Four Kings

The  are a boss found in the Abyss through New Londo Ruins. The player will need to wear the Covenant of Artorias, obtained from Great Grey Wolf Sif to safely enter their battle arena.

The Four Kings each contribute to about &frac14; to a single health meter.

Summoning
Summon signs are most commonly found at the beginning of the New Londo Ruins, before crossing the bridges. Some summon signs can also be found right before the boss door.

Witch Beatrice's summon sign can be found hidden around a corner just before crossing the bridge to the boss fight. However, due to pathing and AI issues, she can prove less than useful.

Strategy
The battle arena is pitch-black with no visible features, and there are invisible walls to hinder progress. This not only makes navigation a hassle but also makes depth perception more difficult.

At first, one king will be present, but the second appears approximately one minute later, and a minute after that the last two will appear. It is vital to destroy each king as quickly as possible to avoid having many opponents, as they will fire a homing missile that cannot be blocked if the player is too far away from any one of them.

Even though up to four Kings may be present during the fight, only one will engage the player in direct combat. The other Kings, however, may join the combat. When one King is killed, another one enters the duel.

Each King has a bit less HP than &frac14; of the total bar. This means that after killing 4 kings, "Four Kings" itself may not yet be defeated. The kings continuously spawn, at a rate of about 1 every 40 seconds, up to 4, so this is not a problem. There is no obligation to kill any specific amount of kings either, so it is possible to "spread out" the damage to several different kings, but only killing few of them individually.

The kings may be damaged more than their health, and can also be damaged during their death animation. This can (and should) be exploited for free damage. It is even possible, with proper preparation, to defeat Four Kings killing by dealing massive post-mortem damage to a single King.

The kings are fairly weak attack-wise when fighting alone, but do have a lot of HP.

Great Magic Barrier or Magic Barrier can help as all of their attacks deals at least partial magic damage.

Power Within adds decent amounts of damage on attack and help destroy individual Kings before the next one appears.

The damage dealt by the kings in NG+ is far greater than in NG so it may prove difficult to "tank" their attacks with heavy armor.

Their melee attack can be quite powerful depends on players' armor, but their magic attack is more so. Staying close to a King force its sword to hit you with the hilt, minimizing damage, this is true even on NG+. Also, staying close to a King would prevent it from using some magic attack (namely, the homing shot) and the unengaged Kings tend to use melee at most distance.

Double Horizontal Slash
Two wide sweeping slashes with the King's sword. These have excellent tracking and are quite damaging to both health and stamina (if blocked). They can be rolled under though, and if the Player is close enough to the king, they won't hit.

Vertical Slash
Powerful vertical slash. Does not track at all, but blocking is not recommended, as massive damage to the stamina bar is guaranteed.

Power Thrust
Single powerful straight thrust with the King's Sword. Longest reaching sword attack and hits hard. The king will only use it when the Player is at a distance and can't sidestep it. It doesn't track well though, so it can be dodged.

Double Slash
Two diagonal slashes with the king's huge blade. They don't track well and it is possible to block, but will do massive damage to the stamina bar.

Energy Explosion
Large, extremely powerful, unblockable AoE magical attack. The king will spin around and emanate purple energy. Immediately run away when the king starts to spin.

Quick Energy Shots
The king will fire off a quick moving set of energy shots that will home in to the player. Much quicker than energy bolt, but they also have much weaker homing capabilites. Thus, the player can easily roll out of the way when they approach.

Energy Bolt
The king will fire off a slow moving, large purple projectile. Excellent tracking abilites and will follow you no matter how much you evade. Unblockable, and does huge magic damage. Only way is to outrun it as the energy bolt will dissapear after several seconds has passed. However, a new king might spawn within that time period. Also Note that for if a king spawns while you're fighting another king, the latter will fire off this projectile at you every so often. Same goes with Quick Energy Shots.

Soul Consumption
Rarely used, but deadly, unblockable grab attack. The animation is similar to Energy Explosion; the King will spin around and then dash towards the player with his large arm extended. The King will also suck one humanity from the Player if caught. This attack can be fatal if the player is not using an armor with high magic defense. Unlike other grab attacks, the King can still be damaged while draining a player, however, this will only deal damage to the "Four Kings" health bar and not the individual King.