The Red Dragon is a unique enemy in Demon's Souls.
Description
The Red Dragon resembles a bat physiologically, with clawed feet and backward-bending legs, as well as leathery wings that span around thirty paces. It is covered in bright red scales and has a sharp beak in place of a snout; nevertheless it has a set of knife-like teeth, and can exhale a wave of hot flames on anything that offends its territorial sensibilities.
Location
The Red Dragon can be encountered beyond the Archstone of the Small King and beyond the Phalanx Archstone.
Strategy
The Red Dragon will never focus its attacks against the player, only breathe a swath of fire on a generalized area should the player draw near.
In the first instance in which it appears, it is impossible to actually kill the dragon; however, if the player manages to deal enough damage to reduce its HP to 70%, the dragon will fly away from the castle until the player dies or leaves the Boletarian Palace. It is recommended to avoid the upper open area of the cliff where the dragon is perched, for this reason as well as that it is still out of range of melee attacks atop the cliff. When crossing the nearby bridge for a first time (or while the red dragon is still present), one strategy is to kill the axe-wielding soldier at the front of the group, and then linger at the edge of the main bridge until the red dragon appears and hovers at hte opposite side. It will roar, and then flames will appear around its beak as it is about to breathe fire onto the bridge. While it does so, the player can retreat down the stairs and move into cover out of sight. Eventually, the dragon will lose interest and fly back to its perch. As soon as the player sees this happen, it is advised to run up and across the bridge, running or rolling past the few soldiers (the flames should have killed all but four of them), and down the stairs on the opposite side into safety.
Beyond the Phalanx Archstone, the dragon will periodically fly down to whatever segment of the bridge the player is closest to and bathe most or all of it in fire breath. With good timing and at least 13 Endurance, it is possible to run through all of the danger zones unharmed, provided the player first tricks the dragon into killing the enemies and destroying any obstructive debris in the danger zone by approaching the bridge segment and backing away as the dragon swoops down. It is at this point that the player can actually kill the dragon, using one of a few theoretical methods:
- (Verified) By climbing the first watchtower on the bridge coming from the Phalanx Archstone, the player can position him/herself between the castellations facing the direction he/she came from and fire arrows at the dragon as it passes over the bridge, ideally hitting the dragon just as it finishes breathing fire and is about to fly over the tower. This may take ~50-200 arrows, depending on how much damage the player deals per shot and how well the player aims.
- (Verified) From the same position, it is possible, with very meticulous aiming and a large supply of Old Spice, to hit the dragon with a spell, such as Soul Ray, exploiting its relative weakness to magical damage. A telescope or the zoom function of a bow are very useful in aiming the spell.
- From the start point of the bridge, near the first charred pile of corpses, it is possible, provided the player has some capacity to regenerate health or a large supply of healing grasses, to use hyper armor inherent in power attacks from Very Large Swords, Large Axes, and Large Hammers to attack the dragon's tail as it flies by, thereby trading damage without being knocked down. In any case, merely being hit by the dragon's tail is on its own non-fatal to most characters.
The Red Dragon will not respawn when killed.