Requirements for killing vendrick?

[THE HOG-CRANKER]

I read that the more giant souls you're carrying, the easier it is to get through vendricks defense. I currently have 4 giant souls in my inventory, which is apparently almost the max amount you can have in your first play through (not my first run, but the first where I'm actually going for Vendrick). I went to Vendrick and attacked him with my ultra greatsword which I used a magic weapon spell on, adding up to a total of about 800 damage. How ever, Vendricks defense still blocks 90% of that damage. After almost 5 minutes, I noticed that I had only taken 20% of his health, and thats where I gave up...am I missing something?

[Miquel Sanchez]

So... just to clarify, you have the 3 giant souls from the memories, you have the soul from the last giant (1st or 2nd boss)...

But have you killed the ancient dragon?... he counts :-3

[THE HOG-CRANKER]

I went through all the 3 memories, killed the last giant and also went down in the gutter and killed the 3 giants that were in that one dark cave. I didnt kill the ancient dragon. But still, with the souls I have I should be able to get through Vendricks defense pretty easily, right?

[Miquel Sanchez]

roughly speaking (I wont go into the maths) - it works out at roughly 0% reduction for no souls, 5% for 1, 12% for 2, 20% for 3, 32% for 4 and 50% for 5.

In truth, and I'm not saying this to mock, I have killed vendrick with only 3 souls, it's not impossible, but it is long and hard, you have to get each hit and roll right every time... he only has to get it right once... maybe twice and with 3-4 souls you're looking at a 6-10 minute fight.

If you want a quick tactic, lock on and hug just behind his left leg (and turn him anticlockwise) you should be able to, without rolling, simply move out of his attacks. At the end of each attack get in 1 or 2 hits MAXIMUM (dont get greedy), repeat this.

If you want to know if you're doing this right, you'll be staring a lot at Vendricks ass, see his head bobbing up and down a lot (for some reason) and you'll be circling him anticlockwise.

Eventually Vendrick will either jump away, or you'll get kinda stuck awkwardly against the wall, I recommend running away from him after he has attached and move him to the center of the room. When you do this Vendrick will do 1 of 2 things, either waddle back to you slowly, or charge, if he waddles, get him where you want him and just run around him anticlockwise to his leg (as above) and repeat. If he charges, I recommend running straight at him and rolling into him to dodge and re-gaining the position by his leg when safe.

Between Vendrick and The ancient dragon, I'd say the dragon is harder, not by a lot. Although in truth once you understand their mechanics, they are actually relatively easy because they have notable 'tells'.

[THE HOG-CRANKER]

Well sweet momma jesus thats going to be a long fight
Thanks for the info

[Lorfar]

Were the souls from a previous playthrough? If I remember correctly they don't count towards the defense debuff if they are from a previous cycle. Could be wrong though.

[Rosenkreuz Kontrol]

Originally posted by Lorfar:

Were the souls from a previous playthrough? If I remember correctly they don't count towards the defense debuff if they are from a previous cycle. Could be wrong though.

No, they do. I went and fought Vendrick in NG+ without having picked up any of the souls from that playthrough and he took full damage.
Also...

Originally posted by Suicidal_Sanders:

roughly speaking (I wont go into the maths) - it works out at roughly 0% reduction for no souls, 5% for 1, 12% for 2, 20% for 3, 32% for 4 and 50% for 5.

...I thought he just had a straight doubling of defenses for each soul out of five you didn't have? So if you go at him with none, he's at 32x defense, with 1 he's at 16x, and so on...

[wilco64256]

His defense doubles for each giant soul you don't have, up to 5. So if you have only 4 of 5, he has double the defense he would have if you had all five. And yes, it's kind of a tedious fight even with all five, but not a very difficult fight at all.

[corrupted]

1. Defeat the Ancient Dragon (a difficult and tedious fight)
2. Complete the Memory of Jeigh (you have to do this to complete the game anyway)
3. Complete the Memory of Orro (engage with the fallen giant near the Pursuer's boss room)
4. Complete the Memory of Vammar (engage with the fallen giant near the location of Pate's first appearance)
5. Defeat the two giants in the Black Gulch. They are located in a cave that is reached by dropping down from a specific point (near where the second poisonous snake emerges from a small hole in the wall)

[Terroriza]

I believe first time I beat him on dark souls 2 I had only 2 souls and it took an insane amount of time like 25+ minutes. Maybe it was 3, but i'm pretty sure it was 2 cause the time it took was absurd.

[Nerevar]

5 giant souls sets his defense to normal and makes him a pushover if you stick to this left leg (seen from behind) takes less than 3 mins to tkill then.

you can get 5 souls per playtrough. having more than 5 souls has NO EFFECT at all. yes souls from previes playtroughs count so you can kill him right away on a ng+ cycle if you save 5 souls.

in order to get 5 souls on a single run tough you NEED to kill the ancient dragon once. doing him again ever after that is really not worth it. you dont need that 5th soul tough. vendrick will just take twice as long to kill without it. but thats about it.

the ancient dragon is actually very easy if you use the fireresist method and the "lure the frontal breath attack" method on him. if you have above 700 fire resist he is easy and a mistake wont kill you straight. at 890 fire defense (cap) you can just stand inside his attacks basicly XD

hardest boss solo is by far lud and zallen i say. this is solo without summons tough. with summons its probaly fume knight.

[Tralalero Tralala]

Originally posted by Hasi:

I read that the more giant souls you're carrying, the easier it is to get through vendricks defense. I currently have 4 giant souls in my inventory, which is apparently almost the max amount you can have in your first play through (not my first run, but the first where I'm actually going for Vendrick). I went to Vendrick and attacked him with my ultra greatsword which I used a magic weapon spell on, adding up to a total of about 800 damage. How ever, Vendricks defense still blocks 90% of that damage. After almost 5 minutes, I noticed that I had only taken 20% of his health, and thats where I gave up...am I missing something?

you can get 5 giant souls. 3 from the memories, 1 from the two giants in the black gulch and one from the ancient dragon. use a weapon with fire dmg or infuse a weapon with fire dmg and you should be fine. wear light gear and don't wear a shield so you can dodge easily. stand in his back and aim for his left leg using a weapon with fire dmg. (i used fire longsword from Forest of the fallen giants my first run)

[Tralalero Tralala]

the ancient dragon is hard but not the hardest enemy. use no gear, chloranty ring, ring of blades, old leo ring and any other ring. then use a thrusting sword (i recommend ice rapier from the third dlc) and then attack his back legs. not the tail but the left or right back leg of the dragon. he is like guardian dragon a bit with his flying and so and the flying + fire attack will be the attack which will probs kill you.