Dark Souls II Boss Guide: Ancient Dragon

Here’s another example of an optional boss you’ll come across. This colossal beast is 100% friendly to you at first and even gives you a key item to finishing the game. What else is there to do besides try to murder him? Dark Souls, right?

On paper, this guy SHOULD be one of the easiest bosses. He’s slow, has huge tells, and only has about 3-4 moves. In practice, however, he's no pushover. He has a ridiculous HP pool, one-shots you on any connected attack, and doesn’t follow patterns.

In the video, you’ll see me stop right in front of him but a bit off to his side with the camera angle covering his wings. This is necessary if you want to defeat him. If his wings move, run like hell into any direction where there is room to run. If you survive, this will turn him around. His AoE is huge, so take off your clothes/armor and run like hell. If he does a neck attack, roll to the right rather than left or forward. If his head centers and he takes a deep breath in, punish him like hell. Slow and steady wins this fight, so don’t get greedy or change up your gameplay at any point. Best of luck.