Crown of the Old Iron King - Smelter Demon, boss guide, weaknesses, strategies
The optional side boss of the Old Iron King downloadable content is an old friend who puts up a tough fight. Best see him off with some friends.
The Iron Passage section of the Old Iron King DLC culminates in a fight against a familiar foe. If you get stuck, make sure you have summoned some pals (AI or human) by restoring your humanity with human effigy and looking for summon symbols on the floor.
Smelter Demon
You remember this guy. Originally located around halfway through Dark Souls 2's Iron Keep location, he's back for another round in this extension of his original area.
What's more, he does exactly what he did before. The only difference is he's smothered in magic rather than fire and has a lot more health. Make sure you're boasting armour and a shield with high magic defence, if possible, because you will take some magic damage during this battle, whether or not you plan on getting up close and personal. A shield with 100 per cent physical damage reduction won't do the trick for all of this.
If your summoned helpers are still around, they should tank the Demon so you can hit it from behind or from range. Your buddies will die in short order though, so take advantage of the cover they provide while you can but work on the basis you'll need to finish the job.
In the first phase of the battle, the Smelter Demon stops attacking and stoops slightly. As soon as you see this, back off, because he's working up the magic in his torso and when he's done, a burst of magic damages everything within a short radius of him. Get out of the way or hold up the shield you hopefully brought that absorbs magic damage.
When he's powered up with magic, the Smelter Demon will do magic damage to you in small amounts whenever you get near him. He also quickly plunges his sword into his body, infusing it with magic as well, meaning all sword attacks deal magic damage as well. Without a shield that blocks that, you're going to lose some chunks of health.
Despite all this, the biggest challenge of this fight is really just the Smelter Demon's health. He has tons of it, and because you're taking little bits of damage on a near-constant basis, it becomes a bit of a race. As mentioned, you want to do as much damage as possible while your friends are around.
If the Smelter Demon still has loads of health left when you exhaust your ranged attacks or your buddies go down, move in and dodge his attacks as often as possible while piling on attacks during lulls in his aggression. There's a standard two-swing combo, which segues into a more powerful third attack in either grounded or jumping form, so watch out for that. And sometimes after the jump attack the Smelter Demon pauses in a kneeling position, which sets up another magical area-of-effect attack, so move away. Oh, and once he's powered up once, this attack reaches much further.
In putting this guide together, we used a standard melee attack build with Greatbow and Greatarrows. Attacking from range while the summoned helpers are alive, we managed to get him down to about 10 per cent health by the time they both died, leaving us to finish him off with a few dodges and two-handed melee attacks.
When he's down, you'll get a Smelter Demon soul. Then go through the cave on the far side of the arena to find a Pharros Mask next to the elevator at the end. Pick it up, jump on the lift and travel up. When you exit the lift, drop down to the floor below, then take the next lift up and you're back in Brume Tower.
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