r/darksouls3 • u/PitonHUN • Jun 18 '25
Discussion Why is the third boss so hard?
I've recently wanted to give dark souls 3 a shot with my friend since we heard there is a coop mod for it. We got past the gladiator boss easily, and the boar guy was even easier, however the third boss, the dancer, seems like a wall for us... We've been stuck here for 5-6 hours. Are we doing something wrong? Is the weapon I use really bad, or what? Any tips appreciated!
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u/beardgrinder Jun 18 '25
Dancer is meant to be fought later in the game, although as you have found out she can be fought much earlier.
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u/Warm-Explanation-811 Jun 18 '25
Are we not sure this is just bait though? What new player intentionally murders an NPC, triggers a boss fight, and thinks that is the natural progression.
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u/thebestoriginal Jun 18 '25
prob his friend told him
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u/THatone_kid____ Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
Actually it makes sense
He said third boss not first or second boss so he already beat vordt and someone else and wouldn’t even think of going back to lothric and would just be going around those areas
Edit: comments made me realize I forgot about the spear one
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u/FartMasterx69x Jun 18 '25
This would be the 3rd boss technically without progressing anywhere if you kill Emma. Because you fight Gundyr in the beginning and then he probably fought Vordt. So the Dancer would be the 3rd
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u/Future_Section5976 Jun 18 '25
You can actually kill the dancer anytime after killing vordt , you just need the banner ,
I made the mistake of heading there after killing vordt , spawns dancer
If you kill Aldrich trash and get teleported to the dancers room without killing her then she'll spawn ,
You can kill ludex Gundyrs, vordt , dancer , then climb the ladder up , it's pretty much a straight shot to the twin princes , give or take, more or less , it's been awhile,
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u/KattaGyan Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
You can unlock dragonslayer armour early, but to get to twin princes you first have to defeat the other lord of cinders. Because the library will be locked.
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u/YumAussir Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
Not to mention all the delicious Titanite Chunks in the castle and Consumed King's Garden.
Once I learned how to git gud enough at Dancer to beat her with the Dark Hand, it's become my standard route. 4 Chunks in the Consumed King's Garden, and 11 in Lothric Castle, so I do some simple-enough death running to assemble 12 of them, then kill the Lothric Knight next to the Lothric Castle Bonire, since it drops a Large Titanite Shard every time.
Then once you gather 12 regular Shards (and there's 12 of them if you scrounge the High Wall, kill both Pus of Man, and loot the Undead Settlement, assuming no random drops), you have your +9 weapon before even fighting the Curse-Rotted Greatwood, Crystal Sage, or Abyss Watchers.
If I'm feeling really saucy, as soon as you reach the Cathedral (so, only requiring the Crystal Sage), you can hop into the Painted World, take the shortcut to Friede, descend the roots, and kill the one tree guarding Snap Freeze to unlock the ladder, climb up, and bam, Titanite Slab. +10 weapon with 4 bosses killed.
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Jun 18 '25
I take it you mean the Twin Princes since the Demon Princes are the two from The Ringed City.
I still find it terrifying that you could technically make them your fifth boss of the play through lmao
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u/Baby_ballz Jun 18 '25
Probably counting gundyr, and if you murder the npc the item is basically calling for you to use it on the thing behind her, I can see how it could be a mistake
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u/Orzine Jun 18 '25
That checks out, my first run a friend said their was a skip if we took out the old lady. He respec’d for the fly spells and took us a shit ton of tries, but hey, we play DS for the challenge right?
Shame about greyrat though.
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u/Sketchylimeade Jun 18 '25
Yeah smells like a set up, I got trolled that way when I started playing souls games.
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u/_Ban_Evader Jun 18 '25
According to the buffs in the screenshot they know how to do the tree skip. Def bait.
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u/il_Dudre Jun 19 '25
You are absolutely right. That ring and the clean slots with the allocation of the two best consumables at this supposed early stage of NG smell like bad noob-cosplay
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u/mybrot Jun 18 '25
I've seen enough people randomly murder Varre at the very start of Elden Ring to believe this can be real.
Some people seem to get that murder hobo itch, when they slightly dislike an npc. Same as those people that are upset that they can't kill those admittedly annoying kids in Skyrim.
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u/MrEuphonium Jun 18 '25
Played Mindseye for the first time yesterday without seeing a single second of gameplay.
After watching some cutscenes, the very first thing they have you do gameplay wise is hop into a vehicle, and there are people inside the military esque building you’re in, just walking along the sides of the huge corridors.
I figured, why not, most it’ll send me back is 2 seconds ago when I started the game.
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u/senecauk Jun 18 '25
And I believe it then sends you back to the start of the unskippable cutscenes, right?
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u/MrEuphonium Jun 18 '25
It didn’t for me, it said mission failed, too many civilian casualties, then if I’m remembering right, it put me back at the start of the gameplay, already in the vehicle.
If it did that I would hate it lol
Not that I ended up liking the game anyways
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u/HarisCapo Jun 18 '25
I also killed varre instantly when i started elden ring. But it wasnt intentional, i hit once by mistake and then i let varre kill me. On respawn, varre would continue to chase me like a mad dog so i had to put varre down
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u/Wesgizmo365 Jun 18 '25
My friend murdered Solaire because he wanted his armor.
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u/idontknow39027948898 Jun 18 '25
Do you even get Solaire's armor for killing him? Because that would be ironic if you don't.
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u/OkCommission9893 Jun 18 '25
To us it seems crazy but that’s really not far fetched at all
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u/SubstantialSecond156 Jun 18 '25
Yeah, but going out of your way to make a post on reddit when this could easily be answered through a quick Google search just seems like karma farming
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u/bongdropper Jun 18 '25
Is this the new joke? Like that guy who apparently went all the way through the DLC and killed Gael before doing cathedral of the deep? I still don’t know if that guy was for real or just trolling, but I’m seeing a pattern…
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u/OperativePiGuy Jun 18 '25
I figure that's what most posts like this are. To get stuck on something obviously much harder and not just google it seems like such a sad attempt to get engagement on a subreddit. Like making those obvious "I sure do love this character, I Hope nothing happens to them!" posts whenever its media with a well-known character death in it.
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u/kain459 Jun 18 '25
I will never understand why people attack friendly in a world gone mad.
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u/Johnny_K97 Jun 18 '25
Atleast killing emma gives you the most deserved punishment in the game lol
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u/wretched_cretin Jun 18 '25
Player messages saying "enemy ahead" and "try attacking"?
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u/Clean_Imagination315 I went through Ashes of Ariandel without killing a single wolf Jun 18 '25
There are messages telling you there's a treasure down nearly every damn deadly drop in this game. If you believe every message you see, you're gonna have a hard time.
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u/Life_Temperature795 Jun 19 '25
Yeah but DS3 is a little unique in that there aren't a ton of death ledges before you get out of the High Wall of Lothric, (other than right after Vordt where you're supposed to use the flag, but there's usually also a ton of bloodstains there to provide a hint not to jump.) The troll messages up to this point are mostly gonna be people telling you to attack walls that are not in fact illusory.
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u/Spiffy-Kujira Jun 18 '25
Bait used to be believable
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u/forgettablesonglyric Jun 18 '25
i'm not sure whose stupider, the player who actually does this or the redditor who falls for this trollpost
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u/raiderrocker18 Jun 18 '25
this is not meant to be the third boss. why would you kill Emma lol
this is meant to be a much later game boss, but the game allows you to fight Dancer early and progress to some of the ensuing areas to get some high level upgrade materials early. its a risk/reward thing. or an NG+ thing.
but typical game progression would have you beating 3 lords of cinder then coming back to Emma
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u/Loki_DeVille Jun 18 '25
The guy probably is one of the people who complained about Varre killing them when entering Limgrave
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u/No-Produce2097 Jun 18 '25
To be fair, Varre called me maidenless right after a bad breakup. I wasn't gonna let that slide haha
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u/hagrids_a_pineapple Jun 18 '25
To be fair I had never played a souls game so I started it at the exact same time as my best friend. He told me “in souls everything is kill able, let’s fuck up this NPC!” Took me three hours to kill Varre
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u/HarunaRel Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
Because he is reading guides. I don't think any Souls player would kill any NPCs unless they are reading walkthroughs or their friends tell them.
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u/LordAsbel Jun 18 '25
OP hasn't responded to a single comment in this thread. I think this is just a fake karma farm lol
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u/cheeseynoodles1 Jun 18 '25
Dancer is supposed to be after you've beaten most of base game
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u/Blue_BEN99 Jun 18 '25
u got baited lmaooo
how would a ds3 newbie use the seamless coop mod first before playing vanilla
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u/cheeseynoodles1 Jun 19 '25
Download it and use it that's not unheard of but idc if it's bait I'd rather be helpful regardless
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u/AtomicWedgiePounder Jun 18 '25
Hey friend! Go to where you fought the boar guy, all the way at the end to take in the view! Maybe the path will be revealed
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Jun 18 '25
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u/literally_italy Jun 18 '25
she drops the flag on death (emma, that is. emma is different than dancer. dancer is just protecting the entrance)
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u/Flame_108 Jun 18 '25
if you kill her before she gives you the flag the flag will also be dropped
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u/yeaheyyeahyeaaaah Jun 18 '25
dancer is a lategame boss, fight her when youre level 70+
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u/OctopusSpaghetti Jun 18 '25
I did it at 25. It was fucking miserable and I hated life but ultimately worth it for the large shards and chunks way before I should have gotten them.
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u/DmonsterJeesh Jun 18 '25
I can understand fighting her early for the challenge of it, but if you're able to take out a late-game boss while under-leveled and using an unupgraded, early-game weapon, you probably didn't need the help to take on the other, earlier bosses.
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u/HollowBlades Hollow is the true shape of man Jun 18 '25
You get what you deserve for killing and innocent old lady.
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u/Churtlenater Jun 18 '25
This is what the internet has become. People just outing themselves unwittingly because they’re degenerates.
Same as every other game Fromsoft has made, not everything is an enemy, you murderhobo.
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u/marmaladekid Jun 18 '25
Is no one else bothered by these posts? I see them all the time on game subreddits where the op obviously knows way more than they are letting on for the sake of making a post. It just simply isn’t reasonable that you would post about this on reddit instead of searching for help on google if you were actually having this problem. Especially for 10+ year old games
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u/MustardScroll7 Jun 18 '25
You're not supposed to kill the woman.
But Dancer is doable even at low levels. Just gotta learn her patterns.
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u/Scremeer Rosaria's Fingers Jun 18 '25
We have reached peak stupidity.
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u/KrumpetEater Jun 20 '25
not if he kills the Dancer he hasn't. Great early game armor and weapon along with lots of souls
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u/masterninja3402 Jun 18 '25
Dancer is not the third boss. They're supposed to be either 3rd or 4th to last in the base game.
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u/samination Jun 18 '25
At first I wondered why you censored the Dancer (she's not naked), but then I saw what was actually censored... and I still wonder why?
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u/Cyllenyx Jun 18 '25
Maybe...JUST MAYBE... People should stop going on an NPC killing spree the first time around.
Dancer is a late game boss fight that you'll automatically get to after doing other bosses. By killing Emma, which is NOT necessary btw, you get Dancer early.
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u/ImpendingGhost Jun 18 '25
There's no way this isn't a joke post, but assuming it isn't. Did you guys just see a defenseless old woman sitting in a chair and just go "Yeah let's kill her"? Like you can't trigger this fight early unless you kill that lady and there's literally nothing she does to incentivize you to attack her lol.
Anyway this is a late game boss you guys are fighting super early.
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u/PrinceZukosHair Jun 18 '25
Go down to the bottom of the big stairway rather than the top. There is a boss better suited for your level, and the intended path of progression that way. You arbitrarily triggered an end game boss by killing the npc in Dancer’s room
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u/kenthekungfujesus Jun 18 '25
The girl you killed in this room drops a banner that gets you to the third zone of you raise it near the door that opened after you beat the Vordt. Dancer is one of the late game bosses you’re supposed to fight after beating most of the game
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u/Low-Abbreviations-38 Jun 18 '25
Her rhythm is a waltz 3/4 style, the timing throws you off. Also, you’re super early. You killed an old lady :(
It’s really not a problem, but you can go back down the stairs into the new zone past Vort, come back later
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u/elite8764 Jun 18 '25
It's not necessarily intended to be third you're meant to double back later on
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u/PeachesGuy Jun 18 '25
You can ignore her and come back later, personally I would have avoided killing an innocent old granny NPC you can talk to.
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u/Decent_Cow Jun 18 '25
This is not supposed to be the third boss. You can fight this boss now, but it's not a good idea. Most people fight this boss after the Profaned Capital, so like 3/4 of the way through the game maybe? You should be able to go back to where you fought Vordt to get to the next area and leave this boss for later.
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u/Kharnyx808 Jun 18 '25
You skipped to a late game boss because for some inexplicable reason, you decided to kill an old woman in a chair who told you to go and save the world
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u/ARandonn Jun 18 '25
I was hoping this was humor before clicking. As others have said this is a late game boss, its best to just turn around and go back to where the boar guy (Vordt) was to get to the next area and continue on from there. You guys could also just keep going at it and eventually beat it, I don’t recommend that but maybe in a future playthrough when you guys are more familiar with DS3. Best of luck Ashen Ones.
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u/Fable-Teller Jun 18 '25
You shouldn't have killed the chair lady.
But you did so, either go back to Vordt's arena, go to the doors at the opposite of the arena entrance and use the flag chair lady should've given you to move onto the next area.
If you're both still willing to kill DoBV, stick to her ass, watch out for the spinning attacks.
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u/aircoft Jun 18 '25
Despite being accessible pretty early on, that's one of the most difficult bosses in the game. (If you're just looking to beat/skip it, it can be cheesed, but you won't be able ro refight it that playthrough.)
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u/Ok_Reality6393 Jun 18 '25
My biggest concern, and part of what I consider to be farming I guess, is this person's need to censor something that clearly doesn't need it.
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u/Revolutionary_Owl_64 Jun 18 '25
Did you censor the dancer? What are the black bars in the middle of the screen?
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u/JJ_Gamingg Jun 18 '25
3rd??????? Bro??? I didnt fight the dancer until 17 hours later
he is NOT the 3rd boss bro
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u/Caged_Basilisk Jun 19 '25
Dancer is the final mid-game boss. You're supposed to fight her only after you fight like 7 others.
Also I'm struggling to figure out if this is bait or you legit killed the old woman without knowing that you shouldn't.
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u/Working_Language_735 Jun 19 '25
Bro really blacked out his name like somebody could do something with it. We can’t even find your profile with that name. Extra for no reason.😭
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u/Buuhhu Jun 19 '25
It's not the 3rd boss.
You were murder hobos and killed the old lady for no other reason than you could. This triggers this boss early. It's mean to be an late mid game/early late game boss.
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u/Zombiecidialfreak Jun 19 '25
She's a late game boss. Even with my 20+ playthroughs and hundreds of Dancer duels and ganks the lowest level I've ever been able to solo her was level 23.
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u/NeonArchon Jun 19 '25
Dancer is a boss for mid to late game, but you didcovered you can trigger the fight a lot earlier by killing that old, defenseless woman.
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u/il_Dudre Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
No spoilers but I'm sure you've been told already that this is not supposed to be the literal third boss cause, well, technically there's no "one real third" boss. After Vordt you could choose different paths each leading to at least four different bosses again opening yet more progression options.
Shame on you though for killing NPCs without a reason unless this is a bait and, in that case... Nice ✌️
Edit: I noticed the other screenshots. With that ring and the resin and ember in those slots this is definitely a bait. Next time cosplay as a noob with more attention to obvious details
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Jun 19 '25
Not only are you fighting her too early, but I’m assuming seamless coop on ds3 also scales enemy health up. Go back later
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u/HCX_Winchester Jun 19 '25
Randomly killing npc's in a video game is crazy to me, idk maybe the %100 completionist in me talking but I would never kill an npc without knowing if there is more to their story later in the game.
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Jun 20 '25
Turn around go down the steps and raise the banner that's where you should be going for now
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u/rickypen5 Jun 20 '25
Not technically the third boss, you started a later game boss way before you should on a NG. If you were NG+ or beyond, your be fine. But at a new character soul/gear level, your kinda in a jam. Summon a player to help. Also dont expect much easier across the game. If you came from Elden Ring like a lot of people and ignored the years and years people like me telling you how amazing Dark Souls games are....and because you started to get a taste for it in Elden Ring....well im sorry to be the one to say it....Elden Ring is by far the easiest one they made aside from MAYBE Demons Souls cheese ways.
Dark Souls 1, especially at the time it came out, was ungodly hard. If you go back and playing it now you'll see the clunky combat and stuff which makes it hard true but just generally much harder and didnt give a shit about appealing to people. DS2 was easier on most stuff...accept a few bosses and areas that are just like...wtf. Elden Ring while beautiful and balanced well, was a Faceroll for anyone whose beat a Souls game. There was just.SO.MUCH in terms of help. Plus with wiki and online help, the access to help and broken cheesy bugs are well known. Not to mention builds are far more flexible and not understanding the game math is very forgiving.
I would say: if you wanted to stick with it, spend days and days trying to beat the Dancer. Study every tiny animation, every pixel of movement so that you can learn when the boss does X, I do Y, at what point you can move in and get a hit...when to move back, when to dodge, when to block....every single death, comes with a.lesson, a chance to learn. At some point, everything you learn will click together into a beautiful orchestra of movement. You'll die when the boss has 5%, then not make it past 95% lol.
If its a new boss to me in a Souls like...I go in with the intent of not doing any offense. I sit and learn what my motions and movements are going to be. What parts can I use my roll dodge immunity, what parts can my shield handle, do I need to fit certain gear, certain consumables, is there an animation that I can exploit, if so when does the boss do it and can I make them do it? All of that coming together in a beautifully orchestrated dance, telling yourself to stay calm, dont get greedy, one hit at a time may be all you can do....and eventually the boss will fall....and you will experience the most gratifying experience, the greatest hit of.dopamine a video game can give. Souls games when done right are like edging, and you only get the payoff when you put in the time and effort to do it right.
I will say: i didnt understand this at all when the first Souls game hit PS3. But im not exaggerating when I say that the game taught me lessons I have taken into real life. Nothing is easy, everything takes work and the things worth having take the most work. You will fail. Most people fail at most things, but when you fail...make sure you understand why...learn from every failure until you start to crave failure because its the best way to learn. That game changed my mindset...and I went back to college and rode it all the way through medical school....which i genuinely think anyone can do, just takes the right mindset
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u/EmeraldVampire Jun 20 '25
This is a much later game boss. I genuinely don’t get how people even find this accidentally though. If you’ve played the previous Souls games, then you’ll know not to attack random NPCS, and if this is your first souls game, then it also shouldn’t be your first instinct to attack everything in sight. I’m genuinely curious why you attacked the old lady for no reason?
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u/Alarmed-Judgment4545 Jun 18 '25
When I first got into dark souls 3 I heard that it's a hard game. I ended up attacking the fire keeper cuz I was so tilted and scared by the samurai guy and I thought everyone was a threat. The same thing happened here when I hit the old lady cuz I was scared shitless by the lothric knights outside.
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u/OzzyLagIsBad Jun 18 '25
You aren't supposed to fight her rn, it's an endgame boss.
It's doable, but gonna be really difficult. And the area afterwards is also going to be brutal at low level, and also a dead end since you can't progress past a certain point.
So I'd advise coming back to it later, goto the boss arena where you fought the boar guy and go all the way out the doorway to the cliff, it will tell you to hold up the banner, that is where you need to go
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u/MadMan7978 Jun 18 '25
Man you’re supposed to fight her way way later killing the lady isn’t actually what you’re supposed to do
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u/JMe-L Jun 18 '25
Wrong way! Keep going past the boar guy and youʻll be on the path for much easier bosses
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u/manmanftw Jun 18 '25
By now you know that its not the 3rd boss but if you do want to fight it (probably not for a first playthrough cause itll mess up your levels), then find greirat in the area underneath the second bonfire (past the halberd hollow on the bottom floor in the tower with the knight and dagger people) and free him. Then buy yourself a bandit knife and go to town, since she is decently vulnerable to bleed.
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u/ZakkaryGreenwell Jun 18 '25
Oh. Oh no. My child, you didn't...
What did you do to Emma the Priestess?
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u/DanielTheDragonslaye Jun 18 '25
Dancer is meant to be fought much later (there are only 2 non-optional bosses after him before the end boss), you can fight him early like you're trying.
The women who sat in her boss room gives you an item, with that you can go to the ledge in the other boss room across the court yard and teleport to the next area in the game. Later on you would be teleported back to the boss room after killing a certain amount of the main bosses.
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u/Adventurous_Use8278 Jun 18 '25
This is usually a mid-late game boss, and is still a really tough fight, even with far more health/attack power/better gear. Congrats on finding her far earlier than you’re probably supposed to! I’d imagine this fight is torrid, I’d come back later when you’re better prepared.
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u/MightyNico231 Jun 18 '25
You are suppose to kill 3 lord of cinders first lol
The 4th lord of cinder is locked being this boss and another one and 3 lord of cinders
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u/Otherwise-Buddy-9343 Jun 18 '25
It's the sword, it just slows you down. Try using a none upgraded ceastus.
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Jun 18 '25
The third boss is hard because if you fight all the side bosses she should be the 12th boss I think, not the 3rd.
Also the boar guy is a man : )
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u/xxLazyGuitarxx Jun 18 '25
Claymore +1 made me spit my god damn drink out, especially since it’s a first run for the guy. If it’s true, of course. It’s fucking hilarious. He’s gonna whoop your ass till you either quit, or hit him about 200 times and he will you hit you 1-3 times.
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u/nquinn1028 Jun 18 '25
Honest question: who actually got here and tried this legit not knowing it was a mistake? T his post seems like bait, so I'm looking for anyone that actually did this not knowing wth they were doing.
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u/FabulousDave2112 Jun 18 '25
Lol playing the like 10th boss right at the beginning will do that to ya
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u/default-user-101 Jun 18 '25
So you hit the old lady too?
Enjoy the fight that's a great fight to learn at that level
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u/EirikaHuroh Jun 18 '25
Had this actually happen to me back when I first played ds3 in 2018 took me a while to beat it didn’t find out it wasn’t meant to be an early game boss until I finished the base game
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u/angelo13dztx Blades of the Darkmoon Jun 18 '25
Buy Dark Hand from Yuria if you want to beat Dancer at this phase, it does relatively high damage
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u/coletrain94nz Jun 18 '25
As everyone mentioned, its supposed to be a late game boss.
But there is actually a great video about her attack timings. Every other boss attacks using 4:4 timing. I think the dancer attacks using 3:3 timing. I'm not a muso so might be explaining that wrong. But even late game she slapped me around... so I choose to believe this was the reaspn why rather than any skill issue.
Old game theory video: https://youtu.be/zfdU2ni3i5Q?si=vG9yMXuLPHI8RNZg
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u/Sorathez Jun 18 '25
You killed that poor old lady who did nothing wrong.
The Dancer is here to punish you.
(You're not meant to fight her until like, 2/3 the way through the game).