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Watch someone defeat Dark Souls 3's Ringed City big boss on NG+7 with a broken sword

Elementary Midir.

The Dark Souls community has gotten clever with its ludicrous self-imposed challenge runs, applying such limitations as not using weapons, or taking damage, or finishing From's latest with a controller made from bananas. YouTuber trflk doesn't apply anything quite that peculiar, but they do manage the incredible feat of conquering DLC expansion The Ringed City's most challenging boss, Darkeater Midir, on the hardest difficulty (NG+7), using naught but a broken sword and no armour.

Cover image for YouTube videoNG+7 Darkeater Midir, flawless kill with a Broken Broken Straight Sword

Making things even harder on themselves, trflk made a weird rule where they decided every time the dragon breathed fire, they would applaud it and drop a prism stone, the game's most worthless item that's only used to drop off high points to determine how deep a pit goes.

Furthermore, trflk isn't just using a broken sword, but a broken broken sword. That's right, even a nearly worthless sword hilt can become busted and diminish what little attack potency it had.

Now there are some ways in which the pro player has bolstered their chances with such stringent requirements. For one, their character is Soul Level 802, meaning they've maxed out every stat to 99. (Quite frankly, I'm surprised there are enough hours in a day that such a thing is even possible.)

Secondly, they've equipped a few buffs to increase their damage output. There's the Morion Blade in their left hand that boosts your damage output by 20 per cent so long as your HP is lower than 20 per cent. They also equipped a Red Tearstone Ring, which has the exact same effect, stacked on top. Other helpful buffs include Flynn's Ring, which increases your attack power by 15 per cent if your equipment load is light, and the Lightning Clutch Ring, which increases lightning attacks by 15 per cent and physical attacks by 10 per cent.

Magic-wise, trflk opts to use the Lightning Blade spell to add electric damage to their attacks, something Midir is especially vulnerable to. The ring Lingering Dragoncrest +2 helps keep this in play as it makes spells last 40 per cent longer.

Even with all this help, their damage output is still pretty miniscule. What else would you expect from a broken broken sword? It's also worth noting that trflk doesn't take a single hit of damage, as even the smallest scratch to this avatar in their skivvies would result in an instant death.

Indeed, trflk makes it look easy, but try facing off against Darkeater Midir yourself and you'll find that it's nothing like the cocksure matador performance seen in the video above.