Stray Demon |
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| General Info | ||
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Location |
| 2004 | 5000 | Farron Keep |
| Drops | Soul of a Stray Demon | |
| Defenses | ||
| Weak | Resistant | Immune |
 Strike DarkBlack Knight Weapons |
 Fire Lightning |
 Poison/Toxic Bleed Frost |
Stray Demon is a mini-boss in Dark Souls 3. This Dark Souls 3 Stray Demon Guide features locations, strategies and videos on how to defeat the Stray Demon easily, as well as tips, weaknesses, trivia and lore notes for the Stray Demon boss.
The Stray Demon is a large demon with a body made of rock wielding a large stone greathammer, and is found roaming the higher ramparts of Farron Keep, guarding a large locked gate. This enemy is not treated as a boss by the game, and as a result there is no fog gate or health bar at the bottom of the screen when engaging him. He does, however, drop a Boss Soul. This boss is optional and there are no NPC summons for this fight.
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 Stray Demon Location
Where to find the Stray Demon in Dark Souls 3?
- Stray Demon is found in Farron Keep, above the Old Wolf of Farron bonfire.
Stray Demon Drops
What do you get from defeating the Stray Demon in Dark Souls 3?
- Souls: NG (5000) | NG+ (20,000) | NG++ (22,000) | NG+8 (25,500)
- Other: Soul of a Stray Demon
Stray Demon Tips
What should you know about fighting the Stray Demon in Dark Souls 3?
- Deals Strike Damage and Standard Damage. Can perform a grab attack, which can be escaped by mashing L1 and R1.
- Weak to Strike Damage, Dark Damage and Black Knight (Greatsword, Sword, Greataxe, Glaive) weapons.
- Resistant to Fire Damage and Lightning Damage.
- Immune to Poison, Toxic, Bleed and Frost.
- Legs are destructible and the demon can be "riposted" by hitting his head when he is down. Ripostes can even be chained.
Dark Souls 3 Stray Demon Mini-Boss Guide & Strategies
How to fight and beat Stray Demon
Strategy 1 (Melee Twohand)
As with the Stray Demon in Dark Souls 1, it is easiest to simply remove all armor to allow quick rolling. Equip your weapon to Two-handed, and roll under his swings, stay close to his legs and behind him while attacking. Keeping your distance not recommended due to him spitting boulders and his axe's long range. Constantly attacking the Demon's left leg (the right leg from the player's perspective), can result in breaking the leg, which will make the fight a lot easier, since he will move slower, lie on the floor and lose a bit of his moveset. Beware though: the range of his hammer's swings become extended in front of him. It is therefore advisable to riposte him immediately after breaking his legs by moving towards the head while he is collapsing and riposte him to death without letting him recover.
Strategy 2 (Ranged)
With a bow, you can go midway across the battle area, and start shooting him with your bow which will prompt him to start moving towards you. If you backpedal to the far end opposite where he starts, he won't follow you all the way and will begin walking back. once he gets a good distance away begin shooting him again, rinse and repeat. (tested with 20 Dexterity and un-upgraded long bow with standard arrows and was doing 64 damage points to his head).
Strategy 3 (ranged, cheesy)
Shoot the demon and lure him back towards the staircase where you first were able to see him. Go down about 8-15 steps, and you are safe. Turn around and shoot until dead. Only took 25-40 arrows with non-upgraded longbow, wood arrows and 18 dexterity and 14 strength. Easy 5000 souls.
Strategy 4 (Magic)
If you have a shield, you can safely block the projectile attacks while kiting the demon across the bridge while staying out of range of his hammer.
In the same fashion that you can lure him back to the staircase with a bow, you can use magic such as Fire Orb and roll up and down the stairs to safely score hits and avoid his skills.
Strategy 5 (Melee Onehand)
Medium armor at 50 to 60 equip load is good, just enough that you can roll well. Aggro him, ready a roll incase and try to get near him. Smash his tummy, near his legs. Be near him as to bait his jumping body slam. Don't spend all your stamina, conserve and time a roll once he flies up and begins to land. If timed well, you can combo him while he tries to stand up and ready his next move. Stick to him to provoke more easily dodged jump slams that leave him open to hits.
DS3 Stray Demon Attacks
Stray Demon has one attack phase.
| First Phase | |
|---|---|
| Name | Description |
| Grab | Will swing with his left arm, picking you up if it connects. Will proceed to squeeze for massive amounts of damage, likely killing those with lower Vigor scores. He also throws you away on a really long distance, often resulting of falling over the bridge, and so, dying. The throw, along with some of the damage from the squeeze, can be stopped by rapidly mashing R1, L1, R2 and L2 while caught in the grab. |
| Boulder Heave | Will spew a number of boulders at ranged characters. |
| Body Slam | If you spend a lot of time under/behind him, will do a small jump, staying aloft for a couple of seconds before slamming down. |
| Greathammer strike | Demon will try to hit player with his Greathammer |
Stray Demon Lore Theories
- The Stray Demon was possibly a flaming demon who guarded the gate of Lothric, but has since of lost its flame. "The Stray Demon, now lacking even a trace of flame, was once the gatekeeper of Lothric." - Soul of the Stray Demon
Stray Demon Notes & Trivia
- Dexterity builds may have a hard time finding a good source of strike damage. In this case, an un-upgraded Caestus or Dark Hand will do.
- If legs are destroyed at the same time the player is grabbed, the demon will float in the air as if the legs were still present.
- Seems to be a petrified version of the Stray Demon from Dark Souls 1. While the version in that game was organic, this one is covered in rocky outcrops.
- Destroying the Stray Demon's legs will make him transform and crawl along the ground flailing his hammer and use his boulder breath, this is similar to Laurence the First Vicar from the Bloodborne expansion, The Old Hunters, another game by From Software.
- Stray demon can damage invaders.
- Dark Hand is particularly effective at defeating this enemy, even unupgraded.
- When using the Ranged Cheese strategy, the Stray Demon's AI can break, causing them to turn their back on the player and do absolutely nothing. Sometimes, the AI will reactivate if the player moves, attacks, etc.
Anonymous
- Anonymous
6th playthrough and I only now noticed you can break it's legs
- Anonymous
The mace is the perfect weapon for SQUEEZING the souls out of 'im
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If you are a mage, just fall back to the stairs and cheese him there. He can't go down :) Just keep going up and down, bombarding him with spells
- Anonymous
I struggle to fight this guy realize it has a weakness to strike then kills him on my second attempt with an un-upgraded club
- Anonymous
caestus+3 (i have 24 str) destroys this boss. 2 hand and lb spam
- Anonymous
If the stray demon from dark souls 1 had the grab move it would be the hardest boss in dark souls history
- Anonymous
I thought they were gonna reuse the exact same moveset from DS1 but they actually added two new moves that got me just when I was about kill him
5 years and just found out you can mash out of the grab
Nice
- Anonymous
why did i think it was a good idea to try and kill him a frost weapon in my first playthrough , i hate my stupid past self
- Anonymous
Just attack his left leg and dodge attacks. **** that grab tho
- Anonymous
The stray demon gives us another example of how demons die, looks like they just petrify or turn to stone, judging by this demon and by the piles of petrified demonic creatures in the smouldering lake.
- Anonymous
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I just broke his legs for the first time and had to look up that I wasn't insane as I watch his legs fall off and crumble...I feel bad.
- Anonymous
i actually thought it was the same demon from ds 1 that i was fighting i was like hmm you got fatter and hairier since we last thought time to put you down for the last time
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
The stairs make this fight trivial... and why is there just one? Could have brought back Firesage even just as fanservice.
- Anonymous
He's rock
Stone dragon's were rock
Stone dragons were weak to lightning
He is resistant to lightning
?????????????????????????????????????????
- Anonymous
Only thing I fear from him is being grabbed and tossed off the edge.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5dLklS_QSY
This should help for the fight.
That'll do friend, that'll do. May Ash, seeketh Embers.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
First time playing DS3, kinda good in the other souls games Dissapointed to see a red sea of blood around this boss, and countless messages saying it's too much or try ranged It's the TUTORIAL boss from DS1, how do people get this far to be stumped on by a tutorial boss? Smh... Just needed to vent
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Dark Hand can kill the Demon really fast in NG. He is weak against both Strike and Dark. No need to reinforce the Dark Hand, besides the Dark Hand can not be reinforced at all. No need to spend tons of Soul Level into Str, Dex, Int or Faith. Dark Hand has no level requirements. Stray Demon will die in like ~ 8 Hits from Dark Hand and you can attack super fast.
- Anonymous
I've never played a souls game before so it scared the crap out of me when his legs suddenly snapped.
- Anonymous
Killed him on NG+ incredibly fast. I used my Black Knight Sword and hit him a couple times in the leg, then part of his leg fell off and he dropped to one knee. I then hit him a couple times on the stomach while he was down and part of his stomach fell off exposing his belly. I hit him there a couple times which did insane damage. Dead in 6-8 hits. First time I saw him fall apart like that. Only guessing it was because of the black knight weapon?
- Anonymous
Occasionally he may have his face clip in to the far wall on meeting him, when you enter his aggro range, he will turn around and just stop, apparently as confused as you are about the whole ordeal for a few seconds then resume his regular attack pattern. But seriously tho, this guy is essentially an ez 25k soul dispenser
- Anonymous
How the hell did the kingdom of Lothric manage to employ a giant demon to guard it's gate?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
At first i was Kinda Cautious when I saw him, but once I realized he was basically the same Boss from DS1, with a Grab and the Ability to barf rocks at me, Just stuck to his backside and beat those cheeks with a Mace. Just gotta dodge the Booty Slam attack.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
beat him first try with a longsword and no armor and only took damage once
- Anonymous
This thicc boy is probably the reason the bridge collapsed. Also i just noticed it's probably related to the nearby black knight in the swamp
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
TFW he no longer drops a titanite slab. I understand why but it’s still a bit disappointing
- Anonymous
You have to play aggressive with this guy, get right up close and anticipate his moves as you hack him down. Staying at a distance is more dangerous then up close, those rocks hit REALLY hard and that club can one hit kill. Up close, all you have to worry about us being grabbed or being jumped on. Easily anticipated by watching his movement.
- Anonymous
this game is a great fan service. Like dark souls 1? fight the asylum demon then
- Anonymous
I took off all my armor and slapped on a Greataxe +3 with Lloyd's Sword Ring, Chloranthy Ring, and Flynn's Ring equipped and luckily clocked in at 29.4% weight ratio for fast rolls. Ran up to the Demon, did my weapon art Warcry to increase the damage and charged on in there! Ok, I died the first time, but once I realized to stay right up on his arse and to roll under his legs when he swung, he fed my axe quite nicely
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
using dark hand i killed him without taking damage in ~30 seconds
- Anonymous
Just put a dark hand on and he goes down in literally seconds
- Anonymous
The defenses on this guy are bizarre, he took about average damage using a mace on NG, but on a different character on NG+, their greathammer did more damage than was displayed in attack power. This makes me think the demon has high flat defenses but low or even negative absorption against types they are weak to.
- Anonymous
i didn't even really fight him because i seemed to be able to fire like 50 arrows at him from afar and he never came at me.
- Anonymous
Is no one going to say that he looks a lot like the Asylum Demon from the first Dark Souls, and his arena is similar to the Taurus Demon of the same game?
- Anonymous
I think I had a glitch. I started by firing heavy soul arrow and he just stopped right there, didn’t move at all ! So I kept spamming soul arrow at him and he stood there until death. This is my first run... kinda feel bad that I didn’t even get the opportunity to really fight him :/
- Anonymous
Honestly just Cheese him. Cause all he does is Cheese you with his moves.
- Anonymous
pretty easy boss he gets stuck in the wall and then you pelt him with arrows does 2 less damage than deep soul
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
He was pretty easy and fun. All of his attacks are well-telegraphed, though he did grab me in the middle of my roll when I should be invincible. I saw that breaking his legs seems to somehow make him HARDER to fight. That's not how it works irl, From lol. Cool that this enemy basically lets you fight the Asylum Demon without having played DkS1.
- Anonymous
Wear Lloyd's Shield and sword ring, and anything light for an easier fight ( I wore Rugged mask + Master set )
- Anonymous
RNG is pretty crazy here, he'll either only swing his mace (or whatever it is) and occasionally jump, or he'll try to grab you every other attack.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
24 Str, but I two-handed my Raw Great Club +5 with a human pine resin and took out his right leg in like 4 to 5 swings. Only 2 more swings to finish him. SL 44.
- Anonymous
died once on the rubble of the destroyed gate after he trew me there....bye bye 20k souls.
- Anonymous
Wait, so Lorian fought the Demon Prince long ago, and now they've hired one of the OG's to guard the gate??? Unless I've got it backwards, and the Stray Demon was hired before Lorian broke off the engagement.
- Anonymous
If you lead him to the ledge that leads to the other half of the bridge and jump down to the second ledge then you can shoot arrows into him as he wails away the the ground without taking damage
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
i only got hit once and blocked it. he's very easy to fight.
- Anonymous
I got about 23,000 souls on NG+3. Just thought i'd put it out there for my play through, but could be wrong.
- Anonymous
Attacking tail triggers tail slam - dont do that
position right behind one leg and hit it.
he will make either 2 long strikes in front of him where u are not, leaving u enough time to stay in his back
or he will jump up in the air, leaving u enough tim to roll out and in
just killed him with fire dagger +3
- Anonymous
He grabbed me and threw me over the ledge and right off the bridge
Made me smile. What a great moment and unique way to die in this game :)
Anyone have any theories on the possible connection to Havel? I mean, you find his armor and he transposes the Havel Ring, so I wa just wondering.
Found a glitch where the demon got stuck in the far wall. Hit him with an arrow while he was making his circuit, and he just faced the wall and stood there while I pelted him with crossbow bolts until he died. I made a video, but apparently those are as bad as smoking the devil’s lettuce in the comments section, because they deleted by comment with the link in it.
The video is on YouTube under the title “Dark Souls 3 Stray Demon Glitched.” If anybody can replicate it, I’d appreciate knowing exactly what I did to make it happen, or if it’s just a one time thing.
- Anonymous
Just found a weird glitch with this bastard where he got stuck in a wall after I hit him with an arrow. Uploaded the clip to YouTube: https://youtu.be/WtHKNUFwOPs
If anyone can tell me what the hell happened here, I'm curious if it can be done again.
- Anonymous
its so dope you can break his legs! using the frost hammer from vordt and staying under him, its about a 9 hit fight at SL25 and his legs just gave way, i didnt know that was in the game!! love it
- Anonymous
lure him to the second gate, till he nearly touches it.
then use the not obvious path at the ledges at the elevators' side to get behind this gate.
clear the area of enemies, or at least kill the two on the stairs - then just walk up, and u can simply plunge attack him! be wary though, he has one high swing that hits u sometimes.
repeat 3-4 times and he is dead without much work. worth it since his soul gives havel's ring.
- Anonymous
Lol they really need to stop giving big enemies like this grab attacks. Because not only are they going to spam it, they're going to use it because they can't hit you. Why can't they hit you? Because you're too small and can evade them easily. Thus, grab attack spam, so annoying.
- Anonymous
Pleas help need summon for this boss my psn gamertag is StrayDemonIsHard :((
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Okay, is it me or the Bosses box with the links to the all the bosses.......it contains a link to the Morne's Greathammer.....
Is it a boss I've missed???
- Anonymous
or you can bait him to the broken gate by were you first arrive at the bridge then go down the ledge pathway and go on top of the gate and take him down with a bow without taking any damage
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Why this enemy is in the high wall of lothric enemy list????
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Lol, If you break his leg and kill him at the same time, it plays both animations, seperating his legs from his body.
- Anonymous
I call this boss the "Doom" boss, since it makes the same sounds as the zombiemen in Doom, plus it's a demon.
- Anonymous
You people saying you fight with arrows,man up you pussy, yeah thats right Dex is for scrubs
He can easily be cheesed with arrows. Just aggro him frm the distance and stay halfway on the ladders. He won't be able to attack you, if you keep enough distance, and you will be able to shot him to death with arrows
- Anonymous
Be careful with his grab. A glitch in the game can result in you landing on the rubble. If you die there you an't retrieve the souls you drop. Poor game design? In Dark Soul!? Hard to believe, I know.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
-> Projectile Vomit in attacks list
My God this site has become a miserable pile of memes over the days.
His death sound is so sad it makes me honestly not want to kill him (haven't played the game yet, just seen playthroughs). If I need have to I will but I'd rather it just die of natural causes. I'm just looting all the goodies there and booking it.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
When attacking him depending where you hit him in his death animation something well happen. Hit his left leg till death it falls apart same with right leg or attack his tail/butt region to have both legs crumble.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I've found that using a +10 Black bow of Pharis I did exceptional damage to the head. With 45 Dex + Feather arrows, I did 400+ Damage to the head from a very far distance. I continued to shoot him until he got close, then I finished him with a fast DPS weapon [Dagger or Katana]
- Anonymous
With a 100 physical defense shield, fire heavy soul arrows. He did no damage at all.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I sort of ran towards the gate before approaching the stray demon for a fight, shortly before i turned around i just randomly got awarded the stray demon soul. Not sure what happened... maybe he fell? But man that sucks cause i really wanted to fight him on my first play through.
Just broke his legs for the first time today, didn't even know it was possible.
- Anonymous
Creeping just within range to do 50-60 damage per arrow shot and focusing on one leg allowed for complete leg destruction. Following up with relentless head shots as it crawls towards you will lead to profit.
- Anonymous
Sneak up on him and when he turns his back on you shoot him. He wil freeze and you can keep shooting untill he's dead.
- Anonymous
Possibly because I was using the Black Knight Greatsword? I hit him with a fully charged 2-hand R2, and he fell over, and I was able to smash him in his face, in a very Bloodborne-esque critical attack manner. It's similar to how you can critical the Large Crystal Lizards, so I assume it's just a matter of breaking his poise, rather than the weapon I was using?
He should have 2011 hp, like the year oryginal ds got it's realise
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