Preventing progress through Stormveil Castle, the Many Armed Key Master was a formidable boss in the Elden Ring closed network test, and is likely to pose a challenge upon full release.
To reach it, you must take the side entrance to the castle, along the cliff face. You'll find it on the second floor, and the door will close behind you. It'll be a claustrophobic fight in a dark space, against a spider-like boss with weapons in multiple arms.
Preparation
You'll not be able to summon spirits in this fight, making a tough battle even more so. While we think it's a good thing to change gameplay up, you'll need to be at your best to take down the Many Armed Key Master.
In short, you'll need to hit this boss with everything you have -- Flasks, health, and almost all of your FP.
Use consumables such as Fire Grease to coat your weapon for additional damage.
Combat
The Many Armed Key Master is a tough fight for several reasons. Firstly, you're not fighting in a wide-open space, but a small, enclosed room with several obstacles. You can use the boss to clear some of these with well-timed dodges, but largely you're going to be battling the room as much as the boss.
The boss is as its name suggests, and there are weapons in each. There's a shield, a spear, and an axe at least, so you'll need to be aware of the patterns of each weapon. It's a melee bruiser, with rapid attacks at both short and longer range. You can't block them all, nor can you dodge them. Be prepared to take hits.
The Many Armed Key Master will also emit a roar periodically, raising your Madness gauge. It won't fill up enough to be too much of a concern, but if the fight drags on it could reach max. If this happens, you'll take moderate damage, and lose FP. Healing up when necessary will be key to managing both this and your life.
There are several ways to take down the Key Master. You can see in the video above that we went for an aggressive strategy using a Greatsword, aiming to rush it down as quickly as possible.
Another method is to abuse the boss' mechanics and rules. It cannot leave the room, and will get stuck at the door. Without a ranged attack, you could use the time to heal up, without worrying about the boss' health resetting, or simply attack through the space with your own ranged attacks and spells. Be mindful though, that a bug seems to mean that its attacks can go through the walls.
The video below shows this cheese method in action.
Rewards
As well as Runes, you'll get the Rusty Key, opening up the path ahead.
You can also find the Arsenal Charm in this room, which increases the maximum equipment weight you can carry.
