The Stray Demon is a reskin of the Asylum Demon, lazily located right under the latter boss’s arena in Dark Souls Remastered. You need to travel back to the Undead Asylum to face this boss. Don’t be fooled by its similar appearance, the Stray Demon is a far more formidable boss compared to his younger brother.
Fret not for I’m here to guide you through this battle. We’ll go over all of his moves and any special tricks up his sleeves and uncover some strategies to put an end to this fatty.
Fighting Stray Demon in Dark Souls Remastered
To fight Stray Demon, you need to first go back to the Undead Asylum and go to the same room as the Asylum Demon. Make sure to rest at a Bonfire before you do this. When you walk in the middle of this arena, the whole ground collapses thrusting you directly into the Stray Demon’s arena.
You’ll see that this boss is nearly identical to the Asylum Demon. Packing a familiar great hammer and a giant butt to crush you under. He has all the melee moves of his former demon sibling with even more damage output.
Other than these likenesses, there are two distinct modifications to this boss. One, he has a much heftier health bar, get ready to put in a lot of damage. Two, he has magic explosions that he likes to use a ton.
Although these explosions are red, they deal exclusively magic damage, not fire.
He has two attacks where he utilizes his explosive personality. A projected explosion where he swings his weapon, an explosion occurs where you stand, and another where he slams his hammer in front, causing a wide AoE.
Here are some things to consider when facing Stray Demon in Dark Souls Remastered:
- The Stray Demon is weak to Slash and Lightning damage. Imbuing a weapon like a Katana or curved sword with Gold Pine Resin will deal the most damage.
- Black Knight weapons deal extra damage to this demon.
- He is also highly susceptible to Bleed.
- To avoid fall damage, you can cast the Fall Control spell before taking the plunge to the boss’s arena.
- There is no way to summon anyone in this location, not even online players.
- A magic-resistant shield will help absorb most of the boss’s sorcery-based attacks, especially his AoE explosions. You can also buff your regular shield with the Magic Shield spell.
- Casting the Vow of Silence spell will block all of his magic attacks.
Boss Strategy
The strategy for beating the Stray Demon in DS Remastered is kind of identical to the one we applied for the Asylum Demon. However, his new moves do require a bit of extra effort and maneuverability on your part.
As soon as the fight starts, chug an Estus Flask to restore your lost health. You never know if one of his starting moves might catch you and send you to an early grave.
The strategy similarities here is sticking to Stray Demon’s jiggly butt and attack. As soon as you see him go for the Hammer Thrust Explosion attack, run away, and wait for the explosion to occur. Now move in behind him again and continue attacking.
Two to three attacks are enough before you need to bail. Two-handing your weapon will deal more damage.
You need to constantly keep attacking his butt and running away. By gluing yourself to his posterior, you are forcing him to only use the AoE attack. This way, you are certain about the next attack and can outrun it each time, all the while putting on some damage in between the explosions.
Keep this loop up and this demon will be a thing of the past.
Moveset
Stray Demon in Dark Souls Remastered uses all these attacks and how you must react to each:
| Attack | Description | Reaction |
|---|---|---|
| Dual Hammer Swipes | Swings his weapon twice horizontally covering a large area in front. | Dodge towards the boss when he swings his weapon. This way you will positioned near him to deal some damage. |
| Overhead Slam | Raises his weapon and slams it vertically in front. This attack has a surprisingly long reach. He can chain it with another slam. | Dodge to the side when the hammer’s about to land. |
| Leaping Slam | Jumps towards you with a powerful vertical hammer slam | Dodge towards the boss as he jumps. He will fly by you and you can put some damage in as he recovers. |
| Butt Slam | Goes airborne, pauses then lands on his butt in the same spot. Has a slight AoE. | Back off when you see him take flight. |
| Projected Explosion | Swings his hammer horizontally causing a magic explosion in front of him. | Quickly run behind or under the boss and start attacking. The explosion can’t reach you here. |
| Hammer Thrust Explosion | Turns his hammer upside down and thrusts it into the ground causing a wide magical AoE explosion. Usually performed when you stay near him for too long. | Start backing off when you see him turn his hammer. You can stick to the boss’s butt and keep attacking since this is a safe spot from the explosion. |
How to Cheese the Stray Demon in Dark Souls Remastered
For the cheese to work, you need at least 5 Dung Pies to apply toxic onto the Stray Demon, Ring of Fog, and Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring to make you extra stealthy so that he can’t spot you.
As soon you fall through the ground, immediately roll away from him to the back right or left corner. Stay behind the pillars with your back against the wall and out of the boss’s aggro range. The Stray Demon will keep on patrolling the same path if he doesn’t spot you.
Once he faces away from you, start lobbing some dung pies at him. You will need up to 5 of them to apply the Toxic debuff. When it is applied, you just have to continue hiding and watch as the toxic reduces his health to 20% in 5 minutes.
Carry some Blooming Purple Moss Clump to remove the self-inflicted toxic debuff from throwing all those Dung Pies.
Now it is up to you to apply the debuff again or move in to finish the job by yourself.
Rewards for Defeating Stray Demon
You’ll receive the following items for taking out Stray Demon in Dark Souls Remastered:
- 20,000 Souls
- 1x Titanite Slab
- 1x Humanity
- 1x Homeward Bone
The Stray Demon fooled me the first time I came across him in Dark Souls Remastered. I callously started bullying his behind, only to get a blast to the face and die on the spot. I learned it the hard way so that you don’t have to. A bit of legwork and using the same Asylum Demon muscle memory will suffice.