Boss Gameplay Mechanics

Attack Patterns

Attack	Damage	Damage Type	Parryable?	Speed	Tracking (left/right)
Hammer Swing	190	Normal	No	Medium	Neither
Hammer Driver	190	Normal	No	Slow	Neither
Hammer Backswing	205	Normal	No	Medium	Right
Hammer Scoop	205	Normal	No	Medium	Left
Hammer Smash	245	Normal	No	Medium	Neither
Butt Slam	305	Normal	No	Slow	Both
Leaping Hammer Smash	275	Normal	No	Medium	Neither
Double Hammer Swing	200	Normal	No	Medium	Neither

Encountering

Your first encounter with this boss is through the big double doors past the first Bonfire and on your first playthrough will be practically impossible. You should run along the wall to the left and through a gate that opens which will end the encounter. He can be killed here for his weapon but without equipment it takes a long time unless you picked Black Firebombs as a starting gift or are in New Game Plus.

Afterwards, once you find all your equipment, you will walk through a Fog Gate on the second floor to find him staring up at you from below. Note if you stand here too long he will jump up and break the platform, dealing damage and causing you to fall

Attack Patterns

• Horizontal Combo - Up to three horizontal swipes with his halberd.
• Thrust Attack - Thrusts his halberd at the player.
• Shield Bash - Bashes the player with his shield.
• Overhead Smash - An overhead strike with his halberd, can be one-handed or two-handed.
• Flying Overhead Smash - Flies into the air and quickly descends towards the player with an overhead attack with his halberd.
• Tail Uppercut - Flies into the air and swings his tail upwards at the player. Requires a tail so only the first can use it until you cut his tail off.
• Halberd Uppercut - Flies into the air and swings his halberd up at the player.
• Flying Swipe - Flies into the air and towards the player, attempting to land behind them, twists in the air and upon landing does a swipe with his halberd in the direction he came from.
• Sweeping Breath Attack - Breathes fire in an arc in front of him. Both Gargoyles can use this, but the first will only do so after the second arrives.
• Flying Breath Attack - Flies into the air and breathes fire down at the player. May appear to start an overhead smash but use this instead. Both Gargoyles can use this, but the first will only do so after the second arrives.

Note that the second Gargoyle has the same moveset, but will almost solely use the sweeping breath attack. Similarly the first Gargoyle can use breath attacks (after the second has joined him), but will prefer to attack with his halberd.

Dodging and Blocking

Everything except the breath attacks can be blocked with relative ease using a Normal Shield, although the overhead attacks may consume a lot of stamina. Blocking a breath attack will significantly reduce the damage depending on the fire resistance of your shield but be careful of the other Gargoyle as if he hits you while blocking a breath attack you will likely be staggered and take full damage from the fire. The Heater Shield, or Hollow Soldier Shield are easily obtainable and ideal for this fight.

Note that while blocking you will still be knocked back a little way so stay away from the edge of the roof. Always try to be moving towards the peak at the middle.

His attacks are well telegraphed so rolling through them is relatively simple, just roll into each swing or sideways as he uses a vertical attack. His horizontal combo has a wide sweep but getting directly behind him will avoid it altogether. If he flies into the air you are safest moving back although with a little practice he can still be dodged.

Once the second Gargoyle joins the fight it becomes a little trickier. The new Gargoyle will mainly use slow breath attacks that have a long range so you will find yourself limited in movement. It is even more important to remain as close to the middle of the roof as possible so you do not get caught between the edge and a wall of fire.

The sweeping breath attack is easily dodged by running to your left while facing the Gargoyle to get behind him. He will continue the lengthy attack until it is finished allowing for a large window to counter.

Keep them both on your screen, avoid the fire as much as possible and attack when at least one of them is locked up in a breath attack (and you are not in danger of being hit by it).

Attack Patterns

• Spider
  • Lava stream - Slow buildup, long-lasting. Quelaag's spider-mouth spews a solid stream of lava left to right. Telegraphed by the witch pushing the spiders head down for a while.
  • Lava glob - Quick attack. The spider-mouth lowers and spews out a small blob of lava right under it. Telegraphed by the witch dipping the spiders head quickly.
  • Lava spit - Quick attack. Small blob of lava shot a distance away from the spider's mouth, followed by Quelaag leaping to the side. While up close, this attack will look similar to the longer lava-spewing attack, but differs in that the glob is not followed by a solid stream of lava, but rather thinner, seethrough lava that doesn't settle on the floor.
  • Side stomp - Long buildup. The spider raises its legs on one side of the body, and then stomps them all down on one side of Quelaag's body for high damage. Even if not hit by the stomp itself, small shockwaves erupt from the impact points, doing fire damage and making it hard to punish the attack if it misses. Telegraphed by the spider leaning back on its hind legs for a while.
  • Lava spray - Quick attack. Spider will light up and send fireballs in all directions.
  • Lava sideswipe - Attacks may be followed up by a quick, solid stream of lava in a quartercircle to the side of Quelaag's body. Seems to be in response to the player being on Quelaag's side.
  • Lava pounce - Used when the player is at medium-long range. Without a doubt Quelaag's most dangerous attack. Spider lowers its body and then jumps quickly forward toward the player, spewing a quarter-circle of lava that lands in front of where it lands. If the spider lands on you, it does high damage.
  • Roar - The Spider will occasionally roar. It will do the attack much like the stomp except without the legs lifting into the air. This move is very damaging and sometimes will be chained together with the spider's lava spew or a strike from Quelaag's sword.

• Quelaag
  • Flame Aura - Slow buildup. The fire on the spider's abdomen brightens as she slumps forward over the spider's head, charging up a high damage AoE attack. Usually follows a Lava stream attack if the player is behind her.
  • Firesword swipe - Quick buildup. Raises her sword, striking horizontally in a circular pattern. Can easy be avoided by circle strafing or walking backwards, thus saving energy for a shield block.
  • Firesword stab - Medium buildup. Quelaag raises her sword, stabbing straight ahead with huge fire damage, can be avoided by circle strafing or rolling backwards.
  • Sword combo (3 moves) - Performs two Firesword swipes followed by a Firesword stab. Similarly to other enemies Quelaag will stop the combo if the player is too far away.

Strategy

Dodging and Blocking

• Human: Quelaag's weapon deals a mixture of fire and physical damage but is easy to block. A shield with high fire resistance is recommended, the Black Knight Shield or Dragon Crest Shield are good choices, especially when paired with Flash Sweat. To dodge, roll back from her swipes and to the side from her stab, or you can simply run out of range. You can also get under her attacks by running up against her, however always run away when you see her start her flame aura, she often uses this if you try to attack her after she finishes a weapon attack.

• Spider: You should not aim to block her spider half's attacks. Just keep her in sight while she chases you (don't lock on) and run to her side whenever she uses a lava attack. Beware of her pounce attack! Stay close where you can and if she uses this, immediately run back, if she hits you with the lava it will nearly always kill you.

Note she may use her pounce attack upon engaging you after you enter the fog gate. Again you should run back and then around the lava to get in close enough that she does not use it.

Your best window of attack is when she uses her spewing lava attack. It has a long channel and does not track you.

Attack Patterns

• Two circular slashes: Sif will hold the sword straight in their mouth. Dodge/Roll backwards to be safe. Can be blocked if you have a very good shield (both attacks combined will cause a guard break with heavy damage on most players). If you time it right you can dodge/roll through the attacks towards Sif and attack them.
• Jump slash backwards: Usually very powerful but can be blocked. Creates distance between Sif and the player, and thus is usually followed up by a Charge slash.
• Charge slash: Sif uses this when at medium-long range. Either dodge or block it if you have a good shield. Can be followed by a Sword Slam.
• Combo (3 moves): Slash from left to right, back, then a Sword Slam. Sif will stop the combo if the player is too far away.
• Sword Slam (Used after Charge slash or as part of the Combo): Rears up and slams sword straight down in front of himself. Powerful attack with long reach, but easily dodged by moving to the side.
• Hopping about, Sif's paws can hit you as they jump, but this does minimal damage. Still, if you're down to a sliver of life, it's something to consider.

Strategy

Dodging and Blocking

• All Sif's attacks are very easy to block, simply lock on (take care as Sif will often jump out of lock range and you'll have to retarget) and hold up your shield. You can then walk/run underneath them or otherwise position yourself accordingly. Note Sif's double horizontal slash attack will drain a lot of stamina so if you are still early in the game or do not have a good shield and a fair amount of endurance (about 70 stability, 30 endurance) then you should roll at least the second attack if you cannot get out of its range. You should try to avoid the final vertical attack of Sif's 3-hit combo either way.

• To dodge Sif's attacks it is easiest to roll through them and underneath; Sif is unable to hit you here. Sif will jump away after various lengths of time and re-engage so you will likely have to do this multiple times during a fight. Note the backflip attack usually does not provide you with an opening to get under Sif. You can watch a video of a shieldless strategy here.

• As you can engage Sif much later in the game, you can equip a very heavy armour such as the Stone Set, use Iron Flesh and just tank up Sif's attacks. With a good weapon and a bit of Vitality you can easily take Sif down before s/he kills you. Havel's Ring is recommended but not necessary.

When Sif jumps away it is a good chance to heal up, but be ready to block or dodge the next attack as soon as you finish.

Attack Patterns

• The Stray Demon swings his weapon horizontally in a large arc, always starting from his right, then following up from his left.
• The Stray Demon raises his weapon above his head, then slams down on the area in front of him, upon impact this causes a large explosion.
• The Stray demon swings his weapon from his left, causing a large explosion. This explosion does extend behind the demon.
• The Stray Demon floats up into the air for a second and slams back onto the ground, facing the player. Sometimes he just floats up to turn around, without doing the slam.
• The Stray Demon will jump back rapidly (sort of like the Tower Knight from Demon Souls' jump back) This is often followed up by two extremely powerful overhead smashes.

Strategies

• His explosive attacks are magic based. As such, it is recommended that you use the Crest Shield found within your return visit to the Undead Asylum during this battle, or any other shield with high magic resistance. Also advisable is the Spell Stoneplate Ring which can be obtained from the Crestfallen Merchant.
• If you have Fall Control, use it before approaching the area that breaks down. It'll protect you from fall damage.
• Take note that the Grass Crest Shield will be of much use, for you will be doing quite a bit of running, and quite a little of resting

Attack Patterns

Attack	Damage	Attack Type	Parry	Tracking	Speed
Giant Swing	315	Physical	No	Both	Medium
Jumping Pound	349	Physical	No	Both	Medium
Quick Ground Stab	315	Physical	No	Neither	Medium
Standing Pound	315	Physical	No	Neither	Medium
Forward Lunge	n/a	Physical	No	Neither	Medium

Strategies

Upon passing through the fog gate, look to the right of the stairs to find a ladder. Climb up to find two crossbowmen that you will want to kill before engaging the boss. The Taurus Demon himself engages you as you cross the bridge.

Note that you can bypass this boss with the Master Key by going past Havel the Rock into Darkroot Garden and entering Undead Parish by Andre of Astora.

Dodging and Blocking

Generally, if rolling his attacks beware of the inconsistency of the windups. A right to left swing comes very quickly however the left to right swing can be tricky to time due to a long windup and a slight repositioning before the actual swing. Vertical attacks tend to be somewhere in the middle. Also note that many of his attacks incur shockwaves that are difficult if not impossible to roll, although they do little damage.

His attacks track you very well so while being directly behind him will help, you still need to dodge any attack he starts. Do NOT attempt to run past him on the bridge while he is attacking, he will likely hit you anyway and perhaps knock you off the edge. Bait out an attack, step back and run past as soon as he finishes.

Blocking in general is not particularly recommended due to how easy it is to be knocked off the edge, both on the bridge and on the roof of the tower.

Most if not all of his attacks should miss you if you are walking between his legs. A 100% block shield is recommended as he can damage and stagger you while stepping.