The diversity of builds in Dark Souls goes a long way toward making every player's experience unique whether they only go for a single playthrough or multiple runs of the game. However, the optional boss Moonlight Butterfly from one of the earlier areas is a great hint by developer FromSoftware that players should vary their builds in order to survive against everything the game throws at them.
Considering that there are builds in Dark Souls that can make it through to the end credits without casting any spells or swinging a weapon, the viable combinations of weapons and attributes are seemingly limitless. That being said, the average player just trying to get through FromSoftware's notoriously difficult bosses can take notes from the early bosses to direct them towards the best builds.
Range Can Make all the Difference
The intricacy that sets the Moonlight Butterfly apart from earlier bosses is that it is one of few enemies that players can't easily fight at melee range. This is because the boss spends most of the encounter floating over an open chasm that doesn't allow players to reach the Moonlight Butterfly, even with long-reaching weapons like spears and ultra greatswords. However, there are several ways that players can mitigate the trouble of this fight, by making use of the Dark Souls series' powerful spells or ranged weapons like bows.
For the spells available at the point in the game where players will likely fight the Moonlight Butterfly, being able to do enough damage will either require a heavy investment in intelligence or faith. Alternatively, there is a short bow in the same Darkroot Garden area where the Moonlight Butterfly is fought. With relatively low stats, this could also fit any melee build that has at least 12 dexterity, Dark Souls' short bow can give players the ability to fight at range without having to wait around for attack opportunities.
DPS Can Overcome Any Obstacle
An alternate strategy for the Moonlight Butterfly is to sit and wait for the boss to occasionally land on the bridge where the player stands for a limited chance to use some melee attacks. However, this opens the fight for several new opportunities, especially if players can manage to maximize their DPS for the brief periods where the Moonlight Butterfly has perched on the bridge. So, utilizing Dark Souls' strongest weapons can lead to overpowering the boss in a single cycle, which could be even faster than most ranged strategies are able to.
The result is that coming into the fight with a weapon that can either land a few heavy attacks or a slew of combos will burn the Moonlight Butterfly down enough to mitigate the need for a ranged build. Similarly, relying on the Moonlight Butterfly's weakness to lightning attacks can also help players deal the damage needed to kill it in one or two cycles with either the correct weapon or a gold pine resin. While magic might not be the best strategy for this particular fight, any enhancements to melee damage can easily make the fight manageable. This is one of many aspects that keeps the underrated Moonlight Butterfly from ever being considered one of the worst bosses in the Dark Souls series.
All of this makes for a boss that can incentivize players to expand their builds in order to cover for the need to defeat certain enemies from a range. This build variety can be helpful later on in Dark Souls as well, such as against the silver knights in Anor Londo and their greatbows. Alternatively, the Moonlight Butterfly can be a boss that players might return to later to make the best use of late-game melee builds.
Dark Souls is available now for PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
