Sword Master

sword-master-enemies-dark-souls-3-wiki-guide
General Info
Health Souls Location Drops
1000 2000 Firelink Shrine Uchigatana
Master's Attire
Master's Gloves

Sword Master is an Enemy in Dark Souls 3.

 

Sword Master Information

 

Location

  • Sword Master can be found at Firelink Shrine; to the left of the main entrance, near the bell tower with the dead firekeepers.

 

Drops

 

Combat Information

  • Weak against most forms of damage.
  • A tricky but effective method of defeating the Sword Master is forcing him off the side of the cliff. You can bait out his lunge attack at the edge of the cliff, causing both of you to fall off.
  • Another cheesy way to make him fall to his death is by standing in the corner of the narrow ledge, beside the staircase, two flights below the tower entrance. He will usually try to attack you from above, which leads to himself being launched off the cliff.
  • Safe Tactic: Make him follow you to the Firelink Shrine's entrance. He can't enter inside so smash him until he's dead from there. 
  • Parrying is an effective tactic against him.
  • Has low poise. As soon as you hit him he will lose his balance, if you time it correctly, you can hit once and roll away, nudging slowly at his health. 
  • Sword Master can parry players by the use of the Uchigatana's Hold Skill, it's best to attack with caution.
  • When summoned, Sword Master will act much more defensively than other summons, which is a useful attribute in the two fights he is summonable for, against high damage enemies with high mobility, but will also result in him being less useful in drawing a boss's attention.

 

Trivia

  • The Dark Souls I artbook contains a draft for a character quite similar to that of the Sword Master of DS3. Notes to the design imply he was planned to have an important role and lore, involving ringing a bell for dead children, but he never made it into DS1. The role of the Sword Master in DS3, appearing to guard the belltower housing the dead firekeepers, may in part be the evolution of this character concept.
  • There is a theory that Sword Master may actually be Shiva of the East, as a cut subplot from Dark Souls 1 involved Shiva searching for the Chaos Blade, which is strongly tied to Sword Master and can be found in The Sword Master's location in The Untended Graves.  Or he may actually be Sword Master Makoto, the original wielder of the Chaos Blade in Demon's Souls, which bears his name.  However, the Easterner's Ashes are heavily implied to be Shiva's, making this theory less likely.
  • It is possible that the ragged appearance of Sword Master's clothes is a result of using The Chaos Blade, whose attacks also damage the user. 

 

 
NPCs
Alva, Seeker of the Spurned  ♦  Anri of Astora  ♦  Archdeacon McDonnell  ♦  Black Hand Gotthard  ♦  Black Hand Kamui  ♦  Blacksmith Andre  ♦  Company Captain Yorshka  ♦  Cornyx of the Great Swamp  ♦  Corvian Settler  ♦  Creighton the Wanderer  ♦  Daughter of Crystal Kriemhild  ♦  Daughter of Crystal Kriemhild  ♦  Emma  ♦  Eygon of Carim  ♦  Filianore  ♦  Fire Keeper  ♦  Giant of the Undead Settlement  ♦  Great Swamp Cuculus  ♦  Greirat of the Undead Settlement  ♦  Hawkwood  ♦  Holy Knight Hodrick  ♦  Horace the Hushed  ♦  Irina of Carim  ♦  Jailer  ♦  Judicator Argo  ♦  Karla  ♦  Knight Slayer Tsorig  ♦  Lapp  ♦  Leonhard  ♦  Lion Knight Albert  ♦  Livid Pyromancer Dunnel  ♦  Locust Preacher  ♦  Londor Pale Shade  ♦  Longfinger Kirk  ♦  Lords of Cinder  ♦  Ludleth of Courland  ♦  Moaning Knight  ♦  Old Wolf of Farron  ♦  Orbeck of Vinheim  ♦  Painting Woman  ♦  Pickle Pee, Pump-a-Rum Crow  ♦  Pilgrim from Londor  ♦  Ringed City Hollow  ♦  Rosaria, Mother of Rebirth  ♦  Seeker of the Spurned  ♦  Shira  ♦  Shrine Handmaid  ♦  Silver Knight Ledo  ♦  Sir Vilhelm  ♦  Sirris of the Sunless Realms  ♦  Slave Knight Gael  ♦  Snuggly  ♦  Stone-humped Hag  ♦  The Painter  ♦  Unbreakable Patches  ♦  Velka the Goddess of Sin  ♦  Yellowfinger Heysel  ♦  Yoel of Londor  ♦  Yuria of Londor



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    • When you were spamming point down,I studied the blade.

      When you were wearing fallen knight set at high wall,I mastered the parry frames.


      When you were wasting your playtime at pontiff bonfire in pursuit of ganking,I obtained and maxed the chaos blade.


      And now that the eclipse has happened and gundyr is doing roundhouse kicks on your face,you have the audacity to summon me?

      • Anonymous

        i've always liked npcs that become friendly after you defeat them, like this guy, Mildred, Vengarl, and Tsorig to some extent.

        • Anonymous

          He's a lousy d*x user, but easy enough to predict. Just avoid his charged attack and then unload on him until you run out of stamina. Don't get hit though, because he'll stun-lock your ass back into the CoA

          • Anonymous

            I didn't see a summon sign outside the Vordt boss room. Is the only requirement killing him at firelink shrine or is the summon sign bugged ?

            • Anonymous

              agrro, back off to the cliff edge where there is the little lip to stand on (as if it was made for it). hit the wall until he dives off the cliff for an easy kill.

              • Anonymous

                Wait, do people actually think this guy is hard? I thought he was the katana dilvery service. Just bait out his anime iajutsu move and you're golden.

                • Anonymous

                  Brand new to dark souls, and I've got a question. I've gotten to the Vort of the Boreal Valley fight, and his summon sign isn't there. I am fairly certain I've killed him, so the sign should be there, right? Is there a special item I need, like the tower key. Im also not online so that may be an issue.

                  • Anonymous

                    threw him off the cliff with force as a cleric, that felt so underwhelming compared to beating him fair and square

                    • Anonymous

                      I didn't win against him. In fact, my first death came from this guy but somehow upon respawning, he disappeared and left his dropped items on the stairs. Not sure that was intentional or not.

                      • Anonymous

                        Chad Master, when everyone else is gone or dead in the Age of Dark in the Untended Graves, he alone stands with you to face Champion Gundyr, with nothing but a katana and some rags.

                        • Anonymous

                          this guy sucks cause hes at such an early level. im not sure if im supposed to kill him or find a way around

                          • Anonymous

                            Killed lizard and Gundyr on first try no problem, runned away from a naked f**k with katana like a coward.
                            The he just suicided out of shame of bullying the new player.

                            • Anonymous

                              I was playing on my girlfriends account, (I still haven't actually played the game yet) but I killed both the crystal lizard and sword master first try with no damage taken.

                              I was proud of my self and felt like I needed to share.

                              • Anonymous

                                He once used the weapon art on the stairs dashed down and plunge attacked me killing me despite having 80% of my health

                                • Anonymous

                                  I have a theory about this guy. The reason he is waiting outside firelink shrine is because he knows that heroes (or at least skilled warriors) gravitate towards it and they might have a chance of beating him in a fight, and when you beat him he decides to help you out of respect.

                                  • Anonymous

                                    Easy way to kill this guy early is to use the tree jump method to get on top of firelink shrine on your first visit. Walk around the ledge to the other side of the building and you can safely pelt him from above with firebombs or magic.

                                    • Anonymous

                                      if you mouse over the hyperlink to sword master's page in the npc list, it appears as "sword master Saber". is this intentional?

                                      • Anonymous

                                        Sword master can be summoned for Champion Gundyr after you kill him! I summoned him and a warrior of sunlight and killed Gundyr first try

                                        • Anonymous

                                          Just parry this weeb, it's not that hard or just bait him to the edge and kick him. I've been seeing a lot of bloodstains near him. Probably because of the steam sale.

                                          • Anonymous

                                            He's actually easy to kill with good distancing and by using the weapon arts that lunge forward over and over again. Classes that start with these weapons are Knight, Herald, Assassin, Sorcerer, but everyone can afford a shortsword and R2 L2. Faster than dying trying to bait him to the edge of the cliff or running around trying to get a drop attack on him.

                                            • Anonymous

                                              "Sword Master will act much more defensively then other summons" It should be than instead of then. Surprised no one has fixed this small grammatical error.

                                              • Anonymous

                                                I just noticed it today, but if you kill him without looting him, his normal drops will also appear near the chaos blade in untended graves.

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  When I got close to firelink shrine, I got a bunch of souls and found the katana on a second visit. No idea how he died but I never fought him

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    I just started the game today and I ran away from him when I noticed it was too hard for me at the moment, later I went to check him again and there was only his gear on the floor. Did he fall to his dead or something?

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      >Be him >Chillin outside firelink >Lifes gud >See some malformed goblin approaching you >Oh shid he has a weapon >Fight >Get parried to oblivion >Why even live?

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        the easiest way to kill this big ole chungus is to parry him while hes facing away from the cliff and using r1 spam with the dagger to push him off the edge.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          Kinda looks like Isshin, maybe they alluded to Sekiro with this guy? Or am I trying really hard to make a connection?

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            Not sure why this tactic isnt in there for killing him. If you go onto the roof of firelink shrine you can shoot him with arrows.

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              started as a deprived, farmed for 20000 souls, bought the tower key then went and snuck up behind him and backstabbed him with a dagger, then it took 3 pummels from the club to kill him, all before going to the high wall

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                I simply killed him by falling off the cliff which then led to him jumping after me. Went back to the spot and his loot was sitting there waiting for me.

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  I don't know if he got smarter or something but he started getting hard for me to kill mano a mano. I used to destroy this guy but now he's back on my level or something.

                                                                  • If he isn't Shiva, could he be his bodyguard ? Taking the Chaos blade from his master's ashes, and vowing to protect those who defeat him, in order to clear his conscience ?

                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                      You can cheese him from the roof with ranged spells, throwing knives, firebombs, and/or arrows. Requires the tree-jumping glitch or the tower key.

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        Probably one of the worst summons. All he does is slowly follow the boss with his WA ready and then get destroyed. Not worth summoning.

                                                                        • Can be cheesed by standing on the stone coffins that jut out over the cliff edge under the tree and just shooting him with cheap arrows. He never stops moving so you have to time it right, but he never figured out how to path his way to me so I had all the time in the world to kill him.

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            I tres him off the clff and I didn't get anything bus souls. Did this happened to someone else? Do anyone knows a way to fix this?

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              this is where the game is really dumb, i'm a knight in full armor and i can only take 3 hits before i die, and that guy needs 25+ hits before he dies despite wearing only seaweed as armor

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                Sword Master is one of the few NPC summons worth their salt if for no other reason than he plays very defensively. Having him for the Champion Gundyr fight at a low SL run makes all the difference since he serves as a perfect distraction. Wait for Gundyr to aggro to him, land a spam chain of R1 before he's pounded into the ground, then let Gundyr chase you so Sword Master can heal. 5-6 rounds of that even with a +0 weapon and it's over.

                                                                                Night and day difference to trash like Sirris, who is aggressive as fuck and then tries to heal herself with a 5 second miracle 2 feet from a boss charging up their hydrogen bomb attack.

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  He (usually) strafes left to right while in the parry hold, and (usually) approaches when he is in his attack hold. I don't have any proof this will work for everyone, so you'll have to make sure your version of Sword Master follows these rules, but if he does, this can be some helpful non-cheese strategy.

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    In my playthrough he just fell of the cliff without me doing anything. He just stared at me for 5 seconds with his weapon sheathed and just jumped.. lol.. not that i complain about it.. i got 2 levels and his sword.

                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                      I tree-jumped onto the roof to attack this guy with a bow on my first ever time through the game. He went nuts and threw himself off the cliff. Next gen AI design right there. I've had players do that to deny kills in PVP.

                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                        I did a stupid roll and fell off the cliff, was about to face palm, then i see him jump after me, gwyn bless his soul. : ^)

                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                          If you dont pick up the swordmasters loot in the firelink shrine, you can get it in the untended graves where it is in the shrine

                                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                                            Me and the Swordmaster made out and the ferocity of us parrying each others loins rendered his armor to scraps.

                                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                                              Hey,
                                                                                              I unwillingly left Sword Master's gear (the one he drops when defeated) where it would lie. Eventually I made it to the Dark Firelink Shrine. When I went to where the Chaos Blade would be, the Sword Master's gear and weapon was there! Spooky.

                                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                                But maybe he's that one master that Shiva mentions in DS1 who he refers to when talking about the Chaos Blade? I mean, he does use the Chaos Blade when summoned and you can pick it up in the spot that this Sword Master would be in the Untended Graves. I'm more than likely wrong, but its just a thought!

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