Don’t miss it
It goes without saying that there are minor spoilers involved (mainly just names that don’t have any context) for Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin herein.
This tip is mostly for returning players who want to experience the new content — I don’t want people to miss out on it for making a simple mistake.
Spoilers:
The Dark Souls IIre-release features a new character and boss,Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin.
In order to face him as an encounter, you must have defeated Vendrick before you fightNashandra, who can be considered the former “final boss” of the base game’s story.If you don’t kill Vendrick first, you won’t get to see the new boss — period. You’ll have to replay the game to find Aldia. I actually made it all the way through and expected to face him, only to find out that I did it wrong. Alternatively, you can use a bonfire ascetic to restore the checkpoint [credit to community member Stairmasternem. Just tried this out and can verify. You will, however, have to fight the Throne Watcher & Defender again, as well as Nashandra and Aldia one after another. Due to the effects of the ascetic they are harder, so it’s not recommended].
Killing Vendrick is much easier if you acquire any number of Giant Souls, four of which can be readily found in the world, and one of which needs to be obtained from from the Ancient Dragon, one of the toughest fights in the game. My advice? If you can’t kill the dragon just get four — Vendrick’s attacks are easy enough to dodge.