Serpent Soldier are enemies in Dark Souls.
Location
Found in Sen's Fortress and The Duke's Archives, in the prison area.
Description
Standing slightly taller than the player due to the large snake head and with a scaly, humanoid body, Serpent Soldiers wield Man-serpent Greatswords and carry an unnamed shield.
Strategy
They're rather slow, especially when circling around them, and can be backstabbed and parried. Landing several consecutive attacks in a row will stagger them for a short amount of time, so a quick lightning weapon (e.g. a spear) can be a good choice.
Some of them can be led into arrow traps to heavily damage or kill them. However, they do not set off the traps themselves by walking over them, meaning the player must set them off when the enemy is between the trap and the player to avoid the damage.
Enemy Information
Characteristics
| Respawn | Yes |
|---|---|
| Backstab | Yes |
| Damage Types | Regular / Strike |
| Abilities | – |
Attacks
| Attack | Damage | Attack Type | Status Effect | Parryable | Tracking | Attack Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single Slash | 346 | Regular | None | Yes | Both | Slow |
| Thrust | 410 | Regular | None | Yes | Left | Medium |
| Double Slash | 346 | Regular | None | Yes | Neither | Medium |
| Head Butt | 371 | Strike | None | No | Left | Fast |
Defenses
| Location | Physical Defenses | Elemental Defenses | Resistances | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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|
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|
| |
| Sen's Fortress | 359 | 359 | 359 | 359 | 191 | 161 | 154 | B | B | D |
| The Duke's Archives | 462 | 462 | 462 | 462 | 246 | 207 | 198 | B | B | D |
These stats are sourced from FuturePress's Official Dark Souls Strategy Guide.
Drops
| Item |  Man-serpent Greatsword |
 Archive Tower Cell Key |
| Drop Rate | 2% | Guaranteed (Prison Guard) (The Duke's Archives) |
Trivia
- Serpent Soldiers bear similarities to a race of snake-headed enemies called the Widda from King's Field: The Ancient City.