The Deacons of the Deep are a collective boss in Dark Souls III. Their leader, Archdeacon Royce, is a character in Dark Souls III.
In-Game Description
- After Aldrich left for the Boreal valley, Archdeacon Royce remained in the cathedral with the high priests, to keep eternal watch over their master's coffin.[1]
Location[]
Found in the innermost chamber of the Cathedral of the Deep, where the tomb of Aldrich lies. The room is located further from the main praying area, beyond an immense and almost ruined statue concealed in canvas.
Description[]
As their name implies, the Deacons of the Deep is a large gathering of Deacons, who mainly rely on pyromancies and close ranged melee attacks to attack the player. They will engage the player in combat, with one of the Deacons glowing with a red aura. Defeating this Deacon will deal damage to the boss's health bar, and cause the light to dissipate and search for another Deacon. Throughout the battle, new Deacons will spawn from Aldrich's coffin as they are defeated.
Once five glowing Deacons have been killed, Archdeacon Royce will reveal himself; Royce can be readily identified by the red glow, as well as the large blue-tipped staff and miter. He will spawn with two big and blue-robed Deacons and four additional heavyset Deacons, who will cast Force when near the player in order to protect Royce. At certain points, they will channel a healing spell to quickly regenerate Royce's health.
Lore[]
Royce, along with Archdeacons McDonnell and Klimt, was an archdeacon of the Way of White.[2] The three men managed the Cathedral of the Deep, overseeing its rituals of purification from stagnant Darkness.[3][4][5]
At one point, the cathedral welcomed Aldrich, an exiled Irithyllian priest who derived pleasure from eating humans.[6] Aldrich shared his perverse behaviour with others in the cathedral,[7] and sacrifices were brought to him to appease his hunger and grant him the strength to link the First Flame and become a Lord of Cinder.[6]
After Aldrich linked the Flame, a cult formed around his figure,[8] but the deacons of the cathedral also found themselves fighting abominations that emerged from the Deep. The Cathedral, once a peaceful and sacred place for purification, was corrupted by the foul Aldrich, as darkness stagnated and accumulated in the Deep until it had become the final rest of abhorrent creatures.[5][9] Archdeacon McDonnell found delight in the stagnation of darkness[10] and abandoned his faith in the First Flame and in the gods, devoting himself to the Deep. McDonnell spread his belief among the clerics of the cathedral; he even created staffs that channeled faith to produce Deep sorceries, a sacrilegious act.[11] In time the cathedral's deacons became both clergymen and sorcerers,[11][12] embracing the cult of the Deep.[13][14] Royce too was corrupted by the putrid darkness that had invaded the cathedral and, in addition to accepting McDonnell's Deep sorceries, he began to venerate the Deep and its Saint, Aldrich.[14]
When the First Flame began to fade and Prince Lothric refused to link it, Aldrich was awakened from his tomb to become fuel for it again, but the Lord of Cinder refused the call.[15][16] Aldrich was in fact intent on returning to Irithyll to devour Dark Sun Gwyndolin and usher the Age of the Deep,[8][16][17] ending the Age of Fire and leaving in its place a realm of putrid and stagnant darkness.[9][10][16] McDonnell, sharing Aldrich's ideals,[10] cast off his white robes and replaced them with robes of deep blue.[18][19] The Archdeacon gathered an army of deacons and evangelists, and abandoned the cathedral to follow the Saint of the Deep on his crusade toward Irithyll.[20]
As Aldrich and McDonnell left the cathedral for their crusade, Royce and the other deacons stayed to guard their lord's empty coffin from intruders, in the hopes that he would one day return.[8][21] The Road of Sacrifices that brought Undead from the Undead Settlement to the Cathedral where they were devoured by Aldrich[22] resumed operations,[6][17] and Royce devoted himself to the study of the Deep, developing dark sorceries and allowing the merging of his soul and those of the other deacons.[23][24]
Artifacts[]
Summons[]
- Anri of Astora: After exhausting their dialogue at the Halfway Fortress bonfire at Road of Sacrifices, their summon sign will appear in the prayer area before the Deacons.
- Horace the Hushed: His summon sign can be found near Anri's.
- Sirris of the Sunless Realms: After giving the Dreamchaser's Ashes to the Shrine Handmaid and exhausting Sirris's dialogue when she appears at Firelink Shrine, she will be available to summon.
Strategy[]
Damaging or killing individual Deacons does not deal damage to the collective boss health bar, rather this is done by killing the Deacon with the red aura. Each time the target Deacon is defeated, roughly 327 damage is dealt to the health bar and the aura will move to another Deacon. For this reason, it is a viable strategy to try to reduce the health of the individual Deacons without killing them, as the aura may find a weakened one who can then be quickly dispatched. If the player does not kill a glowing Deacon within a certain amount of time, the aura may relocate to a different one.
Be mindful that while large sweeping attacks can hit and kill multiple Deacons at once, this can place the player in unnecessary danger. If possible, try to path around the crowd to attack the glowing Deacon directly, as this avoids the situation of being within melee attack range of multiple Deacons.
Once enough damage has been dealt to the boss health bar, Archdeacon Royce will appear, flanked by two large blue-robed Deacons as well as four red-robed ones. It is highly recommended to kill these two blue Deacons as quickly as possible, as they are considerably stronger than the others, can heal Royce, and will not respawn once killed. From this point onward, only damage dealt to Royce will subtract from the boss health bar.
Once Archdeacon Royce is on the field, the collective Deacons gain a number of Dark attacks to use along with their previous attacks. However, these attacks can be interrupted either through attacking the channeling Deacons or Royce himself.
Melee weapons are the best option for defeating the Deacons of the Deep without too much trouble. Any weapon with wide swings will deal great damage to multiple Deacons, allowing players to easily clear a path to the glowing one, however a fast-swinging straight sword gives less opportunity to be staggered by the Deacons' attacks.
Spellcasters can struggle with this fight as there are few area-of-effect spells available to the player at the time of encountering the boss. Additionally, the Deacons are resistant to Dark and Magic damage, making this fight a particular challenge to dedicated Intelligence builds. The pyromancy Boulder Heave is very effective as it deals high physical damage in an area, along with enough poise damage to knock down or stagger any Deacons that get hit. Since the deacons tend to remain close together, Pestilent Mist is also helpful in bringing them down, and while the deacons (and Royce himself) are resistant to poison/toxic, they are not immune to it, so the Storyteller's Staff weapon art Poison Spores will deal a great bit of damage.
Alluring Skulls will distract all of the Deacons except for the one with the red aura, making it easy to separate it from the group and kill it.
Attacks[]
- Fireball - When at range, Deacons will often raise their candlesticks and launch a straight-flying fireball at the player. These attacks deal relatively little damage, but their danger lies in the large number of Deacons who may simultaneously cast it, as well as its stagger, which can potentially combo the player along with other Deacons' melee attacks.
- Force - The fat Deacons, as well as the blue-robed ones that flank Royce, will occasionally cast Force if the player is nearby, in an attempt to stagger them. This attack deals no damage, but can knock the player down and prevent them from approaching the red-glowing Deacon or Royce.
- Curse Fog - A number of Deacons will begin channeling dark energy, and the entire arena will begin to darken, slowly building up the player's Curse resistance bar. Killing or staggering one of the channelers will break the effect, allowing the player's Curse meter to reduce.
- Deep Soul - Royce will raise his staff and shriek, and several other Deacons will also begin channeling dark energy into an orb above Royce. This process takes several seconds, but when completed Royce will flourish his staff and launch a large dark orb at the player; it is very fast-moving and will ignore all obstacles, including pillars and Aldrich's coffin. The orb can deal significant damage, and inflict moderate Curse buildup on the player. Staggering Royce himself will interrupt the process.
- Heal - The blue-robed Deacons that flank Archdeacon Royce can channel a healing spell that will restore a significant portion of his health, about 25% of the entire boss health bar. It can be very difficult to stagger them out of the spell, as players will have very few weapons with poise-breaking ability at their disposal at this point in the game. This ability is best countered by killing the blue Deacons as soon as possible, before they are given the chance to cast the spell.
Drops[]
| Item |  Soul of the Deacons of the Deep |
 Small Doll |
| Drop Rate | Guaranteed | Guaranteed |
Notes[]
- Affected by Rapport.
- Affected by Alluring Skulls, with the exception of the deacon covered in a red aura.
- Weak against the Hollowslayer Greatsword.
- Defeating the Deacons of the Deep is required in order to obtain the Small Doll and with it gain access to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley.
- The Archdeacon Set will appear in the boss room after defeating the Deacons of the Deep and reloading the area. It can then be looted from Archdeacon Royce's lifeless body. With this, the Deacons of the Deep are one of the only two bosses in the game that leave behind their actual remains, besides their leader Aldrich. They are also one of only two bosses with unique dark blue souls, the other also being Aldrich, and one of two boss souls that have multiple shown souls, the other being the Soul of the Rotted Greatwood.
- During the first phase of the fight, the Archdeacon is actually hidden inside Aldrich's massive coffin. He is not immune to poison (though he is resistant to it), so it's possible to poison him with the Poison Spores weapon art and dwindle his health, while still fighting the deacons on the outside.
- Death of any deacon (also including any red deacon before Royce himself appears) can trigger an Estus or Ashen Estus flask refill.
- Royce and his accompanying deacons will always appear at the front of the coffin, never the back or sides.
- The name of the boss has wrong translation. In the original their name looks like 深みの主教たち [fukami no shukyo:tachi] - Bishops of the Deep.[25] This inaccuracy distorts the state of affairs - while deacons stands at the lowest level of the priesthood and help bishops hold a prayer services, McDonnell, Royce and Klimt occupies a very high position in the church - above them only pontiff Sulyvahn and Lord Aldrich.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Deacons of the deep (2).jpg (225 KB)")
.jpg "Archdeacon Royce (2).jpg (83 KB)")
Videos[]
Deacons of the Deep Boss Fight - Dark Souls 3
Music[]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ Excerpt from the Soul of the Deacons of the Deep description.
- ↑ Archdeacon Set descriptions.
- ↑ Deep Ring and Notched Whip (Dark Souls III) description.
- ↑ File:Cathedral_Deep_Pus_Statue.jpeg
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Deep Protection description.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Hawkwood the Deserter dialogue: "... But what do you really know about these Lords of Cinder, these supposed legends? Let's take Aldrich, for one. A right and proper cleric, only, he developed a habit of devouring men. He ate so many that he bloated like a drowned pig, then softened into sludge, so they stuck him in the Cathedral of the Deep. And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?" and "At the foot of Lothric Castle, an old path still runs below the tower in the Undead Settlement. It was used to transport sacrifices to the Cathedral of the Deep. You should see where it leads. ...If you've the stones for it."
- ↑ Aldrich's Sapphire description.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Soul of the Deacons of the Deep description.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Deep Gem description.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Great Deep Soul description.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Archdeacon's Great Staff description.
- ↑ Cleric's Candlestick description.
- ↑ Deep Braille Divine Tome description.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Deep Soul description.
- ↑ Opening (Dark Souls III) narration.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Soul of Aldrich description.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Anri of Astora dialogue.
- ↑ Archdeacon White Crown description.
- ↑ File:Archdeacon_MCDonnell.jpg
- ↑ Irithyll of the Boreal Valley#Enemies
- ↑ Archdeacon Holy Garb description.
- ↑ Evangelist Set description.
- ↑ Deacons of the Deep#Attacks
- ↑ Soul of the Deacons of the Deep description and Deacons of the Deep#Strategy implies that their souls are merger, or rather shared in the Deep, since the main soul of Royce that allow to inflict damage to the boss pass between the deacons.
- ↑ Dark Souls Trilogy - Archive Of The Fire
