Ashen Crawlers are enemies in Dark Souls II: Crown of the Old Iron King.
Description[]
Ashen Crawlers are heavyset undead that are badly burnt and missing their legs. They move around by crawling and emanate a trail of smoke and soot.
While they are not overly threatening by themselves, they are often encountered in large numbers and in tight corridors where players will have difficulty evading their attacks. As well, when hit by fire they will ignite, becoming much more aggressive and moving much more quickly. They will also inflict constant fire damage when within melee range of players, similar to the Smelter Demon.
Location[]
Attacks[]
Leap: Leaps at the player from medium distance, knocking the player down. Deals heavy stamina damage if blocked. Has poor tracking, so it can be dodged by rolling to the side.
Strike: Swings its arms to attack the player. After two swings it will fall onto its belly, taking a few seconds to recover.
Explode: When near the player, it will glow red and explode, destroying itself and inflicting area fire damage with heavy knockback; this explosion can damage and ignite any nearby Ashen Crawlers. If the player retreats quickly, it has the ability to cancel this attack, but if it has been ignited it loses the ability to cancel the explosion.
Strategy[]
Ashen Crawlers are very slow and ponderous, and their attacks can be easily baited and avoided, allowing players to deal large amounts of damage while they are vulnerable. However, they are extremely durable, requiring many attacks to destroy due to their high elemental and physical damage resistance combined with their large amount of health.
Care should be taken when fighting Ashen Crawlers, as they will attack in numbers and can easily drain players' stamina with their attacks and deal tremendous damage while they're vulnerable. Try to focus on one at a time, and if possible try to bait their explosion attack and then retreat in order to quickly eliminate them. Given enough maneuvering space, a chain reaction can be set off amongst them where one explosion ignites or destroys several others. Beware, however, that igniting one causes it to become much more aggressive, so once one is on fire it is best to try to bait it into exploding to immediately remove it from the field.