Elden Ring: Patches (Murkwater Cave) Boss Fight

As you may know, bosses in Elden Ring are divided into three tiers. From lowest to highest: Field Bosses, Greater Enemy Bosses and finally Demigods and Legends.

Patches is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the small Murkwater Cave dungeon.

If you've played the Dark Souls games before Elden Ring, you've probably encountered Patches before. He's a traitor and always trying to kill you when you look the other way, and then when you confront him, he begs for his life and hopes for forgiveness. This fight is no different, when you get him to around 50% health he will try to hide under his shield and surrender. At this point, you can either kill him or let him live and he will apparently turn into a vendor.

I chose to kill him just because I've always spared him before and regretted it. Once you get access to the Round Table, you can just hand in his bell bearings and you will have access to the same items he would have sold if you had spared him, so no loss really.

One huge reason to kill him is that he drops a Spear +7. Admittedly, I haven't scoured every nook and cranny of the starting area yet, but I do believe that this is probably the best melee weapon available so early in the game, he was only the third boss I killed.