Four Kings |
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| Location | Abyss |
| Health * | NG: 9,604 |
| NG+: 16,200 | |
| Souls * | NG: 60,000 |
| NG+: 180,000 | |
| * Recorded in PATCH 1.05 | |
| Weakness: fire,lightning | |
Four Kings is a Boss in Dark Souls. The Four Kings are tall, gray-skinned humanoid figures with distorted, root-like bodies and colossal swords. They are encountered in the Abyss at the New Londo Ruins. Despite their name, the fight actually involves five distinct wraiths, each appearing one at a time from the darkness of the Abyss. Each new wraith emerges after a 45-second interval, so it is crucial to defeat the current wraith before the next one appears.
Four Kings Dark Souls Information
The wraith-like remnants of the four leaders of New Londo Ruins who fell to dark after being tempted with the art of lifedrain. Defeating the Four Kings is necessary to the plot, and is also needed for those players wishing to join the Darkwraith covenant as they must defeat the Four Kings before obtaining the Lordvessel from Anor Londo and talking to Kingseeker Frampt.
You can also obtain the Lordvessel then go to kill the Four Kings instead of talking to Frampt.
In order to safely survive the Abyss, all players (host and any summons) must equip the Covenant of Artorias Ring prior to entering, and keep it on during the entire fight. Removing it at any point will result in death. It is not necessary to continue wearing the ring after the Four Kings are defeated.
Four Kings Dark Souls Location and Overview
This boss is located at the end of the New Londo Ruins in the Abyss. Despite the name, this boss actually consists of five individual, seemingly identical wraiths, who appear one at a time out of the darkness of the Abyss to fight you.
The appearance of each new wraith is timed (45 seconds), so it is important to defeat the current one before the next one appears. If you do, you will have a few moments in which to heal yourself, reapply buffs, or change equipment before the next wraith appears. Failure to do so will result in having to fight more than one wraith at a time, which rarely ends well.
As the Four Kings share an overall boss health bar, with sufficient summons assistance or overall damage output it is possible to deal enough damage to the first three that the fourth King does not actually appear.
The Four Kings are generally considered the most dangerous boss in NG+ and beyond, and as discussed below many strategies have been developed to try to assist players on subsequent playthroughs.
They have the highest HP of any boss in Dark Souls 1.
Dark Souls Four Kings Boss Guide & Strategies
Drops
- Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard
- 60,000 souls (patch 1.05)
- 4 Humanity
Attacks
The Kings' Sword
The Kings' sword attacks inflict primarily magic damage. The farther you are from the melee attack, the more damage you will take, so stay as close to the boss as possible when using melee weapons. Spells or buffs that reduce magic damage, such as Great Magic Barrier or Great Magic Shield, are very helpful. His main melee attacks are:
- A pair of Horizontal Slashes, which must be rolled through, tanked, or blocked.
- Vertical slice which can be evaded by dodging to the side.
- Stab Attack which can also be dodged by moving to the side.
Magic Attacks
The Four Kings also have an array of ranged magic attacks and spells:
- The Kings may fire off a Large Homing Purple Mass that slowly but surely glides to you from the side. This attack can be difficult to avoid once launched, so it is often better to stay at close range to lower the odds it is used in the first place. However, if you are willing to run away for about 15 seconds, it will dissipate after that time.
- The Kings may also employ a rare spell attack in which it launches an array of missiles at you in an arc, which also home in on you. They usually do this when you are extremely far away from them. Dodging or blocking with a high magic resist shield, is the most effective countermeasure.
- An AoE charge-up explosion that can cause significant magic damage in front of it. Rolling away is extremely effective.
Grab Attack
They also have an attack in which they grab you, inflicting massive magic damage and also stealing one Humanity from the player. A telltale warning of this is a 360 degree spin, which gives you the opportunity to back up sufficiently or roll behind them. Don't confuse it for the Area of Effect spell, which has a similar starting animation. When summoning, note that only the local King performing this attack is invincible; another player attacking the King will still reduce their overall health.
Given the nature of the attacks as discussed below, it is generally better for melee characters to get as close to the King as possible and continue strafing to one side, as this will cause the King to rely mostly on melee attacks in response, many of which will miss or do relatively little damage. Mage characters with low stamina or armor will want to either stay close and rely on dodging, or keep well away in order to employ spells better. In any case, the worst strategy is to remain at a middle distance, as this will subject the player to the full array and impact of the King's formidable arsenal of attacks.
Co-op
Although friendly summons can be helpful in many boss fights, they are especially useful against the Four Kings, particularly if the summons and host are a mix of melee and caster characters. With such an arrangement, the King will typically focus on sword attacks on the melee character, who should be attacking at close range. This will then free up caster characters to stand off safely and rain spells down on the boss. If you are helping someone fight the Four Kings, an easy way is to equip Havel's Set, Havel's Ring, the Grass Crest Shield, and your strongest weapon (two-handed).
As soon as the fight starts, charge each King and engage in an all-out melee assault. If your health gets low, instead of relying on the host heals or using the Heal Miracle, pop a Humanity. This way, you will be able to focus on the King without interruption; you shouldn't be taking too much damage, and if you do just heal and repeat. Unless the host isn't attacking at all, the boss should go down even before the next one spawns.
The most common places for summoning signs for runs on the Four Kings are on the platforms near the Hollows at the base of the elevator leading down from Firelink Shrine into the New Londo Ruins, and near the Abyss fog gate. Summons should always remember to wear their Covenant of Artorias Ring before entering the Abyss.
While playing in Co-op or summoning Witch Beatrice, one of the player might get caught in the grab attack. In that case, it's very important that the other player keep attacking the King. While it won't do any damage to that particlar King, it will still lower the overall Boss health bar. It is a great opportunity to get some good hits.
Phantom Witch Beatrice:
NPC Witch Beatrice can also be summoned before the fight, if the host is in human form. Her sign is located behind a wall just before entering the Abyss, but only if you consoled in her help, against the Moonlight Butterfly in the Darkroot Garden.
There are often complaints or reports of a "glitch" with this NPC not entering the Abyss or otherwise not targeting the Four Kings. This is not actually a glitch. When she is summoned, a ghost spawns ABOVE the tower to the Abyss. When you walk through the fog, the ghost will hover and Beatrice, who is NOT cursed and therefore unable to harm the ghost, will senselessly shoot at the ghost to no avail instead of following you. Just kill the ghost then jump down, and Beatrice can be a major help in the battle. Her magic is quite strong, and if nothing else, can give you a breather as she can take a few hits for you.
If you use her in the battle, her Catalyst and Witch Set will spawn in The Valley of Drakes between the entrance to Blighttown and the entrance to New Londo Ruins.
In later playthroughs, though, she becomes virtually useless. This is because the damage she inflicts will be nearly ineffective and she will die much more quickly from their melee attacks than in the first or second playthrough.
Set-Up Beyond NG+
Of all the powered-up bosses in NG+, it is generally held that the Four Kings are the deadliest. Even with high poise and high defense armor, their attacks whittle away at your vitality quickly and they have significantly increased health, which can throw off timing and make it difficult to kill one before another appears. Additional tactics in NG+ include:
- Equipping either Havel's Set or Smough's Set.
- Dedicating two attunement slots to Great Magic Barrier, or alternatively, one to Great Magic Barrier and one to Normal Magic Barrier if you can't dual-equip or lack the faith requirement.
- Equip the most powerful two-handed weapon in your arsenal and enter the Abyss.
- A shield with high Magic defense and the Cloranthy Ring are also recommended.
- Casting Power Within when the first King appears will also give you a boost in damages dealt, making it easier to deal with the first two kings quickly.
- Using humanities rather than estus flaks to heal is also recommanded as the animation takes less time and fully heal you.
Upon arrival, cast Great Magic Barrier either when the first King spawns or when you've dispatched him. When it runs out, be sure to recast, no matter if you're taking damage from their weapon, as the magic that the Four Kings cast is much deadlier than their blades. Heavy Combustion is also recommended for dealing damage along with your weapon of choice. Along with a proper use of Estus (at least 10), this is a viable strategy for melee builds with limited faith requirements.
Notes
- Despite being called the 'Four Kings', more than four bosses may spawn if the fight lasts long enough. You do not have to kill all of them, however; as soon as the boss' main health bar reaches zero, the fight will end regardless of how many kings you've defeated or how many have spawned.
- If using the Chaos Blade, attacking a king counts as two hits (one to the king and one to the boss health bar) and therefore drains 40 health rather than 20.
- The Lifehunt Scythe also counts as two hits, doubling the buildup per attack. Its half-health self-bleed, combined with the Four King's bleed immunity, make it a very difficult weapon to use, especially on NG+.
- Black Iron armor increases your poise by 79 points without sacrificing mobility, allowing you to withstand most strikes except for the heavy swing.
- Do not remove the Covenant of Artorias Ring during the fight. Doing so will cause you to fall through the floor and die. This gives the message "The Abyss has taken you."
- However, once you have defeated the Four Kings, you no longer need to wear the ring in order to walk around the Abyss.
- It is possible to remove the Covenant of Artorias Ring and put the Serpent Ring (extra souls) between the short animation of the King dying and souls being accounted for, without dying. Doing so on NG+ yields about 244,000 souls.
- You must wear the Artorias Ring if you have defeated the Four Kings and are summoned to help someone against them. Since they have not beaten the them in their world, their Abyss will still take you, whether you have done so, or not.
Strategy 5 - NG+
The Kings have an extended amount of health, and it can often be difficult for most players to defeat the first before the appearance of the second, third and fourth Kings. Staying within direct melee distance will usually prevent any of the other Kings from attacking you until the King you are focused on is dead, whether this is due to the fact that they can damage each other or if its just a bug we don't know. It is recommended that you wear a heavy armor (e.g Havel's, Golem, Giant +5 Etc.) and use a two handed weapon, spamming RB / R1 and healing when necessary.
At close range, the Kings only use one attack (excluding the grab attack which is easily dodged) and fortunately the attack they do use is deals the lowest damage of all of their attacks. Lower level characters may be unable to do this as the Kings do deal a lot of damage overtime and their grab attack proves to be deadly. However, a soul level of 170+ guarantees a victory. 100+ is also quite easy.
General Strategy
The Abyss can be disorienting for first-time visitors due to its lack of visual landmarks. To navigate this shapeless void effectively, continuously rotate the camera, as the Four Kings can appear from any direction. The first King will not appear immediately, so stay alert and spot it as soon as it becomes visible, usually at a distance. If you’re not using a mage build, it's advisable to have high poise and aggressively charge the first King to minimize its chances of casting ranged spells.
Strafing close to the King will allow you to land powerful melee attacks more effectively. It’s often better to attack rather than block, making two-handed weapons a good choice. Ensure you maintain enough stamina to block or roll if necessary, and keep your health above 50% by topping off with Estus Flask. Having 15-20 Estus Flask +5 or higher can significantly improve your chances. You may also have the opportunity to use Humanity items during the fight, especially if you defeat each King before the next one spawns.
Aim to defeat each King quickly after it appears, as they spawn on a timer. Killing them swiftly will give you more breathing room between wraiths. Continue attacking even after a King is defeated, as you can inflict additional damage during its death animation.
Strategy 1 - Mage:
As a caster, it is important to get your build right, so:
- If you have the Greater Magic Shield Spell, you'll take little to no damage from the Kings, particularly if using a powerful shield such as the Greatshield of Artorias. Other good options are the Crest Shield or a Giant's Shield upgraded along the Magic upgrade path (increasing magic blocking). This is critical for caster characters with low Endurance and Vitality.
- Equip the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring for longer duration of the Strong Magic Shield, and the ability to basically, spam the Kings with Homing Crystal Soul Mass and as many other spells that you can fit.
- Homing Crystal Soulmass, Crystal/Soul Spear Great Combustion, Great Chaos Fireball, Great Fireball, and any other spells you think might be good for DPS use them. (Note: the Four Kings are immune to fire, at least in Dark Souls Remastered, PC version.)
- Iron Flesh is not recommended for mages since the Great Magic Shield virtually cancels out every attack thrown at you here (even without the shield being up) and casting Iron Flesh will waste time and cut mobility which are needed to back up and recast Great Magic Shield.
For casters, defeating the Four Kings can be relatively straightforward, as you can often eliminate each wraith individually, avoiding the risk of fighting multiple Kings simultaneously. Focus on dodging their physical attacks, especially the two-horizontal slash combo, which poses the greatest threat. Failing to dodge the first slash will almost certainly result in the second hit, which can be lethal for most casters. The Kings also use a Vertical Slice and a Stab Attack, both of which can be easily avoided with a sideways dodge.
The Kings' magical attacks are challenging to dodge and should instead be blocked with your shield. Even minimal damage from these attacks may necessitate using an Estus Flask promptly. Be prepared to block when the Kings charge up for an AOE attack.
Since blocking the Kings' physical attacks consumes stamina, which can be limited for casters with lower Endurance, it’s better to focus on dodging their attacks. After evading their slashes or other sword strikes, use your opportunity to cast a spell or heal with an Estus Flask. Don’t hesitate to use your most powerful spells from the start, as overkilling one King will reduce the overall Boss HP, making the fight easier. Each wraith is not particularly resistant to magic, so you should be able to dispatch them before the next one appears.
Strategy 2 - Melee
Once again, the right build is key, and the key for a melee character is this:
- Equip high mobility armor, lighter and quicker animation weapons (swords, hand axes, etc) Do not be afraid to charge one of the Four Kings. Get as close to him as you can, and start hacking away with whatever your best weapon. Even if they hit you with their melee attack, there is a good chance that they will bash you with their hilt, which causes substantially less damage. By quickly attacking one at a time, you will limit the amount you will fight, as more are summoned throughout the fight. They appear to have some weakness to fire, like many undead, so a fire weapon may be a good choice.
- Using the Grass Crest Shield, Mask of the Child, and/or Cloranthy Ring will help with the fight. The extra stamina recovery ensures you can focus on attacking without worrying that you will be unable to preform a roll to escape. If you're confident about not getting hit by any physical damage, you can try using simple magic resistant cloth gear.
Timing is crucial for surviving the Four Kings fight. The Kings’ sword slashes are relatively easy to dodge due to their slow attack animation and the height difference. However, their magical blasts are much more challenging to avoid because of the Abyss's darkness, which can disrupt your depth perception. To better handle these blasts, try un-locking from the target and focus on dodging the attack itself. As you see the blast coming, quickly run to the side and roll just before it hits. With practice, you can consistently evade the explosion.
The grab attack from the Four Kings is more damaging than their regular melee strikes but shouldn't be fatal for well-armored players. It’s not difficult to dodge once you recognize it, although it may be challenging to anticipate during your initial attempts.
The key to success is to focus on one King at a time. By concentrating your attacks on individual wraiths, you can reduce the overall difficulty of the fight. Eliminating each wraith before the next one appears limits the number of threats you face simultaneously. As you bring the Four Kings’ health down, you should be able to deliver a final series of attacks to finish them off.
Minimize the time spent un-locking from targets, as it’s easy to lose track of the ghost you were fighting. Keep your focus on defeating one King at a time. Don’t panic if your back is turned to some of the Kings; simply pivot your character to face the majority of them, allowing you to anticipate their moves and plan your attacks accordingly.
Strategy 3 - Power Within Rush
To tackle the Four Kings with an aggressive strategy, start by acquiring the Pyromancy Power Within, which significantly boosts your damage by approximately 40% at the cost of constant health drain. As soon as you enter The Abyss, cast Power Within with your Pyro Flame. For the next 100 seconds, focus on maximizing this damage boost. Equip Green Blossoms and use the Grass Crest Shield to enhance stamina recovery, and ensure your equip burden is under 50% for better mobility.
In combat, adopt an aggressive approach by staying as close to the Kings as possible and continuously attacking. Your high Vitality will help manage the health drain from Power Within, so you can afford to ignore defensive maneuvers such as blocking or rolling. Keep your strongest weapon two-handed to maximize your damage output. Heal only when your health drops below 25%, and prioritize attacking whenever possible.
Be cautious of the Kings' Humanity Grab Attack, which has a long animation and is usually preceded by a noticeable spin. While it’s important to stay aggressive, evading this attack when you see it coming can prevent significant damage. By maintaining relentless pressure on each King and managing your healing wisely, you can efficiently bring down the Four Kings and conquer this challenging fight.
Strategy 4 - Early Darkwraith Build
To become a Darkwraith, you need to defeat the Four Kings before obtaining the Lordvessel in Anor Londo and then speak to Kingseeker Frampt in Firelink Shrine. While defeating the Four Kings at higher levels can be approached with standard strategies, some players may prefer to face them earlier to join the covenant. For low-level melee characters, an effective strategy involves increasing your attunement to 10, obtaining the Iron Flesh pyromancy, and equipping the heaviest armor available. The strategy is simple:
- Apply Iron Flesh, approach the Kings and strafe as close as you can, and just aggressively attack with a two-handed weapon. The Zweihander, Claymore, and the Gravelord Sword, are all obtainable early on, and upgrade just as well. When you are very close to the Kings almost all of their attacks do very little damage (except for the huge purple explosion, so watch out for his charge up).
- Make sure you have Estus Flask +2 or +3 so you can fully heal in one go, and stay as close to them as possible.
- Mages, particularly those with little vitality or stamina, should expect to need the assistance of player summons and/or Witch Beatrice. Obtaining the Magic Shield spell from Griggs can help, and a mage may be able to do some damage with the various soul arrow spells at range. However it is generally easier to rely on summons, while playing defensively and acting as a healing station via Estus Flasks. You may wish to first return to the Asylum to obtain the Crest Shield for its high magic resistance, and possibly upgrade it with Twinkling Titanite. obtained by trading with Snuggly during the same trip. You can also simply switch over to melee combat for the purposes of the fight, by two-handing the Claymore (strength requirement of 16, which should be usable in two hands by even most mage characters), and possibly using more powerful pyromancy attacks or buffs - all of which lack any stat requirements. Iron Flesh combined with Great Combustion can be effective.
- Killing Knight Lautrec very early on can help by allowing for use of the Ring of Favor and Protection with its attendant hit-point and stamina bonuses, and also ensure that Firelink Shrine stays lit so you can bring 10 Estus flasks with you.
- Doing a quick run into the Catacombs to kill Pinwheel and get the Rite of Kindling can push that up to 20 Estus Flasks, which should be more than sufficient even at low levels.
- Note: if you are trying to upgrade your Estus, picking up the Firekeeper Souls in the Parish, Blighttown, and New Londo Ruins will cause Lautrec to kill the Firelink Shrine Firekeeper even if you haven't rescued him, talked to him, or even beaten the Gargoyles. So if you want to keep Firelink lit for the purposes of New Londo Ruins trips, kill Lautrec before picking up all three of those Firekeeper souls.
- Warning! The Coop mechanic of increased HP can drastically raise the difficulty of the Four Kings. You are basically working against time, killing them quickly to avoid multiple Kings clumping up on you. This lowers the risk of drawing 2 or more in Melee range at once. The increased HP for each Summon gets even worse beyond NG+. Depending on your build you may be better off doing the fight alone.
Four Kings Dark Souls Gallery
Anonymous- (Note: the Four Kings are immune to fire, at least in Dark Souls Remastered, PC version.)
- Weakness: fire,lightning
Bro wat ?
- Anonymous
They were no match for the basscannon and power within in ng+
Beatrice should practice some aiming though.
- Anonymous
The hardest part of the boss is the arena and the design, the combination of the two made it difficult for me to evaluate the distance and my position, making me miss a lot of strike, that's why i switched my +15 claymore for a fire +8 gargoyl hallberd, this way i connected every hit, and if you dodge and shiel correctly, and with the help of flasks, the fight become easier, it took me 4 tries, the 3 first tries i used the claymore and kept missing hits, on the fourth, i switched for a weapon with longer range (the gargoyl hallberd) and it changed everything. This boss is in my opinion the worst because it is boring and just a game of speed (it's even worse than bed of chaos, wich isn't a boss, but a giant puzzle game, so once you understand it, it become easy)
- Anonymous
I just beat it on my first try, its being years since ive got all trophies on this game, but remembered many things. I think i was way OP, since i killed each king in about 15-20 secs and had to wait 15-20 secs till it repoped. LVL 92 GREAT CLUB- +10, crest shield, fevor ring, used only 1 estus.
- Anonymous
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Really unfun as sorcerer ngl...
Especially when one of my ring slots are eaten
- Anonymous
>dogshit gank
>artorias ring eats a ring slot
>borderline unavoidable grab
>annoying homing projectiles
>annoying aoe blast
How do people not find this fight worse than bed of chaos?
- Anonymous
I think i was overleveled for this boss. Had the Elite Knight set on and used my Mace 15+. Their normal attack would only scratch like 4% of my health
- Anonymous
obscene runback, can be compared to bed of chaos... banshees can hit through the fog gate and throw you to your demise...
- Anonymous
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I felt like I was fighting the lack of depth perception and my own nausea more than the boss. Still beat 2nd try tho. I think if I had to do a third I would have thrown up.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
My strategy was. Havel set, 20 estus, black Knight axe... swing away.
- Anonymous
"Ah nice finally down to the last king. Boy killing the last three was a nightmare but you I'm going to take my time."
*A second later gets grabbed by another one from behind
"Motherfu-"
- Anonymous
Named Four Kings, yet there's five of them. Man they really did that fifth guy dirty
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I honestly don't know how anyone can tell what these things are doing or about to do next, they just look like an unidentifiable writhing mess of splinters and edges up close. First time I fought them I just rushed them one at a time and mowed them down with ease, but on NG+ I deal next to no damage and they now grab me the second I enter melee range. All the other bosses up to this have been substantially easier on NG+, very strange.
- Anonymous
as far as i know, they get 'weaker' the closer you are to them.
But sometimes, even if i stand practically inside of them their stab one-shots me.
I hate em
- Anonymous
Weakness: all Black Knight weapons (this really helped a lot ngl)
- Anonymous
don't use chaos blade if you wanna keep your sanity. i had 28 dex with a fully upgraded chaos blade and fight takes around 50 light attacks to finish which wouldn't be that bad if it didn't take double hp from your health bar making you gradually lose around 2000 health just to kill them.
- Anonymous
Honestly don't care for this DPS race of a fight, it's annoying if you're not playing a tanky high poise build and a complete joke if you are and it's especially braindead easy if you have a good greatshield (mainly Artorias's Greatshield), either way I just don't find it fun, cool arena and aesthetic tho.
- Anonymous
equip full havels then charge the kings and spam heavy attacks and this is one of the easier bosses
- Anonymous
These spookybois have lingering hurtboxes, if you hit them during their death animations they'll continue to take damage, useful to get some damage in before waiting for the next king to appear.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Three kings (I was fighting them with +5 black knight greataxe and power within)
- Anonymous
I can’t decide if this boss is better at giving me a panic attack from pure pressure or better at giving me nausea from the arena
- Anonymous
Adding fire damage to a weapon barely makes a difference. I got a measly 10 more damage per swing with a Great Club +15 using charcoal pine resin. Barely worth the trouble
- Anonymous
"the grab attack which is easily dodged"
what the HELL are you talking about???
- Anonymous
I can't recommend enough making the crystal ring shield with the soul of the moonlight butterfly soul for this fight. The crest shield is good, but the residual damage the shield can't block is still significant. With the crystal rind 90% mag dmg reduction, it turns his AoR blast into a complete joke, I don't even bother backing away.
- Anonymous
hey, can someone help me with this fight, im a sorcerer and my spells take abt 2 seconds casting, i have havels set but it doesnt even block their attacks that well, i cant summon beatrice either because i didnt for moonlight butterfly, thanks
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
if you're not doing enough damage to kill one before any more spawn then you weren't beating the game anyways
- Anonymous
Here's how I beat the Four Kings at Level 1:
Weapon of Choice: Fist.
Ring of Choice: Lingering Dragoncrest Ring
Dragon Torso Stone grants the user a very strong fist with an AR of 400. Add Power Within alongside the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring and you get 150 seconds of super high Stamin Regen PLUS way more damage. Equip the Grass Crest Shield in your left hand and you should have more than enough regen to be practically constantly swinging.
From there, the strat is basically: get as close as possible, dodge when he uses an attack, heal whenever hit (pack 20 estus) and safe to do so, but otherwise constantly hit him.
A new King spawns every 40 seconds, 40x4=160 seconds to finish off the Kings while maintaining Power Within. This is more than enough time when you have the Lingering Dragoncrest Ring which grants 150 seconds instead of 100. Furthermore, this extended duration means you also lose health at a slower rate, making the health loss a bit less dangerous to manage.
The last remaining factor at play here is just simply luck. Sometimes the Kings will throw out constant magic attack spam which can be really hard to deal with, but the worst attacks are the spinning super explosion and the command grab suck attack. For those ones, spam roll away as fast as possible and hope to not get hit. If at full health, you won't die from the command grab, but you will always die from the explosion. If you see him spin around or generate a dark aura, run.
Took me 2 tries with this strategy and previously 16 failures without power within or lingering dragon crest ring. Best of luck to you all, and don't you dare go hollow.
- Anonymous
On NG I absolutely destroyed them but on NG+ I found them so difficult, maybe the hardest. Weird.
- Anonymous
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Unless I was blessed by the gods of RNG or I suddenly got good (which I don't think so because i didn't care about taking damage), beating this boss seems to be all a matter of high HP and stamina. The moment I put on the Ring of Favor and Protection, i kicked this boss's ASS. And with a slow-ass weapon like a halberd. Before, I had to heal up before i could destroy each king, which left me open to damage equal to healing. Once there was enough max HP to begin with, i could wait until I beat one king to down 2-3 flasks. switching to a better armored gauntlet might've helped a bit, too. Don't play smart, play stacked, am i right boys?
- Anonymous
I'm in ng+ before putting down the Lord Pot (collecting everything so I wanna talk to Kaathe this time) SL around 115, good heavy gear, 60 str, black knight halberd maxed, health and stamina bars long but what this all mean when I just can't get the distance... no idea if they're in my range or not, they gangsta so fast, Beatrice dies very soon, I feel seriously intimidated... in a wrong way. Solaire pick me up I'm scared T^T
- Anonymous
I killed them in two kings with demon great machete +15, darkmoon blade at covenant rank +3, and power within.
- Anonymous
Guys, I need help. Current Strat is wanderer+elite knight, with dusks crown. Power within/crystal magic weapon. Stone shield, and great scythe +15. Havels ring for mid roll.
I can deal a good chunk of damage, but I keep dying. Most strategies are viable, as stats are: str 40, dex 24, faith/int 30+. Attune 12.
Next Strat is to try quelaags+5, and if that doesn't work, to experiment with ricards/spear+15 either charcoal or crystal magic weapon.
Spears are my comfort weapon.
- Anonymous
The n kings such that 1≤n≤12. The set of all kings in the natural numbers. The limit as h->0 of the (x+h) kings - x kings / h
- Anonymous
Four Kings is one of the most well-designed boss battles in the entire game IMO. This fight is meant to evoke panic in the player and it definitely succeeds, even down to the music. That panic only intensifies in NG+ when you realize the boss battle with highest health pool in the game now has nearly double what they had before, making this DPS race of a fight all the more desperate.
- Anonymous
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OK, I'm swinging on air even with transient curse active wtf? Also because I didn't summon Beatrice for one of the games easiest bosses I can't use her for the kings?
This whole part of the game is complete shullbit.
- Anonymous
it seems i've employed the strategy 3 without even knowing about it. these guys don't deal noticeable melee damage and the fight gets harder the longer it drags on so it's best to just go full aggressive unga bunga and exchange blows. you can heal yourself up with humanities while waiting the subsequent guy to show up you can also cast soulmass if you have it
- Anonymous
in NG+ , pyromancer main (vit lv 20, attunement lv 19 ,endu 40,str +24,dex 45)any light armor set +crown of dusk+FAP ring+ artoria convenant ring , I attuned 4 copies of fire orb, 1 copy great fireball , most important Beatrice npc summon you have to be in human form , she deals 1k+ damage very helpful vs 4kings hp pool. Stay between mid range and close range , shoot 1 fire orb ,1 side roll his sword trust or 2 sideroll left and right vertical slash attacks , rinse and repeat.Becareful of purple attacks grab or explosion run way and go back closer ,crest shield for homing purple slash mostly 1 time when you enter the Abyss.I had pyromancy flame ascended +5, deallt around 600 damage with fire orb ;20 estus flask+7 , vit 20 +fap ring 951 hp, so 7 hp "bars " , 1 grab attack 6 "bars" gone .At the end i used 22 fire orbs + huge help of Beatrice, i preferred fire orb over great fireball because number of castings and range , i missed a lot with GF in the dark . Btw i used zweihander lightning+5 , 2 strong attack or R2 to kill each Darkwraith , you should have to kill 4 Darkwraith and 2-3 ghost with transient curse or cused artoria sword before reach beatrice summon sign if you take the shorcut falling from upper new londo to lower new londo.Good luck
- Anonymous
The Boss name is misleading at best. This is not Four Kings, these are just Five Guys.
- Anonymous
If you're in a rush to invade early-game, use a fast raw+0 weapon, stone armor, wolf ring, and (great) magic weapon + oolacile catalyst. Three casts lasts you the whole fight, and you'll be fast enough to only deal with one at a time.
- Anonymous
Now the 4kings are essentially the gimmick fight, although it may not seem like it. Sure, other ways of defeating them are there, but there is one way to do it reliably even on sl1 with +5 weapons. You shall equip the heavieast armor - everyone says havel, but giant or smough are actually better, since you gotta rack up the physical resistance, and the Kings only deal physical damage up close/with the grab. A shield vs magic - dark hand is the best way to go since it's light and blocks their magic waves completely, but crest is fine too. Slap on the steel protection ring - you will be fatrolling anyway. Get a one-handed weapon of your choice. Now with that setup you dont even need to dodge if you're close enough to the king - just chug through and be all offense - even at VIT 10 the grab won't OHKO you, and the attacks will deal laughable damage if you hug the King! Back up when they explode and block, then go back and hack right in! To up your dps, take Power Within and some resins maybe. Oh, and one more thing - Witch Beatrice summon is actually a powerful asset on lover levels if she doesn't die on the way, always summon her - she'll do more dps than you, and shall you be catched in the (non-lethal with all your protection) grab, she'll proceed to smack the King with magic. This strategy is universal, although only reliable for NG (but you're a madlad to be in NG+ at Sl 1-10), every build can use it, and it really trivializes the fight. Just don't screw up by saying NO to the good ol' Kaathe :)
- Anonymous
I'm not sure if anybody noticed, but everytime, when you get your humanity drained and successfully finish the battle, you'll get bonus one humanity as a item for every drain. But only in the same try. When you die after drain and in second try you win, you will not get bonus humanity
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Tbh the best strat for mages too is to wear heavy armor (stone/havel) and a havel ring, sprint into melee and just wack away with a weapon that scales with your stats. Like a MLGS for INT builds or just a buffed normal weapon.
Their attacks do very little damage in melee and the kings won't cast any magic. The only things you have to worry about is the grab, which happens after they spin around, and the magic explosion which is also very telegraphed. Just be careful when you are running into melee range to not die to a magic projectile.
Sticking to them super close with high poise and armor works on pretty much any build and all the way into NG+. Trying to stay at range in NG+ is a bad idea because the kings gain an enormous amount of health (much more than all other bosses) and before you know it you are fighting 3v1.
- Anonymous
12 years later and I still can't kill them under level 30. I am really going hollow guys...
- Anonymous
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Can I jump from the top of the stairs, or do I have do go all the way down and jump from there?
- Anonymous
stick close enough to inhale their dusty ass corpse musk and it turns their damage into a joke. equip high poise armor and you'll come out on top 5/7 times.
- Anonymous
Note, I try two different resins, charcoal does less (189, +15 uchi gatana at 20 dex) added then the gold pine resin (229, again +15 uchi with 20 dex.). Side note my current build is fast rolling elite knight set, yes havels ring. I have other items then uchi but no need to tell. Suffering at ng+1 bc I choose a high survivability type over shear dps -Firedragon15051.
Ps I am only a "knight's honor" away from "the dark soul"
- Anonymous
Is it normal to not be able to cast power within in the boss room? I can't even do it in the spiral staircase above either.
- Anonymous
I'm so dumb, since the health bar wasn't moving I thought I was doing zero damage. Figured there was some "trick" to it because I'm so used to bullshit arbitrary game mechanics that I panicked Homeward'd out with four of them on me. Only to find out that had I just kept swinging away instead of running around like a lunatic trying to find something that wasn't there then I would have been fine as overlevelled and overequipped as I was. I swear being a fifty year old life-long gamer has ruined me to the point where my first impulse is that I guess I'm ****ed better look up a guide instead of doing something obvious.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Combustion and great combustion obliterate this boss too even on NG+...
I really should try melee only build at some point, because pyromancy is busted as f...
- Anonymous
Ok, don’t stress about strategy. I was worried about NG+ so I tried all the stuff listed here and was having a hard time but then I just switched back to the uchi and killed them first try. Buff with power within and use humanity to heal. Stay close to each King and two hand smash him while circling him. Should be no trouble on NG+
- Anonymous
I'm currently doing an SL1 run and I've confirmed that they are weaker to lightning than fire.
- Anonymous
As a Sorcerer I managed to breeze through this one and consider it (at least when using that class) one of the easiest boss fights in the game.
That didn't stop the camera from making me die once by not turning around when locking on to the fourth king and thus providing him a perfect opportunity to stab me twice in the back....
Got my revenge the second time, though. :D
- Anonymous
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Consider using the crest shield to block their magic attacks as they are super annoying to dodge and do a ton of damage if they hit you. The crest shield can be found in the undead asylum and has pretty good magic resist and isn't super heavy
- Anonymous
When multiple kings are spawned they can definitely attack you even while in melee range of one. Maybe they don't attack all the time, but I definitely got hit multiple times from all angles when two were around.
- Anonymous
This noss was low-key a joke. I was level 87 used +15 manserpent great sword 2 handed with gold hemmed robes and went blow for blow with these dudes and they barely did any damage ans when they hit me it did not affect my poise. Killed them first try lmao .
- Anonymous
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Unfun boss. Killed him second try with full Havel, Power Within, and BK Greataxe +2. Just smack them and hope they die before you.
- Anonymous
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- Anonymous
F*** this f***ing s***ty-a** f***ing fight to f***ing death!!! 5 f***ing Kings f***ing spawned!!! F*** that bulls***!!!
- Anonymous
As a sorcerer: equip a high resist magic shield for the magic attacks. For spells, Use homing soulmass (If you have 2 equip both!) This spell is amazing for this fight, they are homing and hit most of the time and deal a lot of damage! And use all of your Soul Spear spells. Another thing that really helped me was stay really close to the boss: in melee range. This will feel unatural for us sorcerers but made the fight really easy for me. Dodge his melee attacks (they are pretty slow) and use a shield for his magic attacks. After he does a physical attack, use 1 spell. Then get ready to dodge again. Rinse and repeat. If you have high INT ( I had 40) You can kill them before a new king respawns. I did have the crown of dusk on and the bellowing dragoncrest ring for max damage.
- Anonymous
6 KINGS. THEY ARE 6 KINGS. IM NOT EVEN KIDDING. IM SO ****ING MAD.
- Anonymous
Just do yourself a favor and run some poise. On NG+ wit hbasically zero trouble on anything they roughed me up pretty bad for no other reason than that. Just cakewalked it with Havel Set cuz I'm just here for knight's honour got nothing to prove on them.
- Anonymous
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The first 42 seconds of their theme, had no reason to go that hard
- Anonymous
This was...surprisingly easier than I thought. +5 Divine Zweihänder, Magic Grass Crest Shield, Ring of FaP, with Golem Armor & the Gargoyle Helm for style points. Just gotta rush in and keep swingin and swingin
- Anonymous
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Chaos Sword 2 handed + green blossom + overloaded with havels helm and chest, crimson leggings + with 10 humanity to increase the attack of the chaos sword I killed them first attempt with my mage. 21 vigor, 14 end, 17 str, 14 dex and 36 int with very little trouble. I used the crest shield when needed with its 80 mag defense it was helpful. I thought my heart was going to explode but it’s very doable for a caster type. I ended up here only because Seath kept stomping me with ease so I was worried they would too.
- Anonymous
The only 5th King is the one below the boss arena that has the healthbar.
If you kill a King, they will eventually respawn, meaning you can only fight four of them at once. Meaning that there are, in fact FOUR Kings.
- Anonymous
This was a pretty hard 2nd boss to kill.
I mean, after getting teleported to the top of the Asylum after plunging my mace through that fakeout boss, you fight a fairly easy giant dog as your first boss, then suddenly you need to kill 4 bosses faster than they can spawn? No wonder that people call this game ultrahardcore. I basically had to max out my levels and run through Blighttown and the giant tree to find a good enough weapon just to get enough damage.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
i went in with heavy armor, i was 47/102, medium rolling. 5 seconds into the fight, i noticed that i'm fat rolling instead and can't escape the reach of their attacks. 3 minutes of terror as i keep rushing away from them to heal. i "know" i killed 3 of them and then i turn around and see 2 more.
very clever to call them the "four" kings, when there were five of them. just another misdirection "gotcha" in the line of "gotchas".
like making you equip a special ring to fight them, don't even think about switching rings when the battle starts. . they insure that you have to go in with "one less ring effect" , since the abyss ring basically does nothing except protect you from being instakilled by the darkness.
i guess there's not "five" of them, someone below says they infinite respawn until you deplete the "boss health" bar and it's possible to deplete it after only 3 kills if you do enough damage(?)
- Anonymous
THEY INFINITELY SPAWN UNTIL YOU KILL THE FULL BOSS HEALTH BAR
- Anonymous
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This is my absolute least favorite fight in the entire game. It's the only one that actually makes me really angry and shout "bullshit!" It's also the only one (Along with BoC) that feels like it borders on unfair territory. Their sword swings are always hitting you on the backswing even if you dodge through, the grab attack is incredibly difficult to try to avoid,especially since they actually chase you with it for a few seconds, that goddamn homing mass NEVER stops following you, it's almost a guaranteed hit if they use that attack. Then they very often start to just spam the grab and magic explosion which is infuriating. Multiple times I've had them hit me with the magic attack, and then start the grab attack and grab me the millisecond that I get up before I can even move. What makes it all 10000X worse is that all these things that they do, especially spamming the grab and explosion, wastes time. Time that you do not have to avoid just getting ganked. And of course, it has to include a really long and tedious run back for every single attempt. I just absolutely despise this boss. BoC is awful and also has a long runback, but at least it doesn't also have the added level of difficulty in addition to the BS that Four Kings has. It also makes no sense from a lore perspective. There were FOUR kings, why is it that many more than 4 are able to spawn?? Really sucks that it's a required battle.
- Anonymous
The four kings are probably my favorite boss in the game, even better than artorias
probably the best advice i can give is to be as close as humanly possible to the kings with a decent magic shield. it will fix a lot of the depth perception issue people have because you know he's close when you two are touching. They also just completely miss some of their sword attacks with even the most minor movement if you are close enough. Watch out for the grab though, that can really mess you up.
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