Ceaseless Discharge

Ceaseless Discharge is a boss in Dark Souls.

Location
In the Demon Ruins, standing on a body of lava near a rock pathway.

Description
Ceaseless Discharge is presumably the youngest child, and only son, of the Witch of Izalith. He stands vigil in front of the corpse of one of his sisters, laid on an altar. His deformed face retains a look of pain as the sores acquired since birth swell with lava. From his head grew two horns and seven glowing, red eyes, partially covered by his wrinkled skin, while the right side of his body is framed by a "rib cage" made of insect-like appendages. Ten more appear on his back and a single, large arm coils around his chest, displaying his reach that is as far as he is colossal. Once dead, the area beneath him, into which he endlessly discharged lava, will be mostly traversable with a few pockets of lava remaining.

Strategies

 * Taking the Gold-Hemmed Black Set from the dead body will permanently aggro Ceaseless Discharge. If the player intended to fight Ceaseless Discharge, but fails at killing him, he will be pre-aggroed on the next encounter.
 * Initiating the battle by attacking Ceaseless discharge with an arrow or a throwing knife will only aggro him once. This allows the player to take position and cast self and weapon buffs in total security if the previous encounter was inconclusive.
 * Ceaseless Discharge's attacks all involve its numerous arms. Many attacks are slow and long ranged and cause mostly Fire and Strike damage. Each attack can be dodged at the last second by running or rolling just before it hits the player. Its arm will also rest for a while after every attack, giving the player a chance to attack.
 * Ceaseless Discharge can be range attacked with a longbow and standard arrows, from the safe corner of the crevice. Once it moves to face it's original resting spot, two of its limbs will be visible from the crevice. The upper limb can be shot with the correct timing, without inciting a return attack.
 * For melee characters it is possible to bait his attacks and avoid them using the stairs. Once the Ceaseless Discharge has become hostile, run back around the L shaped hallway and down the stairs to wait for the boss. When the boss starts walking past the stairs run back up the stairs and wait for him to perform his attack animation. When he starts to attack run down the stairs and wait for the smoke to clear from his arm and then run up and land a few attacks. Rinse and repeat until he is dead.
 * Similarly to baiting by using the stairs, the pathway to the right of the stairs can also be used. When the Ceaseless Discharge has been provoked, run to the center of the first length of the path nearest the stairs. The boss should then round the corner and begin its slam attack down the path; as it starts its attack, run around the paths corner and stay back as far as possible, just as the arm lands run back around and hit the arm. This can be repeated until he is defeated.
 * An alternative method is to simply run back towards the fog door. The Ceaseless Discharge will pursue the player while attempting to attack. When the player is at the fog door, the boss will leap and latch onto the nearby cliff, holding with one hand. Attacking his hand will cause him to fall after attacking a few times. However, this exploit does not work if he is aggroed in any way besides picking up the armor set or running back where the set was, as the arm needs to be out of his chest. If the player fails to achieve victory, they must run back to the corpse as if they were picking up the Gold Hemmed Set for the first time and then return to the fog door. Without returning to the corpse, the boss will not grab the cliff edge.

Note: His horizontal sweeping attack will always go over your head if you run down the stairs.

Slam
The slam's area of damage is actually much larger than the tendril itself: It creates a very wide shock wave that will damage the player even if there is no contact with said tendril. Players should stay clear away from the point of impact, and attempt a dodge even if it seems unnecessary.



Double Slam
This attack requires the player to have uninterrupted focus in order to dodge.



Tendril Rampage
Uses the appendages on his back to hit the ground in front of him.

Fiery Slam
This attack is triggered when the player cannot be reached by his other attacks. A wide gust of fire is blasted from a short limb slammed on the ground. The attack can not be blocked and has tremendous range. Can only be avoided if the player stays close to the point of impact where the damage cone is narrow.

This attack is discernible from other slam attacks by Ceaseless Discharge lighting the tip of his tendrils on fire.



Swipe
This move actually consists of two attacks, the second one will follow up shortly after the first. Dodging this requires correct timing.



Cliff Hanger
If the player retreats back to the fog door Ceaseless Discharge will make a desperate leap over the cliff to try and crush them. Once he lands he will dangle helplessly above the cliff and will no longer be able to move or attack, becoming completely defenseless.