Dark Souls Boss Guide Part 9 – Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

Dark Souls Boss Guide Part 9 – Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

This is the final boss of the game and he is not one to be taken lightly in any fashion. This battle is going to be able your ability to tell the differences between all of his attacks and respond appropriately. None of these are too overt and they are all very fast. Your survive is going to be based solely on skill and sharp eyes anything else will leave you greatly damaged. If you want to gear up, aim for physical and fire resistance. You must be at least as fast as him to avoid the attacks. Keep a sharp eye on him to quickly learn his attacks.

Playthrough 1
More than anything you must watch his animations to catch the differences. Any time you have less than half your full health, heal. Here is a list of them so you can have some idea of what to expect going against the King Gwyn.

Dashing Thrust: he will come running toward you and lunge with his sword. This can easily change to his Slash attack so block.

Instant Dashing Slashs: Gwyn will close distance insanely fast with this attack. He will close in and attack twice. You can dodge it easily enough but only with proper timing and two quick rolls.

Four Slash Combo: Four sword attacks starting with an angled slash, horizontal, slash and finish with a horizontal. The horizontal slashes will track you very well so you must fall back with excellent time.

Slashing Combo: Do not attempt to block this attack, dodge it if anything as the first attack will likely break your guard then the two following attacks will lay into you and likely kill you. It starts with a strong horizontal slash followed by two others. Thankfully the final attack has no tracking, giving you a possible opening for you to use.

Massive Slash: Do not attempt to block it. He charges this attack then unleashes it on you. Dodge it.

Slash and Thrust: It starts as his standard Slash Combo. If either hits you will be stunned briefly.

Kick: The only kick in the game that will track its target. It will likely break your guard.

Choke Explosion Finish: It has perfect tracking so your only hope is to roll into him and slip through his attack but this must be done very carefully. This grab alone inflicts a lot of damage. He will always follow it up with a jumping or dashing slash.

Use all this knowledge to get a solid idea of what Gwyn's abilities are. More than anything you must be very mobile, go for durability over weight as you will only ever have scant seconds to dodge or block. This battle is more about precision than any other.

Mages will find this battle very hard as they must target a fast enemy. Very few spells have good tracking. Use whatever offers the best tracking with a quick casting time. Count on your stats to inflict damage more than anything here.

This battle will take many tries. Keep at it and use this knowledge to form your best strategy against the final boss of the game.