You've conquered the land of Lothric. You've returned the Lords of Cinder to their thrones. You've returned to the Firelink Shrine, ready to link the first flame and ensure the Age of Fire continues.
There's just one last obstacle standing in your way: the Soul of Cinder. As far as final bosses go, he's about as tough as they come. It's a boss battle that will take hours upon hours of practice to beat - and there's a good chance that many playthroughs will come to a premature end by his hand. Seriously: it took us nearly 2 hours just to clear the Soul of Cinder's first form, and another 4 on top of that to finally beat him.
It can be extremely frustrating to try and fail to beat a boss so many times in a row - that's why we've whipped up this handy video guide. The fight against the Soul of Cinder will always be tough, but if you have an idea of what to expect, it may just make the experience bearable.
SPOILER WARNING: if you want to go into the boss fight blind, now would be a good time to bookmark this guide and come back when you've made it to his arena.
Fighting against four different stances is tough enough on its own, but that's just the start - the revelation that the second phase of the fight is basically a rematch against Gwyn is sure to catch more than a few players off guard. It's during this second phase that the fight truly starts to feel impossible - but, if you tough it out and learn how to counter the Soul of Cinder's absolutely ridiculous power, you'll eventually come out on top.
And now, it's time to start the whole thing all over again. Of course, now that you've got the option to start New Game+, it might be a good time to go back over the first few bosses of Dark Souls III. We've got guides for Iudex Gundyr, Vordt of the Boreal Valley and the monstrous Curse-Rotted Greatwood - just in case you need a bit of help.
For more on Dark Souls III, make sure to check out our ever-growing coverage hub!
