Dark Souls Noob Guide for Mages – Section 3

FIRELINK SHRINE

Rest at the bonfire and then praise the gods that Blighttown is over (for now). The next step is to head back to the Undead Parish bonfire above Andre of Astora. Take the elevator behind Firelink Shrine to get there.

BUT FIRST….

Let’s take a little detour. Once you’re at the top of the elevator that leads to the Undead Parish church, take the elevator back down, but face outwards, towards Firelink. If you watch carefully, there is a platform that you can roll down onto before the elevator gets to the bottom. Roll onto the platform and head along the right onto the grassy area. Follow this area till it dead ends and then look left. There is a platform you can roll onto. Make sure you roll, because jumping might cause you to miss the mark.

Follow this narrow platform up to a ruined structure with winding stairs on the left. Follow that up one floor and you’ll see a roof you can drop down onto with an item. Pick up the Undead Asylum F2 West Key. Turn back around and then go back to the platform where you just were, and back up the steps. If you fall, just head back to the elevators to try again.

Follow these winding steps all the up and eventually you’ll come across a bird’s nest. Press the prompt to “Curl up like a ball” and watch an interesting cutscene after a few moments of lying down.

NORTHERN UNDEAD ASYLUM

Okay, you should be in a familiar place! The start of the game. Head down to the asylum and you’ll see a few Undead with torches. I recommend to take them out with magic, as their torches are devastating. Once you get inside, past the doors, STOP! Seriously, don’t walk onto the brick floor where you fought the Asylum Demon. It will collapse and you’ll have to fight a harder version of him that you probably aren’t prepared for yet.

Instead, head along the edge where the pots are and make your way to the doors opposite the side you came in. Once you get through the doors, you can rest at the bonfire. From here, go straight back towards the very beginning of the game. Our goal is to go back around the cell where you first started. Go past the bonfire and head towards a doorway with a ladder. Climb down the ladder and continue through the asylum until you see a Black Knight guarding a cell in a long hallway.

If you’re having trouble with this guy you can spam magic, backstab, or parry. I would recommend to start learning how to parry because you’ll need to be able to do it for some upcoming enemies. Otherwise, get behind him and backstab. NOTE: If he drops the Black Knight Sword, use it because it does a lot of damage. It’s a rare drop, but look out for it.

Once he’s dead, continue to the cell behind him and pick up the Peculiar Doll. Now, turn back and head to the bonfire outside the boss room with the Asylum Demon. Enter the room again and this time, head to the left, remembering to avoid the middle of the floor. Stay to the left as much as you can and enter the doorway on the left.

Follow this path and you’ll come across a second Black Knight. Take him out like you did the last one and continue. We are heading to the area above the boss room where you previously dropped down on top of the Asylum Demon at the beginning of the game. Before you reach the top, you’ll encounter the guy who gave you the Estus Flasks, but this time, he’s an enemy. He fights similarly to the Black Knights, so take him out and head up the steps where the boulder was, previously. Remember to get out of the way of the boulder, like last time.

Once you get to the area where you had to pass through the fog gate to drop down on top of the boss at the beginning of the game, continue to the room on the right that contains two enemies and a locked door. Once they’re dead, use the Undead Asylum F2 West Key. Follow the path down some steps and you’ll come across the Rusted Iron Ring. Grab this and head back to the bonfire outside the boss room. There’s a shortcut to the right of the stairs with the boulder that leads down to the bonfire. When you’re ready, two-hand your weapon and get ready for the harder version of the Asylum Demon, the Stray Demon.

STRAY DEMON

Head into the room that I’ve been telling you to be cautious in, and stand in the center of the floor. It will collapse and you’ll be ready to fight. Heal up once you land. Quickly get right up behind the Demon and start pummeling him.

Just like Quelaag, there’s only one main move to look out for: the AOE blast. Sound familiar? This guy fights like a mix between Quelaag and Asylum Demon. You should stick behind him and watch out for him when he lifts his staff up in the air. It means you need to roll back a lot. This blast has a 360 degree radius and will kill you in one hit. If you stay behind him and watch out for his AOE blast and his other move where he jumps up in the air and slams back down, you’ll be okay. Shields are useless here, so just two-hand your Halberd.

In my run, I played it super safe and literally only attacked him in between animations. I stayed behind him, watched for him to use the AOE blast or one of his other attacks and after the animation was finished, I ran up and got in a few pop shots. The key here is to not get greedy and to pay attention to his patterns. If you stay away from the AEO blast and stick behind him, you should be golden. Once he’s dead, look for the ladder in this room and head back up.

Once you climb up the ladder, take a left and drop down where the broken fence is. From here, head right, follow the path and head up the ladder. We’re heading back to the nest to go to Firelink. Rest at the bonfire and level up outside the boss room. You can also get around 9000 souls so you can buy the Homeward miracle and a Talisman. I usually just buy Homeward Bones, though. It’s up to you. The Homeward miracle requires 18 Faith which is a tad high for my liking. Once you’re finished, head all the way back to the bird’s nest. Remember to use magic on the Undead here and to be careful not to get overrun. Curl up like a ball at the nest and you’ll emerge at Firelink.

FIRELINK SHRINE

From here, let’s head to the Depths. We won’t be doing the whole area right now, but we will do some of it and come back to it later. I hate that place. Anyway, head back to the tunnel that leads to Undead Burg, but keep going through the tunnel till you get to the merchant lady at the end.

LOWER UNDEAD BURG

Make a right when you’re standing in front of her and continue down the spiraling stairs. Once you get outside, you’ll be standing on a platform with steps on the right and left. Head down the right side and take out the annoying guys that throw knives.

Keep going up the steps and be prepared for an annoying boss fight. Before you reach the fog gate, two dogs will attack you. Use the stairs to your advantage and take them out.

CAPRA DEMON

This guy is annoying. His attacks do a ton of damage and he’s got two dogs to accompany him. Before entering, equip firebombs and black firebombs if you have them. Your first priority should be to take out the dogs because they will mess you up. Use the stairs on the left to your advantage, but remember not to stay up there for too long. Magic works okay, but, like many bosses, stay behind him.

In my run, I entered the room, went around the right side of the boss and up the stairs. Here, I killed the dogs and waited for the Capra Demon to make his way up the steps. Once I got some distance between us, I threw a few bombs at him, used the steps to do a plunging attack (drop-down) and continued this loop a few times.

The hard part is the beginning; Trying to kill the dogs first. Once he’s dead, you’ll get the Key to the Depths.

Head out the room and to the left, down the stairs. Follow the path till it dead ends at a gate with a corpse and an item. Grab it and then use your key to open the door down to the Depths.

THE DEPTHS

Enter the area and go down some steps till you see a few Undead. Kill them, and then head to the right side of the steps to grab an item (Souls to consume). Exit this area to the right and you’ll see a more open room with tables and a few more Undead. Take them all out, carefully. If you look over the railing to the left of the stairs (with your back to the top of the stairs) you’ll see a giant butcher enemy. Take this time to spam lots of magic and take the enemy out. If you can’t manage to do so, the butcher will come after you, but her (yeah, it’s a girl) health should be low enough to make the fight easy.

Our goal is to head down to that area with the butcher, so head straight from the steps you entered from, and then to the left down a second set of steps. Theses steps are in the middle of the room. Watch out because TWO dogs will attack you. Kill them and head to where the butcher was originally standing. There should be a chest, so open it and grab the Large Ember, which you will need to upgrade your weapon past 5+.

Grab it and then head back up the steps you came down. At the top of these steps, go forward and you’ll see some archways that have a lower room you can drop down onto. Do that. Then look left. You’ll see some stairs that lead to a room. Enter the room and you’ll see a ton of barrels to the left. Roll through them and an NPC will talk to you. His name is Laurentius of the Great Swamp. He’s trapped in one of the barrels. Upon rescuing, talk to him and he will later on be a merchant at Firelink. Wooo!

Leave this room the way you came in and follow the path. Above the doorway with the NPC you just rescued is another butcher. You can face her if you want, or continue running along the path. Whichever you choose, you’ll have to take a right and go all the way to the end of the room to a door. Open it and take the steps down. This will lead you to some water and if you look left, you’ll see an item. DON’T GRAB IT. Look up above the item and you’ll see a slimy enemy. I would just run past this part into the next area.

An Undead will rush you, so kill him and continue. Turn right out the doorway and you’ll see a longish tunnel with six of those slimy things on the ceiling and another Undead. I wouldn’t recommend fighting the slimy creatures. Instead, just get close, wait for them to drop in front of you and go around. Once you get to the end of the hall, kill the Undead and open the door behind him with the Master Key. Go and rest at the bonfire and level up.

When you’re finished, let’s head all the way back the way we came, up to Firelink Shrine. Head down the hall, to the left through the doorway, and up the stairs. Head all the way back to right in front of the room with the NPC you rescued and you’ll see a chunk of the wall missing on the left. Equip your Rusted Iron Ring, drop down and you’ll be in some water. Once you’re in the water, head to the leftmost side and you’ll see some stairs ahead. Take those and you’ll be in the area with the Large Ember. From here, just take the steps up, all the way out of the depths.

UNDEAD BURG

Head up the stairs to the left and then up the spiral staircase, all the way back to Firelink. I’m going to assume you know how to get there. Head through the dark tunnel, kill the rat, and down the steps that lead to FIrelink.

FIRELINK SHRINE

Once you’re ready, let’s head back to the elevator at the back of Firelink to head over to the bonfire above Andre of Astora.

UNDEAD PARISH

From the bonfire, head down to Andre and give him the Large Ember. If you have the funds, upgrade your weapon a bit more. If you have a Large Titanite Shard (I didn’t) you can go in to Modify Equipment and upgrade your weapon past 5+. Otherwise, just make sure your weapon is as strong as it can be for this next part. Head back to the bonfire and take the path exiting the building, right next to the bonfire.

SEN’S FORTRESS

Head down the path till you reach a large structure and enter it. As soon as you enter, go either right or left because if you continue down the middle, you’ll initiate a trap. Upon entering, you’ll see two snake monsters. Alright, these guys are the worst enemy up until this point. They hit hard and have a lot of health. Plus, there are two of them.

Now, I handle Sen’s Fortress the same way I handle Blighttown. I run through it. You should do the same. You CAN stop and kill every enemy, and for new players, that might be the best option. With these two snake guys, you should use magic, backstabs, use the pillars in this room to your advantage; just do what you can to take them out. And to grab the Soul of a Brave Warrior in the back right corner.

Once they’re dead, go up the steps and you’ll see a narrow walkway with four pendulums. This is Sen’s Fortress. Cross the walkway, carefully, and wait for the snake guy ahead to aggro you. He will come charging at you, but you can easily step around him and continue onward. Try to sidestep him away from the next single pendulum, so you have time to wait for it to pass. Once you see an opening, head through the doorway and to the left, up the stairs.

Okay, this next part is hard. Keep your shield up the whole time and wait for the set of two pendulums to pass. Move ahead and wait for the next set to pass. The snake up ahead should be shooting you with lightning. Wait for the next set to pass and walk up to the snake. Don’t worry about attacking him. Instead, go around and behind him to trigger the trap that will shot him. It’s a pressure plate on the floor. Move out of the way by just running to the corner of the room he’s guarding. If you’re lucky, the trap will kill him. To trigger the trap, step on the pressure plate behind the snake and a piercing shot will come out directly behind him, above the chest.

Grab the 2 Large Titanites from the chest and continue up. Cross the narrow path and you’ll see an exit that leads outside. Stand in the doorway leading outside and put your shield up. A giant boulder will come by and crush the next snake enemy. It won’t kill him, but it will damage him. Keep your shield up and block his attacks and another boulder will come by. Do this one more time and he’ll be dead.

Wait for the boulder to go by again and quickly run right, down the path. It will dead end at a cliff, so take the left path and follow it till you see a large NPC sitting at the end of this small section. One thing to note: try not to walk all the way down to the end of the cliff because it’s so steep you may not be able to get out of the way of the boulder. To avoid this, just roll off the incline earlier to ensure safety.

Once you’ve exhausted the armored guy’s dialogue, head back up the incline, back to the room you came in, making sure to avoid the boulder. There’s a small corner outside the room that allows you to safely stay outside while avoiding the boulder. Sit here till it passes and head up the incline, where the boulder came from.

There should be another room off to the left that’s blocked by a fog door. Traverse it to proceed. Keep in mind you need to run up here AS SOON as the boulder is past you to ensure you’ll make it. You don’t have much time to spare. For this next part, be aware of the upcoming trap in the narrow hall. It’s a pressure pad like the last one. Except this one comes from behind, so what you might want to do is run down the hall, and jump to the right as soon as you get to the next room. If you get lucky, the next snake might even get hit with the shots. Kill the snake and we can move on.

This next part is weird. Stand in the doorway to the next area and watch as a boulder continuously crosses your path. Your goal is to run to the right, up the incline and into the next room. However, the developers at FromSoft give you no room for error here, SO…

…you can try the quit-out trick to reset the boulder. If you’re fast enough with quitting to the main menu, run up the incline, get about ¾ up, quit out and load back in to continue into the next room. Otherwise, you’ll have to get extremely close to the boulder as it moves past you while waiting in the doorway, and run up to the right, THE MOMENT you’re able to. Either way, get up to the room that’s to the right, where the boulder is coming from.

Once you’re in the next room, get out of the doorway and you’ll see a lever that rotates the direction of the boulder. Move it so that the boulder goes in the opposite direction of the path that leads outside. There should be four paths the boulder can go. If you put your back to the way you came into this room, you want the boulder to go to the right. Once the boulder shoots down a couple times and you’ve gotten credit for the boulder killing the snake guy at the bottom of the path, move the boulder so that it shoots out the path that leads outside. If your back is to the way you came in, you want the boulder to go left.

Now run down the path opposite of the way that leads outside (with your back to the way you came in, head right) and go allllllllll the way down till you get to an area that was previously inaccessible. The boulder broke down the wall. Keep going and you should come across some cages. The third one on the right will have an NPC, Big Hat Logan that you can free and he will sell stuff at Firelink, eventually. If you go all the way to the end of the path, on the left will be a cage with a Soul of a Hero. Get it.

Head back the way you came and you’ll be in the room with the broken wall. Head up the stairs and you’ll be back to the outside section with the boulder, except this time there is no boulder because you moved it. Now is the perfect time to head up the path and to the room at the far end, before taking the left to the route forward. The room contains a chest with the Ring of Steel Protection. I would recommend to equip this.

Also, I don’t know if it’s a glitch or what, but on my playthrough, the boulder got reset and it was positioned to come down this path again. Be cautious when traversing this area because the boulder MAY get reset. I’m not sure why.

Anyway, continue back to the room with the last trap and watch for the boulder that should be in your way again. For some reason it seems like moving the boulder is temporary. This time, follow the boulder down instead of up. You’ll go down two sets of stairs. Keep going till you get to a hole in the ground. To the left is a room you can duck into. Wait right next to the boulder and eventually, it will knock down the wall ahead of the hole in the ground. Once it’s safe, run into the room and immediately to the left to wait. Our goal is to grab the item that’s hanging out the window: The Covetous Gold Serpent Ring. Equip it and head back into the room where you were waiting for the boulder to break down the wall. Just be careful to time it right because of the boulder. When you enter, you’ll see a chest but DON’T OPEN IT.

This is your first Mimic. If you try to open the chest, you will die. Instead, two hand your weapon and do a strong attack to wake it up. A giant monster will emerge. Stay behind him and use the pillars here to your advantage. Don’t let him grab you because you’ll die; that’s why it’s best to stay behind him.

Once he’s dead, he’ll drop a fancy weapon. Grab it and head up the elevator. Get off at the first stop and go up the stairs. You’ll come to another narrow path that leads to a room with a locked gate, so instead, roll off the right side of the narrow walkway and head up the incline into the room with the boulder and the lever to move it. If you get right up by the pathway that leads outside and then look left, you’ll see a path that’s too small for the boulder, but just right for you. If your back is to the way you came in, the path is to the left, next to where the boulder is going down. There are two left paths. Go this way, down the hall with the trap.

Watch the floor for another trap and as soon as you hit it, don’t move. Let the three shots pass and continue onward. You’ll come to another set of pendulums, but these are different. You have to get past all four of them in one go. Wait for it to be clear and run forward. If you want, you can create a backup cloud save here, since you’ve made it so far. Once you’ve made it across the narrow walkway, you will enter a new area. Head to the right and aggro the snake to lead him out of the narrow hallway. Take him and and then go the other way (not up the stairs yet, but to the left) to take out the other snake and get the set of two large Titanites. You may want to lead this snake guy out a bit so you aren’t fighting him in a narrow hall.

Now it’s time to head upstairs. Lock onto the snake blocking the way and shoot him with some magic to take him out. Continue upwards and you’ll reach a doorway that leads to a very narrow walkway with pendulums. If you poke your head out of the walkway, you’ll see one last snake to the left. You should take him out with magic so he doesn’t knock you off the path. I was able to knock him off the ledge with two magic shots.

Once he’s dead, carefully make your way along the path till you get to the pendulums. The goal here is to run past the first two, stop and then run past the second two. Make sure you immediately run up the steps to the right because there’s a pressure plate just to the right that will cause a trap to possibly kill you. I didn’t even run past the pendulums; I just walked. Now, cross the fog gate. This next outside area will have to be done while avoiding firebombs from a giant. It’s not too hard. Just keep moving.

Head up the steps, through the fog gate and up another set of stairs. Head left, and then left again up another set of stairs. You’ll reach an area that’s a bit more open, with an item. Grab it and then roll of the side of the structure. With your back to the steps you just went up, it’s to the right. You’ll see the ground is a bit broken here and if you look down, there’s a platform to land on. Luckily, there’s a bonfire here. Hit it for some much needed rest. I was able to level up to 36 here, which is a great place to be for this area.

Head through the only way you can go and off to the left. Drop down and you’ll be back where the last fog door was. Do the same thing you just did; up the stairs, left up the next set and get to the area where you dropped down. Instead of dropping down to the right head up the steps at the back left and continue along the left. You’ll see another set of stairs, followed by a narrow path that wraps around to the right. Follow it and head into a structure with two paths: left or right.

Head right and continue in the room and outside, to the right and up another set of stairs. Keep moving up, across another narrow walkway and a final set of stairs. You should come across an Undead shooting you with arrows. Kill him and get inside the structure. Upon entering, you should see a fog gate on your left and stairs up and to the right.

Head up the stairs on the right and it will lead to a giant that’s been throwing firebombs at you this whole time. You need to kill him so the next boss fight is easier. This guy is super tough. You may want to make a backup save here. I just kept behind him and made sure to keep my stamina up. He will eventually go down and you can get a load of damage off at this point. My weapon wasn’t strong enough to do a ton of damage, but with the heavy two-handed attacks, I was able to take him out in five hits. Once he’s dead, head back down for the boss fight.

IRON GOLEM

Okay, this guy isn’t too bad. There’s one main strategy I’d recommend and it’s just to get behind him and attack his legs from the back. Make sure to two-hand your weapon because blocking doesn’t do much here. It’s a simple tactic but it works. The thing you have to watch out for is his ground pound attack and when he grabs you and throws you. If you stay behind him, you shouldn’t have much of a problem. Other than that, try to stay in the middle area so he doesn’t knock you off and you should be good.

The start of the fight has you on opposite ends; he’ll immediately shoot a wind-sword long range attack at you that you can easily dodge left or right to avoid. Then, wait for him to get to the middle area and roll under him, through his legs when he’s about to attack. Get a few shots in and then be prepared to roll through his legs again to reposition yourself behind him. That’s basically it. Magic does work on him, but I don’t recommend to put too much distance between you and him because his long range attack does a lot of damage.

Eventually he will begin to stagger and he’ll be vulnerable for a few moments. Take this opportunity to hit him with everything you’ve got. I couldn’t get him to completely stagger on my playthrough, but you might have better luck.

This fight is all about staying at his back and making sure you don’t fall off the map. He does stomp his feet a bit and that can hit you when you’re behind him, but if you back away while he does this, you’ll be okay.

Worst case, summon someone to help; otherwise, keep getting under his legs and attacking him from behind. Like many bosses, you must be patient and don’t get too greedy. If he hits you hard, back away and heal, then run up and get behind him.

Once he’s dead, interact with the ring in the middle area and you’ll be transported to the most beautiful area of the game.

SIDE NOTE: It MAY be a good idea to go back down and upgrade your weapon with some of the Large Titanite shards you may have found. I didn’t on my playthrough, but for this next part, you’ll be happier with an upgraded weapon. I know you just got through Sen’s Fortress, one of the hardest areas of the game, but the next area is harder and having an upgraded weapon is better. It’s just a thought.