The Dragonriders Trivia Quiz

Answer: Heide's Tower of Flame

This is an early game encounter. While Dragonrider could be a player's first boss fight, the average player usually finishes Forest of Fallen Giants and both bosses there before coming to Heide's Tower, usually causing Dragonrider to be the third or fourth boss of the average playthrough.

Answer: Masterless Glencour

Glencour is always available, no questions asked, and no prerequisites. Devotee Scarlett could become available, but only if the player first summons her all the way up at Earthen Peak. Earthen Peak is a relatively early game area, but it is far later in the game than Heide's Tower.

As such, almost never will players actually be able to summon Scarlett for Dragonrider, but it is theoretically possible if they wanted to orchestrate it to happen.

Answer: Drangleic Castle

When the fight begins, one Dragonrider will rush at the player to do typical melee combat, while the other one will hang back and take shots at the player with a bow. If the melee Dragonrider gets low on health, the bow wielding one will put the bow away and rush at the player to fight them head on. The bow wielding Dragonrider has less than half the HP of the melee Dragonrider though, and will be quickly killed when the player's attention is on it.

In my personal opinion, this is the most poorly designed boss in all of "Dark Souls 2". This fight being admittedly extremely easy has less to do with that opinion than the way the fight is presented. This is actually supposed to be the very first truly mandatory boss in the entire game, yet it is done against a reused pair of enemies, lobbed into a janitor's closet sized room, and left to call it a day.

That said, at least the boss room aesthetic is tolerable enough.

Answer: Pilgrim Belclaire

Belclaire was previously summonable to fight the Ruin Sentinels. Thankfully, in this fight, she is no longer an enormous waste of space. In this fight, she can competently distract one Dragonrider, letting the player typically effortlessly wipe out the bow wielding Dragonrider to finish the fight in straightforward fashion.

In combat, Belclaire is a sorceror. She wields a high variety of seemingly random sorceries. Sadly, the Dragonriders resist Magic, so her damage output is pretty poor. Even still, the player only needs her to serve as a distraction for typically about ten seconds, which she can very easily do.

Answer: Four

There are two formal boss fights against the Dragonriders. Beyond this, one appears towards the tail end of the Undead Crypt, guarding the boss door to Velstadt, the Royal Aegis. Another one similarly guards the King's door in Shrine of Amana, which houses the Soul of a King if the player has defeated Vendrick.

Answer: Magic

The fact that this weapon naturally deals Magic damage means it will receive an extra buff if buffed with Magic Weapon, Great Magic Weapon or Crystal Magic Weapon. It will also be able to receive a Magic infusion from Steady Hand McDuff favorably, exchanging twelve points of Physical damage in return for receiving 60 Magic damage, a highly beneficial trade.

Unfortunately, like all halberds, this halberd is immensely outclassed by the Blue Knight's Halberd, which can make all of the above claims while being far more versatile and simply performing better in general. Because of this simple fact, the Dragonrider Halberd is generally the least appealing of the four options players have to trade the Dragonrider Soul for.

Answer: Magic

Because of the close proximity players receive all three in, this shield is often compared heavily to the Pursuer's Greatshield and the Tower Shield. All three have perfect physical absorption, Pursuer's has better Dark absorption, Tower Shield handles Fire the best, and Dragonrider's is best at dealing with Magic.

Because it does not need Petrified Dragon Bones to upgrade while the others do, the Tower Shield is generally the preferred pick of the three. However, Pursuer's and Dragonrider Shields can both perform very effectively without even needing to be upgraded at all, ever, making them both solid choices.

Answer: Short Bow

This is a Short Bow with the speed and handling of a Long Bow. On paper, that might make this bow seem horrible. Uniquely, this bow is indeed horrible early on, but becomes quite an effective late bloomer if the player sticks with it. Because of its Magic properties, this bow is best served firing Magic Arrows, which the player can't get until they arrive at Drangleic Castle, about halfway through the average playthrough. With Magic Arrows, the damage on this bow actually gets to be incredibly strong despite its physical setbacks. It's also a pretty light bow in general, so it can be fit onto builds pretty easily.

This bow, like all Boss Soul weapons, does require Petrified Dragon Bones to upgrade. In the early game, this will seem like a laughable prospect, but the investment becomes worth it once the player can acquire Magic Arrows.

Answer: Zero

The other three options are all seen on a Dragonrider at some point, but no Dragonrider ever attacks the player with a twinblade in this game, at any point.

This simple fact calls into question why the twinblade is part of this Boss Soul. The Dragonrider Soul is the only one in the entire game to have four pieces of equipment tied to it, while many Boss Souls only have one, sometimes two, weapons. As such, a personal argument I would make is that the Dragonrider's Twinblade should have been called something else and tied to a different boss entirely.

Answer: Magerold of Lanafir

The player must fully complete two playthroughs, begin the third, advance the playthrough far enough to defeat the Dragonrider Duo fight, then they can talk to Magerold and he will sell them the full Dragonrider armor set.

This is the only cosmetic set in the entire game that mandates finishing two whole playthroughs just to access. Statistically, the armor is nothing special, but it does at least look really, really cool to wear.