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Overkill

FoldUnfold Table of Contents Description Conditions Tips to Achieve Overkill Notes

Description

Players who can Overkill an enemy will gain a bonus of 20% souls, making farming weaker enemies more profitable. Overkill is signified by a somewhat longer "soul absorb" animation and sharper SFX.

Conditions

You must be able to do greater than 150% of the target's max HP in one attack.

  • Doesn't matter if the target has full health or not. (e.g. you damaged an enemy for half its HP, then do a riposte, and you'll still get the overkill bonus).
  • Damage must be done in a single hit. Riposte and backstab counts as single hit, even though certain weapons have 2 or 3 damage stages.

Kills that do not count as overkill:

  • Combos don't count as a single hit. This includes Homing Soulmass-type spells.
  • Poisoning and Toxic effects can't trigger overkill.
  • Fall damage (kicking enemies off cliff) can't trigger overkill.

Tips to Achieve Overkill

Apart from being overpowered, a few examples:

  • General
    • Power Within. It raises all damage by 40% at the cost of health drain.
    • Hitting staggered enemy grants 40% extra damage and can be done with all forms of attack.
  • Melee
    • Backstab with Hornet Ring.
    • Riposte with Hornet Ring. Ripostes have higher damage multiplier than backstabs, but are relatively harder to perform.
    • Counter hit an enemy, can be further increased when wearing the Leo Ring for a total of ~67% extra damage.
  • Bow
    • Headshot. Extra 20% damage and staggers enemy. Works on most humanoid enemies. Signified by a sharp sound and a fountain of blood gushing out.
  • Sorcery and Pyromancy
    • Equip the Crown of Dusk.
    • Equip the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring.
  • Miracle
    • Equip the Crown of Dusk.
    • Equip the Ring of the Sun's Firstborn.

Notes

  • In order to maximize soul gain, equip Covetous Silver Serpent Ring and, if you are fine with the side-effect, Symbol of Avarice, for a total of 173% soul gain.
  • Item drop rate doesn't seem to increase on Overkill.
  • Overkill is unachieveable on bosses.
  • Overkill exists in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3, but not in Dark Souls 2.
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