Salazar Knife Only - Professional/No Primal or Fighting Knife/No Damage

This is without a doubt the most painful thing I have ever subjected myself to in this game. I strongly recommend against ever fighting this monstrosity of a boss like this if you want to maintain your sanity. I've always detested this boss and fighting him this way gives him every possible opportunity to screw you over with his horrible attacks. The main source of frustration are the black pustules he randomly places over the arena. The fact that he can passively do this is appalling. What's more is that he can place it in nonsensical locations, such as on the inaccessible level geometry or even in mid-air. The worst thing he can do is block your escape routes with them. The best advice I can give is to never travel in a direction that Salazar just came from. Otherwise you will more than likely run into a pustule. You usually don't have the time to swing the camera over to check either. Even if you do see that one is in the road, there can be some cases where you are completely trapped and cannot avoid damage. There is also the possibility of a pustule being placed in an area where Salazar hasn't been. It's a risk you have no choice but to run for the entire length of the fight. Most attempts are going to be lost to running into a pustule you couldn't have done anything about.

I prefer to fight downstairs since he seems to spend less time pointlessly flying around the arena. It also prevents him from doing the trailing acid stream attack. I stick around where the big pillar is next to the stairs because that helps me escape his other attacks. The key attack you want is the lunging bite attack. It's telegraphed, easily avoided and provides the best opportunity to get some damage in. I prefer to run backwards from it, but you can also run to the side. I just find doing the latter to be inconsistent. The other attack that offers a decent window to get damage in is the horizontal acid stream. All you have to do is crouch under it and then rush in. Bear in mind that if you are too close to Salazar the acid will still hit you even if you are crouching. You can also attempt to get in a slash or two after Salazar finishes any of his attacks, but it's a fairly high risk for little reward.

The other attacks are very threatening. First is the vertical acid stream. This comes out kind of quickly, so you need to be ready to run to the side. You'll see that I have a number of extremely close calls with this specific attack in the video. In most cases he will immediately follow up the vertical acid stream with the multiple acid spit. That attack is huge source of frustration. The best way to avoid it is to put a wall in between you and Salazar. This is the reason why I like to fight near the stairs with the pillar. It's not guaranteed safety though. I've had at least three instances of the stupid acid hitting me through the wall. You can imagine how infuriating that is. Salazar can also fly right up to you and initiate this attack. He can also do it after recovering from a knife prompt. Both of these attacks will require quick movement and decision making which combines very poorly with the potential for terribly placed pustules. There are so many moments where Salazar seemingly places a pustule immediately behind you, which has to be a cruel joke from the developers. I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think there is anything you can do about it. I've tried fighting in different parts of the arena and it either just makes the fight last way too long or it doesn't help at all to begin with.

Once Salazar takes enough damage, he starts using this acid stream attack that sprays all over the place. All you have to do is crouch under it. You have plenty of time to react to it. Unfortunately, it's during this phase that he lessens how often he uses the lunging bite attack. Instead favoring to spam the vertical stream and acid spits. This is why you see me getting really nervous and impatient later in the video. It's also why the fight takes as long as it does. For the first half of the video I actually get pretty lucky with getting stuns on him, but the last half is largely me just dodging attacks while praying for the chance to damage him. When I do stun him, I get in at least 9 stabs before using the knife prompt. The timing for this is tight, so you can go for 8 stabs to be safe. You also need extra boot knives because the combat knife doesn't have the durability to do this whole fight by itself. You get 3 knife prompts out of a full durability boot knife. I think it takes at least 10 knife prompts to kill Salazar, which can be variable due to the possibility of critical hits. I really thought and hoped that he was going to die on that last knife prompt, but he survived and I had to endure another minute where I could have lost everything. Thankfully I got through, but this really was not pleasant. I don't feel accomplished at all, just drained and dead inside. I think I need to go lay down for the next 48 hours.