The Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Soldier Varg, and Cerah the Old Explorer are a trio of bosses in Dark Souls II: Crown of the Sunken King.
Description[]
Cerah the Old Explorer wears Lucatiel's Mask, Black Leather Armor, Leather Gloves and the Leather Boots. He also wields the Dragonslayer Greatbow and an Estoc.
The Afflicted Graverobber wears the Alva Set and wields two Berserker Blades.
Ancient Soldier Varg wears Havel's Set and wields Havel's Greatshield and the Dragon Tooth.
Location[]
They are found at the end of the Cave of the Dead.
Summoning[]
Rapacious Andrei and Ruined Aflis are available for summoning as soon as the player enters the Cave of the Dead.
Strategies[]
Cerah the Old Explorer will shoot the player constantly if left alive while dealing with the other two, so it is helpful to either take him out first or move toward him in order to make him draw his Estoc. If left alone to shoot at the player, Cerah has incredibly high damage potential, as he is likely to stagger the player on top of doing high damage, indirectly increasing the damage output of both Varg or the Graverobber. Cerah is the most agile of the three, being able to consistently dodge many attacks, including backstabs. Attacking Cerah will cause both Varg and the Graverobber to charge at the attacker.
The Afflicted Graverobber is a very powerful enemy, causing heavy bleed buildup and being able to catch the player in a stunlock. The damage potential she possesses is phenomenal. The Graverobber will work alongside Varg in a melee situation, stunning the player, then having Varg follow it up with a smash. This is best avoided by trying to separate them and taking them on one at a time.
Ancient Soldier Varg is by far the hardest to topple of the three enemies. Should he reach lower than half of his health, he will begin healing with an Estus Flask. He spends most of his time blocking with his greatshield, though, meaning there will be multiple opportunities to guard break him. He will attempt to work as a tank for his comrades, constantly trying to get in the way to take as much damage for them as he can.
All three are capable of backstabbing the player. This means caution should be taken while healing. They move slower than the player while in the water, which can be used as an advantage to get away from them, although this can become a disadvantage if Cerah's line-of-sight is not broken.
They are very susceptible to being "pancaked" by 2-handed great hammers, the only exception being Varg while he's attacking. With good positioning, you can even pancake Varg and Afflicted together, and keep pancaking them as they get up, as long as Cerah doesn't have line of sight to shoot you. This is probably the fastest way to end the fight.
Toxic and poison work well on all three of them, allowing high damage to be dealt at relatively low risk.
When pursuing the player in melee, the bosses are willing to chase the player over the arena's ledges into the water. They tend to hesitate at the edge before jumping, and when landing will pause for a moment even after they're no longer locked into the landing animation. Thus, goading the bosses into chasing you over these edges is a reliable way to get a safe, if small opening to hit them after they land, to get a slight lead over Varg and the graverobber in their pursuit of you with which to get a hit in on Cerah, or to hit them with ranged attacks when they linger at the top of the ledge. Be careful not to stand directly below any of the bosses when doing this, as they can perform plunging attacks on you. The AI pathing also seems to have a slight preference for taking the ramps down instead of jumping off the ledges, so if you jump off while the bosses aren't particularly close or, after dropping, wander too far from the edge closest to the bosses or too close to the ramp, they may opt to take the ramp instead. This pathing preference is not terribly strong, you do not need to wait until the last second to jump off or hug the wall after jumping, just don't drop when your pursuers are halfway across the room or start running for the ramp before they've followed you over the edge.
Defenses[]
Graverobber
Physical Defenses | |||
??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Elemental Defenses | |||
??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Resistances | |||
Can be Backstabbed | Can be Parried | ||
??? | ??? | Yes | Yes |
Varg
Physical Defenses | |||
??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Elemental Defenses | |||
??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Resistances | |||
Can be Backstabbed | Can be Parried | ||
??? | ??? | Yes | Yes |
Cerah
Physical Defenses | |||
??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Elemental Defenses | |||
??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Resistances | |||
Can be Backstabbed | Can be Parried | ||
??? | ??? | Yes | Yes |
Drops[]
Item | Twinkling Titanite ×3 |
Petrified Dragon Bone ×3 |
Titanite Slab |
Drop Rate | Guaranteed | Guaranteed | Guaranteed |
Notes[]
- It doesn't matter in which order the three are killed, the drops at the end of the fight will be the same.
- Even at lower levels of NG+, this boss fight becomes one of the most challenging fights in the game as the three enemies can all kill the player in only a few hits. This added to the fact that the player cannot attack the same enemy for more than a few hits without them rolling and with no means of stunlocking them or dealing consistent damage through ripostes or backstabs, can turn this fight very difficult. All of this makes summoning a very good idea.
- As a phantom, it is possible to get a Puzzling Stone Sword, Lightning Clutch Ring, Promised Walk of Peace, Dried Root, or a Sanctum Mace as a reward for completing this fight in another world.
Trivia[]
- Ancient Soldier Varg and the Afflicted Graverobber wear the armor sets of people who are supposedly dead: Havel the Rock and Alva the Wayfarer, respectively.
- It could be possible that Varg was once a soldier under Havel's command, as both he and his men wore the same armor and the fact that he is an ancient soldier, hinting he comes from a time long before Drangleic.
- The Afflicted Graverobber appears to be left-Handed, as when choosing to wield a single sword, it's always the one in the left hand.