Demons in the world of Dark Souls 3 are a race born from the Old Chaos: a burning existence formed when the Witch of Izalith sought to duplicate the First Flame. This perpetual fiery explosion also birthed the first pyromancies through the Witch and her children, though many demons innately know these fire spells as well.
However, the demons are dying out, as can be seen from the tremendous number of inhuman corpses in the Smouldering Lake. One of the last of his kind, as well as one of the mightiest, is the Old Demon King, who the player can encounter near where the colossal Carthus Sandworm can be found. Despite the ancient monarch’s burning intensity, he is not too difficult to take down if once goes into this battle with a plan.
Renowned for fighting demons while being wielded by warriors in charred armor, and that have been steeped in magma-like blood enough to deal a bonus of 20% damage to all true demons, the Black Knight Weapons wielded by Gwyn, Lord of Cinder‘s elite forces, now scattered throughout the world, hold great potential for helping the Ashen One snuff out the Old Demon King’s flames.
Any of these weapons would be great to use not only for their bonus damage but also because these armaments possess greater poise health and hyper armor than many others, allowing their wielder to take on bigger, heavy-hitting foes in damage-trades. One should choose the weapon best suited to their build: the greataxe as well as ultra greatsword for Strength builds and the glaive or the sword for Dexterity builds.
One thing that all non-melee builds will notice about the Old Demon King is that he has no dangerous ranged attacks. All of his medium and long-distance pyromancies are quite easy to dodge or block and the big pile of demon carcasses in the boss arena makes for great cover.
Sorcerers will have an easy time, as they have many options, such as to pepper the fiery king with Farron Darts, blast him with Great Heavy Soul Arrows, or even launch the immense laser of Soul Stream (it can even go through the body pile!) at the aging demonic liege.
Now knowing that the Old Demon King is lacking in good ranged attacks, players can use any sort of medium or long-range offense to take him out. Of all the weapon-related tactics, using a regular bow with dark arrows is the most efficient.
Greatbows are a bit too slow, as the burning lord will continuously be closing in on the Ashen One, and crossbows do not have any dark damage-dealing ammunition to take advantage of the elderly king’s one true elemental weakness. Regular Bows have fairly fast firing speeds and access to the best kind of ammo for this fight, which makes it easy to decimate the Old Demon King’s health bar swiftly and safely.
Despite being resistant to the poison and toxic status ailments, the fiery demon lord is not immune to them and can still be defeated with such tactics at very low effort levels for the player. The big pile of dead demons makes this maneuver particularly simple to pull off.
For sorcerers, the weapon skill of the Storyteller’s Staff unleashes a purple cloud that poisons the boss after only a couple of casts. Pyromancers should take advantage of both the Poison Mist and Toxic Mist spells to perform a similar feat, however, keep in mind that both poison and toxic can be applied to the old demon, so players should use both to rapidly kill the king. Consumables that can be thrown, such as Poison Knives and Dung Pies, can also be of great use here if one is running low on FP.
Regular pyromancies would be next to useless against a being partially composed of fire, therefore pyromancer builds who do not wish to inflict poison or toxic upon the elderly demon should focus on spells that deal different kinds of damage.
Dark pyromancies, such as Black Fire Orb that deals dark damage, can take great advantage of the boss’s weakness, and will allow the player to stay at relatively safe distances while casting. However, the physical damage-dealing pyromancy known as Boulder Heave is also effective while additionally being very satisfying, despite needing to get closer to use it.
As with all other large and relatively slow bosses, the Old Demon King can be cheesed pretty easily with Pestilent Mist, which unleashes a white haze that eats away at whatever is within according to a percentage of their max health; meaning that foes with larger max HP stats take more damage.
To use this technique most efficiently, do not use the body-pile, as this will sometimes cause one to walk into their own Pestilent Mist cloud; never a good thing to do since it also hurts the caster. Instead, stay in the most open area and cast the spell before running around the boss in a circle so that he is almost constantly turning, lingering within the dank mist. Of all the tactics to defeat this boss, this is the least sporting, however, it is the most effective.
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