on bonuses for magic users. As such, it’s the magic users who will have to work hard here, while aggressive people who focus on melee can pummel this thing like the world’s messiest piñata. If you have a fully upgraded sword that causes bleeding, you’re basically walking into this fight to collect a corpse. However, no matter how you handle this, some backup won’t hurt. When the fight starts, avoid Mithir’s lasers, then you’ll have a little time to conjure up Soul Ashes while Mithir makes his way towards you. Once he’s in range, it’s showtime.
For close-quarters users, your target is that disgusting mass of fingers along Metyr’s chest. Each of his direct hits has a distinct signature, and they’re big and slow compared to many enemies in the game. Even his jump attack, while creating an area of effect that you won’t want to take the full brunt of, has a very easy timing to back away from. However, you won’t necessarily want to take everything Metyr does, as these hits drain your stamina quite a bit, and you’ll need to be as aggressive as possible here. Pick a hit from each of Metyr’s combos to roll through instead, and save the shield for the smaller finger strikes and side slashes. It might not even matter. This thing bleeds like a stuck pig, and if you can antagonize it enough while it’s recovering from each combo, especially with Spirit Ash in the mix, the constant blood loss and damage from staggering can end this fight in under a minute. Your biggest fear is just finding the second-stage Metyr starter, backing off when you see him start floating, and rolling forward through the explosion. After that, things are pretty easy.
Magic users, on the other hand, will need to think about it a bit more. All of the defensive strategies above still apply, and Metyr is still fairly easy to predict and outmaneuver, but the trick here is knowing how to land an effective strike. Metyr is fairly magic resistant, meaning that most faster spells can only do minimal damage. However, due to its massive size, almost any spell or spell that can blast through Metyr’s massive hitbox (like Meteorite of Astel or Comet Azur) can melt that sucker in no time. Timing is an issue, though, and Metyr’s strikes are powerful enough that getting hit while charging a spell can put you in a precarious position. Any spells that can reduce its charge time will be a huge help.
For this reason, if you’re carrying Spirit Ash, run away with one that consists of a group of small enemies that are able to annoy and distract Metyr enough that you can run back, at about a medium distance, and shoot without catching a single drop of whatever Metyr is trying to do to your Spirit Ash friends. If you’re one of those people who likes to fight boss fights alone, your best chance is when Metyr retreats. Get far enough away when you see him, and your spell will be ready to go when he lands, hopefully doing a massive amount of damage with whatever you fired, and hopefully whatever he tries next will be able to keep them in position.
How to Defeat Metyr – Stage 2
Phase two, with its many gravity attacks, will involve some careful positioning and timing before you can unleash anything lethal, and the floating gravity bombs in particular can be a constant nuisance if you try to attack when you should be looking for empty spaces to safely stand in. This is a time to be patient. Look for moves that require long recovery times (back attacks, double slams) and stay at a sufficient distance—around 20-30 feet seems to be the sweet spot—where you can take advantage without Metyr catching you with his laser. Metyr’s helicopter spin is also an easy dodge, but the area of effect is very wide. Run, don’t roll.
If you use the right tools, Metyr might not even get a chance to perform a Death Star beam attack, but if it does happen and the spinning beam comes close, there’s a narrow band of safety between the beam and the area-of-effect energy around Metyr. It’s hard to get through, but it can be done. If you’re a combat player and Metyr manages to do this, any weapon equipped with the Bloodhound can teleport across the gap. The good news is that if you’ve made it this far, Metyr is close to death anyway. Finish the job.
Your reward for winning is 420,000 runes. However, like everything else in the Manus Mithir Cathedral quest, the rest of the rewards are heavily weighted towards magic users. The Memory of Mother Fingers grants you either the magnificent Beyond World Staff, or the Beholder Finger, Mithir’s horribly deformed thumb tip as a very average giant weapon.
Conclusion
But that’s not the end of it. If you return to the Grace Site in the Cathedral (and perhaps spend your runes in case of disaster), and then return to Count Ymir’s throne, you’ll have to explain to both Golan and Count Ymir what happened there, and by explain we mean “they’re mad at you, please kill them.” Don’t worry, these aren’t particularly difficult or challenging fights, although Golan’s “Ashes of War” ability shouldn’t be underestimated. After that, Ymir will throw on a really weird wizard outfit that enhances finger spells. Poor Golan will die on her pillar, but if you pick up Irises of Grace or Occultation on your travels, you can actually get her a sort of “happy” ending.
Talk to her, and you’ll be given the option to give her either of the lilies. The Iris of Invisibility gives you the Night Sword, but the Iris of Blessing turns it into Soul Ash. That’s the option you want. Once you have that, head into the Outback, and go to the Shaman Village. At the back of the village, near where you picked up the Golden Braid, if you look down the edge of the cliff, you’ll see a narrow path leading to some grassy ledges that will take you to the upper level of Rabbath’s Rise. There will be a doll version of Jolan’s sister, Anna, lying at the end of the platform. Interact with the doll, agree to take Anna to the Soul Ash, and she’ll bring them together, making the sisters fight with you when you summon them. And they lived happily ever after. Sort of.
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