Black Dragon Kalameet

The Black Dragon Kalameet is one of the last remaining everlasting dragons and an optional boss in the Artorias of the Abyss content. While his area can be accessed, he cannot be fought, as he is flying through it and spewing fire. To ground him, you must meet with Hawkeye Gough by unlocking his door with the Crest Key found in the Oolacile Township.

He appears for the first time while the player is traveling through the Royal Forest, he lands in a bridge and watches the player for a couple of seconds before flying away, similar to what the Red Wyvern does in Undead Burg.

He is encountered going down of the Royal Forest. Going through the opposite way to where you fight Artorias the Abysswalker, you will find a very small stair going down, that takes you to the valley of the Royal Forest. There will be 2 dogs and a treasure going backwards, and going forward you will find 3 dogs and a very long ladder going down to the place where you find Kalameet.

If you go to the giant valley where you find Kalameet before talking to Hawkeye Gough about him, he will approach you flying from the other side of the valley and fire his fire-breath to you. The fire-breath kills you instantly most of the time, though it's possible to survive one. It's impossible to fight him at this time. You first need to ask Hawkeye Gough's help. If you venture deeper in the valley you find a message saying: "If only Hawkeye Gough were here..."

After you find Hawkeye Gough by unlocking his room using the Crest Key, you have to talk to him all the times you can until you exhaust his dialogues, then close the conversation, and talk to him again, he will ask you if you need help with the dragon. Say Yes. He will ask if you pretend to prevail until the end, say Yes. Then a short cinematic will play showing Hawkeye Gough using his bow to take down Kalameet from the skies.

Now you have to go to the valley again and you will find Kalameet on the ground, though he will still use some low-altitude flying attacks. You can fight him now. Keep in mind that a fog door will appear before fighting him now.

Boss Fight

Attack patterns

• vertical breath blast - flies straight up and blasts breath straight down to generate a large area of effect
• forward breath blast - blasts breath straight forward
• arcing breath blast - flies off and then blasts breath over last position through an arc of about sixty degrees
• sit up breath blast - sits up on back legs and then blasts breath on the ground in front of him.
• lunging head swipe
• tail pound - character must be directly behind Kalameet, usually after lunging head swipe
• spinning tail swipe
• forward dash
• left and right foot stomp - stomps with left front leg and then right back leg or vice-versa
• telekinesis - Kalameet sits up and emits a small telekinetic field in front of him, grabbing anyone caught in it and causing damage. This is indicated by the eye on his forehead glowing as well as a screeching noise. The affected character will take double damage for a short time.

Strategies

Well finally, a boss dragon!

Note: Using lock-on constantly during this fight may lead you to a number of awkward deaths. If he uses vertical breath blast (his most huge AoE attack, see "Attack Patterns"), locked camera will follow him straight up and you won't be able to see the fire spreading right in front of you. I suggest you to release lock-on completely for this fight as you usually attack diffident low parts of the boss and camera locks on its torso which means it will be always looking up and won't let you attack his particular leg or tail.

So, back to our moves:

• if you see him flying straight up above you then he is preparing his vertical breath blast - just run in opposite direction as far as you can - that will save your life for sure.
• forward breath blast is easily avoided by side-rolling and he launches it only if you are quite far from him (please confirm).
• he may also perform arcing breath blast without flying off - then run straight away from him - the tip of the flame may slightly touch you but won't make any harm - this is the minimal safe distance. If you are close enough when he starts this move you can also try running in the same direction he spreads his fire-arc. If you are fast enough you can outrun the flame and end up near his neck/front legs for a counter-attack. Fire-arc also could be blocked quite safely with a fire-resisting shield (e.g. Dragon Crest Shield).
• when he sits up for a breath blast it's a good opportunity for counter-attacking - all you need is to run close enough so you place yourself by his back legs - you can slam a few hits on him or try to cut off his tail while he keeps spreading fire straight forward.
• his lunging head swipe is very likely to be his fastest and most unpredictable attack. Watch his head as he will retract his neck to the left side before the attack (the swipe goes from left to right from your PoV). This attack can be blocked with 100% phys. shield for a huge amount of stamina but beware as there's a chance of follow-up, so after a successful block get below him as fast as you can and you'll be rewarded with a couple of free hits.
• tail pound can be easily avoided by side-rolling.
• his spinning tail swipe is of much resemblance with Sif's jumping-off slash attack so block it or just roll back.
• if you see him nosediving at you, well, a couple of side-rolls will take you out of his reach.
• foot stomp is triggered if you stay below him for too long but it's not of much precision so if you stay between his front and back legs you will hardly take much damage, blocking helps only after moving a little aside.
• telekinetic grab is Kalameet's most dangerous (and spectacular) attack so far, can be avoided by side-rolling if predicted accurately but surviving it is also quite a possible thing to do. It starts when you are close in front of him and looks mostly like a sit up fire blast, but now his forehead stone (eye or whatever) starts to shine so it will be useful to have his head in sight. Surviving this mental grab takes a nice amount of HP (it probably does phys. damage so a good armor will help a lot, e.g. Set of Artorias +3 reduced damage to 1-2 bars of HP for me) but the worst part begins right after the release. A small glittering eye will appear above your head - that means you will take double damage from Kalameet's attacks. This is called "Calamity effect". While this effect reigns, his tail and head swipes are extremely dangerous so keep your distance and evade everything you can until the debuff is gone.

So, the main points so far is to stay below, beside or behind him as much as possible, not forget to raise your shield on his swipes and predict AoE and Telekinesis attacks. Fire def. equipment will help you blocking/surviving his devastating flames (Flame Stoneplate Ring slightly reduced the damage for me). Speed is of great importance during this fight as you'll have to run a lot to approach dragon's flanks. As always, lack of speed must be compensated with high poise and a nice shield but don't expect a quick fight.

Alternate Strategies

1. Melee

• Obtaining Great-shield of Artorias it's VERY helpful against this boss and necessary with this guide. (Blocking a hit with this shield consumes very little amount of stamina and it has still good protection from magic.)
• Try to be as close to dragon as you can, but not under him.
• Try to avoid his breathing attacks, if not, you must block them with your shield or he gonna kill you quickly that way.
• Using Green Blossom helps a lot. (for stamina recovery while keeping your shield up)
• For first few minutes try to learn his attacks and know when you can attack him.
• Then block his attack, and perform your attack. Patience will be your best friend. It's block-attach-block technique, with Great-shield of Artorias it's very effective way.
• If you want to obtain Obsidian Great-sword perform your attacks only when he is facing you with his tail. Be aware though, that he gonna attack you with his tail of you're behind him. Best moment to hit his tail is when he stands on his rear legs and performs breathing attack and second when he lifts off ground and rush at you, when you block this attack he's gonna be facing you with his tail, be aware that first let him attack with tail (vertical smash) and then try to hit it.
• Note: Great-shield of Artorias is very heavy and using Havel's Ring is recommended although not necessary if wearing that shield doesn't overload you, because defeating him with too much load is difficult especially when you're trying to cut off his tail, so try to be under 50% of your maximum load.

Notes

• Dark Hand helps a lot in this fight, because it has a 80% fire damage reduction, and it only weights 0.5 points. Equip it in your left hand, and switch to it when you need to block his fire attacks, but only do it when he uses his non-linear fire-breath. This will be blocked and will break your guard, but with the damage reduced, and you will have enough time to recover before he tries to hit you again. To know how to use it exactly watch the video of the boss fight at the end of the page. Don't use it against his other fire-attacks because the others will break your guard but because they hit more than once they will hit you with full damage anyway.
• After defeating him, a chest will appear near one of the water falls. The chest contains a Titanite Slab:

Drops

• 60000 Souls
• Calamity Ring
• Obsidian Great-sword (if tail is severed)

Cutting Tail

To cut Kalameet's tail off wait for either two attack: his lunging head swipe or sit up breath blast as noted in the attack patterns. You need to make Kalameet initiate a lunging head swipe (dodge or effectively block) and try to position yourself behind Kalameet so he does a follow up with a tail pound attack that goes directly down hitting the ground - allowing you free hits (1-3) before he continues to attack. You can also wait for Kalameet to do his sit up breath attack and run directly behind for 1 (2 if you're lucky) attacks.

If you effectively block his attacks and try to initiate the two attacks above you can easily obtain the Obsidian Great-sword.