The Crystal Sage is a large humanoid covered in loose sorcerer’s robes and wears a mage’s hat big enough to cover their face. They mainly cast spells using a magical orb, but may attack players that get too close to them with their rapier. Players should be alert when approaching their arena as the boss fight starts as soon as they enter. After being brought down to a certain health threshold, the boss will start spawning clones that resemble themself very closely, save for the difference in the color of their magic.

peed is key in this boss fight – knowing how to manage your Stamina can make fighting this boss easier. This boss is not optional and they must be defeated to proceed to the Cathedral of the Deep. Not to be confused with the mini-boss version located in the Grand Archives. You can summon Eygon of Carim after saving Irina of Carim to aid you in combat. His summon sign appears behind a pillar in the room immediately prior to the Crystal Sage fight. Note that if you purchase any dark miracles from Irina or defeat the Abyss Watchers, then his sign will not appear.

Lore

• The Crystal Sage on the Crucifixion Woods trained the Undead Legion of Farron to use magic. As a result there are now several “Farron” spells.
• The Crystal Sages are twins and are called “the preacher twins”. The other twin is in the Grand Archives.
• Their favorite pupil was Daughter of Crystal Kriemhild.
• The item description on Sage’s Crystal Staff reads that crystal spheres devour the will of their user. Perhaps this is why they are mad.
• The two sages were trained by Big Hat Logan, which is mentioned in the examine text for its hat. Their spells are reminiscent of his.

How to Fight and Beat

Strategy 1 (Melee)

Since this boss can be staggered, rushing it is the best choice. Running, make sure to move around all projectiles it hurls at you while closing the distance. Once you’ve gotten to it, hit it as many times as you can, since you’ll have a short time to deal any damage until it teleports.

Paying attention to both its Sword attacks, which are relatively subtle, and making sure to be close enough to it that it can’t hit you with Homing Spells while staggered is thoroughly advisable. Even if you’re using a weapon with good range or sweet spots, such as a Halberd.

Once it begins its second phase, quickly take out the Clone that spawns in the middle of the arena. Taking out the other ones can be done with either running attacks or Throwing Knives, the latter being more advisable.  Making sure not to be hit while taking the clones out can be a bit hard, but can be done as long as you do not run out of stamina and keep running. 

When there are no Clones, go for the Sage.

Extra tip: Keep your weapon buffed with Lightning Resins while it is teleporting to deal as much damage as you can

Strategy 1.5 (Melee Rush)

Alternatively, you can try to predict where the Sage will teleport to (generally the opposite end of the arena) and rush it throughout the fight, ignoring the summons. The summons teleport along with the Sage so high damage output is preferable to cause very quick teleports, giving you time to heal and get ready to find the Sage on reappearance. When the Sage teleports with the summons and they all reappear, find the purple magic caster and rush it (this is the main boss, the summons cast blue magic).

Strategy 2 (Magic)

NG) Casting Magic Shield on East-West Shield allows you to soak up a small portion of magic damage – while insignificant, this can help you to stay alive. Since the Crystal Sage is highly resilient to magic damage, you are advised to land as many melee blows as possible. During Phase 2, it is highly recommended to use an Ember to raise your maximum health.

(NG+ onward) Make sure you cast Crystal Magic Weapon before entering the fog gate, so you have maximum damage output on the Sage. In the first phase, proceed to rush the sage, preventing it from casting spells on you. Casting Great Magic Shield will enable you to block all of its magic attacks at no damage to you and you can easily recast it between teleports. In the second phase you can use Homing Crystal Soulmass (cast between teleports) to kill one or two of the illusions. Remember illusions shoot blue magic! Aim for the purple magic wielding one and you are golden. 

Strategy 3 (Phase 2 Skip)

Rush the Sage at the start of the fight, and hit it til it has around 60% HP left. It’s very important that the HP does not get under 50%, because that will trigger phase 2, which will spawn the clones. Should this happen, just homeward bone or quit out, since the strategy is ruined, and it’s not worth the risk of getting hit.
A melee attack will cause a slight stagger and interrupt it’s current attack so rushing up and attacking should be relatively safe. At this point in the fight when the Sage has about 60% HP left, it should teleport under the ground and appear at another place.
As you did in the start of the fight, rush him down again to minimize the time it has to do attacks and get close to him. When you are close to the Sage it will try to hit you with melee attacks in the form of three swings with it’s rapier. These can be parried, and afterwards the Sage can be Riposted. This riposte will cause huge amounts of damage and throw the Sage to the ground. When it get’s up, you should have about 2-3 seconds to finish it off with the low amount of HP it has left, before it tries to teleport under the ground again and start phase 2. If you successfully follow these instructions, the Sage should die in phase 1, and phase 2 should be completely skipped, consequently making this boss fight easier and safer.

Completely skipping the second phase of the fight greatly reduces the chance of getting hit, or even worse – dying. No hit runners often use some variation of this strategy to minimize the risks when fighting this boss. The best thing with this strategy is that you don’t need very much damage to successfully do it, although it is recommended to kill the Abyss Watchers, and even High Lord Wolnir, to be able to level up to an adequate level. Also get the Large Titanite Shards in the Smouldering Lake and reinforce your weapon to be on the safe side in terms of damage. It’s animation when winding up it’s rapier combo is easy to spot, and the Sage is easy to parry, so this strategy should be accessible to new players as well as veteran no hit runners. Tip when parrying the Sage – it’s better to parry when it seems “too late” rather than too early since it winds up it’s first swing for a counter-intuitively long time.