Bosses

Aava, the King's Pet

Description

Each of the Ivory King's seven beasts was conferred a specific duty.
Aava's was the guardianship of the King's beloved child of Dark.1

Location

Frozen Eleum Loyce
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 8,930 78,000
2 (NG+) 12,502 156,000
8 (NG+7) 26,790 312,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Resistance

+ Show details – hide block Experiments done with one character, same build, same equipment; only the urn was changed to determine damage. The assumption is that all of the urns below do 200+1.3*bonus damage, as each of the pages indicates.
Item Damage Bonus Expected Dmg Resist %
Hexing Urn 67 103 334 80
Firebomb 73 108 340 79
Witching Urn 50 106 338 75
Lightning Urn 43 73 250 73

Attack Patterns

Strategies

Notes

Footnotes 1. Soul of Aava, the King's Pet description.

Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Soldier Varg, Cerah the Old Explorer

Description

Once a small band of heroic adventurers, the toll of countless years have hollowed them terribly, and will throw themselves at any intruder they see in an attempt to end their life.

Location

Cave of the Dead

Stats

Afflicted Graverobber

Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,350 60,000
2 (NG+) 4,260 120,000
8 (NG+7) 8,094 240,000

Equipment:

Ancient Soldier Varg

Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,310 60,000
2 (NG+) 3,972 120,000
8 (NG+7) 7,547 240,000

Equipment:

Cerah the Old Explorer

Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 2,540 60,000
2 (NG+) 3,048 120,000
8 (NG+7) 5,792 240,000

Equipment:

NPC Summons

Both can be found near the gravestones after entering the Cave.

Drops

Strategies

Unlike most boss fights, there are three characters you must defeat in order to progress.

Co-op

*If fighting with summons, use of the Redeye Ring to draw attention will allow the host/summons to easily backstab Varg and Afflicted Graverobber while the bait kites them. It also allows one player to kite 2 of the 3 enemies, leaving the host 1v1 or 2v1 against Cerah if you are worried about the Greatbow. If coordinated properly, this strategy all but trivializes this boss fight.
*In Co-op, Graverobber and Varg may use their Estus Flasks when having low HP.

Notes

Ancient Dragon

Lore

Soul of the great ancient dragon that
stands magnificently, deep within the shrine.

This powerful being stands and waits,
for whoever may visit him.

— Description of the Guardian Dragon Soul

The magic of the ancient dragon allows one
to delve into the memories of the withered.

— Description of the Ashen Mist Heart

Location

Dragon Shrine:
From the bonfire make your way up the Shrine. The Ancient Dragon is found up a long set of stairs that is guarded by many enemies.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 19,840 120,000
2 (NG+) 23,800 240,000
8 (NG+7) 45,236 480,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Shrine Entrance bonfire.

Summons

The added resistances to the boss due to their presence and the general inability of the AI to deal with a dragon makes their summoning unwise.

Drops

Moveset

Stomp:
Stomps with any of his feet.

Tail Smash:
Smashes with his tail.

Bite:
Bites.

Forward Fire Breath:
Breathes fire forwards, sways left and right slightly

Flying Fire Breath:
Starts to fly and breaths fire towards the ground. Large area of effect.

Below Fire Breath:
Stands on hind legs and breathes fire under himself.

Strategies

After you go through the fog, the boss will stand up and welcome you with a fire breath. While he's doing that, you want to run around and under him, and literally wedge yourself in the gap between the big and middle toes of his back leg. From here on get a hit or two in, wait until he lifts the leg to stomp on you and dodge it. Sprint to the other leg, once again get in between his toes, and get a hit or two in. He will proceed to lift the leg to do a stomp, dodge it and run to the other leg. Rinse and repeat for an extremely easy win. If done properly, he will NEVER use any of his other attacks, even the under-belly fire breath.

If he does the fire breath under himself, back off to the outside of the leg you were attacking and hack away. The fire should not hit even if you're hugging the leg.

If he looks like he's about to launch himself and rain fiery death on you, watch where the tail is and run towards it. If you start running early enough, the fire will not hit you. Don't stay directly under the tail, as it'll crush and kill you when he lands.

When using his aerial fire attack, the Ancient Dragon will almost always attempt to be turning towards you, and by extension, turning his tail away from you. Use this to your advantage to turn the dragon and keep him from standing awkwardly on a ledge where you'll be in danger.

Don't underestimate his massive amount of health. Consider bringing a second weapon, as it's quite possible that whatever you're using will degrade faster than he will.

890 Fire Defense:

If you have 890 fire defense you are 99% resistant to fire damage, so just keep your distance or roll through the physical attacks. As any kind of caster this tactic is very easy because you will have built in fire defense and spells that do damage from a distance, but it's possible to use with any build. Here is some equipment that will help you reach 890 fire defense: Pharros Mask (100 fire defence from being wet), Flame Quartz Ring +3 (150 fire defence), Dispelling Ring +1 (120 fire defence), Dragon Tooth (50 fire defence even without the Strength), Flash Sweat (300 fire defence for 60 seconds).

Best armor that require Twinkling Titanite (298 fire defense): Penal Mask, Hexer's/Chaos Robe, Penal Handcuffs, Hexer's/Chaos Boots.
Best armor using normal titanite (250 fire defense): White Hollow Mage Hood, Alonne Captain Armor, Alonne Knight Gauntlets, Alonne Knight Leggings.
Best armor without using titanite (237 fire defense): Black Dragon Set.

As of patch 1.06, it is no longer possible to obtain 900 Defense immunity to any forms of non-physical damage.

See Fire Defense for more info on how to increase it.

Ranged Strategy with a Greatshield:

Required stats: 35 Strength (maybe 18 will work if shields work just as well when two handed as they do with proper Strength) and at least 20 Endurance. Stock up on as many spells as possible, and bring a couple spell restore items and Green Blossoms if you want.
Required items: Gyrm Greatshield, which has 100% Fire resist. Cloranthy ring for stamina regeneration.

IMPORTANT: Always two hand the greatshield when the boss is using his breath attack, it will do far less stamina damage this way.

For this fight, you're essentially going to walk in a big circle for probably ten or so minutes. Just stick to the outer rim of the fight and you should be fine. He'll focus mainly on two attacks, his fire breath (ground) and fire breath (air).

Stay roughly in his frontal cone, so that he will alternate between his two breath attacks only. When he's on the ground and using the fire breath, make sure you are out of the range of it and shoot away. After his breath is stopped, shoot once or twice more until you see his wings flap. At this point keep moving in your arc and switch to two hand shield. Wait until he's in the air, and flaps twice while moving as quickly as possible away from where you just were. After the second flap he'll start his fire breath, and if you were quick enough to get around the center blast, you'll take two hits of 0 damage, but become staggered. If this is the case, congratulations, you just won the fight. Now repeat this until he's dead.

Double Shield Tank Strategy:

Although very niched, this tactic works out if you have the prerequisite gear and stats. Get yourself a Gyrm Greatshield, as reinforced as possible (farmable in Doors of Pharros), and any shield with a Stamina Recovery effect. Equip the stamina shield in your left hand and the Gyrm Greatshield in your right. Two-hand the greatshield and attack by bashing his legs. If you position yourself directly below him and bash his back legs, he won't slam his tail, but be reduced to either stomping you, breath fire beneath himself, or fly up in the air for a shower of fire. When he stomps, simply roll away and bash the other leg. When he prepares to breathe fire beneath himself (stands on back legs only) roll outside and bash his feet. When he flies up into the air, hold up your shield and tank the damage.

The fire does damage two to three times, seemingly random, and drains a lot of your stamina. An upgraded shield and the stamina regeneration should help you soak this without taking damage, worst case being staggered at the last tick. To hasten stamina regeneration during the breath, drop your guard for a short amount of time(1/4-½ second) and put it up again. Not recommended unless you feel you have a knack for the timing. This strategy IS doable (and recommended) naked, which improves your stamina regeneration and your running speed. Variation may include having a better weapon in your right hand and switching to the Gyrm Greatshield when he flies into the air for the fire breath attack.

Failsafe, No Health Loss, Strategy:

Initially run to his left side. Stay just outside the circle, at the level of his head and slightly to the front. The thing is, he must always see you. If you get it right, he will always turn towards you to do the ground fire-breathing attack. When he does, move to his opposite front leg, slice three times and move away to take the same position on his right side. He will turn again towards you. Move to the opposite front leg and attack thrice. Move away to his left… Rince and repeat until he's down. After the first two attacks do not use the circle as reference. Just try to maintain the distance and, most importantly, eye contact. The second he loses eye contact, he will launch in the air. If you're too close he'll move to bite. Nail the position, and you'll beat him bare foot, bare knuckled, bare chested.

For additional safety you can combine this with the 890 fire defence strategy and Flash Sweat, if the dragon does his flying firebreath simply use Flash Sweat putting you fire defence at 890 and minimize the damage you take.

Scraps of Life Strategy:

Probably one of the faster strategies (which helps because this boss's sheer amount of health can be tiresome). Simply equip scraps of life (two scrolls of it if you can. In addition you can wear the hexer's hood for additional uses). When you enter the boss fight, run to where you are behind his back legs, then use scraps of life. In a moment, he will raise his back leg to try and hit you. Simply role to the other leg as fast as you can. Every once in a while, he will shoot fire behind him underneath his legs. This is easily telegraphed by his standing up on his back two legs before hand. Simply move to the outside, and as soon as he is done, attack his leg again. The trick is to remain under his legs as much as possible so he doesn't use his firebreath AOE. If he does, simply run in the direction of his tail.

Notes

Dialogue

All dialogue text is © From Software Inc.

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Belfry Gargoyles

Lore

Soul of a Gargoyle of the Lost Bastille.

The elaborate stone statues on the belfry
mysteriously came to life.

— Description of the Belfry Gargoyle Soul

Gargoyles are said to guard castles and forts
from ill fortune, and they have appeared in many
forms in all the great lands throughout history.

Some of them are so meticulously crafted
that they look as if they might come to life.

— Description of the Gargoyle Bident

Location

Belfry Luna:
Past the gate opened by a lever atop the bell tower.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5x 1,400 25,000
2 (NG+) 5x 2,660 50,000
8 (NG+7) 5x 5,054 100,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Upper Ramparts bonfire.

Drangleic Castle:
One is found in the area past the Central Castle Drangleic bonfire. On top of the building containing the Estus Flask Shard. Next to the Alonne Knight Captain. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ~3000 2,800
2 (NG+) ? ?
8 (NG+7) ? ?
Aldia's Keep:
One is found in the secret lab across the hall from the Ritual Site bonfire; requires Aldia Key to access. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ? 3,000
2 (NG+) ? ?
8 (NG+7) ? ?

Summons

Drops

Belfry Luna:

Aldia's Keep:

Moveset

Jump Strike:
Jumps up and downward slashes.

Evading Sweep:
Jumps backwards while sweeping in front of it.

Sneak Attack:
Jumps and gets behind you, then stabs.

Sweep:
Swings weapon from right to left (can follow up with second sweep or downward swing).

Thrust:
Thrusts bident forward (can follow up with a left-to-right sweep).

Tail Swipe:
Swipes tail once or twice if you're behind it.

Fire Breath:
Breathes a cone of fire in front of it (only when individual is below 50% health).

Aerial Fire Breath:
Jumps into the air and hovers while breathing fire (only when individual is below 50% health).

Aerial Sweep:
Flies up into the air with weapon pointing down and swings upward.

Divebomb:
Flies up into the air and charges at you.

Lighting Storm:
Possibly happens when low on health. Fires up a lighting storm that fires in the immediate vicinity of the caster. (Gargoyle will glow).

Strategies

Gargoyles spawn as follows:

Kill them off one by one or you'll be swarmed very quickly. The full health ones tend to get in the way when you're using ranged attacks, especially since the hurt ones start breathing fire from the back.

When the gargoyles are attempted early the first playthrough, Strength builds tend to have the easiest time. By far the easiest strategy is to use an upgraded strike-damage strength weapon (like the Great Club) and a Greatshield with high stability. The greatshield will make blocking attacks without running out of stamina easy, and the weapon will be able to take out gargoyles in just a few hits as you find openings to attack. Buff with a resin (ideally Aromatic Ooze, since the gargoyles' lowest resistance is to magic). Titanite Chunks from Belfry PVP can get your weapon to +9 without much trouble. If you're determined to get the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring +2 on the first playthrough by kindling the Belfry bonfire, a +9 Great Club with Aromatic Ooze can take out even bonfire intensity 2 gargoyles in 4 hits.

It can be beneficial to bring consumables like Holy Water Urns and Witching Urns as they can damage multiple Gargoyles at once. Be very careful with this tactic. The AOE damage will decrease the boss bar quicker while not killing the Gargoyles fast enough, leaving you with many more gargoyles than necessary.

Chaos Storm and Flame Swathe are quite deadly against them

*Note, if boss in Belfry Luna is not killed before heading up to The Salfort bonfire, you will see a gargoyle fly over head

Notes

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Burnt Ivory King

Description

The proud Ivory King was ever-merciful, and devoted himself to the protection of his great land, until he was devoured by the flames of chaos1

The Burnt Ivory King is a boss of the Crown of the Ivory King DLC and resides in the The Old Chaos.

Location

The Old Chaos
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 8,040 92,000
2 (NG+) 11,256 184,000
8 (NG+7) 24,120 368,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Weakness

Resistance

Attack Patterns

Strategies

Before going for the final boss in the DLC, find at least two of the three knights that can be found after talking to the oracle which melts several locations under ice, meaning you must revisit all of Frozen Eleum Loyce. Each knight you find will help you in your fight, and seal portals where enemy knights will come out. One knight is already there, three can be found, and there are three portals to be closed. With enemy knights spawning the portals the fight gets much more difficult, even with two phantoms summoned. If you manage to find all three knights, one will be left to fight against the burnt ivory king.

To fight the enemy knights, bring a shield with fire resistance, e.g. the Gyrm Greatshield, as they cast pyromancy too.
There will be enough time to switch shields after the enemy knights and before the burnt ivory king is arriving. For the burnt ivory king, equip a shield which has 95%+ physical protection, high magic protection and high stability (e.g. Defender's Shield, Old Knight's Shield or Havel's Greatshield).

Summoning at least one phantom is highly recommended.

The king has similar attack patterns to Sir Alonne and the Old Dragonslayer: if he is rotating to your direction - then he is attacking you. So only heal, perform ranged attack, etc. when he is not facing you.

It is possible (seen in one of the videos below) to get the boss killed by one of the friendly knights while freezing a portal shut. To do this, you must keep the boss busy in front of a portal while the knight is freezing it - a strong shield held in two hands is recommended, to keep the boss from moving too far.

Notes

Footnotes 1. Soul of the Ivory King description.

Covetous Demon

Lore

The curved spine of the Covetous Demon is
as hard as rock, and rather than slicing
through flesh, this weapon seems to grind it
apart.

That thing that ended up as a monstrous fiend,
what was it to begin with, and why did it never
leave the queen? Perhaps it was entranced
by some perversion of love.

— Description of the Covetous Demon Soul

Eating is an expression of desire.
There once was a man whose deep affections were unrequited.
He transformed into the Covetous Demon,
which only made him lonelier than before.

— Description of the Bone Scythe

Location

Earthen Peak:
At the end of the Harvest Valley.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 4,440 13,000
2 (NG+) 8,436 26,000
8 (NG+7) 16,029 52,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: The Mines bonfire.

Frozen Eleum Loyce:
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? ???
2 (NG+) ~8,400 ???
8 (NG+7) ~16000 18000

Summons

None.

Drops

Earthen Peak:

Frozen Eleum Loyce:

Moveset

Strategies

Listen to the messages: Weakness: Beating to a pulp

This gluttonous monster isn't very tough, but his massive body makes it difficult to avoid his hits without staying a good distance away.

Melee Strategy:
Try to bait him into attacking you from the front if possible. As he's busy with one of his various attacks, go to his sides or his tail and begin slashing away at him. If you stay near his tail too long, he'll begin smashing the ground with it. If you stay at his sides for too long, he'll roll over you causing hefty damage. If you get nice and friendly with his armpit he won't do a roll attack very often, and will try and attack as if you were in front of him but just ends up pushing you around without damaging you. Do not attempt this if you are heavily equipped, as you will need a good roll to get out of the way of his rolling attack when he does use it.

Do not neglect his thrusting attack weakness; it's far far higher than you'd expect. Most thrusting swords can kill this boss within seconds, and adding the Old Leo Ring onto them can make this bossfight into little more than a formality.

Magic Strategy:
Bait him into attacking from the front as above, then cast Soul Vortex for heavy damage. He's so large each cast will deal full damage. It should not take more than 3-5 casts to bring him down.

This also works with spells such as Heavenly Thunder and Scraps of Life.

Frozen Eleum Loyce

NG++ Strategy:

In NG++ two red ice rats are joining the fight, which makes the fight much more difficult.
For an easy win, just run up the path were the two red ice rats are coming from, pass two normal ice rats, run up the way and where the path splits, choose the left one.
This one ends at a door, which opens to the front court, so you can easily reach this place again if you die.
Dispatch the two red and two normal ice rats and then you can fire away from the small path on the covetous demon with spells or arrows without being able to get hit.

Notes

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Darklurker

Lore

Soul of what lurks in The Dark Chasm.

The Dark Chasm of Old is the remnant of
some ancient, dissipated being.

— Description of the Darklurker Soul

Location

Dark Chasm of Old:
In order to access the area in which Darklurker is fought, you don't need to be Rank 2 in the Pilgrims of Dark covenant - the requirements is to light up the 3 braziers - you will get to the boss through the exit portal regardless of your Rank. See the covenant article for more info.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,770 35,000
2 (NG+) 6,924 70,000
8 (NG+7) 13,156 140,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Under Drangleic Castle bonfire.

Summons

This fight can only be fought solo.

Drops

Moveset

Shadow Blade:
Darklurker will generate a Magic-based longsword and will swing it one or two times at the player. If just out of melee range, this attack may be a quick piercing motion. These can be differentiated in two ways; the first being the early appearance of the Magic blade (slash), and the second being Darklurker's wind-up motion. If Darklurker winds up without first generating the Magic blade, it has an extremely high chance of being the forward piercing attack, which will need to be evaded much sooner than the slash. Deals reduced second-hand contact damage if not evaded precisely.

Teleport:
Darklurker will temporarily disappear, teleporting to a random location and reappearing. If Darklurker does not teleport too far away (or behind the player), your lock-on will remain. If Darklurker generates a large black circle, this typically indicates that it is teleporting farther away.

Hellfire Barrage:
Darklurker will raise both arms to create a large fireball above its head, which fires three explosive blasts in succession to random locations, typically in the player's current direction. Deals fire-based damage and can cause knockdown.

Dark Soul Bomb:
Darklurker will raise its right arm to create two small dark portals; one above his head and another at a random location. He then sends in a Dark Orb into the portal above his head. The Dark Orb will appear on the second portal and home in to the player. Explodes on contact with either the unfortunate player or the ground, dealing massive Dark damage. Can cause knockdown.

Dark Spear:
Darklurker will raise its left arm to cast a simple, non-tracking projectile similar to Soul Spear. Typically cast at range. Deals Dark damage.

Black Laser:
Performed when Darklurker goes airborne; a wide-sweeping laser that deals Dark damage. Slowly tracks the player's location.

Abyss Blast:
Darklurker will cross its arms across its chest and generate an AoE/area-of-effect explosion around itself with a large radius. Can cause knockdown. Performed when the player spends an excessive amount of time in melee range.

Clone:
At approximately 60% health, Darklurker will create a clone of itself, which shares a health pool and all abilities of the main Darklurker. Either Darklurker can be damaged at this point, or both at the same time if they are next to one another. The split can be interrupted if Darklurker is staggered at the beginning of it.

Strategies

Dodging and Blocking:

Shadow Blade can be strafe-dodged entirely by sticking close to Darklurker and strafing against its body counter-clockwise, as it swings with the right hand.

Hellfire Barrage, if not blocked, is best evaded by putting distance between Darklurker and yourself as it is prepared, and then running and/or rolling (whichever is faster) towards Darklurker to avoid the explosion and splash damage of each fireball.

For Dark Soul Bomb evasion, quickly scan the skybox of the room for the second dark portal (the first is always above Darklurker's head.) The second portal will always be the one to emit a bomb. Put distance between yourself and this portal, and be ready to run or roll away from the following bomb.

Dark Spear is more easily dodged from a distance, as it gives you more time to react. If in melee range, you will not be hit by this attack if you are right up against Darklurker. It will be fired over your head, no dodging or rolling is required.

Black Laser slowly tracks the player, and should be avoided by immediately running to either side of Darklurker, and then to an ideal position for a counterattack once it lands (beneath Darklurker for melee builds, or a mid-range distance for ranged builds.)

Abyss Blast does a lot of damage and is difficult to block, even with a lot of stamina and a shield with strong Dark defense. It is best evaded by putting distance between Darklurker and yourself.

Melee Strategy:

Dark-infused Rebel's Greatshield has 100% Dark defense, making the only ability you have to worry about his fire orbs, which you can easily dodge by sprinting. Keep close to him and strafe clockwise, this baits his sword attack, letting you get a few hits off after his combo, rinse and repeat. Staggering Darklurker will prevent it from splitting in two.

**Pyromancy Strategy:*
Take at least some of these Pyromancies with you: Chaos Storm, Fire Tempest, Firestorm, Flame Swathe.

Simply whittle Darklurker down to 60%, and then do as much damage as you safely can prior to the split. Once he raises his right hand at his side to telegraph an incoming split, immediately cast the strongest of the aforementioned three spells that you have available in melee range. Ideally, it will be at the peak of its cast during the split, and hit both Darklurkers for immense damage. In NG, this one cast is often enough to end the fight, but a second cast may be necessary due to the random placement of the flame pillars.

Magic Strategy:
Strong spells like Soul Geyser or Great Lightning Spear will drain a lot of the Darklurker's health, and Soul Greatsword works wonders on him as well. Do not bother attacking with hexes, as he's resistant to them.

If you have the hex Profound Still, you can prevent him from using any of his attacks except Shadow Blade.

Keep strongest spells like Soul Spear until he creates a clone. If you can hit both clones with a single Soul Spear, 2 or 3 double hits might be enough to finish him

Notes

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Demon Of Song

Lore

Soul of the Demon of Song
at the Shrine of Amana.

When this demon developed a taste for
human flesh, it was contained within the
Shrine of Amana, but the line of priestesses
who looked after the shrine and appeased
the creature have died off.

— Description of the Demon of Song Soul

The Demon's sonorous voice, in stark
contrast to its hideous form, is surely
intended to lure people close so that
it may devour them.

— Description of the Spotted Whip

Location

Shrine of Amana:
From the Rhoy's Resting Place bonfire, follow the voice of the Song.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 6,180 26,000
2 (NG+) 8,034 52,000
8 (NG+7) 15,265 104,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Rhoy's Resting Place bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Leap:
Leaps high up and crashes down.

Charge:
Visibly prepares both legs and charges the length of the battle area in a straight line.

Grab:
Opens arms wide and attempts to grab player, smashing them repeatedly into the ground if successful.

Arm Swings:
Attacks once with each arm, then executes two wide-ranged sweeping attacks. This attack may be followed up by a fast downward smash.

Strategies

The boss can only be damaged by attacking the demon in its mouth. Wait until the mouth opens to attack.

Bring a lightning weapon or a lighting buff. Stay close to the boss and circle left around him. His basic attacks should not hit you, but be aware of the body slam. When he finishes his attacks, hit him in the face or heal. Rinse and repeat.

Bring light armor, under 70% weight. Most attacks can be easily dodged with rolling as the water in this area is not as deep as in the rest of the Shrine. Strafe and keep out of his reach. When he tries to body slam, you can easily avoid it by backing up, as with his two hit attack. Best times to attack are after his body slam and after his two hit attack but be sure to only hit two or three times as his random water bolts can deal high damage quickly. When you see him prepare his charge, sprint to the left or right and roll right before he reaches you, this should avoid the attack completely. His charge will not give you any openings so keep your distance.

Melee players should keep their distance and avoid locking on to the Demon as a target. Wait for the face to appear and just circle back for a few hits before backing off again. Don't try to guard or run in too fast after his two slap combo, because he can extend it up to 5 hits.

Caster builds should aim to stay within medium (melee) range to avoid triggering his charge attack, and follow the same strategy as above.

Additionally, the pyromancy Toxic Mist can be used to deal significant damage to it. While it takes several casts for the poison to take effect, use of a summoned ally and a Wilted Dusk Herb or two will make the fight much easier, as Toxic Mist will poison it regardless of where it hits; the Demon of Song's skin cannot defend against it.

Notes

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Dragonrider

Lore

Soul of a Dragonrider,
who faithfully served King Vendrick.

Long ago, the dragonriders mounted wyrms,
and were feared on the battlefield for their
unparalleled strength.

— Description of the Dragonrider Soul

Greatshield of the Dragonriders,
King Vendrick's royal guard.

The rank of Dragonrider was reserved for
honorable warriors who helped found Drangleic.
Together with the king, they crushed its former
inhabitants and erected a magnificent kingdom
upon their graves.

— Description of the Dragonrider Greatshield

Aspiring Dragonriders who had not the mettle
to handle their training were torn apart by
their wyrms, and those who survived emerged
with deific strength.

— Description of the Dragonrider Set

Location

Heide's Tower of Flame:
Guarding the path to No Man's Wharf.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,050 12,000
2 (NG+) 6,405 24,000
8 (NG+7) 12,170 48,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Heide's Ruin bonfire.

Drangleic Castle:
Guarding the path to King's Passage in the middle of the castle. (Halberd)
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,670 -
2 (NG+) 5,872 -
8 (NG+7) 11,157 -

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Forgotten Chamber bonfire.

Drangleic Castle:
Guarding the path to King's Passage in the middle of the castle. (Greatbow)
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 1,470 26,000
2 (NG+) 2,352 54,000
8 (NG+7) 4,463 108,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Forgotten Chamber bonfire.

Shrine of Amana:
Loyally guarding the wooden door that leads to the King's Set after the Crumbling Ruins bonfire. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,730 2,700
2 (NG+) 12,033 5,400
8 (NG+7) 22,863 10,800
Undead Crypt:
Guarding the fog gate to Velstadt, the Royal Aegis. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? ???
2 (NG+) ??? ???
8 (NG+7) ??? ???

Summons

Drops

Heide's Tower of Flame:

Drangleic Castle:

Shrine of Amana:

Moveset

Halberd Swipe:
Swipes from side to side with his halberd. Parriable and blockable.

Strategies

Heide's Tower of Flame

There are two levers that can be found in Heide's Tower of Flame before the boss area, which appear after defeating certain enemies. They can be used to expand the boss arena, eliminating the circular pitfall entirely if both levers are pulled.

The first is by the second sword-wielding Knight, the second is by the Knight immediately after amongst the group of three, on the right hand side.

Cheese 1:
However, it may be beneficial to leave the pitfall, since it is possible to bait the Dragonrider into falling off.

As soon as you walk in look at his feet and count 6 steps. On the 6th step, run between him and the pitfall, then circle around him.

This will cause him use his thrust attack follow by turning to face you while on the edge, moving him slightly and he'll simply slide off into the pit.

Cheese 2:
You can also kill the Dragonrider without ever stepping into the ring (or at least damage him).

On the walkway between the first switch and the circular room with three enemies, you can see him in the boss room through the arches. Shoot at him with a bow, and carry a stockpile of arrows.

If you land all headshots, it should be around 50 arrows before his health is depleted. Note that you can not kill him this way; after a while he will turn towards you and raise his shield. When he does this, enter the boss fight and he will have only 1 HP left.

Melee:
Try to walk close in circles around him, and hit him when he does his slow overhead swing and misses.

Ranged:
For a player using ranged attacks, it is suggested to pull both levers to expand the arena. This will allow the player more safe room to back up and attack.

Drangleic Castle

Melee:
While you're fighting the first Dragonrider, keep your eye on the second one up top. Try your best to avoid his arrows, which shouldn't be too difficult as long as you either listen for his bow being readied or looking up once in a while to see if he's aiming at you.

You may use a shield if you want, but rolling towards the enemy to the left or right should dodge his attacks.

Try to finish off the first Dragonrider as fast as you can so that you can focus on the second one. The archer is slightly weaker so he'll be much easier to take down once the first one is out of the way.

Caster:
Cast Toxic Mist or any of the variants on the archer. One cast is almost enough to kill him in NG.

Pyromancer:
If you have an adequately upgraded Pyromancy Flame (+6 or higher), and both Great Fireball and Fire Orb, you can make this fight fairly easy without summoning help. Simply dash toward the Dragonrider Archer until you are within range, then pelt him with Great Fireball as many times as you can before the Halberd-wielding 'rider reacts and begins to attack you.

With enough casting speed, you can hit him at least twice easily, which should be enough to make him fall from the platform. Once he falls, simply finish him off with the remainder of your casts.

This makes the fight with the stronger Halberd-wielding 'rider much more comfortable. Note that items that boost casting speed are essential if you have low casting speed.

This strategy is great for Level-1 or low-level builds.

Notes

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Elana, Squalid Queen

Description

When the Abyss dissipated, the things that called it home were fragmented and scattered across the realm.
Eventually, these pieces regained form, in ways that hinted at humanity's true nature.1

This child of Dark accompanies the dragon, slowly amassing souls in anticipation of the coming day of vengeance.2

Location

Dragon's Rest
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 9,280 72,000
2 (NG+) 12,992 144,000
8 (NG+7) 27,840 288,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Resistance

Attack Patterns

Strategies

Summon NPCs, 2v1 and 1v1

When Elana summons Velstadt, or skeletons, it is helpful to have the NPC summons to distract Elana while you deal with Velstadt, or the skeletons. This made the fight much easier for mr, despite the boss and the enemies being more difficult.

Melee

As soon as her dialogue starts, get close and wait for it to end, then start attacking while she's summoning her axe. She uses her axe combo almost exclusively when you're at close range (this is not true for SotFS, she uses ranged abilities at melee range very often); dodge or block the swings then roll behind her for one or two hits (no more, she recovers quickly) and repeat.

After a short while she'll start summoning, deal with the summons first. If she uses Darkstorm (telegraphed by raising her free hand for an extended period without summoning anything), rolling backwards twice will put you out of range, then close the distance and wail on her. Important: She will eventually start teleporting; when this happens close the distance before she uses any of her ranged spells.

Skeletons

At some point, she will summon either skeletons or Velstadt. This approach only works if she summons skeletons. You might be tempted to deal with the skeletons first, but it is actually easier to just leave them alone. This way, you prevent that she is summoning Velstadt, which makes the fight much harder. The skeletons are weak and can easily be outrun. If you get close to her, make sure you get a hit in because she will teleport away. That may be annoying, but it's actually to your advantage. This way, you automatically run away from the skeletons while you're chasing her.

Alluring Skulls

The Skeletons that Elana summons during her fight are as susceptible to Alluring Skulls as normal Skeletons. This means, with a good supply of them and good timing, you can keep the Skeletons off your back as you fight Elana. This also comes with the added benefit of Elana not being able to summon more Skeletons, Velstadt or the Piggies for as long as a single Skeleton is alive.

Extreme DPS

This approach aims to maximize your damage per second in order to keep the fight as short as humanly possible, since the fight is a lot more challenging if your dps is not high enough. One of the benefits of this approach is that Elana can summon only once during the fight. Helpful items/spells include: Flynn's Ring, Ring of Blades, Red Tearstone Ring, Chloranthy Ring, Slumbering Dragon Shield, Old Leo Ring (when using a thrusting sword), Engraved Gauntlets, Sunlight Blade, Crystal Magic Weapon, resins, Brightbug. Katanas work great due to their 150 counter damage and overall speed and stamina consumption. Alternatively, thrusting swords combined with the Old Leo Ring, or twinblades, also work. Offensive spells do not work very well in this approach due to limited casts, cast time, as well as Elana's high resistances. It's best to go with pure physical damage.

Right after entering the room just rush Elana and keep hitting her until she starts making her first move. At melee range usually she would either swing her halberd a few times or teleport and follow up by spells. It's best to just dodge these attacks rather than block them. Keep in mind not to get hasty or greedy, however. She will eventually summon, usually when her HP reaches ~70%, or sometimes 50% - this depends on what attack she just used and how fast you can damage her. If she summons the Skeletons, just kill them as fast as you can, so that you can get back to her. You can quickly kill 2 of the Skeletons right away, right after they appear, since it takes them about 2 seconds to start moving. Same goes for the Piggies. It's trickier if she summons Velstadt, since her attack pattern will be different. She tends to teleport to next to Velstadt in order to engage in melee, rather than stay back and throw spells at you like when she summons the Skeletons or Piggies. As a result, it becomes harder to hit her in melee. If you can cast spells, you can certainly get one hit in on her from time to time while dodging the both of them, but as the fight drags on, she will eventually summon again.

In case she summons the Skeletons, right after you kill all of them, she will cast Affinity - sometimes right away, sometimes after a few other attacks. It takes her a while to cast this so this is a very good chance to do as much damage to her as possible, even to finish her off. The missiles will start homing on you after about 10 seconds. These missiles can be dodged just by sprinting (at a right angle with their flying path).

The drawback of this approach is that the chance of success depends heavily on Elana's exact actions. As mentioned earlier, the fight becomes much trickier if she summons Velstadt instead of the Skeletons. And sometimes the plan will fail simply because she casts Flame Swathe instead of Dark Orb. Also, if you utilize the Red Tearstone Ring, you will not want to get hit by anything - not even once. If you are not in the Company of Champions covenant the fight is not as punishing or stressful.

Video: Elana and Velstadt
Video: Elana and Skeletons

Notes

Dialogue

All dialogue text is © From Software Inc.

+ Show Dialogue - Hide Dialogue

Voiced by: Unknown

Footnotes 1. Wrathful Axe description. 2. Soul of Elena, Squalid Queen description.

Executioner's Chariot

Lore

Soul of the Executioner's Chariot,
that holds control over the Undead Purgatory.

The Chariot was created only to torment Undead,
and it took the form of a horrendous mad steed,
a window into the soul of its master.

— Description of the Executioner's Chariot Soul

The executioner mercilessly put down countless
Undead, but how could he know that it was never
his own will, but that of the chariot horse?

— Description of the Executioner Set

Location

Undead Purgatory:
Behind the boss fog gate when taking the path inhabited with Torturers, after leaving the Bridge Approach bonfire.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 4,140 19,000
2 (NG+) 7,452 38,000
8 (NG+7) 14,159 76,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Undead Purgatory bonfire.

Drangleic Castle:
Found in the grand hall up the ladder near the Central Castle Drangleic bonfire. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? ???
2 (NG+) ??? ???
8 (NG+7) ??? ???

Summons

Drops

Huntsman's Copse:

Drangleic Castle:

Moveset

Dark Breath (Straight)

Dark Breath (Sweep)

Stomp

Rear Kick

Charge

Bite

Turning Bite

Strategies

Lingering Flame is wildly effective against this boss during its first phase. If placed on its track, the chariot will always move just barely slowly enough to still take damage from the detonation.

Phase 1: Skeletons, Necromancers, and Closing the Gate:
This boss in his chariot keeps riding in circles on the track maiming everything in his way, while at the same time the player is having to deal with pesty skeletons who are getting reanimated again and again by two Necromancers sitting further behind on the track. While advancing the track clockwise, and hiding in those two-man-wide alcoves along the track, killing the Necromancers, who are hiding in alcoves (one at the middle of the track; the other, at the near end), is a top priority.

On the left side near the end of the track there is a lever which, once pulled, will shut the sturdy gate tight causing the boss's horse to crash into and topple. Now is the time to strike. See phase 2 below.

Note: The sorcery spell Yearn almost trivializes this first phase. Casting the spell as soon as you enter the fog gate lures the skeletons towards it and keeps them busy while they are getting maimed by the chariot. Recast the spell whenever you see skeletons ahead of you on the track.

Phase 2: Finishing the Boss:

You will now have the boss on the ground an no longer running in circles. The horse can do some major damage, but is mostly easy to dodge. If you are far away, the horse will rear up and charge at you. Roll to the right or left at the last second to be able to get a hit in. If you are near, the horse will rear up and stomp down. You will need to roll backwards to avoid this. Perhaps the best chance to strike is when the horse begins its Dark Breath attack. As soon as you see this starting, roll towards the horse to get next to it. Here the breath will not hit you and you are able to get several hits in before the attack stops.

Skipping the Second Phase:
After defeating the first Necromancer and his skeletons, you can simply sit in a gap near the entrance and shoot spells like Soul Arrow or Lightning Spear when you see the Chariot coming around the corner (use Binoculars to aim). Poison Arrows will also do the job. The other skeletons and their Necromancer will not aggro and you won't need to pull the gate down. At around 30% health he will not be able to make the jump in the arena and you'll find the horse hanging off the ledge, immobile for you to easily finish off in one hit.

Homing Soulmass can also be used as it will fire off a guaranteed hit each time the Chariot passes by. It takes about 10-15 hits (depending on your stats) to take the boss down to 30%, so bring something to recharge spells, such as Amber Herb, Twilight Herb, or Wilted Dusk Herb. Other spells of note are Lingering Flame, Lifedrain Patch, and Dead Again.

This is an extremely safe, easy, and foolproof way to take down the Executioner's Chariot.

Notes

Videos

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Flexile Sentry

Lore

Soul of the Flexile Sentry.

The Flexile Sentry is a merciless creature
whose purpose is to punish the Undead.

— Description of the Flexile Sentry Soul

The sentry crammed inmates of the
overflowing Bastille onto a rickety ship,
and cast them out to the open sea.

The majority of them drowned or starved,
but a few hardy survivors made land
o the south, and imparted their knowledge
of sorcery to the people there.

— Description of the Warped Sword/Arced Sword/Barbed Club

Location

No Man's Wharf:
Boss fight inside the ship.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,150 14,000
2 (NG+) 6,000 28,000
8 (NG+7) 11,970 56,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Unseen Path to Heide bonfire.

Shaded Woods:
Mini-boss near the Shrine of Winter. Only in Dark Souls II.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,150 2,800
2 (NG+) 6,000 5,600
8 (NG+7) 11,970 11,200
Sinner's Rise:
At the bottom of the elevator, in the second, leftmost room. Only in Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,150 2,500
2 (NG+) 6,000 5,600
8 (NG+7) 11,970 11,200
Frozen Eleum Loyce:
Two inside the same area as the Bone Fist.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? ???
2 (NG+) ??? ???
8 (NG+7) ??? ???

Summons

Drops

No Man's Wharf:

Moveset

Strategies

This fight is quite simple: block or dodge his attacks, then attack him while he's recovering. Use the large pillar in the middle of the room to block his advances and force him to attack.

It's recommended to finish this fight quickly. Two minutes into the fight (or after the boss is at 50% health), the water in the room starts to rise. The water will only rise to just below the shoulders, but once it gets that far, you will have an exceptionally difficult time maneuvering.

After the boss is dead, continue through the next doorway and make sure to open the chest for a Pyromancy Flame. You can then use the ship's compass to sail yourself over to the Lost Bastille.

You can buy some Poison Arrows from Lonesome Gavlan to make the fight even easier.

Notes

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Fume Knight

Description

The rebel Raime, after his defeat at the hands of Velstadt, came to Brume Tower in search of greater strength.
When he found it, it came not from a regal father figure like before, but from a newfound mother who gave him true purpose.1

Fume Knight is a boss in the Crown of the Old Iron King DLC and resides at the bottom of Brume Tower.

Location

Brume Tower
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 10,100 84,000
2 (NG+) 14,140 168,000
8 (NG+7) 30,300 336,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Resistance

Attack Patterns

He starts the fight dual wielding a Fume Sword and a Fume Ultra Greatsword. During this stage he randomly combos attacks with both weapons, usually ending with a slow greatsword swing.

After he reaches 60% health, he discards the small sword and buffs the greatsword with a mix of Fire and Dark. At this stage he gains two special attacks, each accompanied by a distinct sound and visual effect;

  1. A very slow horizontal swing with a large reach due to the buff. When you see it, walk towards him then roll diagonally forward and to your left, through the blade. You should end up right behind him, allowing you to get in a hit or two.
  2. He thrusts his weapon into the ground and creates an explosion that sends out fireballs in an outward spiral. Back off then roll through the fireballs.

His attacks also become much faster and aggressive, sometimes coming as a surprise when he seems to be recovering.

He has two main sets of combos. He can choose based on your position on how far he goes into the combo, but you can tell which set of combo he'll use from the first swing:
*An overhead swipe going from his right shoulder to his left shoulder. Note that he has a very similar attack where he slashes down from his right down to his left. He will not chain that attack further. However, if the greatsword goes to his left shoulder, he'll follow up with downwards smash into the ground. When he does this, he leaves a window open to strike. He can however follow this attack by a 270 degrees right to left sweep, which he sometimes will follow up with another such sweep going from left to right. You can tell when he does this when he holds the blade for a moment ready to swing. This is a delayed attack, so don't dodge too early. The downwards smash leaves enough time to make a hit and dodge the sweeps in time, and right after his final sweep you can get another hit in.
*An overhead swipe going from his left shoulder to his right shoulder. This is an important difference to notice since that when he uses this attack he's locked into a different moveset for the combo. The second attack of the combo is the same as the first, but going into the opposite direction. What happens next is important:
-Either he does a forward trust. When this happens, there's a very safe, but brief, moment, to counter. He'll not follow up this attack, as this move ends the combo.
-He'll use a 270 degrees left to right sweep (again, left to right from his perspective). Note that this sweep has longer range. This attack too leaves a window open to make one strike. He can however combo this further into another one or two 270 degrees swipes, albeit these are a bit shorter in range. Again, after the final sweep he's open for another jab.

It's important to note that he can break off the chaining of attacks at any time. He'll usually only do this for the first few attacks when you are far out of range, but the further you go into the combo, the further he becomes random with whether or not using follow ups. He always has tell signs when he continues on.

Strategies

There are four Ashen Idols just outside the boss arena. When Fume Knight gets close to them, he will be healed as if he were standing in range of the Warmth pyromancy, but much more quickly. To prevent this, destroy them with Smelter Wedges. Players who have already destroyed every Ashen Idol available while exploring the tower will be short one Smelter Wedge until after the Fume Knight is defeated, so it's recommended to leave the Ashen Idol encountered by the first bonfire at the top of Brume Tower alone. However, it's very possible to fight while keeping him away from a single remaining healing point.

It is worth noting that taking more phantoms into this fight increases the Fume Knight's resistance to damage, just as all other bosses. Consider tackling this boss alone. His focus will of course be entirely on you, but he has quite easily dodged attacks and offers plenty of opportunities to strike after the ultra-greatsword swings.

Furthermore, unlike other bosses (namely the Smelter Demon in Iron Keep), when he powers up, he does not become more resilient to attacks during the animation, thus this is a great opportunity to get several strikes in. However, this power up phase is very short, and he will most commonly end it by using his with his slow, empowered sweeping attack, which can deal a huge amount of damage to unaware players.

Melee (Dodging)

Acute timing with dodges is essential, as his attacks are highly damaging and will punish you heavily.

Best opportunity to strike (only applicable after he discards his smaller sword):
a) After he does his thrusting attack (he will sprint a bit and then thrust his sword towards you with one hand). Roll either side to avoid damage and then hit him once. Hit him twice and you may not have the time to avoid his side slash or his area of effect fireball attack.
b) When he does the slow fire swipe, calmly roll TOWARDS him when sword reaches the center or roll through the flaming sword when it is still on his side. Careful though, as you roll through the flaming sword, you may get hit by it after he get his sword behind him. Especially if you are using a Greatsword as most of its attacks after rolling involves your character moving and automatically do a 180 degree swipe.
c) His second special attack has two parts that can do damage. The first is an area of effect blast, roll away from him to avoid receiving damage, then roll forward to avoid the fire balls.

He is vulnerable to strike weapons. Use weapons with fast recovery, such as a Mace or Blacksmith's Hammer, and the fight will be easier.
A +5 Curved Dragon Greatsword or +5 Fume Ultra Greatsword is also quite effective against him. Just pick the right moments to attack, and be ready to dodge any incoming attacks.

Video: Fume Knight Boss Fight - Melee

Melee (Shield)

Rolling is a better strategy, but if you have low Agility it is entirely possible to tank with a suitable Greatshield. This strategy becomes less and less viable in higher NG cycles.

Equipment and items:
Fully-upgraded Havel's Greatshield and Gyrm Greatshield are good choices of shield, due to their high stability and fire resistance. It might be worth infusing your Havel's Greatshield with Fire, or your Gyrm Greatshield with Dark.
Use a relatively quick, stamina-efficient weapon. Hammers are a good choice, since they deal Strike damage, have a usable R1-R1 combo, and tend to scale off of the high strength required to hold your greatshield.
Third Dragon Ring, Flame Quartz Ring, Dark Quartz Ring, Baneful Bird Ring, and Chloranthy Ring are all useful rings for this fight.
Stamina conservation is of utmost importance. High Endurance is vital. To increase stamina regeneration, wear light armor to keep your equip load low, equip Chloranthy Ring, and use Green Blossom.
It's a viable strategy to two-hand your shield for 5 extra stability, and exclusively attack with shield bashes. Both Havel's and the Gyrm Greatshield have respectable AR when fully upgraded. If you also have Baneful Bird Ring equipped this will give you an effective 90 stability. This also allows you to wear the Blossom Kite Shield on your back for even more stamina regeneration. The shield bashes deal a great deal of poise damage even without Stone Ring, so you will stagger him frequently. The downside to this approach is that shield bashes are slow and use a fair amount of stamina, so you will need to pick your openings more carefully.
Gradual health regeneration items like Elizabeth Mushroom or Lifegems can be useful in mitigating chip damage when blocking fire and dark attacks.

Strategy:
The basic strategy is to lock on, hug him closely on his right side, and block his attacks if you can't outright avoid them. You want to avoid the FUGS in his left hand as much as possible, but the smaller Fume Sword in his right hand deals very little stamina damage. Stand behind him during the FUGS horizontal swings.
After he completes a heavy attack or combo, get one or two hits in with your weapon of choice if you have the stamina. As a rule of thumb, if the combo finishes with a FUGS horizontal swing and you didn't need to block it, you have time for two Hammer R1s. Otherwise, you have time for only one.
During the second phase, his attacks will drain more stamina and deal significant chip damage, but they are slow enough to allow two hammer swings or one swig of Estus afterwards.
You can block the slow fire swipe, but you don't have to. Just walk behind him to your right, and you should avoid it without having to block it. There will even be time to get a hit or two in afterwards. The closer you are, the easier this becomes. If you react quickly, you can simply walk underneath it to the left at the beginning of the swipe.
Strafing to the left with your shield up will often avoid his sprinting thrust attack. Worst case you end up blocking it, which is not that bad.
When you see the explosion attack, roll backwards twice to clear the initial explosion, keep walking backwards to allow the fireballs to spread out, then step between the fireballs (block if you can't find an opening). There is enough time to drink Estus or use an item after you're clear of the fireballs.
It is especially important to conserve stamina in the second stage. His multi-hit combos in the second stage can take out a huge amount of your stamina. Strafing to your left usually allows you to only block 1 or 2 hits out of 3, so with careful stamina management you shouldn't be guard broken.

Video: Havel's Greatshield + Mace strategy (NG)

Magic

Be sure to bring a lot of cast-regenerating items with you. It is a long fight. Since he has high defenses against basically every sort of magic, you'll need heavy hitting spells whatever the type is. Preferably use either sorceries and/or hexes (faith and pyromancy builds will have an even harder time against him). Never run out of stamina, as you'll need to roll a lot. In general, you either want a high adaptability for more iFrames, a shield with high stability that soaks up high percentages of physical, fire and dark damage or preferably both. Don't bother too much with resistances in armor and/or resistance rings. If he hits you, chances are you'll not survive it no matter what you are wearing. Instead, clutch rings, Chloranthy Ring and Dragon Ring are your best friends. Especially in NG+ and beyond.
-In the first phase, bait out his combos while staying out of range of them. If you see him moving his ultra greatsword (has quite a long wind up) and you are out of range, cast one and only one spell. Preferably use crystal soul spears, soul spears, and great heavy soul arrows. Don't use soul geyser since its casting speed is too slow,. Always wait for him to use his ultra greatsword while staying out of range, and you'll never get hit if you dodge roll his longsword attacks. I was able to fire off 4 crystal soul spears, 8 soul spears and 4-6 great heavy soul arrows before he buffed to second stage.
-The second stage is tricky, and I honestly prefer using melee with my moonlight greatsword. You can however still use magic if you have the patience. Never attack between his normal combos; I've seen him going from a normal 3 hit combo standing still for 1 or 2 seconds before suddenly adding 2 horizontal attacks to it. Casting inbetween means death. Rather, wait for him to use his slow horizontal sweep. Roll through it and cast. Often when he finishes that particular attack, he jumps back and does a running thrust at you. If you have the stamina, dodge and cast right away again. If he doesn't jump back, prepare to dodge. His area of effect attack also leaves room for a cast, after a successful roll through the fireballs. Never ever get greedy and do only one cast or hit at a time. Even if you pull off multiple hits, chances are you'll run out of stamina which means death when he combos.

Magic (Dark Orb)

Dark Orb is the most efficient spell for hex users due to it's quick casting time and moderate damage. This spell is also easily available and can be obtained 3 times in a single playthrough. Although fighting the boss alone will grant more damage per spell it is recommended that the caster summons or gets summoned as to offer the boss an alternative target so the caster can use more Dark Orbs. One summon seems to be the better option as three would severely affect the damage output. Once in the fight, beware of casting too close to the boss as he may target the caster (< needs further testing). Circle him like any other ranged strategy and move/dodge backwards when being attacked. Cast Dark Orb whenever possible while watching stamina. An upgraded shield is also recommended but not necessary.

Ranged

While locked on, continuously circle diagonally back and right, dodging in that direction when needed. During his first form, attack after he does his 2 diagonal swings followed by either a stab or a sweep with his large blade. With low enough equipment load you can simply walk backwards from the third attack and cast while he is recovering.

In his second form, attack when he does either an overhead slash into the ground, or when he does the slow fire sweep (similar to the first form, you only need to dodge backwards once to put yourself out of range, then attack while he is recovering). His fire sweep is also a good time to use any recovery items.

Notes

Footnotes 1. Raime's Helm description.

Giant Lord

Lore

Soul of the Giant Lord,
who once conquered Drangleic.

Vendrick crossed the seas, took prisoner
the Giants, and brought them back to his castle,
clapped in irons. However, after this modest
triumph, his countenance could be seen to
grow darker with each passing day.

— Description of the Giant Lord Soul

Location

Memory of Jeigh:
At the very end.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,970 75,000
2 (NG+) 7,164 150,000
8 (NG+7) 13,612 300,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: The Place Unbeknownst bonfire.

Summons

Both of them can't be summoned at the same time.

Drops

Moveset

Stomping

Sword Slash

Foot Swipe

Downward Stab

Strategies

Melee Strategy:

Lock onto his left leg and stay behind him while somewhat close to his left leg, and circle left. He will rotate and try and hit you with the right foot swipe, which misses if you are close to the left leg, and can be easily dodged. Just keep hitting that left leg, but be cautious when he goes for the swipe, as it is often lethal. If he goes for a stomp, roll out of the way and keep repeating the same pattern.

Ranged Strategy:

As you approach the boss, he will do a downward chop attack, dodge this and get to the ledge adjacent to him. From here, he will only do two attacks: a sweeping slash and a downward chop. Simply roll to dodge them and attack twice in between.

Magic Strategy:

Using pyromancy with a +10 Flame and 8 slots he can be killed within 5 minutes. Also using a high Faith and Intelligence build he can be repeatedly killed without any problems, as his moves are very predictable.

Start by running to the platform next to him. He will start off with an over head swing, so dodge up the stairs and cast any pyromancy you have attuned. The only attacks you will have to worry about in this area are his over head and sweeping swing, both of which are easily dodged. Keep in mind that he wastes no time between attacks, so try to limit yourself to one spell between each attack.

His weakness is Fire, though he is still easy to kill with Miracles and Sorcery, especially with a high casting speed.

Miracles Strategy:
Using a Lightning Dragon Chime +5, three slots of Great Lightning Spear, one slot of Heavenly Thunder and light armor, proceed to the platform near the boss. Stay as close as possible to the boss without falling from the platform and when he starts to swing his sword, run back to the wall behind you and cast Great Lightning Spear. Repeat this until you're out of uses, then descend from the platform and stay below him waiting for his foot stomp. Avoid it and then cast Heavenly Thunder, which will hit them at least twice due to his size. Repeat this proccess and you can easily kill him within about 5 minutes if you're good enough on rolling.

Farming Strategy:
Using a Bonfire Ascetic at the Place Unbeknownst bonfire will make the items and enemies within all three memories respawn. This includes the Giant Lord. Simply follow the strategies stated before and it becomes one of the easiest boss fights in the game with a rather large reward (use the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring to maximize earned souls). Since there is an ascetic inside the Memory of Jeigh (up the left stairs as you first go through the fog gate) you can do this forever. Don't forget about the Twinkling Titanite just off the ledge as you approach the giant tree from the bonfire.

Remember, the items in other memories will respawn when you do this, so you can go and grab them every time. However, the giants in other memories will eventually get strong enough to easily kill you in one hit, so be careful.

How to get 500k+ souls from the Giant Lord in 5 minutes

Notes

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Guardian Dragon

Lore

Soul of a dragon that guards
the path to the shrine.

Do the dragons watch over the land
of their own will, or are they in the grip of
one of Aldia's spells?

— Description of the Guardian Dragon Soul

Location

Aldia's Keep:
At the end of the keep.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,270 37,000
2 (NG+) 6,851 74,000
8 (NG+7) 13,017 148,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Ritual Site bonfire.

Dragon Aerie:
Non-boss version.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ~5,300 4,000
2 (NG+) - 8,000
8 (NG+7) - 16,000
Heide's Tower of Flame:
Non-boss version. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ~1653 4,000
2 (NG+) 3660 8,000
8 (NG+7) 6612 16,000

Summons

Drops

Aldia's Keep:

Dragon Aerie: Dark Souls II only.

Dragon Aerie: Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
All drops are guaranteed

Moveset

Breath of Fire:
Conic attack at the ground that spreads out as it comes towards the player.

Flying Fireball:

Mid-air area of effect attack.

Tail Whip:
This attack has a wide radius of effect, try to stay away from the tail.

Bite:
Swings its head while biting.

Stomp:
Stomps with either leg.

Strategies

This boss is relatively easy, as long as your dodging is good.

Try to stay close to the back legs, but not too close to its tail.

Melee Strategy:

Stay between the dragon's legs as much as possible, attack its legs and watch your stamina.

When the dragon stomps, roll towards the dragon's other side, providing an opening for attack on its other foot.

If the dragon flies up to rain fire on you, just strafe to his side, or attempt to sprint directly under the dragon.

Sorcery Strategy:
When you enter the boss arena, walk a few steps to the left then lock-on to the boss and start casting spells. Your second and third cast should hit its head, causing massive damage.

Keep your distance while the dragon is waking up. Once it notices you, begin by strafing in front of it to bait out its straightforward fire breath (its head will rear up for 1-2 seconds) then roll under it and start casting spells. Move back in front once the attack finishes, and repeat.

You'll also have a good opportunity to hit the dragon with one or two casts of Soul Spear while it's perched on the side of the cage, as well as immediately after its airborne flame breath attack.

Notes

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Looking Glass Knight

Lore

Those who wish to serve the king as loyal warriors must take the King's Passage and face the Looking Glass Knight.

Those who fail the test are sacrificed by the merciless specular monstrosity.

— Description of the Looking Glass Set

Fearing something wicked, the King fled the castle and never returned. But his warrior forever true to his command, stands ready to expunge those who would challenge him.

— Description of the Thorned Greatsword

Soul of the Looking Glass Knight, who challenges visitors to the lordless castle.

Long ago, the King's Passage was a route taken by the bravest warriors to prove themselves, but now it only prevents one from pursuing the runaway king.

— Description of the Looking Glass Knight Soul

The Looking Glass at the castle is said to have been passage to another world.

— Description of the King's Mirror

Location

King's Passage:
Past the door opened with the Key to King's Passage in Drangleic Castle.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 6,540 34,000
2 (NG+) 9,156 68,000
8 (NG+7) 17,397 136,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Central Castle Drangleic bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Jumping Smash

Running Jumping Smash

Running Stab

Sword Slashes + Stab

Lightning Volley

Lightning Slash

Lightning Chain

Summon

Backstep

Strategies

All attacks bounce off and do no damage if you hit his shield. The deflected sorceries/pyromancies/miracles/hexes can damage the host or friendly phantoms. Hitting the shield appears to do a lot of durability damage to weapons.

At around 50% health or if enough time has passed, a phantom image may form in his shield, and then he slams his shield to the ground and to start summoning Mirror Squires. After this point, he may perform another summon if enough time has passed, so defeating him quickly is ideal. The summoning animation can be canceled if he is staggered.

Notes

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Lud & Zallen, the King's Pets

Description

Lud and Zallen are giant, black saber toothed cats.

Location

Frigid Outskirts

Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) Lud: 5,070
Zallen: 5,070		 56,000
2 (NG+) Lud: 7,098
Zallen: 7,098		 112,000
8 (NG+7) Lud: 15,210
Zallen: 15,210		 224,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Head of Vengarl
Abbess Feeva
Manhunter O'Harrah Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only

Resistance

Weakness

Attack Patterns

Strategies

Vulnerable Underbelly
Staying underneath and just behind the front paws of either enemy will cause their clawing attacks to whiff away from your character. This method is only reliable as long as you can roll back into position when they jump away and charge again.

Notes

Mytha The Baneful Queen

Lore

Soul of Mytha, the Baneful Queen, who lives in the Earthen Peak.

The Queen sought the King's affection,
even poisoning herself to attain beauty,
despite the monstrous consequences.
All for the compelling madness known as love.

— Description of the Mytha, the Baneful Queen Soul

Dagger forged from the soul of Mytha,
the Baneful Queen, Coated with a potent poison.

Mytha was the fairest queen in the land,
until something unhinged her.
Was it the poison found deep within the earth,
or the passion that consumed her heart?

— Description of Mytha's Bent Blade

That creature, she was human, once, you know.
Hmm, in fact, she was wed to the Prince of that nearby castle.
But her husband, hmm, he had feelings for another.
The Princess was desperate, and sought eternal beauty.
Hoping that it would restore the Prince's, ah, affection, ha you see what I mean.
Before long, the Princess' ire transformed her into a monster.

— Laddersmith Gilligan Dialogue

Location

Earthen Peak:
At the top of Earthen Peak, by the Upper Earthen Peak bonfire.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,650 20,000
2 (NG+) 6,850 40,000
8 (NG+7) 12,888 80,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Upper Earthen Peak bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Spear Stab Combo:
Stabs twice with her spear, and sometimes ends with a downward strike. Has good tracking, so be sure to dodge at the right moment.

Spear Lunge:
Rushes quickly forward with her spear and stabs. This attack has long range and is carried out quickly.

Tail swipe:
Done when the player is behind her, she swipes her tail to the left. Dodge by rolling to the left or right. Her tail can be cut off stopping her from using her swipe attack with it, making the fight easier.

Spear Spin:
Lifts up her spear and quickly spins it around 3 times.

Scream:
Raises her severed head and shoots out multiple bolts of magic with a scream, that fan out horizontally.

Soul Spear:
Raises her head and shoots out a single homing bolt.

Backward Jumping Swipe:
Slashes horizontally with her spear while leaping backwards.

Head Throw:
Throws her severed head in front of her in which then it explodes. Be sure to dodge the attack, as it can do a lot of damage. Mytha then lunges to grab back the tossed head (during which she is highly vulnerable)

Constrict:
Grabs the target in front of her and drops them after dealing high damage (try baiting this, highly punishable)

Strategies

Before entering this battle, head to the Central Earthen Peak bonfire. Use the bonfire to light a torch. Now across from the bonfire, you will see a large windmill spinning. Go as close as you can to it with the torch equipped, and you will get an option to set it on fire. Do this, and most of the poison in the area will drain. This helps immensely for this battle, as the poison heals Mytha.

Keep in mind there will still be some poison, but only on the outer rim of the arena.

Melee:
Equip light armor so that you can dodge attacks quickly. Usually dodging to the left or right should suffice in evading most of her attacks.

Stunlock:
You can dual wield Maces or other hammers like Clubs and and use the dual strong attack. This can be used to stunlock Mytha until she's dead.

Shield & Melee:
It is possible to kill Mytha using a shield. The most recommended shield is the Drangleic Shield. Keep in mind that you will still get damaged from magic, so make sure you know when to dodge her magical attacks. It should be easy, as long as you're not too close when she's about to drop her head or use her magic.

This tactic works best for those that are tanks or not too good with/don't want to do dodging.

The main objective here is to keep circling her but not get behind her, just one of her sides and keep your distance (don't get very close or you'll surely get grabbed and die or get huge amounts of damage if you have enough HP), block her spear stabs and then hit her one or two times. Make sure you save up at least 50% of your stamina. When she lunges, you can either try blocking it or dodge it. Her lunge attack reduces a lot of stamina, at least half of it, so it is recommended to dodge if you want to keep your stamina.

If you keep circling her, maintain your distance, dodge her magical attacks and block her spear stabs and then attack her after blocking them, you'll surely survive with no HP loss.

Co-op:
Wearing the Redeye Ring as a summon makes this fight very easy for the world master. You can tank her from range, and most of her attacks won't even land or can be easily blocked or avoided.

If you are a summon you want to instruct the host in how to light up the windmill to get rid of the poison (as phantoms cannot set the windmill on fire), this is any easy way to do so. Grab their attention using the "I Won't Bite" gesture. Have them follow you to the bonfire. Once there, alternate lighting your torch, equip your weapon, light torch again until they catch on. Walk over to the windmill and us the "Point" gesture for where they need to go.

Caster:
Low equip burden is recommended for mobility. Roll to the sides to avoid her attacks and counter with spells, stay in her melee range but just far enough to safely cast your spells. Especially spells with long cast times. Soul Spear, etc. (Be careful not to fall in the poison water). Fire pyromancies are recommended spells for this battle.

Or as an alternative summon phantoms (ex: Jester Thomas mainly for his pyromancies) and provide magic support while they tank the boss. Once again do not walk in the poison and also watch out for her powerful spells.

Notes

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Nashandra

Lore

Soul of Nashandra, Queen of Drangleic.

The fragments of the abyss, of untold origin,
nourished their beings by the sides of would-be
monarchs. Perhaps they were simply ordeals
on the road to kinghood.

One day, the flames will fade, and only darkness
will remain. Unless, of course, an heir arrives.

— Description of the Soul of Nashandra

The old one of the Abyss was reborn in death,
split into minuscule fragments, and spread
across the land. After regaining their shapes,
they crawled forth, yearning for strong souls,
in search of greater power.

— Description of the Scythe of Want

After taking their shapes, they courted monarchs
of considerable power, which they desired
to make their own.

— Description of the Chime of Want

Light and Dark are two sides of the same coin,
much like the soul and the curse. The beings
who presented themselves to those in search
of kinghood were drawn to their awesome strength.

— Description of the Bow of Want

Location

Drangleic Castle:
Encountered in human form sitting in a faraway throne, right before the dual Dragonrider boss fight arena. Disappears after obtaining the Giant's Kinship.

Throne of Want:
To access Nashandra, you need to have defeated Throne Defender and Throne Watcher and the Giant Lord.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 8,770 90,000
2 (NG+) 10,524 180,000
8 (NG+7) 19,996 360,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: King's Gate bonfire.

Summons

Note: A maximum of 3 summons can be used at once.

Drops

Moveset

Downward Scythe Strike

Horizontal Three Swing Scythe Combo

Horizontal Dark Beam

Vertical Dark Beam

Dark Explosion

Summon Curse Orbs

Strategies

In order to avoid a two-part boss fight, kill the Throne Watcher and Defender before you kill the Giant Lord.

Following these general tactics and tips will help:

Melee Strategy:
This tactic is to be done solo or with phantoms who know what they're doing:

Tank Strategy:
For those with low offense but high defense, this boss becomes a trivial if long winded one. Use a shield that has high physical resistance or just roll to avoid attacks.
When she summons curse orbs get far out of their range and wait for her. She will attempted a few beam attacks which you can either just dodge or take the opportunity to fire a few arrows.
When she approaches you keep your shield up. She will slash twice in a row side to side, and normally finish off with a powerful downward strike. When up close dodging the downward attack is easy and leaves her open to one or two attacks.

Rinse and repeat this until she re-summons the curse orbs. The original orbs will be gone so head over the other side of the arena and repeat the strategy.
Note: that after losing 50% hp she will use an AOE shockwave attack when you are strafing her. Its highly telegraphed and has a short range. Also she can perform an additional third slash into her two hit combo so wait for the downward strike.

Notes

Dialogue

All dialogue text is © From Software Inc.

+ Show Dialogue - Hide Dialogue

Voiced by: Harriet Kemsley

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Old Dragonslayer

Lore

The Old Dragonslayer is reminiscent of
a certain knight that appears in old legends.

— Description of the Old Dragonslayer Soul

Location

Cathedral of Blue:
In the cathedral at the end of Heide's Tower of Flame.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 2,880 20,000
2 (NG+) 5,760 40,000
8 (NG+7) 10,944 80,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: The Blue Cathedral bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Spear Stab:
Stabs his spear towards the player. Can occur whilst jumping. Parryable and blockable.

Upwards Slash:
Follows a Spear Stab. Parryable and blockable.

Horizontal Slash:
Follows a Spear Stab. Parryable and blockable.

Spear Slash:
Slashes his spear across the player. Can occur twice. Unparryable and blockable.

Crush:
Drops down to the ground, attempting to crush the player. Can occur whilst jumping. Unparryable and not blockable.

Charge:
Dashes forward with his spear pointed towards the player. Unparryable and blockable.

Impale:
When close, he will attempt a stab with a longer windup. If he hits the player is skewered and electrocuted. Unparryable and not blockable.

Dark Slam:
Jumps into the air, emenating with Dark. Once he lands the Dark is released. Unparryable and not blockable.

Dark Bolt:
Raises his spear, imbues it with Dark and throws the a Dark Bolt at the player. Spell Parry and not blockable.

Strategies

Dodging and Blocking:
With a high physical resist and stability shield you can stick close to the Dragonslayer and circle him counterclockwise.

You can easily block all of his normal attacks and the only thing you'll need to run away from is his area of effect Dark attack.

Pay close attention to his opening lunge strike with the spear as it does tremendous damage to low level characters.

Melee:
Most of his attacks can be dodged by rolling behind him. Staying as close as you can to him is usually the best course of action due to the fact that he likes to lunge at the player if you're far.

The only attack that you have to watch out for from close is when he begins charging his Dark AoE attack. He will jump into the air and land on the ground releasing an energy wave that can damage you from a good distance. Roll away when you see him doing this.

Notes

Videos

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Old Iron King

Lore

The earth spouted fire, and a beast arose from
the flames. The short-sighted king was incinerated
by the creature in one swing, and his castle
devoured in a sea of flames.

— Description of the Smelter Sword

Soul of the Old Iron King, who succumbed
to the flames that swallowed his castle.

The Iron King's flesh was charred, and his
soul possessed by the things that lurk below.

— Description of the Old Iron King Soul

Location

Iron Keep:
Inside the lava at the end of the keep.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 6,070 48,000
2 (NG+) 10,320 96,000
8 (NG+7) 19,607 192,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Eygil's Idol bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Fist Pound (Single)

Fist Pound (Double)

Horizontal Swipe

Fist Pound (Firestorm)

Forward Lava Stream

Flame Breath

Shockwave

Strategies

Old Iron King highly telegraphs his attacks. However the small arena size causes difficulty. Always be mindful of how close you are to the edge especially when he uses his flame breath or lava stream (which track you).

It is easier to deal with him, when solo, if he is standing near the initial fog gate, as you can use the L-Shaped wall to help block some of his fire attacks. When he burrows in the lava, he'll reappear near where you're standing a few seconds later. Just simply stand near the fog gate until he surfaces to keep him in that part of the area.

Melee Strategy:
The stage you fight him in is pretty small and makes it easy for you to misstep and fall into the lava, so be careful in this fight.

His moves listed above are all slow and easily avoided:

He's generally more likely to use the beam and fire-breathing attacks if you're farther away from him, and if you avoid them by backing away, he will start using ranged attacks exclusively, making it difficult to get close again. If you hug him too long he will use his shockwave attack which is easily dodged but isn't punishable.

Keeping the target lock on him makes it easier to roll sideways through his attacks without losing sight of him and/or falling into the lava, but when he brings one of his fists down, turn it off so you can attack the arm from the side. Then immediately lock on again so you can avoid his next attack.

Do note that when he emerges from the lava the lava splatters can damage you (about 700 damage on NG++).

Easy Melee Strategy (No Hit):
Best used with a Lightning Infused or Gold Pine Resin buffed weapon while two-handing it, as you will not be using your shield.

Easy Ranged Strategy (No Hit):
Using the +1 Lighting shortbow found in the fire traps down the ladder from Eygil's Idol and about 100-200 wooden arrows, you can take down the Old Iron King without taking damage.

Notes

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Prowling Magus & the Congregation

Lore

This boss fight is a combination of two bosses. One is a Dark sorcerer, the Prowling Magus. The other is the Undead Laborer horde of enemies that surround him, and crawling Undead Supplicants. Among them there are two Hollow Priests.

Location

Brightstone Cove Tseldora:
At the end of the path past the first bonfire, inside a building.
Bonfire
Intensity		 Health Souls
1 (NG) Magus: 1,100
Priest x2: 900
Laborer x5: 280
Supplicant x3: 300		 7,000
2 (NG+) Magus: 1,760
Priest x2: 1,440
Laborer x5: 448
Supplicant x3: 480		 14,000
8 (NG+7) Magus: 3,344
Priest x2: 2,200
Laborer x5: 852
Supplicant x3: 912		 28,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Royal Army Campsite bonfire.

Resistance:
Prowling Magus:

Hollow Priest:

Undead Laborer:

Undead Supplicant:

Weakness:
Prowling Magus:

Hollow Priest:

Undead Laborer:

Undead Supplicant:

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Prowling Magus
Dark Wrath of the Gods:
A Dark-powered Force that sends the character flying, only used at close range.

Dark Orb:
Sends a ball of Dark at the player that does moderate damage.

Dark Arrow:
Fires a fast-moving projectile vaguely resembling the Soul Arrow sorcery; has a slightly longer range than the Dark Orb spell.

Hollow Priest
Sunlight Spear:
A high damage Lightning Spear.

Great Med Heal:
Greatly replenishes health of nearby allies.

Undead Supplicant
Melee Attacks:
Low damage.

Strategies

As soon as you enter the boss room, you begin in a church-like area. In front of you is a bunch of crawling hollows which are easy to dispose of. Then there are the three enemies you seriously need to worry about: the two Hollow Priests, and the Magus.

The best way to go about this is to get rid of the Priests first as they can cast an area of effect heal miracle. Watch out for their Sunlight Spears that can deal heavy damage.

Use the pews in the room to your advantage. If you place yourself behind them, spells cast by the Hollow Priests will hit them instead of you. This is a good opportunity to heal or cast your own spells.

Melee:
This is a strength in numbers boss battle. The best method here is to just go nuts. Attack as many of them as you can. Their poise is low so any strong weapon can break their poise.

Magic:
Flame Swathe or Scraps of Life work wonders, as does any area of effect spell. Be patient and unload your spells after the sorcerers cast their spells. Because all enemies in the room are hollow, Soul Appease also works very well.
Well-placed Dark Fogs or Toxic Mists will poison and eventually kill all the enemies.
Sorcerers can use Soul Greatsword as it will consecutively hit most enemies and do a decent amount of damage.

Notes

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Royal Rat Authority

Lore

Soul of the Rat King Authority,
of the underground realm.

Those who choose to serve the Rat King
must have the courage to face His challenges.

— Description of the Royal Rat Authority Soul

A loyal servant of the Rat King and the enforcer of his authority,
this gargantuan Dog Rat is also responsible for testing the strength and virtue of visitors to his lord's domain.
He is alarmed to the presence of intruders by his four rat minions who he guards with his life.

— Dark Souls II Collector's Edition Guide Description

Location

Doors of Pharros:
Near Ordeal's End bonfire.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 4,330 14,000
2 (NG+) 6,928 28,000
8 (NG+7) 13,164 56,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Ordeal's End bonfire.

Summons

Note that summoning of any kind is not possible in Doors of Pharros, so this boss has to be fought solo.

Drops

Moveset

Head Lunge
An extremely hard-hitting attack with an equally bad hitbox and fast start-up animation which can also hit if the player is near the boss's mid-section and front legs.

Forepaw Two-Combo:
The boss strikes first with his right forepaw, then his left. Both forepaw swings whiff completely if the player is located underneath the beast's belly; if he isn't, they seem to be partly unblockable for some reason.

Acid Barf:
The boss emits a large pool of poisonous acid from his mouth which triggers automatically whenever the boss reaches a low enough health threshold. This attack cannot only kill the player by poison if exposed to it for too long, but it will also wear down the durability of any equipment wielded.

After vomiting, the Royal Rat Authority will perform slower, lazier attacks.

Strategies

It is highly advised to aggressively rush in and take out the rat minions first as they can inflict poison.

Stay under the belly of the boss where his forepaw strikes are rendered ineffective.

Melee:

To dispatch the rat minions as a melee character, the player has to use a wide-swinging, hard-hitting weapon. The first step in this fight is running to the right side of the room and baiting two or three of the rats to attack, then dispatching them two or three with one swing; if the player fails, it is advised that the player divert his attention towards the larger rat and run away towards him and dodge his incoming attacks, since the smaller rats can be killed safely if the player sticks to the left side of the boss (near his left hind leg) and attack the minions there.

A bow can be also used to kill the minions.

After killing the smaller rats, the player should run and stick to the left side of the rat (near his left hind leg) and hit. There are dangerous spots in the middle and front of the rat, so staying there is risky. Another thing to avoid is letting the rat dodge or stay far away, since he his dangerous in that distance.

If the player can successfully stay near the left hind leg, getting hit is nearly impossible unless the players lets the rat run away and initiate the head lunge.

To dodge the head lunge, the player has to anticipate the animation (the boss will stick his head down and charge) and immediately run backwards and dodge in the same backwards direction at a precise timings. This attack can also hit the player if he is near his mid-section and front legs.

The rat boss will initiate his acid barf attack at low health. This can kill the player, had the latter decided to stay there and land the finishing blow.

Caster Strategy:

If you're a hexer, use Scraps of Life to kill the four mongrel rats, then use Dead Again to kill the boss in one or two casts.
A sorcerer can lock onto and kill the small rats in one hit from distance with Great Heavy Soul Arrows before the boss jumps to the arena.

Pyromancy Strategy:

Neither the boss nor the small rats attack you when you enter the boss area, only once you initiate combat yourself. Take advantage of this by setting up a wall of Lingering Flame orbs between yourself and the rats. Draw the rats into your wall of lingering flame orbs - such as with a bow - and the orbs will explode when the rats come close, killing them off. This allows you to fight the boss itself without the small rats being a problem.

Notes

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Royal Rat Vanguard

Lore

Soul of the Rat King's Vanguard,
of the underground realm.

The Rat King's loyal servant judges the
worthiness of those who seek royal audience.

— Description of the Royal Rat Vanguard Soul

Location

Grave of Saints
By the Grave Entrance bonfire.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 1,410 11,000
2 (NG+) 2,679 22,000
8 (NG+7) 5,091 44,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Grave Entrance bonfire.

Summons

None.

Drops

Moveset

Bite

Strategies

The boss is a Rat that enters the arena after killing ten regular rats. You can distinguish him from the rest of the rats by the mohawk-like fur he has on the top of his body.

At the beginning, only rats appear to attack. After ten rats die, the Royal Rat Vanguard will spawn. He spawns close to the entrance a couple seconds after the boss health bar appears. Identify him by the "mohawk" running down his back and his slightly larger ears. Also when locking on to him, he does not show a health bar like the other rats.

When the boss dies, any remaining rats scurries away back into the walls.

Note: the regular rats' attacks builds up Petrification, and the Vanguard's builds up Poison.

Melee:
Go in for a few hits, no more than two or three, then jump back and avoid his counter. Repeat this process while trying to avoid the other rats and he should fall quickly.

Magic Strategy:
Go into the middle of the room and whenever the rats are closing in cast Soul Appease. This spell will kill the regular rats in one or two hits and deals heavy damage to Vanguard himself.

For hex users, the use of Lifedrain Patch, Scraps of Life, and Darkstorm is recommended. For maximum effectiveness, run around until you have all of the rats gathered in a tight group.

Ranged Strategy:
Strafe along the outside of the crowd. This minimizes your chance of taking damage and allows you to target the Vanguard specifically. The statues make things a bit tricky.

Notes

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Ruin Sentinels

Lore

Soul of the Ruin Sentinel,
a creation of the jailer.

The Ruin Sentinel has no corporeal form.
It is only an empty soul that haunts the armor.

— Description of the Ruin Sentinel Soul

Location

The Lost Bastille:
Found at the end of the path from either McDuff's Workshop bonfire or the Tower Apart bonfire.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3x 2,330 10,000
2 (NG+) 3x 4,194 20,000
8 (NG+7) 3x 7,969 40,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: McDuff's Workshop bonfire.

Drangleic Castle:
Immediately after the first bonfire, five inside rooms with soul-devouring doors.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? ???
2 (NG+) ??? ???
8 (NG+7) ??? ???

Summons

Drops

The Lost Bastille:

Drangleic Castle:

Moveset

Power Strike:
Will charge up one strong overhead attack, covers a lot of distance. Blockable.

Overhead Strike:
Raises it's halberd above its head and strikes downward. Blockable.

Dual Slash:
Slashes it's halberd upward and down then upward from behind. Blockable.

Forward Lunge:
Lunges forward, stabbing with it's halberd. Blockable.

Spin Strike:
Spins in a circle holding its halberd out. Blockable.

Shield Toss:
Throws it's shield out in a parabola. Blockable.

Strategies

Boss Run:
From McDuff's Workshop bonfire in the Lost Bastille, go past the Undead Jailer on top of the stairs and kill the three Dogs: two in the front, one to the right. Stand where the dog to the right was. Peer down and in the building nearby there will be a locked door.

This door can be opened from the other side and serve as a shortcut to the boss if you can land on it from above.

Next time after the Ruin Sentinels mercilessly slaughter you, all you need to do is run past the dogs to the right hand side dog and jump from one building to another and then go up the stairs.

General:
You start off the fight by dropping onto a small platform. Ruin Sentinel Yahim attacks as soon as you enter, but he is alone. Dropping down from the platform or killing Yahim triggers the aggression of the two other Sentinels.
After killing Yahim, the second Sentinel should jump up on the platform shortly thereafter, allowing you to solo it for a bit before the third one jumps up. When both make it up there, it's time to leave the platform and fight on the floor below.

When fighting in the arena below, keep both Sentinels in sight. Counterattack when both Sentinels are recovering from their attack.

You'll want to learn their telegraphs, these will let you dodge or block effectively. Stick close to one of the other two and try to bait out their two handed slam, leaps, or one handed combo. These have about two seconds of recovery animation that you can exploit. Otherwise just kite them away from each other, keep them in your vision

If you have a summon either try to keep the two remaining Sentinels busy at opposite ends of the arena or focus both of your attacks on one to try and kill it quickly. One on it's own is not particularly challenging, just keep calm and watch for the telegraphs.

Tank and Caster:
Get the Redeye Ring so that the Sentinels will be paying full attention to you. Use a shield that has good physical resistance and stability, a greatshield of any kind is the best choice.

Summon Pilgrim Bellclaire for the fight. She deals nice amount of damage, especially if her AI decides to spam Soul Spear.

You should be able to block all attacks with no problem. Lower your shield every now and then to improve stamina regeneration.

At the start of the fight lock Yahim to a corner so he will be focusing all of his attacks on you, leaving his back very vulnerable for Pilgrim Bellclaire to unload her powerful spells. When the second Ruin Sentinel jumps over to the ledge, lock on to her and tank her blows. Make sure Bellclaire is safe from harm. When the third Ruin Sentinel joins the fun, drop down and one of them will follow you. Just keep tanking the one that does while Bellclaire finishes the other one. After Bellclaire finished her opponent, she'll come over and help you kill the last Ruin Sentinel.

Notes

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Scorpioness Najka

Lore

Soul of Scorpioness Najka.

Najka was born of the misdeeds of an ancient
being, frail soul from the beginning,
that soon succumbed to madness.

— Description of the Scorpioness Najka Soul

The wife of Manscorpion Tark, a fragile soul created long ago by an ancient being in the throes of madness.
Najka herself has succumbed to the very affliction which felled her master and has devolved into a ferocious beast, a threat to all living things.

— Dark Souls II Collector's Edition Guide Description

Location

Shaded Woods:
At the end of the Shaded Ruins.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,741 23,000
2 (NG+) 10,047 46,000
8 (NG+7) 18,828 92,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Shaded Ruins bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Forward Thrust

Melee Staff Slash

Stinger Forward Stab

Stinger Sweep

Stinger Grab:
Causes toxin buildup.

Homing Soulmass

Soul Spear

Tunnel Underground:
Move to the concrete flooring to avoid damage.

Stinger Thrash
Happens from a certain distance only, very rare. She flails her tails wildly up and down, smashing the ground.

Strategies

When she stabs her two stingers into the ground you have an opportunity to chop them off. It is not recommended that you do so, as this will cause her to use her Homing Soulmass more often, and there is no reward for cutting off the stingers.

If her stingers curl to the sides, get away from the opposite side that she is curling because she is about to do a sweeping attack. If the stringers move up, she is about to plunge them at you.

When she burrows beneath the ground, stand on the chunk of concrete.. She will not be able to burrow up beneath you. Roll away when she reappears and take advantage of her recovery time.

It's possible to have Najka stand on an area slightly higher than the player. If she does so, try baiting her into using her staff combo. None of her attacks will be able to hit lower than her, meaning you can hug up close to her and use whatever attack you like while she misses.

General Strategy:
Once you work out her attack pattern, Najka is a fairly simple fight. Firstly, choose one of the tree trunks and kite Najka around it, attacking after she attacks. You should roll backwards to dodge all of her melee attacks. Eventually she will cast Homing Soulmass. Make sure her line of sight goes through the tree trunk, which will now tank most of the Soulmasses. Roll into the trunk on the second wave of soul masses, to ensure you don't get hit. If she tunnels underground, run around until she re-surfaces and lure her back to the tree trunk. Repeat this until she is dead.

Another strategy is to circle her as close as you can, as she is then less likely to use Homing Soulmass. Just remember not to get behind her, as she will swipe you with her stinger. Always start backing off whenever she starts attacking, especially when she takes a few steps towards you. If she does use Homing Soulmass, start strafing and roll if necessary. When she uses her other magic attack, run at her. It should go over your head.

Notes

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Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon

Description

The King erected a magnificent city, and the dragon slept soundly.
Until Sir Yorgh disturbed it with a single great strike, and the dragon could bear its store of poison no longer.
The rain of death toppled the city, but restored the dragon's purity.1

Sinh is the final boss of the Crown of the Sunken King DLC and resides just after the Dragon's Rest bonfire.

Location

Dragon's Rest
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 10,030 96,000
2 (NG+) 14,042 192,000
8 (NG+7) 30,090 384,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Resistance

Attack Patterns

Standing

Airborne

Strategies

Sinh's breath attacks buildup toxic and some of its attacks leave a cloud of toxic-inflicting gas behind. Add some Poison Moss to your quick inventory in case you get poisoned.

Sinh's skin is corrosive and melee attacks against its torso, legs and tail will decrease the weapon's durability rapidly. Exceptions are its head and neck. Keep some Repair Powder with you. Each hit on his body does around 1.5 durability damage to your weapon. Durability will be a problem for most weapons if you are doing less than around 400 damage per hit. (NOTE: durability loss not evident in newest patch. Needs testing confirmation. No durability loss with several greatswords noticed when striking any part of its body)

Alternatively, you might want to use Santier's Spear for this battle, assuming you already broke it. Infinite durability, Sinh's mediocre resistance to slash and spear's decent reach and moveset makes it a great weapon versus Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon. 2H attacks are especially effective while you're underneath or behind him.

Melee

Sinh always starts the fight with the lunging head swipe attack. Once you enter its room start running towards it, keeping to your left (no need to be intimidated by its opening fire breathing animation). Sinh will lunge past you and you can get a few easy hits on its rear legs.

Sinh is easier to maneuver around if you don't lock onto it. While airborne however, locking on may be an easy way to keep track of him.

When Sinh is in the air you should always be moving towards it, while also keeping off to its side, aiming to get nearly underneath it. If it does any of its attacks roll even further to the side to get out of the way. The closer you are to being underneath it the more likely its dive and fire strafe attacks will have already gone over you before they get dangerous. Being nearby also puts you in the best position to attack as if it drops down to land.

If you're fighting Sinh solo it's risky and a bit of a hassle to constantly try to run around it to attack its rear legs. A more cautious approach is to stay back and bide your time and wait for safe chances to hit it. For the most part you'll just have to focus on avoiding its aerial attacks, which at least give you plenty of time to heal from if they hit you. Stay back from Sinh when it's on the ground and wait for it to do a lunging head swipe. Roll back from it and then hit Sinh's head after the attack finishes. Watch out for a possible bite counterattack. Sinh is also vulnerable when it shakes its head to indicate it's about to perform a long-range breath attack. When it does so, run towards and past its head and get a few hits in on its body, and then run away before it can swipe at you. Finally, if you wait nearby when Sinh drops down to land from the air you can step in and get off a hit or two - usually on its head because that will be closest - before it resumes attacking you.

If you're fighting Sinh with phantoms it's much easier to focus on its rear legs while it's distracted by other opponents. Attack the tail when possible as it close to nullifies its chance to hit you with tail attacks. Cutting it off, however, might be difficult without a downward-striking/slashing weapon, due to Sinh generally keeping its tail a bit above ground.

An alternate strategy for a Melee build is to use the Avelyn +10 and the Grym Shield +10, Flame Ring & Poison Bite Ring. The shield will fully negate his flame attacks - including the diving flame attack. Ideally, you should attempt to stay in the middle of the board with Sinh flying from end to end over your head swooping down to burn you. You will take no damage as he passes then immediately turn around to re-target him. Wait for him to land (he may shoot a toxic ball or two which you can simply strafe to avoid) then as soon as he lands take a shot. Lightning or Magic bolts work best. He may shoot his flame which gives an opportunity to strafe and take another shot. If he does the side to side sweeping flame, simply use the shield to block it and do not take a shot - you need to keep some stamina. Eventually, he will rise up and do his swooping flame attack again. Repeat the process. The only attack that you can be damaged in this strategy is sometimes after he lands and you take your shot, he will get upset and charge you with his head flick attack. You can avoid this by rolling backwards. Patience is key.

Faith

This is a hard fight for the Miracle caster because Sinh seems to be resistant to lightning. That being said, summon both NPCs and let them tank while you spam him with miracles. Be sure to bring items that restore uses of spells because you will run out of casts quickly.

Videos

Notes

Footnotes 1. Soul of Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon description.

Sir Alonne

Description

Sir Alonne came to this land from the east, chose to serve a little -known and unestablished lord, and helped him become the Old Iron King.
Then, at the very peak of his sire's rule, Sir Alonne set out again, in search of land yet unknown.1

Sir Alonne is a boss of the Crown of the Old Iron King DLC and resides in the Memory of the Old Iron King.

Location

Memory of the Old Iron King
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 10,140 80,000
2 (NG+) 14,196 160,000
8 (NG+7) 30,420 320,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Resistance

Attack Patterns

Strategies

The key to this fight is to learn when to dodge his charging attacks, which have wildly different speeds. When he is lowering his blade to prepare for a dash attack, if he lowers it slowly, then there will be a slightly longer delay before his dash.

After he jumps away from you to do a charge (holds his sword horizontally) it is best to roll backwards. Afterwards quickly close the gap and you have a prime opportunity to do damage.
When he does his two diagonal slashes, if you roll forward and right on the first, the second should go over your head without needing to roll; saving stamina for a counterattack.

He will occasionally attempt to impale you (telegraphed by his sword glowing); roll towards or sideways to avoid. If this move connects, he'll buff his weapon with the same effect as the Bewitched Alonne Sword buff.

Be careful of getting too close to the wall while locked on, as if you move in front of a pillar the camera will move upwards and point into the ground, making it difficult to see.

Every time you dodge his attack, try to roll forward and slightly to the right, then hug his back side. His attacks become much less efficient when you're behind him (or behind his left side).

Video: Sir Alonne Boss Fight - Melee No Shield

There are several points in the room where if Sir Alonne loses vision of you, he will no longer attack you or make any moves. If he is backed into either of the two corners on the side of the room with the entrance, standing on the other side of the pillar closer to the door such that you can't see him will give you a chance to heal, cast miracles, or even re-equip. Take note that if he isn't in the corner and you can still see the edge of his sword, he will still try to hit you through the wall, some of these attacks can hit you, so be sure you can't see him at all.

Notes

Footnotes 1. Alonne's Helm description.

Skeleton Lords

Lore

Soul of a Skeleton Lord, who reigned
from deep within the Huntsman's Copse.

The Old Iron King commanded the capture
of all Undead, but those charged with
the task were overcome by the curse.

— Description of Skeleton Lord's Soul

Location

Huntsman's Copse:
Behind the waterfall near the end.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) Halberd: 780
Scythe: 780
Staff: 520		 15,000
2 (NG+) Halberd: 1,560
Scythe: 1,560
Staff: 1,040		 30,000
8 (NG+7) Halberd: 2,964
Scythe: 2,964
Staff: 1,976		 60,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Undead Lockaway bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Strategies

This boss exhibits strength in numbers. If you're not careful, the sheer amount of enemies on the field can overwhelm you.

You first face off against the Lords themselves, who use pyromancies and melee attacks. They take a long time to actually start attacking you, so use this to your advantage to get in one or two hits on them. Use the mounds of skeletons as cover.

Each Skeleton Lord spawns a different type of smaller skeleton when killed:

The lives of these smaller skeletons count towards the boss health bar, so you have to eliminate every last skeleton to beat the boss.

Try killing one Lord at a time, and then kill the newly spawned skeletons. Otherwise you'll find yourself surrounded very fast.

Melee Strategy:

A greatsword/ultra greatsword is preferable for this fight because you can kill large numbers of skeletons in one swing. Strike weapons also work well due to their natural strength against skeletons.

Move around the perimeter of the area, using the mounds of skeletons as cover, and finish off the enemies one by one.

Try using Alluring Skulls to group enemies together if you use a large melee weapon.

It is best to take the mage out last as Bonewheel Skeletons are very difficult to deal with in the midst of a horde.

Sorcery:
Equip Yearn and use the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring to extend the time Yearn is active.

Use the bone pillars as cover. Then, once you've got some space, attack the Lords with your spells or heal as needed.

Once the smaller skeletons spawn quickly switch to Yearn and cast it somewhere across the room. The skeletons will ignore you while it's active. This will give you time to finish them off one by one. If you are slow to cast it you might have to dodge one or two Bonewheel Skeletons before they are distracted.

You probably won't be able finish them all before the spell wears off. Yearn makes a noise while it's active. Once you hear it stop, quickly cast it again.

If you have trouble with the NG+ skeleton wheels, use the hex Darkstorm. Simply use it as soon as they start to appear or charge you, and they will be one-shot without a chance of hitting you.

Miracle:
Equip Heavenly Thunder and stand in water to draw the skeletons around you, the area of effect of each pillar will mostly kill one or more skeleton each strikes.

Use the default mace or a lightning infused mace to deal with the bonewheel skeleton as they spawn as they are quick and will deal a huge amount of damage if not blocked or dodged.

The Mace is great to backstab the skeleton lords themselves dealing a huge chunk of their health if not killing them outright. Don't try to crowd control with the mace as it's reach is ridiculous.

Notes

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Smelter Demon (Iron King DLC)

Description

Smelter Demon is a boss of the Crown of the Old Iron King DLC and resides in the Iron Passage.

Location

Iron Passage
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 9,260 75,000
2 (NG+) 12,964 150,000
8 (NG+7) 27,780 300,000

Drops

NPC Summons

Resistance

Stages

Attack Patterns

Has all of the attack patterns of the Smelter Demon in Iron Keep, though this one deals Magic damage instead of Fire.

When the Demon kindles the first time, it will explode. This Demon does have increased defenses during the kindle animations like the original does.

Additionally, some of the Demon's sword combos are slightly slower or have long delays compared to the original, which can catch you off guard. Its sword range is also longer.

Attack Damage Damage Type Parryable?* Speed Tracking (left/right)
Sword thrust Medium Melee/Magic No Fast
Horizontal swing (left to right) Medium Melee/Magic No Fast
Backhand swing (right to left) Medium Melee/Magic No Fast
Overhead smash High Melee/Magic No Medium
Plunging sword impale High Melee/Magic - Medium
AOE Magic burst High Magic - Slow None

Strategies

Healing should only be done immediately after the Demon finishes attacking or else its next attack will be a fast thrust while you're immobile.

For additional defenses, have the Spell Quartz Ring +3 equipped, which you should have gotten in Brume Tower on the way here.

When infused with Magic, both the Magic Shield and the Rampart Golem Shield offer 100% magic damage protection, which can help greatly in this fight, since once the demon's sword is buffed, it seems most of its damage is magic rather than physical. These shields are good options if your character does not have the STR requirement for the bigger shields. The Magic Shield has low stability, so it is best to use it to block the occasional hit when you think dodging is risky, specifically when the boss is about to do his backhand slash, which has two alternate timings - it could either have a long delay, or be almost instantly. After this attack, the next attack is usually a jump smash, or just a vertical smash, both of which are easy to dodge.

Melee

It is probably best to fight the Smelter Demon alone if you plan on using melee attacks. The NPC summons don't do enough damage or survive long enough to justify increasing the demon's defenses. A good player summon could be helpful, but if they die early you're just setting yourself up for a longer fight requiring perfect timing throughout.

All attacks can be evaded by hugging the demon's left hip (your right), circling right, and rolling past the demon on the right when it attacks. Roll away from the jump attack, either rolling far enough to avoid the AOE blast, or timing your roll to go through the blast.

Smelter Demon will harshly punish you if you get greedy with attacks. With a slow weapon you can only get one attack in most cycles. Even with a fast weapon it is important to save enough stamina to be able to dodge up to three times. You may have the best luck staying slightly outside your melee range and baiting it to do the single thrust or the upward sweep to jump attack, as these are easier to dodge and punish.

If you aren't good at rolling, using Havel's Greatshield infused with magic will nullify most of his damage. Combined with some Elizabeth's Mushrooms for chip damage and the damage over time from being near Smelter Demon, you should be able to stay at full health with no problems. Use his plunging attack into AOE burst as an opportunity to heal or use a mushroom.

Ranged

In NG, this version of Smelter can be very effectively fought with bow and arrows, so long as you summon both Steel-willed Lorrie and Drifter Swordsman Aidel. You will need:

From the bonfire, go through the long route with both summons methodically, taking out every enemy. Do your best to keep your summons' health bars as full as possible. Once you reach the boss fog, heal both summons to full health. This is very important; they are cannon-fodder for this fight and the longer that they stay alive, the easier the fight is.

When you enter, fire a Poison Arrow or two and be prepared to dodge Smelter's opening attack. Once the summons get through the fog gate, they should hold the boss's attention. Start firing away with your arrows - never stop firing arrows. Use Poison Arrows until you see the telltale 15 points of damage that let you know Smelter has been poisoned. Switch to regular arrows until the poison ends, then poison the Demon again. Repeat this until the boss is dead.

Always stay on the far side of the arena and never stop firing. More than likely Aidel will not survive, but Lorrie should hold out until the end. As long as one of the summons is alive, Smelter will likely not pay any attention to you. Just be sure to dodge any magic projectiles that inadvertently come in your direction and you should be good. It's quite easy to win the fight without taking any damage this way.

In NG+ with a +7 longbow and Iron Arrows, when not poisoning, this strategy is also viable. Summons may both die, very close towards the end, so be prepared to switch to melee.

Video: Smelter Demon - Poison Arrows + Dark Orb

Notes

Smelter Demon

Lore

Soul of the Smelter Demon, that haunts
the castle that sunk into a pool of iron…

The Old Iron King's life was taken by a mass of
iron that had been given a soul.
Was this metal goliath here from the beginning,
or as it a product of the king's conceit?

— Description of the Smelter Demon Soul

The earth spouted fire, and a beast arose from
the flames. The short-sighted king was incinerated
by the creature in one swing, and his castle
devoured in a sea of flames.

— Description of the Smelter Sword

Location

Iron Keep:
In a relatively small circular room, after lowering the chain bridge in the large open furnace area.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,970 32,000
2 (NG+) 8,358 64,000
8 (NG+7) 15,881 128,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Threshold Bridge bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Sword Thrust

Horizontal Swing (Left to Right)

Backhand Swing (Right to Left)

Overhead Smash

Plunging Sword Impale

AoE Fire Burst

Strategies

The Fight:
This battle starts as a fairly straight forward melee fight. He is able to combo nearly all of his attacks, but with some rules:

After a short period of time, or after the demon takes about 1/4 damage, he will charge up and light his abdomen on fire. During his charge up animation, he takes less damage. This doesn't change his attack pattern, but it does increase the speed of his swings and his damage output. Starting in this stage, being in close proximity (melee range) will deal Fire damage to your character.

Once he loses about 1/3 of his health bar, he will do another charge up and plunge his sword through his abdomen. Again, he takes reduced damage during this animation. With fast enough damage output, it is possible to skip directly from Stage 1 to Stage 3 of this encounter.

While his attack patterns don't change during this stage, all attacks begin to deal significant Fire damage. In addition, his thrust and overhead smash attacks will also gain a fire projectile that travels in a straight line from the tip of his sword and that will most likely one shot you. Be careful for the AOE attack: it gets delayed in this stage.

Strategies:
When his core begins flaming, he will do Fire damage to you if you stay close. If you have Flash Sweat and a Pyromancy Flame, this is a good time to use them.

If you do not currently have these items/spells, there is a Pharros Contraption before the fight on the building where you find the Dull Ember. It releases water which you can walk in to. While "damp" you can see your foot steps and you will take significantly reduced Fire damage. Some vases around the Keep also contain water. Equip the Flame Quartz Ring if you have it. Heal when necessary, two Lifegems should be enough to counteract the damage he does by being close to you.

The Gyrm Greatshield will allow you to avoid damage from all of his hits that you block throughout the fight with its 100% physical and fire resistance. Recommended for tank builds.

Melee:
Stay locked on and close to him throughout the battle, only leaving his proximity when he does his AOE attack where he slams into the ground with his sword and creates a delayed explosive blast, or when you have to heal. Roll out of the way when he uses any of his other attacks.

Sorcery Strategy:
Stay close to him in the first phase and try to dodge his attacks: you have room for error in this stage, as he shouldn't kill you in one strike, so learn his patterns since they will remain unchanged for the rest of the fight. When he enters phase 2, just stop hugging him, but stay close to him. You can bait his overhead slash by staying in front of him: just dodge left/right and use your spell of choice.

When he does the jump attack, avoid it and run away from him, and you'll have the chance to cast many spells. If he goes for the AOE you can cast another two or three times.

Notes

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The Duke's Dear Freja

Lore

The Writhing Ruin is an ancient thing whose
shadow remains cast over the land. Tseldora
is a place burdened by terrible misdeeds,
and those who remained there were
transformed beyond recognition.

— Description of the Soul of the Duke's Dear Freja

Supposedly, the duke himself, an eccentric soul
fascinated with spiders, went on to take a form
that was far from human.

— Description of the Spider Fang

Location

Brightstone Cove Tseldora:
At the end of Brightstone Cove.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 4,220 42,000
2 (NG+) 6,752 84,000
8 (NG+7) 12,829 168,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Lower Brightstone Cove bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Beam Attack:
Mid-long range, high damage beam attack. Easy to evade if you circle Freja counterclockwise. Cannot be blocked.
Web Spit:
Shoots forth 3-4 projectiles that will make you walk very slowly if you're hit.

Acid Lunge:
Shoots forth a gush of acid, this will degrade armor durability severely.

Acid Spit:
Stomps lightly around and spits acid from both heads.

Mandible Crush:
If you're close to one of the heads, she will lunge forward a small distance and snap her jaws shut. This attack does fairly high damage, but can be rolled right through.

Forward Stomp:
If you're at a semi-close distance she will stomp her front legs four times.

Berserk Stomp:
If you're very close and under her sides she will stomp with all her legs a few times. She will also periodically spit acid for the duration of this.

Full Body Lunge/Swing:
Freja will plant all her legs into the ground, raise her body and will swing at you. Her legs will not move after having planted them and begun preparing this attack.

Jump Attack:
Occasionally, she will jump in the air and put some distance between you and her. Be careful as this does a lot of damage and can kill you but it is also easily blocked or rolled out of.

Body Slam:
A rare attack where Freja will leap into the air and slam her body into the ground. She is stunned for a while after this.

Strategies

Notes

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The Last Giant

Lore

Soul of the surviving giant, who was bound
below the Forest of the Giants.

The lord of the Giants, who had brought wrack
and ruin to the entire kingdom, was said to have
been felled by an unknown warrior.
His beaten and broken remains were then dragged
beneath the stronghold, where he was sealed away.

— Description of the Soul of the Last Giant

Drangleic's been a pile o' rubble since the war fought long, long ago.
When the Giants crossed the sea.

Seemed like the battles would never end.

— Merchant Hag Melentia Dialogue

Location

Forest of Fallen Giants:
At the Cardinal Tower bonfire, climb down the ladder and head left through the formerly locked door, take the elevator down and walk on through the fog wall.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 2,530 10,000
2 (NG+) 5,313 20,000
8 (NG+7) 10,095 40,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Cardinal Tower bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Left Foot Stomp:
A stomp from above with his left foot. Unparryable and not blockable.

Right Foot Stomp:
A stomp from above with his right foot. Unparryable and not blockable.

Alternating Foot Stomp:
Multiple stomps switching from left to right. Unparryable and not blockable.

Arm Swipe:
Swipes across the room with his arm. Unparryable and blockable.

Forward Fall:
Falls towards the player, whilst facing forwards. Unparryable and not blockable.

Desperate Arm Swipe:
Once below 50% health, he will rip his left hand off and use it as a club whilst swiping. This gives it greater range. Unparryable and blockable.

Strategies

Dodging and Blocking:
Watch out for his stomps. Sometimes he does it only once, but he can do three stomps in rapid succession, alternating the leg that he uses. These can one shot you if you have low Vitality or are at 50% HP due to hollowing.

Melee:
The sweet spot is behind the left leg. Wait for him to stomp and dodge towards the right leg; it is safely out of range of the left leg stomp. After, return to the left leg quickly and land a couple hits. Be wary of his arm attacks. Sometimes if you're on the outside of either of his legs, he'll swing his arm and send you flying. If you see him about to try this attack, dodge inwards, aiming towards his opposite side.

The trick is dodging or maneuvering around his leg stomps. Generally, when he lifts his leg, moving across to his other side is safe. If you stay under him, you should be able to avoid his falling attack rather easily. If you stand behind him and attack his left leg, he will do almost nothing except stomp with his left leg and backstep. This allows you to do large amounts of damage in relative safety.

Ranged:
He is slow enough that you can target his chest and simply backpedal around the room to kite him. Doing this you will mostly only have to deal with his sweeping arm attack and can get off one to three bow attacks, consumable throws, or spell casts per swing.

Firebombs:
Stockpile thirty or so Firebombs. This gives you an excellent ranged advantage. Stay away from him and aim for his chest. Keep chucking the bombs at him until he dies.

Notes

Videos

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The Lost Sinner

Lore

Soul of the Lost Sinner,
prisoner of Sinner's Rise.

The Lost Sinner eternally punishes herself
for the sins of her past.

— Description of the Soul of the Lost Sinner

Location

Sinner's Rise:
At the end of the path inside a large building.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,560 45,000
2 (NG+) 6,408 90,000
8 (NG+7) 13,338 180,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: The Saltfort bonfire.

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Jump Slash:
Jumps and downward swings.

Thrust:
A simple thrust attack.

Combo:
Two hit combos of sword attacks.

Parry:
She can parry and riposte the player, rarely happens.

Strategies

If you have the Bastille Key from Belfry Luna, you can open the two doors just outside the boss arena. Use a torch to light the oil in both rooms to create enough light to allow locking on the Sinner even when she jumps away. Doing this is recommended for archers and mages, as the lock-on range is very short when the room is dark.

In New Game plus, two Prisoned Sinner pyromancers will enter the battle when the Lost Sinner reaches 60% health. In regular DS2 (not SotFS) they do not spawn in New Game if a Bonfire Ascetic is used.

Video: The Lost Sinner & Prisoned Sinners - NG bonfire intensity 2

Melee Strategy:
It is recommend to use a shield with high physical resistance. If you prefer dodging her attacks, circle her clockwise.

With a shield in hand or good rolling skills, there's not much to this battle. Be careful not to overuse your stamina so you always have enough left to roll or block.

Lucatiel Strategy:
Lucatiel can deal significant amount of damage to the boss while you draw the aggro with the Redeye Ring. With a Tower Shield equipped the Sinner can't deal damage to you if you manage stamina well. Counterattack only when the Sinner finishes a combo attack.

You have to attack from time to time even with Redeye Ring equipped, as Lucatiel can still get some aggro. Try to be near to the boss as much as possible. You will not have much time to run for a hit. Do not rush and be patient, Lucatiel can kill the Lost Sinner alone as long as you keep aggro.

If you do not have a Tower Shield or enough Strength to wield it, you can use any normal shield as long as it has high damage protection. Tower Shield is preferable due to the Greatshield's stability.

Notes

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The Pursuer

Lore

Soul of the Pursuer,
who lurks in Drangleic.

The Pursuer, who seeks the bearer of the sign,
will not rest until his target is slain.

— Description of the Soul of the Pursuer

The Pursuer hunts down those branded by
the curse, as if each Undead soul that he
claims will atone one of his sins.

— Description of the Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword/Greatshield

Location

Forest of Fallen Giants:
There are two places you can fight the Pursuer here:

  1. Behind a locked door you need to open with the Soldier Key near the end of the Forest of Fallen Giants.
  2. From the second bonfire, continue til you reach the raised stone arena. This is a one-time encounter and he will not re-appear if you are defeated or leave the arena. Killing him here gives all the normal drops and the main boss fight will not occur.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 3,110 17,000
2 (NG+) 6,220 34,000
8 (NG+7) 11,500 68,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Cardinal Tower bonfire.

Things Betwixt:
Unblock the final tree on the left as you attempt to exit Things Betwixt by unpetrifying the hollow. Continue through and kill the two Ogres by the shore. The Pursuer will spawn after the second Ogre is dead. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? 6,000
2 (NG+) ??? ???
8 (NG+7) ??? ???

The Lost Bastille:
The Pursuer appears in four places here:

  1. In the courtyard by the Exile Holding Cell bonfire
  2. From the Tower Apart bonfire, in the room with the chest containing the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring
  3. From the Servant Quarters bonfire, go up and through the illusionary walls to the ramparts overlooking the sea.
  4. From the Servant Quarters bonfire, go down into the room below.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) ??? 6,000
2 (NG+) ??? ???
8 (NG+7) ??? ???
Iron Keep:
Smelter Demon boss arena. When you return here after resting at a bonfire, he will appear. This fight can be repeated until he has been beaten. If you leave the circular area, he will disappear and you will have to go back to the bonfire to reset him. This fight can only been done solo, if phantoms are spawned there will be a boss fog to get into the room and phantoms will be returned home if host enters.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 5,600 3,000
2 (NG+) ??? 6,000
8 (NG+7) ??? 12,000
Drangleic Castle:
In the throne room at Bonfire Intensity 2 and above. Two Pursuers will spawn as you enter. If you leave the throne room, they will disappear and you will have to go back to the bonfire to reset them.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) - -
2 (NG+) 6,958 12,000
8 (NG+7) ??? ???

Summons

Drops

Forest of Fallen Giants:

Things Betwixt:

The Lost Bastille:

Iron Keep:

Drangleic Castle:

Moveset

Dash:
Dashes towards the player with his sword forward, dealing medium damage. Parryable and blockable.

Swing:
Swings his sword towards the player. Parryable and blockable.

Impale:
Impales the player on his sword, dealing Curse. Not parryable or blockable.

Triple Swing:
Does a mix of a swing, shield bash, spin swing, slam and jumping plunge. Order differs. Parryable and blockable.

Magical Bolt:
Fires a magical bolt towards the player from his sword. Spell-parryable and blockable with high Magic Defense.

Dark Orbs:
Fires two waves of dark orbs, causing Curse. Not parryable, but is blockable with high Dark Defense.

Strategies

Dodging and Blocking:
Some general tips:

  1. His rush attack is by far the easiest to avoid and all you really have to do is move towards him and to the right.
  2. His horizontal swing is trickier, but rolling towards him works.
  3. For his triple combo, you can either roll three times for each swing or stay back for the first two swings and then try rolling behind him for his final swing.
  4. When you see his sword start to glow blue, you should either circle or roll towards his shield hand. This attack inflicts Curse and lets the boss use a Dark magic attack.

Forest of Fallen Giants

Ballista Strategy:
There are two ballistae in the Forest of Fallen Giants arena. The ballista fires three projectiles each dealing around ~200 damage with a maximum damage output of ~900. This can be done rather easily solo or with a phantom. To do it solo, bait him over to the fog door. Once he is there, sprint towards the ballista and you should have time to fire it at him taking off a large chunk of his health. When used in co-op, have one player draw his attention and keep him in front of the ballista and have another fire it. Be warned that players can harm each other with them.

To do this solo, the easiest way is to position yourself in front of one of the ballistae and wait for him to do a dashing attack. The parrying time for this attack is quite easy and he will be stunned for ~5 seconds. This will allow you to shoot him if you hurry.

Parrying Ballista Strategy:
There's an easy method to kill this boss in two shots:

  1. Get a shield, preferably the Buckler or the Small Leather Shield as they have larger parry windows.
  2. As soon as you enter his fog gate, run by wheel of the wagon on the left of the arena.
  3. He will always start with a dash toward you, so hit the parry button when he's about a meter away from you.
  4. If the parry is successful he will be stunned for about 5 seconds, so go shoot the ballista for 90% of his HP.
  5. Finish him with a Firebomb or just hit him once or twice.

If you mess up and the ballista misses him due to your poor positioning, remain calm and don't stand near the ballistae as he'll break them. Go around and bait him to dash somehere in front of them again.

Iron Keep

Melee:
Once the fight starts, stay locked on and keep circling until he goes for the rush attack or curse stab. Dodge them and hit him once or twice, then back off and continue circling. Repeat this until he's defeated.

Faith/Magic:
Start by locking on and circling until the metal staircase leading to the second bonfire is behind you. Go through the archway and bait out his dashing attack until he enters the archway. Lure him up to the top floor, then position yourself so that his dash takes him back down the steps, then move to the stairs, where you'll have time for one or two casts of a miracle/sorcery, and move back into position afterwards. Rinse and repeat.

Drangleic Castle

Bringing phantoms evens the odds quite well. In Scholar of the First Sin, small white sign NPC phantoms Bashful Ray and Pilgrim Bellclaire are available even if you've defeated Nashandra/Aldia. The NPC phantoms at the Throne of Want boss fog will leash back to the fog if you attempt to bring them backwards down the path, making them unusable for the Twin Pursuers.

If you just want the Ring of Blades +2 and the titanite drops rather than the masochistic thrill of fighting two Pursuers at once, then there is a way to get them one by one. When the Pursuer uses the impaling curse attack, just let him hit you. The second Pursuer will leave, turning the fight into one on one(This is no longer effective)

You can make one of the pursuer to leave without getting cursed by leaving the room when one of the pursuer is attacking (while the other one doing nothing) and then enter the room again. The reason for this is because if The Pursuer is doing an attacking animation it will not trigger his "leaving" animation. Best time to do this is when one of the pursuer is doing an attack with long animation like the curse stab, the shield combo, or the charge (with shield raised).

After beating the first Pursuer, if you come back to the throne room again, the second will spawn in and fight you one on one, so you won't lose out on any drops.

Notes

Comments

Show comments Hide comments Show Comments Hide All Comments Unfold All Fold All Fold Extra move for Pursuer Steven Nelson 17 Apr 2017 14:23

He also does a turtle stab attack from behind his shield, up to three times and he does another combo (cant describe it as its rare but it involves flipping over finishing on a plunge attack when the combo results in him being roughly above the player) If the player flees to the other side of the arena, Pursuer will chase the player down and has done this combo. YouTube will probably give a better idea.

Reply Options Unfold Extra move for Pursuer by Steven Nelson, 17 Apr 2017 14:23 Fold Grab atack Myroslav Ilienko 27 Feb 2023 05:06

Fought him countless times, and all this times when he did dark atacks he is not nesseserly impaled me. Maybe it connected to doing that atack, but not landing it for sure

Reply Options Unfold Grab atack by Myroslav Ilienko, 27 Feb 2023 05:06 Add a New Comment Permanent Link Edit Delete

The Rotten

Lore

Soul of the Rotten,
who writhes deep within the Gutter.

The Rotten embraces all, in his sanctuary for
all things unwanted or tossed away.

— Description of the Soul of the Rotten

Location

Black Gulch:
At the end of the Black Gulch.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 7,080 47,000
2 (NG+) 10,620 94,000
8 (NG+7) 20,178 188,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Hidden Chamber bonfire

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Light Vertical Cleaver:
One of his faster moves, he raises his left arm quickly in the air then smashes it down in a short range towards the player. This move can either be a single action or be chained into 3 quick consecutive strikes. Will only do this if the player is in range. The horizontal tracking of each swipe isn't that great, but because there are a series of attacks in quick succession it ends up tracking pretty well.

Hard Vertical Cleaver:
A move almost solely reserved for players at range, he raises his cleaver in the air, smashing it down in a long range attack towards the player. This move is rather deceiving in nature as it has a tendency to move forward after the strike makes contact with the ground. Is capable of hitting players up to 1/3rd of the room away but it cannot be chained. Tracks extremely well, the boss will practically turn 180° to face a target.

Horizontal Cleaver:
Moving his cleaver to his side, he sweeps 170° in front of him. It cannot be chained. Not much tracking, just a huge amount of coverage.

Fist Smash:
Similar to the Light Vertical Cleaver attack, he raises his balled fist in the air and smashes it towards the player. This move has quicker start up than any cleaver attack and will send the player flying away. It cannot be chained. Does not track horizontally very well.

Fist Grab:
Moving his open hand to his left side he attempts a sweeping grab motion 150° in front of him. If it connects with the player, he will grab and wring them over his mouth dealing massive damage (iIf your vigor is low, you will be killed outright). Poor timing while dodging left can result in the grab to connect after the dodge motion is finished. It cannot be chained nor does it track horizontally very well.

Dual Side Smash:
Slams the ground directly to his sides with first the left hand, then the right, regardless of which side you're currently on. Because it has no tracking and a long animation, it is very easy to dodge and punish with multiple hits.

Has Occurred Before Half Health
Oil Vomit:
If this attack hits you it will douse you in oil. If you then step into the fire periodically throughout the boss arena, you will combust violently and will be knocked onto your feet and take a large amount of damage. It is easy to avoid and even easier to avoid the effects though so this attack should not be too much of a danger.

Only Occurs After Half Health

Dark Energy Explosion:
Slouching into himself, he creates a ball of dark energy from his core and after a second releases a blast in every direction. Blast radius is about two back rolls, and will cause unshielded affected players with a guard broken-esk stunned effect. It cannot be chained.

Dark Energy Cleaver Wave:
Pulling his cleaver to his side, he infuses it with dark energies and thrusts it at the player. Similar to the Hard Vertical Cleaver attack, he almost solely reserves this move for players at range. The wave releases from the end of the cleaver 45° towards the player. It cannot be chained.

Strategies

While his motions are extremely telegraphed, his damage is extremely punishing.

Melee Strategy:

His attacks are slow and have a long cool down, so the player will have plenty of time to recover, though the player must be aware to avoid the Fist Grab attack. His ranged attacks are his slowest by far, so backing far away is a fine option if the player is in need of healing.

By far the best melee strategy for this boss is moving in a straight line forwards and backwards rather than circling around him. Keep your shield up, provoke an attack by moving towards him, and step backwards out of range, rushing forwards to strike at his cleaver arm at the end of his attack. After dealing the arm enough damage, it will be cut off. The Rotten will still attempt to attack with his missing limb, completely ineffectively, leaving him open to attacks. The limb will regrow shortly afterwards, however.

Ranged Strategy:

Stay close enough to The Rotten where you can roll away from his attacks then fire off your spells or arrows. Make sure to pay attention to where the burning ponds are, because they will kill you as often as the boss will, if you're not careful enough.

Alternatively, try keeping your distance. He is resistant to Dark magic, but sorceries do decent damage. At medium or long range, he will mostly try to do the heavy overhand cleaver to come after you, but if you're far enough away, he won't even come close to hitting you The only thing you really have to watch for is the dark energy cleaver attack, which has an extremely obvious tell, and you can run towards him to get behind. Mostly you just need to watch our for the pools of fire, and that he doesn't corner you.

Pyromancy will work wonders on him as well, but requires getting in closer, which puts you more at risk. You'll be spending a lot more time and stamina dodging attacks than you would be further away.

Notes

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Throne Defender and Throne Watcher

Lore

Soul of the Throne Defender.

The throne of the King is sacred,
and requires an appropriate guardian.

— Description of the Throne Defender Soul

The Defender has stood by the throne for ages.
Will his wait be worth the while?

— Description of the Throne Defender Set

Soul of the Throne Watcher.

The throne of the King is sacred,
and must be observed closely at all times.

— Description of the Throne Watcher Soul

The Watcher waited by the throne for ages.
Will all his waiting ever be rewarded?

— Description of the Throne Watcher Set

Location

Throne of Want:
To access the Throne of Want, you need the King's Ring.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) Defender: 3,910
Watcher: 2,760		 68,000
2 (NG+) Defender: 4,692
Watcher: 3,312		 136,000
8 (NG+7) Defender: 8,915
Watcher: 6,293		 272,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: King's Gate bonfire.

Resistance:
Throne Defender has 30% Magic Defense. Throne Watcher has 50% Magic Defense.

Summons

Note: A maximum of 3 summons can be used at once.

Drops

Moveset

Strategies

One will bring the other back from death to full health if you take too long to kill the other, though it takes around 15-20 seconds before they go heal their companion. Make sure to deal enough damage to both before focusing on one of the bosses.

At half health, the Throne Defender will imbue his sword with Lightning and the Throne Watcher will imbue her sword with Magic.

No Shield Melee Strategy:

This is really a suicide strategy in a sense. Two handing your strongest weapon and wielding heavy armor, you unleash fury on both bosses. Try to aggravate them into attack, dodge the attacks with rolls and when they've stopped, unleash two hits on either just one or both if they're in close proximity to each other. When your health is low, run away from them and heal.

Aggravating one enemy, then leading the other one away is also a good strategy, but is difficult to accomplish.

Video: Throne Watcher & Throne Defender Boss Fight - Melee No Shield

Shield Melee Strategy:
Using an upgraded greatshield will make this battle fairly easy. You can just walk with your shield up, wait for one of them to hit your shield and as soon as their attack animations are done, you can get one or two hits on them. It's recommend to bring both to low health (20-30%) before killing one of them. If you kill one and take too long to kill the other one, the dead one will be revived by his companion. Therefore bring both to low health, kill one and then kill the other one.

No Shield Ranged/Melee Strategy:

This strategy works well with a short ranged melee weapon (fists, daggers) and a strong bow and poison arrows, you can get both of their health down to under half with two poison rounds on a primary target. Poison one, then switch focus to the other and poison. Switch focus again and do a second round of poison on the primary target, which may bring that target to it's knees but don't lose focus on the secondary. The secondary will panic and run around trying to heal the primary. Keep its focus on you and not the fallen partner. Switch to melee and take out the secondary.

Pyromancy Quick-kill Strategy:

Assuming you upgraded your Pyromancy Flame to +10, all you need is Chaos Storm and Iron Flesh attuned. When you enter the fight, stay where you enter and cast Iron Flesh. By time the spell casts, both bosses should be within range. Simply switch and cast Chaos Storm as much as possible, then rapidly chug your Estus Flask to offset their damage. If you are lucky, you should down at least one of them; simply switch to another Pyromancy to quickly finish the other off, or tank and exchange blows until it falls.

If you do not have Chaos Storm, you can substitute it for Fire Tempest.

This strategy is great for level-one runs, especially if you couple it with a Brightbug to further offset their attack damage and boost your own.

Notes

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Velstadt, the Royal Aegis

Lore

Soul of the Velstadt,
defender of the King inside the Undead Crypt.

Velstadt was always at the King's side,
as if he were his lord's own shadow.
After the King retired to the Undead Crypt,
Velstadt followed, never to return.

— Description of the Soul of Velstadt

[…] worn by the Royal Aegis.
Originally imbued with the power of miracles,
now soaked with dark after extended exposure
in the Undead Crypt.

A knight from a faraway land was lured to this
accursed land, but forgot even why he came,
eventually reduced to a shadow of his former self.

— Description of Velstadt's Set

Sir Velstadt, known as the Royal Aegis,
gave himself to the King in both life and death.

— Description of the Sacred Chime Hammer

Location

Undead Crypt:
Loyally guarding King Vendrick.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 6,290 50,000
2 (NG+) 8,177 100,000
8 (NG+7) 15,537 200,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Undead Ditch bonfire.

Dragon's Rest:
Can be summoned by Elana, Squalid Queen as part of her boss fight.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 2,600 -
2 (NG+) 3,550 -
8 (NG+7) 7,600 -

Summons

Drops

Moveset

Overhead Vertical Smash:
Can be comboed into a side-swipe if blocked. He will do a horizontal sweep, two in succession. This is his most difficult attack to avoid.

Lunging Attack:
Don't try rolling backwards or you'll get hit. This attack has a very long reach.

Foot Stomp:
Can be comboed into an overhead swing.

Phase Transition:
At around 50% health, he will kneel and begin charging dark magic. This gives time for risk-free attacks on him. However, he takes less damage while charging.

Charging Spell:
Stands still and hoists his weapon into the air to cast. This will unleash a wide arc Dark magic attack that is easy to avoid by simply getting to the side or behind him. This is also an opening for some free hits. Don't use the pillars for cover, the spells will break them.

Strategies

Faith Strategy:

Velstadt is weak to Lightning, so a Faith build has an advantage here. Wait for him to initiate a swing of his weapon, then roll towards and behind him and throw your best Lightning Spear. He is somewhat slow at walking, so if you run away you should be able to create some distance and get a spell or two off before he approaches.

Melee Strategy:

Start off by locking onto the target right away. Get as close to him as you can and when he begins preparing his attack, roll towards him to the left side. This should dodge if not all, most of his attacks.
There is one attack in particular where he will swing twice. Rolling once will not suffice as he will most likely hit you with his second swing. Roll twice; both times towards his rear.
When he reaches around 50% health, he will begin channeling dark energy to strengthen his attacks and slightly speed up his movements. Use this opportunity to unleash attacks on him. He will be open for attack for about ten seconds.

If you use a shield, keep blocking while moving backwards. This way only the overhead smash will break your guard. His other attacks will hit you once but by backing away you'll avoid the rest.

Sorcery Strategy:

This boss battle should be a comfortable one for any sorcerer as the Aegis' attacks are slow and easily dodged.

In the first half of the fight Velstadt will only use his hammer attacks, which must be dodged by rolling diagonally forward, never backwards (it is convenient to not lock-on during dodging to keep the camera movement in check). After dodging, lock-on again and keep moving away from the boss while spell-casting.

Upon half health, Velstadt kneels down to either charge his Dark Hail magic or buff himself. Both are lengthy animations, but for the Dark Hail attack, it is recommended to circle around him before initiating an attack, as he tracks your direction for a small while before firing. Don't get greedy, as both his Dark Magic and buffed great-hammer are likely to greatly damage. Do NOT use the pillars to hide from the Dark Hail attack; they will not block it. After the charging animation, the boss becomes moderately resistant to damage in general, so keep your sorceries handy for the second half of the fight.

Keep to the dodging, spell-casting while moving away strategy and the Aegis should fall in no time.

Bow Strategy:

This assumes a +8-+10 Longbow and no shield.

Velstadt's attack patterns are incredibly easy to dodge when at range, simply kite him from one end of his room to the other, dodging backwards whenever he thrusts his mace or you feel he may hit you with one of his sweeps. You'll need around 30 Poison arrows to kill him, poisoning him around 4 times while damaging him with Iron Arrows. Fire an arrow at him whenever he is recovering from a non-combo attack, and be sure to keep him poisoned. It takes around 5 or so arrows to poison him, so it will take a few cycles of him attacking and you counter attacking to get him poisoned.

When he goes into his Dark mode, simply roll through or run around to his back during his Dark Hail attack and continue pelting him with arrows. He's not an especially hard boss for a Bow user, but summoning the NPC summon is recommended against as he will simply stand in front of the boss and die before Velstadt gets to his dark phase, leaving you with a very powerful boss to fight on your own.

This strategy may take a few minutes, but as long as you don't falter the boss should die without much effort.

Notes

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Vendrick

Lore

Soul of Vendrick, King of Drangleic

The King was wasted away, a shadow of
his former self, but still held something dear.

— Description of the Soul of the King

What makes a king?
Some say that it is birthright,
while others call it destiny.

Perhaps it is not important, as long as
the king's name serves to unite his people.

— Description of the King's Set

A true monarch is much more than a ruler of men.
A true monarch carries the weight of their souls.
The last king of this land, King Vendrick, as he was called…
He was less of a king than you might imagine.
He found the strength to rule his people, and when the Undead were born, cursed…
He found more strength, to face them.
But in the end, he never took the true throne.

— Nashandra Dialogue

Location

Undead Crypt:
After the Velstadt, the Royal Aegis boss fight.
Bonfire Intensity Health Souls
1 (NG) 11,450 90,000
2 (NG+) 14,885 180,000
8 (NG+7) 28,282 360,000

Bonfire Ascetic respawn: Undead Ditch bonfire.

Memory of the King
Can be spoken to here.
Activate Vendrick's pile of armor in Undead Crypt. Requires the Ashen Mist Heart and Crown of the Sunken King DLC.
If the player attacks him in this memory or tries to leave his room, the ashen mist will quickly fade and cause the player to return to the present.

Summons

This fight can only be fought solo.

Drops

None.

Moveset

Vertical Sword Smash:
Vendrick smashes vertically with his sword on the ground. Roll to the right to avoid.

Tracking Vertical Sword Smash:
Vendrick smashes vertically with his sword on the ground. This move has slight player-tracking abilities. Roll to the right to avoid just as the move comes down.

Sweeping Sword Slash:
Vendrick slashes horizontally from left to right. Vendrick can extend this move at will into a two-hit or three-hit combo. Roll to the right to avoid.

Dark Fireball:
Vendrick casts a fireball which causes Curse. Roll to the right to avoid.

Strategies

The King's defense is linked to the number of Souls of a Giant in your possession. If you have none, Vendricks' defenses are increased to 32 times the normal amount. This multiplier is halved for every Soul in possession, until his defenses are at normal levels when five Souls are possessed (32x/16x/8x/4x/2x/1x). It's recommended to have at least four of them before attempting to kill Vendrick.

Due to the incredible damage and range of his sword, the best way to nullify Vendrick moves is to stay really close to him, hugging his left leg and keeping him rotating leftwards. This will ensure that his vertical and horizontal swipes completely miss. Most players will not have enough health or defenses to survive more than two or even one hit from his melee attacks.

Melee Strategy:

Use the Red Tearstone Ring by getting your health under 30% before entering the fight. This gives you a 20% damage boost. As Vendrick's attacks deal so much damage, it doesn't really matter if you have 30% or 100% health.

Buff your weapon, wield it in two hands and use all the offensive rings and armor you have. Hug Vendrick's left leg during the fight to avoid his attacks.

If you're having trouble avoiding his attacks, you can roll through both of Vendrick's horizontal slashes, provided your equip weight is sufficiently low. Ideally you should start rolling just before the attack connects (in the middle of his swing).

Notes

Dialogue

All dialogue text is © From Software Inc.

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Voiced by: William Houston

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