How to Beat General Lothaire: The Short Version
General Lothaire is a two-phase endurance check disguised as a single health bar. If you are wondering how long to beat General Lothaire in Valor Mortis, the answer is not measured in seconds — it is measured in how calmly you can repeat his patterns twice in a row. He gets back up after the first bar empties, so the win condition is simple: arrive at that transition with healing, pistol ammunition, and stamina still in the tank.
Community-reported strategy for this fight comes down to three habits: treat every attempt as pattern practice, shoot the confirmed growth weak points instead of the body, and refuse to spend your phase-two resources during phase one.
Current-demo caution: The boss and combat tuning changed after the 2025 playtest, and patch 1.01 improved performance in this arena. The advice below avoids frame counts, exact damage values, and “guaranteed” animation timing, because those have not been verified against the current public demo.
Before the Fight: Prep Checklist
Do this before you walk into the arena, because a carried balance does not help you inside it.
- Rest at the last Lantern and spend your Catalyst. Refill and bank your resources before entering — the arena is not the place to bring an unspent currency balance.
- Refill healing and pistol ammunition. Lothaire has two health bars, so plan for two fights, not one.
- Leave stamina after every attack. Cap your normal punish at a short string until you actually know the next animation.
- Fix performance first. Install the latest demo patch, and avoid FSR on affected Nvidia cards. A stutter during a telegraph ruins timing that would otherwise be correct.
Phase One: Learn Without Overspending
The first phase is a reconnaissance phase that happens to have a health bar attached. Your goal is not speed — it is reaching the transition intact.
Observe at mid-range before committing
Do not sprint in and unload. Hold a distance where you can see his full upper-body wind-up, because the first exchange is about identifying which attack he is committing to: a charge, a slam, a ranged throw, or a readable sword sequence. Community hands-on reports consistently treat the opening as a read, not a damage window.
Shoot the growths, not the body by default
Hands-on reports repeatedly identify shootable growths on Lothaire that take extra damage compared to his body. Use the pistol when a growth is clearly visible and he is locked in recovery. A missed panic shot is ammunition you will not have when phase two starts — and you will need it.
Parry only the attacks you recognize
The game frames parry as a posture tool, but “parry everything” is a poor learning plan. Parry the familiar sword swings you can already read. Dodge the large-body attacks until their contact timing is clear — especially the heavy downward slam and the charge. Trying to parry an unlearned heavy attack is the fastest way to turn a clean attempt into a death.
Punish recovery with two decisions
When Lothaire finishes an attack, make a quick check: is a growth shot clean right now? If yes, take it. If not, land a short melee punish. Either way, stop while you still have stamina to evade. Greed is the main way a correct opening becomes a trade you did not need to take.
Reach zero health with resources intact
Your phase-one benchmark is not how fast you cleared the bar. It is whether you reached the transition with healing, pistol shots, and a calm read on his basic range still available. He gets back up, and that second fight is where the run is actually won or lost.
Phase Two: Reset Your Rhythm
When phase two begins, create space instead of trying to steal transition damage. Treat the first new sequence as pure reconnaissance.
- Keep the camera centered on the torso. The boss’s size and the first-person view make late peripheral reactions unreliable, so track the body, not the limbs.
- Spend your saved ammunition on clear weak-point windows. Do not fire through movement just because the health bar looks low. Take the shot only when the target is stable.
- Re-establish your spacing before you re-engage. The first phase taught you his basic range. Phase two adds pressure, so re-learn distance rather than assuming the old spacing still holds.
- Keep dodging the heavies until you re-verify timing. The large-body slam and charge should stay dodge-first in phase two, exactly as in phase one.
Common Mistakes That Get You Killed
- Burning all your healing in phase one. Arriving at phase two with an empty flask is the single most common way this fight is lost.
- Parrying unlearned heavy attacks. Sword swings are fair game; slams and charges are dodge territory until proven otherwise.
- Firing panic shots. Every wasted bullet is damage you cannot deal during a phase-two weak-point window.
- Overextending a punish. Stopping with stamina left beats squeezing in one extra hit and getting clipped.
- Ignoring performance stutter. A hitch during a telegraph breaks correct timing — fix the client before blaming your reflexes.
Play it slow, bank your resources, and let the patterns come to you. Mastering the rhythm is what makes the difference between a long, scrappy two-phase war of attrition and a clean kill.