Vendrick

Vendrick is an optional boss in ''Dark Souls II. ''

Description
The once great king of Drangleic, reduced to a large Hollow after becoming obsessed with finding the essence of the soul in a failed attempt to cure the Undead Curse. His queen, Nashandra, tricked him into continuing his experiments. He eventually realised the trickery and exiled himself to prevent her from obtaining his power or his ring.

If you listen closely during Vendrick's battle theme, you can here the same whispers from Pinwheel's theme in the first Dark souls.

Strategy
Vendrick has very high defense which likely will make this a very lengthy fight. His defense can be considerably lowered, however, by collecting up to five Giant Souls found throughout Drangleic. Each Giant Soul halves his defense; without any souls, he has 32 times his base defense, and takes almost negligible damage per hit. Even with the Giant Souls, Vendrick is not to be taken lightly. His attacks deal heavy damage, have good reach, and can stagger players who roll too early because of the windup for each one.

Vendrick holds his sword with the blade dragging behind him even as he winds up for the horizontal slash attacks. Staying close to him and strafing to his left will make it very hard for him to hit the player. He will sometimes jump back to put distance between him and the player. If he backs up into a wall, the player may back up in an attempt to get behind him again. Keeping a good shield in your inventory always helps, but not always, as most of Vendrick's attacks have extremely high poise damage.

On NG+ Vendrick has a new attack. Upon the player entering the arena through the fog gate, Vendrick may throw a curse orb at the player, which will inflict curse if it connects. He will use this attack once per fight, always right after the player has entered through the fog gate. It is possible for him to do this on the first playthrough, but it is extremely rare.

A good way to approach the fight is to stay directly behind or next to his left foot. If he gets too close to a wall where any part of the player or him is bumping into it, try to lure him back out towards the center of the arena.

Attacks
Swiping: Swipes his sword across the ground two or three times in a row. This is his deadlist attack, as if it hits the player's shield it will drain all stanima and the player will then by severly damaged or killed by the following swing. Hugging his left foot while causes the attack to completely swing over the player's head, but rolling through the attacks works well too if the player learns Vendrick's moveset and timing.

Overhead Sword Slam: Raises his sword up and slams it onto the ground, sometimes done twice or even three times in a row. Easy to dodge by staying as close to him as possible.

Jump Attack:  Will jump towards the play and slam his sword into the ground where they were standing the moment he jumped. There's a clear wind-up and it is fairly easy to dodge by moving out of the way when he gets airborne.

Single Sword Swing:  Will swing the sword horizontally towards the player once, it has a long reach, and a slow wind-up that is the exact same as the swiping. Fairly easy to dodge by sprinting towards his left side.  He will also do this is the player is far away and will most likely kill them is their back is turn.

Charge:  If the player starts really distancing themselves from Vendrick where he can not hit them with his swing, he will pick up speed. He will move much faster than his normal slow meander and will most likely catch the player off guard if they were healing or buffing their weapon. The best way to handle this is, if one has a shield, to raise it and sprint towards his left side. If one doesn't have a shield, sprint towards his left side and be prepared to roll for your life.

Drops
Vendrick will not drop anything except the given amount of souls when he dies. However, his Soul of the King and his armor can be found in the Shrine of Amana, behind a door that can only be opened after defeating him. The door is in the area between the first and second hut where the player can find a pathway leading to the door, however, they must be in human form to open said door.

Using a Bonfire Ascetic instead of going to NG+ will not spawn these items anew in the Shrine of Amana.