Dark Souls 2: Drangleic Castle Dual Dragonriders Boss Fight (part 1)

Drangleic Castle is another 2 parter, there are 2 bosses to the level. The first part ends with the Dragonriders Boss fight. The second part ends with the Looking Glass Knight. I’ve beaten both and it was pretty easy if I don’t say so myself. Of course I summoned and then spammed with Sorcery.

The boss fights here are pretty easy, pretty straight forward. The hard part is getting to the boss fights. Drangleic Castle gives me fits from start to finish. The start of this level as you come from the Shaded Woods and Shrine of Winter was enough to give me fits. The infected Hollows just drove me nuts as I made my way to the Shrine of Winter. Literally I wanted to switch to a Pyromancer and start slinging Chaos Storm around. And what the hell are they throwing rocks at me for? I took the ranged approach and picked them off slowly.

Once past them you need to get to the Shrine of Winter. The doors opened for me, I have no idea why. Research says there is something about how many Giant Souls you have or how many Souls are in your Soul Memory. I know the first time I got to the castle, the Emerald Herald told me I wasn’t ready. So I went away, only to return later! There is a Heide Knight waiting for you after you go through the Shrine of Winter. Again, with the sniping, take him out pick up the lance. Have I mentioned that poison arrows are my friend. Suck a nasty fate. Once past him you get to a long tunnel, that is creepy, and that’s it. You emerge on the other side to face 3 Royal Soldiers. Their crossbows suck. And I mean suck. They get worse later on. Dispatch with no mercy. Then kill the crystal lizard, THEN talk to the Emerald Herald.

Then up the stairs. Right. At the top of the stairs I spent I don’t how much time trying to figure out what the hell to do. I mean seriously. I killed the front guys and then these other 2 cats keep respawning from the right. I must have killed them a 100 times while trying to get through the front door. Effing frustrating as hell! After some online wiki-ing, I find out that the souls of the Royal Soldiers need to go floating into the giant statues in front of the doors. This will activate them and they will open the doors. GRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Once inside you have all sort of baddies to deal with. There are swordsman, knights, mastodon warriors. Ok not at the first but there are some heavily armored knights that want to kill you. Til you are dead. Deal with them and go up stairs. Bump into the invisible Chancellor Wellager. Talk and talk and Talk. Eventually you can buy stuff off him. There’s a throne room behind him, this is empty for now.

Back down the stairs, go to the back of the stairs, kill off the knights and soldiers then find the door at the end of the hallway on the right, Open it, dispatch the enemy and head down the ladder. Go through the door, open the next and BAM! Bonfire.

Right, I have not finished the first room here. There are like 4 Ruin Sentinels and a bunch of Stone Knights waiting to make your life miserable. Ruin Knights are hiding behind the doors that are guarded by the Stone Knights. The Stone Knights only activate when you get close to them or attack them. You’ll notice the statues at the other end of the room, you got it, more of those soul sucking statues. Soul Sucking doors to open up the mayhem, soul sucking statues to create havoc. Oddly enough I chose the first door to the left as my first attempt.

I went up the stairs doing all the fun stuff I am supposed to do. There was a big pool of corrosive liquid, waded around in that and found sum stuff, killed a dude shooting at me. Then headed up the stairs again. Found a door, opened it. It’s a room with a bunch of faces that shoot poison darts. Oh joy. Here’s a trick! Roll through at diagonals, works for me. Get to the other door and watch out, there are 2 of the most annoying crossbowers you will ever meet. These guys suck it! Here’s my recommendation. Run up the stairs to the room with painting. Draw out the knights, run back down the stairs or through them. If you go down to the poison room they will follow you but not all the way back to the corrosive pool area. And chances are they will fall off the stairs to their death. If not then spam them with spells or arrows or what works for you. Remember, sorcerer here, not much armor. If you run past them you have to deal with the 2 crossbowers. Sorry 3. The 3rd on is on a platform below guarding the bonfire. I took the knights out by pulling them into the poison dart room.

Once dispatched it was time to go up to the bonfire that is accessible via a well hidden ladder on the platform with the 2 crossbowers. Deal with them and then head down the ladder, kill the other one, grab the chest loot and open the secret wall. Light and save (unless you are on a no bonfire run). Oh and there is some sort of black phantom that pops up, an NPC, I got confused by this guy, thought it was a PVPer, and after 10 minutes of the Black Phantom not finding me, I shut off my system in frustration. Started up the next day and was invaded and killed. No idea where this Invader came from.

Right, back to being human, up the ladder, kill off the crossbowers, up the stairs, talk to the Queen chick on the throne, and over the fog gate where I had a smorgasbord of summon signs. Took the duel wielding dude with the great sword and the other guy that looked like he was fast. Through the fog gate.

The Dragonriders aren’t tough in this scenario. One guy to tank, one to distract the other one and one to pelt with arrow or spells. I pew pew pew’d while the sworder did damage and the fast looking guy went to town. I think this battle lasted like 2 minutes. It’s a bit of Ornstein and Smough battle, one quick one slow. They both do damage but if you keep moving you are gold. Decide on one and take him out. Then go after the other.

There is a ton of loot in this area and the Faraam Armour set is down with the Ruin Sentinels. Take your time and explore. Part 2 will go up tomorrow!