Dark Souls Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Dark Souls Wiki
Clawed Curse

Clawed Curses are environmental hazards in Dark Souls III.

Description[]

Clawed Curses are slender, ghost-like hands reaching out for the living. Clawed Curses will emerge suddenly from some of the many tomes stored within the Grand Archives, their presence hinted by the sound of unintelligible murmurs.

Much like the Ghosts of New Londo, they are cursed entities that cannot be interacted with. However, they can inflict both physical damage and Curse build-up if touched.

Both of these types of damages are actually inflicted in small amounts individually, but since they are always encountered in numbers, their effects increase considerably for each additional claw that is present, allowing them to drain high amounts of health in just a few seconds and to fill up the Curse bar at a dramatic pace.

Grand Archives Scholars can usually be seen standing in areas where these spirits can provide them protection.

Locations[]

Grand Archives - Clawed Curses are found in great concentrations throughout the archives. The deeper one proceeds, the larger and more common the groups will become.

Strategy[]

The player should be cautious when walking near bookcases and always pay attention to the murmuring sounds they produce, as that will warn of an upcoming encounter.

The player should also make sure to have their head covered in wax at all times while exploring the archives, especially when traveling near bookcases. The wax will go away after a certain period of time has elapsed, though, and one must be careful so that it does not wear off while near the curses.

The layer of wax covering oneself will not be restored by dipping the head again in a wax filled vat before this period expires, though. One must wait for the previous effect to wear off before being able to apply a new layer.

It is also advisable to be acquainted with the level's layout and to open all shortcuts, thus giving easier access to all vats.

Trivia[]

  • Grand Archives Scholars have their own heads covered in wax to protect themselves from these specters. They tend the many vats filled with this liquid found throughout the library.
  • In the official guide, there is a description for the Scholar's Shed Skin telling how "ivory wax" is made to prevent your "anchor of reason" from being damaged by the "foulness" of the texts. How this works in relation to the curse effect they give is not clear, but they could represent how the mind interprets the harm they do, though how exactly this harms people is uncertain.
  • They share a resemblance with the arm that appears out of the Curse-rotted Greatwood in its second phase.
Advertisement