Old Demon King |
||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| General Info | ||
 |
 |
Location |
| 5301 | 25,000 | Smouldering Lake |
| Drops | Soul of the Old Demon King | |
| Defenses | ||
| Weak | Resistant | Immune |
 DarkBlack Knight Weapons |
 Fire Poison/Toxic |
 Bleed Frostbite |
Old Demon King is a Boss in Dark Souls 3. This Dark Souls 3 Old Demon King Guide features locations, strategies and videos on how to defeat the Old Demon King easily, as well as tips, weaknesses, trivia and lore notes for the Old Demon King boss.
The Old Demon King is a large demon covered in flames and wields a giant hammer in combat. Burning in the pits of the smouldering lake, the corpses of demons surround him. After being brought down to a certain health threshold, he will be empowered with a stronger flaming aura, giving him access to harder-hitting attacks.
This boss is optional and not required to complete the game. Players with long-ranged builds will have an easier time dealing with this boss, however with patience, melee builds will be able to best the boss as well. Two NPCs can be summoned to help you in the fight against The Old Demon King:
- Knight Slayer Tsorig - His summon sign becomes available by killing him after he invades. He will invade in the hallway before the collapsing rope bridge. Summon can be found next to the bonfire to the right of the fog gate.
- A White Phantom Great Swamp Cuculus - The sign can be found at the bottom of the stairs directly in front of the fog gate. If you summon her and defeat the boss with her surviving, the Spotted Whip and Cornyx's set will appear where you first rescued Cornyx of the Great Swamp.
Bosses are unique and challenging Enemies that drop Boss Souls capable of being transformed into powerful Weapons, Spells, and Items for the player.
Dark Souls 3 Old Demon King Location
Where to find the Old Demon King in Dark Souls 3?
- The Old Demon King can be found in Smouldering Lake, which can be accessed via collapsing the wooden bridge in the Catacombs of Carthus. The boss room is located to the left of the entrance, behind the Carthus Sandworm.
Old Demon King Drops
What do you get from defeating the Old Demon King in Dark Souls 3?
- Souls: NG (25,000) | NG+ (56,250) | NG++ (61,876) | NG+3 (84,375) | NG+4 (90,000) | NG+7 (95,625)
- Souls for Cooperator: NG (6250)
- Soul of the Old Demon King
Old Demon King Notes & Tips
What should you know about fighting the Old Demon King in Dark Souls 3?
- Attacks deals Fire Damage and Strike Damage.
- Weak to black knight weapons (Greatsword, Sword, Greataxe, Glaive) and Dark Damage.
- Resistant to Fire Damage and Poison/Toxic.
- Immune to Frostbite and Bleed.
- Parryable: No
- Can be poise-broken, what breaks most of his attacks. However, if the player manages to stagger him by hitting his head, he can perform a critical strike.
- The Old King will release his flame around 10-30% HP, dealing massive damage around him and extinguishing himself, leaving him hunched over on the ground, unable to properly fight. This will not happen if the player manages to defeat him with ONLY either Poison/Toxic Mist or Pestilent Mist.
- He will try to swipe at you with his left hand if you come close.
- He will also try to raise his mace to attack but is unable to do so completely as it slams back down to the ground.
- Warning: If you wear a piece of the armor of thorns set and a weapon where you fail the one-handed stat requirements; you will play the weapon bounce animation every time your roll causes damage to the boss. This happens even if you meet the two-handed stat requirements.
Old Demon King Stats
| Playthrough | NG | NG + | NG ++ | NG +3 | NG +4 | NG +5 | NG +6 | NG +7 |
| Health | 5,301 | 7,745 | 8,520 | 8,907 | 9,294 | 10,069 | 10,456 | 10,843 |
| Defense | 112 | |||||||
Dark Souls 3 Old Demon King Boss Guide & Strategies
DS3 Old Demon King Video Strategies
Below are video strategies from our Youtube Partners.
Dark Souls 3 Old Demon King Attacks
| First Phase | |
|---|---|
| Swing | The demon will swing his hammer, causing fire and melee damage, beware AOE, move under the attack, toward the weapon, or get behind or below him. |
| Fire Ring
|
The demon will conjure a circle of fire that will move inwards or outwards from him, can be blocked or dodged through. |
| Fireball- shower |
The demon bashes his hammer in the ground and then starts to turn it in circles above his head. |
| Fire Glyph |
The demon bashes his hammer in the ground, linear trails of fire covering different directions will emit from the center. Take Evasive Action. |
| Meteor Rain |
A phase two move, multiple slow flaming rocks will fall towards the player. Slight tracking. If you are quick, hit and run works. Evasive action and use of pillars to absorb shots is effective. |
| Lava Breath |
The demon will spew lava at those in front of him. He will move his head to extend his AOE. His range is short and those flanking him or under him can smack him. |
How to fight and beat the Old Demon King
Strategy 1 (Melee)
The first phase: The best opening is when he slowly vomits lava from your left to right. Just run next to his left leg (your right) and attack a few times before he is done. The next best opening is when he lowers his club to his left side and slowly swings it to his right side. Again move towards his left leg without target lock and dodge the swing behind him. Do not attack yet because he is about to continue with an AoE blast. Keep moving towards the tip of his tail and when you catch it you are far enough to avoid the AoE and take a few swings at the tail. A weapon with a lot of range and wide swipes is recommended.
Staying too long near him and especially in front of him triggers the fast AoE mouth blast. Attacking only a couple of times and then retreating to medium range to wait for openings is easier.
In the second phase: Now Old Demon King has a certain attack pattern: 1-2 melee attacks/combos and then a ranged attack. Usually no two ranged attacks in a row. Same openings as in the first phase work here too but triggering them is different. You can outrange every long range attack of this boss. As you return to medium range to catch his melee attack openings do not stop approaching. Keep moving towards him until he does a melee attack. If he lowers his club for the slow swipe do the same thing as in phase one. If it is any other melee attack you can dodge or even walk under him to get behind him.
Strategy 2 (Sorcerer)
One of the easiest bosses for Sorcerers. Just stay out of range and spam Great Heavy Soul Arrow until the boss is dead. Circle around the pile in the middle of the arena to take cover from his AoE attacks and keep moving.
Strategy 3 (Toxic)
Dodge his attacks until you get into range and cast Toxic Mist. Once the boss is poisoned, stay as far away as you can so he can't hit you with his spells. When the toxic wears off, get close and reapply it. Four rounds of toxic should do it.
The Storyteller's Staff's weapon art is also very effective and a single cast will nearly defeat the boss by itself. One or two attacks will be enough for the poison to finish him off without having to reapply it.
Strategy 4 (Bow)
The Old Demon King can be easily defeated using a bow if you have a shield with good fire damage mitigation like the Dragon Crest Shield. Other than his fire spray attack, which you should block, there is nothing he can do to you if you keep your distance.
He moves slowly enough that it's possible to simply shoot him whenever he stops to perform an attack and continue to run away without him ever getting a chance to hit you; at some point in the fight, he'll start moving a bit faster, but it's still not fast enough to run you down.
It also helps to take advantage of one of the two mounds of corpses in the arena. Circle around one walking backwards, keeping your distance, and dodging the lava spew, lava AoE, and meteor attacks. Combined with the Cloranthy Ring, the Grass Crest Shield, and lots of careful rolling, this boss becomes almost trivial.
Strategy 5 (Pyromancy)
This fight will either be near impossible or very easy depending on how far you've advanced your pyromancies. The boss is extremely resistant to fire spells, so your best bet instead is to attack him with non-fire pyromancies. Boulder Heave will work, but your very best bet is getting access to Karla's Dark Pyromancies.
Using Black Fire Orb will make this an easy fight. Stay at range and evade his melee attacks, which have relatively limited range. During Phase II, the only attack you have to worry about is his expanding fire circle. You can either move out of range, or roll through it at the right time to dodge the damage. Whenever he casts a spell, he leaves himself open to several Black Fire Orbs. When he summons the meteor shower, simply run until the meteors explode. At around 20% hp the boss will collapse and explode. As long as you outrange this explosion, the fight is essentially over, since the Old Demon King will simply lay there and not attack anymore.
If you do not have access to Karla yet, another method would be using Black Serpent, although the hit rates are not that reliable, as it travels on the ground and the only hitbox it has to do with are the legs of the Old Demon King.
Strategy 6 (Pestilent Mist)
For pyromancers which do not have access to Karla, pestilent mercury might be a good spell to use (30 int requirement). This works for sorcerers as well but would most likely not need it as they have their normal spells. You can cast pestilent mercury around a large pillar in the boss arena and run around it, letting the old demon king chase you, evading his attacks and damaging him at the same time.
Old Demon King Lore Theories
- The Old Demon King is the oldest and the last remaining witness of the chaos of Izalith. "The shriveled Old Demon King is now like a clump of burnt ash, but he is the last living witness of the Chaos of Izalith." - Soul of the Old Demon King.
- "This weapon has survived since old Izalith, and is imbued with remnants of the Chaos Flame." - Old King's Great Hammer.
- The Old Demon King is part of an overarching theme that links chaos to vegetation, and which involves The Bed of Chaos from DS1 (read theory).
Old Demon King Trivia
- If, when you've entered the arena, you go straight forward and then, look carefully up on the left side on top of the pile of dead demons that are surrounding the whole area, f.e. Centipede Demon body, a boss from Dark Souls.
- During the second phase of the fight, if the player listens carefully to the song playing, they can hear a small slightly remixed excerpt of the Bed Of Chaos's theme.
AnonymousEasiest boss. 1st try no summons, i died more .to the old man katana at the beginning of the game
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Shredded this motherf*ckr with a Heavy Great Machete +5/6, Great Magic Weapon, and Iron Flesh.
Rings I used were Havel's, Fire Stoneplate, Sage, and Magic Clutch
- Anonymous
Isn't this boss just a reskin of the normal demons? different is his face and hammer and new moves.
- Anonymous
Be on the lookout for his balls grabbing you, you CANNOT escape him once you are between his legs because of retarded weapon and boss collision.
Cool area, neat lore, nice design, but this just feels like a basic ds1 boss fight, stick is the rear and smack it until dead
This whole area is quite nostalgic, in a good way. The way all these corpses lie there really makes you wonder, if a demon genocide and the whole "Chaos flame dying" thing was the right thing to do after all, since while they sure were hostile demons, each and every of them were once people of Izalith. And the Demon King himself, he really is an old and tired man, even crumbling not long before death, unable to do anything, not unlike Sif (the only boss in DS3 to do so, afaik). And when he is finally put to rest among his people, you can't help but feel a bit sad, if you kept the lore in mind, that is. And an entertaining and hard fight too, if fought before Irithyl! 10/10
The arena is full of capra demons, tauros demons, so nostalgic
- Anonymous
Level 53 Pyro build, didn't even bother with spells, blessings, or pyromancy. Darkfist to his nuts, a bit of rolling and some light strafing to his sides and it was an easy fight, had to use two estus because of his ground slam but he's so slow you don't even get punished for it.
- Anonymous
Beware-- when he releases his fire at the mentioned 10-30% mark, you can be trapped by his hammer if you are rolling through it when he starts the fire release animation. I got stuck and couldn't walk or roll out.
- Anonymous
The "read theory" link leads to "The Mysteries of Cainhurst Garb & Architecture."
- Anonymous
The "read theory" link leads to "The Mysteries of Cainhurst Garb & Architecture."
- Anonymous
I think he either glitched out at the end of my fight with him or because I led him to the water in his arena he was no longer burning red. He just sat there and I hit him with the butcher knife like 4-5 times without retaliation. No mention of the water extinguishing him though?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Old demon king gives 20,000 not 25,000 on NG with fire fades edition. Ds3. 100% unless it's a glitch
- Anonymous
I just realized that I clobbered an old man to death with a weapon I got by clobbering another old man to death…
- Anonymous
i only learned about him exploding himself near death on my 7th playtrough because usually he dies so fast
- Anonymous
This guy exists purely to get Greirat back faster from his 2nd trip after you've rested at the Irithyll bonfire.
- Anonymous
Yall are wrong for feeling bad for killing this guy. HE'S LITERALLY A OLD DEMON, AND DEMONS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ASSOSIATED WITH SATAN. So if you feel bad for killing this old demon, seek help from God.
- Anonymous
Easy boss but also very annoying as you get stuck under his body and can't roll away from his AoE spam.
- Anonymous
Killing A sad, downtrodden old man in the absolute worst state of their life, Now when has this happened before?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This boss is so awkward to fight. Like, it’s big, but small enough to the point where its legs get in your way, as well as the huge hammer. Not to mention the AoE spam that clouds the whole screen. They really should have made him bigger, like Stray Demon sized or more.
Thank God I had a ranged build.
- Anonymous
A boss that spams AoE and a camera that shifts every 10 seconds. Great combination.
- Anonymous
theory: the wood demons of ds3 are second-generation demons born from fragments of the bed of chaos
- Anonymous
I feel so evil when I kill this guy. He’s old and dying, and can barely keep up with the fight. Poor old man.
- Anonymous
This wiki is outdated. It says the old demon king is week to dark but my deep battle axe +6 did only 95 damage. Instead, my claymore infused with fire gem did 350 damage.....be careful guys
- Anonymous
beat him after 4 tries at SL42 with Black Blade +5, decently simple fight just stay right infront of him and most of his attacks will miss. But the last weird fire explosion left me with like 2 hp.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This guy (and greatwood, to an extent) are a change of pace from the usual animu-fast aggressive bosses of ds3. It's back to ds1 with the aoes, slower but more dangerous attacks, and gimmicky attacks like that meteor or ring of fire he does.
Fits the place pretty nicely too, considering that demon ruins has dead ds1 demons scattered all over the place
- Anonymous
Boy, you know **** is bad when the bad guys are dropping like flies. I really do enjoy how DS3 told a story not through written text, but using the environment. To show and not tell, or so to speak.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I being dead serious when i say ths guy gave me more trouble than twin prince, nameless king, abyss watchers, champion gundyr and gael
- Anonymous
Somehow beat this trash boss the first time, despite the absurd AOE spam in every single attack (not hyperbole; even its weakest attacks spawn an AOE wave of crap to punish you for being a melee character). What a terribly designed boss.
- Anonymous
Level 53 Dex melee build, finally got him. The fight took about ten minutes doing 170 dmg per strike with a rapier. All of his attacks are pretty easily avoided with ample openings for close attacks. It's only hard because you have to do it million times with very few mistakes allowed. Tedious or punishing I should say, more than hard.
The only useful observation I have is that he doesn't seem super weak to dark (per this page), or maybe he's just weaker to thrust than he is to dark. The phy+dark damage of my infused halberd is higher than the phy damage of my rapier, but I got way less damage using the halberd. Could be a one-off.
- Anonymous
On my 3rd playthrough right after I killed Old Demon King a fire ring killed me and Cuculus. I still got his boss soul on my inventory but not the 25000 souls and neither the spotted whip nor the cornyx set were at Cornyx cage.
- Anonymous
Just beat him 2nd try I just used the dead demon body pileups as a shield when he does the aoe or the rain down fire balls jutsu
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
No one:
Dark Souls: Hey, wanna beat another old man to death?
- Anonymous
Finished the game 2 times, currently on a SL1 run. I love the game, but this boss is the opposite of fun. Cheap AoE fire attacks that knock you down, one after the other, you constantly get stuck between him and his hammer at close range... I dont think im bad at the game, and probably you can beat him legit without getting hit, but this battle is just not fun.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I was SL 56 with an Uchigatana at +5, was I over leveled for the old demon king?
- Anonymous
this man exploded taken almost like 65% of my hp with 23 vigor and an ember what the hell and also nearly full hp
- Anonymous
I hate this boss. He just uses the same 3 moves all the time and if you cant dodge his stupid attack like 10 times he staggers you and when my character stand up he just bonks me with his stupid hammer.
- Anonymous
Just beat this boss with a garbage build and a +4 hunters bow. Bring 99 standard arrows. Just run to a safe distance and shoot. Only took a few min. This boss is a joke.
- Anonymous
only noticed how **** his hitbox when trying to hit him with lightning bolt ... seeing the bolt dissapear and do no dmg on about 2/3 of his body
- Anonymous
Poor grandpa is king of nothing, all the demons are dying and turning into stone. Everything in the Souls universe is either decaying or in the process of being corrupted by something. Can't have sh!t in Lothric.
- Anonymous
Stand directly against his crotch and watch for his close-range combustion attack and the one where he creates the ring of fire, and you'll be able to avoid most of his attacks.
- Anonymous
I always do worse on this boss when I try to have fun with summons. Even when his aggro is on someone else I managed to get slapped around when I move in close to attack. Fairly easy for a caster though even without the poison/toxic/mist stuff.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
First tried. He does not catch up to zoners well? first attempt was a sorcerer with great heavy soul arrow...
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This is a boss fight I seem to never get tired of.
No cheap attacks, his moveset is varied enough to not get stale quickly (unlike e.g. Nameless King) and some attacks require players to be on their toes.
Well done on this boss' design, FromSoftware!
- Anonymous
Usually one of the easier bosses for me, but in my current playthrough he absolutely kicked me in the nuts several times. His timing for that close-up fire orb was too perfect and he got me every time I even tried getting close. Had to patiently fully upgrade the black knight sword to finally beat him.
- Anonymous
Thank you Brutus and Dante for helping me kill this boss. Third time challenging it and finally killed it. Praise the Sun!
- Anonymous
Posting this again since it didn't work the first time, but fighting this guy SL1 on the base game has to be the hardest boss so far, i worry about pontiff
- Anonymous
this MF plays dirty as all hell, waits for you to dodge then headbutts you in the face just to breath hell fire in your face at the same time, and thats not even on NG+
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Sunlight Straightsword 5+ and 40 Faith on NG
Slices through like butter.
- Anonymous
Old demon yells at worm to get him to shut up at 3am the anor londo times paper
- Anonymous
hes just wants to be left alone and sleep I can respect that
- Anonymous
Knight Slayer Tsorig's summon sign is available even if you don't kill him first. I was able to summon him before encountering him anywhere.
- Anonymous
Generally believe he’s a underrated boss and I think there’s a reason for it.
With what little lore there is on Demons, I believe they don’t get enough respect simply due to just not knowing enough. I believe that the fire demons, Stray Demon, Old Demon King and Demon Prince could be really tragic boss fights but there’s just no lore on them to really connect to there struggles.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Has an annoying quirk where staying under him can cause him to "push" your character around when he winds up attacks like a moving invisible wall. The cathedral giants have a similar effect when you're between their legs but they're so slow it doesn't matter. At least when the stray demon throws me around it's because he has a grab.
- Anonymous
trying to keep Cuculus alive is almost impossible
Feels like she tries to suicide
but in the end, after 6 embers and 5 Homeward bones lost i did it and got rewarded with the spotted whip
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
im gunna do a stupid lore theory. so in ds1 the demons are all made of actual flesh and stuff but in this game there all wood what else is wood bed of chaos so like what if when the flame was dying it essentially tore apart the bed of chaos for more material to make demons
- Anonymous
Nobody cares about the boss we are here for the Chaos Bed Vestiges pyromancy
- Anonymous
I killed him quickly and threw a boss soul on his death spot I didn't need at all as thanks for killing the Taurus demons the ds1 and the boss was easy but super irritating constantly hitting me off the ledge.
- Anonymous
I had a lot of fun fighting this boy! Not super challenging but he has some crazy AOE that caught me off guard and killed me a couple times. Demon fights are usually boring but this adds just enough variety to be a good time.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Certainly not the most honorable strategy, but the Storyteller's Staff strategy definitely does make for an effective way to kill this boss. 2 applications is enough to kill him, provided you have no summons to boost his health. Though you could get away with just 1 application as a Pyromancer if you did the smart thing with Wolnir's soul and picked up Black Serpent, which gets you a a damage source Old Demon King is weak to.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I accidentally found a way to cheese this guy, if you just cling to his crotch at the front and whack him a lot, he never hits you with his attacks.
- Anonymous
I started playing this series at DS3 so I'm not too sure about the finer details of the demons' lore. Were Demons inherently evil? The lore states they were created by the Witch of Izalith as a byproduct of trying to recreate the First Flame. Sure, their appearance is grotesque and Biblically sinister- but does anyone know if it's confirmed they were indeed born malicious beings?
- Anonymous
ngl, one of the best fights in the series i reckon, criminally underrated
- Anonymous
This page repeats itself halfway down. Might wanna fix that. 2 trivia sections lol
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Found a bug at his fog gate. Was summoned as a sunbro, host and cuculus both clipped through the fog gate without interacting with it and i wasnt able to follow. Can anyone replicate/confirm this?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Oddly enough, the near-unusable Crystal Hail rekt this boss so hard for me it wasn't even funny. Maybe try that if you are a sorcerer for lols.
- Anonymous
killed him in 20 seconds with +7 weapon and human pine, is this a real fight? he can't even hit you if you walk towards him when you're right under him in front waiting for your stamina to refill
- Anonymous
I honestly really enjoyed this boss fight. Its attacks are distinct and varied enough to not cause any confusion, and you can easily fall back and heal everytime you're low (unlike that mf Sullivan), plus those two dodgy fiery attacks are just fun and cool. This and the Twin Princes probably are my favorite main game bosses.
- Anonymous
I consider this guy the 2nd best demon boss in souls next to prince that really shows how god awful the other demons are
Lore Theories • Because of the differences in body type between the Old Demon King and the Demon Prince, it is unlikely that this boss shares any relation to the Old Demon King. Because the genetic lineage of the young lord of Demons can be ascertained visually from its ancient parentage of a race of creatures that can live for millennia. Might want to give that another look.
- Anonymous
I got only 20000 souls well a littl more since I am wearing silver serpent ring, but I definitely didnt get 25k as this states. Does anybody have some idea.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
After killing him first time I was sad, not to say somehow 'guilty'. Then I saw piles of capra/stray/centi demons and this fockin taurus - remorse instantly vanished - would load and kill him again.
fire boss who is immune to frostbite, nice
3
+10
-1