Scorpioness Najka
HP: 5741
Skills: Staff Stab, Staff Slash, Tail Ground Smash, Tail Swing*, Homing Soulmass*, Soul Spear, Burrowing Strike*
Souls: 23000

Difficulty: 3/5
Deaths: 5+

Now that we're finally out of that region of the map, its time to make some progress. With the fragrant branch of yore, you can now de-petrify stoned targets. Head towards the direction of the stoned female who was grabbing onto the lever back in Majula. Head down that path and you'll eventually make it into the Shaded Woods, where the lion headed warriors and giant basilisk await. Triumphing through that area will have you meet the hideous Scorpioness Najka, who guards the way to the Doors Of Pharos.

I don't suppose you can let me go this one time?

Scorpioness Najka is one ugly, ugly woman, that much is obvious. Damn, she's even more hideous than Chaos Witch Queelag from the first game (ugly her lower half may have been, but her upper half was sexy at least). Even so, she can kill you easily with the many attacks at her disposal. She's a lot slower than her counterpart in "Dark Souls", but in a way, her kill potential is a lot higher. As long as you keep moving around, she has little that can really take you out instantly, but you should still be careful. Also, ignore the item that's glowing on top of the tree in this arena, its a complete waste of your time (its a flame butterfly).

Staff Stab - She just stabs straight forward without too much dramatic flair. Does minor-moderate damage.

Staff Slash - A horizontal slash that's easily dodged by rolling backwards or blocking. Does about the same damage as a stab.

Tail Ground Smash - After briefly staring at you for a few seconds, she slams both of her scorpion tails on you one by one. You have time to react, but if you are hit by this one, prepare to get grabbed for some massive damage. If I'm not wrong, this isn't block-able, but is easily avoided.

Tail Swing* - She does a quick swing of both her tails in a massive AOE. Hard to avoid and predict, can be dodged. Does a good chunk of your health as damage.

Homing Soulmass* - Exactly what it says. She casts Homing Soulmass, which causes a bunch of soul arrows to appear above her and home in on you for some massive damage. Even if you block, you'll take a fair amount of hurt if you don't have a shield with decent magic defense.

Soul Spear - A simple projectile forward. Easily dodged by rolling sideways.

Burrowing Strike* - She digs underground, becomes un-targetable, and searches for you from beneath. You get faint puffs of smokes showing her position, and she moves FAST. When she finds you, she unburrows for massive damage.

She has quite the arsenal, but only a few of them are dangerous enough to pose a legit threat to you. She starts off the battle sunk under the ground with only her upper body exposed. She will be launching soul spears at you. Hit her once and she gets up, revealing her true form. From here on out she starts attacking you for real. Her attacks range from simple melee strikes with her weapon using her humanoid upper body, to launching massive, heavy attacks with her scorpion lower body. Either way, as long as you don't get too close and constantly move around, you should be able to avoid most of her moves. Also, all of her moves have a fair amount of start-up and recovery, allowing for some easy attacks on her.

Her 2 simple weapon attacks are Staff Stab and Staff Slash, both fairly short ranged poke moves, one straight, one horizontal. Both are easily blocked, dodged, and will be the least of your worries. Her lower body attacks are the ones you should worry about more. Tail Ground Smash does a massive amount of damage if it connects, engaging you in a grab motion that will leave you on a knockdown state after the attack ends. Thankfully, the attack has a startup time, granting you time to move out of the way and even landing a few hits on her her.

Things aren't going so good.

Though most of her attacks are only useful when facing you, its in your best interest to attack Najka from the front. Why? If you hit her from anywhere else, she'll use Tail Swing, a massive AOE attack that is fast and does a good amount of damage. Its hard to see this one coming, and even if you block it, it does a massive chunk to your stamina. While you are staggering, she'll prepare to hit you with something else. Always stand at a respectable distance away from her, respect her attack range. For melee fighters, this is pretty much all you have to worry about. Sometimes, she'll throw up a few magic spells, which can throw you off your game.

Homing Soulmass is possibly her most dangerous attack. If all orbs hit you (which they most likely would), it does a massive amount of damage, even on block. You either dodge all or you dodge non of it. It has a fairly limited range after she casts it, so you use that to your advantage, once again, range is key. If you're too far away, she'll try to tag you with Soul Spear, which is a straightforward, slow moving projectile that is easily dodged. Other than that, she has Burrowing Strike, which is a dangerous attack that can be difficult to work around with.

Here, she burrows underneath and tries to chase you for a cheap strike that does a huge amount of damage. When underground, Najka moves VERY fast, even sprinting around randomly won't really help since she cuts across the arena very quickly. You'll need to revolve around obstacles around the map, like the stone rabbles and concrete blocks to outwit and possibly even outmanuver her. When she resurfaces, enjoy a few free hits on her before she comes in on you again.

Go get him man scorpion!

Defeating Najka nets you 23000 souls, a pretty neat amount for a boss like her. The path down is only going to get harder, so prepare yourselves before delving any deeper.