Lorian, Elder Prince is a boss enemy in Dark Souls 3.

Lorian, Elder Prince

General Info
Health Souls Location

Phase 1
4,294

Phase 2  
       3,436        

NG: 85,000 Grand Archives

Drops

Soul of the Twin Princes

Cinders of a Lord

 
Defenses
Weak Resistant Immune

 Lightning

 Frost

 Magic

 

 Dark  Poison & Toxic

 

Lorian, Elder Prince Information


Lorian, Elder Prince is a clever swordsman with both ranged and melee capabilities. With an array of tricks and accompaniment of his brother, Lothric, Younger Prince, he is a dangerous boss.

  • You can summon Sirris of the Sunless Realms to help you fight this enemy (must have completed her questline). Her sign can be found just in front of the fog door on the left.
  • You can summon Orbeck of Vinheim for this fight if you have given him every magic scroll and purchased every spell. His sign can be found at the top of the staircase leading to the Princes.
  • Summoning NPC phantoms is a double-edged sword in this battle, as they are not very competent in hitting Lothric, and will die rather easily (Sirris in particular has a very low Estus stock). Due to the HP recovery aspect of this bossfight, the second phase will drag out much longer and will become more difficult with dead summons. Therefore it might be easier to brave this battle without phantoms, especially in NG+ and beyond.
  • This boss is not an optional boss fight.

Location

Drops

Combat Information

  • Weak to Magic damage.
  • Can bleed.
  • Weak to Frost.
  • Extremely weak to Lightning damage.
  • Strong against Dark damage.
  • Immune to Poison and Toxic.
  • He can be parried, but he will only take counter damage for you cannot riposte him.
  • You can riposte him after you stagger him.

 

 

Attacks

First Phase (unaccompanied by Lothric, Younger Prince)
Attack Name Attack Description
Flame Wave Wields his sword with two hands and crapes the blade of his sword down on the ground in an upward golf-swing-like curve, sending out a 4 pronged wave of fire in the shape of a cone, progressively getting wider, in the direction he was facing. It has relatively short length.
Teleportation Teleports to a location in the room. He can do it during any melee combo and will end up behind the player, ready to continue the onslaught. He can also do it to distance himself and set up for his Flame Beam attack.
Holy Flame Beam Teleports a distance, lifts his sword skyward, blade up, and charges it. Slowly it will gain flames and a golden light and then he will slam it down towards the player and a beam of fire and light will be sent out. The beam is thin enough to be dodged with one roll but has considerable distance and damage
Horizontal Slash Swings his sword from left to right across the front of his body, towards the player. He will also lunge slightly during this move.
Double Horizontal Slash Does a horizontal slash two times in quick succession in front of himself, from left to right and then right to left.
180-Slash Slashes and spins 180 degrees quickly. Used to hit enemies behind him.
Double Horizontal Slash - Vertical Slash Performs the double horizontal slash move and then quickly follows up by raising his sword up for a short moment and bringing it down on the player.
Stand Slam Stands up momentarily and slams his sword down, vertically. The sword will be charged with light.
Thrust Brings his sword back momentarily and then thrusts it forth. The sword will charge up with fire for some moments.
Vertical Slash - Horizontal Slash Performs a vertical slash and then follows up with a horizontal slash, from left to right.

 

Second Phase (Lothric, Younger Prince is on his back and his sword is now flaming)
His attacks have become perhaps slighlty more agile and noticeably more deadly, but the movements are identical.

 

Strategy 1 (Melee)

Phase 1: It's a pretty easy fight during the first phase as his attacks leave big windows. Move towards him, bait his combo which is most often a double horizontal slash and then roll backwards out of harms way, moving back in at the end of the combo to capitalize on the window. Be cautious because some of his combos, like the double horizontal slash, will sometimes be followed up with a vertical slash and there seems to be no way to tell which combo it will be aside from waiting and watching. Although a sure fire window is after the holy flame beam attack and after the flame wave attack, those never have immediate follow-ups so if you really want to play it safe only attack then, but often it will be pretty easy to attack him during other combos, just risky. Try to not get hit at all to conserve all estus the second phase.

Phase 2: Now Lothric is on his back. Lothric will do 3 things. He will cast multiple tiny homing magic projectiles into the air which will float until locating you and then beam towards you. When that spell is cast, just roll through them. When you see them cast, distance yourself from Lorian to allow yourself to only focus on dodging that sorcery. Move in for attacks on Lorian during his windows after combos and while Lothric is inactive (he has a lot of down-time during the fight; he's not constantly casting). As before, you can easily roll to the right through Lorian's two horizontal slashes.  The best thing to do during this phase is to try to get behind him as much as possible because, if you attack from behind, you will deal damage to both Lorian and Lothric.  Be careful of one combo that Lothric and Lorian will often do. Almost right after Lorian performs his holy fire beam attack, Lothric will fire off a homing spear sorcery, so now just be sure to be ready to dodge right after Lorian slams his sword down. And when you do get Lorian's health all the way down, move in and barrage Lothric with attacks for only 2-3 seconds and then run away for he's casting a healing miracle which doubles as an AOE blast (think Wrath of Gods) on Lorian which will revive him with about half his health regained. You can also hit Lothric several times after he casts his healing miracle.  Run back in as soon as you see the AOE dissipate and do as much damage as you can before Lorian becomes truly active again.  The fight will just continue as normal and the next time Lorian goes down odds are Lothric is dead, very close so it will be the last time he goes down.

 

Sidenote:

If you're going solo against the Princes and you have the stamina for it, a relatively safe strategy through the whole fight is the old Souls mainstay against humanoid enemies. A lot of enemies and bosses in DS3 punish this strategy, but it remains perfectly viable against Lorian and Lothric.

You'll want to 1) equip a shield with good fire and physical defense (the Dragon Crest Shield should be viable for most builds), 2) lock on and 3) sidle your way right up to Lorian's butt while moving counterclockwise and keeping your shield up. This will make some of Lorian's attacks whiff over your head, it will make you less susceptible to get caught in a combo, and it'll allow you to keep hitting Lothric as well when you attack in the second phase. Lothric's magic spears will miss you.

There are three exceptions to the rule.When Lothric teleports, roll ahead and to the right to go through or past his attack, and get back into it. When Lorian teleports far away to do his long-range slam, run as close as you can before dodging the attack, then immediately dodge towards Lorian again. If you're close enough, Lothric's followup magic spear will either outright miss (giving you the opportunity to get in an attack), or he'll skip it entirely. When Lorian throws out his delayed homing projectiles, you'll want to move away from Lorian and go in a wider circle, being ready to roll away from Lorian's attacks when he teleports. Staying in motion keeps the projectiles from hitting you as long as you're not moving directly away from them or towards them.

When using this strategy, if you've got strong damage spells as well, save them for when Lorian goes down and Lothric starts healing him. Instead of meleeing and then backing away, simply stay at a safe distance and let loose as much magic/miracles/pyromancy as you can. Lothric is vulnerable through the whole process, even while doing his explodey AOE attack and while climbing back up onto Lorian's back.

 

Strategy 2 (Magic)

With the high range and his ability to teleport, Lorian is an utterly annoying enemy for squishy spellcasters, and you might find it easier to pass on magic altogether for this fight. If you don't, Lorian the Twin Princes are relatively weak to magic and lighting, so at least there's some light at the end of the tunnel.

One of the main problems in this fight is that Lorian may easily hit you when casting spells with a high casting time such as Soul Spear or Great Heavy Soul arrow. Some of his attacks have a very high range - but most of all, if he triggers his teleport ability right when you start casting, it is very difficult not to get hit. The Twin Princes also have a rather high damage output, which may be hard to tank for spellcasters. Sorcerers might find it beneficary to use Great Magic shield, which allows to block most of Lorian's attacks with next to no damage (not sure about the Light Beam, but this one is easy to avoid anyway), even the dreaded Stand Slam.
For the most part, your strategy as a caster will be to avoid his close range attacks, gain a large distance, and then fire at him with whatever fast-casting projectile spell you have (Chaos Bed Vestiges, Great Soul Arrow, etc.). When he teleports, the game starts anew.
The room also has some pillars to hide behind, though they are of little use for the most part, as Lorian's sword reaches through them anyway - but losing sight of the prince(s) will make it more difficult for you to spot the teleportation timing, and the target lock also sometimes drops. Therefore, it is recommended to usually fight in the open space in the middle.

Phase 1: Once you have learned Lorian's attack timing, it is rather easy to escape his swings. When casting from the distance, be careful not to spend all your stamina, as spellcasting can get your stamina bar far in the negative, and you'll easily fall pray to a teleport attack.

Phase 2: With Lothric on his back, Lorian is actually less likely to teleport and thus easier to fight from the distance. It is often possible to blow away half of his HP with him doing nothing but slowly waddling towards you - but be aware that Lothric may cast Soul Spears anytime, which is not an exchange you'll want to make.
Lothric also has his annoying Homing Soulmass attack, which always triggers a teleport from Lorian. Prepare for dodging the princes as soon as the soulmasses come out; the little projectiles themselves can be ignored, as they do little damage and won't stagger you.
Keep a close eye on the HP of Lorian. Make sure that your final attack leaves you with a lot of stamina, so you can bombard Lothric with your more powerful spells such as Heavy Soul Arrow as soon as he falls off.
It is theoretically possible to indirectly hit Lothric with spells such as Soul Spear while he is on Lorian's back, but I found that the damage is negligible - if he gets damaged at all. Since this is in some ways an endurance fight - due to the resurrection ability of the younger prince, you most likely have to burn through a lot more HP than in most other boss fights - it is not recommended using spells with a very high FP consumption such as (Crystal) Soul Spear (except perhaps when attacking Lothric in a resurrection phase).

Lore

  • Lorian was a skilled knight of Lothric in his past, but he succumbed to the curse that his younger brother had, and that is why he has no/limited use of his legs and being mute. Apparently though, according to the description of his armor, he wished his fate to be so
  • His sword is stained/scorched and his armor is "black-dyed brass". This follows a very 'from light to dark' or fallen knight theme 

Videos

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Notes & Trivia

  • Lor is defined as a substandard variant of the word "Lord" and the suffix -ian is used for "of or relating to" so Lorian's name essentially means Lord-like, which is fitting for a prince.
  • Cut data that can still be found in the game's files show Lothric & Lorian were possibly once going to wield a scythe and shield, respectively. "Shield favored by Prince Lothric's brother and protector. The prince, left mute and crippled by the curse, used this shield in order to protect his frail younger brother." - Prince's Shield.






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    • Anonymous

      Very overrated boss honestly, some attacks after teleportation are just unpredictable, like when he falls down on you with a thrust attack. Not to mention one of the most annoying runbacks ever and their broken AI which allows you to cheese the fight in multiple ways. OST is the only thing which carries it. Sadly, there is not a single great Lord of Cinder fight besides the final boss. All of them are very decent besides Aldrich, but have their drawbacks: Abyss Watchers have annoying gank first phase and the intended way to kill Yhorm is boring af, especially when Siegward can solo whole fight.

      • Anonymous

        crazy how old this game is and they still never updated this page to include his stupid teleport ground stab

        • Anonymous

          Hybrid faith build with a lightning Zweihander +10 : Hold the machine firmly with both hands, and then roll R1, roll, R1, roll roll, R1, repeat, profit

          • Anonymous

            The final nail in the coffin of my pyro run. It's one of the bosses which is 'you either play like Miyazaki wants it or you are in the world of pain'. On a melee build with decently fast weapon it's pretty easy. On a mage you are on a time limit of your FP flasks against boss with potentially infinite HP thanks to his bro. You slow cast speed also severely limits you chance of hitting his back. And lastly thanks to teleportation and slow cast animation. You often miss hits.
            Almost every boss was plane harder with magic than with quality/dex/str. And this one is arguably the worst

            • Anonymous

              Great magic shield really negates everything that he does, and really helps your shield stability. I feel like I’m just missing one thing and I could really beat the boss. I’m trying to find good suggestions that do good damage right now I’m using the sword of judgment. And he really does some good work at level five not better than a ultra great sword.

              • Anonymous

                Whenever I'm having trouble learning a boss, I think back to the guy who made a video whining about Twin Princes being unfair & unreactable & bad game design in his DS3 review. I really don't want to be like that. It keeps me from getting tilted and I can focus on trying to git gud, even if that means taking a break and trying later. Thank you irrational complaining guy.

                • Anonymous

                  just found out that lorian actually counts as a shield in phase 2, meaning shotel and shield piercing weapons hit lothric directly for a bit of damage even if you only hit lorian

                  • Anonymous

                    Used a new strategy with a lightning broadsword instead a UGS. In my opinion, patience works better than huge numbers in this fight.

                    • Anonymous

                      I seems to have found a bug where parrying Lorian will teleport (with no visual effect) him to his original location like when you enter the room. Weird.

                      My headcanon for this is Lorian was surprised to be parried and just retreated lmao.

                      • Anonymous

                        i hated the archive and the run to this shitty boss more then every part of the game, 10/10 boss i want to die

                        • Anonymous

                          My most favorite boss on 1st playthrough.
                          Love it!
                          All boss before that i use def strat.
                          But after 5 die i find that rolling strat is best for this boss and i learn that after 20 min

                          • Anonymous

                            That goddamn teleport is the bane of my existence, it's impossible to know what move he's gonna do next, sometimes it's a horizontal slowish slash, sometimes it's an incredibly fast vertical slam or a downwards stab, or he teleports practically on top of you to smash youn into the ground with a downwards stab that both need you to react really quickly to dodge or else you'll get flattened, or he does a much slower thrust, or two-handed magic sword slam, it's so damn annoying and hard to tell what move he's gonna do when he teleports, not to mention how the camera often gets thrown off by it, it's the bane of my damn existence, not saying the fight is bad or anything, but that damn teleporting is such a nightmare to deal with

                            • Anonymous

                              Nearly won the first time. He couldn't hit me. Got stuck on a chair and died in phase 2. Now I can't land a hit. What happened?!

                              • Anonymous

                                Ds3 way to make bosses harder - add tons of health, infinite stamina, bunch of aoe and homing attacks. Such nice imposing bosses with ridiculously shallow 'difficulty'.

                                • Anonymous

                                  i keep having an issue where he teleports on top of me and does a ton of damage because i dont have any time to dodge or move away, is this meant to happen? am i doing anything wrong?

                                  • Anonymous

                                    The flame wave attack literally ruins everything. Attacks are very fast so you dont have time to react to it. I always mistake it for some other attack.

                                    • Anonymous

                                      This is a nightmare to fight for pure casters, but at least we have great combustion, farron flashsword and such...

                                      Oh wait, you're running a faith build? Well... Pray.

                                      • Anonymous

                                        I don't know why this boss is so hard for me. I didnt have a problem with anyone else up until this point and now a road block. I dodge stuff but get nailed anyway. Just like...really? 90% of my health because you clipped a toe? D;

                                        • Anonymous

                                          was stuck on this boss when ds3 released and i just moved on from the game. years later i had this souls marathorn after beating elden ring ,bb , ha demon souls remake,ds,ds2. i came back and had my revenge today. what a great day

                                          • Anonymous

                                            The best advice I can give anyone struggling is to be patient and don't be greedy. Only attack once per avoiding his attack, even attacking twice is a risk as you might get caught up in his combo.

                                            During the second phase it's the same deal unless Lothric is casting his spells, when that happens just dodge roll and pray to god that you live. I would recommend not worrying about dealing damage to Lothric as you can pretty much kill him while he tries to heal Lorian.

                                            Good luck Unkindled Ones.

                                            • Anonymous

                                              This boss was a pain! he kicked my ass super bad but I finally beat them on my final ember. Dude charged up an attack then teleported behind me like he was Goku doing instant transmission Kamehameha ffs. These guys were definitely the toughest boss in the series for me so far.

                                              • Anonymous

                                                Didn't see anything about this attack in the box, but he sometimes teleports right on top of me and thrusts his sword through the ground, kind of like he teleported in the air and used his fall to hit vertically stabbing the floor, dealing significantly more damage than with his regular slashes and stabs.

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  Friend of mine was streaming his attempt at this boss. Attempt 4 or so the boss glitched. Lorian is now stuck in the wall above the fog gate, Just spinning around. This **** is hilarious as my friend has no way to kill him

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    Haven't seen it mentioned in the Wiki : to avoid getting shot with the teleporting right after you enter the fog gate, simply stand still once you're through. Lorian will not teleport and just hit in front of him faraway from where you are.
                                                    Goog luck after that!

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      All of the previous bosses were a breeze for me (strength build and full turtle mode) but not this guy. Took 3 hours of trying. Needs a lot of patience

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        Would be a really good boss if he had more tells, those teleports are literally instant and they have absolutely no tell between combos.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          This boss is made to purely spite sorcerers. Punishing you for not closing the distance AND instantly closing the distance himself. **** this guy.

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            I found that a frost weapon works wonders here. One my first NG+ run through, using a 40/40 quality build. Weapon choice is a Irilyth Straight Sword+5. Using the Dragon Crest shield intermittently. Can't say I'm an expert and he nailed me a couple times, but things are definitely getting easier. Keep it up y'all

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              Would be a very good boss if the windups he did before teleporting matched the attacks when he came out of a teleport. Instead he's just really ****ing annoying.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                I kinda wish there was some kind of memory of Lorian like the giants of DS2 located in the dreg heap to fight him when he was on his prime (and not a cripple), much like champion gundyr. Though it would conflict with the lore I believe.

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  Ffs would it be hard to just plainly put what type of damage these bosses do? I can’t tell if the faith stuff is lightning or magic.

                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                    DS1 Vet here doing my fist ever playthrough of this game and I'm not using shields. I have a dex build at lvl 89 and had recently started using the Farron Greatsword. Quickly realized the chain combos weren't good against this guy because it left me wide open to beat downs and in the second phase of the fight I wasn't getting good damage on Lothric since the sword sweeps the ground. After 15 or more fights I had to walk away from the game for the first time in frustration.

                                                                    Came back later an decided to go back to the original setup, SSTB with Pontiff Right Eye. The first opening I got I took half his health with combos! The second phase of the firght I killed Lothric during the second resurrection attempt. I am also doing a strength build that just got to the Grand Archives so hopefully it will go better.

                                                                    • I trivialized this fight for the first time ever: Lapp’s armor set, Havel Shield +4, Heavy Dragonslayer Axe +10 with lightning blade buff.

                                                                      Running a Faith/Str build and completely demolished these guys in NG+. At 82% weight ratio I didn’t even have to roll. Shield mitigated most of the damage and only ever had to roll away to get some space to apply my buff behind a pillar.

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        most of the attacks are really predictable once you learn them, except that attack from the sky. its damn annoying

                                                                        • Whats the best one shot weapon for this boss, or at least lorian alone? I'm actually planning on standing behind them when the second phase starts and just pelt lothric with arrows until he dies. If that fails, whats the absolute BEST way possible to kill these two mother****ers??

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            Pretty new to the game, so I walked to a yellow summon sign and summoned a real player instead of an NPC.
                                                                            I began panicking, forgot how to banish phantoms, and didn't want to go into my inventory because I didn't want to waste the phantoms' time.
                                                                            Ended up summoning another phantom and 1st-timed Lothric and Lorian by brainlessly running at Lorian while my 2 phantoms healed me and cast spells.
                                                                            I'm not sure if this was intended.

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              I don't understand why people say this is the best boss in the game. It's the only not enjoyable fight in the game. Even the broken beasts of Sulyvahn have a better design. You can't block any attacks without taking damage, if you roll he teleports and ****s up your cam and if using pyromancy this fight is a joke. I can only cheese this boss with melee which sucks as well. 2/10

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                Worst **** in history of souls, no break time, camera bug generator, poop on the aim system and full regen. Last from game for me.

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  This is my favorite boss to provide jolly cooperation for, because I seldom have to wait more than a minute or two to be summoned, and the bridge is an ideal place for farming extra embers and souls. My one annoyance has to do with the cut scenes. It isn't the fact that some people choose not to skip them. That's fine, they're good cut scenes, it's your playthrough, if you want to watch them, watch them. But decide, within the first few seconds, whether you're going to watch them or skip them (mainly talking about the second cut scene). I shouldn't have to be on high alert throughout that whole second cut scene, ready to start dodging Lothric's homing bull***t.

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    Since the second half of the fight starts you where you were when the first half ended, if you end the first half at the front (away from the doors) you can end up behind the brothers at the start of the second phase and they wont' realize you're there. A good opportunity to land a strong shot on Lothric.

                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                      Best fight in the game. I loved every second of it. That's exactly why soulsgames are so great. The first time you enter the arena, you have no chance at all and even think of quitting. After numerous deaths he doesn't even hit you. What a feeling. Don't give up skeleton!

                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                        Dude is VERY resistant to Dark. Using Black Fire Orb with a +10 pyro flame, dark clutch ring, blindfold mask, both pyro booster rings and 60 FTH/60 INT only did like 200-something damage in NG+4.

                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                          So... Lorian teleported into the wall near the fog and couldn't attack us nor take damage. Glad I called Orbeck to join this fight, so I had some company to kill the time with in the non-hostile arena. Too bad he doesn't like to spam gestures.

                                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                                            Also that light slash? Apparently a garunteed roll catcher. Carthus bloodring, halfway through my roll, BAM instant kill, normally I love DS games but this is getting ridiculous

                                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                                              Trash design fight, random teleport and almost no stagger unless you trade a lot. As usual, from can't really think of fair boss fights.

                                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                                havent had any issues with this fight in the past but it seems lorian is a bit more berserk now, he teleports more frequently and spams his various horizontal slashes, the rollcatching is annoying especially sinces hes going after me and not my friend or npcs should i choose to summon them.

                                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                                  "Wields his sword with two hands and crapes the blade of his sword down " I think it should say "scrapes the blade" not "crapes".

                                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                                    there is no "brothers". this is about the inner and outer soul of Lorian. Lorian is the "official heir" the one who fullfills his duties. but that's only a shell. His true self is "Prince Lothric" (no given name! think about that!) who hates what he had became, broken and a marionete of his family. This is a revenge story. Another hind to that is that we can find "prince Lothrics" clothes right after the first castle bonfire in a chest. The clothes he never took of as the descriptions says. So the "prince Lothric" we see in the battle is what exactly then? The inner Lorian. His true self.

                                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                                      Killed some other hard bosses first try by playing with no shield all game. Died here a good 15 times at least. That roll-catching is *****ing brutal.

                                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                                        This is near impossible on ng+3 he never stops teleporting when 5% health is left then the 2nd fight is just a cluster i haven't had this much trouble since the first time i fought him and im using a 720 base dmg greatswoard with Lightning infusion i can usually take him down in 5 heavy hits max or hit and runs but his RNG is insane.

                                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                                          As a melee player, I rolled through this game and then hit a brick wall here. The first thing they should tell you is the fight is only over when little Lothric is killed. Just before big Lorian runs out of health on his 2nd downing, make sure your stamina is full. Right when big Lorian goes down, UNLOCK from him immediately and turn and swing at little Lothric. You'll only have time to empty one bar of stamina before the blast comes. I also recommend trying to stay near the middle of the room as Lorian's teleport will break your lock-on if you're near the edges. Finally, the worst part is Lorian's teleport right after Lothric's floaty magic balls. The magic won't hit you if you're walking perpendicular to their direction, but this means you can't face Lorian and block him with your shield. You have to walk and then blindly time your 2 rolls to his 2 swings. Use the Estus Ring if you keep running out of Estus. Good luck.

                                                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                                                            its easy with magic and summoned npc keep close to fog door that way he doesnt teleport to you so you can easily down the 1st phase. 2nd phase stay at certain distance so that he wont teleport to you while npc distracts the boss down him with magic easy peasy

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