Dark Souls 2 - Nashandra, final boss
Don't start the fight against Nashandra until you've checked our essential guide to the boss's strengths and weaknesses across both phases.
The final fight against Nashandra isn't particularly complicated, but you'll want to keep your wits about you nevertheless. Read on to find out how this boss behaves in both of its phases, and how to make the early part of the fight a little easier for yourself.
How to kill Nashandra
When this final Dark Souls 2 battle begins, make sure you stick by the entrance and allow Nashandra to approach you. The reason for doing so is pretty simple. She summons a trio of dangerous objects that will curse you if you get too close, but if you stick to the entrance you'll be far enough away from this threat to avoid it entirely.
As for the boss's melee attacks, expect either a pair of horizontal swipes, or a singular slicing attack that's delivered across the vertical plane. Just evade or block these attacks before following up with your counter-attacks - just don't get greedy if your weapon speed isn't up to the job. If you back up away from Nashandra at any point, expect to take a linear Darkness attack to the face.
When the boss reaches around 50% health, Nashandra will engulf her hand in Darkness. Get out of the way immediately when you see this happen, because the damage potential of the imminent attack is pretty brutal. When she summons more of those objects, get over to the other side of the room, wait for her to approach once more, and continue your combat strategy as before.
As soon as you've defeated Nashandra, you be able to get stuck into the deadly perils of Dark Souls 2's New Game Plus mode...
Head back to the first page of our Dark Souls 2 walkthrough walkthrough for more guide content.