Slaying the Hellkite Dragon
3. Boss – Hellkite DragonLocation – Firelink Shrine/Undead Parish
Reward – Key To Depths, Demon's Great Machete
Note: due to the open-world nature of Dark Souls, it is possible you may face a different boss before you reach Hellkite Dragon.
When you first step onto the bridge and see the Dragon resting on top of the church spire - as well as the long path that you have to take to get past him - you will wonder whether it's even possible to slide by.
Before you head across the bridge, make sure your health-bar is full by taking a drink of Esthu. You're going need to run like hell toward the centre of the bridge where you can see the guards in front of the Dragon.
Equip a shield and have it at-the-ready as you run. The guards will start firing at you but the shield will deflect their arrows. Stick to the right-hand side and as you approach the centre of the bridge you'll see an alcove with a set of steps. Get down there as quick as possible.
During this rush, the Dragon will have spotted you, descended onto the bridge and killed all the guards with his fiery breath. At the bottom of the stairs take an immediate left and go through the furthest archway. You'll see a set of ladders. Kick them. If you die from this point forth, you'll now be able to climb these ladders from where you spawn at the burning fire. That way you won't have to fight through all the enemies to get back to this point. Phew!
Head back through the other archway in the room at the bottom of the steps. Keep to the right and you'll see the Dragon's tail in the distance. You need to have a long-range weapon that you can get from the merchant not far from the last checkpoint. Use your short bow and large arrows to shoot at its tail. You will need 17 arrows to take it clean off.
Once you do this, the Dragon will fly back up onto the church spire. You'll need to head back up the steps and onto the bridge to tackle him head-on. You'll need lots more arrows. Don't stray too far from the top of the steps otherwise you'll get fried.
Fire an arrow at the Dragon's head. You'll knock off a few health points and he'll jump down to challenge you. When you see him preparing to breathe fire at you roll back down the steps before you're caught.
If you stay on the stairwell, the Dragon will patrol the bridge so make sure you descend fully into the room below. You'll hear the stomps above as he makes his way back to the church spire. Head up quickly and he'll slowly turn around to challenge you. As he's doing so you should be able to get in two quick shots with your short bow to knock off a fair chunk of health.
Head back down the steps, quickly, before he breathes his fire again. You'll have to repeat this process over and over again to finally kill him. It's a slow game of cat-and-mouse and though it might seem that he's never going to die, he will. One word of warning: make sure you stock up on as many arrows as possible.
Good luck, folks. You're on your own now...
