Castlevania: Belmont's Curse How to Beat Joan of Arc Boss Fight

Learning how to beat Joan of Arc in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is the make-or-break skill check before the late-game boss rush, because this encounter tests every tool Rose Belmont has learned up to that point. Joan of Arc is a fast, parry-hungry boss whose flame combo punishes greedy swings and rewards disciplined spacing, and most first attempts end with players burning through their healing stock in phase two. The fight also doubles as a primer for later bosses, including Isaac and The Fallen, so the parry muscle you build here carries directly into how to beat Isaac Belmont's Curse and the rest of the run.

Meeting Joan of Arc: The Cathedral Duel Two-Thirds In

Joan of Arc sits roughly two-thirds of the way through the main story route in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, just after the Medusa and Carmilla gauntlet and immediately before the lead-up to Isaac. According to the official Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Steam page, the title is set 23 years after Castlevania Dracula's Curse and follows Rose, daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, which means every holy and chain-whip technique you see Joan use ties directly into the Belmont bloodline lore. The boss is mechanically designed to teach the game's parry-first combat loop, so players who internalize the rhythm here will have a much easier time with the castlevania belmont's curse bosses that follow.

The fight has three distinct phases, each escalating in aggression and adding new tells. Below is the at-a-glance breakdown that most community-tested routes share.

Understanding the HP gates is important because Rose's stamina, not raw damage, is the real timer. Burning all your Arcana and relics in phase one will leave you with no recovery tools when Joan enters her enrage window, which is also the section where most attempts collapse. Plan every phase as if you have only half your heals left, and the back half of the fight opens up considerably.

Parry Windows, Dodge Timing, and Vulnerability Reads

Parry timing is the single biggest lever for how to beat Joan of Arc in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, and the timing is noticeably tighter than the early-game fodder enemies. The window is roughly 6 frames on standard difficulty and 4 frames on Hard, based on community-reported testing, which is short enough that mashing will not save you. A clean parry stuns Joan for about 1.2 seconds, and that stun is the only consistent opening for a full three-hit Vampire Killer combo without trading damage.

Parry vs. Dodge: When to Use Which

The block-hold option exists, but it is a trap in this fight. Joan has at least three multi-hit sequences where holding block eats chip damage faster than the chip damage from Medusa's gaze, and you cannot parry out of a block hold without releasing first, which costs the frame window. Treat block as a last-resort panic button, not a default posture.

Reading Joan's Animations

Every flame attack in phase one starts with a half-second wind-up where Joan raises her spear arm and a faint orange glow appears at the tip. That glow is your universal parry tell, and once you learn it, you can preemptively tap parry and react to the specific attack rather than the generic wind-up. The chain dash in phase two has a louder audio cue (a metallic chain rattle about 0.4 seconds before the dash commits) which is the signal to jump rather than parry, because the dash has armor frames that ignore parries started too early. Players who want a deeper read on this animation economy can compare notes with the optional boss roster breakdown, which covers how Joan's tells line up with Death and Carmilla.

Recommended Build, Relic, and Arcana Loadout

The build that consistently clears Joan in two to three attempts on a fresh save is a balanced one, not a glass-cannon Vampire Killer build. Rose's base kit gives you enough damage to burn through Joan's HP, but the fight is decided by how many heals and Arcana bursts you still have at the 33% phase transition, so a build that trades raw damage for stamina and Arcana efficiency wins more runs.

Core Relic and Arcana Picks

The Cursed Hourglass is the most important non-obvious pick. It is a late-game relic that you can grab in the Cathedral wing before the Joan encounter if you follow the side path through the bell tower, and its 10% slow effect on boss animations effectively gives you a 2-frame buffer on every parry. The trade-off is that Joan also deals 10% less damage, so the relic is not overpowered, it is just precisely tuned to a parry-first build.

Players who already cleared Medusa and Carmilla on their first route will have most of these pieces, which is part of why the belmont's curse medusa strategy and belmont's curse carmilla strategy communities both treat Joan as the natural capstone to that mid-game trio. The easiest boss tier list ranks Joan in the upper-middle tier, but that ranking assumes you have the relics and Arcana from those earlier fights, so the difficulty curve is really about preparation rather than raw mechanical skill.

Boss Comparison: Joan of Arc vs. Isaac, The Fallen, Death, Medusa, and Carmilla

Joan is not the only parry-test boss in the run, and the fight's design is clearly meant to bridge you into the harder encounters that come after. The table below compares Joan's core attributes against the five other bosses most players will face in the same story window, based on community data reported by players who have logged multiple clears on standard and Hard difficulties.

Three things stand out in this comparison. First, Joan sits at the median of HP and parry difficulty, which means she is intentionally tuned to be winnable once you have built the muscle memory from Death, Medusa, and Carmilla, but not so hard that she blocks progression. Second, Isaac's parry window is one frame tighter than Joan's, which is the entire reason most guides for how to beat Isaac in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse start by recommending that players farm Joan on a New Game+ file to internalize the 6-frame timing. Third, The Fallen drops to 4 frames and adds a fourth phase, so the how to beat The Fallen in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse progression assumes you have already cleared Joan with at most one death per attempt.

For the belmont's curse death strategy side of the comparison, Death's role in the curve is to teach patience. Death's scythe swings are slow and telegraphed, which gives new players a forgiving environment to learn the parry input before Joan ramps the speed. The belmont's curse medusa strategy community generally agrees that Medusa is the first true parry wall because her petrify gaze forces you to choose between parrying and dodging on the same frame, and Joan inherits that same dual-threat pressure in her fire ring burst during phase two.

Encounter-Specific Tactics and Common Pitfalls

The Joan fight has a handful of encounter-specific quirks that do not show up in any other boss, and most first-attempt losses come from one of three predictable mistakes. Working through these in order is the fastest way to convert a five-attempt clear into a one- or two-attempt clear.

Pitfall 1: Burning Arcana in Phase One

The single most common mistake is popping Solar Flare or Chain Reaper the moment you land a parry stun in phase one. That damage feels great, but it also burns your Arcana gauge, and Joan transitions into phase two at 66% HP with a fire ring burst that demands an immediate Veil of Mend. Players who spent their heals and Arcana in phase one end up tanking the phase transition and losing the run at 50% HP. The fix is to commit to a strict rule: only use Solar Flare after the 50% phase transition, and only use Veil of Mend when you are below 30% HP.

Pitfall 2: Punishing the Chain Dash

Joan's chain dash looks like a punishable opening because it ends with a long recovery animation, but in phase two it has a follow-up flame thrust that hits about 0.6 seconds after the dash ends. Punishing the dash with a three-hit combo puts you inside the thrust's hitbox, and the resulting damage usually costs more than the punish deals. The correct play is one quick whip swing, then backstep to bait the thrust, parry the thrust, and then commit to the full combo. The window is small but it is consistent, and once you internalize it, the dash becomes one of Joan's most rewarding openings.

Pitfall 3: Standing in the Flame Pillars

Phase three's arena-wide flame pillars look like a damage-over-time hazard, but they are actually cover. The holy spear rain in phase three always targets your position, and standing in a pillar reduces the spear damage by roughly 60% while still letting you parry the spear itself as it descends. Most players panic-dodge out of the pillars because the flame ticks for 2% HP per second, but the spear damage on a clean hit is closer to 12% HP, so the pillars are mathematically the safer choice. Time your parry to coincide with the spear's lowest point, and you can tank the pillar's tick damage while negating the spear entirely.

Bonus Tip: Arcana Burst Timing on Enrage

Joan's enrage combo at the very end of phase three is a five-hit chain that ends with a long, slow overhead slam. The overhead is the only move in the entire fight with a 12-frame parry window, which is twice as wide as her other attacks, and it is the move most players miss because they are not expecting a generous window after a long pressure chain. If you have a saved Solar Flare, this is the moment to spend it. The parry stun from the overhead slam is long enough to land a Solar Flare plus a full three-hit Vampire Killer combo, which is enough burst to end the fight before the enrage loop restarts.

Players who want a more comprehensive picture of how these tactics fit into the broader run can compare them against the castlevania belmont's curse french legend bosses approach used by players who have already mapped Joan's lore role in the villains and antagonists guide. The cross-reference is especially useful if you want to know why Joan's flame kit echoes her historical association with martyrdom and holy fire, which is a small detail but it is the kind of thematic reading that makes the parry timing feel more intuitive once you know what the animation is meant to evoke.

Pre-Fight Preparation Checklist

Walking into Joan without preparation is the single biggest reason runs go long. The table below is the pre-fight checklist that the general strategy guide recommends for any boss in the late-game tier, and every item is a small but compounding upgrade.

The full checklist takes about an hour on a fresh file, and it cuts the average attempt count on Joan from roughly 4–6 down to 1–3. More importantly, the same checklist applies almost unchanged to Isaac and The Fallen, so the time investment pays off across the rest of the run.

How to Beat Joan of Arc on Hard Mode

Hard mode in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse tightens Joan's parry window from 6 frames to 4, increases her fire ring burst radius by about 20%, and removes the long recovery on her chain dash. The base strategy is identical, but the execution tolerance is much lower, which is why most community guides recommend a dedicated Hard-mode loadout.

The Vampire Hunter Emblem is the unsung hero of the Hard-mode Joan clear. Its 10% bonus damage on parry punishes is the difference between a five-second parry stun window and a three-second one, because the extra damage lets you skip a full hit from the punish combo and still kill the boss before the enrage loop. The emblem is farmable from the same Cathedral knights used in the pre-fight checklist, so picking it up does not extend the prep time by more than a few minutes.

Key Takeaways and What to Do Next

The short version of how to beat Joan of Arc in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is this: prep the Cursed Hourglass and Pilgrim's Rosary before the fight, commit to a strict Arcana budget that only spends bursts after the 50% transition, parry the horizontal sweep and the enrage overhead, dodge the chain dash and the fire ring, and treat the phase-three flame pillars as cover rather than hazards. Do those five things and the fight collapses from a wall into a clean two-attempt clear.

The habits you build here are the foundation for how to beat Isaac, The Fallen, and the rest of the late-game boss rush, and they also reinforce the parry-first combat loop that defines the entire Rose Belmont campaign. Set the Cursed Hourglass relic as your farming target during the Cathedral wing, practice the 6-frame parry on the bell tower knights, and walk into the Joan arena with at least six healing salves and two saved Arcana bursts. That preparation is what turns a punishing boss fight into a checklist, and the same checklist scales cleanly into Hard mode, New Game+, and the post-game boss rematches that unlock after the credits roll.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Arcana to bring to the Joan of Arc fight?

Bring Solar Flare for burst damage during parry stuns, Veil of Mend for the phase-three enrage, and Chain Reaper as a wide-arc finisher. Skip anything with a long cast time because Joan's enrage loop will punish you before the animation finishes. Save both Veil of Mend charges for below 30% HP, and only pop Solar Flare after the 50% phase transition.

Should I parry or dodge the chain dash in phase two?

Jump over the chain dash rather than parrying it, because the dash has armor frames that ignore early parries and the recovery animation is bait for a follow-up flame thrust. One quick whip swing after the dash, then backstep to bait the thrust, parry the thrust, and commit to the full three-hit combo. This sequence is the highest-damage window in the entire fight.

Does the Joan of Arc boss scale with New Game+?

Yes, Joan gains roughly 20% HP and 10% attack power per New Game+ cycle, but her parry window stays at 6 frames until cycle 4, when it tightens to 5. The recommended build is identical to a first-run clear, but you will need two extra healing salves and the Vampire Hunter Emblem accessory to compensate for the damage increase. Farming the Cursed Hourglass twice (one for the main slot, one for the New Game+ relic slot) is the single biggest optimization for cycle 3 and beyond.

Can I skip Joan of Arc in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse?

No, Joan is a mandatory story boss, and her arena sits on the only path between the Cathedral wing and the lead-up to Isaac. There is an optional side path that lets you grab the Cursed Hourglass relic before the fight, but the encounter itself cannot be bypassed. The good news is that the same parry muscle you build here transfers directly to Isaac and The Fallen, so the time spent is never wasted.

What level should Rose be before fighting Joan of Arc?

Rose should be at least level 28 with a fully upgraded Vampire Killer, which is roughly the level cap the Cathedral wing naturally pushes you toward if you clear the side content first. Going in below level 25 is technically possible but you will not have the stamina pool to survive the phase-three enrage without burning every heal, and the run will feel punishing rather than fair. The pre-fight checklist in the strategy guide is the fastest way to hit that level without over-grinding.