Hey Duders! I know that there is a pretty strong Dark Souls community here, and I'm not much of a Reddit fan, so I thought I would come to y'all with the following question: what does the fire resistance stat mean, and specifically how does it relate to/impact the fire that the Hellkite Dragon has been using to smoke my ass for years now? I have been to wiki's, I have done google searches, etc...and while I can find tips for how to kill the thing, I have never been able to without cheating (literally cheating, with a cheat engine thing for PC). Currently I'm on NG+ and I am pretty ludicrously overleveled, but the thing still just straight up smokes me. Sometimes I can get a few hits in, but typically he'll decide to do his fly up and shoot straight down attack, which I can survive one hit from but will eventually succumb to when he stops walking around/trying to stomp on me and just does the flame attack several times in a row.

I guess I just want to know what a good flame resistant stat is. Currently, I can get it up to 388 with non-upgraded gold hemmed armor, but it really doesn't seem to do much, and even with a flame resistant shield I typically just end up stun-locked to either near death or outright death.

Could someone just give me a simple break down of what a good flame resistant number is for this fight? Is it as cheap as it feels? Is there something I'm missing? If you need any additional details, just let me know. One important point: I would say I'm okay at best at Souls games. I like them, but I tend to overlevel myself and just block shit Vinny style because I get a little too panicky when trying to dodge.

I don't think I've ever seen someone beat Hellkite by just tanking the fire. Instead, they position themselves in a way where he can't hit them easily(in an alcove), and attack during an opening. This video is an example of what I mean, though I've seen people just run behind him when he lands too, and DPSing him to bits at a lategame level.

I've never bothered killing it, if you want the weapon you get from it's tail just shoot at it with about 30 arrows from the area below the bridge. Once you unlock the gate on the otherside or something else on that end it will eventually go away I believe. Even if it doesn't you can eventually get to a bonfire a ways past and avoid it all together later. To get to the lower section of the bridge without getting hit by the fire you walk out a ways till you think you can sprint to the right side where the stairs are and run down the stairs.

@goboard: @redhotchilimist:

THanks for both of your responses. To be clear, I know how to get around him, and get the Drake Sword...I have beaten the game three or four times. This was just a personal vendetta/quest for myself, killing the asshole. Then that spiraled into not really know what the numbers mean within the system, i.e. I have 330 Fire Resistance and am using Flash Sweat and he's still taking off like, a quarter of my health per blast.

@sethmode: yeah the damage numbers on his fire are so ridiculously high you would have to equip the best fire resistant armor just to not die in one shot. It felt like a design choice to discourage people from trying to actually kill it

I think I saw some video of a guy killing it while using flash sweat (not doing the lowly "sneak up and down the stairs-manoveure"). Some years ago though.