The Iron Golem is an intimidating presence when you first encounter him in Dark Souls Remastered. He towers over you and will likely squish you if you are not aware of his attacks. And that’s where this guide comes in.
We will spill the beans on all his moves, go over a strategy, and reveal his Achilles heel to give you the upper edge when dealing with Iron Golem.
Fighting Iron Golem in Dark Souls Remastered
The Iron Golem is three times the size of your character. He is a walking armor that defends the entrance to Anor Londo.
He carries around an axe in one hand that he wields with mighty force and each strike shakes the whole platform you stand on. Not to mention the wind projectiles that come out of his axe make the lives of ranged build miserable.
His other empty hand isn’t useless either. He uses it to smash you like a bug and even grab and throw you off the damn roof.
You can easily fall to your death if you get too frantic with your dodge rolls.
At the end of the day, he is a simple knight with size going in his favor. He doesn’t have any special moves other than the grab attack. His attacks are highly predictable. He goes in the “stick to the legs” category of giant bosses in Dark Souls Remastered.
Here are some things to consider when facing Iron Golem in Dark Souls Remastered:
- The Iron Golem is weak to Lightning and Strike Damage. A hammer or club type weapon buffed with Gold Pine Resin will inflict the most damage to the boss.
- You can summon Black Iron Tarkus to aid you in this fight. He deals a ton of damage to the boss with each and can basically kill the boss on his own. Mini-Cheese Strategy.
- Make sure to take out the firebomb-throwing giant on the roof of the fortress before engaging the boss. Doing so will ensure no firebombs will rain on top of you while you fight the boss. You only need to kill him once and he is gone for good.
- Prioritize attacking his legs. He will fall and stumble around when enough damage is dealt to his legs giving you a wide window to put down some punishment.
- Do not bother locking on the boss. The camera is very finicky when locked on especially when he falls.
- Put on the Cloranthy Ring if you can. The boosted stamina regeneration will come in handy when you want to whale on the boss.
- You cannot parry any of his attacks.
Boss Strategy
The strategy for beating Iron Golem is simple. As with most giant bosses, you’d want to make your way between his legs and start beating up on them.
Most of his attacks will completely bypass you if you position yourself right. However, you need to keep an eye out for his stomp-and-grab attack. The grab attack can end your run in an instant so be extra careful of that.
Ideally, you should fight the boss on the narrow bridge. If you back him up to the edge and keep attacking, he might end up falling off the bridge and die very quickly in the fight.
Pick a leg and start whaling on it. With enough consistent damage, Iron Golem will begin to wobble in place. This is the time to up the pressure and it will force him to fall on his butt. He will struggle to get up during this point giving you a huge window to attack him freely.
A piece of advice, it is hard to keep this pressure up while constantly recuperating your stamina. Hence, you should have the Cloranthy Ring or any other item that regen stamina faster to apply this strategy effectively. Or else he will regain his balance and you’ll lose the opportunity to make him fall.
This should be your priority as this strategy will take away most of the danger of the fight. As the saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. This is extremely true in this case, and you should capitalize upon it.
Moveset
Iron Golem in Dark Souls Remastered uses all these attacks and how you must react to each:
| Attack | Description | Reaction |
|---|---|---|
| Wind Projectile | When you are at a distance he charges up his weapon and swings it sending forth a wind projectiles towards you. Usually, the first attack he does as you enter the arena. | Dodge through the projectile as it’s about to land. You can use a shield to block it but it does insane stamina damage and may eat up some of your HP. |
| Axe Swing | A regular horizontal axe swing. He can chain it up to three times. He also propels forward while doing this. | Back off and let the attacks play out. Or you can dodge into the swing if you are close. Best to run underneath him if you are close to avoid it altogether. |
| Wild Stomps | If you stand under him for too long he will raise his leg and try to squish you with his feet. He can chain this two to three times. | Move out as soon as you see him raise his foot. |
| Ground Punch | Rears his empty hand and punches the ground in front with mighty force. | Roll through his legs and start attacking after the punch lands. |
| Overhead Axe Slam | Backs up his axe and goes on to perform an overhead vertical slam with it. | Dodge to the side before the axe lands or back away in time. |
| Back Kick | If you stay behind him, he sweeps his foot backward. | Dodge to the other side and away from under him. |
| Side Axe Slam | Same as Overhead Axe Slam but on his side. This attack has a huge hitbox. | Back off away from the hitbox. |
| Grab | When you are near his legs or in front, he will pull his empty hand backward and try to grab you. If he captures you, he slams you into the ground causing massive damage. He might throw you off the roof too meaning instant death. | Get out of dodge when you see this attack coming. |
Rewards for Defeating Iron Golem
Bringing down Iron Golem will unlock the following items in Dark Souls Remastered:
- Core of an Iron Golem
- 40,000 Souls
- 1x Humanity
- After beating the boss, you can buy the Iron Golem armor set from Domhnall of Zena.
The Iron Golem felt underwhelming when I put him down on the first attempt in DS Remastered. For his size and the way his attacks shake the whole camera seems like he would be a worthy foe.
But he ended up falling to the ground like a baby while he took his candy. He should have been in a crib instead of guarding one of the most venerated cities in all of Dark Souls.