Dark Souls 2: King Vendrick Boss Fight Strategy Guide

You're playing Dark Souls 2. You’ve made it past Drangleic Castle, trudged through the marshes of the Shrine of Amana, and finally arrived at the Undead Crypt to face off against King Vendrick, but no matter what you do, your attacks just don't seem to be doing any meaningful damage to him. That's because this boss battle is not all it seems and there are actually a number of other tasks that we recommend you complete before you engage him in battle.

Why is King Vendrick not taking damage?

If this is your first time meeting Vendrick, directly after the boss fight with Velstadt, the Royal Aegis, it is advisable not to attack him. The reason for this is that King Vendrick has a defence multiplier that is based on how many Souls of a Giant you have in your inventory. By this stage, you will either have zero or one (if you explored the secret area in The Black Gulch to earn the Forgotten Key).

Below is a table depicting Vendrick’s defence multiplier and the amount that it will lower with each Soul of a Giant you gain.

  Number of Giant Souls   Vendrick's Defence Multiplier     0 Souls of a Giant   32x defence     1 Soul of a Giant   16x defence     2 Souls of a Giant   8x defence     3 Souls of a Giant   4x defence     4 Souls of a Giant   2x defence     5 Souls of a Giant   1x defence (standard level)  
 
   

As you can see from the above table, fighting Vendrick at this point in the game is a much tougher challenge than fighting him after attaining the rest of the available Giant Souls, which are earned after completing Aldia’s Keep and the Dragon Shrine.

Soul of a Giant locations in Dark Souls 2

As mentioned above, the first Soul of a Giant in the game can be obtained from the secret area in the Black Gulch. For a guide on how to get there, watch the video below (which also shows you how to get Havel’s Armour):

After this, you will need to obtain the Ashen Mist Heart from the Ancient Dragon, allowing you to enter the Memories of the Ancients to obtain the remaining Giant Souls. We’ve published a full guide to the Memories of the Ancients to help you in this endeavour.

Walkthrough: how to defeat King Vendrick in Dark Souls 2

After you have completed the above tasks, you can return to Vendrick and fight him on much more even ground. He is a relatively simple boss to defeat: his primary weakness is that he cannot strike you if you stay directly behind him. In addition, he is rather slow and it shouldn’t use up too much of your stamina to remain defiantly behind him: simply strafe around and use a roll if necessary.

One attack to watch out for is Vendrick’s ranged attack, which will Curse you if it connects, afflicting you with the same health debuff you would suffer if you had died. This red orb projectile is unblockable, so don’t bother raising your shield to protect yourself from it, but rather roll out of the way to avoid its limited homing abilities.

King Vendrick’s sword swings can be slightly more troublesome, the horizontal slashes occasionally requiring as many as three rolls to evade. His jumping attack can be avoided by rolling towards and slightly to either side of Vendrick.

Vendrick’s attacks are simple enough to learn, though they can inflict extreme amounts of damage if they connect. Moreover, if Vendrick hits you with the first attack in a combo chain, the level of poise damage is high enough that you are more than likely to be trapped in the attack for the rest of the chain.

In short, try to remain behind him and take your opportunities to attack when Vendrick is recovering from an attack himself.

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