High Lord Wolnir Boss | Dark Souls 3

High Lord Wolnir is a boss in Dark Souls 3. He can be found at the end of the Catacombs of Carthus. After you defeat him, you’ll unlock the way to Irithyll Valley and gain some items in the process. This guide will show you how to beat High Lord Wolnir in Dark Souls 3, which rewards to expect.

How to beat Wolnir

Name: High Lord Wolnir
Area: Catacombs of Carthus
Rewards: Soul of High Lord Wolnir, 14,000 souls

Wolnir is a giant skeleton – all you’ll see of him are his head, arms and part of the torso. It’s imperative not to lock-on during this fight, since it would make tracking him impossible. All you need to do in order to win is to pay attention to his moves.

You have to attack his hands until you break the glowing bracelets. Go for the right hand first – when you destroy a bracelet he’ll summon some skeletons. As you’re running to the other hand, they’ll end up trapped on the other side of his arm, unable to get to you. Don’t stray to far in front of him – this will make him crawl closer. After a few crawls he’ll back you into the wall, making the fight impossible, since you can’t go behind him.
The hand attacks are easy enough to handle – when he raises his arms, you should move. What you should really watch out for are the dark mist he shoots out of his mouth and area-of-effect attack after he pushes the sword into the ground. These can seriously damage you if you don’t manage to get away in time. That’s why you should always keep track of his both arms as well as the head.

High Lord Wolnir Rewards

The soul you get from him can be transposed into a spell or a sword:

• Black Serpent: This pyromancy causes you to shoot black flames that go along the ground.
• Wolnir’s Holy Sword: The greatsword requires Faith to be used effectively. The skill allows you to thrust it into the ground and cause a shockwave, just like the previous owner did.

Wolnir Move Set

Phase 1

• Puke – From time to time, the boss will cough up a cloud of darkness. It damages targets cought in it rather fast. The safe areas are farther away from the boss, as well as the tiny area in front it and its hands. You can’t block this damage.
• Summons an army of skeletons – a rare move. If it comes to this, you want to let the boss kill them with its attacks rather than spend time on them yourself.
• Single Hand swipe – covers a huge area in front of the boss. It is noticable as the boss pulls its hand towards the back. This attack becomes faster once one of the boss’ bracelets is destroyed.
• Single Hand smash – covers the area in front of the specific hand. You can spot it as the boss lifts the hand high into the air.
• Both hand frontal smash – usually comes right after you destroy one of its bracelets.
• Moving forward (hand attacks) – Wolnir will most likely do this move if you are farther away from it. You don’t want it to move a lot (max three times) as there is limited space in the boss area.

Phase 2

• Sword swing with a single hand – The boss can swipe or slam with the weapon, depending on how far you are.
• Sword stabbing the ground with both hands – huge area of effect. Dodge or block to avoid massive damage.