The Pursuer Trivia Quiz

Answer: Forest of Fallen Giants

While The Pursuer can be fought basically whenever the player wants, for an average player, he is typically their second boss fight, fought right after The Last Giant. As such, he has just over 3,000 health and is well scaled for such a context.

Answer: He can be defeated outside his boss room without glitches or exploits

Right outside the Cardinal Tower is a wide, square shaped stony platform, slightly elevated above the tower. If the player reaches and stands on this platform, The Pursuer will show up to attack them. If the player defeats him, they will have actually defeated his boss encounter, and will later find his formal boss room completely empty and without a boss.

The player only has one chance to do this, though. The Pursuer will only appear to attack them one time in this capacity. If the player loses to him or flees and causes him to de-spawn, he will never return and will now have to be fought inside his boss room.

This was the first time From Software developed a boss which could be properly defeated outside of his boss room. Notably, they would not make a boss like this in "Dark Souls 3" or even "Elden Ring", allowing The Pursuer to continually stand out for being approachable like this.

Answer: Ruined Alfis

Ruined Alfis is actually tricky to find and extremely out of the way for this purpose. The player must divert from the main path of progression to summon Alfis, as they must open the Soldier's Rest door to access his summon sign.

That said, Alfis is a Shade, not a Phantom. If the player summons him, then kills enemies en route to The Pursuer's boss room, Alfis will leave their world too quickly. In order to receive Alfis' help, the player must first kill the enemies which stand between them and The Pursuer, then backtrack and summon Alfis.

Alfis wields a few Sorceries and the Dark Hail Hex, using the Bat Staff to sling these spells.

Answer: Ballistae

There are three Ballistae inside the boss room, which can be used to quickly put The Pursuer down. However, they are stationary and the player can't adjust their aim, so they have to get The Pursuer to stand in front of a Ballista, then quickly fire it. The Pursuer can destroy Ballistae, so they must be quick about doing so.

The reward for setting a shot up is damning, as the player can quickly gun The Pursuer down from full health and win the fight in about five seconds. Predictably, on the world record speedrun (or frankly, even just a casual speedrun), this strategy is used to clear the fight in optimal timing.

That said, if summoning a cooperator, like Ruined Alfis or a friend for this fight, it should be strongly noted that the Ballistae can easily friendly fire. Ruined Alfis will be nearly killed, while human cooperators will get instantaneously slaughtered by errant Ballista play.

Answer: Ring of Blades

The Ring of Blades has three different rarities, and the one received here is the base version and the weakest. Still, for the stage of the game it is received, it is quite helpful. The base RoB provides a flat bonus of 25 physical damage to any physical damage the player can do.

Answer: Abnormally high Dexterity scaling

At +5, this weapon has an A scaling in Strength and a surprisingly high C for Dexterity, beating out all other UGSes in doing so. That said, the Strength scaling does come up lacking compared to other UGSes, which makes the niche for the Pursuer's UGS clear; it is intended for Quality builds, builds which evenly level up Strength and Dexterity alongside one another at the expense of other stats. On such a build, the Pursuer's UGS just barely has the best AR of any UGS in the game, nudging out the basic Greatsword and the Fume Ultra Greatsword in this distinction.

Answer: No

The description is misleading, and is meant to be interpreted literally. The Pursuer 'resisting the curse' is more so meant to depict him locating and killing anyone who has the curse, such as the player, and in essence 'resisting' the spread of the curse by eliminating those harboring it.

It does not mean he actually resists the Curse status effect, similarly to anyone equipping his shield.

Answer: He has access to a new attack

This is referred to as Pursuer's 'buffed state'. When in his buffed state, The Pursuer gains a new attack where he can channel, then shoot out a wide series of relentless shadowy orbs in front of him. These orbs inflict high Curse build up, and can quickly hollow the player if they get by a few of them.

If The Pursuer is not in his buffed state, such as during his boss encounter, he can buff himself by landing his grab attack on the player. That said, if he begins in his buffed state or lands a grab, he will be permanently buffed for the rest of the fight.

Answer: Eight

There's his formal boss encounter, four separate encounters at Lost Bastille, one at Things Betwixt, another appearance at the Iron Keep, then his deadliest showing by far - two Pursuers can appear to fight the player at Drangleic Castle, if the player is on New Game Plus or further.

Answer: Nemesis ("Resident Evil 3")

Inside the "Dark Souls 2" game files, The Pursuer is listed as "DS_Nemesis". As well, Hiroshima Takatsu who was the game's head developer confirmed this inspiration. Takatsu also added that From Software's own "Armored Core" franchise as well as Angelo Credo from "Devil May Cry 4" were largely inspirational in creating The Pursuer.

There are numerous, easy parallels between Nemesis from "Resident Evil 3" and The Pursuer. The Pursuer follows the player around, and while he isn't overbearing by himself just like Nemesis, he consistently serves to be just threatening enough to stop the player from completely ignoring his presence. Like Nemesis, Pursuer has a formal encounter where you're deliberately supposed to defeat him and, like Nemesis, Pursuer is at his strongest in the game's final setting, where the player is once again prompted to fully defeat him.