The Tower Knight is one of the more formidable bosses in Demon’s Souls. It’s literally a giant knight, probably as high as a tower, and looks like it could crush you in just one hit. While larger bosses are generally easier in this series, that doesn’t exactly help anyone feel better when they realise that they have to fight it. In this guide, I’ll cover all you need to know about it, and hopefully help you defeat it.
Attacks
The Tower Knight only has melee-based attacks. If you get too close, you’re going to get hurt. Unfortunately, you need to get close in order to deal damage.
The first attack to look for is the stomp. The boss raises its foot and slams it into the ground, creating a small AoE attack. This one is easy to dodge. As soon as you see the boss lift that foot, back and dodge away to avoid being hit by it.
Next we have a shield slam. This is when the boss slams its shield into the ground, causing yet more AoE damage when it does so. You’ll see the boss raise its shield, so back away immediately. This is a quick attack, so you’ll just have to dodge as fast as possible to avoid being hit.
Now there is the vertical shield slam. This is when the shield is smashed vertically into the ground. Once again, look for the shield being raised, and start rolling away. There’s no other way to dodge, but if you’re good then you’ll get away just fine.
The spear stab is probably the most aggresive attack from the boss. The boss raises its spear and stabs at you, even while you’re far away. It makes it so that it can attack you wherever you are. When this happens, roll to one side. It’ll dodge the attack. Try to get near the bosses ankles, since this will help negate damage.
Finally, there are the soul arrows. This is a magical attack that the boss performs while you’re killing the archers up above. All you can do is roll and dodge, just avoid them as much as possible.
Tactics
The two main strategies for taking down this boss are up close with melee, or at range with all sorts of items and magic.
Up close, you need to get to the boss’ ankles and slash them to bits. This is how you’ll bring it down quickly, just watch out for all of its massive attacks. If you dodge well, then you should be fine. If you try to get through this without dodging though, you really will struggle.
At range, you can use magic, arrows, and even bombs to take the boss down. If you do, then you won’t need to get into the arena with it and fight it. This is definitely the strategy for glass cannon builds to take. I wouldn’t take a mage into the arena with any boss, but this one, in particular, will mess you up. Keep your distance and destroy it from there.
One final tip I have is to kill the archers before you go into the boss arena. This is something most players miss when they first fight the boss, only to realise it afterwards. Don’t be one of those players. Take out the archers and make your life so much easier.
Let us know how you get on against the Tower Knight in the comments. For other Demon’s Souls boss guides check out our ones for the Phalanx and Armored Spider.