How to Beat the Last Judge in Silksong — Sinner's Road Boss Guide

Why Last Judge is the mid-game skill check

Last Judge sits in the courtroom chamber at the end of Sinner's Road, gating Bilewater and the back half of Greymoor. It is the first Silksong boss that combines an add-summon mechanic with a parry-only attack — both systems the game teaches in isolation but never together until this fight. Every player who reaches Sinner's Road runs into this wall, and the search volume around it is the highest of any Silksong mid-game boss.

The fight is winnable on any Crest, but two combinations dominate the meta: Hunter for stable two-cycle play and Reaper for a tighter one-cycle. This guide leads with the Reaper route because the wide sweep solves the boss's biggest design problem — the verdict adds spawning behind you while the boss is mid-combo. Hunter is covered as the consistent fallback for first-clear attempts.

Read the parry section before your first attempt. The third scythe sweep is the single attack in the moveset that cannot be dodged with iframes — if you do not parry it, you eat 2 masks every cycle and the fight becomes unwinnable on a one-Crest setup.

Last Judge at a glance

Attack patterns and tells

• Scythe Sweep One — wide horizontal swing from right to left. Tell: scythe drops to the floor. Dodge by jumping; downstrike-pogo off the scythe haft for a free 30 damage.
• Scythe Sweep Two — diagonal upward swing. Tell: scythe rises behind the head. Dash backwards under the swing; the recovery is short, do not commit a punish.
• Scythe Sweep Three — overhead slam. Parry-only — white flash on the blade. Parry returns a riposte that does 80 damage and skips the next sweep entirely. This is the most important read in the fight.
• Verdict Summon — Last Judge slams the gavel; two verdict adds spawn at the left and right edges of the arena. Tell: gavel raised over the head, 1.5-second windup. Always kill the left add first — it has the projectile cast.
• Judgment Beam — only in phase two. Vertical beam from the ceiling tracks Hornet's position. Tell: a red marker appears under your feet. Sprint perpendicular for two seconds, then jump the beam — it has no vertical hitbox above one body-height.
• Gavel Slam — heavy single-hit AoE used when Hornet is at melee range for too long. Tell: the gavel lifts and Last Judge crouches. Dash backward and downstrike on the recovery for double damage.

Recommended loadout (Reaper one-cycle)

Reaper one-cycle plan in detail

The Reaper one-cycle assumes you can hit a 60% parry-three success rate. Below that, switch to the Hunter two-cycle plan. The route: open with a Volt Filament cast at melee range to apply shock — this ticks for 8 damage per second throughout the fight. Land four basic Reaper sweeps during the first scythe-one and scythe-two pair to drop phase one to 30%. The add-summon triggers at 50% — let the adds spawn, then immediately sweep-cleave both of them with one Reaper swing (this is the whole reason Reaper wins here).

Phase two opens with the Judgment Beam. Dodge it, then close the gap and start the parry-three loop: scythe-one downstrike pogo, scythe-two dash-back, scythe-three parry, riposte for 80, immediately follow with Threaded Sword silk-dash for 50, then back off. This loop deals roughly 250 damage per cycle. Two clean cycles end phase two before the second add wave spawns at 25% HP.

If you cannot parry-three consistently, the loop falls apart at the second cycle because you eat 4 masks total and Bind windows close. The Hunter two-cycle below is the recovery plan.

Crest comparison for Last Judge

Verdict: Reaper is the speedrun pick; Hunter is the consistent first-clear pick. Either one beats Witch or Wanderer because the verdict adds require melee answer that ranged builds cannot deliver.

Hunter two-cycle plan (recommended for first clear)

1. Open with two Straight Pin throws at max range to chip Last Judge before he commits to a sweep chain. Each throw is 12 damage.
2. Close to melee range. Cycle scythe-one pogo → scythe-two dash-back → scythe-three parry-riposte. Repeat until 50% HP.
3. Verdict adds spawn. Switch focus to the left add immediately; it has the projectile. Kill in two Hunter swings.
4. Curveclaw the right add while it walks toward you. The boomerang hits twice — clears the add without breaking position.
5. Resume scythe-cycle loop. Phase two adds the Judgment Beam — dodge perpendicular, then resume.
6. At 25% HP, second add wave spawns. Cleave both with a Reaper sweep if available; otherwise kill the left first again.
7. Final 25% HP — Last Judge gets desperate and chains two scythe-three sweeps in a row. Parry both for a guaranteed kill.

Common death causes

• Trying to dodge the parry-three sweep with a dash — the hitbox is full-arena floor. Always parry.
• Killing the right verdict add first. The left add casts a tracking projectile; ignoring it eats free damage.
• Binding during scythe recovery. Gavel Slam interrupts roughly one in three Bind attempts.
• Running Witch Crest and hoping ranged kites the adds. Verdict adds close gap faster than Volt Filament cools down.
• Spamming Straight Pin during phase one. The silk cost compounds and you arrive at phase two without enough silk for parry insurance.
• Ignoring the Judgment Beam track marker. The red dot is the only warning; if you cannot see it, the boss is offscreen — reposition first.