Pursuer | Dark Souls 2 Wiki (2024)

Pursuer
HP	3,110 | 6,220 (NG+)
Weakness	Lightning,Strike
Resistance	Dark
Immune	Bleed
Respawns	YESsee notes

Pursuer Information inDark Souls 2

The Pursuer is a boss in Dark Souls 2. A giant, aggressive knight that relentlessly "pursues" the player. Heavily armored in black, it wields the Pursuer's Ultra Greatsword with a corresponding "heavy hitter" moveset. He can move very quickly for such a large enemy, and can, in particular, close rapidly on the player from a distance.

Can be encountered in multiple locations as a miniboss if playing SotFS. After the main boss fight in Forest of Fallen Giants, these secondary encounters are not explicit boss fights and do not grant as many souls as the first encounter. In addition, it will already be in it's powered-up "curse" mode, allowing it to use its powerful Dark Magic attack. These versions generally drop 1 Twinkling Titanite, and will vanish into the ground if you leave the area they spawned in. In NG+, the Pursuer will appear more regularly.

Dark Souls 2 The Pursuer Locations

• Second boss of theForest of Fallen Giants. Accessed by going up onto a highbridgethat leads to the Bastille.
• Appears on the large raised platform with a firebomb hollow near the Cardinal Tower bonfire in the Forest of Fallen Giants. If slain here, he will not appear as the second boss of the area but you don't miss out on anything except a cutscene and possibly helping a player summon get a token of sunlight or token of fidelity.
• Appears in the courtyard area with the large breakable wooden towers, and guarding a chest in the open area near the bonfire the bird drops you at, within the Lost Bastille. (SotFS only)
• Appears in a small arena past the room filled with gunpowder barrels and hollow dogs left of the Tower Apart bonfire. (SotFS only ?)
• Appears under the Servants Quartersbonfire next to the entrance to Belfry Luna. This one is particularly devious as many will have used all of their resources on the recent Ruin Sentinels. (SotFS only)
• Appears on a ledge overlooking the wall where you first entered the Lost Bastille. To get there, start from the Servants Quartersbonfire, take the short stair and go through the door. Follow the path across the wall and take the spiral stair up in the round tower. Pass through the lever-activated double gate into a room filled with clay cages and a few exploding hollows. This room contains an double illusory wall that leads to the ledge where the Pursuer spawns. (SoTFS only?)

• Appears in the small island with the two ogres and the gender-change coffin in Things Betwixt. Recommended to draw out the ogres and kill them before initiating the fight by stepping onto the island. (SotFS Only)
• Appears in the Smelter Demon arena after killing Smelter Demon. DropsRing of Blades +1if slain here.
• NG+ Two pursuers appear in theDrangleic Castlethrone room. Defeating both of the pursuers without dying or leaving the roomdrops theRing of Blades+2 and theWashing Pole. The Ring of Blades +2 is dropped by the glowing pursuer and the Washing Pole is dropped by the normal pursuer.

The Pursuer Drops in DKS2

• Soul of the Pursuer
• Ring of Blades
• Souls: 17,000 (Standard Game) 34,000 (NG+)

Souls Awarded

• No changes to souls awarded beyond Bonfire Intensity 8.

DKS2 The Pursuer Strategy

GENERAL ADVICE

Asizeable amount of his attacks can be avoided by strafing right.

If he successfully impales the player, they will be cursed, and the Pursuer will enter a secondary mini-phase where he gains access to 3 projectile attacks.

A weapon that deals Strike and Lightning damage is immensely useful, such as a Lightning infused Mace.

THINGS BETWIXT STRATEGY

You can encounter a Pursuer if you manage to un-petrify the statue in front of the third smoke cloud in the tutorial area, and fight through that path until you get to the open area by the water with a coffin. If you move down onto the sand area the Pursuer will appear in the center. It is first highly recommended to defeat the Ogres and kick over the tree that is up the circling ramp to open a path to the main walkway of the tutorial area, and therefore easy access from the fireplace in the witch's hut. If the Pursuer appears you can back off up the ramp, and it will disappear. The strategies listed below for open combat still apply here, however CRITICAL NOTE FOR MAGES: The Pursuer cannot move through or break the Coffin, and there is still a decent area of shallow water past the sandy area. It is highly recommended not to try this fight until you have at least enough Attunement to hold 3 spells, and have 2 of them as Soul Arrow and one as Greater Soul Arrow picked up from the castle ruins Ballista room. His Curse move is rather vicious and will likely kill you quickly, and he is more likely to use it when his health is low. Circle-strafe him around the Coffin keeping it between you and him, don't get too close as his long sword can still reach slightly past the coffin to hit you. Use Soul Arrow to get him to about half health, then switch to Greater Soul Arrow and lay on the final damage and drop him. This is achievable with a Sorcerer as low as level 17, putting nothing but Attunement points on until you just get 3 slots.

• Note: Ballista rounds CAN kill friendly phantoms or the host!
  Depending on your level and gear, this will be a long fight. This levitating armored titan is both fast and powerful. He will float after you and tends to use a 1, 2, 3 combo with his long sword and shield, however, the last attack of his combo will vary depending on how close the player is to him. One of which is a simple overhead sword slam relatively easy to dodge for those who have a good dodge-roll or are great with timing attacks. The other option, however, is a sweeping horizontal slash where he floats forward while doing it. This is far more devastating, the attack is faster and covers a much wider area than one originally anticipates. When it connects, this attack sends those with lower poise flying. The Pursuer also has a magic blade spell, when you see his blade glow blue get away. He will perform a rather short stab maneuver but if it connects you'll be hurtin' as it does a lot of damage--almost a guaranteed kill-- and you will be cursed reducing health requiring a human effigy to return to normal. If he lands his attack and curses you he will start to smoke and he will now use dark magic. As a special aside the magic energy will not entirely dissipate right after the attack, so be wary of his next slash if the magic stab misses.

  Ballista Strategies

  Parry: Parry the Pursuer's attack (I found the buckler very easy to parry him with, due to its long parry animation), which causes him to be stunned for a bit; then shoot one of the ballistae at him. In order to do this, you must parry him while he is in the line of fire of one of the ballista, then run to activate the ballista and fire. The ballista does a huge amount of damage and can almost one shot the pursuer. Be careful though as he can destroy them.
  Co-op: Another strategy is within Co-op play. Either you or a phantom may be targeted by the pursuer and distract him while the other player shoots the ballista at the pursuer dealing mass damage, or killing the boss. Careful, Ballista rounds CAN kill friendly phantoms or the host!
  Dodge: When initially entering the pursuers boss area, wait for him to walk towards you. When he is far enough he will pull his sword back then do a charge swing. Dodge to the RIGHT (you can get clipped if you roll to the left). Then immediately sprint to the ballista on the left, and fire it as soon as you get to it. If it lands he'll be low enough to easily finish off (don't rush it, he will punish you if you try to kill him too fast).
  Note: Ballista damage has been drastically reduced as of 1.10. They now take slightly less than half health. For this reason, it is advised you quickly realign the Pursuer with the ballista after firing, parry him again, and fire again, then follow with regular attacks.

  Mage Strategy

  Equip Great Heavy Soul Arrow and Great Soul Arrow. Upon entering the arena, you can lock on and get off 4 arrows before you need to dodge. Dodge to the right as his swing comes from the left. After each dodge, let an arrow go. You need high stamina for this. Keep rolling backward using the length of the arena to your advantage. Walking towards him and dodging backward as he is about to attack seems easiest. At the end of the arena, always dodge right.

DRANGLEIC CASTLE STRATEGY

(You cannot bring NPC phantoms from the Throne of Want to help fight the pursuers, as they disappear as you leave the area.)

This is by far the most challenging appearance of the pursuer as there are two of them, one of which is already "glowing" so it will occasionally stop to fire a volley of homing dark orbs, they are on NG+ or higher difficulty, and double attacks and two separate health pools to whittle down. If the glowing one begins to writhe and a loud "powering up" sound is heard, quickly rush behind it and none of the dark orbs can hit you but be wary the other one may still attack. Avoid locking on to either pursuer until one of them is dead so you can keep an eye on both of them. Slow hitting weapons are not ideal for this fight as, even though the pursuer can be staggered with enough strikes, the other pursuer will likely still be free to attack. Only attack or heal right after both pursuers have finished an attack, when one of the pursuers' sword glows and it attempts a stab is perhaps the best time to attack (be careful not to be struck by the stab, however.) Getting assistance from another player orBashful Ray(SotFS only) is perhaps the best method as it splits aggro so you don't have to worry as much about a volley of attacks from both pursuers. If you are stuck fighting them by yourself, useElizabeth Mushroomsso you don't have to find a window to heal until the effect of one mushroom wears off. Using a heavy poison inflicting weapon such as a poison-infusedChanneler's Tridentone-handed strong attack and/or wearing the Moon Butterfly Armor Setcan make this fight much easier but be warned that the pursuer has a rather high poison resistance. As you will be constantly dodging or blocking attacks, theChloranthy Ringand theBlossom Kite Shieldcan assist tremendously with stamina regeneration. Good luck, skeleton!

Alternatively, there is a way you can fight them one on one. While theyare spawning, stand near the door in the throne room. Wait for one of them to start an attack animation (the normal one seems to like to use shockwave as a first attack when you're far away). As soon as one of them starts attacking, cross the room threshold and immediately come back in. This should cause the idle one to despawn but the attacking one to stay. Fight the one remaining, go back to bonfire, then fight the other.

Move Set

Tips

• His Charge Attack can be easily dodged by strafing to the right. Move in for a couple strikes and back up to bait the attack again.
• When he does the Overhead swing, it is best to roll towards him. By doing so will allow you to land two hits after he misses.
• The pursuer is vulnerable to lightning attacks such as lightning spear and weapons buffed with Gold Pine Resin.
• His Charge attack and his standard slashes (basically the first of his combo attack) can be parried.
• The Pursuer can be poisoned, but has a really high Poison Resistance--anywhere from 7-10 Poison Arrows will usually inflict poison on him. (Confirmed in Iron Keep fight)
• He can be poisoned before he exits his spawn animation in Iron Keep (It took 4 lb hits with power-stanced Poison Caestus, which you should have more than enough time to do).
• The Impale attack seems to have a limited range, you may seem like you'll get hit with it at the end of the animation but the sword will not touch you or do any damage. Alternatively, avoid rolling to the left when he does his impale because it can appear to miss you bit actually connect.
• The Pursuerhas many opportunities to be parried. Each successful parry will stun him for several seconds, giving you ample time to attack, recover stamina, or heal. Be wary though that you can't parry his cursed stab or shield bash.
• The easiest way to take him down without parrying is to simply square up on him andstrafe around him to the right, his shield side.. His attacks are all from his upper left to lower right (his 2 slashes in his 3 hit combo) or straight down in front of him (his shield slam, downward smash, and impale). Rolling to the left or straight back will leave you open to being impaled or smashed with his downward slam. He is easy to manage if you just strafe right and dodge through his attacks, and get 1-2 hits in when he's done his combo before backing out and regenerating stamina.

Video Strategies:

Notes inDark Souls 2

• The Pursuer may be a homage to From Software's other series, Armored Core. This is best seen in the encounter of two pursuers in Drangleic castle, which is similar to an encounter with Nine-Ball in Armored Core: Masters of Arena. Another homage to the Armored Core series is seen with the first encounter with the Pursuer. When he arrives, he is dropped from the air by a large bird and proceeds to hover after retrieving his weapon. This is a reference to when enemy ACs appear in a mission in Armored Core (they are dropped from the air by large helicopters and planes, and they often strike a "hovering pose" at the end of their introduction cutscene).
• The Pursuer wasinspired by DMC4'sCredo. This was verified by game maker Hiroshima Takatsu. Credo refers to Angelo Credo from Devil May Cry 4 (single shield, single sword, both use flying/gliding attacks)* Please see the comments section
• Rumors speculate that The Pursuer is also a reference to the Chosen Undead from Dark Souls I, based upon his arrival to the first two fights by a bird (similar to the Chosen Undead's arrival to Lordran bythe giantCrow), the collection of weapons on his back used in Dark Souls I, and his ability to return from the dead much like the player. Feeling threatened by the new Chosen Undead's rise to power in Drangleic, this also explains his determination to stop the player from becoming the new monarch.
• The Pursuer may be an allusion the eponymous Nemesis, the antagonist of CAPCOM's Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Functionally he resembles Nemesis in terms of his relation to the player (a recurrent, unrelenting foe), and "Pursuer" was one of Nemesis' codenames (revealed in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles).
• The chest of The Pursuer has screaming faces embedded into it.
• The Pursuer will not respawn in his proper bossfight at Cardinal Tower (except through burning Bonfire Ascetics), but will appear repeatedly throughout Drangleic. These cannot be reset by burning Ascetics.