Dark Souls Noob Guide for Mages – Section 2

UNDEAD PARISH

Once in the church, you should take out the big guy with the shield. Remember to stay behind him. Unfortunately, he cannot be backstabbed, but you can chip away at his health if you stay behind him and watch his animations.

Upon defeat, you will be rewarded with a decent amount of souls. Behind where he was standing, you’ll see an item, a Firekeeper Soul. You use this item to give to the firekeepers and they’ll allow your Estus Flask to heal you more. Pick this up and turn around to head out the left side of the church.

You’ll be in a familiar area, with the three Undead bad guys. Take them out, and head to the right, back towards the cape guy on the narrow walkway. Backstab him again, and then take out his shielded friend up ahead. This time take the right path that’s next to the shielded Undead. You will be led up a flight of stairs but watch out for your right side when you get to the next area. Take him out and keep going downstairs. Eventually, you’ll come across another fork. Right, across a platform that leads outside, or straight and to the left. Let’s head straight and to the left for now, and backstab the caped Undead ahead.

Once the caped Undead is dead, grab the Knight Shield and go back to the fork and take the other option, across a narrow walkway. Now, go towards the platform that leads outside. Follow the path to the fog gate and enter. You should start to hear cross-bolts being shot at you. Don’t pay too much attention to that and go to the left side of the room where you’ll see a ladder. If you walk over to the edge, two Undead will aggro you and you can kill them as they climb up the ladder.

After that, drop down and you’ll see another ladder. With this one, press the button to climb down, but don’t actually climb all the way down. Do it enough to aggro a few enemies and do the same thing you did with the previous Undead: Climb back up and kill them as they climb up the ladder. You’ll notice an item in the rafters, which you can try to get if you’re careful.

Climb down and take out any remaining Undead on this floor and go to the left side of the room if you’re facing the ladder to find the Mystery Key. It will be on a lower part of the floor on a corpse. Leave this little area and continue downward, towards some more Undead. Once they’re all dead, continue along and you’ll reach an arched hallway that leads outside.

Once you get about halfway up the stairs, you’ll notice a giant beast breathing heavily and loudly. If you run all the way up the stairs, you can aggro any enemy nearby and get them to follow you back down into the previous room. Likewise, the giant boar can’t hit you if you’re down the stairs.

You always do have the option of killing this thing right now, but I don’t recommend it. Make sure you’ve killed a few of the Undead that are in the immediate area to make this next part easier. What I recommend is healing up to make sure your health is full and running up the stairs and out into the open area as quickly as you can, avoiding the boar.

Your aim should be to keep left as much as possible, past the fire, and up a set of stairs on the left. If you’re struggling to find the stairs, just get to the fire and make a left and you should be in a little area with some archways and the stairs. Go up the stairs and you should see at least two Undead (depending on how many you killed in the lower stairs area) with crossbows. Go take them out, making sure to not fall down in the area with the boar. If you’re struggling, remember to use magic. On the platform where the two crossbow-Undead are standing is an item, so grab it.

Head back down the stairs you came from and you should see the exit up ahead. All you have to do is run over to this area where you’ll be met with one last Undead. The boar might chase you, but if you run into the next area, down a little, and through a doorway on the left, he will usually stop chasing you. I recommend running up the spiral stairs a bit so the boar doesn’t clip you on the way. DO NOT RUN ALL THE WAY UP THE STAIRS. We will go there later. Take note that there will be a shielded undead who will come after you at this point. Keep him back while the boar makes his way back to his spot. If you’re struggling here, you can always spam magic on the boar before making this run, or….

THE QUIT-OUT TRICK

Okay, this is really cheap, but that’s why you’re here, right? Take the same method I advised of before, but instead, run all the way to the end of the area that leads to a closed gate, instead of up the spiraling stairs. Once you hit the gate, quit out of the game, quickly. Make sure you quit out to the main menu. Doing so will reset the enemies, thus leaving that pesky boar behind when you load the game. I’ve noticed that even if the boar hits you once, you can still quit out as soon as you get hit and have enough time to do so. I will be referencing this trick throughout this guide.

Anyway, head into the small area with the stairs I told you not to go up, and instead, climb down the ladder. Climb down slowly and before you actually get to the bottom, use this time to survey the next area. You will come to an area with three rats. This part sucks, just so you know.  What I did notice is that if you climb down slowly, the two closest rats won’t notice you because their backs are turned. The far rat will see you, so I recommend to shoot one of the closer rats with magic, then jump on the ladder and climb back up. Once up, go away from the ladder a bit and quit out to the main menu. This will reset the spawns of the rats. When you get back in, you will be able to continue doing this until they’re dead.

If for whatever reason you’re having trouble, climb down the ladder quietly, attack one with magic, and then run around the room, Nazi-Zombie style, while safely and quickly getting some pop-shots. Rats aren’t usually that bad, but this early on in the game, they will mess you up, especially if you get poisoned.

If you do get poisoned, don’t panic; just heal and fight them like normal. Once they’re all dead, head through the doorway, outside. You should see an Undead to the left with his back to you. Take him out and carefully maneuver around the path. Once you get to where this guy was standing, you’ll see his buddy to the left. Take him out, too. Follow this area until you get to an indoor area. Once you get here, you’ll notice stairs on the left, or a path to the right.

This next part is weird: Run up the stairs, and into the open area, but immediately run back all the way down the stairs. I mean, all the way down. The reason for this is to get the giant freaking dragon to kill all the enemies on the bridge, netting you some souls. If he has already done this once before you go up the stairs, then don’t go up the stairs. This part is just to get some souls.

After that neat little trick, continue towards the other doorway that leads down towards a familiar area. You’ll go down some stairs and then see a ladder that you can kick to create a shortcut. Don’t forget to kick the ladder because you’ll be pretty salty if you missed that shortcut.

Once you kick it, climb down and you’ll know where you are. At this point, you should have enough souls to level up your Strength and Dex to wield the Halberd. You don’t have to do this, but it’s highly recommended. If you don’t have enough souls, you can use the dragon upstairs to grind for souls till you’re ready. Run up there, get him to kill the enemies, rest at this bonfire, run back up, rinse and repeat.

UNDEAD BURG

Once you’ve got the Halberd (or other weapon of your choice) you will be ready to move on to the boss. Take the left path across the bridge towards the Undead that throw fire bombs, and work your way back to the stairs with the rolling fire barrel by the chest with the Gold Pine Resin. You’ll notice the Halberd is a lot better. You’re welcome.

Now go up the stairs and into the area with the spiral staircase and go up those stairs. You’ll notice this is the fork where you previously went down into the Darkroot Basin. Keep going up the steps till you get to the second story, where you’ll see a fog gate and some barrels. If you roll into the rightmost barrels, you’ll encounter another Crystal Lizard. You should be able to take this one out, even if it jumps on the stairs. Grab its goodies and traverse the white light. As soon as you do so, you’ll be outside on a bridge-like structure. Walk down the small set of stairs and turn the camera so you can see your character and what’s behind him/her. As long as your back is to the fog gate, you should see a ladder. Climb it. Take out the two crossbow guys and get ready for your first real boss fight.

TAURUS DEMON

While up on this platform, we should do a couple things. First, make sure you equip your Gold Pine Resin as an item. Don’t apply it to your weapon yet, but have it in your equip bar. You should be able to scroll through these items by pressing down on the D-Pad, similar to scrolling through your right and left-handed weapons/shields. Keep it on the Gold Pine Resin, and make sure you have the Halberd in your right hand, two-handed. Now the nerve-wracking part.

Climb down the ladder, and start to cross the bridge. When you get about halfway through the bridge, use the Gold Pine Resin by hitting the ‘use item’ button. When you get about three-fourths through the bridge, the boss will spawn. Make sure you use the Gold Pine Resin before he spawns.

Once you see him drop down, immediately turn around and run back to the ladder. Climb up and do a two-handed drop-down attack on him, just like with the Asylum Demon. This should cause devastating damage. On my run, it took out half his health.

From here, you have two options:

1. Stay under and close to him and whack him with the regular attack, about 4-5 times.
2. Run all the way to the other end of the bridge where he spawned and fire magic at him.

I don’t necessarily recommend the second option because it’s slower, but if you just cannot dodge his attacks, it is a safer option. But really, I was able to take him out with the Halberd in a few hits after I landed from the drop-down attack.

Either way, collect your rewards and continue onward. Go into the second room with the steps and roll into the boxes right above and ahead of the steps for an item. Now go down the steps and you’ll come to an archway with a locked door ahead. Because of the way we did things, you should have the Basement Key to unlock this. If not, go and grab it next to the church, by the boar and the lever that opens and closes the gate.

Before going down here, take a right (if you look left, you should see our old dragon friend), towards an area overlooking the land. Here, you will meet Solaire, the unofficial mascot of Dark Souls. Talk to him, say yes to everything and he’ll give you the White Sign Soapstone, which you can leave on the ground to be summoned to other players’ worlds. Doing this is a great way to get a feel for the upcoming boss with no risk of losing your stuff.

Now go back to the door you unlocked with the Basement Key and head down the stairs and down the ladder. Remember, hold the run button to slide down the ladder. Go down a second set of stairs and you’ll come to an outside area with a fork: forward or up a set of stairs to the right. Take these stairs and follow the path all the way up till you get to a gate. Unlock it and you should now know where you are; It’s back to the area by our old trusty bonfire! This is a shortcut that I’m sure you’ll be happy about. If you don’t know where you are, take the path that’s straight ahead, and it will lead you to the little bridge where the Undead throw firebombs at you. Keep going, cross the wooden bridge and rest at the bonfire.

Now let’s go back to that new door we just unlocked. Remember, head to the left, across the little bridge and avoid the firebombs. I also recommend to kill everyone in your way to avoid getting hit from behind. This shouldn’t be too hard with your new Halberd. I seriously love that thing. Go through the door and down the steps to the left. Once you get to the bottom of the set of stairs, you’ll be at a fork, where you can go left (where you came down the ladder to unlock this shortcut) or right. Go right, down the next set of stairs. Keep your shield up and go slowly.

 

You’ll be attacked by at least one dog, if not more. There are three dogs in total, so be careful. One quirky thing about Dark Souls is that you can attack enemies through some walls, so if you position yourself behind an object with the enemy on the other side, you can hit them without getting hit back. That’s what I did for the dogs; I used the corner of the steps to protect myself. Make sure all three dogs are dead and you should see a fire on your left and a little well with a roof on your right.

Turn right and follow the path that leads back, opposite of the way you were just facing (assuming the fire was on your left and the stairs were to your back.) You should see some doors on your left, one of which you can open with the Residence Key. It’s the second to last door, by the way. Upon opening it, you will see a guy in there. He’s a vendor who will sell you sorceries! His name is Griggs of Vinheim. Talk to him a few times and exhaust his dialogue. He will leave this area and appear at Firelink for you to buy magic from him – Super useful.

Turn around and head out the building and go left. Follow this area till you reach a section with Undead on either side of you. Be careful not to rush in and get swamped. Lure them out one at a time. The Halberd does wonders against these guys. Once they’re all dead, head to the right side to find Twin Humanities.

Okay, now let’s go back since this is a dead end. Head back to the fire by the well and put your back to it with the well on your right. If you look forward, you should see the path that leads onward. Walk forward till you get to the wagon thing with the big wheels. Just ahead of that will be doors on either side of you, and once you get in front of them, enemies will rush out. You may need to run a bit past them to get the enemies to come out, but in total, there will be three of them. I recommend to run back up the steps you came from and get them all to bunch up since the steps are so narrow. You can then use the walls to your advantage and attack them from a bit of a distance with magic or your Halberd.

If you get too far from them, they’ll start throwing knives at you, so try and stay close. Once all three are taken out, continue along the path. Eventually, the path will veer to the left a bit and you’ll see a narrow grassy area. As soon as you step on the grass, two doors will open and three more of those hooded guys will run out. Do the same thing you did before: backup and bait them one at a time, remembering to use magic and the walls to your advantage. If you’re super unlucky, a dog will come rushing out too. Just guard and attack in between animations and you’ll be fine.

There is an additional dog (so, two dogs total) that will come your way once you move up the path a bit. He will charge and lunge at you, so attack him as soon as the lunge animation finishes. At the start of the grassy area there should be an archway to the left, with a corpse in a barrel. Break it for some souls. In the distance you should see a fog gate. Go towards it, but don’t cross it yet!!!! There is an extremely overpowered boss in here that you probably aren’t ready for, so instead, let’s go right. Basically get right up against the fog gate and then turn right, down some stairs.

Head all the way down them and you should see another hooded guy and if you go past the wall on your left, one will be hiding around the corner. Kill them both and continue onward. You should see some stairs on your left. Let’s head that way, through a doorway. Once inside, follow the winding stairs on the left and take out the archer on the platform. One hit should do. Keep following the stairs till you can’t anymore and enter the dark tunnel ahead. On the right, you’ll see a merchant who sells valuable things like Humanity and Purging Stones. Don’t get anything for now and go the other way down the tunnel. It’s a bit of a walk, but keep going all the way till you come to a gate that unlocks a shortcut. Open it and keep going forward. Eventually, you should see a rat that can be taken out easily. To the left of the rat is the exit.

FIRELINK SHRINE

We are home, once again. Head back to the Firelink Bonfire and rest up for the fight ahead. Before that, let’s find the friend we just rescued. From the bonfire, go to the well, then the tree, then look left. You should see the merchant there. Answer yes to his question. I recommend to purchase Heavy Soul Arrow if you have enough, because we will need it for the upcoming fight. If you have a ton of souls, get Great Soul Arrow. Now go back to the bonfire and attune magic to add what you just purchased to your arsenal. You should have at least three slots available, so make sure you’ve got at least Soul Arrow and Great (Heavy) Soul Arrow equipped. Once this is done, let’s head to the elevator at the back of Firelink to fight our first ‘real’ boss, atop a church.

 

UNDEAD PARISH

Exit the elevator and head up the stairs on your left, carefully. There will be a caped guy waiting for you at the top. He should be no match for your Halberd or magic, so take him out and continue around the left and then make a right. This part sucks. What you want to do is go towards the doorway that leads to the next area with the big Channeler magic guy. However, don’t actually go into the area. Just run right up to the doorway and turn around and run back. Once you do that, you will have aggroed about 10 Undead who don’t hit hard individually, but together can kill you in seconds. And you can get stuck on them. The strategy? Back up, hit them one at a time, and make sure you’re mindful of your surroundings. Don’t let them get behind you because you’ll get stuck on them and killed.

You’ll also notice the big magic guy might be spamming spells at you. They don’t hit too hard, so once you kill all the Undead, take care of the Channeler magic guy. He’s somewhat weak to magic, so spam him with spells or whatever you have. If you can get him in an open area, run up behind him and whack him with your Halberd. Once he’s dead, he’s dead for good. After that, enter the open area with the columns and the three barrels (or you might already be there if you ran to the Channeler. For me, he came into the narrow hall.)

Go to the left, back behind the barrels and you’ll see an item hanging on the window. Grab it for some souls and then turn around and stand in the doorway, with your back to the four barrels in this little room. You should see a long hall with a few doorways. Go that way, but be aware that one last caped guy will come at you from the front. It may be tough to fight him in this narrow hall, so bait him out to the larger room to try and backstab him. Once he’s dead, go back to the hall where that guy was waiting for you. Head all the way back and you’ll see a crappy, wooden set of planks, boarding up a room.

Roll through them and head up the stairs and to the small cell with a gold guy inside. Talk to him, open the door with the Mystery Key, and talk to him again. We will see him at Firelink Shrine later. Now, head all the way back to the bigger area with the columns and where the Channeler magic guy was. If you’re facing the three barrels against the wall, look to the right and you’ll see a path with some steps. Go here, climb the steps, up the ladders, and you’ll see a fog gate on your left.

BELL GARGOYLES

Be warned, this is the hardest fight up until this point, so we should prepare. Make sure you have your magic equipped, your Sorcerer’s Catalyst in one of your right-hand slots, as well as your Halberd (or other strong weapon) in the other right hand slot. If you’re lucky, you should have at least one Gold Pine Resin left, which you should equip to your character and be ready to add it to your weapon momentarily.

Here are a few things to note:

1. There will be one Gargoyle that spawns and once his health is at half, a second one will spawn behind where the first originally spawned.
2. The second Gargoyle will spawn with half health, thank goodness.
3. Fighting on the roof makes it easy to get knocked off, so stay in the middle of the roof if you can.
4. Try your best to kill the first Gargoyle before the second one gets to you. Fighting both Gargoyles at the same time can be a pain, so our aim here should be to overkill the first one.
5. One trick is to switch between two-handing and shield so you can maximize your damage.
6. If you get stuck, you always have magic.
7. Two-handed heavy attacks with the Halberd do massive damage, especially with Gold Pine Resin equipped.

With that in mind, traverse the white light and apply the Gold Pine Resin to your weapon if you have any left. The Gargoyle will spawn, so get behind him and go to town on him. Remember, you can definitely switch between two-handing and using your shield if you want to be safe. When the Gargoyle goes up in the air, back away and wait for him to land. The goal here should be to stick behind him and kill him before the other one gets to you. If you still seem to be struggling, remember, use magic, or the quit-out trick to retry before you die.

If you do die, it’s back to Firelink shrine, unfortunately. One thing you can do, too, is make a backup save in your system’s cloud (if your system supports that) and keep redownloading THAT save so you don’t have to keep running back if you die.

Once the second guy spawns, it should be a cake-walk (assuming the first gargoyle is dead.) Attack him from behind while he’s breathing fire on you. And remember, magic is your friend, especially using the Great Soul Arrow. A good strategy might be to put some distance between you and the Gargoyles and spam magic. I know this fight is hard, but you have lots of tools at your disposal to get through it as easily as possible. Remember to always block attacks and use that time to study attack patterns. With luck and usage of some magic, you should be able to defeat them. Your reward for killing them are some souls and the Gargoyle’s Halberd if you cut off the first gargoyle’s tail. You might want to equip this for now.

Once that happens, continue along the roof into an indoor area, up a series of ladders, all the way to the top where you will see a lever that rings a bell. Interact with the lever and then make your way back down. Once you get down the second ladder, you’ll see an NPC there, Oswald of Carim. Talk to him if you ever need to be pardoned for attacking an NPC. From here, back to the bonfire above Andre of Astora to level up your weapon.

To do so, talk with him and select Reinforce Weapon. In most cases, you will need Titanite Shards to get a weapon to +5. He sells them, and you should have enough souls to buy shards to get the weapon as close to +5 as possible.

Remember, I’m using the Gargoyle’s Halberd now, but you can use whatever. Just pick something you like and upgrade it as much as you can. Also, don’t forget you have some consumable souls, like Soul of a Nameless Soldier that may help get your weapon to +5. Now, go upstairs and rest at the bonfire and level up. At this point, I was a level 20. Don’t neglect Faith, because you’ll need around 18 Faith to use the Homeward Miracle which is extremely useful. You can’t go wrong with Vitality and Endurance, either.

Now that you have a better weapon and almost everything we need for this next boss, it’s time to…

GRIND!

Yeah, unfortunately, the next boss is really tough and the area she’s in is no pushover, either. Head back to the dragon on the bridge in Undead Burg to grind. Do this as long as you’re comfortable, but I got my character up to level 27 before I couldn’t take anymore. You’ll get around 555 souls every 30 seconds which is a great amount for lower level characters.

It may be best to get to level 30 and grind for about an hour. I know it’s not fun, but the boss ahead is rough. Once you’re finished, head back to Firelink to move on. On your way to Firelink, go backwards through Undead Burg and stop by the Undead Merchant in the long, dark cave to buy at least one Purple Moss Clump for 500 souls. It’s the lady behind the gate, next to the shortcut we unlocked. You’ll be glad you bought one.

FIRELINK SHRINE

Head to the bonfire to rest up and get 10 Estus Flasks. There’s one more thing to do before moving on to the next area.

From here, walk up to the guy sitting right next to the bonfire and then turn left, down the stairs. You will come to a little area where you’ll see that gold guy from before the Gargoyle fight. This is one of the few NPCs you need to kill. He’s pretty annoying, but you must kill him. Otherwise, you’ll be sent on a horrible quest later on and the Firekeeper at the Firelink Shrine bonfire will be gone, so you won’t be able to rest there. Trust me, you MUST kill this guy.

I always just knock him off the ledge. You can kick him, use magic, do whatever; just make sure he’s dead. If you DO kick him off, quit the game once you get the souls for his death and load back in to get his items,  5 Humanity and a Ring of Favor and Protection that you can equip if you want.

Turn around from where the gold guy was sitting and you should see bars on a window. Go there, talk to the lady and reinforce your Estus Flask. Once you’ve done that, turn around 180 degrees and go left, through an archway that hides a set of winding stairs that leads down and to the right. Continue down and into a room with a round elevator. Take it down and you’ll be in a late-game area.

NEW LONDO RUINS

This area sucks, but it will lead us to the next area. Luckily, you don’t have to actually go through New Londo to proceed…yet. What you should do is turn left, and follow the path down the stairs and pick up the item hidden next to the stairs. You can drop down and it won’t kill you. Continue along, down another set of stairs and exit this little area through an archway. Once “New Londo Ruins” pops up on the screen after exiting the area with the stairs, turn right, and go up a tiny set of stairs, through an archway with more stairs. Once you get to the top, open the gate with the Master Key.

VALLEY OF DRAKES

This area sucks, too.

Before we do anything else, let’s grab a useful item, the Red Tearstone Ring. Follow this path a bit till you get to a long plank connecting to the other side. Cross it and turn left, (note that turning right will lead to Blighttown which is where we will go next) following the narrow path. Keep going, cross the bridge, run past the dragon lying down, and you’ll see a few more smaller dragons in the distance. Go past the first two dragons and you’ll see a bridge on the left with a few more dragons. Run across the bridge and weave through all of the attacks. It’s not too hard to do, especially if you use the quit-out method.

At the end of the bridge will be a ladder on the right. Climb it and at the top of the ladder will be the Red Tearstone Ring. This ring is super useful because it boosts attack while HP is low. In other words, if you add an element to your weapon like fire or lightning, use Power Within (we’ll get that soon) to increase attack, and purposely lower your health to activate the Red Tearstone Ring, you will do insane damage. I won’t be referencing this ring much after this, but just know it’s an option if you’re struggling, especially when it comes to dealing damage.

Now, climb (or jump) down and head all the way back to the short plank you crossed and head into the cave. You’ll notice as soon as you walk in, the screen will get dim and nasty-looking. That’s because you’re about to enter one of the worst areas of the game. Keep going straight for a bit and you’ll run into two giant troll-looking guys with clubs. You can kill them if you want, but I don’t think they’re worth the trouble. I honestly just run past them. Keep running and you’ll encounter a third troll. Just keep running.

BLIGHTTOWN

Once “Blighttown” pops up, you should quit-out to reset the spawns. You don’t have to, but since you ran past the big guys, quitting will keep them from coming up behind you. Okay, so walk along the wooden floor and follow the path till you get to a dead end with a chest to the left. Open the chest if you want; it’s got a key we don’t need.

I’m going to make Blighttown as quick and easy as possible. This is one of the most hated areas and for good reason. I won’t be collecting all the items here, simply because I just want to get through it. If your back is to the way you came in, there should be a ladder on the right, leading down, not far from the chest. Put the chest in front of you and your back to the way you came in and the ladder will be on the right, next to a torch.

Climb down this short ladder and then turn around to see another ladder. Climb down this one, too and as soon as you land, you should see a giant fire-bug monster behind the ladder. You should see this thing before you even get down the ladder. Kill the bug, making sure to be cautious of its fire. Attack from behind. Also, watch out for smaller, flying bugs. Kill them when you can.

From here, continue in the direction towards the back of the ladder you just climbed down. As in, if you’re climbing the ladder, the path is ahead, not behind you. You should see another ladder. If you don’t see a ladder, you’re in the wrong place. Don’t drop down or go anywhere without using the ladders.

Climb down this longer ladder and you should see another ladder. Climb down this one, too. Once you get down this  ladder, look to the right, and down and you should see a weird man that you can target. If you’re facing the ladder you just climbed down, he will be off to the right, on the platform below you. Target him and kill him to make your life easier. You don’t have to, but he may catch you with a poison dart.

Once he’s down, turn directly around and climb down one more ladder. This one is short. After climbing down this last ladder, you should see the corpse of the guy shooting poison darts at you from the right. Don’t go that way, but instead, face the ladder you just climbed down and turn to your 7 o’clock. In other words, turn completely around when facing the ladder and you’ll see a path.

Go to the end of it and you’ll see yet another ladder. Climb down it and take out the giant bug monster to your left. Once he’s dead, go to the right of the ladder and you should see a giant spinning wheel with little platforms on it. When a platform gets close enough for you ro roll onto, do so and take the ride down. You can take it all the way down, but I recommend rolling off the right side onto a platform to avoid taking poison damage from the swamp.

After you’ve landed on this platform (or foolishly landed in the swamp), our goal is to head left (left if the giant wheel is behind us, right, if you’re facing it.) From the platform, take the ladder down and continue along the path of wooden sticks. This should lead you right up to the swamp area with a giant fire-bug to your left. Shoot it with magic and be careful to not get hit with the fire attacks.

Follow the narrow path around to the left and hug the leftmost wall while continuing forward. You will see another giant bug, but unfortunately, you must cross through some of the swamp. Just roll through it to avoid getting poisoned. If you do get poisoned, it’s okay, because the bonfire is mere steps away. Kill the bug, and continue, still sticking to the left wall. You should see another fire-bug off in the distance, but don’t pursue him. Instead, go into the cave/tunnel on the left with the bonfire. Woooo. You’ve made it.

From the bonfire, we can do a little something. You should have a Humanity to spare, so consume one and reverse hollowing at the bonfire. After that, run out of the cave a bit and run back inside. Before long, Mildred the Maneater should spawn. She is an NPC disguised as a player phantom. Stay inside the cave with the bonfire and wait for her to come to you. As soon as you see her, lock on and spam magic at her till she gets right up to you. Then, go around to backstab her. She isn’t that tough, especially if you use your shield wisely and backstab.

Once she’s dead you’ll get a lot of souls and a few more Humanity. Time to level up! If you’re lucky, you should have some Purple Moss clumps from killing enemies around here. Equip them and make your way back out and to the right. Our goal here is to go all the way to the right of the entire area.

BUT FIRST….

We need to get a super useful item that will make our lives easier, Power Within. It increases all attacks by 40%, including magic. The downside is that it constantly depletes your health, but that’s a small price to pay. To get there, head left out of the bonfire in Blighttown and go to the wooden ramp that leads upwards. Weave in and out of the enemies and take the ramp up and then head left at the top of it. You’ll reach a ladder. Use this ladder to climb up. To the left will be another ladder and to the left of that, a third ladder. At the top of this ladder will be another ladder to the left.

Follow this path and kill the fire-bugs in your way. At the end of this path will be a cave area to the right and a ladder to the left. Climb this ladder and then another one right after. After this, go through a white light that leads to a  cave to the right and you’ll get to yet another ladder. Climb it a little and aggro the enemy at the top. Climb back down and wait for him to do the same. Once he’s dead, climb back up and through the tunnel with the troll guy. Wrap around to the right, up a ramp and you’ll see a nasty bug sticking out of the wall.

You don’t actually need to kill this bug to get Power Within, but it will make your life easier. Magic works great. After he’s dead, the item will drop right next to him. Grab it and head back to the Blighttown bonfire. You can just roll off the side to kill yourself. Keep in mind I will only be using Power Within a few times, because I don’t like to rely on it, but you can most certainly use it. Also, unless you have the Pyromancy Flame, you won’t be able to use it yet, anyway.

From the bonfire, you’ll have to cross the swamp ahead, but the Purple Moss Clumps should help. Make sure you equip it so it’s ready. Exit the bonfire tunnel and head right. You should come across the two fire-bugs before getting back to the area with the giant wheels. With the giant wheels to your right, keep going and you should see a third fire-bug in the swamp. You can kill it if you want, but once you’re facing it, look to the left.

You’ll see a few giants holding boulders and a giant structure covered in spider webs. Cross the swamp and try to stay on the rightmost side of this structure. Once you get to the structure, consume a Purple Moss, and carefully make your way up, making sure not to aggro the giants. If you do, they’ll throw those boulders at you and they hit hard. You should be looking for a small opening that leads down a tunnel. It’s the only opening in the structure.

QUELAAG’S DOMAIN

Follow the path to the fog gate. On the way, there will be a few egg monsters, but they’re harmless, so don’t attack them. Upon arrival to the fog gate, you should prepare for the fight ahead. This boss sucks; but we will be cheesing her the best we can.

First, she has a sweet spot that is relatively safe. If you stay at her side, you can attack her and avoid her front and rear attacks. Unfortunately, magic isn’t amazing against her unless you hit her in the human part of her body. She IS weak to lightning, but as we haven’t designed our build for that, we will have to approach this differently (you’re more than welcome to go grind for Faith and buy miracles from the bowl-cut guy in Firelink Shrine.) Oh and right now might be a good time to make a backup save and put it in the cloud, so that when you die, you can reload that save instead of having to go through the swamp again. It’s up to you. Also, it’s worth noting that you should equip fire resistance gear for this fight, for obvious reasons.

CHAOS WITCH QUELAAG

When you enter, she will probably start to charge after you head on. Take this time to position yourself on her side (Or roll under her to get behind her) and try to two-hand attack her as much as you can. If you see her start to move or do anything that looks sketchy, whip out your shield and try to get back to her side. The one attack to look out for is the giant AOE bomb she lets off. Watch for her to bend forward and reach down for the spider head that’s attached to her. This attack is powerful and will damage you at 360 degrees. Just roll back and stay at a safe distance for the duration of the bomb. Use this time to shoot her with a bit of magic. Once it’s over, run back and stick to her side again. This is an endurance fight and might take longer to finish than you’re used to.

Your best bet will be to attack her when she’s doing her lava spray attack. It lasts long enough to get a few pop shots in. One thing you may run into is Quelaag hitting you with her sword. To avoid this, just stay right up next to her. Like RIGHT up next to her. If you’re on her side, the attacks won’t hit you. With my Gargoyle Halberd, I was able to do around 150 damage with heavy attacks. Just, for the love of god, pay attention to her doing the giant blast move that will kill you in one hit and you’ll be okay. Oh, and I don’t really recommend locking on at all times. It can get you messed up at times.

Also, I recommend to hit her with magic whenever you’re at a distance to ensure you’re maximizing your damage output. I sometimes found myself having to distance myself from her because of her spraying lava everywhere. Don’t get greedy with your attacks, because all it takes is one AOE bomb and you’re dead. Make sure to watch her attack patterns and only attack when she’s not moving or gearing up for the AOE bomb. That’s my biggest warning here. Everything else is easy to recover from. My final tidbit is to watchout for the pools of lava and to be aware of them when getting next to her. Sometimes she may obstruct your view and you’ll accidentally step on the lava.

And if nothing else, summon someone. Anyway, once she’s dead, continue to the back of the room where she came from and go up the stairs. Keep going till you see a circular area with a bunch of spiderwebs on it. Behind that is a lever, just like the one at the top of the church with the Gargoyles.

A cutscene will start and after that, go to the right of the lever, down some stairs into a new area. You should see a circular thing (it’s an elevator; spoilers) on the ground with a busted wall on the left. If you go forward, all the way to the wall, you can smack it and it will reveal a new area. Follow the path and talk to the egg man. Answer yes to him and he will let you pass. Once you go through, go over to the spider lady on the right and talk to her.

Join the covenant to get the Great Chaos Fireball, and then sit down at the fire to level up. The reason for resting at this bonfire is to have it as a warp point for later. You’ll be glad you did.

Now, head all the way back to the Blighttown bonfire. Just go the way you came. With your back to the boss room where you fought Quelaag; Get to the beginning of the tunnel entrance to the boss room and now go to the far left side to avoid the trolls. Cross the swamp here and then make your way to the right, while killing or avoiding the fire-bugs. If you get poisoned, no big deal. Just heal and get to the bonfire. Once you get there, your job is to get all the way back to Firelink.

Your aim is to get back to the platform beneath the spinning wheels to make your way back up. To do so, head right out of the bonfire tunnel and go past the two fire-bugs. After the second one, you should see a ramp that you can take that leads up to the platform. Follow the path till you see a ladder and climb it. Once you’re at the top floor of the platform leading to the wheel, head all the way to the back, and turn left to wait for the wheel to align so you can jump on it.

Drop down onto the wheel and then wait for it to take you high enough to be able to roll onto the next platform. This platform will be on the opposite side you dropped down from. Once here, you should know where you are, but head to the opposite side of the wheel to find the ladder that leads up. Climb it and then at the top you will be greeted with another ladder in front of you. Atop that ladder is another platform that leads to another ladder (to the left of the dart throwing guy) that continues up.

And then another ladder. And another. At the top of this one, a firebug should be waiting. Take him out and head over to the other ladder behind the bug. Climb it and then climb one last one to arrive at the top of Blighttown. Yay, you did it. From here, head straight out the tunnel, past the trolls and you’ll arrive at Valley of Drakes.

VALLEY OF DRAKES

Head right, cross the plank, and then left. Go through the open gate and then down the steps.

NEW LONDO RUINS

Head up the steps on your left and then up the next set of steps. Follow this path till you get to the elevator. Make sure you check to see if the elevator is actually there, because if you run to where it’s supposed to be and it isn’t, you’ll fall to your death. If it’s not there, pull the lever to call it down. Ride it up and then continue upwards.