I know I'm not the only one who thought the placement of bonfires—Dark Souls 3's take on checkpoints—was a little wonky, and now we might have an idea why. Dark Souls YouTuber Lance McDonald has built his reputation on uncovering all sorts of fascinating bosses, enemies, and systems that were removed from Dark Souls games prior to release. And in his latest video, Lance shows off a bizarre system he found hidden in an alpha version of Dark Souls 3 that allows him to sacrifice enemies and create bonfires just about anywhere he wants.

You should first watch the video above to see it all in action, but what Lance discovered is a massive insight into how Dark Souls 3 might've worked at one point in time. The idea is that sometimes slain enemies would emit an ominous glow the moment they died, indicating that these enemies suffered what's oddly called a "cult death." In the video, Lance can use the alpha version's debug menu to assign this parameter freely to enemies for the purposes of demonstrating what it can do. When enemies die a cult death, the player can then pick up their body and drag it anywhere in the world.

This system ties into another scrapped concept wherein players could "join a cult"—though Lance admits he doesn't know what that means or how to do it. Using a debug menu Lance can join one automatically, and there's seven to choose from that closely mirror the options players have when resting at a bonfire. When in a cult, like the one that allows you to level up, players can perform a "ceremony" on cult death bodies, which triggers an animation that essentially transforms the corpse into a bonfire.

The idea, I think, was that players could join a cult that would allow them to turn slain enemies into bonfires with limited usage. You might join a cult so that you can create your own bonfires to level up, or one that'll let you summon an NPC for aid.

But wait, there's more.

In the second half of the video, Lance demonstrates how these cult death enemies were also a key ingredient in a new way of invading other players. In the inventory menu, Lance discovered two "ceremony swords" that served an interesting purpose. One sword would let you invade another player's world, while the second sword eclipsed your world in darkness and opened you up to invasion from other players. PVP is obviously a big part of Darks Souls 3, and this system looks like one way players could've guaranteed themselves some PVP action.

Sadly, the system never made it into the game. But as Polygon rightly points out, it was obviously intended to be a proper feature considering a Dark Souls 3 statue first displayed at E3 2015 depicted the ceremony necessary to trigger the invasion. Oh well. You can see a video of the statue below.

Thanks, Polygon.

There are Dark Souls 3 mods that dilute its difficulty. And then there are Dark Souls 3 mods like TKGP's Enemy Onslaught. Which essentially turns Lothric into a Royal Rumble-style free for all. Yeah, good luck with that. 

Enemy Onslaught does this by duplicating enemies—both run of the mill baddies and end-of-zone bosses—and by removing the event IDs of clones. In turn, this lets reproduced bosses leave their designated arenas (something standard bosses cannot do), and also allows swarms of friendly NPC summons to lend a hand. 

In the interest of balance/not having YOU DIED etched permanently into your brain, I reckon the latter sounds important. Here's some screens:

"This mod duplicates every enemy in the game, including bosses," explains TKGP's Nexus Mods description. "Nearby enemies no longer prevent you from sitting at bonfires because some would be basically unusable otherwise. Any time you enter an area you'll get a smattering of souls from unfortunate clones falling off the map; enjoy it, because you'll need the help.

"Most of the game is very hard but still doable on 3x enemies, but some bosses are practically impossible on your own. Even on 2x you will have an extremely difficult time in a couple places. Please don't be shy about switching the difficulty if you get stuck. 

"You may also notice a vanilla mechanic that usually doesn't come into play very much: most enemies will calmly stay out of the way if you're already being attacked by a few others. If you find that a little underwhelming, the 'Impolite Enemies' optional file will remove their qualms about ganging up on you."

TKGP says that to the best of their knowledge Enemy Onslaught can be used online without issue, but that they recommend switching to offline mode "just to be safe"—particularly if you don't play with friends. TKGP also notes that using the aforementioned Impolite Enemies add-on will "absolutely" lead to a ban, so best avoiding that one. 

More information on Enemy Onslaught, including installation instructions, can be found here. 

After 200 hours of work, Dark Souls detective Lance McDonald recently uncovered all 46 of the third game's lore epitaphs. At the end of that video, McDonald promised some "absolutely WEIRD" stuff in the coming weeks. This now takes the form of the ARPG's axed Ceremony database—"a set of parameters DS3 uses to dynamically change the world state or time of day."

As outlined above, things start off fairly tame. Manually changing the time of day switches to a different 'Ceremony', which in practice sees the Cemetery of Ash flip to the Untended Graves—areas identical in likeness, with different enemy layouts and lighting. Likewise, Archdragon Peak is seen pre and post-storm; and the High Wall of Lothric is seen with the Dark Sign Eclipse triggered and untriggered. 

As things progress, things get progressively weird. The 'Evening/Dusk' Ceremony offers a gorgeous, purple/pink sky texture that looks like this:     

'Moonlit Night', as the name might suggest, plunges the world into darkness: 

Whereas 'The Past' drains Lothric of colour further still. This monochrome setting might be my favourite.

'The Sun' cranks the light back up to 11. 

While 'Eclipsed Night' portrays light and dark in concert.

And then things get super weird. Here's an excerpt from McDonald's narration: "Now, I did say we're saving the best till last and to do that we're heading to The Undead Settlement, which is the only map in the game where The Eclipse Ceremony is accompanied by a sky filled with creatures." 

Skip to the 8-minute mark in the video above to see that in full. Otherwise, here's some screens.

McDonald continues: "And perhaps even more striking is that this same thing happens during the Sun Ceremony."

After pointing out that these flying beasts cast dynamic shadows, McDonald says: "It's hard to imagine how exactly the game was once planned to progress through these different world states—would the time of day just organically changed as you played through the game? 

"And the more abstract ones, such as The Past, The Sun and The Eclipse Ceremonies certainly appear to be fairly climactic, which gives us a lot to think about with regards to how the game may have once been planned to end."

McDonald concludes by turning lore speculation and suggestions over to his viewers. I'll now do the same here: what the hell do you reckon is happening above, and how might it have impacted Dark Souls 3's overarching lore?

Lance McDonald is an indie dev turned hobbyist game engineer, who's spent the last few months uncovering cool Dark Souls cut content. His latest investigation unearths the third game's removed lore epitaphs—of which there are 46 in total. 

In a video released earlier this month, McDonald suggested that, besides Dark Souls 3's first four story-supporting epitaphs, the remainder were comprised of placeholder text. Prominent Souls figure Sanadsk then uncovered a database of completed epitaph text from the game's Japanese retail version, and McDonald then spent over 200 hours fully restoring the alpha blurbs in-game. 

That's showcased here:

I love stuff like this, and I especially enjoy McDonald's analysis against his previous findings. This is especially interesting here, given how far this particular discovery has come in the past few weeks. 

Some of McDonald's other discoveries have led us to believe Oceiros' baby wasn't always invisible, and that Pontiff Sulyvahn may have once been Dark Souls 3's final boss.  

More interesting still, McDonald has some "absolutely WEIRD" Dark Souls 3 cut content stuff coming up which he's keeping close to his chest for now. I'm intrigued. Needless to say, watch this space.  

Following its Dark Souls Age of Fire mod, the Datahacks team has released Forces of Annihilation—a similar hobbyist project for Dark Souls 3. Out now, FoA lets you storm Lothric as the game's enemies and bosses alike. 

Naturally, that's best portrayed in the massive shoes of Yhorm the Giant.

With that, I'm particularly fond of seeing a hulking Yhorm wandering around the Profaned Capital, battering Headless Gargoyles. Skip to the 5.40 mark above to see that in practice. 

Since the mod's release earlier this week, the Datahacks team has also shown off the Soul of Cinder versus the Nameless King, the Soul of Cinder versus the Outrider Knight, Darkeater Midir versus the Old Demon King, Darkeater Midir versus the Nameless King, and Darkeater Midir versus the Twin Princes.It's a bit messy, but that last one's my favourite. Look, see:

With installation and use in mind, Datahacks provides a three-video tutorial series that covers attaching the mod to the game, and possessing a bosses and enemies; camera toggle, and attacks and phases changes; and regular and enhanced enemy controls.

A download link for Forces of Annihilation lives in this video's description.

The city of Lordran is not a very nice place. The decayed, moss-stained ramparts are populated exclusively by mindless undead, ornery dragons, forsaken soldiers, and obsidian-skinned demons. The capital of Anor Londo is home to a worthless, greedy class of gods who intend to hold onto their waning power until the flame goes out. Dark Souls is about subsisting under that threat forever; to thrive while being crushed by the impossible magnitude of mystery and razor-tight attack animations. So, naturally, I was surprised to find a three hour video of a man whispering strategies for each of the boss encounters in Dark Souls 3.

Sure enough, I had found the nexus of the Dark Souls ASMR scene. If you're somehow unfamiliar with the term, ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, which is a diagnosis of the tingling sense of satisfaction you might get when someone crinkles a plastic bag, or raps their fingernails against a piece of aluminum. YouTubers around the world have developed robust careers out of stoking those uncanny tingles in the minds of their viewers, and the videos can be pretty creative. (Here for instance, is an ASMR cyberpunk roleplay.) So I suppose it's not shocking that the culture found a home in Dark Souls, but it certainly makes you consider the degree of difficulty. I mean, black metal ASMR doesn't exist for a reason, right? (OK, PC Gamer associate editor James Davenport tells me it actually does exist. But my point still stands!)

That boss guide was recorded by a man who publishes work on a channel called The ASMR Review Show, and he's done similarly hushed walkthroughs for both Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne (alongside his more traditional tranquilizing reviews for Marvel movies.) The man behind the curtain didn't respond to my request for comment, but that wasn't a problem because I quickly discovered that he was far from the only person working this gimmick. ASMR figurehead Ephemeral Rift did an extremely zen Let's Play for the first game in the series back in 2013, a YouTuber named Morpheus spent 20 minutes reading Dark Souls 2 item descriptions last year, and a Twitch streamer who goes by Nyanners recently completed a two hour broadcast where she listlessly recited the franchise's verbose Wiki for a captive audience. 

However, by far the most famous, and most successful Dark Souls ASMR artist is AlternateAurora. Unlike the other people in her business, Aurora goes the extra mile by roleplaying characters from the series, thus recontextualizing them into doting, peaceful caretakers who have absolutely no interest in forcing you to do a lengthy corpse run. In one of her dispatches, she speaks on behalf of Crossbreed Priscilla, who you may remember as that outrageously annoying boss in the Painted World who has a bad habit of turning invisible in high-pressure moments. Of course, Aurora interprets Priscilla as a warm matriarch urging you back to sleep—someone with absolutely no interest in tearing you in two with her scythe.

Aurora writes all of her scripts herself by scrutinizing every scrap of dialogue and fan theory she can find of the character she's roleplaying. (She'll also occasionally pantomime her own homebrewed denizens within the Souls universe, which she says are the hardest to get right because, "When you don't have a template, it can be easy to stray too far.") In the past, Aurora taken the guise of the doll liaison in Bloodborne's Hunter's Dream, and the croaking undead merchant lying dormant and behind bars in the annals of the Undead Burg (the latter being one of the more radical risks she's taken as an ASMR creator). 

I ask her where she's found so much inspiration for pacifying ambiance in this series—the calm moments that helped her shape the sedate, new-age meditation material amidst the 10-foot skeletons and wriggling mountains of flesh. Her answer made more sense to me than I expected. There's a euphoric reprise, she says, after you've fallen one of those titanic boss encounters, and your character finally discovers refuge at a hidden bonfire. You indulge a glint of happiness and hopefulness that's gone extinct in this dying realm, and you live to fight another day.

"The contrast between how difficult and oppressive some areas are compared to the more serene and quiet places you can find yourself in is amazing," says Aurora. "I'll never forget stumbling into Ash Lake for the first time, or how safe I felt at Firelink when I first found myself stumbling through the Burg. For me, the game really nailed its atmosphere and that's part of what makes it such a strong experience. You have all this suffering set up against the backdrop of a beautiful world and it just makes it that much more poignant."

I'm currently about three quarters of the way through my first playthrough of Dark Souls. Most recently, my lonely knight fell to his death through a trapdoor full of carnivorous beasties in the hateful caverns of Lost Izalith. Everything I was taught about this game remains true; it's frustrating, the difficulty spikes are palpable and stringent, and you shouldn't expect to pick up on everything your first time through. That being said, I also kinda get where Aurora and other ASMR artists like her are coming from. 

Breaking bread with Solaire, or taking a pregnant moment to admire the sun-bathed vista from Anor Londo—those are the moments that stand out in my head so far, and they're also the moments I yearn for the most. It is often said that Dark Souls was the game that forced this industry to reckon with what was lost as singleplayer campaigns became easier and obsequious. I suppose the same can be for ASMR, too. Sometimes you need a little pain to recognize the pleasure.

Soulsborne sleuth Lance McDonald has returned to Lothric—this time with the suggestion Dark Souls 3 once planned a PvP battle royale multiplayer mode.

In his latest Dark Souls alpha cut content video, McDonald visits the third game's High Wall of Lothric area. He discovers three items absent from the final game—the Ceremony Sword of Darkness, the Ceremony Sword of Flame, and the Ceremony Sword Battle Royale Eclipse. In order to explain the latter, it makes sense to first look at the former. 

Below, McDonald says the Sword of Darkness' description reads: "When used, perform a ceremony to envelope the world in darkness. For playable version, select this item to perform an eclipse ceremony". He explains the item can only be used in a specific context that he's unable to recreate in-game—but is able to work around it by changing a flag in the game's executable.

Doing so transports McDonald to a new, unseen version of the High Wall that's plunged into darkness. It's referred to in the game's data files as its 'Moonlight Ceremony' state.

McDonald says the Ceremony Sword of Flame's description reads: "When used, invade a world that has been enveloped in darkness. For playable version, select this item to perform an invasion ceremony." While he can't say for sure, McDonald suggests both swords would have allowed players to host and invade player-created moonlight ceremonies respectively.  

McDonald then talks to a third item, the Ceremony Sword Battle Royale Eclipse. It comes with no description, but McDonald says it "may have been another way for players to engage in multiplayer events in moonlight ceremonies." He then explains that the term 'battle royale' has been used in the Souls series to describe multiplayer arena modes. He adds: "We might assume that Dark Souls 3's Moonlight Battle Royale Ceremony was an extension of the PvP arena concept."

All of which means Dark Souls 3's cut interpretation of battle royale probably wasn't the PUBG/Fortnite-flavoured, fight-to-the-death set up we're now so familiar with. We can dream though, right?  

Other neat discoveries of McDonald's include the suggestion that Oceiros' baby wasn't always invisible, and the idea that Pontiff Sulyvahn was once the final boss.

If you're yet to play Dark Souls 3 and fancy it, it's going for £9.99/$14.99 in the Steam Summer Sale.    

Dark Souls: Remastered is out now on PC, and we've got Chosen Undead fever. Dark Souls delerium? Lordran lurgy? Whatever, we've spent today praising the sun and now wish to shine a light on our favourite Dark Souls tales. 

From fashion to flavour text, deceitful covenants and dumb crab infestations—the following list explores Dark Souls from its a myriad of perspectives, all testament to the series' widespread influence and appeal.  

Without further ado, here are PC Gamer's greatest Dark Souls stories. 

Is Dark Souls Remastered worth playing without its former mystery?Shaun asks a pertinent question with the series' most useless (or is it?) item in mind. 

The art of flavour text Alex Wiltshire explores how developers use in-game descriptions to bring worlds to life. Dark Souls' use of flavour text, argues Alex, is an exemplar of the form.

How Return to Lordran reinvigorated Dark Souls' online communitySteven T. Wright discusses the Reddit event that brought invasions back to the homeland.

Why Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City’s final boss is one of the series’ bestJames lovingly profiles Slave Knight Gael—a pitiful, admirable figure that teaches as much as he terrorises.

5 ways to spice up your Dark Souls PvP lifeLauren Morton offers guidance that'll encourage your sparring partner to say 'very good!'

Sometimes games are better without musicFTL composer Ben Prunty writes about games that sidestep music while conjuring atmosphere. Naturally, Dark Souls features heavily. 

The 'Souls-like' label needs to dieAustin argues that while Dark Souls is one of the most influential games of the last decade, it shouldn't be treated as a template.

Dark Souls 3 and the tragedy of a fallen knightAndy speculates on the backstories of fallen comrades by way of item descriptions. 

In search of the mysterious Dark Souls fashion policeLauren Morton digs through years of reported sightings in an attempt to identify the original sheriff of Fashion Souls.

How Dark Souls 3's Aldrich Faithful covenant turns good people into trolling monsters Xalavier Nelson examines one of Dark Souls' cruellest covenants, and explains why being a bastard there is easy.  

Why I love Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City's brilliantly incongruous architectureJoe enjoys the view from Dark Souls 3's southernmost point, and suggests why it's a fitting final setting for Miyazaki's twisted vision. 

Why I'm glad Dark Souls is deadJames, a Dark Souls aficionado, is glad we've woken from Miyazaki's nightmare. 

Why we praise the sun: the story of Dark Souls' most famous gestureLauren Morton explains that without an act of rebellion from Hidetaka Miyazaki, Dark Souls would be without its brilliant mascot.The good, the dead, and the ugly: our favorite Dark Souls enemiesJames rounds up the series' most horrifying, challenging, and poignant monsters.The best and worst Dark Souls bossesStraight up: our picks from across the entire series.

Finally falling in love with Dark Souls 3Having bounced off the series several times, Andy finds his stride in Lothric.

We need to stop talking about how difficult Dark Souls is"If there’s anything we need to ‘git gud’ at," says James, "it’s treating Dark Souls as something more than a vessel for primping tough guy video game egos worldwide."Why I love Dark Souls' Sen's FortressJoe compares the formidable prison to the board game Mouse Trap. Obviously.The mystery of the big dumb crabs infesting Dark Souls 3James cracks the third Souls game's crab case.

Meet the Dark Souls detective uncovering Lothric's cut contentJoe interviews Soulsborne sleuth Lance McDonald—an indie dev turned hobbyist game engineer unearthing Dark Souls' forgotten secrets. 

The Dark Souls remaster has arrived! While it seems a bit needless on PC where we have mods and super HD monitors already, we need barely any excuse to go on and on about the Dark Souls series. 

They are still incredible games with outstanding boss encounters. Well, mostly outstanding. Artorias is a beautifully designed doomed knight who will give you the fight of your life, but Covetous Demon is a poo with a face that tries to roll over you. Which are the best? Which are the worst? We put our opinions onto the internet below, give us yours in the comments. Beware spoilers ahead, too—Dark Souls bosses are important to the plot. Thanks to the boss fight database Youtube channel for the vids.

Knight Artorias

It wasn't until I faced Artorias that I became wholly invested in the lore of Dark Souls. I was suddenly face-to-face with a living relic of Lordran's past (as alive as anything gets in Dark Souls, anyway). Artorias was the subject of every whispered fable about the battle against the Abyss, and I had been there, and survived what he had not. Suddenly all those stories were more than history to read about in item descriptions: they were present, right in front of me, in the form of an insane, extremely pissed legendary knight.

By Dark Souls 3, the fight with Artorias wouldn't stand out. But at the time, he was fast and vicious and lithe where most of Dark Souls' bosses were towering monstrosities. Fighting him felt like fighting a human player, but with faster reflexes and more powerful attacks. It was intense. Panic-inducing. A duel, not a battle against a behemoth. By the time you face Artorias you've likely mastered the game, but beating him still feels like the ultimate accomplishment. You've faced down the greatest character in Dark Souls lore and given him the warrior's death he deserves. —Wes Fenlon

Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough

I've written about my love/hate relationship with Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough before. To recap, it's like this: no matter how many times I beat the first Dark Souls—a number I've genuinely lost sight of at this stage—I'm yet to better the Four Knights captain and his big mate first time without the help of Solaire. 

And I've developed a complex. One of my favourite moments in Dark Souls is catching that first glimpse of Anor Londo, a moment that's perpetually overshadowed by my own inadequacy. You've hoofed it up Sen's Fortress, taken down all those Royal Sentinels and Batwing Demons and have maxed out your lightning halberd? Tough shit, you've still not worked out the attacking patterns of these two (three, including the pair’s final form) juggernauts. At this point, it looks like I never will—which is partly why I love Ornstein and Smough. Besides being one of the series' most epic showdowns, my own inability to topple them keeps me coming back for more. —Joe Donnelly     

High Lord Wolnir

I'm not particularly fond of the Wolnir fight itself, but I love this character's lore. Enough that the big man is deserving of his place on this side of the best/worst divide. A one-time conqueror and ruler of the Catacombs of Carthus—whose skeleton race is known for their curvy swords and black magic—Wolnir has succumbed to The Abyss. Like much of the series' ambiguous mythology, it's unclear why this has happened but is most evident during the fight itself—him, lurched over a knife-edged clifface, spewing murky gunk, and raising the dead while clutching his Holy Sword. 

Break Wolnir's glowing bangles, and he's swallowed by the shadows. Granted, doing so feels more videogamey than Souls games normally permit, but watching the bastard consumed by the blackness remains one of my prouder DS3 moments. Despite the reams of Souls analysis out there, I'd love to see more on The Abyss as I find its mind-warping properties fascinating. —Joe Donnelly

Yhorm the Giant

The fight with Yhorm the Giant is as Dark Souls as they come. Yhorm is huge, deals vast amounts of damage, and requires a special sword, the Storm Ruler, to be defeated. Plot twist: said sword lives at the far end of Yhorm's chamber. Which means this battle kicks off with a frantic dash and a furious inventory shuffle - before you can then consider, you know, killing a bloody giant.   

Siegward of Catarina's sidequest is worth completing before taking on Yhorm too, as he'll accompany you during the showdown. He refers to the giant as an "old friend" and that he's come to fight the Lord of Cinder in order to "uphold [his] promise". Likewise, Siegward carries his own Storm Ruler. This fight has it all, then: a frenetic David versus Goliath-esque battle, special weaponry, and some deliberately ambiguous lore tie-ins.—Joe Donnelly 

Looking Glass Knight

The Looking Glass Knight might be my favourite Dark Souls boss, despite featuring in my least favourite game of the series. One-on-one, the fight is straightforward: the knight's hulking sword swipes and cumbersome stomps are easily telegraphed. When you get its health down to a certain level, though, it summons an NPC or, better still, another player via its mirrorer shield. This changes the dynamics of the battle - particularly when matched with a human player. 

Moreover, NPCs can choose to heal the Looking Glass Knight, or even turn on the boss and help out the player they've been sent to attack. All told, this is a neat spin on the series' summoning mechanics which turns an otherwise cookie cutter boss battle into a messy free-for-all. The Knight's Ring of Steel Protection is a handy drop, too. —Joe Donnelly 

Sister Friede

Is this three-phase bout the most challenging boss battle in the entire Soulsborne series? With the exception of Bloodborne’s Orphan of Kos, I think so. Housed within the Ariandel Chapel of Dark Souls 3’s gorgeous Ashes of Ariandel icy sprawl, Sister Friede leverages a deadly frostbite-inflicting slash attack. Father Ariandel joins her in her second phase, and while both combined are weaker than phase one—despite the size of the old timer—Sister Friede then begins healing. Which is really, really annoying. 

And of course just when you think it’s all done and dusted, Blackflame Friede jumps in with more Magic, Fire and Dark damage slashing. She’s in beast mode at this point, and I don’t care to admit how long this stage took me to overcome. Even with Slave Knight Gael’s backing—a summon who James discusses in more detail below. —Joe Donnelly 

Slave Knight Gael

I already wrote an entire article about how much I like this boss, so for a longer explanation give it a read. By the time you reach him, he’s a former friend gone mad, a peasant who went in search of the pigment of the Dark Soul for his niece, an artist attempting to paint a newer, better world. In an arena set far into the future, right before the remaining pieces of the world dissolve into ash, you fight Gael amidst the empty thrones of the pygmy lords, all of whom he just finished ripping to shreds in his search. In your years apart, Gael grew quite large, his cape now imbued with dark magic and his biceps infused with mad gains. It’s metal as fuck.

He’s basically Artorias 2.0, a human opponent with rhythmic attacks and impressive agility. But after his health bar reaches the halfway point, he increases the speed and ferocity of his introductory melee attacks and throws in some spells for good measure. The result of one hell of a climactic duel that ramps up slowly enough to teach you as you fight. By the time you reach the spell phase, dodging the melee attacks will feel effortless, and after a death or two to boomeranging coronas, avoiding the spell attacks will be just as simple. Gael is everything I love about Dark Souls’ infamous ‘difficulty’ condensed into a single fight. Pay attention, be persistent, and you’ll surprise yourself. —James Davenport

Soul of Cinder

I still regularly think about how well Dark Souls 3 ended. I never played the DLC, but the Soul of Cinder, the final boss of the main game, was a meditation on Dark Souls as a series and Dark Souls 3 as a sequel. Dark Souls 3 is not as fresh as the first game, because how could it be? It has to retrace some of the same steps, work within the same aesthetic, but it makes that weakness into its theme. The whole game is about continuing or breaking this unending cycle, and the Soul of Cinder represents you and every player who's gone before you. It shifts from style to style, one moment a knight, another an assassin, the next a cleric. It's shockingly poetic for a battle against a giant with a flaming sword. —Wes Fenlon

I agree with everything Wes says here, and would add that the play on Gwyn’s boss theme in the second phase of this fight is wonderful. This nod to the first game, and to a time cycle doomed to repeat itself, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. A fitting conclusion to the base game trilogy. —Joe Donnelly

Bed of Chaos

Urgh, the Bed of Chaos. As if trekking through Lost Izalith—a seemingly unfinished area with wasted potential—wasn't tiresome enough, rounding off the trip with such a tedious boss battle is not fun. Assuming you don't rely on this fight's quit/reload trick, it can take an awful long time to get right—particularly when you've taken down both roots, the floor crumbles beneath you, you're tasked with landing on that unreasonably narrow root below, and the bastard continually sweeps you away with it's unwieldy branching arms. Deep breath. I hate it. 

I love Dark Souls' tough-but-fair learning process, but for me too much of this fight relies on luck and undermines its credibility. The Witches of Izalith are among my favourite Soulsborne lore stories, which makes this boss fight all the more disappointing. —Joe Donnelly

Covetous Demon

This Jabba-the-Hutt-on-meth looking bastard is boring, slow, and again, boring. He's all limp belly flops and pathetic swipes, with the occasional roll thrown in. None of his attacks look interesting, are satisfying to dodge, and the battle plays out in a drab room that doesn't even have the atmosphere of some of Dark Souls' other weak bosses. At least Jabba had a laugh. —Wes Fenlon 

Ceaseless Discharge

I'm honestly going to make a case here for Ceaseless Discharge being one of the best Dark Souls bosses, because nothing better represents the strange, morbid humor of the series better than a boss named Ceaseless Discharge. The world is absolutely a better place thanks to its presence. Imagine living your life, never having said the words Ceaseless Discharge out loud and immediately giggling. It would be a little worse, right? Also, he's fucking horrifying looking, as any giant creature who lives in the lava lake hell of Dark Souls should. Bad fight. Great boss. —Wes Fenlon 

Pinwheel

I named and shamed Pinwheel in our best and worst boss fights in PC gaming last month because I feel he's the most incongruous of the Souls series. Dark Souls prides itself on its challenging enemies, yet Pinwheel is not only one of the easiest boss battle in the entire series, but is easier to topple than a sizeable number of its generic baddies too. Billed as a "multi-masked necromancer", I love the idea of Pinwheel on paper—spawning copies of itself, firing projectiles at players—but in practice he's so very boring. 

His moves are easily telegraphed, his minions are more irritating than challenging, and his drops are pants. Even the Rite of Kindling pickup feels out of place here, which is honestly this fight's sole redeeming feature. Compared to his horrifying, erratic and unpredictable Bonewheel cousins, this boss is a total bore. Piss off, Pinwheel.  —Joe Donnelly 

Belfry Gargoyles, Dark Souls 2

Actually, Pinwheel, maybe I’m being a little harsh on you. Are these chumps the worst boss(es) the Soulsborne series has to offer? They’re more challenging, sure, but they’re also a copy and paste job of the first game’s Bell Gargoyles. There are more of them here, up to six gargoyles can spring to life at once, but they’re also an optional encounter which I’d suggest is best avoided as it’s repetitive and gruelling in equal measure. James once described this run-in as tiring, which I think hits the stone statue on the head. Quality over quantity, please. —Joe Donnelly 

Prowling Magus and Congregation

Simply put: Prowling Magus and Congregation should not be a boss battle. Brightstone Cove Tseldora is littered with difficult generic enemies, which makes this fight all the more unusual. It’s the weakest boss battle of Dark Souls 2, which can be collectively disposed in minutes with a combination of wide melee swings or area of effect magic. Ten or so enemies housed with a narrow church hall should not be this easy. —Joe Donnelly 

Royal Rat Authority

Thank goodness this one’s optional, because fuck this rat. Not only is the Royal Rat Authority one of the fastest bosses in Dark Souls 2, but it hits the hardest, and kicks off the match by sending a few radioactive minions your way. If you don’t go toxic in the first few seconds, then don’t worry, because the Royal Rat will be sure to puke toxic goop all over you. I tend to dislike the more monstrous bosses of Dark Souls anyway. They’re harder to track with the camera, and the Royal Rat’s sweeping attacks allow it to fly all over the arena, spinning the camera around to knock loose your lock-on, or crowd the frame when you’re close enough for a hit. Also, that’s not a rat, that’s a wolf, and Sif should not be associated with such a stinky jerk. —James Davenport

With Dark Souls Remastered out on Friday, I've got Dark Souls fever. And while I've spent the last several weeks testing the original game's most challenging mods, today's intrigue showcases modder Loki's Don't Stop Moving—a player-made Dark Souls 3 project whose idle health degeneration echoes the '94 film Speed. Sort of. 

For those unfamiliar with the Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock-starring action thriller, the plot of Speed involves a hijacked bus that's rigged with a speed-activated bomb. If the bus exceeds 50 miles per hour, the bomb activates. If it drops below 50, it explodes. Loki's Don't Stop Moving applies a similar principle, whereby your health decreases rapidly when standing idle. 

Only when moving does it level off—and the speed of depletion is tied to your Vigor Level. Furthermore, this mod caps your Estus Flask at five servings. "Bone Shards can still upgrade the amount healed," explains Loki, "but once you hit 5 total Estus, that's it." 

Don't Stop Moving is a simple challenge mod, but I like it. I'm pretty familiar with Lothric's layout, but I still like to pause upon entering new areas to refamilise myself with the lay of the land and its enemy placement. Don't Stop Moving prevents this and in turn forces a more direct and aggressive approach. Likewise, idling with your shield raised in battle is untenable, particular given the mod's Estus handicap.  

More information, including install instructions, can be found on Don't Stop Moving's Nexus Mods page.