Ornstein & Smough

How the fuck do I beat them?

I came back to my DS1 NG+ game after a year and keep getting killed. On my first game, I was stuck on them for a whole week, and had to go back all the way to fucking Blighttown so I could get some pyromancies and upgrade my pyromancy flame. After getting back, I melted Ornstein and it was an easy fight.

Now I can't even throw my pyromancies, I can't stand in place for 2 second without Ornstein ramming my ass with his fucking bullshit flying spear attack. And by the time I get up Smough's already there to finish me off.

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Here's how I did it on a SL 1 run

Is this the dark souls of dark souls threads?

Let horny orny charge you across the room, LOS him behind a pole to slow him up a bit, whack fatty a few times, rinse repeat.

Takes a little bit of practice but thats usually how I got the leo ring.

Fire or lightning against these guys makes you do significant more damage to them. Either use that lightning spear you found in Sens or hit the Catacombs first and get the blacksmith there to fire infuse your weapons.

I hear the song that plays during this boss fight in some of my nightmares.

but it's the best track out of the whole game. Moonlight butterfly/gwyndolin's theme second best, and gywn third.

You can be a faggot and use a dexbuild killing pikachu first with the help of sunbro or you can be a real man, get a claymore, heavy armor and a great shield, then kill snorlax and keep triggering Ornstein's electric buttslam

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Maybe I'll be able to appreciate it one day.

Always keep both of them on your screen, focus on killing one of them and use the pillars for cover if you must.

I came here to laugh at you

Dude, just stop playing. The fight is such bullshit, inflated with artificial difficulty. The only way to win is to summon Solaire because From Software just like making stupidly hard and unfun games.

Someone needs to learn to kite and pay attention.

That post was artificial difficulty

I always found this to be the ultimate challenge in the game. If you kill snorlax first with the Claymore (no pyromancies nor sorceries) it's really a huge endurance and control fight to dodge everything giga-pika throws your way and chipping at his health. One wrong move and you're done for.

Be paitent and only poke when you need to.
Now, fuck off back to your containment thread.

I fucking hate clubs in souls games. Its just a matter of principle

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It's hard, but you need to kite Ornstein and go for attacks only when there is enough distance between you and Smough to get a hit without both of them retaliating them at once.

I also remember the pillars being sort of vital. Even though Smough will smash through them, they still provide that little itty bitty bit of protection from Ornstein's fast attacks required to whittle him down.

if you're looking for a chan-like experience, this is it, it feels… familiar, reddit played like an imageboard, but it didn't give me a chan-like experience

Ornstein and Smough was awesome bossfight but in the end pretty darn easy.

When you're fighting them, the suggested method is to outrun Smough and kill Ornstein first.
Ornstein uses very long dashes and can instantly get near you which gives a nice gap between the dudes.

After Smough is imbued with lightning and becomes bigger, he is very easy to kill.
Wear out his charging attack by hiding behind the pillars, after he swings his hammer upwards, here's a window to attack him once or twice, after that roll out.
His other attacks are really easy to dodge with simple rolls. Only ability you have to watch out is his buttsmash because it has really big AOE but it's easy to evade by having a bit of distance, after the lightning on the ground disappears, run for few stabs and roll out.

Dark Souls was my first Souls game ever. On my first playthrough I had a lot of trouble with every boss and I was intimidated by their size a bit too much. O&S was very stressful fight because I tried to fight them together, only to realize, if you kill one, the other one gets it's health back and becomes stronger.

There really isnt any "artifical difficulty" to Dark Souls because the game gives ques about everything if you're just patient enough.
In each bossfight, you are able to learn the moves of the enemy by keeping your distance and observing. Just dashing head in and desperately trying to chunk the bosses health is not a smart move.
Souls games are really easy if you keep your cool and take your time…
After learning the game a bit and few playthroughs, I was able to speedrun all the bossfights without a single death.

Also it's important to find your favorite weapon in the game, not the cheesiest and statistically strongest one.
A lot of people liked swords like zweihander and claymore and some of the big hammers and shit.
Guess what I used to play through the whole game? A fucking gargoyle halberd imbued with fire.
I fell in love with the weapon the first time I got it in my hands and started using it all the time.
If I recall correctly, it wasnt possible to use stuff like pine resins on weapons imbued with some element already and everybody recommended Lightning against Ornstein and Smough. Well guess what, I used another weapon with lightning and I got fucking destroyed 3 times in a row. Fuck that. I switched back to my fire Gargoyle Halberd and beat the boss on the first try.

People should stop reading guides on "HOW TO GET THE MOST OP WEAPON" etc etc and play with stuff theythemselves enjoy

HERE'S HOW TO BEAT THEM

Get a silver knight shield from a silver knight drop (rare), it has 74 stability when fully upgraded and is fairly light.

If low stats in strength and dex use a fire weapon from Vamous blacksmith, fire weapons are very effective on them.

When fighting O&S circle around the arena using the pillars as defense.

Second phase you just have to watchout for the pounce attack which is easy to spot as it's easily telegraphed.

Don't get greedy with attacks.

Kill Ornstein first, then abuse how the pathfinding is kinda dumb when there's a broken pillar base between you and Smough. He'll have a real hard time hitting you that way, and you can just carefully wait for an opening, hit him once or twice, and go back to pillar keep away.


I agree, using the weapon you like best matters more than the pure stats of a weapon. I was rather fond of the black knight halberd and great club myself.

I never got why people think that Ornstein -> Smough is easier than the reverse. Every time I've beaten then, it's been Smough -> Ornstein, and Super Smalls is easier than fighting both at once.

Hit them without getting hit