At long last, Dark Souls 3 is finally available in stores around the globe, bringing a new string of challenges and monstrosities for the Dark Souls community to overcome. Of course, while many fans take pride in carving through each new entry in the series, figuring out the weaknesses of each boss and discovering all the secrets hidden throughout the game, many people need a bit of help to make it through each new Dark Souls release. So we’re putting together guides to help you get through the game’s toughest encounters.
Today, we’re showing you how to take down the Abyss Watchers : guardians of the Catacombs of Carthus and one of the five Lords of Cinder who must be conquered in Dark Souls 3 . This boss will test the patience of many players, particularly those who assumed the presence of multiple enemies meant there wouldn’t be multiple phases, but the strategy outlined here should have you on the path to victory in no time.
When the action begins, try to keep a moderate amount of space between yourself and the boss. You don’t want it to be so far away that you have trouble timing your dodges, but you shouldn’t be close enough to hit the Watcher, either. Take a few moments to memorize the boss’ attack patterns, which are generally limited to a dash attacks and a pair of slashing combinations. Get your hits in where you can, with the biggest window coming after the boss’s dash attack, and keep your eye out for a second mob once you’ve removed about a third of the Abyss Watchers’ health bar.
Eventually, new mobs will join the fight against the Abyss Watchers. But not all of them will be out to get the player. The first, third and fifth Watchers who join the player will be hostile, coming after the player with even more zeal than the humanoid you were already fighting. But the second, fourth, sixth, and so on will attack the boss and any add-on Watchers the player has yet to take down. Depending on your comfort with the game’s combat system, and the attack arc of your current weapon, the in-fighting either provides an excellent opportunity to attack a distracted boss or to heal yourself while the Watchers fight amongst themselves. But try to avoid as much damage as you can during this phase of the fight because round two gets pretty tough.
Once you’ve drained the Abyss Watchers’ health bar, you’ll trigger a short cutscene, after which you’ll be faced with a revitalized and flame-enhanced boss. To make matters worse, the Abyss Watchers introduce several new attacks in this phase, along with some alterations to the existing rotation, and the boss adopts a much more aggressive pace. During the second phase, your strategy will depend on your current build. Sword and board players can stick close to the boss, doing their best to dodge/block incoming attacks and gradually hack away at the Abyss Watchers’ refilled health bar. Those playing less tanky builds will want to put a little more distance between themselves and the boss to try and draw out its dash attack. Dodge the incoming thrust, along with the new follow-up attack, punish the boss and then back out. Repeat your new attack pattern however many times is needed to take down your foe.
Without a doubt, this is where the difficulty really starts to ramp up in DS3 . There are tougher bosses still to come but we don’t expect many players will take down the Abyss Watchers on their first try. It took us half a dozen attempts to capture the footage for this guide and this is our second time playing through the game. So try not to get discouraged if it takes you longer to defeat the Abyss Watchers than you’ve spent on previous bosses.
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