Fume Knight
HP: 10100
Skills: Sword Combo*, Fire Swing, Flaming Orbs*, Greatsword Combo*, Sprinting Thrust*
Souls: 84000
Difficulty: 5/5
Deaths: 20+
Now we move onto the best DLC in the game and probably the hardest boss in the game as well. The Iron King DLC is notorious for its infuriatingly tough bosses, and on top of the food chain (as well as the first boss of the DLC) is the Fume Knight. Let me just say, Raime is one tough son of a bitch, and he is EASILY the boss I died to the most in "Dark Souls II". That says ALOT. If you want to beat Fume Knight, you need to collect those smelter wedges and destroy the ashen idols that surround the Colosseum, otherwise he keeps healing. Hell even without them he's tough enough to give the likes of Artorias and Allant a run for their money.
Shit shit shit shit |
The Fume Knight is INTIMIDATING. One look at him and you'll probably shit your pants as he lifts his massive ultra greatsword. This guy is no joke, he hits hard as hell and his attacks come in massive combo strings, one wrong move will probably lose you the fight if you aren't over leveled. He doesn't have a lot of attacks, but the problem with the Fume Knight is how relentless he is, and how hard it is to find openings to punish him. Combine that with his massive health pool and you get one hell of a boss that's ridiculously frustrating to fight against.
Sword Combo* - His only attack during the first phase. He swings multiple times with his regular sword and ends his combo with a greatsword swing. Note that the greatsword attack marks the end of his combo, so stepping in before he swings with that bad boy is bad news. Be careful as he can vary up his strikes to make his combo more confusing to predict.
Fire Swing - His 2nd phase attack. He lights his sword up and swings it ever so slowly in a 270 degrees arc. You can very easily roll through this, or just outrun his sword. However, this does a TON of damage if you are hit.
Flaming Orbs* - The biggest pain in the ass to deal with for this fight. He puts his sword into the ground and causes a swirling vortex of exploding orbs to orbit outwards. Roll backwards like crazy and keep an eye out for the orbs.
Greatsword Combo* - He swings a couple of times with his greatsword and ends with a slam. If you are caught in the entire combo even once you are probably dead, otherwise, be EXTREMELY careful in how you punish him, because he recovers FAST.
Sprinting Thrust* - Similar to Smelter Demon, he runs up and stabs you hard. Hurts like hell and is extremely fast, though he doesn't usually followup with any combos. Very potent in punishing you for healing.
The Fume Knight is a test of your skills and patience. There's really nothing I can write about here strategy wise, because this is a straight melee to the death, where the odds are HEAVILY stacked against your favor. Magic and other ranged methods work poorly against him due to his massive resistances, so melee is the best way to slug it out with him. There's really no easy way out to the Fume Knight other than to "Git Gud", because he's simply all about his melee combos and nothing else.
You chugging away in his face? |
The first phase of the battle is simply ALL about looking out for his greatsword swing. His simple sword strikes are fast, but they can be blocked without too much effort with a good shield. He always ends his combo with his greatsword swings, which you should always dodge, followed by punishing him. Rinse and repeat until he is at 60% HP, in which he combines both weapons into a massive, flaming cleaver of death. When the Fume Knight initiates phase 2 of the battle, this is where things get a little rough. He starts becoming ALOT more aggressive, and he gets a slew of new attacks.
Other than regular greatsword combos, he does one of 2 things. Either he baths his sword in more fire and does a slow motion left to right swing, OR engulfs himself in flames to send out a bunch of rotating, exploding orbs. Of the 2, the latter is a lot more dangerous, and you should always look out for that attack, as it is RIDICULOUSLY hard to avoid and does an insane amount of damage. When you see the Fume Knight put his sword into the ground, it means he;s about to use this attack, so the first thing you need to do is roll the hell away as much as you can. As the orbs start to orbit outwards, look for gaps in the orb formation and slip through them. The orbs move FAST, so you'll need to be on your toes as well. The Fume Knight likes to attack immediately after this, so DO NOT look to punish and get ready to avoid his next move.
The swing of his life. |
The other signature attack is his Fire Swing, a slow, greatsword swipe that engulfs a massive area in front of him as he swings from left to right. Its a very powerful attack, but its easy to avoid. As he draws his sword and prepares to swing from his left, back away, when he starts the swing, run to him and get a few free hits in. Alternatively if you are ballsy enough, you can roll through the sword or simply outrun the swing and get behind him, either way, this attack is easily punished and should be your go-to attack for a breather (healing during this move is also smart).
Other than these 2 attacks, he resorts to his greatsword combos, which are a lot more deadly than you think. If he swings more than twice and you get hit by all of his attacks, consider yourself dead, instantly. These are incredibly powerful and fast blows, blocking isn't a good idea as your stamina won't last long. He is HIGHLY unpredictable when performing his combos, so when looking to punish, I suggest a fast weapon that can let you roll quickly after you attack. Also, if you want to heal, WAIT for him to use Fire Swing, because preemptive healing will simply get you gutted by his Sprinting Thrust, which is simply a re-skin of Smelter Demon's attack.
The Fume Knight is a complete nightmare of a boss. He rewards you 84000 souls upon death, as well as giving you the DLC crown. However, the DLC is not done, there are even more bosses to test your mantle.
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Sir Alonne
HP: 10140
Skills: Dash Strike, Katana Combo*, Backstep Thrust, Kick, Bewitching Stab*, Dark Slash*, Dark Explosion, Parry*
Souls: 80000
Difficulty: 4/5
Deaths: About 10
Alonne is only accessible after beating the Fume Knight, what can be worse after beating the toughest boss in the game? Well, not much. Still, the walk to Alonne is a brutalizing one, albeit it IS quite short, thank the heavens for that. When you finally do reach Alonne at the end of the "Memory Of The Old Iron King", you are greeted with one of the most badass fights in Souls history. Alonne might just be the coolest samurai in the franchise, and he's here to teach you a few tricks.
Here we go, mano to mano! |
Sir Alonne is pretty much one manly sword fight between 2 swordsmen. He comes at you with all he's got with juking slashes and his own combos. While they are nothing to be sneezed at, he's much easier than the Fume Knight. His attacks are easily be blocked, though its much more recommended for you to learn his patterns and dodge, because blocking his attacks can be quite a burden on your stamina, which he can punish, as he is quite relentless. He's got quite a few tricks up his sleeve, but if you're fully dedicated to keeping it a melee battle, its manageable after some memorization.
Dash Strike - He dashes towards you and swings upwards, leaving himself open to a few attacks. This is your attack to punish.
Katana Combo* - A series of simple slashes which can be dodged or blocked, though his last hit always has him jumping back for either a Dash Strike or a Backstep Thrust.
Backstep Thrust - He quickly does a back-step and thrusts forward with his katana. Can be easily sidestepped and punished, though he can catch you off guard with this.
Kick - Just a simple kick, mostly used to knock your shield off balance if you are stubborn enough to bring one to the fight.
Bewitching Stab* - His sword glows for a few seconds, then he stabs you quickly. If you are hit, he is buffed in the damage department. The stab itself is unblockable, and it comes out incredibly quickly, so its best to just back the hell away with multiple rolls when you see him start-up the attack.
Dark Slash* - A straightforward slash projectile that he uses from a distance. While it doesn't do THAT much damage, its a pain in the ass if he uses it randomly and catches you off guard.
Dark Explosion - He jumps into the air, then lands on your location, creating a mini explosion.
Parry* - As simple as it sounds, he readies his blade for a parry. Just...don't hit him as he's doing this.
Quite a lot of attacks to go through, but in all seriousness, you won't see most of them if you are fully committed to staying close to him. Like Fume Knight, most of his kill moves come from the Katana Combo, which he wholeheartedly spans in close range. His strikes are quick, but easy to dodge, and you can easily get behind him for the punish. Do note that the end of his combos always has him do some sort of juking move, either the Dash Strike or Backstep Thrust, so quickly punish him and move away.
Raime vs Alonne? The dream fight. |
After some atacks, Alonne likes to reposition himself far away for Dash Strikes. If he does this, its actually good for you, as its his easiest move to punish. After a Dash Strike and he's in melee range, he most likely will try to hit you with his combo, otherwise, its one of his few other moves. He can do a Backstep Thrust normally without it being in a combo, and he can try to hit you with Bewitching Stab, which is unblockable and hard to predict. If he hits you with that, he'll get a damage buff, which is never fun, so avoid this at all costs by moving the hell away. He'll try kicking you as well, though this is barely any trouble to you if you aren't using a shield.
Finally, he has a few ranged attacks which he might use when he's near death. These include Dark Slash, a fast moving, unpredicatable projectile, or Dark Explosion, which is basically another version of Smelter Demon's jumping explosion move. Keep punishing his Dash Strikes and you should be gold. Do note that Alonne CAN parry if you see him keep his sword low to the ground, pelt him with ranged attacks when you see that.
Alonne goes down like a champ, and even commits sepuku if you took no damage. Either way, 80000 souls for your victory. The DLC isn't quite over yet though, as you will be greeted with one final, shitty boss fight with an old friend...
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Smelter Demon (Blue)
Skills: Sword Swing Combo*, Quick Sword Thrust*, Sword Slam*, Flame Body, Flame Sword*, Sword Plunge
Souls: 75000
Difficulty: ?(4)/5
Deaths: 0
Words cannot describe how HARD I rolled my bloody eyes when I saw this thing appear before me. I hated the original Smelter Demon to the core as I fell victim to its attacks a COUNTLESS amount of times. To see a re-skin after going through one of the best DLCs in the game was rather anti-climatic, and rather silly. Either way, its the exact same boss as before with VERY minor changes, so you pretty much know what to expect from this flaming, greatsword wielding toddler.
There's really not much to say about this dude. He uses the same attacks as his red cousin, though this time, his attacks do magic damage instead of fire damage. I actually thought they were going to do a Yellow and Dark Smelter Demon boss battle, featuring lightning and dark damage.....Still, the Blue Smelter Demon's difficulty high varies on how much you've memorized fighting the first Smelter Demon, because I beat this asshole on my first try, since fighting the original Smelter was already something that was hammered deep into my skull.
Sword Swing Combo* - A combination of horizontal and/or vertical slashes. Each and every swing he takes comes at a different speed, making this attack quite tough to avoid at times. The longer the battle drags, the more swings he takes, and he can swing up to 3 times. Can be blocked to a certain extent when he hasn't used Magic Sword.
Quick Sword Thrust* - When you are far away from him, he lunges towards you with great speed and thrusts his sword at you for some good damage. Can be dodged by rolling to the side, but this will almost always catch you off guard if you heal at the wrong time.
Sword Slam* - He slowly slams his sword down with an overhead stance. Easily dealt with normally, but when he has used Magic Sword, this causes a massive, Magic shock wave to emit from his sword.
Magic Body - He lights his body with magical flames for the rest of the fight, dealing minor damage over time to you if you stand near him. He also explodes, dealing AOE damage
Magic Sword* - He buffs his sword, engulfing it in magical flames, empowering all his attacks, making them do magic damage...as well as giving some of his attacks new properties. This magic effect chips through most shields for considerable damage.
Sword Plunge - He jumps into the air and plunges his sword down, hard. Easily dodged. After using Magic Sword, he can do an AOE magic burst after landing, so make sure you keep your distance.
Not again. |
What did I say? Well, other than him exploding after using his Magic Body buff, there's really nothing new to talk about. His delay patterns are slightly different from the original Smelter Demon, but only by so much, I didn't even feel much of a difference, dodging him similarly to the old Smelter Demon will work just fine here. If you dodge and go ham on the bastard, there's really not much this fella can do if you've already seen through his techniques.
If by some miracle you DO have problems with this guy (how did you even get pass Vanilla Smelter?), do the same cheesy technique that I mentioned against Vanilla Smelter. Go grind for a magic block shield and just block everything this guy throws at you, then punish him with one attack. Rinse and repeat until he dies.
With the Blue Smelter dead, you get 75000 souls, and it also marks the end of the Iron King DLC. 2 great bosses and one that's not so great, its kind of a better deal than the Sunken king DLC. Next time, we tackle the final piece of the DLC, so stay tuned!