Drake

Description

Small blue drakes that fire heavy lightning blasts and have fairly high health.

Location

Valley of Drakes
A total of six drakes can be found near the bridge from Darkroot Basin elevator to lower New Londo Ruins.

Playthrough	HP	Souls
New Game	1,152	1,000
NG+	1,948	3,000
NG+6	2,435	3,750

Drops

Dragon Scale - rare

Attacks

• Fires lightning at player in 3 manners
  • Simple blast directed towards player
  • Sweep from (player's) right to left
  • Jumps and fires lightning while airborne. Occurs when in melee range. Lands causes damaging shock. Does it to properly face player

• In melee range, the drake performs a quick bite attack that deals a lot of damage.

• Performs a jump forward to catch up to the player.

Weakness

• Poison - aim poison arrows at the very tip of the Drake's head. An accurate shot will be confirm each hit with the cry of pain that they typically let out after several consecutive hits. The third arrow the poison drain will begin.

• Bleed - the drakes are susceptible to bleed build-up from bleed inflicting weapons.

• Fire, NOT Lightning; they have very high Lightning defense but average Fire defense.

• Large Swords can stun Drakes, if they hit hard enough. Drakes have high Poise, but it isn't infinite.

Strategies

• If you want to engage the drakes in melee you should optimize your resistance against lightning damage by
  • wearing a good armor (e.g. Stone Set)
  • using a shield that is effective against lightning (e.g. Eagle Shield, Effigy Shield)
  • equip the Thunder Stoneplate Ring

• Use the Darkmoon Bow with Moonlight Arrows

• Use the Jagged Ghost Blade and get behind them. Then hit them with your strong attack quickly.

• When fighting near the ravine, there is a good chance that they will take a leap back and fall to their death. Try to avoid this if you are attempting to farm Dragon Scales

• Curved greatswords like the Gravelord Sword makes quick work of Drakes because it takes very few light attacks to break their poise and stun them. Go from the left side, attack them until they're stunned. As the Drake is stunned, move a little bit more to the left, letting your stamina recover a bit and get to a safer area. Rinse and repeat.

• If you're a Sorcerer (or have decent Int and the right spells) you can effortlessly kill Drakes from very early on in the game simply by using Heavy Soul Arrow and/or Great Heavy Soul Arrow on them as both spells will allow you to stun-lock the Drakes; each spell stuns them on impact, and the stun duration is just long enough for you to fire another spell before they are able to fire their breath attack - however I suggest taking a couple steps backwards as you begin to cast the spell to give yourself some extra time since the Drake's AI will make it start to walk towards you to get in range before it tries to use its breath attack. On average, depending on your Intelligence, you can kill a Drake with only 3-4 casts of Great Heavy Soul Arrow or with 4-5 casts of Heavy Soul Arrow.

• The Lifehunt Scythe works very well against the drakes. It's a good idea to bait their lightning breath, then run towards them (while avoiding the lightning) and hit them with a running attack, because the standard attack is very slow. You take away half their health every time you bleed them.

Notes

Check the Upgrade Material Farming page for more info on how to farm Dragon Scales.

Bug Notes

Drakes that fall through the map can sometimes be found within The Abyss, with all drops still intact.