Dark Souls Walkthrough

Anor Londo

You can only enter Anor Londo once you clear Sen's Fortress. When you best the Iron Golem boss, a circular ring of light will appear. You can investigate it to catch a ride from some gargoyles. They'll take you directly to the entrance of Anor Londo. You can talk to the gargoyle nearby if you need to leave, as well.

Anor Londo is full of powerful enemies, so prepare for a bit of a struggle as you acclimate yourself. Start down the stairs and you'll be able to descend a fair amount of time before you meet your first enemy, a towering guard with a huge shield and spear. He's not as bad as he looks, if you can draw him out and pelt him with Fireball magic or some firebombs, but he can inflict some serious pain on you if you don't block his attacks (or even if you do block but then lose too much stamina). Though he is a fearsome foe and you have tight quarters in which to defeat him, you've won battles like this in the past and should do fine here.

Past that knight, the stairs continue to descend and then you can head left into another room. Here, look left and you'll see a pair of the knights like the one that you just defeated. With projectiles or magic, you can draw the closest fellow to you first. Defeat him, then lure his fellow toward you and repeat the process. Just make sure that you're not stuck fighting them both at once.

After those encounters, you're likely running low on resources. However, you can proceed right and through the doorway to arrive in a large courtyard area. Resume your trek forward and ahead you'll see a building with some enemies standing guard. To your left and right, there are two other buildings. Start by heading left and down some stairs, where you'll find an area bonfire. There's also an NPC in the area. Talk to her and she'll say that you can head upstairs and proceed directly ahead to perhaps meet with Gwyn.

Head up the stairs as directed, but you still have some exploring to do. Head left and you will find another chamber like the one you just cleared a moment ago, with a couple of the fearsome knights. Defeat them, then check the chests that they were guarding. The left one contains Twinkling Titanite and the right one is a Mimic enemy. Defeat it to obtain the Crystal Halberd. If you want, you can head outside and past the knight to find a grassy trail that leads up to an opening, but the opening is presently sealed and can't be passed until later.

For now, return and rest at the bonfire before you climb the steps again and this time proceed directly across the courtyard. You'll find an elevator, which you should ride down to the lower level. Descend some steps and start out of the building to see a winged gargoyle. As you start down the wide steps that lead to the pathway it occupies, the beast will rush you. Let it come to you, then greet it with the attack you favor. Fireball magic works great, or firebombs. The beast is able to move pretty quickly, despite its girth, but you can use ranged attacks as you back up the stairs and you'll be at only minimal risk.

When the gargoyle is toast, head down the steps and then look to the left from the base of the steps. There's an opening to the side where you can drop carefully down to a lower level. Head along that level and pass through an archway to the left side. In that direction, you can find Demon Titanite in a chest. Snag it, then head back through the archway and look ahead to the nearby building. You'll notice some steep platforms rising toward it. You can climb along this nearest platform, dubious though it may seem, and arrive above a balcony that extends from that upper building. Drop down to the balcony and step through a hole in the glass windows.

As you start inside, you'll be attacked by two assassins with throwing knives who drop down from an upper balcony along the room's closest edge. They're weak foes if you get in close and slash them apart.

Past those enemies, you'll find a ladder that you can easily ascend. Do so and then look out over the area ahead of you. There are narrow ceiling beams spanning the area. You can climb out along those beams and work slowly across, though along the way you'll be greeted by the assassins. You might try picking them off from a distance with projectiles to get them to rush you, since their ability to move quickly without jumping to their doom is as limited as yours.

Continue carefully along the ceiling beams and you'll reach a chandelier at the center. You can try dropping onto the chandelier, which has a corpse and item on it, but your weight will break the chandelier and it will plummet to the floor. The fall is too much and you'll die in the process, but at least the item will be left on the floor of the building where you can snag it later. You could always try hacking the chain with a weapon instead to see if that achieves the same net end.

Continue along the room. As you near the far side, it's important that you be careful because there are two more knife-throwing assassins who may try to rush you. If possible, you want to take them out with projectiles or magic before they get near you. While it's true that sometimes they will just fall without your intervention, those few instances where they don't can really suck because it's difficult to fight when a few steps to either side will find you falling to your death.

When you reach the far side of the chamber, you can descend a ladder to find a mist-shrouded door on the right side of the chamber. You're still high above the lowest floor of the cathedral building, but the door is progress. Note that you can go past it to find stairs that lead to an area with some pillars and there's an assassin to kill, but otherwise that detour is unremarkable. Pass through the mist-covered door.

On the other side of that doorway, you'll find a lever to the left. That seems promising, but at least for now it won't move. Start forward along the nearby walkway and you'll come to a center area with a huge lever at the center. It looks like a gear with a stick protruding from its side. You can interact with the protrusion to turn the gear. Doing so will cause the platform to twist and turn as it descends toward an area below. You're now in the vicinity of the area where you fought the first gargoyle, which is interesting because now you'll be attacked by a second one. Defeat it in the same manner that you did the first (though now there are stone columns that can get in the way or give you shelter from its attacks, depending on how you fight). Then look ahead of you. There are high stone steps leading to an area densely populated by enemies.

Before you proceed, go ahead and backtrack to the bonfire (which is now only a short distance away, with the platform properly moved). Then return to the platform.

Before you continue forward and up the steps, you may wish to make a dangerous but potentially lucrative detour. Because the location of the platform has moved, it's now possible to descend its steps and reach the lower entrance of the cathedral area you explored before. This should be done with caution, however. The cathedral's lower level is populated by a bunch of assassins and they can be difficult to pick off if they're swarming you. If you decide to enter the cathedral, take a methodical approach that allows you to lure one toward you at a time so that you're not swarmed.

The item that fell with the chandelier when you were moving through the rafters, you'll find, was the Great Magic Weapon sorcery. If you head along the room to the back corner (near the conspicuously large and hideous painting along the back wall), you'll find a corpse that you can loot to receive the Black Iron Helm, the Black Iron Armor, the Black Iron Gauntlets, the Black Iron Leggings and the Black Iron Greatshield. Then you're done here, at least for now.

Return to the pedestal with the lever and give it another twist in the same direction to drop it down one more level. Then descend along the stairs and you'll find a small chapel area. As you approach, make sure that you have the Darkmoon Seance Ring equipped (you will have found it in the Catacombs area if you've been following this walkthrough). As you head into the building, you'll find a bonfire ahead of you. Put it to use and step forward to investigate a nearby corpse. As you approach, a wall will vanish in front of you because you're wearing the ring. Check the corpse for the Ring of the Sun's Firstborn, then head down the stairs where the wall had been. At the base of those stairs, you'll be spoken to by a voice and then you can step forward and press the on-screen prompt to kneel. Agree to enter the covenant and you'll receive the Blue Eye Orb and the Darkmoon Blade Covenant Ring.

Now backtrack the way you came. Turn the lever again and ride the elevator up. When you're ready, start forward toward the enemy-infested steps that you noticed previously.

As you begin advancing up the steps, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. Two of the huge knights with shields will rush you at the same time. Back away and rely on fire attacks to weaken or kill them, preferably one of them almost immediately so you only have to focus on dodging the attacks of one knight. You should be capable of dancing around these fellows by this stage in the game.

When they go down, keep climbing to the top of the area and you'll find mostly locked doors. The exception is the area to the right, where you can come out on the top of some stairs that descend to a cluster of sickly looking white gargoyles. They are able to attack with pretty good range and their spears are of the lightning element. If you have any fire magic left, you can use that. You can also push the gargoyles back toward the edge of the ledge to trick them into falling off, which kills them (even though you'd think they could fly). Try to lure one toward you at a time so that you don't have to deal with too much at once.

After killing the gargoyles, descend along the steep slope ahead of you (which looks a lot like the one you climbed to enter the cathedral's upper level). Near the base, pause to prepare. As you start forward through the pillars, two gargoyles will try to rush you. If you target one, you can easily back up along the ledge you just descended and force them to follow you so that you can worry about one at a time. You may even be able to use a spell like Great Chaos Fireball to hit them and take out both gargoyles when they're clustered close together.

Now you need to keep up the streak and look to the area left of where the gargoyles tried to trap you in the pincer attack from behind the pillars. Up on a ledge above, there are two snipers positioned. They'll fire arrows as you try to approach, and the only way to climb is up the steep ledge. Move quickly with your shield raised and ascend to the first ledge, which provides a wall you can use for shelter.

You've now reached the tricky part. You need to head around the ledge and climb a second of the ledges like the one you just climbed, and you need to do so quickly enough that no arrows hit you and knock you from your perch. It's actually quite difficult to do. Try the right side. Wait at the wall for an arrow to hit it, then head quickly forward at your normal walk speed. In a steady manner, head forward and then around the corner to the left and then start up the steep ledge. Now as you near the top, you need to head right and rush the knight. Roll under any arrow he fires while hugging the wall, then get close and hit him with your attacks before he can fire another shot. Hit him before he can shoot you, then hopefully you'll knock him off the ledge and to his death.

Once the knight is toast, you can follow the ledge around to the back side and drop down to the balcony where a mist-shrouded door waits. Pass through it to find yourself in a long hallway. Take the first door on your left, which opens without a key, and you'll find a room with a bonfire and Solaire.

Now that you've saved, explore the rest of your immediate surroundings. The doorway on the opposite side of the hallway leads to a room with a silver knight. You can hit him from a distance with fire magic if you want to cheese the fight, or you can apply more standard practices to play fair. However, know that the knight is capable of leeching through your stamina and even if you survive a flurry of blows with his long weapon, you'll be too weak to retaliate. That can get old fast, so it's better if you can dodge and step around from behind to deal a quick blow to the back. After killing the knight, he may drop the Silver Knight Spear. Open the treasure chest he was guarding to find a Sunlight Medal.

Return to the main hallway and you'll find some stairs to climb. Ignore them and head around the back side to find another silver knight. Defeat him, then try the doors. One is locked from the other side, but you can enter the other one to find an empty room. Check the fireplace and roll through the brickwork along its back side. You'll find a hidden room with a descending staircase. Head down the stairs and at their base, you will find a huge, dim room with a lot of pillars. Near the back corner, you can check a series of treasure chests. They contain, from left (starting with the lone chest) to right: a Mimic monster that drops the Occult Club, a Dragon Tooth, Havel's Greatshield, Havel's Helm and Havel's Armor (in a single chest) and finally Havel's Gauntlets and Havel's Leggings in the last chest.

Return upstairs and now you're ready to ascend the large spiral staircase. It will take you to a landing where you should walk out carefully (rather than continuing to climb) and watch your back. There's another silver knight here and he'll surprise attack. Defeat him, then check one corner of the room to find a Mimic that hopes you'll think it's a treasure chest. Defeat it for the Gold Coin that it is carrying.

While you're on this floor, look around some more. You'll find another of the knights at the end of a hallway. He's the other of the two snipers who made life so difficult as you were ascending to this tower. Have your revenge on him now. Then you can explore the side rooms. As you head back from taking out the knight, the door on the left is locked but the door to the right leads to a dress room. There's another door there, near the painting, which you can open to find another of the silver knights just right of the doorway. Take him out as usual, then check the edge of the room for a spiral staircase. Climb it and you'll find yourself on an open rooftop.

Ahead of you on the rooftop, there's a silver knight standing in a door. Another one (this one armed with a bow) is in a doorway to the right. Start with the nearer knight and eliminate him quickly, then take out the other knight just to be safe. Now you can check the rooms that they were guarding, which lead to stairs in both cases. The room that was just ahead of you will let you descend to find Sir Onion (the character you last met outside of Sen's Fortress) in front of a door. Open the door, but be careful about passing through; there's a knight waiting to the right. Kill him, then look along the room. There are two more knights waiting to challenge you. Kill them by luring them toward you one at a time and fighting on the opposite side of the corridor. Then open the treasure chest that they were guarding, which is near the side of a bed. You'll find two Demon Titanite.

Open the door just to the left and now you are back in the familiar hallway. Head forward and there's another Mimic pretending to be a chest. Defeat it for five of the Silver Coin item. Then open another nearby doorway, near the Mimic you just defeated, and ahead of you there is a knight. He won't move to attack unless you get near or start to the right, where you can find the Soul of a Hero on a corpse.

In this same room, look over the railing and you'll see a room below you. There, a monster is wandering around. It's one of the powerful beasts like the one near the blacksmith in the Undead Parish. You've now explored most of this upper tower, but you still haven't come face-to-face with that beast. It's time to change that, so go ahead and return to the tower roof.

Previously when you came to the roof (assuming you've been following our instructions), you had two options about where to head. You had initially gone straight, and descended stairs after defeating a knight there. This time, you'll want to head across the rooftop to the lone staircase on the side of the building opposite where the two smaller towers are close together. Defeat the knight that stands guard with his sword and bow, then descend the stairs. You'll arrive finally at a new intersection. There are doors to the left and right, or you can proceed directly up a high staircase.

Start with the door to the right. There are two knights in this room, one partway down the staircase and another hiding near a door at the bottom of the room. Defeat them carefully as you battle along the stairs, then open the chests he was guarding. You'll find the Silver Knight Helm and Silver Knight Armor in one of them and the Silver Knight Gauntlets and Silver Knight Leggings in the other. Then you should open the nearby door, which creates a shortcut into the hallway from which the room with the bonfire branches.

Head back upstairs to the intersection and this time, go in the door that was to the left side of the path instead of to the right. You'll find the huge monster that you previous observed from an upper balcony. It can be tough to battle him in such confined space, especially because he now has a much, much larger life meter and is capable of inflicting more severe damage. If you fight him and win (make sure you get behind him to increase your chances or he'll just pound you repeatedly and kill you almost before the battle even begins), though, you'll always have the memories.

Now you should head back to the intersection and ascend the long staircase that you saw ahead of you. It leads to a higher landing where you can start to the left and find two choices about how to proceed. You can either ascend a set of steps along the wall, or you can descend into a wider room below.

Note that there are two giants in this room, powerful enemies that can severely ruin your chance at glory if you rush down and try to fight them fairly. However, from the vantage point above, you can perhaps snipe them with shots from your arrow (if you brought plenty of arrows) and take them out without engaging them directly. If you land a few poison status effects, things will go almost smoothly. Then you can descend to the lower floor and head toward the locked double doors (though you should watch out for an archer on the stairs on the opposite side of the room). To their left as you approach, there's a lever that you can pull. Doing so will create a shortcut leading back to the early portions of the stage. Then you can cross to the far side of the chamber, climb some steps and enter the mist-shrouded door to fight the area boss. Alternatively, you can finish exploring the area first.

If you head up the stairs at the intersection rather than descending to take care of the giants and activate the shortcut, you'll find a high series of glass windows. One is busted. You can drop out of it onto a ledge, then descend along a building to find yourself back outside, overlooking the early portions of the stage. You can head around the wall and drop down to collect items that are guarded by gargoyles. You'll find the Dragonslayer Greatbow and Dragonslayer Arrow on a single corpse. There's also a Titanite Chunk nearby, if you drop down through a hole in the fence and head left to battle some more gargoyles. Finally, you can also find a blacksmith in this area if you head in the nearby door. Then you can ascend some stairs to arrive back in the main chamber ahead of the boss, but on the other side.

When everything is settled, go ahead and make your way to the boss chamber. It's time to prove definitively that you're better than anything Anor Londo has to throw at you.

Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough

This battle is actually against two bosses at once: Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough. You'll need to focus on taking one of them out at a time so that you don't have to spend the whole fight dodging attacks from the both of them. Which one you take care of first is entirely up to you and should be determined by who you most would like to vanquish ahead of the fight's more difficult second half.

Dragon Slayer Ornstein is the faster of the two, but in general less lethal. He attacks with a Lightning Spear, so you would do well to bring gear with strong defense against that. Smough hops around, settles, charges and then resumes leaping around the area. You should hit him after he lands and strikes. He's weak against good pyromancy magic, but you'll have to spend a lot of hits to take him out for good. He drops the Leo Ring when defeated.

Executioner Smough brings a heavy hammer that he can use to break apart the architecture as you battle. His moves are much easier to avoid and you can even block the horizontal swings if you have a good shield. Be careful, though, because the weapon has longer range than you might suppose. hat's especially true since Smough is capable of leaping a short distance and hammering down to send small shockwaves a short distance from wherever the hammer strikes. Not only that, but he'll happily use his girth against you. Make sure to avoid his charges.

When you defeat one of the two, the other will get all grumpy about it and will attack more ferociously (and with powers gained from his fallen comrade). Regardless of how much damage you have done to both characters throughout the fight up to that point, the remaining warrior will also have full HP. To win, just keep following your same general strategies that have taken you to the fight's halfway point and dodge out of the way for some estus healing when necessary. There probably won't be a lot of that happening, though, because your foe is suddenly capable of one-hit kills (especially if the one remaining is Smough; he practically turns into a lightning freight train and about the only way to avoid him is to circle around the remnants of the pillars that he probably smashed earlier in the fight). If you fall in battle before taking out Smough and Ornstein, both bosses will be alive again the next time you encounter them, even if you slew one of them.

Once you win the battle against Ornstein and Smough, you'll receive the Soul of Smough. Your reward for victory over the pair is 30,000 souls.

Head to the back left side of the room and there's a lift that you can ride to an upper balcony, where there's a bonfire that you can light. Nearby, some stairs lead up to a side room. Open the doors and head inside, where you'll meet Gwynevere. Kneel before her and she will hand over the Lordvessel, which allows you to warp between bonfires. After that, you can kneel again and you will have the opportunity to join the Princess's Guard covenant. If you agree to do so, you'll receive the Ring of the Sun Princess.

Now you're done in the area. You can go ahead and exit now. The most convenient way to do so is to head to the bonfire and use the new 'Warp' option. You can teleport instantly to bonfires at a number of locations you may have visited on your journey so far. It's a real time saver.

Painted World of Ariamis

To enter this world, you should head to the huge painting in Anor Lando with the Peculiar Doll item in hand. You can find the Peculiar Doll by revisiting the cell where you started the game, during a second visit to the Northern Undead Asylum during which you face the Stray Demon. Once you have the doll and head for Anor Lando, you can backtrack to the lowest floor of the huge cathedral building.

The easiest way to get there is to warp to the bonfire in Anor Lando where the flame keeper is positioned. Head straight along the path, ride the lift down to the lower level, head forward again and then descend the stairs. Head left from there to enter the building, then work along the left wall as you battle a few assassins who can't be avoided. Then, when you're definitely ready to clear this optional area, you can investigate the painting on the wall.

When you check the painting with the Peculiar Doll in hand, it will suck you into the secret world behind it. This is an icy world, packed with snow and enemies. You appear on a suspension bridge spanning a chasm. There are wide holes that you cannot cross, in the direction from whence you came, so you're committed to clearing the area once you rest up at the first bonfire (which you should also kindle to its highest available level, just to make clearing the remaining stage easier).

Start up the stairs beyond the bonfire and ahead of you, there's a closed gate. Ahead of the gate, a weak enemy with a torch will rush you. Take him out, then look to the right where a couple more of the same enemy are probably on their way to ruin your party. Eliminate them and head in the direction from whence they came. You'll find the base of some stairs that you can climb up to the ledge over the locked door. There is another set of stairs just a few steps beyond that, which you can climb toward the upper right.

As you arrive at the top of those stairs, you'll be attacked by several more of the weak enemies. However, don't think you'll have it easy; there archers who will also fire on you from distant ledges. It's easy to take more damage here than you would probably like.

Once you've cleared the enemies in the immediate vicinity, you have a choice about how to proceed. There are wide stairs to your upper right, with an archer along them. Also, there's a narrower opening that you can squeeze through to the left. It's easy to miss but a more lucrative route. If you want, head up the stairs to the right and take out the archer, as well as the enemies that will rush you from further up the steps. Those two enemies are dangerous and capable of inflicting you with the Toxic status ailment, so make sure that you have blooming purple moss on hand just in case. You can check along the stairs for the Soul of a Proud Knight, but then it's a good idea to head back down the steps and left through the aforementioned tight space.

In that direction, you'll find a few more weak enemies as you climb the steps and toward the rooftop. Be careful as you arrive there, though, because some bird enemies will swoop down to attack. They're powerful, so make sure that you block and retaliate carefully, as you would with any dangerous foe. The corpse that served as the trap those birds sprung will give up the Soul of a Proud Knight.

With the rooftop clear, you should now head toward one edge of the building where the low wall falls away. Look down over that edge and you'll see a lower balcony with a corpse resting on it. Drop down and check the corpse to find the Dried Finger. Then head in the nearby opening to enter the building you've been climbing around for the last little bit.

Inside, you'll drop down to some planking where another weak enemy awaits, and possibly a bird if one of the two that attacked you on the roof fell off the side. Defeat any enemies you must, then look around the room. There are two sets of stairs here. One leads up and the other descends. Start with the stairs that descend to find the Soul of a Brave Warrior on a corpse. Be careful of the rats in the cellar, as they will try to poison you if given the chance to attack. You can grab the Painting Guardian Hood, Painting Guardian Robe, Painting Guardian Gloves and Painting Guardian Waistcloth from a chest they are guarding, in the corner of the room. When you have the loot, you can return to the stairs and climb them to arrive along the ledge that you would have reached if you ignored the detour through the narrow opening.

Ahead of the you, at the top of those stairs, there's a bridge that leads across a gap. On the far side of the bridge, an archer is on a ledge to the right of a doorway. You can cross the bridge and head through the doorway and into the nearby building, but be warned: it's full of enemies. There are quite a few of the guys who can inflict toxin on you (when they're not throwing firebombs) and there are some regular soldiers too. The archer may even enter the fray as you battle his fellows. Proceed carefully and watch for enemies to drop down from planking overhead.

When you clear the room, head back out through the opening on its lower side to find yourself on a wooden balcony. Ahead of you, there's a rope with a corpse hanging from it. Slash the rope with your melee weapon to drop the corpse and item to the ground below, where you can retrieve them later. Then reenter the building and head across it. Up a short flight of stairs, you'll find another opening that leads outside.

Now you're on a snowy ledge. Head left to claim the Large Soul of a Proud Knight from a corpse. Note that an enemy climbs up over the wall to attack here, but he's a weak one. After you have the loot, head back the way you came and this time follow the path that led right from the opening. You'll be able to cross a walkway that leads to one entrance to a circular tower.

Here, you have a lot of options about how to proceed. You can head down the stairs that lead left ahead of the tower entrance, or you can enter the tower itself and head climb it to find treasure and enemies.

If you start by going left, that will allow you to make strides toward creating a shortcut that leads back to the beginning of the stage, something you're likely keen to do. Start there, then. Descend the steps that lead left, then head right and through a building and descend along some steps to its lowest floor. Ahead, you'll see a mist-shrouded doorway.

Step through the mist and then start down the steps. Ahead, you'll see a group of armored phalanx soldiers with spears and large shields. They are in a circle formation, but you can start toward them and chuck a fire attack to get them to slowly advance. Keep your shield ready, as members of the group can throw spears to harm you if you're not blocking such attacks. Fire attacks can take out a soldier or two each time, if you're well-equipped, and you can retreat back into the building to give yourself time to safely gulp down liquid from your estus flask, if needed.

When you defeat the soldiers, check the edge of the courtyard to your right to find Humanity on a corpse that you dropped onto the area previously by cutting the rope. You can also check the far side of the courtyard, opposite the side from which you entered, to open the gate and create a valuable shortcut back to the bonfire. That saves a lot of backtracking.

Now you're ready to return to the area where you first approached the tower before descending through it to battle the phalanx soldiers. This time, you should start through the opening that had been directly ahead of you. Inside, a bird will attack, so be ready to block its attacks and counter in the confined space. Then you should climb the stairs that lead upward along the interior edges of the tower.

As you ascend, you'll find the area densely populated by the harpy birds such as the one you just defeated. There's not a lot of room on the stairs to fight, but typically if you have to fall you should try to fall left. There sometimes will be a nearby ledge to reduce the impact that a fall has. You can find the Soul of a Brave Warrior on one such ledge, even.

If you do manage to reach the top of the stairs, which requires defeating around three of the harpies or tricking them into falling so that you can proceed past them, you'll find a flock of birds gathered around an item. Snag that item to obtain the Red Sign Soapstone item. Then return to the courtyard area.

Along the side of the courtyard, to the right as you're looking out the doorway that you opened to create a shortcut back to the bonfire, there are some stairs that you can climb to a higher interior room. Do so, then exit left onto a ledge and start along it toward the right. You'll find a corpse. Around four weak enemies will attack you then, but they're weak and you can eliminate them just about any way you like. Then check the corpse to find the Soul of a Proud Knight. Nearby, another corpse is hanging from a rope and you can cut the rope to drop it to the snowy ground.

Return to the building and head around to find a ladder that leads to its lower floor. Descend the ladder, then head out an opening to the left. There, you'll find the Soul of a Brave Warrior and the Soul of a Proud Knight on corpses. There also is a lever on one pillar, which you can turn to provide a path to the bridge elsewhere in the stage.

Of course, such loot and a switch aren't going to be unguarded. Throughout the room, you'll face a number of the wheeling skeletons. They will see you, grab their shield and use it as a wheel to roll around the chamber, like skeletons you will have by now likely faced in the Catacombs. The easiest way to fight them is to block their charge as you stand near a wall. Then when the skeletons hit a wall, they will be stunned for a moment and you can take care of them.

Note that near the edge of this passage, left from where you turn the crank to open the way to the bridge, there's an illusory wall. Roll through it to reveal a series of passages beyond. These passages are populated by more of the wheeling skeletons and there are more fake walls.

From where you first pass through the first of those fake walls, proceed straight ahead until you come to an area where it seems you can only go left. To the right, though, there's a dirt wall you can roll through. Do so, then follow that passage forward and left to find a skeleton guarding a corpse. Defeat the skeleton, then check the corpse for the Annex Key.

Now backtrack to where you rolled through the dirt wall. Head along the path that led left from there and take the first right. You'll find another skeleton at the base of some stairs. Defeat him and climb the stairs. At the top of those stairs, you'll find a lone enemy. Defeat him (while watching out for his Toxic death breath) and then you can grab the Fire Surge pyromancy ability from his corpse.

Now you should put the annex key to use. Return to the open courtyard area overhead and work your way to the edge of the area where you'll see a number of wide openings with two or three steps leading down to a room that's not quite on the same level as the courtyard (but close). There, along one wall, you'll find a door that you can unlock with the key.

Unlock the door, then head up the stairs to reach a room overhead that looks out onto a snow-covered walkway. You can head out the door and reach an intersection. Go straight through the intersection and at the end of the pathway (which is guarded by more of the toxic enemies that toss firebombs), you'll find the Dark Ember resting on a tombstone.

Return to the intersection and this time break through the wood panel to the right to head along a hidden path where you can find Velka's Rapier on a corpse. Then return to the intersection yet again and follow what would have been a sharp left as you first approached it to find some stairs that lead up toward a higher level. There are some of the flame-tossing enemies along these stairs, so be sure to be careful as you ascend. At the top of the area, you'll also find several of the screeching harpies gathered around a hole in the ceiling. Be sure to not the harpies pounce you, particularly the ones on a higher ledge, as the pounce attack deals severe damage.

If you climb to the higher ledge where one bird will remain, it screeches and two more come to join it. Defeat them in a hurry and be sure to watch your life meter. Fire magic or aggressive melee warfare is critical here. When you win, you can check the corpse that the birds were guarding to obtain the Vow of Silence miracle.

Now head back down and continue to skirt the large hole in the ceiling. Descend along the steps that you find and head left to obtain the Mask of Velka, Black Cleric Robe, Black Manchette and Black Tights. Then return the way you came to the lower courtyard.

Along the back side of the tower, you may remember that there were stairs descending toward a long walkway with a dragon positioned along it. The dragon is awake, so you'll attract his unwelcome attention if you try to grab the items. He's guarding the Large Soul of a Proud Knight and a Bloodshield. The dragon itself tends to also drop the Dragon Scale.

To defeat the dragon, you'll have to proceed carefully. You can run up against him if you like and repeatedly hit him with a weapon, but he'll swipe at you from the side with his paw and even when that move is blocked, it does a lot of damage. The dragon also breathes toxic fumes, but those won't reach you when you're right up against his torso. You can either stay at a distance and pelt him with attacks at that range, or move in close and slash away at his gut as you gulp down estus flasks. Either strategy will eventually lead to victory, if properly executed. Further along the balcony, there's another of the dragons but you can't fight him.

There's another area that you might want to explore before you proceed along the path that will allow you to leave this region. Return to the courtyard and look for the stairs that descend along its right side as you enter the courtyard from the direction of the bonfire. If you descend those stairs, you'll find a number of corpses and enemies along the snowy ledges. You can search to the right to find the Acid Surge pyromancy (walk around behind a brick wall near the edge of the area to find it), while further down the ledges you'll find the Large Soul of a Proud Knight and two of the Soul of a Proud Knight item.

Defeat the enemies that you encounter in that area, then return to the upper courtyard and start through the lowest floor of the tower. On the far side, you'll notice the passageway that leads to a mist-shrouded doorway. That's the trail that you want to follow once you're ready to leave this area.

As you head along the walkway, you'll be attacked by a large number of skeletons. Some of them are in plain sight and will fire arrows at you or rush you as you approach, but note that there will be a few waiting behind pillars. They'll let you pass, then try to surprise you from behind.

Beyond the skeletons, there's also an enemy garbed in heavy black armor. He carries a Tower Shield that you'll receive from him if you defeat him, and he knows how to use it to protect himself. Hopefully by the time you face him, you've defeated any straggler skeletons and can fight him alone. Dodge his swing attack, then get around to his flank side and hit him with your melee weapon. He can take a lot of abuse, but you should have little difficulty as long as you block his attacks. When you defeat him, continue onward to the mist-shrouded door and step through it to reach the boss chamber.

Crossbreed Priscilla

When you enter this chamber, you'll see a translucent figure standing ahead of you, scythe in hand. This is Crossbreed Priscilla, but she won't attack you until you make the first move. Make sure that you have prepared yourself, then attack.

The first thing you should do when attacking is take off her tail, which allows for a weapon drop. You want that weapon. The second thing you should do is keep in mind that Priscilla is capable of turning invisible. She will do so once you have damaged her enough.

Even while invisible, Priscilla can be tracked by watching for her footprints in the snow, and for her spell effects. However, she primarily attacks with a lethal scythe that deals terrific damage. You need strong resistance against bleeding to survive this fight, since if your Bleeding meter fills that's an instant death. Havel's equipment provides the best protection, plus you can equip the Bloodbite Ring if you have it.

As you battle Priscilla, try to hit her once and if that happens keep wailing on her (as possible) to drain more of her life while you are certain of her position. If you don't know where she's at, you need to dodge around the area and keep watching for her spell effects so that you can find her and hurt her again. Running up the steps on the back side of the arena, then turning to face Priscilla so that she has to come to you (and so that you can pelt her with magic) is a great way to tip the scales in your favor.

Once you defeat Crossbreed Priscilla, you'll receive the Soul of Priscilla and an animation will follow that depicts you leaping from the high ledge that she was guarding. You'll appear back in Anor Lando and can resume your adventure.

Firelink Alter

Once you have obtained the Lordvessel after defeating the boss duo in Anor Londo, return to Firelink Shrine. There, you can talk to the huge snake guy that resides in the pit, just uphill from the bonfire.

You'll find the serpent sleeping, but you can hit him once with your weapon to wake him. He'll be grumpy, understandably. Talk to him again and a scene follows. He's elated that you have obtained the Lordvessel and will grab you in his mouth, then take you down to the Firelink Altar area.

When you arrive in the area, you can head up some steps ahead of you and press the button indicated to place the vessel. It's possible to rest at the altar now, or to warp to another location. If you do happen to warp in that manner, you can return to the serpent in Firelink Shrine and select 'Warp' to return to the altar area as needed.

Before you do any of that, note the stone doors behind the altar. They won't open if you try them, so head back down the steps to where the snake is waiting. When you talk to him, he'll give instructions on what you need to do in order to open those doors. You need to hunt down four spectacular souls belonging to the most powerful beings in the realm. When the information is given, the serpent will take you back up to Firelink Shrine. You can return to the altar once you have slain Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, the four kings of Londo and Seath the Scaleless.

The Catacombs

The Catacombs are accessible through the graveyard area of Firelink Shrine, which itself can be easy to miss even if you're looking for it. From the bonfire, look for the gloomy fellow sitting along the wall. To the right of him a bit, some steps lead to an opening in the wall. You can head through that opening, then diagonally left and through another opening. Walk straight through another door frame and you'll be in an area with a huge pit. A strange creature likely occupies the pit by the time you're ready for an actual run at the Catacombs.

Head forward along the left side of the pit and climb some stairs that lead left from there. Now start to the right. You can climb up some steps to find yourself on a high ledge overlooking the area with the pit. You can walk around up there and find a Soul of a Lost Undead on a corpse, or you can find a massive bird.

Otherwise, ignore the steps and head forward past their base to arrive on a ledge overlooking the graveyard. It's full of graves, just like you'd expect, and therefore difficult to miss.

As you start through the graveyard, you'll find your adventures interrupted by skeletons. They assemble from the bones lying on the ground and will rush to attack you a few at a time. You can easily take them out with melee attacks and keep moving to find a Large Soul of a Lost Undead. Continue along the main trail through the graveyard and as you approach a larger tomb, a huge skeleton will emerge from the ground. Back away and toss fire his way to scorch him. Then check the tombstone that he was guarding to find the Zweihander, a powerful sword. You can head out on a nearby ledge to also find the Binoculars.

Up the hill and to the right from where you found the sword, there's another pile of huge bones waiting among some graves, near a corpse. Defeat that skeleton, then check the corpse to find the Winged Spear.

Also not far from where you found the Zweihander weapon (and not far from where you can check a corpse for the Caduceus Round Shield), you can head downhill and search along the edge of the cliff. Some steps descend from there, pressed tightly against the cliff wall. If you follow them, they'll lead down for quite some time before entering a cave. As you continue into the cave (which is dark enough that you'll want to bring a light source), text will flash on-screen to let you know that you've just entered the Catacombs.

As you start forward through the catacombs, the first thing you'll face is a skeleton. You should be able to defeat him easily enough, but if you're not using a divine weapon he'll just come back to life because a nearby necromancer keeps reviving surrounding enemies once they are killed with anything else. You need to take out that fellow as soon as possible, but he'll be out of range for quite awhile.

To find him, you should mostly ignore the skeletons to the extent that is possible as you descend through the cave. You can't see much as you first visit, so you'll want to feel your way forward. Head down the long staircase that descends into the area, keeping to the right against the wall until you reach the base of those stairs. You'll have to battle or avoid two or three of the skeletons on the way. When you reach the base of the stairs, you'll find yourself in a larger and more open area. Now start to the left through a doorway.

You'll definitely pick up more skeletons as you're starting toward the left, if you don't stop to kill them. Keep moving if you're just trying to elude them, though, and try to stay ahead of them. You'll pass through another room that is an apparent dead end, which contains more skeletons. You can head along the side of that room and find an opening. Drop through it and continue down a corridor to descend to a chamber where there's a waiting bonfire. There's also a necromancer, though, and you'll need to defeat him (and any skeletons who may be closely tailing you) before you can put the bonfire to use. When you defeat the necromancer, he may drop the Red and White Round Shield. Some good news is that he also won't be returning, even when you rest at the bonfire. Some bad news is that there are more necromancers throughout the area.

Clearly, it's in your best interests to continue finding and defeating the necromancers so that your efforts against any skeletons in the area are a bit more helpful. It's time to start searching for the next necromancer.

Near the bonfire, there's a strange device on the wall. You can push a lever on it. Doing so will cause something to happen in the preceding room. Head back up the stairs you descended to reach the bonfire and look to the left. You should now see an opening with bluish light issuing forth. Head through that opening and be prepared for a skeleton to attack you near the top of the stairs. He's not worth bothering with because a necromancer is on a ledge across a gap and it will repeatedly revive the skeleton even if you defeat it.

Head down along a trail that descends toward the left and as you go you'll have to battle or avoid a few more skeletons at the base of a trail. A stone bridge allows you to ascend back to the right from there, in the direction of the industrious necromancer. Head up across it and through a door to the right, where you'll notice an opening on the wall to your upper left. Skeletons are up here, including an archer that will try to pick you off as you explore the adjoining area. He's difficult to reach from low ground, so just keep him in mind as you press forward.

Continuing forward, you'll reach the necromancer who was pelting you with fire a moment ago. He's scared of you when he gets close and will try to run through an area thickly populated by skeletons. You need to chase him down and kill him before he gets far, then tend to any skeletons around him that the chase has roused.

Proceeding in the direction the necromancer ran, you'll find an opening to the right. You can obtain the Lucerne sword from a corpse lying on a shelf there, but there are two skeletons to defeat also. Further along the same main corridor, you can head left to reach the room where the skeletons tried to snipe you from above. Defeat them, then check around for the Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier on a corpse.

There are two options that seem to allow you precede now, both ahead of you. Any paths to the left merely let you drop down to the area you've already explored, though. Start through the opening to the right and watch ahead of you. There's a stone bridge leading to a waiting necromancer, but you can't cross it because spikes protrude from its surface.

The trick is to run along the trail that leads to the right. This trail is densely populated by regenerating skeletons, and there's another hazard you might not anticipate: statues along the right side of the trap may attack. They don't do anything especially aggressive, just stand there, but dangerous spikes protrude swiftly like the quills of a porcupine and you can take some damage if you're too near. Rush past them and the skeletons to find a Soul of a Proud Knight at the end of the trail. You may also notice a bonfire through the wall to the right, but you can't reach it at this time. Your main reason for coming along the trail is a second lever that you can push. Do so and the spikes on the stone archway will lower.

Now return to the stone archway and head swiftly across it, hopefully without too many skeletons chasing you. There's a necromancer on the far side who will try to pelt you with magic, plus there are a number of skeletons that will rush anxiously forward to meet you. Clear them out while avoiding the magic shots from the necromancer, then take out the necromancer himself.

Past where you found the necromancer, the path splits. There's an opening to your right and there's a room up some steps to the left. Only go through the opening if you want to backtrack for no apparent benefit. Along that route, you can head toward the center of the room and step into the left of the two open caskets. You'll fall through the floor into a lower passage, which is lined by the spike-producing traps. Head along that passage with your shield raised to find a ladder at the end. From the top of that ladder, head left to find and fall through another open casket. You'll land in the area near where you pushed the second lever (to lower the spikes on the archway). No apparent benefit.

Going left at the split in the path leads somewhere more interesting. You'll find yourself at the top of a tall vertical shaft. As you descend along stairs on the edge of that circular shaft, you'll face numerous skeletons. Defeating them will only give you a brief respite, as they regenerate fairly quickly. You should focus on descending. You can find two Soul of a Proud Warrior items in the rooms to the right, and partway down you'll also find a statue with a switch that you can and should push.

After pushing the switch, you can take an optional detour. Continue down along the steps and when you reach the very edge, roll forward or take a fast-moving step off the ledge (if you're going too slowly, you'll fall to your death) and drop straight down to a lower ledge. You will likely take some damage from the fall, even when it is done properly. Continue making small drops to subsequent ledges and finally you'll arrive at the bottom, where there is a hole in the floor. Drop through it and ahead of you, a huge fellow with a scythe will appear. He knocks a hole in the wall to the right and invites you to head through it so that you don't spoil his focus. You can talk to him when he returns to the back wall and you'll find out that he's a blacksmith who can create fire-based gear for you. When you're ready to leave, head through the opening the blacksmith created and climb some stairs. At the top, you'll find yourself in an area with rolling pinwheel skeletons. You've found the shortest route to that area, but there are good reasons to get there by a longer route. Keep the detour in mind for when you're ready to head quickly to the boss from the nearest bonfire, but for now return to your exploration.

Once you're done with the shortcut detour, head back up the stairs from where you tripped the most recent switch. When you reach the larger area partway up the shaft, look left and there's a new route you can follow. However, it's worth making a detour first. To the right of that new path, there's a weak wall. Break through it and investigate the area beyond. As you battle skeletons, you'll work to the end of a path where an especially large fellow will form from the bones lying on the cavern floor. Take him out with fire attacks or careful swordplay, then investigate the tomb that he was guarding to pick up the Darkmoon Seance Ring. It's an important item. Once you have it, knock out a side wall in that passage and head up a series of stairs to find one of the stage's necromancers and some skeletons. Take them out and then climb the ladder to reach a high secret room. You'll obtain the Tranquil Walk of Peace miracle from a corpse you find at the end of that passage, just past a trap statue. Then you should check the floor for a week point where you can drop through to an earlier portion of the stage.

Return to the portion of the stage where you descended along the spiral staircase in the vertical shaft and make your way through the new opening that appeared after you pressed the switch. When you proceed in that direction, you'll almost immediately come to a split in the path. The path straight ahead is presently useless because of some upturned spikes, so take a detour left through a dark passage to find a trail that leads left along the side of a cliff. Follow it to the apparent end and you'll find a statue that bristles with spikes, as well as a ladder to your right. Roll past the statue and against the wall to reveal a hidden opening. Beyond the opening are some stairs that you can climb to a secret bonfire. It's the one that you may have noticed through the wall earlier in the dungeon.

Descend the stairs from a bonfire and now you should climb the ladder that you saw. At the top, there's another large pedestal with a switch. Push the switch to rotate a nearby bridge so that the spikes are no longer protruding upward. Now head back the way you came. You can cross the bridge to enter a mist-shrouded doorway. Note that as you head along the bridge, you can jump over to an outcropping ledge to find the Great Scythe resting on a corpse in a chamber. Make sure not to miss that weapon if it interests you. Then work your way back around and pass through the mist-covered doorway referenced above.

From that doorway, start down along some stairs to the left. Continue descending through the area, battling skeletons, as the path wraps its way around and back toward the right. You can enter the doorway that you find there, or you can take another detour and drop along some ledges to find the Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier on one ledge and the Priest's Hat, the Holy Robe, the Traveling Gloves, the Holy Trousers and the Mace on a lower ledge. This is a one-way excursion and takes you down to the area just ahead of the boss, so you'll probably die and have to return to where you decided to drop instead of entering the doorway. On your second visit, enter the doorway.

Here, you'll find yourself wandering along a narrow, lengthy passage with plenty of skeletons for company. Stone coffins rest on shelves to either side. Continue forward, battling skeletons but not wasting too much time on them because an unseen necromancer will periodically revive them. The path will eventually widen, and as you keep moving forward you'll find a tough enemy (like the one that you may recognize from the room below the blacksmith in the Undead Parish). As always, you should keep a distance while fighting this guy (when possible) and hit him with fire magic. When you defeat him, he drops the usual Demon Titanite and then you can check a corpse behind him to find an Eye of Death.

Turn around and head back the way you came, watch along the wall to the right and you'll notice a coffin extending from it, with the lid ajar. You can get near to the coffin and investigate for a prompt that lets you “nestle” in the coffin. Climb inside and wait for around 20 or 30 seconds. You'll be taken to a secret portion of an area known as the Tomb of the Giants.

Once you arrive in the Tomb of the Giants by way of the coffin nap, head forward and against the back wall, you'll see a huge coffin. You can get near it and pray to the lord of the sarcophagus to enter the covenant. If you do, you'll receive the Gravelord Sword and the Gravelord Sword Dance miracle. You can offer Eye of Death items to increase your stature within the covenant. When you're ready to leave this chamber, just return to the coffin and nestle in it again. You'll appear back within the Catacombs.

As you head back the way you came through the area with the coffins, watch to the left to spot a hole in the wall. You can pass through that hole to find a tall vertical chamber with a ladder. Defeat any skeletons, check the corpse at the top of the ladder for a Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier, then descend the ladder. In the room below, there's a weak floor on either side of the coffin. Defeat any skeletons, then drop through the hole to reach a chamber below where a black knight is waiting.

Take out the black knight with the attacks you favor, then check the nearby corpse that is resting on the nearby ledge for a Soul of a Proud Knight. You can drop from that ledge to reach a lower area.

In that lower area, you'll face a number of pinwheel skeletons that cartwheel crazily around the area. They roll around in a hurry and crash into you, causing moderate damage. The problem is that there are a bunch of the skeletons and they move quickly, plus they are frequently revived by a necromancer you can't see.

From where you drop after battling the knight, head sharply right and look against that door. You should find a path you can follow. Do so and it comes to a 'T' in a brick room. There will be some more skeletons here, as well as the necromancer. Take out the necromancer and the skeletons, then check around and you'll find a ladder that you can climb. You can either head back in the direction of the pinwheel skeletons and defeat them to continue along the cavern area and find the mist-shrouded doorway that leads to the area boss, or you can climb the ladder.

If you climb the ladder, you'll arrive back in the upper area that you've already explored. That may be worth doing if you're running low on healing items. Otherwise, it's time to go face the boss.

Pinwheel

When you enter Pinwheel's area, you're on a trail leading down to a large coffin. Drop through the opening and you'll land in a shallow pool of water as a scene commences. When the scene concludes, Pinwheel attacks.

The first thing Pinwheel is likely to do is send a huge ball of magic your way. Roll out of its path, then head forward toward Pinwheel as he splits into multiple figures. None of these figures are particularly powerful and they'll fall easily to powerful weapon strikes, but they'll also keep splitting throughout the fight as you whittle away Pinwheel's life meter.

Try to keep moving if you want to survive, and have your shield up to block magic attacks. If you have gear such as the Crest Shield equipped, that's going to work to your benefit. Pinwheel's multiple forms like to try to hit you in the back with magic, but if you should still focus on taking them down one at a time. If you're having trouble harming one of the two (they do dance out of the way and one always seems to be more vulnerable than the other), just switch targets and keep up the attack. As long as you brought a few estus flasks, you'll have little reason to fear.

Defeating Pinwheel earns you 6000 souls. He will also drop the Mask of the Child and the Rite of Kindling. The latter makes it possible to kindle bonfires more than you previously could, which is sure to come in handy throughout the remainder of your adventure.

When you're done in the lower coffin area where you fought Pinwheel, head to the back corner and you'll find a ladder that you can climb to reach the top of the coffin. There, you can climb yet another ladder and you'll arrive on the edge of a dark path with light points floating along it ahead of you. Follow the points of light forward on the trail and you'll arrive in the Tomb of the Giants area, if you're ready (though it's unlikely that you are).

If you'd rather head back through the Catacombs and seek out other adventures (which is the case if you haven't cleared the Abyss area yet), head around to the left and you'll find a trail that you can follow to reach a high ledge overlooking an early portion of the Catacombs. You can obtain the Large Soul of a Proud Warrior from the edge of a ledge, then drop down and backtrack along the trail to a convenient bonfire.

Tomb of Giants

You can enter the Tomb of Giants by way of the Catacombs area. After you defeat Pinwheel, you'll climb out of his tomb and appear on a trail with lights positioned along it. As you walk along the trail delineated by the lights, you'll see the text appear on-screen to indicate that you've entered the new area. Note that you should not bother attempting to clear this area until after you have claimed the Lordvessel from Anor Lando, or you'll just be blocked from proceeding once you reach the bottom of a decidedly inconvenient dungeon. It's also not a bad idea to bring along a divine melee weapon, to make the area boss fight go more smoothly.

When you're ready to head into the tomb, move slowly as you follow the trail marked by the lights. They don't give off enough light to make it clear where the trail begins and ends and there are a lot of dangerous falls that you can take as you descend through this area. If you have the Sunlight Maggot helmet that gives off light (found near the end of the Lost Izaleth region beneath the Demon Ruins), you'll have much easier time in this stage because you'll see better and because you won't have to give up your shield to use the lantern that can be found partway through the stage. We'll give instructions here that assume you haven't found that helmet, so that you're covered either way.

Follow a straight line from the first light to the second one, then start for the light to the right (but move slowly to make sure that you step onto the walkway that bridges the gap in that direction), then head carefully forward with the wall to your right. You'll come up against one of the giant skeletons, so defeat it with fire attacks if possible so that you don't have to dance around too much on the uncertain footing.

When the skeleton is dead, continue down the trail with the wall still to your right as a guideline. You'll see a corpse to the lower left with a tempting glowing item, but you're not safe going directly for it because there's a pit. Instead, continue descending along the wall and toward the next light.

Here, the lights point to the top of large fallen pieces of stone. You can climb on those to slide down to a lower ledge, then do the same with another of the stone slides. At the base, an archer from the side will try pelting you with magic arrows, while to the right you can start forward to find yourself battling two giant skeletons. They're a real threat if they get you together, but you can hit them with fire magic (while hopefully avoiding any arrow projectiles) to make things go easier. Then continue descending carefully, a few steps at a time as you proceed past the area where the skeletons were positioned. Slide along another of the huge stone slides (this one isn't marked by lights, alas).

You should soon reach the edge of a ledge overlooking some lava. There's the top of a ladder here. Descend the ladder, then head left along the ledge to find a bonfire. Go ahead and light it if you're sure you want to proceed through this area.

From the bonfire, you're now safer to explore the upper areas without much fear of losing progress, if you're interested in what items you may have missed during your cautious descent. If you head back up the ladder and veer left, you'll find a stranger. Talk to him and he'll ask if you are a cleric. Answer “no” to his question (you'll miss out on stuff if you go with a different answer). Then head toward the nearby light and a scene will follow.

You'll be pushed over the ledge that you were exploring and will fall to the ground. Your friend on the high ledge will gloat about the treasure he'll be able to collect from your corpse. There are other corpses already nearby and you can investigate them to find the Skull Lantern, which you can equip and use like a shield to see your surrounding area. You'll also find two of the Large Soul of a Proud Knight, but that's less exciting.

With your lantern equipped and in use, head around the area where you've fallen. Near a stone column, you should find an NPC. You can talk to her to learn that the members of her escort have been turned Hollow. If you proceed past where you meet her, you'll be attacked by the two warriors in question, Vince and Nico. You'll do best if you can draw back from a distance and use fire magic or firebombs to eliminate them, since they have strong armor and fierce attacks that make it difficult to fight the two of them. When you defeat them, you can talk to the girl again and you will receive Replenishment, a helpful miracle that regenerates HP over time.

Once that task is tended to, you can keep looking around the area to find a White Titanite Chunk on a corpse at the top of a path that leads up along one wall. Note that in this area, you'll encounter a new type of enemy: skeletons that form walking totem poles. They're strong against physical attacks, but go down almost instantly to fire attacks.

When you're done exploring the area in the hole, you can head out along the route that Vince and Nico guarded. That trail leads to more of the towering totem skull enemies. Defeat them in the same manner as you did their predecessors, then find a ladder at the end of the corridor. Climb it to its top and it will seem that you've found a dead end. However, you can roll through the wall to arrive on a high ledge.

Be careful on that ledge. There's an archer firing powerful arrows at you from somewhere to the left. For now, you should head to the right to return to the bonfire. If you head left instead, you'll find an oversized stone tomb. You can drop down through a hole to land in a lower area, but it's full of huge skeletons. Defeat them and you can obtain the Soul of a Brave Warrior and the Large Divine Ember by checking corpses in the area.

If you're interested in returning to the start of the area, this is the route to take. Further up the trail that leads left from the coffin, you can find some more large skeletons out in the open. Defeat a guy with a sword and an archer, then climb a ladder to a higher ledge. From the upper ledge, you can drop down to the left to pick up the Large Soul of a Proud Knight. There are some enemies waiting on the high ledge, as well. They're more of the large skeletons, so act lively as you arrive or they'll take you out before you even figure out that they're hiding in the darkness ahead of you. You can find another Large Soul of a Proud Knight on a corpse that they were guarding. In the back corner, hard to see against the wall, there are metal rungs on a ladder. You can climb up along that route to reach the start of the area, when it's time to leave (you can also drop down on a ledge and find three of the Eye of Death from the top of the ladders and the Large Soul of a Proud Knight on an even higher ledge, which is always nice).

Assuming that you return to the bonfire rather than leaving the stage, you should next head back up to where the man pushed you down the hole. If you head right and forward from there, now using the lantern that you obtained, you'll find a large skeleton lizard crawling about. Hit it with fire attacks from a distance, or careful sword strikes at closer range, then advance past it to find a mist-shrouded opening. Pass through it.

On the other side of that opening, you'll find some real trouble. There are a variety of threats.

First, if you head toward the left you'll find another of the bone lizards. It's joined by an archer not far beyond that, so you need to be careful to conserve your magic and use it to the most positive effect. After you clear out that upper area and grab the Soul of a Brave Warrior that rests on the corpse the archer was guarding, you have a possible detour worth taking. You can drop off the end of the ledge and if you land properly, you'll find yourself on a ledge with a corpse ahead of you. Check the corpse to find the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring, which will cause the skull totems to appear around you. Hack them apart and then return through the cave to the approximate area where you dropped down to find the ring. Head around and you'll find a path that descends toward a lower tier. Here, you'll need to battle yet another of the bone lizards and also another of the giant skeletons.

If you manage to defeat that threat, you can continue roaming around and you'll find another ledge that descends even further before coming to a second bonfire. You're almost to the lowest point of the stage now.

Head back up from the bonfire and explore the upper ledges again. You'll need to defeat any enemies that were revived when you rested, as usual, so that means at least a bone dragon and a large skeleton. Climb up a slope from there and veer left so that you're following a narrow ledge with a wall to your left. You'll soon meet with a golden knight. If you're carrying around a lantern to see, remember that you don't have a shield. He'll just repeatedly lance you and the only way to survive is to back away and toss powerful fire magic at him while you avoid falling from the narrow ledge where the fight begins. If you get past him, you can check a corpse on a ledge to find the Effigy Shield.

Backtrack to the area's second bonfire. You're ready to descend through the last leg of the stage now, having collected any worthwhile treasure. Start back up the hill from where you found the bonfire and pay attention to the path. It branches left and descends along that route, below where you can fight the bone lizard and archer. Descend along that path and you'll soon find a recess on the right with a corpse in it. You can check the corpse for a White Titanite Chunk.

Continue descending along the trail from there and you'll soon find three more of the bone lizards. They're off to the left side and the path you need descends to the right, so you may prefer just to run past them and keep going. As you descend, watch for the path to double back on itself; you can descend through an opening there to find the Lost Soul of a Brave Warrior. Then continue your descent.

Soon you'll reach the top of a ladder. Climb down it, then descend along a cliff-side trail. It leads eventually to an opening bathed in orange light. The opening is sealed unless you have already defeated the boss enemies in the Abyss. You won't be able to proceed any further here unless that is the case.

Assuming that all is well, take a moment to change up your equipment to best handle the coming area (you no longer need to use a lantern, thankfully) and proceed through the opening.

As you start through the opening, you'll find yourself on a long path that descends through rock. There are places where the ledge falls away into an abyss, so you need to progress carefully. Along the trail, a couple of totem towers and some more skeletons will greet you, but ahead of that there's one of the rare crystal lizards that you can kill if you're fast enough.

Once you beat those enemies and continue along the ledge, you'll come to the entrance to a larger cave area. There will be a bunch of skeletons lined up on the edge of the ledge ahead of you. Below, miniature versions of the Pinwheel foe you fought in the Catacombs are positioned. There are around five of them throughout the area. The closest will be able to target you as you stand along the ledge. Their magic can break through most shields, so be careful.

Drop down from that first ledge and work around toward the left to easily take out the closest pinwheel magic user. You want to stay on the upper ledges of this room as long as possible while you destroy the various casters. Their magic shouldn't pose much of a threat, since you can duck behind stone walls or columns and then rush them as the sorcerers prepare additional magic blasts.

As you work to eliminate the sorcerers, look around the cave to find a mist-shrouded doorway. It's largely obscured by bones but isn't far from where you first enter the area, on an upper ledge. You can simply rush for that door if you'd like, but then you'd miss some items. On the plus side, you'd also miss spending much time fighting the miniature skeletons that spawn endlessly in the lower portion of this room. They're weak monsters but they rush you and jump on you, quickly bumping up your Toxic meter. If you get hit by a swarm of them, you'll fall to that status ailment, which is why it's a good idea to take out the sorcerers first.

Once you're able to explore, you'll still have to run from the skeletons or hit them with magic or a quick weapon, but you'll more easily find the area loot: two of the Soul of a Hero, the White Titanite Chunk and the White Titanite Slab. The items are often hidden around the back side of stone columns, so you'll have to look carefully while keeping an eye on the miniature skeletons so they don't build up enough numbers to overwhelm you. The slab is easiest to find if when you first enter the room with the sorcerers, you keep dropping down along the left side of ledges and continue in that direction until you find the prize at the end of a narrow corridor.

When you have finished exploring and looting, head to the mist-shrouded door and pass through it to find the area boss.

Gravelord Nito

As you appear in the cave where you'll battle Nito, you're on an upper level and will have to drop forward off the ledge. That can cause you to take some severe damage, so be ready to gulp down some estus flasks after Nito's introductory animation concludes.

Nito looks imposing but isn't actually a huge threat. He's a floating mask of blackness and skeletons, armed with a massive sword. The bigger problem as you battle is that he is joined by a bunch of standard and slightly larger skeletons. If you try to battle Nito without dealing with them first, you'll have to work extra hard to avoid having most of your attacks interrupted by slashes from the side that can quickly drain your life meter.

The best trick is to let the skeletons come to you. Kill them with a divine weapon so that they don't respawn, and keep an eye on Nito to avoid his huge sword thrust. If you let him close in on you, then you can move in close and hack at him with your weapon or toss powerful fire magic at him (it works wonders, as you might expect of an undead foe) without worrying about causing more skeletons to leap to their master's aid.

As long as you're good at avoiding the infrequent attacks Nito levels at you with his sword, and as long as you're not letting his skeleton crew pick you apart, this fight is one of the easiest of the late-game battles to win.

When you defeat the boss, you will receive the Lord Soul. Then you can light a nearby bonfire to find the means to warp out of the cave.

Valley of Drakes

As you descend through Darkroot Basin, keep mostly to the right when presented with any choices as to which way to head. As you head toward the area's lowest right portion, you'll find a black knight. Defeat him and just beyond, there's a cave leading into the cliff that you can enter to find a bonfire. Beyond that a short distance along the same corridor, you'll find an elevator that you can ride down to the Valley of the Drakes.

From the base of the elevator, head around the wall and out through the doorway. When you start into the valley, you'll see a dragon ahead of you almost immediately. If you start forward far at all, it will head toward you. Though you might not expect it, powerful fire magic will work just fine against the dragons in this area. So will melee weapons, but those make it more difficult to avoid lightning attacks that the dragons use. You'll want to bring gear that defends well against that element, and you'll want to be careful to roll back when you see the dragon launch into the air. It'll follow the temporary flight with a dive that can eat up stamina or your life meter if it connects.

Beyond the first dragon, you have a choice: you can head left to fight a boss dragon, or you can proceed forward. You should start with the latter option. Head forward and start across a bridge to engage another of the dragons. Because the bridge has little in the way of railings, you'll do best if you lure the dragon back to the wider space where you fought his fellow. Then repeat your hat trick.

Beyond that dragon, you can find the Brigand Hood, the Brigand Armor, the Brigand Gauntlets, the Brigand Trousers and a Spider Shield on the corpse. Take those, but note that your looting has likely attracted the attention of at least one dragon nearby. There are a total of three of them ahead of you. Hopefully, you have alerted only one and you can have it follow you across the bridge. Lure one dragon across the bridge at a time for easier slaying.

When all of those dragons are dead, head back to the wall and climb up the ladder that you find to snag the Red Tearstone Ring from a corpse. Then it's time to descend the ladder, cross back over the bridge and head to the right (formerly the left, when you were entering from the direction of the Darkroot Basin bonfire) to face the larger dragon that waits for you.

As you proceed in that direction, past another of the weaker blue dragons, you'll soon encounter the dragon that is in charge. It is asleep along the edge of the ledge and you can creep past it if you like. If that doesn't suit you, another option is to approach the snoring creature and start looting items from around it (you can find the Soul of a Proud Knight, Astora's Straight Sword and the Dragon Crest Shield on the various corpses), but that activity is likely to wake the beast and it will attack.

Your process for defeating the dragon will depend on what gear and skills you have, naturally, but the easiest strategy is to back away a short distance and let the dragon do its thing. It remains hanging from the ledge and it will move its head back and forth, spewing flames and noxious fumes that you want to avoid. Roll back to stay out of the way of the cursed fumes, then move in and attack with melee weapons or fire attacks. You should be able to chip away at the beast while placing yourself at only minimal risk.

Once you defeat the dragon, you can continue up the trail that he was guarding. It's treacherous, but at least there are no more enemies. Most of the way to the end of the trail, you can cross to the right over a board and find the Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier. There's also a locked door leading down to the New Londo Ruins, but you likely don't have the key.

Back across the bridge and further up the trail, you'll find an opening to a cave that leads to Blighttown. You can battle some familiar enemies (with long clubs) from that area and proceed past them to find a treasure chest that contains the Key to New Londo Ruins. Now you can backtrack and use that key on the locked door that you spotted a moment ago to create a shortcut from the Valley of Drakes to New Londo Ruins (near where you can enter it from Firelink Shrine). The New Londo Ruins serve as an excellent next area for you to explore, if you haven't already.

New Londo Ruins

You can access this area from the beginning of the game, but it appears that you're not really expected to fully explore it and clear it until after you have cleared Anor Londo (accessible after you beat the Iron Golem in Sen's Fortress). You may want to venture into the area anyway just because there are some great items that make the Curse status effect less of an issue elsewhere in the game.

In Firelink Shrine, there's a man who sits on the stone wall near the bonfire. Just past him, a trail descends to a graveyard area. You can find where there's a cave with bars across it (the place where you can upgrade your estus flask once you have the proper item) and then you can head down some stairs from there to reach a room with a lift. There's a lever if you just see a gaping hole. Otherwise, step on the center of the lift to ride it down to a lower level.

Once you arrive at that lower level, head out and to the left, then descend along some stairs. There are weak enemies here in the graveyard that you can attack as you search for soul items. Keep descending and you'll soon see notification flash on-screen to let you know that you have entered the ruins.

From the entrance to the ruins, note that you can head to the right and then down some steps that descend along the side of the cliff to find a blacksmith in a cave. He'll help you through the bars.

Otherwise, head toward the left from the area entrance and look for three skeletons supplicating themselves against a large stone wall. There's another single skeleton to their left, and to the left of that an opening in the stone wall. You can pass through that opening and look sharply right to find the Estoc weapon resting on a corpse. From there, you can descend toward the left to reach the shore of a large body of water. You can head across the narrow wooden platform and along stone islands to reach an area that is haunted by ghosts.

Note that ghosts are not weak to your standard physical weapons. You can only harm them if you are cursed (the Transient Curse item is useful in this regard, since it temporarily curses your character without the need to find an expensive weapon and remove the curse) or if you have a special weapon that only the ghosts drop. It's not a bad idea to bring a bunch of Transient Curse items, then, and farm ghosts near the ruin entrance until you obtain that weapon, the powerful Jagged Ghost Blade. Then you'll fare better against any future ghosts, even if you aren't under the effects of a curse (though you should upgrade it with a blacksmith before you head deeper into the ruins).

When you're ready to head into the ruins properly, start forward across the shallow pool of water that you gain access to after wandering along the docks. Some ghosts will hunt you down here, but you should be able to take care of them easily since they're out in the open. Then you should look around at the stone walls, near the edge where the water grows deeper. You will find a corpse in a barrel behind a low stone wall. Roll through the barrel to break it open and knock down the corpse. You will receive two Transient Curse items as a reward.

If you look around in that general area, you should see a distant glowing point that represents an item on a corpse. It appears to be floating on the deep water, but you can still reach it. There's a barely-submerged stone ledge that leads out there. As you near the item, two ghosts will rise from the water. Don't let them knock you from the ledge as you hack at them and kill them. You might just want to roll through them so you can fight them on more solid ground. Be careful about fighting in the doorway, too, as the camera likes to shift so that you press one direction and your character walks another (usually to his or her death). When you defeat the ghosts (or before), check the nearby corpse to receive the Fire Keeper Soul that you can trade in for another estus flask upgrade.

Now head back to the shallow pool of water and start uphill. In this area, almost any corpse you check is going to obtain more Transient Curse items (a good thing, since you need it to be able to be offensive here). You should be able to stockpile enough to survive for awhile, since the effects of the item last a fair while. Keep an eye on yourself, though; you don't want to have the effects wear off just before you need to kill some ghosts.

As you head up the hill from the shallow, low-lying water areas, you'll come to a series of stone rooms. Here, the ghosts will come at you a great deal more thickly. Head up the steps and across the bridge ledge, but be careful. Ahead of you, as you start forward because a ghost is waiting in plain sight, another ghost will try to ambush you from a passage to the left. Wait for that attack and block it, then kill the ghost before you head forward to the next one.

In this area, you'll again be ambushed, this time by a bunch of ghosts that come at you from all sides. Be ready to roll around to avoid them and try not to let yourself get mobbed or struck from behind. Continue forward from there and follow the passage left to the top of a spiral staircase. Descend it.

From the base of that staircase, start forward and you'll see a corpse lying on the edge of a ledge. Approach carefully. There's a ghost hiding in the wall to its left. Get near and the ghost will sweep out its scythes. Attack from the side and kill the ghost, then check the corpse to obtain the Parrying Dagger.

Head back the way you came now, but take a left along a passage that you come to ahead of the base of the spiral staircase. Along that route, you'll find a mist-shrouded door. Before you enter it, you can head past it to find a ghost on a ledge near a corpse. It will scream as you approach. Kill it and then check the corpse for two more Transient Curse items. Then return to the mist-shrouded door and pass through it.

At the top of the stairs look forward and you'll see the top of a ladder. Make sure that you kick it, which creates a shortcut. Now if you have to come back here, you can leap over a gap from the shallow pool of water near the start of the area, then run along the ledge to reach the ladder.

From the top of that shortcut ladder, you can also head forward to fight a ghost and check a corpse (you'll receive the Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier), or you can head left. As you proceed left, and continue left at the 'T' in the path (right is just an obvious dead end overlooking the water), you'll come to a point where you're walking along the side of a building. Ahead, you'll see an opening that leads to the right. When you near that opening, ghosts will attack. Unless you're using magic, they can be difficult to fight without falling in the water unless you lure them into the building and dispatch of them there.

Once the ghosts are dead, you can head inside the house building and battle more of them. This isn't strictly necessary (you can run and jump along the outside portion of the building if you prefer), but it's a worthwhile detour because after you defeat the ghosts, you can climb a ladder hidden in a chimney. Make sure that no straggler ghost catches you by surprise (one will come out of the wall to attack as you start up the chimney).

If you make it to the top of the chimney, you'll meet a character named Ingward on the edge of the building's fenced roof. You can buy the Resist Curse spell from him for 5000 souls, if desired. That could come in handy elsewhere in the game. Depending on what else you have accomplished in the game (you need to have cleared Anor Londo and obtain the Lordvessel), he may also give you the Key to the Seal you need in order to proceed through the area. You can also kill him and loot the item from his corpse, if you prefer.

After meeting with Ingward, you can return to the lower path that led along the side of the building. Near the base of those stairs, make sure that you venture inside the building and head along the corridor to find the Cursebite Ring (which adds a welcome boost to your resistance to the Curse status effect) resting on another outside ledge along the building's side (there's a ghost guarding the corpse where you'll find it). In another hallway, you'll find the Soul of a Proud Soldier. Head back through the building and exit along the main ledge. Follow the ledge to find a low-lying area that looks like a stone gazebo along the left branch of a 'T' in the path. You can find a Green Titanite Shard on a corpse that you find there. Then head back to the 'T' and this time follow the steps that led upward.

At the top of the stairs, you'll find the Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier resting on a corpse. Follow the ledge left from there and you'll find some stairs ascending along a high stone wall to your side, as well as the entrance to another building ahead of you. Ignore the building for a moment and climb the stairs.

The stairs will lead you to Humanity on a corpse resting along the far end of the platform. You can also drop down from that ledge to land on the roof of the building where you met with Ingward. If you head along the eave, you'll find another corpse that you can check to obtain the Rare Ring of Sacrifice. Then you can drop into the building through one of the windows.

Now head back around the house and enter the final building that you previously ignored. You may not be able to do much just yet, depending on whether or not you have the appropriate key, but you can climb some steps to find a ledge overlooking a moss-covered walkway where you can pillage the Composite Bow and 16 of the Large Arrow. To do anything more in the area, you'll need to head downstairs and you'll need to have Ingward's key (the Key to the Seal) in your possession.

When you have the key, you can open the iron gate near the bottom of the area and then you can head along the passage and through another opening to find a gear like the ones you would have encountered in Anor Londo. You can grab onto the bar that extends from one side and give it a push. As the gear spins around, the nearby gates will open and high water will flood out of the area, draining it so that you can explore.

Head back the way you came and when you find the lever that you may have noticed before, give it a tug. You'll cause an elevator to rise up to your level, creating a handy shortcut to the Valley of Drakes. Now you can enter that region from the entrance to the New Lando Ruins and take an easy shortcut through that domain to reach the New Lando Ruins in the area near the lever that you pushed to drain the water. It can save a lot of inconvenient backtracking, as long as you're good at battling dragons.

Start through the area ahead of the elevator that you just descended and you'll encounter a new type of enemy. This fellow is ghostly but wears a suit of armor and wields powerful magic. You should attack him from a distance as possible using fire attacks. Try not to get too near to him, or to attract another of the enemies (there's another nearby). Defeat any of the nearby fellows, then head up some steps and to the right to find a small building. Inside, on a corpse at the end of a corridor, you'll find the Large Soul of a Proud Knight.

If you continue around this same general area, you'll find something a lot more troubling than just the one or two ghostly knights. As you head to the right, you'll find a handful of them. Try to lure them toward you one at a time and take care of them with your preferred method, all without luring more to the fight. You'll find two more Large Soul of a Proud Knight items as you work through the area. Eventually, you'll also reach a huge, black blob.

The blob is capable of absorbing a great deal of damage, and what's worse is that you'll likely be battling ghosts besides. Since the ghosts can be dispatched almost immediately, you should do so and then focus your attacks on the blob. It doesn't actually move fast at all, so you should be able to get in close and assault its flanks quite easily until it finally gives way. Then you can check the chest that it was guarding to find a Titanite Chunk.

In the same general vicinity, you'll also find six of the Cracked Red Eye Orb. Most important, though, are the items that you'll find along a high ledge above the area. To reach the ledge, climb some spiral stairs in the area that was most heavily guarded by the ghostly knights and the blob. Then cross along the chamber by following the narrow ledges that lead along the upper level (grab the Soul of a Brave Warrior along the way) and descend to find the Very Large Ember on a high ledge. Drop down and then head around again to reach the area near where you fought the huge blob. This time cross over a narrow ledge nearby to find a mist-shrouded doorway, which you should now enter.

The mist-shrouded doorway leads to the top of a very high staircase that descends in a spiral fashion through the cylindrical tower. Equip the Covenant of Artorias (a ring) and then head down to the base of the stairs. After preparing yourself, drop down into the blackness and you'll fall a long, long way into a new area known as the Abyss (which you can't leave until you either die or defeat the waiting boss).

The Abyss

When you initially head to the New Londo Ruins, you'll find that its lower levels are submerged in water. You can use the Key to the Seal (which you obtain from an old man named Ingward once you have cleared the Anor Lando area and obtained the Lordvessel. With the key that you get from the old man in your possession (find Ingward on the rooftop of a building in that area, after climbing a ladder in a chimney), you can head outside of the building and follow some stairs to reach a locked iron door. Use the key to open it, then head around and activate a lever to drain water from the area.

Next, you'll need to battle your way through the lower portion of the New Lando Ruins until you reach a mist-shrouded door. When you pass through that door, you will be unable to return until you either die and appear back at a bonfire, or once you defeat the boss enemy waiting to challenge you in this region.

Equip the Covenant of Artorias, a ring that you receive for defeating the giant wolf Sif in the area of Darkroot Garden that waits beyond the sealed door. When you have the ring equipped, you can descend the spiral staircase and from the bottom you can jump into the black pit beneath you. After falling for awhile, you'll land in an area surrounded by blackness. As you head forward, “The Abyss” will flash on the screen. Not long after that, you'll find yourself in the area boss fight.

Four Kings

You need to move quickly to win this battle. As it begins, you're surrounded by blackness and it can be difficult to even see your opponent. Look around swiftly and find him, then race toward him and try to hit him hard and fast. You want to inflict as much damage as possible before more enemies appear, which they will do periodically.

One problem is that each king you have to defeat is capable of dealing devastating damage. That's why it's so important that you not fight more than one at a time if possible. Hit with a fast enough weapon to quickly eliminate each foe and make sure that you block the vicious sword swings and roll back out of the way of the magic. You'll do better in this fight if you're able to withstand magic damage easily, as the kings are capable of producing aura bursts around them.

Another move the kings have is to occasionally grab you as you stand in front of them. This move is powerful, but it's a problem even if it doesn't kill you just because it takes so long to play out and thus gives more kings time to arrive on the scene. You'll do best in this fight if you can get around to the enemy's flank or attack from behind and minimize the number of moves that he can use against you. Each king that you take out eliminates around a quarter of the overall boss life meter, so you should soon win if you're able to keep the fight moving along at your speed and don't allow yourself to be swarmed by too many kings at once. Starting out with strong pyromancy magic (if you have it) is a good way to get rid of the first king or two and start the fight along the path you need it to follow.

When you defeat the boss, a bonfire will appear. You can use it to warp back to a more friendly bonfire and then resume your adventure.

The Duke's Archives

After you clear Anor Lando, you'll receive the Lordvessel from a character in a side room above where you defeat the boss combo in that area. You can head out of the main castle and along the side path to find a forest trail that leads to an opening. Without the Lordvessel, that doorway will be impenetrable, covered in an eerie orange light. With the vessel, you'll be able to enter the hallway beyond the doorway.

Past those boars, you'll find a larger chamber with a bonfire in plain view. Use it, then start forward again as you make your actual journey into the archives. At the top of the stairs, you'll step onto a platform and there's a lever you can pull. When you do so, a gate closes behind you as the platform rises. It's an elevator. Once it ascends one level, it'll stop and you can start forward again.

Your arrival on the upper level will not have gone unnoticed, naturally, so your first order of business is the group of guards that rush you. At first, you'll only see one or two, but don't let down your defenses. There are more lurking behind the pillars that line the edge of the room, plus an archer at the top of the stairs who will take potshots at you as you battle any of the lower troops. The battle that you wage through this area will go better for you, as usual, if you can lure a few enemies toward you (back to the elevator, for instance) and deal with them while their numbers are small and they'll have a harder time slicing or shooting you in the back.

Even when you reach the top of the short staircase, there are more guards to either side of the doorway and yet another archer ahead of you. Again, draw the weaker enemies down into the lower room and don't give them the chance to hit any harder than absolutely necessary. Progress here comes to the smart and cowardly soldier, not the brave one.

Through the archway beyond the large cluster of guards, there's a magic user. He will pelt you with magic from a distance if you let the guards distract you. It's doubly important here that you lure the guards into a safe area and dispatch of them so that you're not too distracted. The guards and sorcerer are both capable of hitting you hard, no matter how lengthy your life meter and no matter how high your defenses, but they're pretty weak if you're meeting their attacks with a capable shield instead of your exposed back.

Pushing past that first sorcerer, you'll soon find a second one who is positioned partway up a high staircase on the far side of the room. You have to put yourself out in the open to approach him unless you head along the left or right side of the room using bookcases and the underside of the stairwell for cover. You should do that anyway, to find the Large Soul of a Brave Warrior that is resting on a corpse beneath the stairs. Don't get careless, though; there's a chance when you rely on the architecture to shield you from the sorcerer that he'll get impatient and come to find you. If he does, it's easy to sneak up from behind and take care of him. You just don't want to give him the chance to do something similar to you.

When the area is clear, go ahead and start up the staircase. You'll note that it splits left and right near the top. You will find less resistance to the left, but to the right there's more of interest. Work your way through several more soldiers, using the architecture to your advantage as possible. You'll find an opening the the left where you can obtain the Twinkling Titanite from a corpse. When the main balcony ledge reaches a dead end at the chest, be careful because the chest is actually a Mimic monster. Defeat it to obtain the Crystal Knight Shield.

Now return to the top of the stairs you climbed a moment ago and this time head along the left route. You'll find an archer there, and past him along the balcony another piece of Twinkling Titanite, waiting in a chest. Grab the goods, then return to the top of the stairs yet again and head around toward the back side of that balcony.

You'll now find yourself on another of the lift elevators. Prepare yourself, then pull the lever. The elevator will ride up to an upper chamber and you can head along a branch to the right. This is a narrow corridor and mostly it just ascends along stairs. You should keep your shield ready, though, because partway up the stairs you'll have to battle a lizard enemy. It should be easy to defeat if you block its attacks and respond with melee attacks of your own. Then you can keep climbing.

As you continue your climb, you'll see one of the rare enemies that melts into the floor as you get near. Past it, the hallway begins to grow thick with crystals. These don't harm you, so just keep ascending and at the top of the stairs you'll find a mist-shrouded doorway.

When you pass through the doorway, you'll find yourself engaged in a boss battle with a fearsome beast known as Seath the Scaleless. Though he has a life meter, this is a battle that you cannot win. He's perched on a high ledge and will pelt you with dragon breath and crystals and all sorts of nastiness. You're expected to lose, and when you do you'll wake up in a crystal prison cell with your stats restored as if you just rested at a bonfire.

Look to the right and you'll see why that is: there's a bonfire. Use it if you like, then look around. Though he's hard to see through the crystal because he blends in with the architecture so well, there's a lizard guard posted just to the left of the cell door that was directly ahead of you as you appeared in the cell. You can attack him through the bars and then when he dies, you can pillage the Archive Tower Cell Key from his corpse. Use the key on the door.

When you step outside, a scene is triggered. Some lizards will run past you and to the left, where they'll ascend a ladder and climb to a high ledge in front of a locked door that you can't open yet. You should head to the right, in the direction from whence the lizards came.

As you descend the stairs in that direction, you'll find enemies climbing the stairs. They are easily taken care of with fire attacks, which leaves you free to explore the cells to the side of the trail (which the squid-like enemies will not enter). You won't find anything of interest until the third cell, which contains an enemy prisoner. If you drop through an opening, you'll find a corpse at a dead end. Check the corpse to find the Archive Prison Extra Key.

Head out through the nearby door, then continue your descent along the stairs toward the right. There will be plenty of the squid-like enemies along this route, but they're no real threat if you don't run out of fire attacks. Clear them out and as you reach the base of the area, you'll find yourself in a large, circular area. You can head to the right from there, through an opening, to find two more of the squid-like security detail. Defeat them and check the items that they drop for the Soothing Sunlight and Beautiful Sunlight miracles. There's a locked prison cell and prisoner nearby, as well, but you don't yet have the key.

Head back out into the circular area and look along the edge to find a ladder. You will need to climb that ladder and take care of some enemies that wait up top, so recover any health that you may have lost and then do so. Note that the guards attack with lightning-infused weapons, so you should make sure that you have a shield that's strong against that element. When you defeat the guards, you can deactivate the alarm that has been wailing ever since you first left your cell. Also check the nearby chest for the Archive Tower Giant Door Key.

With that key in hand, you've done everything you can in this area for now. Descend the ladder to the circular room at the base of this tower, then climb back up the stairs that you descended a moment ago. Return to the area where your sell was located, near the top of the tower, and keep climbing from there in the direction that you saw the lizards flee when you first broke out of your cell. You'll find the base of another ladder. Climb it, take out any lizards waiting at the top, then open the huge doors with your newest key.

If you want, you can take a detour here. Head left along the planking that leads left from the high platform at the top of the ladder. At the end of the planking, you can drop down (still hugging the wall) to a lower bit of planking. Continue along that area to find a cell you can enter to snag the Maiden Hood, the Maiden Robe, the Maiden Gloves, the Maiden Skirt and the White Seance Ring from a corpse. Now return to the high platform and pass through the doors.

Through those doors, you'll find yourself back in the more visitor-friendly portion of the archives. However, there are still plenty of enemies. As you start forward, you'll come to a 'T' in the path. There's an enemy waiting out of sight to the right (you may see his shadow), while to the left an archer waits along the path. Quickly tend to the enemy to your right, then head left toward the archer but be careful; there's an enemy hiding behind the door frame and he will try to attack you from behind as you deal with the archer. It's not a bad idea to dash so that you can rush the archer and roll around behind him, then take him out and the other sneaky enemy without having your back to either of them.

Continue forward, climb some stairs and then you're back in the area that looks like a massive library. As you start left along the walkway, you'll run into another of the sorcerers. Make sure that you block any spells on the approach, then take him out swiftly to minimize the damage he can inflict. You'll also have to worry about another sorcerer who tries to take you out from the other side of the room.

As you start past the nearest sorcerer, you'll see that you can continue straight ahead. Do so and continue along the balcony. Defeat any enemies you find (there won't be any serious threats) and watch for a staircase that ascends to the right. When you find it, start up the stairs to the first landing. Defeat the enemy, then turn the lever and you'll cause the staircase to spin a quarter-circle. When it finishes spinning, you can head up the stairs to defeat some enemies on an upper balcony.

Proceed left along that balcony and keep your shield ready. Further ahead, there's an enemy with a bow and arrows. Get close and kill him, then look around in the immediate vicinity. There's an opening in the railing to the left and if you look down, you'll see another of the staircase sets that can be spun. You'll have to drop through the opening now and aim so that you land on the stairs. Then climb to the first landing and turn the switch to turn the stairs. Once they finish their rotation, descend the stairs to reach a lower ledge.

Next go right a short distance and you'll find an opening leading to the left. Raise your shield and step through the opening. Ahead, there's an archer on the far side of a ledge. Take care of him with a projectile weapon or magic, then look around. There's a ladder here that you can descend to the lower floor, where you'll see a lever directly ahead of the base of the ladder. Go ahead and pull it to open some shelving so that you can easily backtrack to the beginning of this dungeon area.

You can enter the room just beyond the lever to find books strewn across a wooden floor. There's a single treasure chest that you can open to obtain the Blue Titanite Chunk. The other nearby room also has a chest out in the open, but it's actually a Mimic. If you attack and defeat him, he'll drop the Enchanted Falchion weapon. Check other chests in the same vicinity for the Archive Tower Giant Cell Key (which opens the locked door behind which you saw the prisoner as you were making your prison break) and the Six-Eyed Helm of the Channelers, the Robe of the Channelers, the Gauntlets of the Channelers and the Waistcloth of the Channelers in another chest. In an adjoining side room that's easy to miss, near that chest, you'll find another chest that you can loot for the precious Crystal Ember. Make sure that you don't miss it.

When you've finished looting, there's also a lever to pull in the same room that has the two treasure chests and Mimic. When you pull that lever, a staircase will sink into the floor and you can descend the stairs to reach an outside area (though first you should backtrack and free the prisoner so that you can learn crystal-based sorcery skills from him, if that's of interest to you). If you do backtrack to free him, which is easy to do by spinning just one staircase to easily give yourself a shortcut back to the prison area, make sure to grab the Fire Keeper Soul from the back of his cell, as well. You can never have enough of those. The prisoner will appear back in the area with all of the treasure chests, so he's not difficult to reach.

When you descend the stairs that you lowered in that area by pulling the lever, watch out for an enemy that will try to surprise you from behind them. You can also check a treasure chest to find twenty of the Prism Stone item. If you're ready, you can also pass through the mist-shrouded doorway on one side of the room to reach the aforementioned outside area, though you may want to backtrack through the area with all of the wooden floors and head back a short distance to find a bonfire on a ledge, now that you've created shortcuts throughout the area.

Once you do step through the mist-shrouded door, you'll appear in a grassy garden area. This place is densely populated by the crystal giant enemies like those you likely have encountered in the Valley of Drake. You can stop to fight them if you need good experience points, but they will sap your resources and you'll need those for the next area that you'll be exploring.

From where you arrive in the outdoor area, head left along some planking and descend a ladder to the grass. Then you can head forward from that planking, with the stone wall to your back and find a corpse over a small rise. If you investigate the corpse, you'll obtain the Crystalline Helm, Crystalline Armor, Crystalline Gauntlets and Crystalline Leggings. If you head to the far stone wall and then right from there, you can also find a Blue Titanite Chunk on another heavily-guarded corpse. Then you're done in this area and should descend downhill, taking out giants with fire attacks or careful melee warfare.

At the bottom of the grassy slope, a crystalline trail leads into the Crystal Cave area.

Crystal Cave

After you work your way through to the end of The Duke's Archives, you'll find yourself in a grassy area with trees and lots of the crystal giant enemies. If you head downhill along the slope, you'll find the entrance to the Crystal Cave area. It's not far at all from a bonfire that you should have by now activated in the archives, which is good because you won't be finding a bonfire in the short but dangerous cave area until you defeat its boss.

When you start forward, it's important to keep in mind that the platforms you're working along are slick and treacherous. If you simply proceed straight forward, you'll likely start sliding and you won't be able to stop yourself as you slide right into an abyss. Instead of letting that happen, watch for a platform that branches right from the main trail. Along that route, you'll see one of the crystal giants plodding toward you.

Defeat the giant and proceed along the trail he was guarding. Ahead of you, there is an opening with ice powder falling in small chunks from a ceiling and breaking apart on an invisible pathway. You can watch where the ice is falling and breaking apart to determine the location of the invisible path. You can head straight forward through that opening to reach a far ledge, which you can climb to reach a corpse. Check the corpse to obtain some Humanity.

Now it's time to backtrack along the invisible path, and this time to follow the trail that visibly leads down past a floating butterfly. You don't have to engage the butterfly. Just keep a moderate distance from it and it won't wake up to attack you. At the end of the highest ledge along that route, you can drop down to some darker rock and then head back to the right, with the butterfly to your left and behind you as you proceed in the new direction. You'll soon reach another wide gap with more of the falling ice.

Assuming that you're facing properly, you can walk straight across that gap to reach the ledge on the far side. It's nerve-wracking, but you'll be safe. When you reach the far side, however, you need to be prepared to fight one of the crystal golems that will come at you from the left. This fellow is a tougher one, with stronger armor, and he hits harder. However, the strategy for battling him hasn't changed. Just make sure that you're not so ambitious that you fall into the abyss.

After defeating that golem, continue along the trail he was guarding. You'll have to head along some more of the gravel-like rock and ahead, you should see more ice chunks falling and breaking apart along the path. Edge forward and make sure that you have a good feel for the path's location. Then you can drop down onto it and quickly turn around to face the area behind you. There, you'll see some of the glowing rare enemies that like to retreat upon sight. Quickly take out as many of them as you can and collect the loot they leave behind.

Now you can either continue in that direction to cross the gap ahead of you and find a Blue Titanite Chunk on a corpse, or you can turn around and start back in the direction you were facing when landing on the nearby invisible ledge ahead of the lizards. If you do decide to go after the item on the ledge, be careful because the invisible ledge is not a straight shot; it has a curve around three fourths of the way across and you'll need to follow its path carefully to avoid stepping off the ledge you can't even see. Given the relatively unimpressive nature of the item that you'll receive if you make the perilous trek, you may well decide it's not a trek worth taking.

The path leading away from where you found the lizards is a much safer one. It follows what essentially is a straight line. You should still proceed cautiously and let the falling ice dust show you where you're safe to step, but there's less to worry about. When you finally reach the far ledge, there's more good news: you've crossed the last of the cave's invisible paths.

When you reach the far side of that path, the area widens and you'll see a bunch of the clam enemies ahead of you. There's one sharply to the left, as well, so make sure that you don't let it sneak up behind you. These clams are easy enough to toast with fire or to hit with melee attacks from the sides and behind if you take them on individually. Just make sure that you don't get too close too fast or you'll have a few clams rush you and that's more difficult.

Once the clams are defeated, equip a two-handed weapon and remove your shield. Make sure that you have good defense against magic and physical attacks both, then head forward. As you descend, your arrival will trigger a second fight with Seath the Scaleless, the dragon who you fought before being jailed in the Duke's Archives.

Seath the Scaleless

Though your previous encounter with Seath may not have ended well, this encounter in the Crystal Cave doesn't have to unfold the same way. As the fight begins, you'll see a crystal object ahead of you. Before you can start toward it, Seath slides down the slope behind you to attack. He clearly doesn't want you hacking apart that crystal device.

Quickly turn around once you are given control and run away from Seath, toward the crystal device. You should be able to hack it apart and when you've done that, it will be possible to finally harm Seath. Keep in mind that each time you battle Seath, you must start the fight by destroying that crystal device (which is behind him when you make subsequent attempts) or he will just heal any damage you inflict.

Seath has a number of attacks once the proper fight begins. While none of them are especially powerful, they do have an unpleasant side effect: they can curse you. The main thing that you absolutely must do is avoid letting yourself be cursed, or you'll die an instant death and then have to use a Purging Stone. While you can get more of those by battling the clams in the area ahead of the encounter with Seath, it's still an unpleasant situation. Reduce the likelihood of falling victim to that status ailment by equipping the Cursebite Ring, if you got it in the New Lando Ruins, and most or all of the Havel armor set.

To avoid being cursed, you'll also want want to keep a careful eye on Seath as you battle him. You want to hit hard (hence the directions to unequip your shield, so you can use two-handed attacks) and be ready to retreat. Most of his attacks won't hit you if you are close to him (or better yet, his tail), but occasionally he'll charge up a move and then send out a field of ice crystals in a radius around him. Those ice crystals will curse you if you don't get out of their way, which means running away from Seath's body and toward the edge of a cave (where you will probably also want to heal). You need to be ready to make that run at any time, and obviously your equipped gear will make it easier to do so. It's not worth staying in close and getting in an extra hit or two if that winds up leaving you unable to get away in time.

As long as you get good at avoiding the crystal attack, you should have a fairly easy time with Seath. When he's not charging up to hit you with crystals, his attacks are largely ineffectual and you should be able to get in a few hits before you're forced to back away to avoid being cursed. Then you can return to his side and resume your attack. If you have an especially powerful weapon, you will wear him down relatively quickly and win the day.

Once you defeat Seath, he'll drop the Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard and a bonfire appears. You can use it to warp out of the area. You may also wish to backtrack to where you originally fought Seath in the Duke's Archives to obtain the Large Magic Ember from a chest (and the Soul of a Great Hero from a corpse positioned along the upper balcony in that chamber). You can also revisit Big Hat Logan, in the side passage near the area's second bonfire. He taught you sorcery skills, but once you defeat Seath he will become an enemy. Talk to him, then kill him to learn the White Dragon Breath sorcery and to pick up a Big Hat and Tin Crystallization Catalyst.

With those activities completed, you're truly ready to continue your quest. Though first, you may also want to farm the nearby clams for precious Twinkling Titanite, now that you have a bonfire right next to them. Most of the best weapons at this late stage in the game require that material, and this is your best opportunity to acquire it.

Demon Ruins

The Demon Ruins are another area that you shouldn't visit until you have obtained the Lordvessel from Anor Lando. If you head into the ruins ahead of that time, know that you won't be able to complete them because of a sealed opening.

When you first enter the ruins by way of the hill that descends to the lowest point of Quelaag's Domain, you'll see a wide ledge ahead of you. Along the ledge, which descends toward lava, there are numerous slow-moving enemies with the eggs on their heads. They're easy to avoid as you start forward and almost immediately come to a bonfire.

Use the bonfire, then start forward through the area. You'll find that the slope that you're descending along descends toward a lake of lava. That lake hides much of the level that you'll need to eventually explore, but you can't pass through it yet because the lava is harmful. As you proceed along the slope toward the lava, watch from some rubble to your right. Just after the rubble, there's a portion of the path that doubles back on itself and you can follow a ledge in that direction to reach a mist-shrouded door.

Step through the mist-shrouded door and you'll find yourself walking along a new ledge that is lined by stone columns. Start forward along that ledge and climb a short ascending staircase. Watch toward the right just beyond the top of that staircase and you'll see a ravine opening leading in that direction. You can head through it to reach the chamber where you'll face the first of several boss encounters in this area.

Ceaseless Discharge

When you first pass through the ravine that leads into the chamber where Ceaseless Discharge is waiting, there won't be a life meter and you'll only see your foe as a hulking beast in the distance, just ahead of the ledge you are positioned along.

Start right as you reach the edge of that ledge and you'll come to an altar with a corpse draped across it. Check the corpse to obtain the Gold-Hemmed Black Hood, Gold-Hemmed Black Cloak, Gold-Hemmed Black Gloves and Gold-Hemmed Black Skirt. As you loot that corpse, your activity will draw the attention of Ceaseless Discharge.

Once you have the demon's attention, you need to backtrack. Sprint back the way you came, first along the ledge and then (now, as you come from the direction of the altar) left through the ravine. You will appear on the side of the rock formation that is nearest the mist-shrouded doorway that you most recently negotiated. Look to the right as you let your stamina refill and you should see your foe heading around the bend. You want to make sure that he's following, but you don't want to let him get too close.

When you can, run left toward the mist-shrouded door, which now has the mist covering it again because you're locked in combat. When you get there, turn around and watch Ceaseless Discharge, with your shield held ready. He may have decided to turn around if you got too far ahead of him. If that's the case, start forward and he'll turn around again and resume pursuit. Otherwise, wait with your shield ready.

The attacks Ceaseless Discharge will use most resemble those of the hydra monster that you likely battled in Darkroot Basin. He uses some powerful fire attacks, but you should be out of the range of those and should only have to worry about his tentacles. He'll slam those down on the ledge and they'll remain there for a time. You can hack at one (be careful not to get too ambitious and fall from the ledge) and deal damage without much risk from subsequent attacks from the monster.

As you continue to deal damage, you'll either drain his life entirely or Ceaseless Discharge will fall into the lava because he has followed you too far. The latter is the most likely scenario. Either way, the fight should soon be won.

Once Ceaseless Discharge is defeated, the lava lake cools and you can head back through the doorway to the ledge that you had been descending toward the boiling lava. Now you'll find paths that you can follow. Return to the bonfire overhead and rest up if you need to, then start your descent into the cooled lava field.

Descend along the path and ahead of you, there's still a lot of lava left. You should start toward that lava, but for now you shouldn't try to cross it. You can return later for treasure when you have defeated the area boss and claimed an item that will allow you to cross lava. For now, ahead of the first large pool you should turn to the right and make your way toward the wall. There, you'll find the Soul of a Proud Knight on a corpse. Grab it, then look around nearby to find a path that descends toward the right.

As you head along that path, you'll face enemies that look like miniature versions of the Capra Demon you battled in the lower portion of Undead Burg. At first, it's easy to battle only one at a time. They walk back and forth and you can usually lure one toward you, then back away so that you find a more favorable place to fight without luring a second one toward you. That gets more difficult as you continue to progress, though, and these demons hit hard. You want to make sure that you're blocking and countering with the utmost of proficiency, or that you're rolling back and saving stamina (even better) so that you can then counter.

The miniature Capra demons aren't your only enemy in the area, either. After you have taken out a handful of them, you'll find what looks a lot like a floating egg at the top of a staircase. It is capable of using more explosive attacks, but you can still take it out with attacks from the flank. Then descend the stairs it was guarding and head sharply back to the right. As you go, collect two Soul of a Proud Knight along the way and watch for another miniature Capra demon or two.

Ahead of you, there's a campfire positioned near a wall, but a giant centipede head protrudes from that wall. If you try to head directly for the fire, it'll probably cause you a lot of harm. However, you can roam around to the far side (safe from its attacks) and then chuck fire attacks at it. You might suppose that in this hot area, fire attacks would do no real good. That's not the case, though. Your fire attacks will take down the beast easily and then you can use the bonfire that it was guarding to recover energy lost in your recent descent.

Once you're appropriate recovered, you can start back the way you came but you won't want to climb stairs back up to the upper level. Instead, continue forward near the base of the stairs, further along this lower area. Battle any of the floating gas balls you encounter and you'll soon reach an intersection in the path where you can either head left or proceed straight forward. There is a large fellow here with a huge ax who will attack, so try to back away and hit him with magic-based attacks if possible to quickly eliminate him without getting in close. Otherwise, melee attacks will work fine.

On your initial visit to that intersection, it's worth heading left first. Along that route, however, be prepared for a lot of resistance. You'll face another of the huge guys with an ax, and past him the stone pedestal that leads to the left is protected by numerous groups of the caterpillars that will drop from the ceiling to attack. You may find it easiest just to roll past them, though be careful of their toxic spewing that can easily break your weapon. Past a group of four of those caterpillars, you'll find a chest that you can open to obtain the precious Large Flame Ember.

Backtrack to the intersection, where you can look ahead to see a mist-covered door. A final detour that you might consider is the short jaunt uphill (guarded by another of the caterpillars that uses its height advantage to routinely break your equipped weapon if you get even remotely close) to check a corpse near the top. You'll find the Soul of a Brave Warrior on that corpse, if you make the trip. Otherwise, it's time to head forward along the main path.

Ahead of the mist-shrouded door, look to the right. There's a hole in the wall with roots leading down to a lower chamber. You have an important decision to make here. You can descend along those roots on the left side of the room (there's also a Soul of a Brave Warrior on the upper right side) to find a sealed door that only opens if you your Chaos covenant affinity up to a high enough level, or you can keep to the upper path that you were following and pass through the mist-shrouded doorway to face the second boss battle in the Demon Ruins. If you go through the trouble of following the lower route, you will need to battle nine bug enemies as you start through the sealed door. Make sure to kill them all without advancing too far, and then when they are dead it is safe to enter Lost Izaleth. Skip to that section for further assistance with the area. Otherwise, we'll assume that you're planning to work through the Demon Ruins by way of the conventional route that leads through the mist-shrouded door.

Demon Firesage

Through the mist-shrouded door, you'll find a boss. He may have a new name and new ambitions, but the Demon Firesage is essentially the Asylum Demon all over again. He still relies heavily on his hefty ax, which you'll want to roll out of the way to avoid. He also leaps into the air and floats around, then tries to drop on you and deal crushing damage.

Make the fight easier on yourself by equipping gear that has the highest defense against physical attacks, which is basically all you have to worry about. You can do more damage if you attack with two-handed weapons and eschew the shield once you get in close (it's not really needed here anyway, since your opponent moves slowly enough and gives you time to see most of his moves coming).

Attack from the flanks or belly and hit until you see your foe floating, then roll out of the way as he crashes down on the ground. Move in from there and repeat the process. It's a relatively easy fight, overall.

After you defeat that enemy, you will receive the Demon's Catalyst as your reward. Then you can proceed to the back side of the chamber that it was guarding and continue your journey through the ruins.

You'll come almost immediately to an area with a black opening ahead of and below you, while to the left there are stairs that lead up along the edge of the room. If you head up the stairs, they'll keep climbing and you'll have to battle the gas balls as you make your ascent. They're easy to defeat if you step around to their sides and let them spew their flames in a direction you're not located as you hack at their sides and backs. Note that three of them are guarding a Soul of a Brave Warrior in a recess as you ascend, but those three can be avoided easily if you don't care about their loot. You can keep climbing to reach the top of the area, where stepping onto a lift will take you to Quelaag's Domain near the chamber where you can join the Chaos Covenant.

After activating that extremely handy shortcut, return to the area with the gas balls and descend to the opening you passed previously. Go ahead and descend through that area now and you'll quickly reach a bonfire, which you'll want to activate and probably kindle a time or three. Then head forward again.

As you start through the room, you'll be descending on a massive root. The first thing it will do is curve toward the right side of the passage. From that first bend, you can drop down to a ledge and head along it a short distance to find a corpse. Pillage the corpse to obtain the Soul of a Brave Warrior. Then head down the root to the base of the room. On the far side of the chamber, there's a mist-shrouded door through which you can pass to reach the area's actual boss.

Centipede Demon

This battle takes place in an arena with a lava bed as a floor. There are cool patches of ground along the sides and those are where you'll want to stay to battle the demon. Otherwise, your footing will work against you as much as your actual foe.

When the fight begins, the demon will be positioned at the center of the area. It may take him a moment to actually start toward you. Be sure to block any attacks that he throws your way from a distance. As he gets closer, he'll hit with some ferocious attacks that can eat up most of your stamina or cause a lot of damage to your life meter if they connect.

Once the Centipede Demon is closer at hand, though, the battle is mostly won. His attacks have decent range, true, but they tend to go over your head if you're nestled in close to his flanks and hacking away at him with your weapon of choice. Let that be your strategy and make sure that you keep an eye on your life meter. You'll probably need to guzzle a few potions throughout the fight. Keep it up and you'll win.

When you defeat the beast, you should receive and equip the Orange Charred Ring. It significantly reduces the damage that you take when crossing the large lava flows in this area and the coming area. You can backtrack to the start of this area now and find the Chaos Flame Ember by descending the first hill and then heading across the lava that first (mostly) drained when you defeated Ceaseless Discharge. At the edge of that area, guarded by several demons, you can find the item. Then return to the room where you battled the Centipede Demon and exit through a narrow shaft along its left side to reach your next destination: Lost Izalith.

Lost Izalith

There are two routes that you might follow to enter Lost Izalith, and the process you follow determines whether or not you can save the NPC named Solaire, or whether you must battle him.

To save him, you'll need to enter Lost Izaleth by a secret route. You must deepen your affinity with the Chaos covenant by handing over enough humanity to reach level 2. This will require handing over 30 humanity without abandoning the covenant, which is most easily done if you farm humanity in the Depths area of the game by defeating rats. Then as you are working through the Demon Ruins, battle until you reach the area ahead of the chamber where you fight the Demon Firesage boss.

To the right ahead of that chamber, there's a hole in the wall with roots growing down along it. You can carefully descend along those roots to reach a sealed doorway. Pass through it and open the door that lies beyond (it won't open if your Chaos covenant level isn't high enough) and start through the corridor. There are nine bug enemies here and you must destroy them all without stepping forward too far and accidentally entering Lost Izaleth. If you fail to kill them all, you'll eventually have to battle Solaire.

If you don't care whether or not you save Solaire, you can take a more conventional route to the Lost Izaleth area. When you reach the bottom of the Demon Ruins, you'll battle the Demon Centipede and obtain the Orange Charred Ring. It allows you to head across lava while receiving reduced damage compared to what you would otherwise receive. You can cross to the left side of the chamber where you battled the demon and proceed onward through a narrow passage to descend into Lost Izalith. Right at the entrance to the area, you'll find a bonfire. If you see Solaire seated nearby, then you've taken the route that means you'll have to eventually kill him (near the end of this area). He'll has gone hollow.

If you followed the path to save Solaire, you'll arrive in Lost Izaleth at a later point. If you don't watch out for Solaire's welfare, your arrival in the earlier portion of the area will find you at the edge of a lake of molten lava. Make sure that you keep the Orange Charred Ring equipped and start along that lake. You can follow tree roots as you go to mostly stay out of the lava. They'll lead you forward and into a wide area, then along the left side as your movement possibly attracts the attention of the massive enemies in this area.

Move around on the limbs and then reach safe ground near a corpse that you can eventually check for the Soul of a Brave Warrior. Before you check, though, let any enemies that have followed you take care of one another with their jump attacks. They are such big foes that they'll often damage or even kill one another, making things easier for you. The best part is that the enemies won't return once dead, even if you return to a bonfire.

Clearing the huge enemies out of the area may take quite some time and a few trips back to the nearest bonfire, but eventually the immediate area should be clear to proceed. Then you can head around (still mostly sticking to the roots) and reach the entrance to a building. Since the monsters around you can't enter this building, you can use it for shelter. Stand inside the door and let foes get near, then sneak out and hit them with your weapons or magic before retreating back into the building and repeating this process. Using that tactic, you should be able to eliminate a few more of the monsters. Make sure that you obtain the Soul of a Great Hero from the treasure chest inside the building, too.

Then it's time to make your way toward the next building. Ahead of it, a huge root dips down into the lava. You can step onto the root and follow it up toward the next building's higher level. Watch out for any enemies that may try to rush you along the way. Rush quickly up the root to the higher ledge that protrudes from the building's left side. Step onto that ledge to find a safe vantage point. If you press near the building there, the monsters can't harm you. Then you can head around and snipe them with long-range projectile weapons. Grab the Twin Humanities item from the corpse on one side of that ledge, as well.

When you're done, you can and should drop down to the lowest level. Check the building walls on the side that overhead has the extended ledge. You can roll through the wall to reveal a hidden room with a bonfire, the last one in this area. Activate it and then you're ready to push through the last bit of the level.

After using the bonfire, head back out and proceed straight ahead through the lava in that direction to reach a stone structure that looks like a partially submerged tin can floating in the lava. As you pass through it, you'll find some roots that you can then climb. They lead up along the wall to the left. Climb to the top of the roots and you'll find yourself overlooking a lower courtyard area. There are many of the statues here that come to life and chase you around breathing fire, so prepare yourself for that and then descend to face them. Keep an ear out for the sound of them breaking free from their casings, and watch around the corner to the left for one that tries to hide and approach when you're distracted.

On the far side of that courtyard, you can pass through one of two halls with a low ceiling. Be careful of the statues that come to life as you pass through, though. On the far side of those tunnels, you'll find more statues in a more open courtyard area. Defeat them and head forward to find some stairs that ascend to the upper right. Walk around the back side of those stairs to find the Large Soul of a Brave Warrior on a corpse. Then climb the stairs.

As you start up the stairs, you'll attract a large enemy near the top. He'll start rolling down to face you. Get close enough to target him, then back away and throw magic or fire at him to eliminate him from a distance. Once he's gone, climb to the top of the stairs and head right through that small square chamber to find more stairs.

The stairs lead in the direction you ultimately need to go, so remember this location. You'll be coming back to it, but first you can choose take a detour to the lower right to experience some important events and to grab some items that will be astonishingly useful in the near future (even though they're not required). You'll find most of the loot and the important event by following a root trail that leads down and to the left into a wide courtyard, while the rest of the items are located at the base of another root further to the right that leads to a ledge that you can circle to find the Soul of a Hero and (once you drop down again to the area you visited a short time ago) a Rare Ring of Sacrifice.

The main vine that leads down into the plaza area should be descended only when you're ready for more of the statues to come to life and attack. There are a lot of them, so try to work your way across the area smartly and not let any sneak behind you. To the left of the area, you'll notice a dark passage with a corpse resting inside. There's a glowing point on the corpse, but that item is a trap to lure you into a dangerous area. Ignore it for now and look to the right instead, where some stairs ascend.

Climb the stairs and you'll find a long walkway. This is the walkway where you will have arrived in the area if you entered by way of the special entrance from the Demon Ruins area. Along the walkway, you'll find one of the headless demons that attacks with a trident and scorpion tail. He's dangerous, as you'd expect, so keep your distance and pelt him with fire attacks as possible to wear him down. Then move in closer and disable him permanently.

Proceed along the passageway and you'll find a crystal lizard that tries to escape you. Defeat it for a nice reward, or it'll just get away and you'll get nothing. Beyond that is an area where small bugs are jumping around. They can't harm you, but you can kill them. Among them, if you didn't save him from his fate, is the familiar form of Solaire. He'll attack you if he's there and you will have to defend yourself from his attacks and then slay him. When you do, check his corpse for the Humanity and the Sunlight Talisman, Iron Helm, Armor of the Sun, Iron Bracelet and Iron Leggings.

While you're in this area, make sure that you kill each of the hopping insects until you beat the one that will drop an important item, the Sunlight Maggot. You can use that item in the Tomb of Giants area to see without the use of a lantern. Such an item is invaluable in that region.

Now head back to the area mentioned previously, where the corpse with an item on it lies on the underside of a tunnel. You're ready to spring that trap now. Inch forward and keep to the left wall as you do so. The brick floor will collapse to your right, but you'll be safe as you stand on a root trail. Descend it toward the lower area and you'll come to a lower ledge where you can step off the trail and head right to the top of some stairs.

You don't want to go down the stairs. Instead, go left and drop down to a lower point, then head through the roots. Keep away from the hole near the center of the floor, but look through it and you'll see several large enemies waiting. They were the trap that was meant to catch you when the floor caved. Now you can take care of them using magic from the upper ledge, or some shots with a bow and arrows. Once the enemies are defeated, you can drop down and check out the area. First, though, equip something to add protection to poison. The water here will leech your defenses and then poison you if you're not careful.

The items you can find in this low area are mostly just titanite chunks of various colors. However, once you have dropped down in the murky soup, you should head around (being careful to walk around the edges of the gaping holes in the floor, which isn't terribly difficult) to find the Red Titanite Slab in a far passage. Then you can head back up the stairs and up the root trails to at last return to the point at the base of the highest staircase where you first took the detour to the right for all of the loot hunting (in other words, the point we said you would be returning to eventually). Now you're ready to finally start up those stairs.

As you ascend the stairs, do so with caution. There may be an enemy waiting to rush you on the steps. If you see him coming, note that he uses powerful pyromancy and is all but impervious to any that you may throw at him. You'll do much better if you dodge his fire bursts, then move in from the side and hit him hard with a melee weapon as he is preparing to cast.

Head up the stairs past where you defeat him and you'll see stairs descending left toward a mist-shrouded doorway. That's the door through which you'll find the area boss, but first you should continue along the upper path and head around to the right. Another enemy waits there, so defeat it with fire attacks or careful melee maneuvering (you don't want to let it suck you up or it'll potentially kill you instantly, depending on your stats). Then head past it to find a treasure chest that you can open to obtain the Chaos Fire Whip. Now backtrack to the mist-shrouded door that you saw and pass through it when you're ready for a boss battle.

Bed of Chaos

This is a challenging and unique battle that you can't win based on your stats (though having a powerful character doesn't hurt). You'll have to rely on ingenuity.

As the fight begins, you'll see what looks like a large tree ahead of you with a bunch of gnarled branches. This is your foe, but you won't try to beat him in a head-on fight. Instead, you'll need to disable two barriers on the far sides of the arena.

Start with the one to your left. You can and should sprint toward it to reduce the amount of time that you're an exposed target for your foe, who will sweep at you with his large limbs. These can be blocked, mostly, but they'll still inflict damage and you need to be in the habit of avoiding them whenever possible.

Once you reach the glowing barrier, you can step through it and then hack at the object behind it, a glowing limb. When you do enough damage, a scene is triggered.

Now you need to head back around the way that you came, toward where you first entered the arena, but running is actually a bad idea now. The floor ahead of you will periodically give way and you'll have to pick your way along the path. Keep your shield up and move slowly, primarily sticking to the points where tree trunks are rising out of the floor (the brickwork near their base won't crumble away like the other will).

Note that while it's possible to head left of the brickwork so that you're on the main pedestal ahead of the tree, that's not recommended because the tree is more easily able to use sweep attacks with an arm that he grew when you destroyed the first barrier. These attacks will knock you back and cause damage, but a bigger concern is that they're also likely to knock you into a bottomless pit. You'll die instantly if that happens, regardless of your life meter.

Make your way around to the starting point, and from there continue right to reach the second of the glowing barriers. Step through it, as well, and destroy the glowing limb. Now the Bed of Chaos will grow a second arm and you'll have to return to the starting point yet again as it gains a new attack that allows it to create eruptions of fire. If you see red glowing on brickwork nearby, steer clear of it to avoid a fiery death.

Head back around to the left and continue to keep to the brickwork rather than getting close where the boss will hit you with his lethal sweep attacks. Look ahead of the starting point and you'll notice that the pedestal has now fallen partially away. Bait and avoid a sweep attack, then rush toward the center of the area and leap to a lower root ledge. Run along that platform now and when you reach the end, you'll see some more branches. Hack them and then continue along the path, hacking more of them. Pause and hold up your shield if fire erupts around you, but otherwise you can't be harmed. Proceed forward to find a corpse lying on the ground.

Attack and destroy the corpse to win the battle. Note that if you do fall in battle, any progress you've made is saved, so you won't have to re-hit the branches behind the barriers and you won't have to make the pit appear at the center of the pedestal. In that respect, the fight isn't so difficult after all.

Once you defeat the Bed of Chaos, you'll receive the Lord Soul. You can light a bonfire that appears where the corpse was lying, then use it to warp out of the area if you like.

Kiln of the First Flame

This is the final area in the game and can only be accessed once you have obtained the Lordvessel and have defeated the bosses that lurk at the end of the Tomb of Giants, The Abyss, Lost Izaleth and the Crystal Cave. When that is the case, you can head down to Firelink Altar and place the souls in the vessel (which you will have previously placed on the altar in order to gain access to the required four boss areas) to open a doorway.

As you start through the area, you'll descend some wide stairs where spirits pass over ahead of you. The spirits don't harm you, even if you walk directly through them, so just keep descending.

You'll come out in an area filled with what look like dunes of ash. Though you can walk up and along hills to the left and right, for the most part all that you need to do is descend. There are no items to worry about collecting just yet. As you descend, you'll run into the occasional enemy. There's really only one type of enemy in this area, besides the boss. It's a knight with terrific defense and the ability to hit you harder than really seems fair. Not only that, but once you're hit a time or two, you'll probably keep being hit because your stamina will be gone and you can't even get up without meeting a sword thrust to the gut from your foe.

There are two knights to worry about as you descend through the ash dunes. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to heal after both encounters if necessary.

When you have descended to the base of that area, you'll see narrow ledges ahead of you. These cross a wide gap, and there are more of the knights along the ledge. Your best bet here, if you have the ability, is to hit the knights with magic from a distance as they approach. That way, you won't have to worry about them knocking you into the pit.

Near where you meet the first knight in this treacherous area, you can head right along the ledge to find a corpse dangling from the edge. Whoever managed to get this far before you apparently fell short just a bit ahead of the goal. You can loot the Black Knight Helm, Black Knight Armor, Black Knight Gauntlets and Black Knight Leggings from that unfortunate someone, then head back to the intersection and continue in the direction you found the knight.

Along that route, you'll soon ascend and find a moss-lined stone path that leads in a gradual arc toward the right as it descends toward a mist-shrouded door. Along this route, you'll find two more of the knights that you've already faced, spaced far enough apart that you only have to fight one of them at a time. Continue relying on magic to eliminate them safely from a distance if you like, then continue onward to the mist-shrouded door.

When you're ready, step through it to face the game's final boss.

Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

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As boss battles go, this one can prove rather anti-climactic if by now you're good at parrying and counter-attacking. Those are the two skills that will serve you well as you battle Gwyn.

When you first appear in the area, Gwyn will be standing at a distance. When he spots you, he'll start running toward you. You should rush to meet him, shield ready, but it's worth noting that throughout this fight, Gwyn is capable of hitting you so hard that even if your stamina is maxed, you'll lose a lot of it and possibly take some damage by follow-up strikes. Gwyn can often hit two or three times in a row before he is temporarily exhausted and easy to hit.

Dodge the attacks that you can, then, and move in to get in a blow or two of your own. You want to be careful about staying too close, though, because Gwyn can skewer you, lift you into the air and then fling you back. That move drains a lot of stamina, of course, and it also gives Gwyn time to recover so that before you can stand up, he'll rush you and leap into the air then try to bring his sword down in a powerful arc that has a good chance of proving fatal. Make sure that you roll out of the way and then counter-attack in such instances.

Don't just use all of your openings to attack, either. If Gwyn has your health in a bad place, it's perfectly acceptable to gulp down potions before your foe recovers. Remember that once you start the animation once, you can also guzzle subsequent potions without waiting as long for them to take effect. You want to keep your life meter in good shape so that a surprise move by your opponent doesn't spell your end.

If you have a good weapon, a good rating for your strength and decent stamina, this fight will go very well for you. Just keep everything in mind that you've learned up to this point, apply it and victory will soon be yours!

After you defeat the boss, you'll receive 50,000 souls and the Soul of Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. Then you'll be able to choose the ending you want based on your next actions. Head to the bonfire that appears at the center of a nearby ring of stones if you want the noble ending, or try to leave the cavern without using a bonfire if your wish is to be a scoundrel. After the closing credits conclude, you'll immediately begin the game's New Game+ mode. Enjoy!

Xbox 360 Achievements

Achievement Name	How To Earn	Reward
Art of Abysswalking	Acquire the Art of Abysswalking.	15
Bond of a Pyromancer	Acquire all pyromancies.	25
Chaos Weapon	Acquire best weapon through chaos reinforcement.	15
Covenant: Chaos Servant	Discover Chaos Servant covenant.	25
Covenant: Gravelord Servant	Discover Gravelord Servant covenant.	25
Covenant: Way of White	Discover Way of White covenant.	15
Crystal Weapon	Acquire best weapon through crystal reinforcement.	15
Divine Weapon	Acquire best weapon through divine reinforcement.	15
Enchanted Weapon	Acquire best weapon through enchanted reinforcement.	15
Enkindle	Light bonfire flame.	15
Estus Flask	Acquire Estus Flask.	15
Fire Weapon	Acquire best weapon through fire reinforcement.	15
Knight's Honor	Acquire all rare weapons.	25
Lightning Weapon	Acquire best weapon through lightning reinforcement.	15
Lordvessel	Acquire the Lordvessel.	25
Magic Weapon	Acquire best weapon through magic reinforcement.	15
Prayer of a Maiden	Acquire all miracles.	25
Raw Weapon	Acquire best weapon through raw reinforcement.	15
Reach Anor Londo	Arrive in Anor Londo.	25
Reach Lordran	Arrive in Lordran.	15
Ring the Bell (Quelaag's Domain)	Ring Bell of Awakening in Quelaag's domain.	15
Ring the Bell (Undead Church)	Ring Bell of Awakening at Undead Church.	15
Rite of Kindling	Acquire the Rite of Kindling.	15
Strongest Weapon	Acquire best weapon through standard reinforcement.	15
The Dark Soul	All achievements completed. Congratulations!	50
Wisdom of a Sage	Acquire all sorceries.	25
Covenant: Blade of the Darkmoon	Discover Blade of the Darkmoon covenant.	25
Covenant: Darkwraith	Discover Darkwraith covenant.	25
Covenant: forest Hunter	Discover Forest Hunter covenant.	25
Covenant: Path of the Dragon	Discover Path of the Dragon covenant.	25
Covenant: Princess's Guard	Discover Princess's Guard covenant.	25
Covenant: Warrior of Sunlight	Discover Warrior of Sunlight covenant.	25
Dark Lord	Reach "The Dark Lord" ending.	90
Defeat Bed of Chaos	Defeat the Soul Lord Bed of Chaos.	25
Defeat Crossbreed Priscilla	Defeat Crossbreed Priscilla, the Lifehunter.	25
Defeat Gravelord Nito	Defeat the Soul Lord Gravelord Nito.	25
Defeat Seath the Scaleless	Defeat Seath the Scaleless, inheritors of souls.	25
Defeat the Dark Sun Gwyndolin	Defeat Dark Sun Gwyndolin, the Darkmoon God.	25
Defeat the Four Kings	Defeat the Four Kings, inheritors of souls.	25
Occult Weapon	Acquire best weapon through occult reinforcement.	15
To Link the Fire	Reach "To Link the Fire" ending.	90

PlayStation 3 Trophies

Trophy Name	How To Earn	Reward
Art of Abysswalking	Acquire the Art of Abysswalking.	Bronze
Bond of a Pyromancer	Acquire all pyromancies.	Bronze
Chaos Weapon	Acquire best weapon through chaos reinforcement.	Bronze
Covenant: Chaos Servant	Discover Chaos Servant covenant.	Bronze
Covenant: Gravelord Servant	Discover Gravelord Servant covenant.	Bronze
Covenant: Way of White	Discover Way of White covenant.	Bronze
Crystal Weapon	Acquire best weapon through crystal reinforcement.	Bronze
Divine Weapon	Acquire best weapon through divine reinforcement.	Bronze
Enchanted Weapon	Acquire best weapon through enchanted reinforcement.	Bronze
Enkindle	Light bonfire flame.	Bronze
Estus Flask	Acquire Estus Flask.	Bronze
Fire Weapon	Acquire best weapon through fire reinforcement.	Bronze
Knight's Honor	Acquire all rare weapons.	Silver
Lightning Weapon	Acquire best weapon through lightning reinforcement.	Bronze
Lordvessel	Acquire the Lordvessel.	Silver
Magic Weapon	Acquire best weapon through magic reinforcement.	Bronze
Prayer of a Maiden	Acquire all miracles.	Silver
Raw Weapon	Acquire best weapon through raw reinforcement.	Bronze
Reach Anor Londo	Arrive in Anor Londo.	Silver
Reach Lordran	Arrive in Lordran.	Bronze
Ring the Bell (Quelaag's Domain)	Ring Bell of Awakening in Quelaag's domain.	Bronze
Ring the Bell (Undead Church)	Ring Bell of Awakening at Undead Church.	Bronze
Rite of Kindling	Acquire the Rite of Kindling.	Bronze
Strongest Weapon	Acquire best weapon through standard reinforcement.	Bronze
The Dark Soul	All trophies completed. Congratulations!	Platinum
Wisdom of a Sage	Acquire all sorceries.	Silver
Covenant: Blade of the Darkmoon	Discover Blade of the Darkmoon covenant.	Silver
Covenant: Darkwraith	Discover Darkwraith covenant.	Silver
Covenant: forest Hunter	Discover Forest Hunter covenant.	Silver
Covenant: Path of the Dragon	Discover Path of the Dragon covenant.	Silver
Covenant: Princess's Guard	Discover Princess's Guard covenant.	Silver
Covenant: Warrior of Sunlight	Discover Warrior of Sunlight covenant.	Silver
Dark Lord	Reach "The Dark Lord" ending.	Gold
Defeat Bed of Chaos	Defeat the Soul Lord Bed of Chaos.	Silver
Defeat Crossbreed Priscilla	Defeat Crossbreed Priscilla, the Lifehunter.	Silver
Defeat Gravelord Nito	Defeat the Soul Lord Gravelord Nito.	Silver
Defeat Seath the Scaleless	Defeat Seath the Scaleless, inheritors of souls.	Silver
Defeat the Dark Sun Gwyndolin	Defeat Dark Sun Gwyndolin, the Darkmoon God.	Silver
Defeat the Four Kings	Defeat the Four Kings, inheritors of souls.	Silver
Occult Weapon	Acquire best weapon through occult reinforcement.	Bronze
To Link the Fire	Reach "To Link the Fire" ending.	Gold