Dark Souls 3 boss: how to beat Ancient Wyvern

Vindication for all the Cheeseburger Assassins in the audience.

Dark Souls 3 boss: how to beat Ancient Wyvern

You know how we’ve been favouring cheesing and ranged attacks and then coming to bosses and saying “soz, you have to melee now”? Friends, our time has come. Equip your best fire-proof shield and some nice light armour for sprinting, then head through the fog gate.

As you run up these stairs, an Ancient Wyvern descends. Finish shitting your pants and run straight past it; its wings pose no obstacle. Turn left at the top of the stairs and run or roll past the dragon hybrid guarding the door. Turn left again and run past two more dragon hybrids, and when you come to a T junction a moment later, turn right and pause just before the stairs, turning to face any baddies on your tail.

You're safe from fire breath at the far end of this room, and it usually takes out the dragon hybrids who've been chasing you; deal with them if not. Two more dragon hybrids attack as you venture out onto the curving stairs, including one that jumps down as you cross the threshold. You’re safe from fire here, so you can take your time in dealing with them - or more dangerously, just leg it.

At the top you’re still safe from fire so if you lost your followers you might want to fight the dragon hybrid here before another dragon hybrid comes shooting out of the doorway on the left as you advance. Otherwise, again, just keep running.

The bridge ahead is the hardest part; there’s a sniping dragon hybrid behind and above you, and a sniping dragon hybrid and a giant dragon hybrid ahead. Worse, if you venture too close to the bridge the ancient wyvern’s fire breath will melt you. I suggest sniping down the enemies ahead, then sprinting across and rolling if you head the sniper fire at you from behind.

On the other side there’s just one more dragon hybrid, and then you can climb a ladder. Immediately pause with your shield up while the ancient wyvern bathes everything with fire. When it’s done, run along the wooden platform.

From these wooden scaffoldings you can drop down to a stone ledge on your left – it will be marked with messages, even offline. You are out of reach of the breath attack here and can and snipe for your life; the boss takes extra damage from headshots. You can also try plunge attacks if you don’t mind running and repeating; they work very well indeed if you manage to hit the head.

After the battle you’ll receive the Soul of Ancient Wyvern and be transported to a new area. Activate the Dragon-kin Mausoleum bonfire immediately.

Optional treasure hunting

Before we proceed to the next section, you may wish to travel back to Archdragon Peak and exploring the boss arena. There's not a great deal to see and do, so you may prefer to leave this for later when you know the area better; it's a little easier to tackle if you go backwards through the area from the next bonfire.

If you're heading in now, run through the boss gate and straight up the stairs the wyvern occupied. The item right in the middle of the T-junction is a Soul of a Weary Warrior. Head right to collect two Embers and some Stalk Dung Pies.

Head back the other way and collect a Large Soul of a Nameless Traveller on the way to where your old friend the dragon hybrid at the door will aggro. To the left before you enter the door you can collect some Lightning Urns. Inside, two more dragon hybrids will begin patrolling towards you.

Head inside and watch for a sniping dragon hybrid on your left in a circular area. Collect a Titanite Chunk from here, and look for a ladder leading down to some Twinkling Titanite. Once you’ve grabbed it, head back up and towards the stairs; there are two dragon hybrids who will ambush you on these stairs, as you probably remember. You can lure them one ay a time if you're very careful, but it;s tricky.

At the top of the stairs, battle one dragon hybrid and then the ambushing dragon hybrid on the left as you advance. Once he’s down, go through the tunnel he came from and around and up the stairs to your left. There’s a giant dragon hybrid here; we cheesed it with pestilent mercury because they give us the willies. Don’t be tempted to try running back and forth between these stairs and the ones on the other side; two dragon hybrids are hanging out over there. There are two Titanite Chunks and 12 Lightning Bolts up here when you clear the area.

You’ll face a sniping dragon hybrid and a giant dragon hybrid as you cross the bridge, plus one more dragon hybrid with a shield. You can then climb to the end of the ledge where you shot the wyvern to collect some Twinkling Titanite.

That’s it here, so travel back to the Dragon-kin Mausoleum bonfire.

Continue via Dragon-kin Mausoleum to Great Belfry.

Back to Dark Souls 3 guide and walkthrough.