Dracula is the big bad final boss of V Rising. Expect a whole heap of mechanics to manage and handle before you have the right to get the kill. Furthermore, the boss has two noticeable phases and mechanics, with tactics you need to follow if you intend to beat the boss. Here’s everything you need to know to beat Dracula in V Rising.

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Here is everything you need to know to find and access to beat Dracula in V Rising. Image via Stunlock Studios.

Dracula Location¶

Dracula is located in the Ruins of Mortium, to the east of Dracula’s Castle area, found in the middle right section of the region. However, the castle requires the Blood Key to open. Map Marker

You can unlock the Blood Key recipe by defeating Lord Styx the Night Champion. Once done, go to the Jewel Crafting bench and craft it. The Blood key requires four Onyx Tears, four Primal Blood Essence, and 200 Greater Stygian Shards.

Upon entering the castle with the key, you can find a red portal that takes you towards a balcony, you jump down and enter Dracula’s throne room and start fighting the boss.

Before entering the fight, we recommend that you prepare for it. Make sure to get your V Blood Boss passive, Hunger For Blood from the blood tree for a 10% damage boost. Furthermore, start crafting. Try and find a 100% blood type that fits your playstyle. Rogue is a great choice here for the largely physical damage you’ll be dealing to Draccy. Don’t forget to stockpile potions you can get to heal you, or increase your damage.

Dracula Tactics¶

There’s a few notable features of the boss, and that there are two main strategies and features of Dracula in the first and second phase. There’s also a range of generic attacks the boss can do that you want to notice.

Firstly, the boss fight stats with either one or two abilities:

• Double Dash Slam - The boss will do two dashes and then slam the sword into the ground.

• Wolf form and adds. Draccy goes wolf form and bites an enemy that slows them. There will also be two adds that fight you for you to monitor.

He will always start with one of these, the other move then goes to the regular pool of attacks that he may do.

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One of the many mechanics in Phase one is the Bat Phase, where you must avoid many low-damage attacks, and then a stealth grab.

In term so of regular attacks, you can expect the following through both phase one and two:

• Sword Projectiles: The sword will shoot a few projectiles out from it. It’s similar to how the sword skill works, albeit stronger, and there’s a few of them.

• Blood Arcs: Dracula slams the floor, with red pools blasting out in 45 degrees from the center of the blast. Getting hit applies a Vampiric Curse to you. This will pop shortly after application for large damage.

• Axe Throw: The boss will do a move similar to the double axe throw weapon skill. He will teleport behind a pillar, then axe throw, with it doing a double helix shape. Go to the pillar facing Dracula on the other side of the room to avoid the spell’s range, as the pillar will absorb the attack.

• Sword Thrust: The boss will move forward and draw his sword back at the same time, he will then thrust forward. Stay facing the boss’s stomach or move back to avoid the attack.

• Dark Phase: Part way into the first phase, you will enter what we call, the Dark Phase. The Dark Phase has Dracula going into a shadow form, and then bats fly out all over the battlefield. Dodge these annoying enemies by evading their linear flight path. Save your movement skill, as the boss will reappear as soon as the dark phase ends, grab you, and drain your blood for about half HP. Save that movement skill for that moment.

Phase 2 Dracula Tactics¶

When Dracula gets to 50% HP, the boss will transition to Phase two by going to the center of the room. He will animate and then proceed to blow the pillars around the room up, signaling the start of the Phase. If you’re playing coop, you have time to revive your ally, or spend time draining your blood to mend, and other preparations.

When Phase two kicks off, there’s a few tactics you need to be aware of:

• Crystals: Red Crystals will spawn around the room, and have a wide aura around them. This will periodically deal small but consistent damage. They can also spawn spiky boys to hit you for more damage. Killing the crystals is a viable strategy to free room up for you.

• Middle Attacks: The boss will go to the middle of the room and start channeling blood bolts that track player movement you need to avoid. Bats can also spawn as do flying swords. The Blood bolts can also leave behind hazards.

• Walls of Fire: The boss creates walls of fire around the room, which rotate every other moment. This blocks progression around the room. This is where the crystals start becoming a problem as do the blood missiles that the crystals and boss spawn.

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In Phase 2 you need to dodge lots of stuff, deal with crystals, and deal with the boss constantly blasting things in the middle of the map.

With that mentioned, that’s the basics of the fight. If you’re playing on normal difficulty, then the fight ends here. But, on Brutal there are another two phases.

Phases 3 and 4 - Brutal Tactics¶

When the boss goes to 25% HP, there will be blood bolts that fly towards Dracula to restore his health. Avoid them getting to him, using AOE skills, damage skills, ultimate attacks that cleave like Raging Tempest, and more to stop that from happening. Feel free to switch to Frost to Cold Snap and Frost Bat as many enemies as you can Freeze and control them at your leisure. When you’ve done enough, you can drain Dracula’s Heart for phase four.

If the blood bolts hit Dracula during phase three, they’ll turn into Shadowkin, giving you a hostile add problem which you don’t need heading into phase four.

In phase four, you race against time. The boss will send a flying sword and blood bolts out every few seconds. You want to rotate attacks, dodge, and throw spells intermittently between combos and such. Make sure to have your strongest damage ult available at that time that is easy to press and then dodge the oncoming hits using Veil or a Counter spell.