You will block almost all of his outgoing damage (especially if you have a shield with Barricade), and only need to worry about taking a few seconds here or there to let your stamina refill.

Follow the strategy from phase one: shield up, light attack spam. If you do manage to survive the barrage he will raise his sword skyward and slam it down with one last powerful attack before the cloud dispels.īut like I said, that is worst case scenario. This combination of attacks becomes very hard to dodge, and you're almost better off just dying and hoping it doesn't happen next time. With good luck you can actually damage Rykard down and kill him before he can really cause any trouble, but the worst case scenario is when he summons the red magic cloud above himself which causes numerous homing spells to start chasing you down. Thankfully the strategy from phase one works just as well here, as long as you mix in a few more dodges when the spells come raining down. From here on Rykard will execute a mix of sweeping sword attacks (which are easily dodged with well-timed rolls, note the pause between his slam and sweep attack), explosive spells (which you can see coming, run or roll away between attacks), and snake head jabs, all while inching towards you. In phase two Rykard will reveal his true form and equip his disgusting sword. When the coast is clear move in again and keep attacking until phase one is over. You shouldn't be very close to the snake anyways, so just back up a little more if you see either of these attacks coming. The only concerns in this phase are his grab, which he telegraphs by opening his mouth wide and roaring and his poison breath which he telegraphs by leaking poison smoke from his mouth. The light attack takes very little stamina, so you should be able to attack a long time without stopping. Find a spot where your light attack can hit the snake's head, then put up your shield and start swinging. Because of the Serpent Hunter's long range you don't need to get all that close to hit him, and you wouldn't want to anyways because of the magma. The first phase of this fight is against the God-Devouring Serpent. This will let you block and attack at the same time.

I recommend pairing the spear with a 100% physical block shield that has the Art of War: Barricade Ash on it. If you have a lot of Somber Smithing Stones you can use them to upgrade this weapon to make it more powerful. This fight is mostly trivialized by the Serpent Hunter, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't strategize.

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