Black Knife Assassin | Elden Ring Wiki

The one in the black knife catacombs (where she is in a chapel-like small area, was quite the trouble for my pure-caster mage, but i managed to get her somehow using a carian knight shield + often spamming rock sling - we died at the same time, so it might be not the best tactic

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I love how fromsoft's solution to players wanting to fight this boss on horse back is to just have it jump out of melee range and then launch a hitscan speed projectile right into your face. Totally doesn't make this boss even more annoying.

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Only Alecto is the most challenging one but only if you dont know what your doing. Even her can be outsmarted...heck the one waiting at the entrance of sainted hero drops a sonewhat very effective weapon to fight Alecto with. And those 100% cloaking ones can be easily countered with sentry torch makong the fight somewhat trivial and micro-boss-ish like.

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Gurranq’s beast claw and Black Flame Ritual incantations work pretty well

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Apparently they're also tarnished according the two finger incantations.

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female darkwraiths

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The Black Knife Assassin outside Sainted Hero's Grave will run up and deliver a riposte attack if it knocks you off your horse. Certainly surprised me when I fell victim to it the first time.
— Courh the Explorer

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These guys are easy-ish if you have a halberd since you can push them away which makes them back off. The boss hike in catacombs is absolute trash though

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demi-human ashes and no hiding

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Elden ring really went crazy with shitty trash unfair bs enemies didn’t they

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This enemy design doesn't get enough hate. Behind royal revenant these are the second least fun thing to fight in elden ring. Infinite mobility with unreasonable tankiness, free escapes, and a dot that lowers your max hp. At least you can get one for yourself.

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Hehe, Stabby stabby!

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Is there any lore implications as to why they don't have a body? I just realize they don't have a face.

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Do not lock on to the one in the catacombs. It's a recipe for bullshit.

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Use glintstone phalanx and it will hit her when she gets close and also reveals her position

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If you're having trouble you can poise break them by rolling into them with any of the elmer armor pieces in most of their animations, doesn't always work in your favor though.

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y'all are weird

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so glad theyre all females now i can simp for em and piss off sexist redditors <3

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Equip a rapier. Spam R1. You win. Rapiers are so cheap on stamina, fast and long range that assassins start to look like old ladies. The only attacks they have that have any chance of touching you are the jumping attack and the flame attack. Any black knife assassin that's been pissing you off lately is outright useless if you have a range advantage. Turn the tables and be the one doling out 28 stab wounds and Destined Death.

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Equip a rapier. Spam R1. You win. Rapiers are so cheap on stamina, fast and long range that assassins start to look like old ladies. The only attacks they have that have any chance of touching you are the jumping attack and the flame attack. Any black knife assassin that's been pissing you off lately is outright useless if you have a range advantage. Turn the tables and be the one doling out 28 stab wounds and Destined Death.

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my method for hitting them consistently is to focus on predicting their dash and spin slash. when they end a combo by attacking and dashing away it leaves a window where you can catch them with a jump attack. their thrust attack is almost always followed up with a spin that you can jump over and counter

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For the invisible one I ran from dry plce to dry plce, then I can see her running towards me in the water. But once she’s on land with me then she can dash around and I don’t know where she is

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Seeing an awful lot of misgendering going on in these comments....éwé

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Easily staggered? I hit em with nothing but strong attacks but they never stagger. 45 str using a great hammer.

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The one in Sage's Cave (invisible) can be countered very easily by using the Grafted Dragon's weapon art. It does a huge aoe that leaves fire on the ground for a time. Not only will it knock this guy on his ass and let you pound him, but if you miss, the flames it leaves on the ground will stagger the guy if he walks into them, and make him visible momentarily.

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sainted hero's grave is a complete joke, 1 hit every time even with mimic i dont understand my character doesnt get up and get finished?

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Hate the Ordina ones for one reason. Their grab has way more range than the visual. You can be 3-4 feet out of the end of their grabs range and once they whiff it they snap teleporting to you regardless. Seriously obnoxious.

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Why in the name of the lord our father does one defend the sainted hero's grave in altus? She's got zero business being there.

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Thank god I got that Sentry’s Torch earlier than usual. Ordina was slightly less of a pain now that I could see those bastards.

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Now, I fought a lot of black knives before the invisible one, so I have to ask: what was it like for you folks that met them as your very first Black Knife?

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Nox Hammer's Flowing Form completely destroys her

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Just golden parried the one guarding the hero's grave to death with a +0 reduvia, it has been both the best and worst experience of my entire life

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Wait, you can't use spirit ashes for black knife catacombs? Are you sure?? oh I am not going to like this...

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so you fight 6 of them, 3 try to kill Ranni's consorts, and one is a remembrance. Were there only 10?

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Used my summon and let him kill it while I aggro'd and dodged it or played bait :D ... was out of all hp and fp pots in the end and was at the mercy of my summon... but W in the end!

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Lore wise, I'm kinda shooked that at one point they tried to kill Ranni and her consorts. Like, why kill the lady that made them their blades? Did they figure out Radagon's identity and thought his children made the list?

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These girls be breakdancing while beating your ass.

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Here lies a lowly tarnished of no renown.
Cause of death: 28 stab wounds.
Last words: "But I pressed do... "
Will be missed by no one in particular.

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I found one near the Queen’s Bedchamber in Leyndell. Scared the hell out of me. Didn’t seem to drop anything either.

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How do I stop this invisible piece of horseshit instantly stabbing me to death? Don't have access to the torch yet

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Greyoll's roar works great

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They’re all female? Smh my head no inclusivity >:(

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Missing the location for the black knife assassin in Lyndell. There’s one guarding the entrance to the queens bed chamber.

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So, one of these guys in Ordina managed to grab me after I literally depleted ALL of his healthbar, stabbed me in the neck and died the moment afer.

Oh, what am I saying!? This game is totally fair and balanced! I just had to giet gewed)))

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the one outside sainted hero's grave actually drops 10800 runes

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I was unprepared when I ran into the Invisible Black Knife Assassin but spirit summons are still able to target her, magic archer lady Latenna was able to easily track her and constantly give away the bosses location with her homing arrows.

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Fun fact: all black knives from the night of the black knives are accounted for in the game: the 4 listed on this page as bosses, Alecto in the evergoal, Tiche's ashes, and the black knife assassin that patrols Ordina's evergoal. 7 assassins like the 7 depicted in the artwork for the Night of the Black Knives.

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You can cheese the one that's guarding the sainted hero's grave by aggroing him and flee the fight on your horse. Then he moves back to where he was and then starts walking away from his spot, then sneak up behind him for backstab and run away again rinse and repeat. Be careful when running away from him after backstab as he will sometimes use a projectile attack on you which, if hit, will immediately dismount you. Run towards the cliff on the left of the grave site to find immediate cover against it.

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weird how they play a big part if the game but it is easy to miss them.

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weird how they play a big part if the game but it is easy to miss them.

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You can actually get by with buying the torch. Spirit Ashes will lock onto the assassin anyway.

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So I just used Latenna the albinauric ash not upgraded in the deathtouch fight and the Boss stayed at the other end of the room. It dodges when she fired, but not when the arrows were hitting.

The ash Solo'd the boss fight while I was laughing afk.... it didn't even cross the room to reach me.

Would folks let me know if this is repeatable or just a one off broken AI?

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Anyone else wonder why all the Black Knife Assassins have no heads or faces? If it was a mask made of the same material as their capes, then it'd simply be translucent and we'd still see their faces underneath. Just one of those odd details that I don't think is ever explained.

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For the invisible assassin, If you run a faith build, you can summon a tanky spirit (even unupgraded) instead of going all the way to the Hermit Shack to buy the torch. The spirit will lock onto the boss anyway, and you can heal/buff them. When the boss takes damage, you can see it & briefly lock on to get some of your own hits in as well.

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As a dagger user, the one outside of Sainted Hero's Grave was actually fun. Aside from the grab attack (1Shot), it was a very even fight. She glided faster, but my attacks had less delay; we were basically dancing. I often roll dodged and hit her between her attacks, only flinching her every 2-3 hits (she definitely has poise, it's probably just so low it doesn't matter to anything larger than a dagger).
Also, Rejection incantation will knock her down every single time, no matter what animation she is in, opening her up for a few hits. The fact that it can be charged means you can hold it once you see her bends down to leap/dash, and only release it once she gets close; the timing isn't any more difficult than a roll dodge.

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Used Margit's Shackle outside the fog wall at the Deathtouched one just before going in and they were knocked to half health. Don't know if it's a glitch or it works on the rest.

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What about the ones in the consecrated snowfield. It would be nice to use a weapon art, or two hand my weapon but someone on the dev team decided that I had to have a torch equipped otherwise they remain completely invisible.

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This is artificial difficulty at its finest, in the form of overly complex attack animations with unnecessary flourish. One of his moves straight up has him swing THROUGH you, dealing no damage, so the followup can hit you. This is to bait out parries even though you would normally have parried the swing that connected with you.

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For my wizard friends struggling in the Black Knife Catacombs you need to alternate between a spell that can stagger and a spell that can be cast quickly. Preferably Ancient Death Rancor and Glintstone Icecrag. Cast the former when she's far away or recovering from her dive attack and while she's getting staggered you can start casting glintstone ice crag to rack up damage and frostbite. Can also use it to give yourself enough time to heal.

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adula's moonblade works really well, paired with a cold weapon

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Fought the invisible one in Sage's cave with Engvall, she completely ignored him even when I hadn't attacked the entire fight (He did 1/3 of her health by himself) and would just try to backstab me. Happens everytime.

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Summons can target the invisible assassins so use your Lone Wolves to surround her and attack while she's in the middle of the pack for easy damage. Be careful of getting caught in her swings at the wolves.

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To any ranged player who's struggling with the Black Knife in Leyndell near Queen's Chamber, run directly into the Queen's Chamber and then climb onto the backrest of the Queen's throne. She won't be able to pathfind her way towards you and you can freely use spells or bow/darts at her as freely as you want. The only thing you need to avoid is her ranged weapon art which can easily be avoided ontop the Queen's throne.

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Players have limited stamina, this enemy, despite leaping, running and attacking nonstop, does not. Unfair? Maybe. A challenge? Yes. Enjoyable? Not really. Like many fights in Elden Ring winning is more of a relief than a triumph.

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what a bullsh*t boss fight, this game is just full of cheap tricks instead of innovative challenges, definitely no 10/10 and certainly not the best in the series.

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Summoning the wolves made the invisible fight a total cakewalk because the wolves can see her in stealth.

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Died a lot the one in black knife catacombs, even tried a great shield, was useless. A colossal sword works wonders. Switched to grafted greatsword and played tennis with her body, can stagger her through every attack. First try with that weapon!

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The Assassin in the Sage's Cave can remain stealthed not only when it's merely 2 feet away, but as it attacks, as well. Proof, again, of how completely unfairly bosses are designed. The torch that can reveal it is sold by a merchant you probably won't even get to until WEEKs later and even when you do, I'm willing to bet there's not a clue, anywhere, that that specific torch will be useful against that specific boss. Because the game also does an excellent job of almost never telling you any clear and useful hints about what you can do with certain items. The developers really do want you to literally read their minds.

So, the best weapon against it is the "Lone Wolf" wolf pack, which is possibly one of the best and most useful Ashes, aside from the Stormhawk Deehn. Most of the bosses would be nigh impossible without summons to occupy their attention (or divide it, when it's a duo against you). And when you do defeat the Assassin, the Concealing Veil talisman is PREDICTABLY a watered down version of its stealth ability that DOESN'T EVEN WORK IN PvE! So to add further insult, to a stupidly unfair boss designs, you cannot even make use of its ability. Because why would the game reward you in any meaningful and useful way, ever?

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They very much do NOT stagger easily.

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Even if you hit the invisible one with debuffs like Frostbite or Blackflame it will still have massive iframes while invisible meaning you can only usually hit it after it hits you. I tried prempetively hitting it via this method , even with a large range hoarfrost, and didn't hit it once in about 20 casts. Dragonbreath hit it, though, when it is walking from far away and not targeted due to the large AoE so it doesn't dodge. The moment you use the torch to reveal it thouhg those iframes vanish. Either use a summon to solo it for you or get the torch. It being invisible is just to hide the fact that you are hitting it but it has rigged iframes to make it artificially harder and "imposing" for an otherwise joke boss.

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Another POS untested garbage boss like all the others. Fromsoft thinks bullshit is difficulty now.

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there’s one in leyndell, immediately before the queen’s bedchamber site of grace. 3,200 runes on ng+

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sadly, no armor set T_T

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I never had much issue with them, but giving them poise on their grabby stabby move is just stupid. Also there's no way they only have 154 frost resist lol.

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sword dance obliterates them

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there are also 3 more at ordina's evergaol

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I have died multiple times in a row to a few bosses in this game but after the 5th time of getting insta shanked by this POS in the catacombs i found that hell is real and its master is an assassin.

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Fromsoft know assassins are suppose to be squishy riight?

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A strategy for any level and weapon: sprint around and away, whiff all their attacks (sideways for their projectile) and when they jump-slam into the ground, sprint behind their back, backstab and R1 once or twice, rinse and repeat. For invisible one, hold sentry torch in offhand.

This method worked for me even with claws doing 60 damage per R1, it just takes a while.

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Some places without summon like Ordina - makes it really hard. as magic user, cheese these assassins with Gavel of Haima and pebble spam.

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I just beat this guy and i'm almost positive i DID get runes... About 7000-9000? Damn wish i read this first and i would have looked :)

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marrionette soldiers suppressing fired him down to the point that he wasn't able to do much and I got a cool knife out of it :D

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Fromsoft: we'll give you this torch to see them, but also it kills your fps. Have fun

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Anyone have information about why the Black knife assassin boss from Deathtouched Catacombs only have 2/3 of his health? Could be some lore involved or it's just a bug in version 1.02.1?

Fighting against him wasn't complicated but that detail caught my attention.

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needs some lore addition, maybe include NPCs killed by them such as Iji for instance, hell blaidd kills three of them before the player has to put him down...

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making them immune to all statuses apart from frostbite is an absolute ridiculous and d*ck move fromsoftware, no its not hard, its unfairly unpleasent and unfun.

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Latenna is a great summon for these enemies especially against the invisible assassin because she can mark the her for you with her arrows so you don't need the torch, and the arrow hits gets you some really useful staggers as well giving you extra time to get a hit in or dodge.

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The wolves will just keep knocking it out of stealth. I ran in circles and they did the majority of the work.

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there's one just chilling in leyndell, to the right of the entrance to the queens chamber, iirc. you can literally see the grace through the door as you pass a small bridge, and he's curled up next to the entry.

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The one in Black Knife Catacombs has an actual "I hate losing cheat" when almost dead and will instantly grab you and 1-shot you. It does far more than 500 damage someone else mentioned. If there is any telltale with the hand that particularly location is far too dark to see it in addition to their hand being, well, black. Further she did it within 1.5s of her prior attack so the timing would be incredibly strict.

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You can summon "D, Hunter of the Dead" for this boss fight in the Black Knight Catacombs. His Summon sign is in front of the fog gate to the boss arena.

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I used summons to distract and frenzy for aoe so I don't need to aim or see it

Was it the most optimal? No. But hey it works.

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Absolutely infuriating boss.

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Absolutely infuriating boss.

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Absolutely infuriating boss.

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put a map location

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god i am so down bad for this assassin its unreal

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Shield crash these fools. When the go flying, wail on them with your weapon until they are back up. Rinse and repeat.

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Shield crash these fools. When the go flying, wail on them with your weapon until they are back up. Rinse and repeat.

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They move like a Dark Souls 12 enemy while I'm still playing Dark Souls 4

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