PATCHES

Phase Strategy

Patches is not a boss fight. He is a test of restraint — and the game never tells you that. Every instinct honed from Limgrave's enemies will push you to finish him off. Resist that instinct. Patches is one of the most valuable NPCs in the entire game, and killing him locks you out of his inventory permanently, including Margit's Shackle, the single best tool for the fight that follows.

Phase I — The Reluctant Rogue

Patches opens with a short burst of aggression — he swings a morning star and tosses the occasional dagger, but his attacks are slow and his damage is modest. At roughly 1,100 HP, he will not survive long if you press hard.

Critical: Stop attacking the moment he drops to his knees and raises his hands. This surrender animation triggers at around 25% HP. If you land one more hit after it begins, he may die — and with him, his entire questline and shop inventory.

The correct approach is deliberate:

1. Land three or four hits to open the encounter.
2. Watch his posture. When he staggers slightly and his tone shifts, ease off.
3. Let the surrender trigger naturally. Do not "just get one more hit in."

Once he yields, a dialogue prompt appears. Select the option to spare him. He will call you a fool, compliment your mercy in the same breath, and promptly set up shop.

There is no phase 2. There is no trick. The entire fight resolves in under a minute.

Attacks & Counters

| Attack | Counter | |--------|---------| | Morning star overhead swing | Roll toward him and to the left. Single hit, generous recovery window. | | Morning star horizontal sweep | Back away one step. Hitbox is short; his range is poor. | | Thrown knife | Strafe-walk left. It tracks slightly but loses accuracy on lateral movement. | | Retreating shuffle | He backs toward the cave wall and resets. Follow slowly — do not sprint in. Sprinting triggers panic swings. |

Recommended Loadout

No specific loadout is required. Any weapon available in early Limgrave will reduce him to surrender in a handful of hits. The only genuine risk here is over-commitment:

• Avoid weapon arts and jump attacks. They deal burst damage that can skip the surrender threshold entirely, killing him before the animation fires.
• Do not use Spirit Ashes. Summons will continue attacking during the surrender animation and will kill him while you stand there watching helplessly.
• Slow weapons are safer than fast ones. A greatsword gives you time to read his posture between swings. A dagger combo can drop 30% of his HP before you register the surrender has triggered.

If you want to be completely safe, reduce him to around 40% HP, then switch to light, single R1 presses and wait between each one.

A Note on the Long Game

Patches' value is not the fight — it is everything after. Once he surrenders and you speak with him:

• Return to the cave after leaving and re-entering. He will have trapped you in a chest during the cutscene. Survive the fall, return, and exhaust his dialogue without attacking him. This is mandatory to fully open his questline.
• His shop sells Margit's Shackle for 5,000 runes — arguably the most important early-game purchase. Use it twice during the Margit encounter to pin him in place and carve off a third of his health for free.
• He relocates throughout the game, appearing at the Scenic Isle in Liurnia and later in Leyndell. Each location adds new stock and advances a questline that winds through the entire main story.

Critical: If you killed Patches — either in this fight or by attacking him after his surrender — his shop is gone for the rest of the playthrough. Margit's Shackle can still be obtained from a second source, but his later inventory items, including rare throwing weapons and unique armor, are permanently missed.

Patches is also one of the few NPCs who openly acknowledges what he is — a scoundrel, a survivor, and someone who has somehow talked his way out of death in every corner of the Lands Between. The game rewards you for being equally pragmatic.

Let him go. The runes from killing him are an insult. What he sells is worth ten times more.

Related Bosses

With Patches alive and his shop open, your immediate next stop is Margit, the Fell Omen at the top of Stormveil's approach. Buy the Shackle before you go. The difference it makes in that fight is not subtle — it is the difference between a fight that teaches you patience and a fight that simply ends.