And here I am on day 4 of trying against the Soul of Cinder . My best attempt ended on only having used one Estus , him at 25 % HP , and me dying from the grab due to a misread attack . I shudder to think what the DLC will do to me . Soul of Cinder phase 1 is heavily affected by RNG . I ' ve fought him where he went into lance form and curved sword form a lot . My suggestion is to fight him close during his normal sword form and mage form , fight him midranged during his lance form to bait him into a lunge attack then punish him , and just run away from him during his curved sword form . A crossbow can definitely help when you ' re far away from him and want additional damage . During phase 2 , be careful and don ' t get caught in his 5 strike combo ending in explosion . There are a few attacks you can punish including his leapstrike at you from midfar range and lightning from above . Don ' t give up .