Darkwraith

Overview

Darkwraiths are an enemy type in Dark Souls. They are encountered exclusively in the lower sections of New Londo Ruins after the player has opened Ingward's Seal and removed the water that had once flooded the ruined city. These enemies were once the noble protectors of New Londo's citizens and its Four Kings. When the Kings were corrupted by Darkstalker Kaathe and the Abyss, so too were their knights, who became ruthless hunters of Humanity known as Darkwraiths. Eventually, the threat posed by their corruption grew too great to ignore, leading three sorcerers to flood the city in order to contain the destructive power of these minions of Dark.

Darkwraiths are easily recognized by their skeletal armor. Kaathe bestows the art of Lifedrain upon his Darkwraiths, allowing them to directly siphon Humanity from other beings with a single touch. They can also create a magical shield capable of blocking nearly all damage. The Darkwraith enemies in New Londo serve as an excellent source of Titanite Chunks, a component required for high-level weapon upgrades.

While Darkwraiths themselves don't appear in Dark Souls II, players can still locate pieces of the Darkwraith armor set in the game. Each individual piece is dropped by different mimics scattered throughout the game world.

Only a handful of Darkwraiths can be encountered in Dark Souls III. Here, the Darkwraiths' trademark armor has noticeably decayed since their original appearance, and they are referred to as the "oldest of the Red Eye invaders" by the in-game descriptions of their ancient armor.