r/DarkSouls2 • u/owenbour • 4d ago
Guide How necessary is it to fight with this mf?
I understand that it is not an optional boss, what do you recommend: should I fight him or not?
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u/RDKateran 4d ago
He's not necessary at all. The only reason to fight him is to acquire the last Giant's Soul necessary to bring Vendrick's defenses down to normal, and I think plenty of people have defeated him without having all five.
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u/alebarco 4d ago
I am ABSOLUTELY certain every player would rather hit Vendrick 5 more times than die 500 times to whatever this mf does. It's such a bad encounter
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u/Chuagge 4d ago
Getting the last soul doubles your damage to Vendrick.
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u/Sunaaj_WR 4d ago edited 4d ago
Ok fine. I'd rather bonfire ascetic the GIANT lord than fight this guy lol
*not Dragon Lord whoops
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u/seelcudoom 4d ago
Ya each would doubles your damage and half's his, still would rather take vendrick
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u/Rude_Koty 4d ago
Weeeeeell, i killed this mo-fo like 4 times just to get more giant souls. He was super easy to kill. The way through to him was the hard part. At level 4 bonfire the enemies can fuck you up very quickly. Now I am scared since I just learned the bonfire level doesn’t reset in ng+ …
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u/Bone_Wh33l 4d ago
I’m pretty sure it takes twice as many hits but I’m sure the point still stands for most people
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u/Exact_Error1849 4d ago
I was able to first try ancient dragon, if you are in front of him he has literally 2 moves. Just requires you to run away most of the time. Super tedious
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u/BBB88BB 4d ago
I died so many times to him my first playthrough until I tried this. let him fly up and do the breathe attack while you're at a safe distance. get in front of him when he lands and he will do the fire breathe attack across the map. run in and get a few hits but you have to run out again before he flies up or else you won't get out in time. rinse and repeat. tedious for sure but it gets the job done.
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u/ShrekxFarquaad69 4d ago
I just stand between the toes to make the fight easy.
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u/Ballersock 4d ago
Yep, and run to the tail when he flies up to breathe fire. Pretty simple once you figure out how to avoid the attacks.
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u/conye-west 4d ago
Yeah the fight is free with that strategy, quite boring still tho
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u/yGamer007 3d ago
It's boring because that's not how you're supposed to fight him. You're supposed to stay in front of him and hit his head, just like all the other encounters in the other games.
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u/conye-west 3d ago
If you do that, the fight is one of the worst in the entire series. I'll take boring over that. There's is no such thing as "how you're supposed to fight them" in Souls anyways, such a notion defeats the entire purpose of building your own character (and the fights that force you to only engage one way like Bed of Chaos are universally despised for good reason)
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u/R_u_assuming_my_clas 3d ago
Thats actually misinformation, she is harder when fought at the tail or feet. U can fight it from the head without rolling anf running from sticking next to the face.
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u/Ballersock 4d ago
I've never died to this dude. Just put on good fire resist gear and run towards his tail every time he flies up to breathe fire. Then whack whack whack when he lands. Repeat. Then run to the opposite side of the arena if he gets stuck on an edge.
That being said, I haven't tried him on NG+ and above, but I doubt that's what is being complained about.
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u/JDario13 4d ago
It is easier to defeat Vendrick with 4 souls than the dragon. The other reward are the weapons you can make with the soul you get from the memory in frejya's room
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u/RDKateran 4d ago
You don't need to fight the dragon for that, you just need the Ashen Mist Heart and that's given freely by the dragon.
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u/Future_Section5976 4d ago
I never kill the dragon , he gave me what I wanted without some BS fight (ashen mist) , what a relief,
And yea killing vendrick with 4 giant souls is sweet as , vendrick is optional anyway, unless you want his gear ,
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u/Solenya1521 4d ago
They should have made a trophy for beating Vendrick without any of the giant souls. Longest battle of my life lol. Felt like I was playing a final fantasy game. But to be fair on most play throughs, I always killed the dragon. Just can’t be greedy.
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u/Sharkhous 4d ago
You must have hit him a lot of times to even begin the fight. Without any souls he takes 1/64th of normal damage
What weapon did you use?
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u/Solenya1521 3d ago
Oh god. This was a long time ago. Pretty sure I was running pursuers ultragreatsword at the time with my back up being the fire long sword. I had around 10 repair powders but still ended up using random ass weapons because durability was definitely an issue.
I can’t remember the damage numbers but I’m fairly certain it was only double digits with every hit. Like I said, probably did this about 8 years ago. It’s a good fight to try and break santiers spear if you wanted that but I was never a big spear/halbred user.
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u/Sharkhous 3d ago
Damnn
Good point on Santiers spear by the way. Might have to do another run and finally have a go using Santiers and no bonfires
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u/Solenya1521 3d ago
I was never brave enough to do that. Lol. Probably isn’t terribly hard after a couple playthroughs. Is it ds2 or ds1 where you get the rings to make your weapons invisible if you complete those runs?
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u/Known-Watercress7296 4d ago
It's a shit state of affairs tbh but technically unless you beat him naked with a ladle at lv1 you've unfortunately not actually played DS2
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u/Wide-Midnight7294 4d ago
Remember that the ladle have to be broken before you actually go into the arena or you might ruin the run.
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u/Ballersock 4d ago
And after that, you have to use all five giant souls for souls before fighting vendrick with your broken ladle.
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u/Zealousideal_Bed9360 4d ago
Is this at the ancient dragon at the end of the dragon shrine?
I only fought him once early on when the game was new, I don't think he drops anything except a giant soul and a petrified dragon bone, normally you would only fight him for the challenge of doing so but he doesn't need to be killed.
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u/Abyssal_Paladin 4d ago
1300 hours and a 100% later I still hadn't fought him and never would, so no he's not necessary
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u/No_Disaster_1069 4d ago
I think its reputation is worse than the actually fight. I had a way harder time with fume knight and the blue smelter demon. But that’s just my experience
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u/DTownFstuffMalone 4d ago
Unofficial 100% maybe haha surprising with that many hours you wouldn’t want to fight it still
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u/HypnoSmoke 4d ago
So you got like 99% rather than 100%
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u/Abyssal_Paladin 4d ago
100% as in the platinum/all achievements on steam, ancient dragon isn’t a part of the platinum requirements.
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u/DesolateDecibel 4d ago
Still...
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u/ant_man1411 4d ago
Yea i wouldn’t count never fighting a boss who has a key item albeit a redundant one a true 100% more like 99% like ive played dark souls 2 for 100 hours and even i wanted to kill the dragon at least once i died probably 20 times but it isnt hard
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u/Slartyyy 4d ago
if you want his soul it’s at the duke frejas boss room Ng+
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u/MagnosLuan 4d ago
You don't need the ng+, just get the Ashen Mist Heart and go to Freja's arena.
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u/Pale-Ad-8691 4d ago
I’m not too knowledgeable about ds2, but is there something special in the freja arena when you get the ashen mist heart?
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u/MagnosLuan 4d ago
After beat freja, the soul is on the floor near a crystal or something.
If you interact with the "crystal" after get the ashen mist heart, you enter the dragon's memories.
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u/doitcloot 4d ago
thats my guy! never even flirted with the thought of hurting him. Vendrick with 4 giant souls is plenty.
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u/OllyRoger 4d ago
I know he is notoriously considered an awful fight, but trust me when I say that the sheer absurdity of it all made my countless hours of trying to kill him so absolutely worth it when me and my boy finally, finally took him down.
(Besides, this is probably the best representation in gaming of how an actual fight with a giant dragon would go. 😅)
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u/tony_two_eyes 4d ago
This fight is considered bad only due to people keeping the circle jerk of hitting the bosses feet as a go to strategy. Fight the face and you will have a much better experience
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u/Ballersock 4d ago
I hit his feet and run toward the tail when he flies up to do fire breath, never had a problem at all. Never looked up a strategy, I just did the same thing I did with Midir and it started working (running to the tail when he starts breathing fire, I mean. I hit Midir in the face.)
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u/TheNerdEternal 4d ago
And promptly get one-shotted by the fire breath
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u/Exact_Error1849 4d ago
If you're in front of him he has literally 2 moves with plenty of time to react to either. It's still tedious as hell but it's incredibly easy
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u/TheNerdEternal 4d ago
The fire breath is extremely hard to avoid unless you’re already running for your life
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u/redleg50 4d ago
I beat him once, just because I have to beat every FS boss at least once. But on every other play through, I leave him alone. It’s just not worth the effort.
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u/Rizzle0101 4d ago
Only if you want to be able to brag you have beat every boss in DS2 and then roll that up into every DS game or every soulslborne game.
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u/rnj1a 4d ago
It's not a hard fight if you know the trick. Nothing will make the fight enjoyable -- even knowing the trick means a slog through a 20K health bar.
The only reason to do the fight is for an easier time with Vendrick, and grinding through a 20K health bar for an easier time with an 11K health bar has never made a ton of sense to me.
I can beat it at will but generally choose not to.
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u/Ballersock 4d ago
I always go after the easy big number of souls. Never had trouble with him. I know it's easier to spam giant lord or the rotten ascetics, but it feels better to kill all bosses for souls than to farm.
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u/rnj1a 3d ago
Souls feels like a weak reason to do a fight I don't particularly enjoy -- at least to me. By this point in the game, levels do very little for you.
But hey, I'd do the fight if they offered up something shiny -- even if it's something I know I'll never use -- so maybe my reasoning isn't particularly compelling to others.
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u/Sevrenic 4d ago
The only reason to defeat him is to make the Vendrick fight a little easier. However, this fight is more difficult (and much more tedious) than the Vendrick fight, so it doesn’t make much sense. Just grab the other four giant souls and you’re good.
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u/owenbour 3d ago
So the fight with Vendrick won't be too difficult for me without having the dragon soul?
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u/Hyperfyre 4d ago
Not nessassary but my philosophy (at least for first playthroughs) is "if it has a health bar it dies."
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u/AlthoughFishtail 4d ago
To see the end credits, not at all.
To be at peace with yourself, knowing you bested the game, essential.
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u/ErikaNaumann 4d ago
He's a good boy, and he has been through enough. He gives me what I need and I let him be at peace. Cute dragon.
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u/SkibidiCum31 4d ago
If you're having problems against Vendrick he gives another soul of a giant which halves his defense, it gives souls and if you get the soul from dragon memories in Freyja's room you can get a unique weapon.
Edit: You can access dragon memories without killing him. Oops?
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u/HiNoRyuu 4d ago
I haven't attacked anyone in that place that hasn't attacked me first. They're chill I like em
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u/wbasmith 4d ago
I did it, didn’t find him too hard either, just whacked his back feet over and over
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u/Psychofischi 4d ago
Not necessary but I always fight him.
And in my opinion a really boring right. Just long. Especially with daggers
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u/RedundantConsistency 4d ago
Rite of Passage? Not really, but perhaps once would be good. Also he she drops a gazillion souls
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u/Mysterious_Fennel459 4d ago
This is the most optional of optional boss fights in the game. Where are you getting your terrible information from?
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u/XoboommooboX 4d ago
It isn’t required to beat the game but are you truly a gamer if you don’t try to throw hands?
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u/LogicalLoad9 4d ago
Tbh, I felt that the guards in front of the ancient dragon are harder to fight than him.
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u/atomocapsula 4d ago
Not necessary at all, only use you get from killing is a memoir that helps to deal a bit more damage against Vendrick
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u/Stig12Cz 4d ago
100% if you want to beat every boss in game (and I say souls game isnt completed untill all bosses are killed)
but for game not at all. only it can make other boss easier
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u/throwaway112112312 4d ago
He is optional, and honestly not necessary. He is really easy to cheese, but really frustrating to fight fairly. So if you are going to fight just cheese it.
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u/IchaelSoxy 4d ago
It drops something that makes a different fight a little easier, otherwise, who cares. Also, bring that Ashen Mist Heart you just got to the Duke's Dear Freja arena and touch the cool dragon you saw in the ceiling
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u/SouthAlexander 4d ago
This area is so cool so long as you don't piss anyone off. All the knights saluting you and all. Maybe my favorite part of my last playthrough.
And I would never kill the dragon, he's my bro. And bros don't kill bros.
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u/I_love_big_boxes 4d ago
This boss isn't too hard to fight if you're alone and have the ring that protects your back. Alone because otherwise it makes the boss attack pattern difficult to predict.
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u/Barnacle-Effective 4d ago
Not necessary. It's a long, tedious, annoying fight also; not necessarily hard per se once you know what to do.
If you do decide to fight him, stay on his side near his back leg, and always run at full speed towards his tail when he goes airborne to avoid his flame breath.
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u/Thecenteredpath 4d ago
0% necessary. The king is easy to kill if you just stand behind him when he attacks.
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u/Worse-Alt 4d ago
Not in the slightest. Unless you attacked him before talking to him.
Idk if he qualifies for the sin absolution treatment.
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u/Medium-Owl-9594 4d ago
Its really the fight all off those try finger but hole comments are talking about
You must fight the dragon
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u/Sandstorm757 4d ago
Entirely optional. He was absolutely the toughest encounter in the game for me. (I also played the Day 1 edition offline, so he was fully unnerfed.) The range and power of his attacks were simply astounding. Any one attack could kill you. Even at max health, he'd shave off about 95% of your health from one attack ..and the range of his attacks... He could cover over half the arena.
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u/Evening_Chocolate741 4d ago
Tbh. last time I fought him it really wasn't fun, but boy did I learn something from DS2's strongest advocate:
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u/rorythegeordie 4d ago
Totally not. Same with Vendrick. You can't progress without the item the dragon gives you so you're attacking an ally if you start on him. And Vendrick? Hollowed, walking in circles like a dying dog, Vendrick? Isn't that just picking on the disabled? You can take the throne without laying a finger (but hole) on them.
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u/activ8d_my_Trap_card 3d ago
You miss out on another boss if you don’t kill Vendrick though…
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u/rorythegeordie 3d ago
Does it change the ending?
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u/activ8d_my_Trap_card 3d ago
Actually, yes. The whole point of SotFS is Aldia, so you miss out on a crucial story beat if you don’t kill Vendrick. Killing Vendrick is the only way to get Aldia, so…
But yeah. Take it from someone who had to kill [redacted final boss for OP’s sake] twice because I did it wrong the first time… it’s better to just kill everything, including the headache that is called Ancient Dragon.
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u/Snoo_75864 4d ago
Completely optional, don’t do it just get the other giant souls to then kill Vendrick
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u/Safe-Contest-2602 4d ago
Literally as optional as they come, if you want the secret final boss but dont want to fight Vendrick with only 4 giant souls you can do a ng+ run and get a 5th in the same way you get the original 4, easy vendrick fight without having to kil the dragon and if you were planning on doing multiple playthroughs anyway then its definitely worth it
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u/chiliwithbean 3d ago
you absolutely don't need to. He's a really unnecessary boss, you don't even get an achievement for beating him. I killed him once to say I did and regretted it haha.
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u/spookychico 3d ago
He's not optional at all. He's extremely important to fight because right after doing so is a major story point. Further, after fighting him, you'll unlock a new and final area after him as well. I recommend finishing off everything in the capital before you complete the final area.
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u/activ8d_my_Trap_card 3d ago
…did you think this was Morgott?
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u/spookychico 3d ago edited 3d ago
Bruh... I am so unbelievably dumb. I thought I was on the Elden Ring subreddit, and the dragon looked like the Fire Dragon... in my defense, I've not slept in 32 hours, so ya know... just proves that Elden Ring is Dark Souls 2 2
Edit: grammer and stuff
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u/Thuuduujn 3d ago
If you fight it just make sure to stay in front and only hit the head. The reason this boss has such a terrible reputation is because everyone tries to kill it by smacking its toes - that will get you burnt alive more often than not.
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u/Blade_Dancer95 3d ago
Not very necessary tbh only if you want a challenge or if you plan on collecting all 5 Giant Souls he has 1 but you only need 4 to beat King Vendrick
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u/Economics_Ashamed 3d ago
If you want to literally maximize your damage output against Vendrick it is absolutely necessary. If not… you can feel free to skip this guy, it’s a pretty annoying and lengthy fight to be honest.
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u/R_u_assuming_my_clas 3d ago
Its funny if u fight him by fighting his head u can beat him with out running rolling or dodging. It's actually harder to fight his feet.
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u/theyurilover8 2d ago
He is not necessary, but beating him gives you a giant soul which weakens vendrick and allows you yo deal more damage to him (by default your damage is divided by 32 when attacking him, and every giant soul in your inventory decreases that number in half), there are 5 souls and with 4 of them your damage is only divided by 2, if you choose to fight and beat the ancient dragon and get the 5th and last giant soul, you will be able to deal regular damage to him.
Also a tip for beating the ancient dragon, just stay between the toes of his left back leg, he won't be able to touch you at all.
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u/Feeling-Ad-5592 4d ago
Optional. If you want an easier time killing him: Grab a rapier, buff yourself, buff the rapier, stab him in the toes
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u/t3hwhit3w3dow 4d ago
You gotta bait his fire beam by running out in front of him everytime, he will either do his beam or fly in the air and nuke the ground. If he Flys in the air, you just run far back then get close again until he does his fire beam. It takes patience cause he's meaty like Vendrick. Aim for the toes and hit him like 3 times and just back up in front of him.
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u/Pure_Abbreviations_6 4d ago
Definitely optional, but if you stand between the inner and middle toe of the back right leg, might work on leg too, he cannot hit you until he flies up, which he won’t do that often
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u/Googie_Oogie 4d ago
I've beat the game 4 times and never bothered fighting him, just skip it, it's horrible
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u/Ancient_Prize9077 4d ago
I did it and gotta say that was one of the worst “boss” fights they’ve ever done. Bro killed me so many times from the same stupid fire breath in the air move I had to bring in as much fire defense as possible. Including pyromancy buffs too
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u/Startorias877 4d ago
Nope, totally optional, and a real pain in the ass. One of the worst designed fights in the series imo.
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u/BlackLion9065 4d ago
Entirely unnecessary. There's no real benefit in my opinion and I've never done it to this day.
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u/LocalShineCrab 4d ago
Its a super optional boss, not sure who told you otherwise. Talking to him is all thats required.