Can you beat General Lothaire in Valor Mortis?

General Lothaire, The Eagle-Bearer, is the first boss in Valor Mortis and is one of those classic starting soulslike fights you're really not supposed to win.

The odds are very much against you, especially as you only have one attempt. Dying will start a cutscene where Lucjan appears to save you and provides a bit of an info dump about the world, but the boss will disappear.

While spending way too long beating Lothaire to find out what happens, I realised you can actually ALT + F4 the moment you die, and it generally puts you outside the boss arena when you load back in, letting you attempt the fight again. If you beat General Lothaire, you'll get:

• 10k catalysts (effectively souls in this game)
• The General's Catalyst Clot (which gives a further 10k)

It's a pretty big bonus in terms of initial levelling. Valor Mortis also doesn't have boss weapons, so you can spend that clot without missing out.

You'll also get the Torn-Banner achievement. Since I beat him, I can't confirm whether Lothaire turns up later, so this might very well be the only way you can get this. Still, is it worth repeatedly ALT + F4ing to fight him until you win?

Not really. Valor Mortis isn't a particularly hard game by soulslike standards, so an early levelling boost doesn't matter too much. If you are set on it, though, I recommend that you

1. Use fire to ignite him for DoT damage.
2. Parry during his first phase to get critical attacks.
3. Dodge his more predictable combos during the second phase, dealing damage when you can.

You can see me doing these in the video at the top—though you could likely afford to be more aggressive in the second phase than I was when feeling out his moves.