How to Beat Darkeater Midir - Dark Souls III: The Ringed City

Darkeater Midir

Widely regarded as the most challenging boss in the Ringed City DLC, Darkeater Midir is an absolute monster. With a massive health bar, seemingly endless hitboxes, and a variety of highly damaging area attacks, he can single-handedly make the end of your playthrough ultra aggravating. However, the challenge of this boss is mostly smoke and mirrors designed to punish those who are overly aggessive. If you approach this fight methodically, like a marathon as opposed to a sprint, and identify Darkeater Midir's heavily telegraphed moveset, you'll emerge victorious. Below, I'll cover my recommended gear set up, the boss's move set and my recommended reaction, and overall strategy to beat him. Additionally, anytime something is written in red, it signifies a good moment for a counter attack or an important thing to note. Let's jump right in with the gear you're going to want.

Recommended Gear

• Medium High Fire/Dark Resistance Armor (Dragonscale Set, Black Knight Set, Fire Witch Set)
• Flame Stoneplate Ring
• Dark Stoneplate Ring
• Chloranthy Ring +3
• 14+ Estus Flasks
• Appropriate Damage Boosting Ring (Knight Ring, Scholar Ring etc.)
• Grass Crest Shield (If you're not planning on blocking much) or Black Knight Shield

Move Set and Recommended Reaction

Darkeater Midir does fall into the category of 'giant monster' but unlike this type of boss in most Souls games, you absolutely DO NOT want to be underneath him. Aside from the fact that it'll mess with your camera, you'll do twice as much damage to his head. Additionally, he has numerous attacks that directly punish you for being too close to him for too long. Your best bet is to lock on to his head and stay within a medium range in front of him. Halfway through the fight he'll gain three new and deadly attacks but keeps the remainder of his move set. Watch and learn his clearly telegraphed moveset from this position and you'll come away victorious.

First Phase

1. Crazy Firebreathing, Stomping Charge - At any distance aside from directly under him, Midir will rear up and begin to scrape and blow fire while moving forward across the entire battleground. Roll to your right multiple times and try and roll through an attack to avoid the onslaught. You can then charge up and hit him in the leg for a single hit. DO NOT do this if you rolled to the left to avoid him because he will spin his tail across the left at the of this attack.
2. Overhead Swipe Combo - Midir will get on his hind legs very briefly and then smash down with his right arm.This will combo into a pair of swipes, followed by a two-handed overhead smash directly in front of him. If you're hit by the first swipe it will stagger you and you'll most likely be hit by every other attack in the combo, usually resulting in death. When he pulls his right arm back, roll backwards rapidly to avoid it. If you do avoid getting smacked, however, immediately run in after his two handed smash and hit him for two hits before backing off again to medium range.
3. Rapid Charge - Leaning backwards for about a full second, Midir will fling himself across the entire battleground in motion reminiscent of Ludwig. This has the most obvious tell for when to dodge. If you're in close to medium range, dark water will fly up around his two front legs right before he charges. While strafing left, roll to the left when you see that water fly up and you'll avoid this dangerous attack. If you're at a longer distance, first off, don't do that, and secondly wait about half a second after you see the water to roll. 
4. Dual Horizontal Swipes - Midir will stretch out his left arm and swipe across his front at a medium speed. Dodge this first swipe as the arm moves towards you. Then he'll follow up with his right arm, swiping across his front about two seconds later. DO NOT dodge spam this attack or he will catch you. If you do manage to dodge both attacks, you'll have a great moment to hit his head about two or three times.
5. Bellow then Grab - When Midir backs off and then bellows loudly with a unique effect emanating from his mouths, he's about to attempt a massively damaging grab attack. Wait for his head to descend towards before dodging to avoid this. If you do dodge this, lock-on to his head and you can hit him two or three times.
6. Fire Sweep - If you're in close proximity to Midir, he may initiate a fire breathing attack that sweeps in front of him and underneath him. This attack has a huge hitbox and deals significant damage. Roll backwards away from him to avoid this. This attack is the primary reason that standing close to him is a bad idea. It will catch you unless you roll backwards, not sideways, away from him. However, if you're brave enough, you can run at him from his right after the breath kicks off and you can nail a couple of hits.
7. Downward Fire Breath and Laser - There are two versions of this attack. They both start with a medium ranged AoE as he breaths fire directly into the ground in front of him. Then he'll shoot a dark laser from his mouth first directly in front of him before sweeping either from right to left or left to right.  As long as you are at close to medium range when Midir initiates this, simply walk backwards and to your left (southwest) with your shield up to completely avoid this attack. Do not roll as that is too unpredictable. If you do get tagged by his laser without your shield up, it may one-shot you so take the safe approach and just hold it up. This is the only part of the fight where I recommend a shield. Do not try and get a hit after this, just close the gap so you're in the close-medium range in front of him again.
8. Fire Breath - Midir will breath fire directly in front of him before quickly leaping backwards and sweeping an area to his right with fire. Unlike most dragon fights in the Souls series, where this kind of attack is easily punishable, this one is not. Simply back out of range and let it complete on its own. 
9. Two Swipe, Straight Fire Breath - Midir will quickly swipe both claws at you before leaping backwards and breathing fire in a straight line directly in front of him. Getting hit by the fire is highly damaging so avoid this by dodging a couple of times to your preferred side as soon as fire begins to show up in his mouth.
10. Two Swipe, Sweep Fire Breath - Midir will complete another two swipe attack and then pull his neck back, hovering for a half a second before sweeping from your left to right. This looks very similar to the Two Swipe, Straight Fire Breath Attack but the key difference is the awkward angle of Midir's neck after he leaps back. If it's tilted up and to your left, he's doing the sweep. You can dodge forward and left through the fire as it sweeps across you to score a few free hits.
11. Bite Combo - One of Midir's more insidious combo attack simply because of the varied timing of his attacks. It starts with two quick bits from left to right then back again. Then he'll swipe quickly then slowly then quickly again. This move is a pain in the ass. Learn to time yourself individually for each dodge and, again, DO NOT roll spam. There's a moment after these attacks if you came through unscathed, to attack his head.
12. Tail Swipe - If for some unfathomably reason that you decide to completely ignore my previous warnings and try and get behind Midir, he will commonly swipe his tail quickly and leap away, dealing heavy damage. The real problem with this is that there is really no way to see this coming, he just does it and it happens. Don't go behind him unless you have an absurdly large health bar and just don't care about getting hit.
13. Side Swipe - Again, if you decide to forgo my advice and get right under one of his legs, Midir will rapidly, with little warning, swipe the ground along his whichever side your on. Commonly, he'll dash away afterwards as well. This suffers the same problem as the tail swipe. Midir simply doesn't give you enough time to reliably dodge or block this attack. Why risk it?

Second Phase

1. Dark Detonation - Midir will begin to draw the dark up from the ground while tilting his head skyward before detonating this in a massive AoE. This is obviously telegraphed but as soon as you see it, dodge away as fast as you can. This is his strongest single attack and can oneshot you. 
2. Call of Humanity  - After a pair of swipes, Darkeater Midir will begin to roar and several humanity sprites will emerge from the ground in a line in front of him. They'll hover there for a second for attempting to seek you out. Once they start seeking, roll continuously either right or left, NOT backwards, and keep an eye on Midir as he will try and attack you during this. This attack will inspire fear and cause you to react chaotically. Just keep your cool and dodge correctly.
3. Double Crazy Charge - While not technically different from the crazy charge in the first phase, in his second phase, Midir has the dirty habit of following up his crazy charge with another crazy charge. Since he initiates this attack with a frontal fire breath, this can punish those too eager to get a hit in after his charge. Just dodge through the first charge, let him go and see if he resets during his second phase.

Strategy - Darkeater Midir

As I stated before, the main strategy for this fight is to NOT run underneath him but rather to keep his head a few yards directly in front of you. First off, it completely messes with your camera and not being able to see or control where you're looking can quickly spell doom. Secondly, Darkeater Midir's most damaging and unpredictable attacks happen when you're too close to him, whether you're facing his tail, his legs or his face. Remaining a good 10 feet in front of him will keep him, and his move set, clearly visible, allow you to react appropriately to each move he makes, and will allow you to avoid a pointless death. You'll need to take this fight slow if you want to overcome him but, remember, patience is your best weapon here. Methodically dodging and carefully picking your moments to strike will have you beat the dragon in less overall time than mindless running into his blistering attacks. An important thing to recognize is the odd head tilt that Midir has whenever he finishes an attack you can punish. His head will face the ground, tilted slightly while he resets his front legs. If you notice this happening, that means it's a small window to attack and you should be able to take advantage of it the next time he performs the same move. Don't get discouraged! Each death, your learning a new facet to his attack patterns. Take your time and do it right. Thanks for reading and praise the sun!

Notes:

• Darkeater Midir is blind.
• The Dark Detonation attack is very similar to Gravelord Nito's miasma attack in the original Dark Souls.
• Beating Midir will unlock the Spears of the Church, the covenant that will allow you to be summoned to be the boss earlier in the DLC.
• If you haven't faced off against Slave Knight Gael before beating Midir, Shira will give you unique dialogue and comment each time you rank up with the Spears of the Church.