Game:

Dark Souls III (2016)

Duration: 6:45

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15

300+ deaths on him alone, 1000 deaths thorough the whole 140% sped up game. I even had to change my armor to perfectly absorb his damage and not get oneshot.

I remember calling sped-up Pontiff, Dancer, Abyss Watchers and Hawkwood very powerful, S-tier bosses, but they all pale in comparison to Soul of Cinder. Not by much, but he still stands over them. I never thought 140% speed Soul of Cinder would be THAT difficult, and just left him out after all the other bosses, to go and finish him "whenever i feel like ending the playthrough".

I think it's the hardest fight i ever did, or saw for that matter, out of all the doable challenges. I think only @Skumnut's challenges were harder, but they were also not doable in the end.

Let me explain what's so hard about this.

Sword phase:
1. All his attacks are roll-catches. If you ever panic - he'll hit you. You HAVE to react properly to what he does.
2. On that speed he gains true combos. Meaning if one attack hits you, the second will connect as well, raising risks a lot more.
3. That applies to his upswing combo as well, it will connect two in a row, meaning you'll almost certainly die if it happens.
4. His stance tricks your reaction. From that stance he can catch you with upswings and poke, with both having different timings. If he does his slow spin then you're in luck, it will never catch you off-guard.
5. It's very difficult to take a breath - he'll follow you closely and counter attempts to drink estus.
6. He can do variable combos with similar start, and the second hit varies in speed. He can instantly slash left-to-right, he can delay that slash, he can do the upswing, and all from a similar starting swing. You have to actually use your reaction speed.

Curved Sword phase:
1. He can combo one vertical double-attack into another. And it will rollcatch if you pre-roll it. It also has to be dodged to the side, not allowing to just dodge mindlessly.
2. He can custom-combo one attack into another, as long as he wants to, so your only chance is to quickly hit him during his attacks.
3. His side-slide has a hitbox(Wtf Miyazaki??).
4. He can cancel his double flame swipe in the middle of it and continue with something else. It is a roll-catch as well.
5. His buff will make spear and sword way more threatening, leading to OHKOs during roll-catches and true combos.

Mage Phase:
1. Difficult to approach if soul-mass above him starts shooting on a wrong timing with his attacks.
2. If he buffs himself and switches the phase - spear, curved and normal sword will become unreasonably difficult to dodge.
3. To prevent that you have to time poise-break on mage phase, so it will not allow you to relax for a moment.

Spear Phase:
1. Roll-catches with everything.
2. Quick pokes are almost too fast to react, but react prematurely - and SOC will do a heavy poke or a charge.
3. Running attack will combo into poke.
4. Has Maliketh's spinning attack, and you have to time your dodge perfectly to avoid double spin.
5. Can heal a lot of health fast. To prevent that you MUST buy dueling charms. It will still heal 10% or something instantly, but charms prevent further regeneration.

Gwyn Phase:
1. Malenia's Waterfowl is here as well! His Cinderfowl Dance can be activated any time he wants to, and it's almost unavoidable if you're too close. You have to keep some distance after attacks every 20 seconds or so. It also has i-frame ignoring properties, meaning you cannot avoid the damage it does, even if you roll through it perfectly, you can only avoid getting staggered.
2. Has slow and quick attacks, of almost the same speed with Gwyn's unreactable attack in DS1, so it will roll-catch very well.
3. Does a lot of damage, ember is a must.
4. Can combo non-stop, by continuing with instant running poke or jumping attack. Using estus might as well be a death sentence, it's only useable after lightning attacks.

There's almost no safety. Battle is also against time, you can only allow him to heal up to 5 times, and you have to prevent soul-mass from combining with other phases, or it will make even running challenging.


You might say that he's not hard with normal damage and hp, and you will be correct. But overpowering him is not the same as outplaying his moveset.

Video of me actually winning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0yQW9k_rlM
How it looks to overpower him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4XvFMRsQvc

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