Although Pyromancer is one of the main Dark Souls classes, it requires much knowledge of the game and the mechanics involved. New players will struggle if they use a Pyro as their first class, but this guide will help any beginner Pyromancer get started.
The aim of this guide isn’t to tell you how to build your character but to give you advice on creating an effective Pyromancer that suits your playstyle effectively.
Here’s everything you need to know about starting with Pyromancy.
How to Get Pyromancy
If you start with the pyro class, you automatically get the basic Pyromancy Flame required to use fire magic. Other classes can choose to get the pyro flame by freeing Cornyx of the Great Swamp from the Undead Settlement.
Once you free him, you can reinforce your Pyromancy Flame to do more damage and buy more Pyro spells. Freeing Karla from the Irythyll Dungeon lets you buy the Black Pyro spells, which are good for enemies resistant to normal fire.
Effective Pyro Combat
Fighting with pyromancy requires staying far away from your target. The spells are slow-moving but hit hard, so you must be precise when cast.
The key is to be more careful while casting. Casting spells takes a while and leaves you vulnerable to hits, and getting hit will cancel the cast. Sometimes it’s better to dodge an attack and back away before casting, as enemies are vulnerable after finishing attacks.
The best way to use these spells is by locking on, but getting good at free aiming them can unlock even more pyromancy potential. The range of free aiming isn’t too far but decent enough to defeat enemies before they have a chance to retaliate.
You also need to switch to different spells for different situations and always monitor FP usage. Drinking Ashen Estus Flasks is another thing that can kill you, so you need to be even more cautious in boss battles.
I don’t use shields, but many pyros use them to parry enemies when necessary. My preferred method is to dodge all attacks and stay further away from enemies.
Essential Steps
When you play as a pyromancer, there are a few things you absolutely should do if you want to progress. Failing to do these steps will make it impossible to increase your power or lose out on important items.
- Recruit Cornyx of the Great Swamp – you can’t upgrade your spells without him, so recruiting him is a priority.
- Reinforce your Pyromancy Flame – pyro spells seem weak early game, but they’ll improve drastically over time as you level them.
- Don’t consume the Soul of the Old Demon King – Chaos Bed Vestiges is a great weapon only obtainable by transposing this boss’s soul.
- Recruit Karla – this NPC lets you get black pyromancies, which help fight enemies resistant to normal pyromancies.
- Level Intelligence and Faith stats as high as possible until level 40 – since 40 is the soft lock, you should get these as high as possible, depending on your current build.
- Join the Mound Maker’s Covenant – this is only necessary if you’re trying to achieve the Master of all Pyromancies. Otherwise, you can ignore this.
Pure / Magic Pyro
Playing as a pure pyromancer means that fire magic is your only offense. Playing without using melee weapons is much harder, but it is doable. The attributes of a pure pyro also line up perfectly with magic users, making you able to weird all sorts of spells and sorceries.
Attributes
- INT / FTH 40 – needed to maximize pyromancy damage
- ATN 30 – this will give you 4 Attunement slots and a good amount of FP
Getting both Intelligence and Faith attributes to 40 is a must. These will increase the effectiveness of your pyromancies, allowing you to become the most effective pyromancer you can be.
Attunement should be 30 to give you enough slots to hold your pyro spells. Avoid Strength and Dexterity as you won’t need to use them in this build.
Keep Vigor and Endurance as high as possible and at just about the same levels. Luck is useless, so avoid that altogether.
Equipment and Armor
- Witch’s Ring
- Great Swamp Ring
- Sage Ring
The Witch’s and Great Swamp Ring are needed to increase pyromancy damage. The Sage Ring is also essential to increase how fast you can cast your pyromancy spells. The last ring is up to you, but I prefer the Silver Serpent Ring for increased souls.
As for armor, you can use whatever you’d like. However, a post on Reddit suggested using Cleric’s Hat, Lapp’s Armor, Dancer’s Gauntlets, and Black Iron Leggings for some good defenses against all damage types.
Spells
Great Chaos Fire Orb is my favorite choice due to its high damage and lingering lava pool. It uses a lot of FP, so be sure to have many Ashen Flasks ready.
Some enemies are strong against fire, so you should have some black fire spells ready to cast. I like the Black Fire Orb, but you can add the Black Flame if you’d like.
Rapport is good for having some fun with enemies. Particularly, I use it to easily farm the Ascended Winged Knights at the top of the Grand Archives.
Pyro and Melee
The most common way to play a Pyromancer is to use your Pyromancy Flame as your main weapon and a melee weapon as your secondary. This allows quick swapping between one-handing and two-handing the melee weapon.
It’s best to use melee weapons that have low stat requirements. You’ll need to save those stats for INT and FTH, so you don’t want to waste too many points on STR and DEX.
Attributes
- INT / FAITH – When using melee weapons, you can’t max both of these out to 40. The best you can do is get as close to 40 as you can while still putting a lot of points into VIG and END
- STR / DEX – only as much as you need to wield your weapon of choice, and not a stat more.
- ATT 30 – this will give you 4 Attunement slots and a good amount of FP
Equipment and Armor
- Witch’s Ring
- Great Swamp Ring
- Sage Ring
For armor, you can use whatever you’d like. I used the default Pyro armor for an entire playthrough. Staying light for fast rolling is best because Pyro attacks require more precise dodging and attack windows.
You’ll want to have all 3 of these rings, and then you can use another ring of your choice. I use the Silver Serpent Ring for increased soul drops.
PvP Focused Build
PvP pyromancers can either be pure pyro or use a hybrid build. However, pure pyro is insanely difficult to beat opponents in PvP, so using some sort of melee weapon is best.
These weapons and items are the best for a PvP build but can also be great for PvE. All your weapons should be infused with Dark, as it’s more effective in PvP.
Equipment and Armor
- Witch’s Ring
- Great Swamp Ring
- Sage Ring
PvP Weapons
- Onyx Blade
- Uchigatana
- Demon’s Scar
- Astora Greatsword
- Lothric Knight Sword
PvP Spells
- Chaos Fire Orb
- Black Flame
- Chaos Bed Vestiges
- Sacred Flame
Great Chaos Fireball
An excellent choice for many enemy types, especially bosses. The cast time is slow, so you must keep a safe distance while casting.
Free aiming this spell is insanely effective and will allow you to defeat enemies before they can even reach you.
Since the Great Chaos Fireball leaves a lava pool on the ground, it will damage any enemy that walks over it. Its large explosion has a decent area of effect damage, so it’s great for crowd control.
Black Fire Orb
A great little spell for enemies that resist other fire spells. It uses a small amount of FP and can be cast quickly compared to other spells.
Chaos Bed Vestiges
This can be obtained by transposing the Soul of the Old Demon King. I was dumb enough to consume the soul accidentally, so I missed this spell on one playthrough.
While the explosion is quite large, the hitbox is much smaller than it looks. It does great damage at the cost of a lot of FP, so you should choose this one or the Great Chaos Fireball.
Rapport
Rapport comes in handy when you’re fighting multiple tough enemies. It doesn’t work on every foe, but it’s a lifesaver when it does. Earlier I mentioned it’s great to use while farming the Ascended Wings Knights, so you can easily level yourself up with it.
Chaos Storm
The Chaos Storm is a decent crowd control weapon that causes large bursts of fire to shoot from the ground all around you. It’s highly situational and fun to use, but it’s not great to use as the main spell.
Many people hate it, but I’ve found that it can be effective in tight situations where you get outnumbered.
Black Flame
The Black Flame is an awesome weapon due to its quick cast time. Although it has a short range, it’s perfect for enemies who move around a lot.
Sacred Flame
An awesome weapon performs a grab that’ll throw your enemies onto the ground with a burst of fire. This is great for fighting enemies such as Red Eye Knights, though it’s not optimal for multiple targets.
Best Pyromancer Weapons
Players who decide that a pure pyromancer isn’t for them will be searching for other weapons to wield with their pyromancy flame. There is no best weapon, so it’s up to you to decide which weapons you like best.
The most effective pyromancy melee weapons are the ones that require minimal stat allocation to Dexterity and Strength and scale well with Dark and Chaos infusions.
Dark and Chaos are infusions that scale with Intelligence and Faith, which you’ll put quite a bit of stats into as a pyro.
Early game, start with a Raw infusion and then trade off with either Dark or Chaos as you progress.
Dark Hand
The Dark Hand is an amazingly underrated weapon that scales with your level and is not upgradeable. It provides great dark damage and is your main weapon for most games.
You’ll have trouble with certain bosses, Pontiff Sulyvahn in particular. This is because its range is limited to only your fists; you must get up close and personal.
Deep Battle Axe
Great for the early game, but it get less viable as you go on. The ax is great, and I’ve used it for an entire play-through once, but there are better options for you that will complement your build.
Onyx Blade
A great weapon with low stat requirements is only found in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC. The Onyx Blade is an awesome-looking weapon with a great range on it. It’s also really good as a PvP weapon.
Falchion
The Falchion is a cool-looking weapon that’s great for two-handing. It works decently well being one-handed but shines when held with 2.
It can be obtained in the Catacombs of Carthus, so you can get a Dark gem or Chaos gem around this time.
Witch’s Locks
This weapon is a whip with a Chaos infusion by default, so you don’t have to worry about infusing it. It’s an amazing secondary weapon for Pyromancers to deal with enemies who get too close to you.
Astora Straight Sword
Good for infusing with raw at the beginning of the game. This can be found in the High Wall of Lothric, so it’s great for early-game characters. When infused with Raw, it has all its scaling effects removed, and you can wield this until you get a Chaos or Dark gem later on.
Carthus Curved Sword
It took me a while, but I farmed this from the Catacombs of Carthus and wasn’t disappointed. This sword has decent range and moveset and works great after being infused.
Demon’s Scar
An awesome weapon with medium stat requirements only found in the Ringed City DLC. While you won’t be able to get it for a while, you can look forward to using it as a good end-game weapon.