Fume Knight In-depth Boss Guide - Dark Souls 2 SotfS 

I'm gonna subscribe to both channels 😅

Thank you :) I put a lot of work into it. I trained the Fume Knight for many hours. Some of his attacks are extremely rare it seems, so it took forever to record them, but in the end it was worth. I'm very happy with the in-depth guide.

Y'all please have a great and or blessed life always.

I love Fume Knight boss fight. With Manus and Atorias one of my favourite bosses. Really like the challenge and how tense the fights are.

Yes I tried to help others too as Summon, but the host always died. It's a tough fight and one of the hardest bosses in the series. level 160 should be enough. Good luck on your further play through :) If you have questions feel free to ask.

Happy it helped you :) Yes, the damage increase is really great. Thanks for commenting!

Thank you, happy it helped you :) Yes, a lot of effort went into this. Also some of his attacks were really rare (to record) ^^ It's still one of my favourite bosses in the Souls series and his mechanical design is absolutely amazing.

Interesting. But maybe you also had more stamina. For me it was like oh I blocked a simple attack (using a fully upgraded Gyrm Great Shield) and if I attack now, I can't block the next attack. It looked like one needs mix of blocking and rolling. Blue Smelter has one attack i struggle with the dodge timing, else I had not that much trouble with him, but ofc difficulty is very subjective.

@@ThePhilosophersGames first I was in the endgame when I first fought him , I was at level 150 Second my strategy is to always circulate around him just like other humanoid bosses and like you said his small sword combo have bad tracking and I used that to my advantage to get behind him before he use his great sword and hit him because the great sword hit is what staggers you preventing you from striking back, phase 2 wasn't that bad to bad to be honest or maybe it's just because I had a lot of agility, overall this is just my experience,

congratulation ^^ Hope my guide was at least somewhat helpful. Yes the 2nd phase can be tough, you die so fast and he has a lot of options.

No problem, I hope it helps :) I wish you a good time with DaS2. It's my 2nd favourite Souls game (after DaS1), but ofc it has its flaws. Fume Knight is one of my favourites bosses too.

Thank you ^^ Glad it worked out so well for you. Fume Knight can be very tough and it took me some time to learn him and make this guide. On this channel i do mostly Tolkien lore stuff these days. My Gaming content you can find here: www.youtube.com/@TPhGames in case you are interested ^^ PS: oh you already saw it, thank you for subs ^^

@@ThePhilosophersGames I love all things middle Earth and Tolkien

haha thank you & congratulations, glad my guide was helpful ^^ I wish you much success and fun on your further playthrough!

haha yes, pretty awesome to see that a guide you made 6 years ago, is still useful for people 😄

Happy my guide helped you :) haha I can imagine this, but after some time I really started liking it.

Elena can be a dice roll, but I always killed her quite fast.

Yes you can't effort mistakes in the 2nd phase. But at least his fire swing should be easy to avoid. The other AoE attack requires some practice.

haha thank you ^^ I guess the reason why nobody does it this way, is because it takes too much time to make. I had to fight this guy four hours just to get all his attacks and combos recorded and then editing it also takes a long time, because you have many hours of footage. And ofc I also needed to learn him well enough myself. Quite time intensive.

No problem. Glad it helped you :)

haha yes he can be tough. often you find the helpful stuff too late on YT 😅

Thank you :) Yes probably could have mentioned this. Agreed I think he is much harder with a shield.

Ofc if you invest a lot into your stamina/endurance and just dodge certain attacks, it could work. But e.g. it's nothing like Dark Souls 1 high stability great shields, that could block anything without caring. In DaS2 it can also be a bigger stat investment, because depending on your equip (and equip load), you need to level 2 stats (endurance and vitality). I prefer the no shield approach, because it works with almost any build and I think it's easier. Blocking in this fight requires some precise stamina management and a lot of patience.

@@ThePhilosophersGames I see your point but I still prefer using great shields I find the fight easier with both blocking and dogging because it's better to lose stamina and only a little heath then taking a lot more damage from the hit if you accidentally roll wrong or get caught but to each there own plus with great shields you can do poke attacks there not the best but ever little bit helps

Valid approach. I think it also comes down to preferred play style. I love dodging ^^

Thank you ^^ If you subscribed for games content, I moved my gaming content to this channel www.youtube.com/@TPhGames while I mostly cover Tolkien/Lord of the Rings related things here.

Yes with Red Tearstone Ring and magic crystal weapon + good int stats, you can really amp up the damage quite a bit. Don't ask me what stats I had there exactly. It was to long ago I made this video 😅

Yes that's definitely pretty good ^^

Thank you, much appreciated! It was also a ton of work to make this video ^^

No problem, Thank you too, happy you liked it :)

yes argee, when you know him perfectly it's like a dance. I also like this boss a lot, one of my favourites of the complete series.

Without some levelling up the adaptability stat to around 25-30 it becomes much harder to dodge (the exact stat is Agility to be precise and should be around 105 for about 13 s in a roll, which is about as much as it was in Dark Souls 1 in a fast roll; it also makes you drink Estus a tiny bit faster, but it's still slow). Fume Knight is really good at heal punishing.

I think AI can make him more difficult. Sometimes he starts focusing down the host and he gets more HP. I played as sunbro a bit to see how that goes and I also got summoned a lot, but he still killed the host so many times, it really shows the difficulty of this boss.

No problem, happy it helped you :)

congratulations, glad my guide was useful ^^

haha yes Fume Knight is a beast. He is one of the toughest bosses in the series (of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 and 2 only maybe Manus is comparable imo). You can't really cheese him and the stamina damage he does if you wear a shield is really high. So you need to doge some attacks. I remember doing research for this video and practising him a bit. I put down my summon sign, so I could help people in co-op as White Phantom to get some practise. In like a 2-3 hour session of constantly co-oping I only saw him being defeated once! Almost everytime the host died or a few times I screwed up and died myself. I think he is actually more difficult if you summon players to help. For most players he is really tough to beat, because he is somewhat aggressive and he can add attacks to his basic attacks, which makes judging if it's safe to attack difficult for the player. A bit unpredictable, but not unfair at this. You usually know why you died. Player who are good and esp. consistent at using the roll have less trouble though. I like Fume knight, he is one of my favourite bosses too. I think he is a really well designed fight. Some hints: - Damage output is important. More damage shortens the fight -> less time for mistakes of the player - Survivability can help too, but is difficult to achieve. He does a ton of damage. But if you over level hard and have a ton of Vigor and decent defence stats, he (and all other bosses) become much easier - Dodging and using no shield is imo the best you can do - Maybe take a few practice rounds without attacking. Just focus on dodging and survive as long as possible. Do the attacks only in your mind, when you think you see an opening and you would commit to an attack. You'll see if it works if not, you can dodge. A really good practice. Works with every boss. Look for Estus healing opportunities too. - Stamina mangement is important too, you don't need a shield so maybe use items that give you additional stamina reg (Blossom Kite Shield, Cloranthy Ring, Green Blossom, etc). Also the lower your equip load, the higher your base stamina reg (linear scaling; in addion slightly increases roll distance too, also linear scaling). I frames stay the same though as long as you are under 70%. - Simpleton's Ring makes you invisible during your s in your roll. Doesn't help in the fight, but can help give you a feeling when you have s and when not. - For more s while dodging you need to increase the Adaptability (ADP) attribute (the s are tied to the Agility (AGL) stat to be precise and the Attunement (ATN) attribute also slightly increases AGL). Usually 27 ADP is a good value (~105 AGL). Then you have around as many s as in Dark Souls 1. Many new players do not know this. AGL also reduces the time it takes to drink Estus. Can be really crucial in this fight too. - With a bit of luck and pressure it is possible, that he will not switch to the 2. phase in case you have trouble with that one. So you might have some tries without it at some point, but it's imo random. - Patience, do not get greedy and overcommit ^^ Hope that helps. Best of luck and a ton of fun on your further playthrough.

It's a really tough fight. Any specific attack you are struggling with?

@@ThePhilosophersGames well what you said helped some about he punish you when you try to use estus drink, and one attack then dodge, i will get it eventually, i got over confident when i finally beat alana axe queen

Yes, patience is really important in that fight. Much success with it :)

Lifegems are better for the fight.

The healing of the idol for the Fume Knight is limited in range. So to defeat him you must keep him out of the healing range and position yourself relatively far away from it. The boss always gets into melee range anyway, so you can control his positioning a bit. Only his back dashes can problem. I think the first time I defeated him too with 1 idol still active. It's possible.

@@ThePhilosophersGames Thank you a lot for this reply as well as the guide. Seeing how knowledgeable you are about him, I've got more confidence now.

No problem and good luck. It's definitely more difficult this way. The first idol you met in the DLC you can ignore and destroy later, but ofc you don't know it.

What's really interesting to me is that it seemed like alot of people made a big deal about needing to get rid of all the idols, so on my first playthrough I dutifully removed them all. I was a mage build and found it too hard, but I picked up dark souls 2 again just now with a strength build and hiked it quickly down to fume knight forgetting i needed the wedges. I was just going to try to beat him with all idols but one active and surprisingly to me it makes no difference. I keep him in one corner up close and he just stays around you at least for the first phase. Even in the 2nd it didnt seem to be an issue. I did beat him with 3 idols active shortly after. To be fair I accidently kept him in the first phase until he died, probably because I chug fairly frequently (found out what causes that afterward). But yea in the 15 or so attempts it took me to beat him only a couple times did he ended up being healed because i was careless. It's easily possible with 3 idols active. Go into a corner where there's no idol and circle round him and fight him there.

haha welcome back ^^ Nice you remembered this video (and my channel) and that you found it helpful enough to check it again :D Yes if you are a bit out of practice I can see how he will give you trouble again.

nice congratulations ^^ good luck on your further playthrough. Happy that my video was helpful :)

@@ThePhilosophersGames yeah. Trying really hard to farm and upgrade rn cause I'm level 178. I'm at the point where I'm doing the dlcs and tying up loose ends before ng+ . Most of the stuff I'm doing now takes an intense focus lol . It's really hard but I'm pushing through lmaoo

Thank you ^^

:)

haha yes this guy can be annoying ^^ But once you learn to fight him it's a lot of fun and he became one of my favourite boss fights.

Yes attacks are a bit different in phase two, so in theory you don't have to learn phase one (where he fights with two swords) if you use it.

You are wearing Velstadt's Helm? If so he will skip phase 2. PS: There is even a way to keep him in first phase, but it requires a bit of AI manipulation I guess.

Ohhhh I was wearing it. I beat it anyways though. Thanks for the tips!

no problem, happy it helped ^^

No problem, happy you found it useful, thank you for commenting :)

For sure you can make the game very easy (some with the other games), but I think the challenge is part of the fun - at least for me.

@@ThePhilosophersGames Oh absolutely. The game's beauty definitely stems from its ability to appeal to tons of different playstyles and "reasons for playing." For example, I mostly play the first playthrough blind which can be a challenge. Then, after that's done, I play for the insanely amazing atmosphere and lore of the games. At that point, the difficulty gets in the way and it's time for some cheese/OP builds to clear through enemies without hassle. Respect to the players that do stuff like SL1 runs and no-hit attempts. I could not imagine, but then again I like getting my challenge mostly from multiplayer games, so I can see the driving force behind why people want to get those achievements under their belt. SL1 runs are like Challenger tier shit :P

Yes agreed. The game offers a ton of options how to play it and often also changes the difficulty of the game. Yes I remember doing my SL1 run in Dark Souls 2. It's really difficult and felt much harder than the SL1 run in Dark Souls 1 or 3. Mostly because you have less s.

Only useful at certain thresholds I think, but yes can be quite useful.

Yes agreed, he is a really fair boss. Haha yes tigers and the path leading to them is from hell. I remember going into that area solo and also fighting them solo. I almost lost my mind and only did this once and never again.

@@ThePhilosophersGames same here , killed it once and never again :D .And congrats for your great breakdown video of Fume.

@@Daclaem Yes I guess most other players can relate to that too 😅 Thank you :)

Thank you ^^ Happy it was helpful you! Much success and fun on your further journey :)

@@ThePhilosophersGames I would not have done fume knight without you :) and as always thank you :)

Yes in Dark Souls II Agility is the stat that influences i-Frames and you increase it by putting points into Adaptability (and Attunement to a very small degree). It's a huge nerf to the roll, but I like the idea. It also makes Level 1 runs really hard.

@@ThePhilosophersGames So I've went through entire Scholar of the first sin without even leveling any of those because they're useless for my build, only to learn it… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OK that must have been a difficult playthrough. Did you rely on blocking and movement more? Or did you learn to nail the small i-frame timing? I think in DaS2 you have 8 i-frames instead of 12-15 i-frames in the other games. The magic number you wanted to reach was 100-105 Agility with 13 i-frames for the fast-roll at 105 Agility. You also drink your Estus Flasks a bit faster with higher Agility.

@@ThePhilosophersGames I just gave up and went for the final boss. I know, a wuss...

As said in the video Fume Knight without dodging is really difficult, so congrats for playing this far and through the game without levelling Adaptability.

Happy you found it useful ^^ Thanks for commenting!

Happy you found it helpful :) Thank you too!

😥 he is really one of the toughest bosses in Souls. Do you struggle with phase 1 or 2?

@@ThePhilosophersGames phase 2

A user (called S - I think) posted a hint to delay the 2nd Phase quite a lot: "Extra tip, if you use the estus flask near him after he's done a wide swipping attack with his great sword during his first phase he'll try and punish you with the overhead greatsword attack. This will "crack" his sword and as long as its "cracked" it can not be imbued, thus preventing the second phase of the fight. Wait about 15 to 20 seconds and bait him again after dodging under a greatword swing and heal again, estus flask or radiant gem, and he'll continue to get greedy and try and hit you with an overhead attack. This will continue to keep his sword cracked. You can use this tactic to completely avoid the second phase, or greatly delay it. I was able to delay the second phase until about 10% of his health was left. He tried to do his area attack and I just went all in on him, hitting him as much as I could, and just barely finished him before he launched his attack." It's a bit AI manipulation, but it could help. Also if you want to practice phase 2, you can use Velstadt's Helm and skip phase 1 directly.

@@ThePhilosophersGames much appreciated dude im stuck on this boss since the game came out

oh 😅 good luck then

Thank you, much appreciated, happy it was helpful to you :)

That happens, difficulty is very subjective (esp. in a game with a lot of variables, like HP, DPS, etc) also did you try beating him again on another playthrough? Was there a boss you struggled with?

@@ThePhilosophersGames It's probably because i had enough experience in souls games, i felt prepared for him and in the 2nd phase he is easy to dodge for me

yes if you are good at dodging and god at adapting to is combos, he can be pretty easy, but I still think he is a pretty fun boss. Was there a boss (in any of the Souls games) you very difficult? (just curious)

@@ThePhilosophersGames Probably blue smelter demon. It took me a while to adapt to his mixed timing of his attacks and the path to the boss was complete pain in the ass.

Yes Blue Smelter is a weird one. I found him easy on paper, but he had this one attack I often got hit by (this thrust attack), which resulted in me needing more tries than I expected. Yes the way to him is really annoying 😅

A normal Greatsword should be fast enough. Try it out. If you feel it's too slow, you can still change. Also some weapon attacks are faster two handed too (at least in DaS1, pretty sure DaS2 has this too).

@@ThePhilosophersGames Ok thanks, because i kept dying when using it, the recovery time is so slow!!

@@ThePhilosophersGames Lol I also saw some people use a rapier, is it any good for the fight?

Yes the rapier has a really strong move set (fast) and also very good damage. So if you can make it work, it's really good. You can't get too greedy with it (that's true for all weapons, but I think the rapier sometimes give you teh impression "ok one more hit" and that's the one hit too much)

Yes I can imagine. He's a really rough boss. Best of luck! (I hope you beat him in the meantime)

@@ThePhilosophersGames I did! This video helped a lot!!

Nice! Happy to hear that it was helpful for you :)

I would disagree (at least from my present view), considering that I get this complaint very rarely (I would say maybe 2-times in 1200 comments and only 3.5% of my viewers are from Germany). But ofc my English improved over the last 3 years (this video is from 2016).

@@ThePhilosophersGames was Just a joke, because of that german sounding accent, i'am also from germany and i tried to beat the fume knight, but i failed -. - too weak

haha no problem ^^ I knew you were from Germany, when you wrote that. But sometimes it's hard to read the intention, so I answered very "factual". Yes, Fume Knight is tough as nails. Only patience and making no mistakes will beat him. he can change up is follow up and add attacks to his moves. You have to be ready for this.

@@ThePhilosophersGames Yeah, or i do the powerleveling Job with the ancient giant in the memory of jhereg and become LVL 800 - have a nice day/life xD

haha that works too I guess ^^ You too :)

Yes, it's also one of my favourite boss fights of the complete series.

Dark Souls 1? I could be totally wrong, but doesn't Dark Souls II show the keyboard inputs? However, if you scroll down to PC, this page should help you find out the buttons: darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Controls I assume they are the same for DaS2. It's quite difficult to play with mouse and keyboard. I think there are mods, that help you changing the controls. (part of dsfix for DaS1)

haha that's all I need xD I don't know why, but I usually end up playing damage focused glass cannon builds with low stamina. In DaS1 I tend to invest more into Endurance (the stat was also broken there).

@@ThePhilosophersGames makes it even more impressive. I've got a lot of stamina and still run out of it rolling around. XD

Yes stamina costs are really high in Dark Souls II. No comparison to Dark Souls 3. But I got really good at stamina management over time (probably because of that play style)

Oh I see your problem. Only destroying two idols makes the fight very difficult, i would say destroy at least 3 of the 4. Have you found all 10 wedges? (the 11th can only be accessed after you defeat the Fume Knight and then another boss). I thought maybe burn a bonfire ascetic to bring an area without a boss but with wedges to the next NG, but it does not reset Ashen idol's "corpses" with the Smelter Wedges =/ You can't drop them either (a friend could have dropped you one or two). But you can find 10 wedges 6 at the beginning and 4 here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sNF-wd058ww.html

@@ThePhilosophersGames I actually forgot there were 4 more wedges. I ended up trial-and-erring my way to victory.

oh, but happy you got it ^^ Congratulations! It's definitely a challenge with most idols still active.

Thanks. Nice that you found it helpful =)

Thank you. You too :)

@@ThePhilosophersGames your welcome, pls excuse my latency, pls have a great and blessed night, day, and life always, GOD is always waiting for you at a apostolic pentecost, acts 2:38 of Christian bibles, I my self have experienced a miracle having been surrounded by yellow jackets (a form of usually under ground hive of bee like wasp,) and was unharmed, with my grand father as my witness I experienced it at a young age, I've had many other miracle to be blessed by of our family including my brother being healed of a Brown recluse spider bite, (I think the brown recluse bite realises a venom that eat away at skin slowly, over time it could eat away a larg portion of skin combined,). our FATHER LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST (just one being for there is no one beside him in power)is truly limitless, and he awaits you at a apostolic pentecostal church of wich you should be baptized in JESUS name and to be given the HOLY GHOST. Please have a great and blessed life always.

Let me know how it turned out :D I wish you luck!

your tips were helpfull his first faze was easy for me but his second just fucked me over and over so i cheesed the fuck out of his second faze with sorcorie and this means you got a new SUBSCRIBER ;)

Congratulations :D Well I guess it helped to some degree. Thank you ^^

No, sadly I only play on PC =/ Fume Knight can be infuriating. What weapon do you use? I would say faster weapons make it a bit easier if you are patient enough. Also a shield makes the fight harder, because his hits drain too much stamina. In addition it is really important, that you don't get greedy, with your attacks. In the 2nd phase you need to recognize his special attack (5:42) early, so you can react to it.

***** i beat him :D :D :D once i just started rolling to the right every time he attacked it was pretty easy lol.

Nice! GZ. Yes as I said in the video: blocking makes him actually more difficult and dodging with rolls makes it easier. Sry I reply so late, but YT didn't show me a new comment =/