Smelter Demon | Dark Souls 2 Wiki

Smelter Demon
HP	5,970 | 8,358 (NG+)
Weakness	Strike
Resistance	Fire
Immune	Bleed
Respawn	NO

The Smelter Demon is a boss in Dark Souls 2.

Smelter Demon Information 

Smelter Demon is a boss in Dark Souls 2. This can be the first boss encounter in the Iron Keep. He is optional so if you have trouble dealing with him, it is better to come back to him after some time. If defeated, returning to his room will result in a Pursuer fight.

• The Old Iron King's life was taken by a mass of iron that had been given a soul. Was this metal goliath there from the beginning, or was it a product of the king's conceit?

Location

• The first boss of the Iron Keep.

Drops

• Smelter Demon Soul
• Souls: 32,000 (Standard Game) 64,000 (NG+)

Attacks

Fight Notes:

• During the fight, once you manage to chip a quarter/third of his health, he will roar and stoke his fire*, this will add a constant low damage burning AOE to his person, additionally the room becomes darker and he becomes brighter. After depleting a half of his health, he will stab himself with his sword doing no damage to himself but lighting his sword on fire. This greatly increases the damage his sword does.
• Melee attacks done to him during his kindling or sword ignition animation do about half the damage.
• Arrows shot during his kindling or sword ignition animation do no damage. However, if the bow has magic damage you can deal very minuscule damage. (tested with Dragonrider bow)
• Sorceries shot during his kindling or sword ignition animation do greatly reduced damage.
• Be wary of rolling into the walls as sometimes you glitch and get stuck partially in the wall unable to move. Using a gesture that moves you, like pumped up, may free you from the glitch.
• Additionally the boss can physically box you into the wall with his body. You are not glitched into the wall but you will be unable to roll away and escape.

NPC Summons

Lucatiel of Mirrah can be summoned for this fight, provided the player has exhausted her dialogue at three locations and received the Ring of Steel Protection +1. Her summon sign is located near the fog door, against the wall to the right.

• Caution: Lucatiel will often not enter the boss area as a glitch. This is more likely to happen if you summon another player along with NPC Lucatiel for the boss fight. While this is more common when you have another player phantom helping along with Lucatiel, it has been reported to occur when just using NPC Lucatiel.

Manhunter O'Harrah (Her summon sign is just before the entrance to the boss battle in the room with the fire and spike wall traps), only in Scholar of the First Sin . (she is intended to be summoned for the Old Iron King, but she can be led back through the previous area to fight the smelter demon). This strategy makes the boss fight cake.

Strategy

Smelter Demon is easiest to fight if you dodge to the left rather than the right. Be careful not to get pinned to the wall as his wide frame can easily trap you. For your armor and shield, use something with high flame defense (recommended using the Gyrm greatshield as it has 100% physical and fire resistance) and you may also want to the Flame Quartz Ring or cast Flash Sweat before going in. Using a Small Orange Burr can also help you defend against his fire. He has high armor, so magic is most effective. Aromatic Ooze or Gold Pine Resin really help in this fight. If you have a Pyromancy glove and Toxic Mist or green pine resin, it is also worth using especially while he is recovering from attack or buffing himself (poison does 15 dmg and it ticks quite fast, taking roughly 15% of his health). All in all, your best bet is to keep dodging to the left, circling around him and attacking when there's an opening. While he's catching his sword on fire you have a moment to heal or apply a magic to your weapon as well (if you didn't before the fight). Then keep the same strategy going. Be very careful about his Jumping Plunge attack as he often does an explosively devastating AOE afterward. When making some distance from him, be careful as he will shoot fire from the end of his sword as he slams it on the ground.

Overall, what makes this guy so difficult is the overwhelming amount of fire damage that he can inflict (which is often too much for most NG players to tank at this point). Coupled with his aggressive attacks and constant lingering fire damage in his third form, most attempts that do not kill the player outright can often end through attrition on the part of the boss being able to constantly rip through the player with fire damage. Flash Sweat  (available from Rosabeth of Melfia) is a definite help that almost everyone has easy access to, along with the flame resist rings. The miracles Magic Barrier and Great Magic Barrier are also helpful if you have access to them. This guy is one of the more difficult bosses of the game, so don't be afraid to get whatever help you can.

To make the fight a little easier if you are fighting solo as mentioned earlier Flash Sweat, Magic Barriers and Fire Resistance rings are very helpful. If it's not enough you might have picked up Alonne Captain Set that drops from the enemies in Iron Keep. That armor offers very high fire resistance and this will help you greatly. Alternatively if you only have the Alonne Knight Set it still offers high fire resistance but not as much as the Captain Armor. His fire damage over time (or DoT) will continuously drain your health. Even with high fire resistance this can still be a problem. Equip the Ring of Restoration if you have it, this will either stop the fire damage from draining your health or make it drain much slower. With all that fire damage will no longer be a problem, allowing you to focus on dodging attacks and taking your window of opportunity to attack when you have it. But a word to the wise, when he does his thrusting down attack with his sword always get as far away as you can. He might not do his AoE attack after but once he's buffed that AoE wave attack can one hit kill people with high health. Don't risk it just get away.
To reduce his damage to a manageable amount, try rolling in the water provided by the Pharos lockstone next to the archer above the walkway next to the boss door. (You will need to do several jumps over lava) This will provide a massive buff to fire resistance . You will know that the buff has been applied by the fact you have wet footprints behind you as you walk. This along with flash sweat will prevent almost all fire damage.
If you summon help, survive until the phantom dies at all costs. Do not engage the boss unless you are absolutely sure you will not die, as phantoms summoned for Smelter Demon often experience their hosts' death more than the bosses'.

Solo Melee strategy
this boss can be very difficult if players are NG and primarily dedicated to Melee, due to the fact that he focuses attacks on whatever is closest to him (if there are more than one Melee players in the room, eg- lucatiel's phantom, he will prioritize the last attacker) and his high armor doesn't help either. However it is possible to slay him solo melee with relative ease, if you apply some effort. since his attacks are a sword with fire damage, you will need a set of armor with a nice armor-to-fire resistance ratio, I used Vengarl's set with the tower great shield (gyrm great shield would be better, but the tower great shield can be found earlier and has a decent fire resistance). for added protection, the flame quartz ring, ring of restoration and flash sweat are recommended, as well as rolling in the water at the pharross's contraption. as long as you have water on you, you should take next to no fire damage for a couple of mins, allowing you to keep health restoration items for the end of the fight.
the actual strategy to combating this behemoth by yourself is fairly basic. as soon as you enter the room, lock on and begin strafing left around him. try to stay behind him, but make sure you are on his left, as his attacks are more likely to hit you on the right. keep your shield up at all times and keep an eye on stamina. try to bait his more powerful grand slamming attacks, as he will need to pull his sword out of the ground. this will give you time to throw in a couple of hits from a great sword (i used Drangleic +2). wait for openings and keep strafing left around him. also try to keep him in the center, as this will remove the chance to box you in the corner. whenever he kindles his flame or ignites his blade (and if necessary when he is recovering from a heavy attack) estus up and try to use flash sweat. keep rinsing and repeating, chipping away at his health, avoiding his AoE attacks and it should only take 3-5 mins to take him out.

Easy Solo Sorcery Strategy

The easiest method to beat this boss solo, far and away, is to summon Lucatiel of Mirrah primarily to act as a distraction. You may need to fight/dodge the boss for a few seconds (dodge left for the best chance at avoiding his wide sweeping attacks), but then let Lucatiel start hitting him so he focuses his attention on her. Then just back off to almost max range and let rip with spells; if you stay far away his focus will stay on Lucatiel the entire fight. The odd long-range attack may still hit you so be ready to dodge, but otherwise just shoot him to bits.

Solo Pure Sorcery Strategy (no Hex/Pyromancy/Miracles)

Recommended gear:

Rings: Clear Bluestone Ring (faster casting), Flame Quartz Ring (more fire protection), Chloranthy Ring (more stamina for blocking and casting spells), Covetous Silver Serpent Ring (more souls obtained)

Armor: Hexer’s Set (obtained from Felkin or dropped by him) or any other fire-resistant armor that does not terribly slow down the player. Hexer’s Hood also increases spell uses.

Staff: Staff of Wisdom (if you can wield it), otherwise any staff with a high casting speed, like Sorcerer’s Staff

Spells: Soul Spear, Great Heavy Souls Arrow

Shield: Gyrm Greatshield

Preparation

This strategy requires the player to attain 16 points in strength, enough to TWO-HAND Gyrm Greatshield, which has the ability to completely block all the boss’s attacks in both phases. For a Sorcerer as a starting class, the player will need to spend 13 levels to equip the shield, a seemingly discouraging number. However, with the use of a single Soul Vessel, the player can easily re-stat the 13 points any time they want, and unless they insist on never using a shield or raising stats irrelevant to a mage, this strategy will really benefit them as it can save them a lot of time and frustration.

Smelter Demon is weak against magic, and depending on your INT and the level of your staff, you are unlikely to run out of spells during this fight. I suggest buying as many Great Heavy Soul Arrows as you can before attempting the fight. Also, leveling up your staff dramatically increases your magic damage. If the run-up to the boss fight depletes your spells, remember that you can always consume herbs to replenish your spell uses just before the fight.

Battle

The idea here is to only attack the demon during his longest recovery animation: Jumping Plunge. An important skill to master is how to switch between two-handing a shield and casting spells, all without taking hits. In order to two-hand the shield (assuming you have equipped it in the left hand) HOLD the two-hand button for about 1 second, the same way you would enter Power Stance. You can still block with L1 like before. Keep close to the demon and circle around him, baiting him to do Jumping Plunge. As soon as he jumps, step back and take a safe distance from him, firing 2-3 spells before two-handing the shield again. Remember to stay well away in case he triggers the AOE explosion. Alternatively, just equip the shield in your right hand and instead of holding the two-hand button, you only need to press it normally, eliminating the time risk at the cost of confusing the attack and defense buttons.

Although it is tempting, trying to punish the boss after his other attacks will more likely than not result in the player being punished himself. This is because you need extra time to two-hand your shield, and the other attacks simply do not provide you with such risk-free opportunity as the Jumping Lunge does. I tried to sneak in a spell after his Vertical Cleave two times, and barely survived his swings with a timely dodge that nearly gave me a stroke. In both cases, the boss was quick to react to my vulnerability, so my advice is to not give in to temptation and only attack him after his Jumping Plunge.

NOTE:

This guide is for dedicated sorcerers, which rules out the use of Dark Fog, Poison Mist and Toxic Mist since they are either Hexes or Pyromancies. If technicality doesn’t matter to you, for an even easier time, use these spells instead and the boss becomes laughably easy. Remember that Smelter Demon, like many other enemies, can be inflicted with poison and toxic AT THE SAME TIME. As soon as one of them starts working, inflict him with the other for a crazily rapid life drain.

Video Strategies

Hints

• Gyrm Greatshield has 100% fire resist and makes this fight a lot easier. (Rebel's Greatshield can be obtained a lot earlier in the game and has 100% fire resist when infused with a Firedrake Stone but not 100% physical.)
• He is susceptible to poison so using poison arrows/sword/resin or the Toxic Mist pyromancy works well.
• When he lights his sword on fire, it deals far less physical damage, using flash sweat at this point will make most of his attacks harmless.
• After defeating the Smelter Demon, reset the area and a Pursuer will appear in the empty boss room. Defeat this Pursuer to obtain the Ring of Blades+1.
• His attacks are quite easy to dodge, try rolls, until he lights his sword on fire. At that point, be VERY careful when / where you roll as fire will shoot out in a straight line from the end of his sword.
• * If enough damage is dealt to Smelter Demon early on, he may skip the stoking of his fire and go straight to lighting his sword on fire. You can then continue the fight with no fear of his passive fire damage.
• Appears to target characters who use melee attacks against him or characters closer to him.
• Summon Lucatiel and avoid engaging him. Let her pull aggro and move as far away as possible and range him. NG+ whole fight took under 1 min 10-15 Great Lightning spears. Stamina ring and shield, Sun Seal, Clear Bluestone Ring and Ring of Knowledge. I had extremely miserable time using melee on my first play through.
• Summon Lucatiel, bring toxic mist and around 40-50 Hexing urns. Let Lucatiel tank his attacks. Start with the poison, and pelt him with the urns. May take a few tries, but worth it if you can't use miracles or sorcery.
• The Hexer Set offers extremely high fire resistance (higher than the Alonne set) and is very lightweight. If your character does not meet the stat requirements to have Felkin  give you the set, Melentia will sell the set once Felkin is killed.
• Commonly referred to by the community as the "Strawberry".

Bugs

• While fighting the boss player may get stuck near the walls. (The decorum lining the walls can make it easy for the boss to pin you up against them. When this happens, the camera also gets pinned up against the wall making it extremely difficult to see what is going on. This however, does not constitute a bug, only poor mechanics). Note: Whilst it is possible for the boss to trap the player against the wall as described above, a bug does exist that causes the player glitch into the wall, making them 'bounce' vertically and unable to move. It usually occurs following his 'stabbing lunge' attack. As of 13/05/2014, this has not been fixed in the PC version .
• Lucatiel can become stuck and never enter the fight. Happened to me twice during my first play through. She has to be directly behind you to enter. If she moves to your right when facing door there's a good chance you'll die alone. Note: that happened with me as well, noticed that there was a Alonne Knight that will rush you from behind when you get close to the "mist door". Wait for him, kill him, and Lucatiel won't get distracted.
• Sometimes if the world master summons Lucatiel, but enters the boss room before she finishes summoning, it will tell any phantoms the person summoned (players), "The world master has left the area, returning to your world." And force them back to their world. (Confirmed on PC)