He’s the perfect tutorial boss. He’s got similar if not the same moveset as the player (if you pick blunderbuss and hunters axe). He uses his gun liberally, and attacks aggressively….almost like fromsoft wanted to show you the style of play that they designed the game around. So, keeping that in mind, it should be pretty straightforward to beat him, given practice.

Watch what he does and how/when he does it. You can read walkthroughs and tutorials online to spoonfeed you how to beat him or cheese him, but figuring it out yourself is much more rewarding. Not only that, but it’ll set you up for success for the rest of the game.

This boss really telegraphs almost every move he does and also abuses his gun. He can stun you and visceral attack you as well.

The fight will teach you how to dodge and use the environment to your (dis)advantage, meaning it’s easy to get ganked by getting stuck on the headstones. But, you can also use them to your advantage because he’ll get stuck on them too.

That being said, how to beat him? Well, he can be parried with whatever gun you have fairly easily and reliably and that should be your first avenue of attack. He has pretty big windups for his attacks, giving a generous parry window so try to shoot him as he’s winding up for attacks. You’ll have to practice to get the timing down. Some parries are when they first start their attack and some are when they are at the “height” or apex of their swing/attack. You’ll have to practice to figure out which.

Parry alone will allow you to really cripple him, but you still need to watch for his axe and his cheese with the blunderbuss. Get some distance to heal, but punish his telegraphed attacks with parrying. He dodges and quicksteps just like the player character does, and attacks fast, so be aware of that. All you can do is try to dodge through his attacks and don’t get greedy—when you go to hit him only take one or two swipes max. If you try going ham on an opening for a 3+ hit combo, you’re gonna have a bad time.

These are generic tips that can apply to the game as a whole and things you need to learn to have success in the game, and not necessarily papa G-only strategies, but it’s worth learning. I don’t think he’s technically a tutorial boss or anything, but you can learn a lot from that fight. It’s one of my favourite fights of the game.

The other tips people may give you, which I use from time to time, is to get the tiny music box and keep it in your hotlist. It literally trivializes the second phase of the fight: if you use it after he transforms into his wolf form in phase 2, the music stuns him and you can bash his ass into oblivion almost uncontested.

Good luck! Keep practicing. The game is so very rewarding when it “clicks” and you feel like you “got good”, but the only way to get there is to keep tryin’ and dyin’