Why can't Death Knight be killed?

[Anacybele]

Seriously, why? He's holding a Dark Seal that he would drop if he died, and you want to kill him in chapter 12 to open up the eastern side of the map for allied reinforcements.

But no matter what you do, he criticals whoever you attack him with. Divine Pulse doesn't do shit either, he just keeps criticaling your unit over and over and over. What are you supposed to fucking do here? This is infuriating. I have to restart the map ALL OVER after I got really far into it. Seriously unfair.

I'm not trying to just rant or anything, I'm just really really annoyed at this right now. I feel like quitting the game entirely and not going back for a good long time. I have NO idea what to do otherwise.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Anacybele

[Silly]

Using divine pulse doesn't reroll the RNG. If you do the exact same thing you will get the exact same outcome.

[Anacybele]

5 minutes ago, Silly said:

Using divine pulse doesn't reroll the RNG. If you do the exact same thing you will get the exact same outcome.

...Then what's the point of it existing? The idea behind Divine Pulse is to be able to revive a unit you lost and try again. If it can't actually change the outcome, it's useless.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Anacybele

[Captain Karnage]

it's called plot armor.

what that guy above me said. 

You're supposed to use a thief to get the dark seal

[The Roger The Paladin]

What route are you doing? I find Lysithea's Dark Spikes can one shot him, provided you have her trained. It should also be noted that his allrange counter doesn't work against the ballista, onager, or magic orbs on that map, so you can lure him in with the nearby ballista (as he will start moving towards you after you hit him with it, chip him with gambits he can't countrer, then finish him off with someone who hits hard enough to take off whatever hp he has left (someone with a horseslayer and a combat art being a solid choice, as would any strong black/dark magic user) before he can counter.

Edited August 17, 2019 by The Roger The Paladin

[Garlyle]

There are a lot of things you can do. Gambits are a blessing to start to weaken them, because they can't counterattack. Use some strong spells as finisher, like Dark Spikes. If everything seem to fail, use crest weapons. Rapier is also effective against them if you have any. Seriously, by chapter 12 they should be less intimidating.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Captain Karnage said:

it's called plot armor.

what that guy above me said. 

You're supposed to use a thief to get the dark seal

I don't have any thieves. And you have to kill Death Knight in this chapter anyway, because like I said, he's sitting on the eastern opening where you can get allied reinforcements if you open it up.

2 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

What route are you doing? I find Lysithea's Dark Spikes can one shot him, provided you have her trained. It should also be noted that his allrange counter doesn't work against the ballista, onager, or magic orbs on that map, so you can lure him in with the nearby ballista (as he will start moving towards you after you hit him with it, chip him with gambits he can't countrer, then finish him off with someone who hits hard enough to take off whatever hp he has left (someone with a horseslayer and a combat art being a solid choice, as would any strong black/dark magic user) before he can counter.

Golden Deer. Lysithea can't one-shot him. She is trained up, but even Dark Spikes doesn't one-shot him. Maybe she got stat-screwed, as I do recall her getting a lot of bad level ups. I don't have a horseslayer weapon and I've not seen it available anywhere.

2 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

There are a lot of things you can do. Gambits are a blessing to start to weaken them, because they can't counterattack. Use some strong spells as finisher, like Dark Spikes. If everything seem to fail, use crest weapons. Rapier is also effective against them if you have any. Seriously, by chapter 12 they should be less intimidating.

I don't have any rapiers and I've not seen them available anywhere.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I am not in chapter 12, but Lysithea could oneshot him in the former chapters he appeared. 

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Lysithea said:

I am not in chapter 12, but Lysithea could oneshot him in the former chapters he appeared. 

I just said she couldn't. I tried multiple times.

[The Roger The Paladin]

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Golden Deer. Lysithea can't one-shot him. She is trained up, but even Dark Spikes doesn't one-shot him. Maybe she got stat-screwed, as I do recall her getting a lot of bad level ups. I don't have a horseslayer weapon and I've not seen it available anywhere.

Is it possible to weaken him enough with gambits and the ballista to allow Dark Spikes to finish him off? I believe the horseslayers appear in the shop when you reach a certain professor rank, though I don't recall which so that's probably no use by now.

[Florete]

9 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

...Then what's the point of it existing? The idea behind Divine Pulse is to be able to revive a unit you lost and try again. If it can't actually change the outcome, it's useless.

You're supposed to do something different.

Anyway, use gambits and advance the RNG against other enemies.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Then Gambits first, and then Lysithea's Dark Spike? 

Otherwise I do not know how to prevent counterattacks by Death Knight. 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Lysithea

[Dandy Druid]

Just sounds like a lot of bad luck on your end. Between Lysithea's bad level ups and him consistently having criticals. I was able to defeat him by having Raphael tank 1 blow from him after attacking him with gauntlets, then having Lorenz do a powerful spell on him with Thrysus. Depending on how you trained them, Raphael and Hilda can tank a hit if necessary.

[Arcphoenix]

Gambits and Lysithea is the only way I know of for killing Donkey Kong. I'd recruit her and get her reason to C rank. Shouldn't be too hard as she seems to get skill levels faster - at least in my use of her. I hear Hubert also gets Dark Spikes, but I haven't done a BE playthrough yet to know if he has it early enough or is at par with Lysithea's strength

[Dylan Corona]

Which one is chapter 12 again? I've beaten him before with a mix of Gambits and The Sword of Creator. I also got really good levels for Shamir, so she had amazingly high crit.

 

Edit: Looked up the Chapter, I'm dumb haha. Yeah, that was the Chapter Shamir and the Sword of Creator owned. I got amazing damage.

What characters are you using and what levels?

Edited August 17, 2019 by Dylan Corona

[Anacybele]

9 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

Is it possible to weaken him enough with gambits and the ballista to allow Dark Spikes to finish him off? I believe the horseslayers appear in the shop when you reach a certain professor rank, though I don't recall which so that's probably no use by now.

My professor rank is C. Maybe not high enough, yeah.

Gambits might work, but I don't know for sure. I don't find them very useful, as they don't really do anymore damage than a normal attack and you can't double with one. The only benefit is that you don't eat a counterattack.

8 minutes ago, Florete said:

You're supposed to do something different.

Anyway, use gambits and advance the RNG against other enemies.

If it doesn't change the RNG, Death Knight would've criticaled anyone I sent against him. Doing something different wouldn't have changed anything. So I say again, Divine Pulse seems pointless.

My only option seems to be to try a gambit.

6 minutes ago, Dandy Druid said:

Just sounds like a lot of bad luck on your end. Between Lysithea's bad level ups and him consistently having criticals. I was able to defeat him by having Raphael tank 1 blow from him after attacking him with gauntlets, then having Lorenz do a powerful spell on him with Thrysus. Depending on how you trained them, Raphael and Hilda can tank a hit if necessary.

Yeah, that would be bad luck... -_- Hilda has low Def, I doubt she'd survive no matter what. Raphael might though. Sylvain also would probably work, because holy fuck he's tanky. I had him clear on the other side of the map, but of course I can send him the other way in a second attempt.

4 minutes ago, Arcphoenix said:

Gambits and Lysithea is the only way I know of for killing Donkey Kong. I'd recruit her and get her reason to C rank. Shouldn't be too hard as she seems to get skill levels faster - at least in my use of her. I hear Hubert also gets Dark Spikes, but I haven't done a BE playthrough yet to know if he has it early enough or is at par with Lysithea's strength

I said I went Golden Deer, so I've had her from the beginning and I said she's trained up. I don't really care about Hubert, so I never bothered trying to get him.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Anacybele

[Dr. Tarrasque]

20 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

...Then what's the point of it existing? The idea behind Divine Pulse is to be able to revive a unit you lost and try again. If it can't actually change the outcome, it's useless.

Take a different action with less chances of missing, if possible.

The Death Knight can be killed. The key is to use gambits to lower his health down and supplement it with things like Rally (Annette), Hilda's personal skill and then finish it off with Dark Spikes (Lysithea) or Knightheeler.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

Take a different action with less chances of missing, if possible.

The Death Knight can be killed. The key is to use gambits to lower his health down and supplement it with things like Rally (Annette), Hilda's personal skill and then finish it off with Dark Spikes (Lysithea) or Knightheeler.

Yes, these things have already been said.

Regardless, I thank everyone for the advice.

[Anathaco]

If all else fails, and you don't mind missing out on a Dark Seal, you can just avoid him and take out the boss. 

[Florete]

16 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

If it doesn't change the RNG, Death Knight would've criticaled anyone I sent against him. Doing something different wouldn't have changed anything. So I say again, Divine Pulse seems pointless.

My only option seems to be to try a gambit.

If you take a different action first, the RNG advances and you won't necessarily see the same result against the Death Knight. It's doing the exact same thing in the same order that will give you the same result.

16 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I said I went Golden Deer, so I've had her from the beginning and I said she's trained up. I don't really care about Hubert, so I never bothered trying to get him.

You can't recruit Hubert away from Black Eagles anyway.

[NoirCore]

30 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

...Then what's the point of it existing? The idea behind Divine Pulse is to be able to revive a unit you lost and try again. If it can't actually change the outcome, it's useless.

That's wrong, though. I tend to use it to fix simple mistakes or rewind super far if my current route is going bad, like if I lose a villager in a "protect all villagers" map. This also goes for if I accidentally crit with someone while trying to get another person EXP, so I use somebody with less crit or just wait a turn. The intention of it isn't only "revive and try again" and that's it.

Dunno what GD Death Knight or chapter 12 is like, but from what others say, sounds like Gambits are the best call so you can weaken him up without risk of counterattacks.

[Perkilator]

Weird. Using Claude and I think a Brave Bow, I made pretty short work of him in a late chapter.

Spoiler

I think the real question is, why can't the Death Knight just take off his mask? It's already known who he really is in Mercedes' Paralogue, why not just unmask? For all we know, it could just as easily be Baby Ant-Man from Endgame.

 

[SockPuppet]

My own experience, for those interested: I beat him the second time he is encountered, by using two gambits and Lysithea’s Dark Spikes. I sadly didn’t have Dark Spikes during the first encounter. The two gambits did a collective of 6 damage points (so Byleth and Claude did 3 points each), and Lysithea took him out immediately afterward. Had I not withered away those pivotal 3 hit points, DK would’ve countered and one-shot her. 

Afterward, my Lysithea was strong enough that she could one-shot him all on her own in future encounters, including Chapter 12.

[ZeManaphy]

10 minutes ago, Perkilator said:

Weird. Using Claude and I think a Brave Bow, I made pretty short work of him in a late chapter.

  Hide contents

I think the real question is, why can't the Death Knight just take off his mask? It's already known who he really is in Mercedes' Paralogue, why not just unmask? For all we know, it could just as easily be Baby Ant-Man from Endgame.

 

Not to mention that his true Identity is already known and shown.  I wonder if they’ll show off why he became the Death Knight in the first place for the DLC; the story never explains why he joins the Flame Emperor.

[Anacybele]

17 minutes ago, Florete said:

You can't recruit Hubert away from Black Eagles anyway.

Makes sense, given how crazy loyal he is to Edelgard.

18 minutes ago, Florete said:

If you take a different action first, the RNG advances and you won't necessarily see the same result against the Death Knight. It's doing the exact same thing in the same order that will give you the same result.

Then why did Death Knight still critical Byleth when I tried to have her attack him at melee range rather than distant range?