Dark Souls - Stray Demon boss strategy and how to return to the Undead Asylum and get the Peculiar Doll

Stray Demon is an optional boss you can fight when your return to the starting area of the game - the Undead Asylum - in Dark Souls.

Defeating the Stray Demon allows you to get the Peculiar Doll, and item that allows you to access another optional, locked away area in Anor Londo.

If you're looking for more help, our Dark Souls walkthrough and guide can help with all other areas of the game, including the dreaded Taurus Demon, Capra Demon, Ornstein and Smough bosses.

How to return to Undead Asylum

You can return to where it all started, but getting there can be a little bit obtuse and tricky. First, we want to start off in Firelink Shrine, then head right and up towards the shortcut to the Undead Parish.

Start taking the lift up, and roll off once you see a platform. From here, carefully proceed to the ledge on the right and jump over onto the ruined tower. This can be a pretty tricky jump, so you might need to repeat this process a few times.

From here, roll up and go right and proceed up the stairs. Then, head towards the bird's nest and curl up into a ball. From here, you will have to wait a little while before heading back to the Undead Asylum after a short cutscene.

Viola! We're back, and here to get one item in particular- the Peculiar Doll. This will allow us to unlock a new area from Anor Londo, but we have to fight our way back to the cell in which we started the game. Shouldn't be too difficult, but there's a boss fight along the way.

Proceed forwards and into the room you fought the Asylum Demon, then the floor will break apart and you will face the Stray Demon.

Stray Demon boss strategy

The Stray Demon is yet another reskin of the original Asylum Demon that we fought at the start of the game. We recommend that you go into this fight with a fully upgraded weapon, as anything less will likely make this an incredibly long boss fight.

We had a +15 Zweihander Equipped for this one, so be sure to go in prepared. We want to note that the arena for this fight in incredibly tight, so go in with a 100% Physical Shield, and ranged combat is not viable for this boss fight.

The first thing you will likely be hit by is the Stray Demon's AoE Blast attack, which can hit you from behind even if you go in with your shield up. If you see the boss charging up an attack, you will want to retreat, as this attack's Area of Effect is pretty small, you should be able to get out of the way pretty easily. So just strafe back with your shield up.

Additionally, the Stray Demon will repeat this attack if you continue to stay at range, so we would recommend that you only retreat for brief periods of time and be patient and wait to heal if you've been caught in the attack.

Additionally, the Stray Demon has a few different melee attacks with it's hammer, what you're going to want to do is either block or roll out of the way of these, rolling through the horizontal attack is going to be a lot more effective in closing distance and getting into attacking range with this one.

The Stray Demon also has a vertical attack, where it will hit directly in front of it. It has very poor tracking, so you will want to strafe or roll out of the way with that one, as blocking it will hit you from overhead and slam you into the ground.

The Stray Demon also brings back an attack which we've seen a few times before in bosses of this type, which is the ground pound, this will occur if you stay too close to the stray demon for a prolonged period of time, so as soon as you see this portly demon take flight, all you need to do is roll back and out of the way to dodge, it leaves the demon open for attack as it recovers once again, so two-hand your weapon and wail on it during this period of time.

Be sure to keep moving as it flies up, as this attack has some pretty decent tracking and will be able to get you if you stop moving for any reason.

What we would recommend with the Stray Demon is to stay behind it, as it will not be able to hit you with the AoE attack or get you at all, this will ensure that you will be able to get those meaty hits in before it decides to do a butt-slam or other melee attack to track and attack you.

Other than that, this is an incredibly simple fight, the main things that you will want to keep an eye out on is the arena itself, which can be pretty oppressive if you're wanting to heal. You will also want to be careful with the lock-on here, too as you will be able to get stuck very easily looking at a wall. In addition to this, this boss has a whole bucketload of health- so you will want to two-hand as much as you possibly can to whittle its health down.

If you're looking for more help, our Dark Souls walkthrough and guide can help with all other areas of the game, including the dreaded Taurus Demon, Capra Demon, Ornstein and Smough bosses. Meanwhile, we have explainers on how to access DLC Artorias of the Abyss, the best gift and best class in Dark Souls, Dark Souls' best weapons, Dark Souls Covenants, Dark Souls Estus Flasks locations, Dark Souls Titanite Slab locations and NPC quests including Lautrec of Carim.

Getting the Peculiar Doll

From here, you will want to go up the ladder lit by the torches and head up. Then, hand a left and drop into the first corridor you went through in the game.

From here, hang left and go through the corridor in order to encounter a sword and shield wielding Black Knight, use the usual parrying tricks in order to dispose of this enemy quickly, then head into the cell and pick up the Peculiar Doll off of the corpse in front of you. Time to visit the Painted World of Ariamis.