Easily Beat the Four Kings (even in NG+ and Beyond)

A list of strategies to make beating the 4 Kings easy, even in NG+ and beyond

Defense

Use the best combo of magic-resistant and physical-resistant armor you have access to (Havel's set is ideal, especially if you substitute Logan's Big Hat for the helmet). Many of their attacks do physical damage, and all of them do magical damage. Don't worry about trying to fast roll.

Stay close to the king that you are attacking! Basically, walk up to him until you bump into him. The distances are VERY hard to judge in the Abyss. But being close to him will actually reduce the damage of his physical attacks to minimal, and make him unable to hit you at all with several of his magical attacks.

Only heal if you think your health is critical. This fight is a DPS race....the more time you spend healing or dodging, the less time you are spending finishing the fight. Don't roll or dodge or block. Just eat whatever damage the king throws at you. You should ideally have several seconds between killing one king and the next one spawning...use that time to heal, re-apply weapon buffs, and the like.

Equipment

For your weapon, you want a high DPS weapon. That doesn't necessarily mean the biggest Attack Rating...you want something that has good damage per swing, and also swing FAST. Weapons from the curved sword category are probably the best DPS weapons in the game. The ideal weapon is a Painting Guardian Sword, upgraded as high as you can get it (naturally). The PGS has the highest DPS of any weapon in the game. You're going to want to two-hand it, and then just spam the weak attack. The Falchion is probably the 2nd best DPS weapon in the game...if you don’t want to use the PGS (maybe DEX too low?), I highly recommend using the Falchion.

Obviously, one ring is taken up by the Covenant of Artorias. In the other slot, the best choice is the Chloranthy Ring. Like I said above, you're going to be spamming attacks..so you want to be able to keep on attacking all the way until he is dead.

Grass Crest Shield should be equipped, and on your back. (You are two-handing your weapon, right?) Again, we want as much stamina regeneration as possible.

You might want to keep items like Green Blossoms or Golden Pine Resins equipped as well. Basically, anything that will add extra damage or keep you swinging longer.

Spells

The best spells for this fight are weapon augmentation spells. Probably the best ones to use are Sunlight Blade or Darkmoon Blade. If you go the sorcery route, Crystal Magic Weapon. However, if you don't have these, or don't meet the requirements, you can use Greater Magic Weapon or just Magic weapon. Do SOMETHING to add extra damage per swing. If you can't manage any of those, hopefully you have some Gold Pine Resin or some Charcoal Pine Resin.

Power Within can also be helpful, but it might be awkward to try and switch between the Pyromancy Flame and a talisman/catalyst if you're using a spell for weapon augmentation. However, if you're reduced to using resins to augment your weapon, you definitely will want to extra help from Power Within.

Strategy

I've already touched on the basics of my strategy in various places above, but here's a bit more detail.

Don't apply your weapon buffs / Power Within when you first see the king...they usually spawn a fair bit away. When you see him, start jogging towards him. When you think you're almost at him, pause to apply your weapon buffs. Here's a spoiler...the ability to judge distance is pretty wonky in the Abyss...you probably aren't as close to him as you think.

Get right up in the face of the king you are attacking. His physical attacks do much less damage if you are that close, and some of his magical attacks won't be able to hit you at all. If you're following my advice and using the Painting Guardian Sword, this won't be much of a problem...the range of that weapon is pretty short, so you'll HAVE to be right up against him.

When attacking, just spam 2HR1. Don't back off, roll, sip estus, or block unless your health is critical...just eat his attacks and keep spamming 2HR1.

You can actually get in attacks to reduce the total health bar during the dying animation. This could be the difference between only having to fight three or four of them, or having to fight five or six. They will keep spawning until the total health bar is reduced to zero.

When one king dies, sip estus to full health, re-apply weapon buffs if necessary, and proceed to do exactly the same thing to the next king. If you're using this strategy, you should have a sufficient amount of time in between spawns to heal and prepare for the next king.

Summoning

If you summoned Beatrice the Witch for the Moonlight Butterfly fight, then she will be available for summoning during this fight.

Don't summon her.

In fact, I recommend against summoning even other players for this fight. Not only does each King (and the total health bar) get more health, but the time between the Kings spawning shrinks if you summon anyone. With a human player, it's iffy if they will be able to put out enough damage to make both these complications a non-issue. With Beatrice, it's a certainty that she will NOT be able to do so.

Fight this fight solo. It's easier that way, trust me.

Congratulations!

If you follow my advice, you should be able to beat the 4 Kings pretty easily. Of course, this can vary according to your build and/or available equipment and spells, but I tried to explain WHY I suggested the things I did, so that you would be able to adapt my strategy to the resources that you have available.

In NG+ and beyond, some people consider the 4 Kings one of the most challenging bosses, simply because if you aren't using an optimized strategy, it can be hard to dish out enough damage to kill one king before the next one spawns. But using my strategy, you should be able to make quick work of them, even in NG+ and beyond.

If you fell a little short this time....


Don't Give Up, Skeleton!

...and don't you dare go hollow!

[jfranks]

Was able to get this on the first try in NG+ with this guide.

* Havel's Set with Big Hat replacing the helm
* +14 Painting Guardian Sword (wasn't going to waste a slab on a weapon I'll probably only use for this fight, if it becomes necessary in a later NG+ cycle, that's fine since I'll already have had most of the weapons I'm really interested in up to +15.
* Grass Crest Shield on back
* Green Blossom for stamina regen (taken about halfway in the sprint towards the first king, replenished between the 2nd and 3rd king)
* Sunlight Blade (applied about halfway in the spring towards the first king, only one cast so it only lasted through the 1st and part of the 2nd king. I should have used Crystal Magic Weapon which has three casts, but SLB was enough luckily)

[k4l1n]

Pfah! I summoned B. <and> took on the buffed fokkengs with my Zwei like a true legend.

Well? What is it?

(Okay but that aside, the guide offers some really good advice)

[Mr. Oibyr]

My best tactic: seeing the run away and wind up animations = quit out before the homing magic materialises or bone out if using power within, lol. (can you guess the type of build?)

Excellent guide, btw!.

[UzbekWalker]

Good guide

[EternalGiraffe]

Worth saying the Kings are pretty weak to fire, so a fast fire/chaos weapon like Quelaag's Sword (with 10 humanity) will do good work. Last time I did it with that weapon I only had to fight 2.5 Kings and it was far from an optimal fight.

[DOLOS]

Havel armor is all you need in new game because the def. is insane

[Marceline Abadeel]

Noice

[< blank >]

You can use the grass crest shield to block the range homing attack since it's very hard to dodge. If a king spins + reaches back with no glow = grab attack. You can outrun it at range or roll past it if close. Spin + glowing self-hug = aoe explosion which will knock you down and do big damage. I don't know if the aoe explosion can be blocked but it can be ran away from or if you are at high hp it can be tanked so you can keep attacking. You can attack a king during its death animation to deal health boss bar damage. There can be more than 4 king spawns so do not count them down thinking you'll win after killing 4.

[Kthulhu]

elimc - the difficulty for Four Kings ramps up SUBSTANTIALLY in NG+.

[elimc]

The four kings was actually pretty easy for me, I just had the stone golem armor and the dragon tooth (with fire applied) Got it on my 2nd try.