Dodge Her Emergence and Clear the Villagers
Defeat The Bride by dodging her unblockable attack as she emerges from the water, attacking afterward, and parrying her normal follow-up swings. Around half health, clear the villagers she summons before refocusing on Anna; when she is close to defeat, finishing her also kills the remaining villagers.
Reach Anna in Cursed Hollow
Anna, the Bride Drowned in Tears, is a mandatory story boss in Cursed Hollow. You encounter her near the start of Chapter 6: Punishment, following Slaughtermill at the end of Chapter 5: Crime. Advance through that main story route to reach her encounter.
Prepare Your Blade and Healing
The Saber can block and parry, while the Rapier can parry but cannot block properly. Choose the Saber if you want blocking as a fallback while learning her normal swings, or the Rapier if you are comfortable relying on parries. The Claymore is obtained at the end of Chapter 6: Punishment, so prepare your existing blades for this earlier encounter.
Equip Duellist's Focus if you already have it, because it widens the melee parry window. For her normal attacks, press block just as the hit lands: a successful parry negates damage, costs no Endurance and damages the enemy's Posture. Practise that timing without trying to parry her unblockable emergence.
Check your Ferrofluid Flask upgrades if healing is what ends your attempts. Power Upgrades increase healing per use, while Quantity Upgrades increase the uses available between rests. Prioritise those improvements if you can handle her attacks but struggle to survive the whole encounter.
Work Through the Fight
- Dodge the attack when Anna emerges from the water. This strike is unblockable, and avoiding it creates your opportunity to attack afterward.
- Attack Anna after the emergence strike. The boss health bar belongs to her, so damage dealt to The Bride is what moves the encounter toward victory.
- Parry her normal follow-up swings if she stays above water. These attacks are parryable, and successful parries build Posture toward an opening for a Critical Attack.
- Stop your attack string when she disappears into the water. Prepare for another unblockable emergence so that you can return to the dodge-and-counter pattern.
- Clear the villagers as soon as they appear around half health. They are ordinary enemies like those elsewhere in the area, and removing them quickly prevents attacks from behind while you face Anna.
- Refocus on The Bride after clearing the villagers. Resume attacking after her emergence and responding to her normal swings instead of letting the summoned enemies distract you from the boss.
- Finish Anna when her remaining health makes a final attack practical. She can summon another villager wave after disappearing again, but defeating her automatically kills the remaining enemies.
Retrying or Dealing With a Stalled Fight
On death, you respawn at the last Lantern you Rekindled and drop your Catalysts where you died. Recover them before dying again, or they are lost permanently. Consider spending your Catalysts before committing to more attempts so that recovering them does not distract you during the fight.
An update fixed a bug where a Rapier hit at the exact end of The Bride's teleport could leave her stuck teleporting. If you encounter that behaviour, check for game updates before another attempt. Keep using her emergence and normal attack patterns to judge your responses.
Boss progression fixes also address cases where the player and boss die at the same time. If your progression remains blocked after a victory, the game's support team can provide replacement save files for each chapter.
Post-fight Spoilers: Rewards and Till Death
Defeating The Bride unlocks My Dying Bride. Her defeat also kills the villagers still in the encounter. Before leaving the area, you can begin Till Death at the altar and follow its route through Cursed Hollow.
- Inspect the wreath on the altar at the end of the arena to begin Till Death.
- Collect the Claymore in the chapel near the Village Church Lantern as you follow the quest route.
- Clear the chapel before continuing the search outside toward the mausoleum.
- Collect the Red Ribbon from the grave outside. To reach it, turn right after leaving the chapel, then right again behind the mausoleum.
- Tie the Red Ribbon to the wreath, returning via the Eerie View Lantern. This awards the Tomorrow's Promise Amber and 3,000 Catalysts.
- Rest at the Lantern around the corner before returning for the quest's final pickup.
- Collect Remnant's Return from the wreath after resting to finish the remaining part of Till Death.
The next main boss is High Justicar Aurelius, Last of the Faithful, in The Outskirts. That encounter occurs near the start of Chapter 7: Witch Hunt.