Holy crap. Take a look at this.
Yes, that’s someone beating Pontiff Sulyvahn in one hit. It’s one of the more impressive things I’ve seen someone pull off in Dark Souls 3 so far.
This clip comes courtesy of neptunusequester on YouTube:
They claim it’s part of the 1HKO Challenge, aka one-hit knockout. I suspected it was a goof, but as it turns out, he actually beat ‘em in one hit.
“This is the reverse of everyone’s first encounter with Pontiff,” said one YouTube commenter, speaking the truth of most Dark Souls 3 players.
I probably spent a good hour wrestling with Pontiff before I took him (and his clone) down. He’s one of several bosses that functioned as a roadblock, forcing me to study every one of his moves to have any chance of success. It was one of the most satisfying boss fights in the whole game!
Though the GIF shows neptunusequester parrying an attack and responding with a riposte, there’s more going on that makes this possible.
If we rewind the clip a bit, you can see them buffing the character:
It’s not clear how many buffs end up stacking, though; neptunusequester didn’t outline his strategy in the video. Reddit user HolidayForHire tried to do the math, though, and has a general idea of what they might have done:
From what we can see - red tear stone ring (20%) followed by dragon torso, sunlight Sword buff (11.5%), then deep protection (5%) and then weapon art Warcry from Yohrm’s Great Machete (not sure the %, but this isn’t sharpen, since that’s on the normal machete, and removes previously applied buffs) and then reactivates dragon torso (10%). Finally after the Parry he switches on Morion blade for another Low HP boost (20%).
From what we can’t see but surely deduce he is also wearing the Hornet Ring (30%), and probably has Yohrm’s upgraded fully.
I am fairly certain everything adds up multiplicatively, which puts him at 241% damage, plus whatever he’s getting from the weapon art.
There’s another two ring slots I’m not accounting for as well, so he could easily be up around 300% normal damage, which makes this the equivalent of parrying and riposting the boss 3 times in one.
Nicely done, neptunusequester.