# The Pursuer

### Lore

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<table id="bkmrk-soul-of-the-pursuer%2C"><tr><td>*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

</td><td>*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

</td></tr></table>

### Location

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**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.

<table id="bkmrk-bonfire-intensity-he"><tr><th>Bonfire Intensity</th><th>Health</th><th>Souls</th></tr><tr><td>1 (NG)</td><td>3,110</td><td>17,000</td></tr><tr><td>2 (NG+)</td><td>6,220</td><td>34,000</td></tr><tr><td>8 (NG+7)</td><td>11,500</td><td>68,000</td></tr></table>

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.*  
<table id="bkmrk-bonfire-intensity-he-1"><tr><th>Bonfire Intensity</th><th>Health</th><th>Souls</th></tr><tr><td>1 (NG)</td><td>???</td><td>6,000</td></tr><tr><td>2 (NG+)</td><td>???</td><td>???</td></tr><tr><td>8 (NG+7)</td><td>???</td><td>???</td></tr></table>

**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.*  
<table id="bkmrk-bonfire-intensity-he-2"><tr><th>Bonfire Intensity</th><th>Health</th><th>Souls</th></tr><tr><td>1 (NG)</td><td>???</td><td>6,000</td></tr><tr><td>2 (NG+)</td><td>???</td><td>???</td></tr><tr><td>8 (NG+7)</td><td>???</td><td>???</td></tr></table>

**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.  
<table id="bkmrk-bonfire-intensity-he-3"><tr><th>Bonfire Intensity</th><th>Health</th><th>Souls</th></tr><tr><td>1 (NG)</td><td>5,600</td><td>3,000</td></tr><tr><td>2 (NG+)</td><td>???</td><td>6,000</td></tr><tr><td>8 (NG+7)</td><td>???</td><td>12,000</td></tr></table>

**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.  
<table id="bkmrk-bonfire-intensity-he-4"><tr><th>Bonfire Intensity</th><th>Health</th><th>Souls</th></tr><tr><td>1 (NG)</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>2 (NG+)</td><td>6,958</td><td>12,000</td></tr><tr><td>8 (NG+7)</td><td>???</td><td>???</td></tr></table>

### Summons

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- Ruined Aflis 
    - Found in the dark corridor between Cardinal Tower and Soldiers' Rest. *Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin only.*

### Drops

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**Forest of Fallen Giants:**

- Soul of the Pursuer
- Ring of Blades

**Things Betwixt:**

- Twinkling Titanite

**The Lost Bastille:**

- Twinkling Titanite

**Iron Keep:**

- Ring of Blades +1

**Drangleic Castle:**

- Ring of Blades +2 - From the left-hand side Pursuer. (Bonfire Intensity 2+)

### Moveset

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**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

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**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

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**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

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**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

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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

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- HP/Souls values are only for the Forest of Fallen Giants encounter.
- There are no boss fog walls in the optional encounters. Phantoms can be used, though they may need to be small white sign phantoms if the area boss is already defeated.
- However, the Pursuer at Iron Keep can only be fought solo; summoning help of any kind will spawn a fog wall that banishes any phantoms that are present upon crossing it.
- When you fight him as a summoned Phantom during his one-time encounter near Cardinal Tower bonfire, you will get a full drop of souls (17,000 on NG) instead of usual 25% that you would get in the main boss fight. You also won't be sent back to your world.
- Dying at the same time as one of the Pursuers on the Twin Pursuers fight will make you unable to get the item that time around.
- Wearing the Hollow Skin prevents hollowing from the curse stab.
- Even though the one time encounter and the actual boss fight in the Forest of Fallen Giants appear to yield identical drops, souls, and be otherwise interchangeable, the one time encounter Pursuer has slightly lower defenses than the actual boss fight.
- When fighting him in the Forest of Fallen Giants, he can backstep off of the ground. He will stay floating in the air, however.

### Comments

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Show comments Hide comments Show Comments <script id="bkmrk-wikidot.forumthreadi">
	WIKIDOT.forumThreadId = 1690911;
</script>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