Xbox 360 Black Knight Strategies

[Murray]

In order to make this the greatest collection of Dark Souls information ever to touch a forum Black Knights have to be talked about. In the world of Dark Souls, these knights were burned when they followed Gwyn to the Kiln of the First Flame. Its kind of a cool story, but now they are just *******s who will murder you relentlessly.

So, let me first give you two things that will help you greatly.

1) If you aggro a black knight they will chase you for a LONG time.

2) If you aggro a black knight going to a bonfire will not reset them.

Essentially, when they are onto you; they are going to get you.

Now, with all that here's how to deal with them. The Black Knights all have various weapons and large statures but they aren't excluded outside of normal Dark Souls combat. You can still backstab them. You can still parry them. Even the great axe Black Knight. If you're as awful as I am at parrying, you're going to have to hope you can When you meet the Black Knight in Undead Burg, he'll be in a narrow hall leading towards a ring that's...well its the first ring you get so its not that great.

What I like to do is eliminate all the hollow soldiers of the area and aggro this knight and bring him back to an area where you can move around him. Think the house next to the tower where you get the black fire bombs. At this point your best strategy is to roll around his attacks (there are 3 attacks he mostly does) and backstab him. Easier said then done, Murray? I'm new and its not something I can do! Okay okay, well then lets look at a different strategy.

You can climb the ladder nearby that same area and use a bow and arrow to shoot him until he is dead. This strategy is not honorable, but Dark Souls isn't either.

You can also use Pyromancy against him. Use the same strategy where you have some room to move around and keep popping shots at him until he's dead. If you're finding you're only doing 12 - 20 damage when you're failing your backstabs then this might be the thing to do. You could also farm Undead Burg and pick up firebombs to use against him if you don't have Pyro magic.

I've read this, it seems to be a bit of work, but you could clear out the level, beat the Taurus Demon and clear a path to the red drake but if all of this sounds like nonsense then don't worry, you'll know what i mean soon enough.

Here's the thing, Black Knights are tough and each time I beat one in my current play through I'll post about it. This guy has 400 or 500 hit points so you're going to have a bit of a time taking him down until you're lvl 9 - 10 and learn your backstab or parrying a bit. The straight sword of astras would be helpful here if you have the faith requirement to wield it properly.

One last thing to note, Occult weapons are the weakness to a black knight so if you want to you could hold onto that. If you're lucky in this fight, the Black Knight will drop the Black Knight Sword which is like 20 strength to hold but its a sweet sword. Its also very heavy.

Good luck with the first knight!

 

[Murray]

The second knight! Alright, I've been on vacation and have done a couple of things I'm adding guides to right now. Lets get started with this knight. He can be found atop a tower in the Undead Parish. He's just chilling, enjoying the scenery and open for a back stab. So, why don't we give him a rude awakening?

The area that he's in isn't very great for a black knight fight. You could attempt to draw him down into the Parish itself (make sure to kill all the Hollows though!!) and fight him in a more wide open area. I like danger though so the top of the tower was where I fought him. The thing you should know about it is that you can use the platform along the stairs to distance yourself from him. Don't stay there though, only use it to traverse immediate separation. If you stay there too long he'll come over and murder you with sword.

So, here's a couple of ways to beat him. First, make sure to hit that first backstab. It'll take roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of his health depending on your character. I would suggest using a weapon that's at least a +2 - +4 which you can do with Andre of Astoras whose chilling out next to a bon fire (the bon fire where you see Sen's Fortress in the distance).

Anyway, he's where the Bell Gargoyles are.

Another thing you can do is farm Balder Knights until you get one of their shields. Parrying is easier with their shields. I have a greater success rate all the time because of them. So, you could farm and get this shield and attempt parrying the knight.

Here's what you do if you suck at parrying (It happens don't feel bad).

This knight's attacks take away his endurance pretty quickly but he's able to pull off a fast succession of attacks that can destroy you. Shields up folks.

Watch his attacks, constantly be strafing, you want to roll behind him if you're a dex build. When he uses his attacks he'll pause for a moment. That moment is your backstab opportunity. Worst case is you hit him once or twice but don't get greedy or you'll die. Give yourself more distance. If you get a couple of backstabs he'll go down.

Alright so you're hurt what do you do?

Remember that whole thing about the Parish being open? Run ***** run go get help! If you run (I mean run) down the stairs towards the Parish you have a chance to get some Estus before he'll close the gap.

You could also try to get the drake to fly down onto the bridge to fight you and run past him to the bonfire behind him and open the gate to the parish from there. That way you have a bonfire you can run to or fight him in that room which is where I ended up when I killed him.

This knight is a tough customer, but if you keep your shield up you'll be okay!