The Soul Of Cinder

The Soul Of Cinder is the final boss of Dark Souls III. The Soul of Cinder is the manifestation of all Lords of Cinder that have pledged to defend the First Flame by linking it.

The Soul of Cinder can be reached after placing all Cinders of Lords upon their thrones and talking to the Fire Keeper, who will transport the Ashen One to the Kiln of the First Flame.

Description The Soul of Cinder appears as a tall warrior wearing badly worn and charred armor. Its weapon of choice is the Firelink Greatsword, a larger version of the Coiled Sword, that can change its shape to suit its wielder's needs. It changes attack moves very smoothly, making it hard for players to counterattack it. The different fighting tactics make for a very memorable boss fight.

When the player first enters the arena, the Soul of Cinder will be sitting in the middle of the area, its sword planted before him within the First Flame, as if resting at a bonfire. As the player comes closer, the Soul of Cinder pulls the sword out of the ground and engages the player.

Lore The Soul of Cinder is the deific manifestation of the souls of all those who have linked themselves to the First Flame through history, becoming Lords of Cinder, and thus is an entity possessing all the abilities of the previous Champions despite just being an empty husk.

It exists as the Flame's last defense inside its Kiln, protecting it from anyone attempting to link it again and acting as the ultimate test of their strength, a role that it has enacted for a very long time, confronting all who entered the Kiln as aspiring Lords.

When tested by an aspiring Champion, the Soul of Cinder would even bring out the remnants of the will and power of the first one to ever link the First Flame: Lord Gwyn himself.

Fight Overview The Soul of Cinder boss fight consists of two main phases:

Phase 1 Soul of Cinder can use four different weapon stances, each utilizing different skills and attacks based on a magic type in the game (excluding hexes).

Standard (straight sword): It's default stance combines quick slashes and thrust attacks at range. Utilizes two unique weapon skills, one being an enhanced version of "stance", a "guard breaking" slash with increased range, and another which is two slow, but powerful, spin attacks. Scimitar/Pyromancy: Quick, horizontal slashes and wound-up vertical slashes, and a quick, evasive slash or backflip to avoid attacks and can parry attacks and deliver a riposte. Also uses a combination of many offensive pyromancies, including Power Within, Great Combustion, Great Chaos Fire Orb and Poison Mist. Pike/Miracles: Attacks with quick thrust attacks, or slow and powerful lunges forward. Uses a combination of the typical "charge" skill of pikes, as well as a spinning attack similar to the two-handed strong attack several halberds have. Can cast a variety of restorative or utilitarian miracles, such as Wrath of the Gods, Sacred Oath, Heal and Bountiful Light. When Sacred Oath is cast, it can persist into other stances for the duration (60 seconds, if not refreshed). Staff/Sorceries: Casts a variety of powerful spells, varying from Crystal Soul Spear, Farron Hail, Homing Crystal Soulmass, Soul Stream, Soul Greatsword and Great Farron Dart. Uses a unique variant of Homing Crystal Soulmass that acts as a persistent "buff", creating more soulmasses as the others diminish or launch outward. This effect can carry over into other stances while it lasts (60 seconds, if not refreshed). Has unused melee attacks.

Phase 2

The Soul of Cinder's second phase begins once the first phase's health bar has been depleted. After restoring its health to full in a damaging explosion of fire, he will abandon its previous moveset (reverting his sword to its default form if necessary) in favor of a moveset very similar to Gwyn, Lord of Cinder's moveset from Dark Souls, with the exception of a few new attacks. The Soul of Cinder will increase in speed and damage at this point. One of its new attacks involves three unique uses of the Sunlight Spear miracle; the first being a standard Sunlight Spear hurled forward, and the second being a Sunlight Spear that is thrown upward into the air. After a brief period, a cloud will form in the sky, an audible thunderclap is heard and shower of homing Sunlight Spears will rain down upon the player from the cloud, dealing massive damage, similar to Splintering Lightning Spear from Dark Souls II. You can see the cloud if you run away from Soul of Cinder and look upward above it. The final attack is where the Soul of Cinder throws a Sunlight Spear into the ground, causing a small, ground-based area-of-effect of heavy lightning damage on impact, similarly to the Lightning Stake miracle.

Its sword attacks are identical to Gwyn's and can be dodged in a similar manner. However, the Soul of Cinder will have a new, fast combo that, if caught up in, will juggle the player in the air. The last attack of this combo is a stab into the ground that causes a large, fiery explosion that encompasses a very large area around him. The combo attacks have a fire projectile that will damage the player at range, so it is advised to roll through each attack carefully and keep away as the chain progresses further. It's one of the most powerful attacks in the series, almost completely depleting a player's health if caught and unblocked.

Strategy It is advised to finish the first phase quickly to conserve Estus for the second phase. This can be done by aiming to stagger the boss; by pressuring him and attacking constantly while avoiding its attacks, when it staggers there will be a brief window for a fully-charged strong attack. The boss won't stagger if the player gives it breathing room where its poise meter will fill up. However, beware that this strategy is difficult to pull off when the Soul of Cinder uses its Scimitar moveset, because he will start attacking in quick succession. Attacks with heavier weapons like Greataxes can stagger the boss within two to three repeated hits, in some cases with the weapon being wielded in one hand alone.

During the second phase, it is best to maintain distance from the boss and try to bait out its jump attack, which is easily avoidable and leaves it open for a hit or two. It is dangerous to keep close to the boss as it might lead to depleting stamina and/or getting caught in his grab or five-hit combo. If caught by the grab, the boss will receive an attack and defense boost for a short duration.

The Soul of Cinder is weak to sorceries and lightning damage and susceptible to Dark damage. However, it is slightly-resistant to fire attacks, so pyromancies or fire damage will be less effective, especially in the second phase.

Notes Soul of Cinder is one of the bosses that player will not be able to perform a critical attack on, should they manage to stagger him. Can't be either parried or spell-parried. The Firelink Set can be purchased from the Shrine Handmaid once the Soul of Cinder has been defeated. If player purchased one before going to the next NG cycle, next one will appear in the following cycle. During phase one, while using Sorcery set, he is extremely vulnerable to Vow of Silence. During phase two, the fire explosion after some attacks is capable of deflecting spells. However, it will not deflect throwable items like Kukri or Arrows. During the "pyromancy/scimitar" phase of the fight, the Soul of Cinder is capable of parrying the player and any nearby summons who are close to his front or at his side, and will perform a critical attack on its initial target.

Trivia The Soul of Cinder's five-hit combo is reminiscent of Manus's berserker/frenzy combo; both of them juggle the player in the air for the duration of the attack.

Its leggings and shoulder pauldrons look similar to the ones on the Elite Knight Set and the chest piece looks similar to Yhorm's armor. The gauntlets appear identical to Alva's gauntlets, with some noticeable differences.

During the cutscene in Firelink Shrine that takes the player to the kiln, the Fire Keeper will say "Let him/her grant death to the old gods of Lordran, deliverers of the First Flame." This could reference the bosses defeated in the first game, who possessed souls that may have eventually found their way into the fire (if you did not create boss weapons or feed them to Frampt). If that is true, it means that this boss is not only the previous Lords of Cinder, but also every soul that was part of them.

In the opening cutscene, someone wearing the Firelink Set drags a corpse into the shrine before partaking in the ash ritual that takes the player to the kiln. This could be the most recent person to burn in the fire, but whether or not they succeeded or failed is unknown.

The Soul of Cinder has a burnt and misshapen crown on top of its helm in the boss fight, but its armor set only has the back of the crown on his helm, along with a chest banner for the Kingdom of Lothric.

The backflip used by it during the "pyromancy/scimitar" phase closely resembles the one used with the Dark Wood Grain Ring in Dark Souls.

During the second phase, he can roll and dodge ranged attacks. The Soul of Cinder has a fifth weapon style that goes unused, involving a greatsword. It covers both the body of the Soul of Cinder and the weapon in flames much like his final phase. Whether it was part of its first phase, second phase, or something in-between is unknown.

Due to how the Soul of Cinder took on Gwyn's moveset and persona for his second phase, it could be inferred that one's prominence within the Soul of Cinder is related to the strength of their soul. This could also explain why the Soul of Cinder's armor strongly resembles the Elite Knight Set that the Chosen Undead was depicted as wearing in most Dark Souls art; as the Chosen Undead had slain the original Lords and most likely absorbed their souls, their soul would possess immense strength by the time they linked the Flame (if they indeed chose to do so).

Also the Soul Of Cinder is totally mute, not even grunting when slashing his sword, it has never spoken a single word and never will.