Fume Knight | Dark Souls 2 Wiki (2024)

Breakdown of Boss Moveset:
What makes Fume Knight one of the most challenging bosses in the game is his large move-set and difficult tells to his attack animations and patterns. Coupled with high damage, strong range and high defense Raime is one of the toughest bosses in the game. To make the fight easier, here is a more detailed breakdown of his abilities and how the Boss A.I uses them. This is a general guide applicable to any class so long as they will eventually have to dodge Fume Knight.

At the beginning of the boss fight, Fume Knight will rise from the sword as soon as you approach the center of the boss arena, during his summoning animation you can hit him once or twice for a free hit, its unclear if he takes reduced damage at this stage. Once fully active, Fume Knight will begin the boss battle using his Fume Sword and his Fume Ultra Greatsword. Both of which he will use differently and evenly. Generally, moves from the Greatsword are easier to dodge, but also do more damage and have more range, while the Fume Sword attacks generally have good recovery and hard to see coming. As a general rule of thumb IMO, Fume Knights attacks in this stage are best dodged by hugging his left knee (Player's right) and dodging accordingly. Sometimes with luck and low equip load, some of his attacks whiff just by whiffing by circling to his left (Your right) and sticking to his leg. If you have trouble understanding this, try to stay to his greatsword side as much as possible but don't go behind him.

Greatsword Sweep: Fume Knight sets his greatsword slightly to his waistlevel briefly before swinging horizontally. This move is done randomly but seemingly whenever the player is constantly circling Fume Knight. This move has great range and does a hefty amount of damage, be careful not to roll when you see its startup animation but roll as soon as he swings otherwise you will roll into the attack. Unless you are going to roll away which I dont recommend at point blank range, roll towards the greatsword so you end up behind him and have time to counterattack; as this move has heavy recovery and is one of the moves you can get a good, safe punish on.

Greatsword Overhead Strike: Fume Knight sets his greatsword very low on his left side before bringing it over his head and vertically slashing down. Like the greatsword sweep, it is seemingly done at random but is more likely if the player is far away, or is healing. This move has to be recognized against the sweep as rolling into this attack will surely kill you as this is probably Raime's most powerful attack in the first phase. However, while it is the most powerful it is also the easiest to roll or dodge and punish. Even if you roll backwards and outside its range, you can still punish Raime if you rush back in quickly enough or have a long ranged weapon. Rolling either right or left right as the greatsword swings over raime's head is the best way to avoid this attack and its fairly easy to dodge.

Combination Attack Variations: Fume Knight's infamous killer combos that catch many players off guard. This series of attacks is a combination of his longsword and greatsword attacks in a 1-4 attack string, due to the complexity of this move I will list each of it's attack in swing order. Generally Fume Knight uses this whenever the player is close enough for Raime to hit, but not far away and is Fume Knight's most common attack used. Blocking this string is not recommended as all attacks not just the Fume Greatsword eat away at stamina and if you lose all your stamina death is likely due to the comboing factor of this attack.

1st Swing: This is AFAIK, always a standard Fume Longsword diagonal slash. Fume Knight will quickly raise his sword upwards and then attack, intially a difficult tell, but after seeing it enough it becomes seeable. It is a very standard attack and can be rolled in any direction but preferably to the right or backwards.

2nd Swing: 6 out of 10 times the 2nd Swing is another Fume Sword slash which is identical to the first. It is notable that if you were hit by the first swing you are very likely to get hit by the 2nd one in a stunlock chain, unless you have high poise or otherwise. The other 4 out of 10 times Fume Knight will occasionally do a slow sweep with his greatsword, identical to the Greatsword Sweep, he'll tell this by "Charging" his greatsword behind him briefly.

3rd Swing: This is where things get tricky, as Fume Knight has 3 variations of attacks for the 3rd part of the string. The most common is a Longsword stab which is quick but easily dodged by rolling either to the right or left. Rolling backwards is not recommended due to the range of the attack. If you are lucky it is possible to actually just circle Raime to his left (your right) and this attack will whiff automatically, saving you some stamina and time to counterattack. The 2nd variation is a Greatsword sweep. There are however, two ways that Raime can use his Greatsword sweep here. If Fume Knight swung his Greatsword sweep as the 2nd Swing, it is possible but rare for him to swing it again in a difficult to see tell. As the tell for this 3rd Attack a (Horizontal sweep into horizontal Sweep) is difficult because his recovery animation after sweeping at the 3rd swing is very similar to the startup animation of this sweep. Because of this it is not recommended to attack Raime after he whiffs a sweep at the 3rd or 2nd strings due to the possibility of retalliation unless you have become very familliar with the animation. Also of note, the 3rd Variation: the Greatsword sweep into another sweep is different. Instead of swinging left to right, he swings it right to left in a very wide 3/4 of a circle range and is very dangerous to get hit by so be careful.

4th Swing: If Raime is doing the complete string this always ends in a horizontal and slow greatsword sweep. The most common combo is 2 Fume Sword slashes followed by a Fume Sword stab and a Greatsword sweep. This is exactly like the normal greatsword sweep just with faster recovery frames, that being said , if you have enough stamina rolling behind him during this attack wiill leave him vulnerable for 1-2 punishment strikes.

Defensive Sweep: Fume Knight with either his greatsword or his Longsword sweep from his center outwards towards his sides in a quick fashion. This attack is done whenever you are constantly on Fume Knight's sides or his behind. The Longsword version, while does less damage and range is more dangerous because it barely has any tells or startup animation which is why I recommended to strafe Fume Knight to his left. Whether he uses the longsword or greatsword depends on what side you are on. If you are on his left, he will use the Greatsword, on his right, the Longsword. The Greatsword version has a bit of a delay and is thus easier to see. If you have a quick weapon you can punish Raime after the Greatsword version, which can be dodged either away or behind Raime. But be warned that this move doesn't have as much recovery frames as some of his slower moves.

Running Thrust: Fume Knight runs and charges at the player before either stabbing them with the Longsword or slashing them away with the Greatsword. This attack is done whenever you are far from Fume Knight or even more likely is when you try to heal when Fume Knight is not attackin or in his defensive stance. You can tell when he will do this attack as he changes his normal running animation to a much quicker one. He will also raise which sword he will use before attacking so you can have an understanding of where to roll. His longsword thrust is easier to see and dodge, Rolling towards it as it attacks you will give you a good amount of time to counterattack. It is better to roll away from his greatsword version as it has greater range and damage.

Defensive Stance: Raime pulls up his greatsword to his waist area and slowly walks and blocks for a short time, during this time you cannot hurt Raime or seemingly get behind him as his turning speed matches the players equally so that he cannot be flanked. This move is entirely a bait. If you attempt to heal or run away from Fume Knight during the defensive stance he will retalliate, most often with a Running Thrust or a Overhead strike. It is best to just wait out this move Or try to bait Fume Knight to leave this stance by moving very far away from him.

Phase 2 can be avoided!
During the first phase, if you manage to keep Fume Knight ultra great sword glowing with fire due to his upper smash attack, he will not infuse his Ultra Great Sword. You can force the upper smash attack by drinking estus flasks near him.
It's not clear when Fume Knight enters this phase; it is highly likely he will enter this stance if he is at or below 50% health. He may enter this phase early or late depending on how many hits he has taken apparently. In this phase Raime will raise his greatsword over his head and ignite it with Dark Fire and begin to two hand his greatsword and will now use only his greatsword. During his transition to his 2nd phase Fume Knight can be hit briefly for free damage, or healing time. This phase is associated with much higher damaging attacks as well as triple elemental damage, physical, fire and dark (Dark needs confirmation but having high fire resist does not negate all the damage from his attacks). Now Fume Knight's attacks are extremely hard to block as they will always break stamina gauges and or deal chip damage. His sword also sometimes has an hurtbox aura of fire. His attacks are also much farther ranged and somewhat quicker. Note that now in my experience, the direction at which you should circle Fume Knight is now changed. Instead of hugging his left knee, you should now stay off his body only slightly and start strafing to his right (Your left) as his attacks now track his left side strongly and thus it is much easier to roll towards his right to avoid his attacks.

Greatsword Stab: Fume Knight runs at the player much like his previous thrusting attack and will stab them with his greatsword. This is sometimes followed up by a heavily delayed horizontal sweep afterwards so punishing this attack is not always a good option. This attack does extreme amounts of stamina damage but is easily dodged. Fume Knight almost always uses this attack whenever he jumps backwards to dodge or whenever a player is healing and or far away from Fume Knight.

Greatsword Combination Attack: Much like his previous combo attack, Fume Knight retains it but now with a different pattern. This 3-4 hit string however is always used with his greatsword and is less complex than his dual wield combo attack. Fume Knight starts with a diagonal overhead swing from his greatsword, he tells this by briefly putting the greatsword over his right shoulder before he swings downwards.

2nd Swing: This is either another diagonal slash identical to the first swing or a much more unique overhead vertical slash in which the greatsword lands on the ground. Both attacks it is advised to start rolling and circling to the left. The Vertical slash has much more damage and range and thus back rolling is not advised. The 2nd diagonal swing it is possible to roll away from and force Fume Knight to cancel the string as you are too far away for the A.I to justify contiuing the string

3rd Swing: This Depends on whether Fume Knight used his diagonal slash or his vertical overhead as his previous attack. If it was the diagonal slash then Fume Knight is likely to follow up with a delayed but easily dodged and circled one handed stab (However in some very rare occasions it can instead be a delayed horizontal sweep). This attack of course, like his previous delayed attacks deals heavy damage and is one of the danger moves to be avoided. Fume Knight usually ends his string after this stab so you can attack him here but be warned that he has the possibility of contiuning to a 4th swing. If Fume Knight hit with a vertical overhead as the 2nd swing, then there is a chance he will use a very good tracking and delayed horizontal sweep that does heavy damage and is difficult to roll. Which is why personally I never punish Fume Knight after he does the vertical overhead as his 2nd swing as the this 3rd swing is heavily delayed and difficult to tell if he will use it.

4th Swing: Very rarely Fume Knight will use this but his 4th hit will be a delayed horizontal sweep that is dodged easily by rolling behind him. Once again, a rarity but sometime to keep in mind if you are trying to play safe.
Beam Sweep: Fume Knight empowers his sword with more Dark Fire and sweeps very slowly in a 180 degree arc in front of him. This move is very easily telled as it has a unique "pinging" sound effect when Fume Knight empowers his sword. This attack however is arguably his most powerful but also his most easily dodged and the safest to punish and counterattack. Rolling away from this attack is not recommended at all due to the extreme frontal range this attack has. Instead, roll towards the sword as its coming out so you end up behind Fume Knight. Don't worry about the sword going behind him on his left side, if you roll to his right and behind him to where he starts the attack, you will end up in a blindspot safe zone where you can safely hit Fume Knight. But be careful of positioining as it is possible, but only on a poorly directed roll to roll into the attack as its coming around to his left backside.

Sword Plant AoE: Fume Knight quickly plants his sword in the ground, dealing small damage and after a short delay shoots out a series of Large Dark Fireballs that spread out from the center of the blade to the length of 90% of the boss room and circle while they spread out. This attack is very deadly due to the unpredicability of where the fireballs will be and how quickly Fume Knight is able to plant his sword. Blocking the balls is not a good idea as they do mixed Fire+Dark damage and thus are impossible to fully resist as well as do heavy damage and stamina damage on their own. It is possible to roll through them but only with high AGI. It is also of note that after Fume Knight plants the sword there is a small AoE burst damage that he does as soon as he spawns the Fireballs which can either kill you outright or stunlocked and then finished off by the fireballs which you cannot dodge. Thus the best option personally is as soon as he plants the sword, is to sprint away as far as possible as the fireballs spread out and thus larger "safezone" gaps will open up between the fireballs and thus will be easier to dodge. Note that the fireballs do move as they spread out in a circling motion thus try not to roll into them as they move and sometimes standing still in a safezone is the best option.

Jump Attack: Fume Knight runs briefly before jumping and coming down on the player with a high damage vertical plunging attack. This attack also possibly has followups but more often than not, he does not so it can be a bit safe to punish him here. The best to dodge it is not by rolling backwards as the range of his greatsword when he plunges is enormous. Thus instead, roll towards him just as he is in the thus when he lands you will end up behind him, and safe to either punish him or heal.

Defensive Backstrike: His rarest attack that I have only seen very few times, if you manage to get behind Fume Knight there is a rare chance he will sweep his Greatsword diagonal and then behind him as he turns towards you. This attack has a brief startup animation similar to his previous defensive attacks in his first phase but is otherwise much faster, has greater range and is much more deadly. The power of this attack is the reason you are discouraged to stay behind Fume Knight for varying lengths. But thankfully due to Fume Knight's added aggressiveness in his 2nd phase it is not likely you will see this move as it is hard to stay to his backside.
Melee strategy:
Staying behind him and using a shield is easiest way to deal with him when fighting alone. Only his follow ups on first form hits you when you are behind him and on the second form shield will be your friend or precise rolling.

Another tactic is to use a 'Roll-and-Poke' strategy. Most, if not all his attacks, are easily dodged, with the possible exception of the Flame Orbs (and occasionally his side swipes if you're not careful). These attacks, once dodged, leave him open for at least one attack from a heavy weapon R1/RB. However, I found this fight easier with a rapier or a straight sword (I used an Ice Rapier +5, but I tested this with both a standard rapier +10 and a Longsword +10 and both seemed to work), as it means you can get 2, maybe 3 attacks in if you're positioned correctly. Weapon buffs are an advantage, although don't expect their damage bonus to be large, as he seems to have high resistance to every element. However, oddly enough, he is less resistant to Dark than he is to other elements.
Denial/Whispers of Despair strategy:
It is recommended to visit the first DLC to unlock the miracle Denial, this will make it so his last hit won't kill you giving you a breather from his one hit one kills, you will be able to feel more confident at going at him without risking death (but be weary of his combos). Once you enter the fog put all weapon buffs on, as well as Denial (he will not come out of the ground until you go near the center of the arena) as soon as he rises out of the ground and you are able to lock on cast Whispers of Despair this will lower his defense making him easier. One thing to note is if you see a summon do this strategy it is recommended for the master of the world to stay back and let the summon do most of the work, he/she will only need help if their health is below the half way point in which case they will need to heal. It is also recommended to only come in with one summon to make the boss fight less time consuming, another thing to note is to realize who the Fume Knight is going to target only then should you heal, be 100% positive he isn't on you or get a safe enough distance to heal. I personally recommend not to bring a shield (if you have more than 10 ADP you should roll away) this makes it so you can double hand your weapon to do more damage .

Dark/Fire resistance strategy
[by me and Xardas]
Use Dispelling ring, +3 dark resistance ring, +3 fire resistance ring, pharos mask, [gloves, chest and gaunts with highest available dark/fire resistance], as close to 99 int and faith as possible and great magic barrier. You can also use dragon tooth or 2 of them for 50/100 more fire resistance. They will work if you have them in your off hand or on your back too and they stack. Once you reach 900 resistance his special attacks will do almost no dmg. This means that any 100% physical shield will fully work, and boss can only dmg you with his physical combos. You can also enter combat wearing Velstadt's Helm so boss buffs immediately, but it might be harder to reach the 900 res mark.

Using certain maxed armor sets, and other +3 rings of resistance you can fully negate any elemental dmg, even 2 of them at once. It works on every boss with elemental effects, shuts down mages in pvp, negates buffs, allows you to walk on lava, stand in fire and take explosions in the face. You still get knocked down, but you are immune to dmg.

(Needs confirmation, but he never entered his second phase during my battle. Using Greatsword + 10, beaten within two minutes (Possible time element?). Possible I staggered him with the follow up R1 when he was about to enter it, or maybe there is a slight chance he never enters it??)
2 Handed Weapon Strategy
This will probably take many attempts before you learn the bosses nuances, but don't feel bad because the Fume knight is very tough. Use resistance items as above your highest damaging weapon(s), and Velstadt's Helm. I suggest dodging everything, so 2 hand the weapon or dual weild. The buffed vs unbuffed phases of the boss are quite different, so rather than study and gear for both, just do the second one (since you have to fight it anyway). His attacks are so aggressive and powerful that if you can beat him from half health, you can beat him from full health.

Once you learn his move-set, the hard part is not messing up, so just bring a huge weapon. Enter the room and start beating on the boss. He will summon his sword, then move, then buff his sword (provided you have the helm), and then start actually fighting you. You should be able to knock off a large amount of health before he even starts attacking. The fume knights attacks are very fast. I advise using a default spacing such you are just about out of his range. If he moves at all to attack (for me, his attacks were so fast I had to dodge immediately or get hit; and if I was too close I couldn't react fast enough), dodge and dodge again to try and get behind him. There are two exceptions: 1) the slow huge flame slash. This one starts with a sound and light cue, so instead dodge under it and move to his back. 2) The Fume knight thrusts his sword in the ground and summons a massive AoE spell. Run away and dodge the orbs it produces. This attack is much easier to dodge if you aren't in his face when he starts to do it, another reason I like to keep a healthy spacing.

U nlike many bosses, the Fume knight can interrupt his recovery whenever he wants to do a sweeping slash that is incredibly damaging. There is a spot behind his back analogous to a blind spot. Unless your whole person is in the blind spot, he will always use this attack to punish you. The only way to get damage on the boss or heal is to dodge around, completely enter the sweet spot, and then you can usually hit him or heal. Obviously if you are far enough away that his sweeping slash wouldn't hit you, you can also do things during his recovery animations. The fight isn't that simple though because the blind spot isn't always safe. The Fume knight has 2 different combo attacks that start the same, only one has an extra sweeping attack added at the end that is very delayed and will hit you if you are in that blind spot (otherwise getting hit then means you weren't in the blind spot). The Fume knight's posture will be slightly different than his usually recovery if he is going to add that extra attack, so pay attention. The slow flame sword attack also wraps around into his blind spot a bit, so be careful of that as well.

By: Karui
This is for people who are struggling on dodging his attacks, specially for slow Weapon wielders like i do (I'm using power stance Greatwords, and yes he really do punish me for that). In this strategy you will learn how to dodge, where to position yourself, and then attack. This needs patience because like all other guides, you will die ALOT until you memorize his punishes. Basically, this AI is intelligent like the developers says. He can bait you and punish you. So let's get started.
The First Phase: For me, This is much easier because you can dodge his attacks easily. Be way of your stamina, this is the best thing you need for his punishes. He does a very basic combo and the only combo he does.
Main Attack/Combo: This combo comes from 5 parts with variations: Diagonal his right to his left(1), Horizontal from his left to right(2), Trust attack forward(3), Greatsword swing from his left to right(4a), Greatsword swing from his right to left(4b)
His combo connects depending on your position and reaction. He may only do
(1) if you manage to have a great distance between him.
(1 2) if stay closer and get far after the 2 hits and we wont continue.
(1 2 3) This part is very optional for him.
( 1 2 3 4a) Be wary of this move, if you hit him after this he may continue to 4b.
(1 2 3 4b) This one is little risky if you want to have an advantage but after you dodge the 1 2 3 attacks and he brings the 4b then you can just walk through his left side and hopefully you outmaneuver and the sword can't reach you because its to high at that point.
Locking on is necessary. Dodging this combo will need timing, fast rolling on straight sword through his left side. Then the Greatsword swings need to be a little slower. Walking through his left side while hes not attacking is a bad idea because this will cause him to only do short combos and i don't recommend hitting him after he finishes if he only do (1), (1 2) , (1 2 3).
After 4a, you could hit him and it's like a 30% chance that he will connect it 4b. And 4b will be safe to hit, but be wary of Punishes.
Single Strikes: You will notice this if you watch carefully as he focus on lifting his greatsword, He has 2 variations of moves. One vertical and one Horizontal. Jump attack and running Trust attack.
The Horizontal can be dodge easily through rolling in his left side, and the vertical can be dodge by just walking through his left side too. But i really do recommend that you both roll through this attacks cause there's no telling if what kind of attack hes aiming at. If he starts do the running Trust attack, watch the running steps carefully before and dodge through his left. Same goes for the Jump attack. Timing is the only key to winning. After Dodging this attack, you can hit him but again, Punishes really does hurt.
Punishes: This is what makes the boss harder besides his optional moves that he does. THIS is by far the most crucial situation you will ever get. That's why you need to always have stamina after attacking him. This Punishes comes in 2 parts, and they're both fast and lethal. One is his Straight sword and the other one is his Greatsword.
Dodge these are instant and needs reflex. It has the same animation but same speed, you can dodge by just rolling through any directions.
Baiting/Blocking: If he does circle around you and blocks with Greatsword, He is watching you. If you attack or do something( Healing, etc.) else other than walking, He will instantly attack you.

This is where the dodging is only a 70% chance of being sucessful. He still have some optional moves, 2 tricky attacks and 1 Punish. The rest is all the same as melee.
2 Main Combo: This is the part where i'd like to say you will need to position yourself AFTER his every attacks. Yes, AFTER, not while dodging. After dodging his attacks mostly on the his left side, you should ALWAYS position yourself behind him before you hit him. I guarantee you, his is much easier cause it will take about 1 more second to make him face you again or he'll jump out. Both are useful, And doing this will allow you to be out-of-range on most of his attacks that you don't expect to connect to the first.
(1 2) Greatsword diagonal swings from his left to right. Then to his right to left
(1a 2a) Greatsword diagonal swing from his right to left Then a vertical swing in front of him.
(1 2 3) His Greatsword will not stop at 2 and instantly proceeding to 3, a wide horizontal slash from his left to right.
( 1 2 3b) He will Trust his Greatsword in front oh him.
(1a 2a 3a) He will pause at the vertical swing at 2a, then swings a wide horizontal slash from his right to left.
Always dodge to his left side. Then proceed on rotating on his back and hitting him.
Strike: Same as the Melee Trust Attack, but with larger hitbox. Roll through his left proceed to circling him till at his back then attack.
2 Tricky Attacks: This attacks are really tricky because sometimes it tends to hit you even through you taught it'll pass through.
He will Trust his sword into the ground and will damage you if your in front of him. And then Impaling his greatsword deeper and have a great AoE damage around him. Black/Fire Balls will circle outward him. In this attacks, it has a little luck on you depending on your current position. If he does this will you were attacking, then it will guarantee hit you. If you manage to have control before the impaling, you can roll outward him to dodge the AoE damage and roll inward to dodge the balls respectively. I don't recommend hitting him after this cause you just rolled two times wasting stamina.
He will light his Greatsword, having a big hit box, and slowly moving it from his right to left. This attack can be roll through from his right side. Do a diagonal roll. You can hit him after this in any direction, but Be wary of Punishes. You you accidentally rolled through his left side, remove the Lock-on and circle around him until you see his Greatsword coming at you and carefully roll again through his left side.
Punish: It's not an actual punish but he'll kind of hit you if you hit him after most of his attacks, so i recommend walking behind him before hitting. He will do a horizontal 180 degree slash. You can roll this attack at any direction but don't hit him after this.
Notes:
*If you don't know whats his going to do next, just roll through his left side mostly.