- Not to be confused with Consumed King's Knight.
Cathedral Knights, or Knights of the Deep, are enemies in Dark Souls III.
Description[]
Warriors charged with the duty of defending the cathedral from both trespassers and the abominations created within its walls, these knights wield either a mace, greatsword, or crossbow in combat.
Location[]
Found in a few areas of the Cathedral of the Deep, most prominently along the ceiling's rafters and in a couple of praying areas before reaching the Deacons of the Deep.
Lore[]
These order of knights was well-known for their impressive strenght and mighty dimensions. They were, in fact, the personal guard of King Oceiros of Lothric, and most likely the personal guard of Lothric's kings. As a proof of this, not only other identical knights can be found in in the Consumed King's Garden, with the only difference of the former ones wearing blue robes and tunics, as the distinct colour of the Royal Family's Guard in Lothric, but their own shields are decorated with "an emblem of an old king of Lothric". This testifies the strong connection and alliance that linked Lothric with the Way of White and the government of Anor Londo (Irithyll) before Prince Lothric renouced his role as Lord of Cinder and despised the link of fire, but it also tells about how great and spreaded was the concern of the Cathedral getting increasingly swallowed and corrupted by the Depths: so much that Lothric's king decided to send a regiment of his personal guard to keep the order within the Cathedral and to eliminate every threat to its stability and integrity.
Strategy[]
The knights wielding maces are capable of buffing their weapon with a variant of Blessed Weapon, which creates small orbs of light that will explode after a short delay. They can also cast Perseverance to greatly improve their defensive power, becoming considerably more aggressive in the process. When they get low on health and are not being immediately attacked, they can pause to cast a healing spell to recover health and buff themselves with a slow heal over time. The Blessed Weapon buff and heal leave them exposed for a few seconds, and it is possible to stagger them out of it, as well as remove the buffs with a Duel Charm.
They will also occasionally attempt to shield bash the player with their greatshields, which they usually perform if they approach the player with their shield up. However, they can also be caught with guard breaks when pacing side-to-side with their shield up, leading to easy ripostes.
A variant of the mace-wielding knight that carries a crossbow can be encountered on the rafters. It will continually snipe at the player with the crossbow until they reach melee range, at which point it will switch to the mace.
The ultra greatsword-wielding variant is considerably more deadly, as on top of being far more aggressive their weapon has a longer reach and deals much more damage. They have a wide variety of horizontal swings, so good dodging is necessary to avoid them. They also possess a kick attack, which is capable of dealing significant damage while knocking the player down a considerable distance. Getting behind them in between their swings can allow the player to land backstabs relatively easily.
