Dark Souls Noob Guide for Mages – Section 6

CENTIPEDE DEMON

As with most of this guide, my method involves relying heavily on magic. And, I’ll be doing something I rarely do – I’ll be equipping armor for this fight. Since most of the room is covered with lava, it may be a good idea to wear some protective gear. I equipped the Gold Hemmed Cloak, Gloves, and Skirt, but left the Crown of Dusk to increase magic.

When the fight starts, you will initiate a cutscene, and then be met with a disgusting creature. What I do is jump over the lava gap on the right, and then head along the right side. Heal and then continue around the bend. From here, you’ll see another gap that you must jump. This one is kind of tough, so make sure you jump at the last possible moment. Once you make the jump, turn around and you can defeat the centipede in three attacks. I know, magic is amazing. Grab the Green Titanite Shard if you want and get ready.

Use a Homing  Crystal Soulmass and wait for him to get near. When you see him raise his arm, get ready to dodge. Switch to your Soul Spear and get ready. He will eventually get close enough to set off the Soulmass. Once this happens, use your Soul Spear. Get ready to dodge his arm pound attack or his jumping attack. At the end of his attack animation, get ready to use another Soul Spear. For me, these three attacks did the trick. If your intelligence isn’t high enough, you can keep spamming the Homing Crystal Soulmass attacks.

Otherwise, you CAN cut off his arm to give you the Orange Charred Ring. This will allow you to take significantly less damage while walking on lava. With this, you can easily get right up under his legs and attack him. I didn’t have much luck cutting his arm off, but it’s definitely doable if you study his attack patterns. Seeing as how magic kills him in 3 hits, I strongly urge you to do it that way.

Once he’s dead, you’ll be rewarded with the aforementioned Orange Charred Ring. Equip it and head back to the doorway where you entered. Put your back to the door and your front to the lava room. Look left and you should see a narrow path along the left wall. Follow it and after jumping (or walking) over a short gap, you’ll see a tunnel on the left. Go through the tunnel and eventually you’ll come to a bonfire. Also, Solaire may be sitting by it. Take note that there isn’t a place to warp to until we kill the main boss of this area, the Bed of Chaos. As a result, I don’t recommend warping anywhere unless you absolutely have to. If you do, you’ll have to come all the way back here on foot.

Rest at the bonfire and then stick to the left side of the path ahead. Eventually, you’ll come to a point where you have to cross the lava. You should see a winding tree root, so run to it and let the root take you forward.

LOST IZALITH

Eventually the root will end and it will lead you to another root. Follow this root till you see an item on a small platform. Grab it for a Soul of a Brave Warrior and you can continue. From here, the next root is loosely wrapped around a pillar, just ahead. Cross the lava and follow this root as it wraps around the pillar. In the distance, you’ll see another item.

Cross the lava one more time and grab said item. It’ll be another Soul of a Brave Warrior. Ahead, you’ll see a structure which can be entered from the left side. Inside there will be a chest with a Soul of a Great Hero. Exit the way you came and your next goal will be to cross to the right side to get to another little island that looks like the one you’re on now.

However, don’t just try to run out to the right, because those giant dinosaur looking things will stomp on you. Instead, head left and go all the way around, counterclockwise till you see another root that you can follow up to the next structure. When you reach the top of the structure, you can head to the left, under a roof to get a Twin Humanity. Choose to grab it or don’t and then roll off the side. Make sure you roll off the side of the structure with the Twin Humanities, because the entrance is on that side. When you land, there will be a redish root almost obstructing the wall ahead. This is an illusory wall. Hit it to reveal the bonfire. Rest and we can continue. Again, remember, I don’t recommend warping anywhere unless you HAVE to.

Exit the room the way you came and if you look around the pillar directly in front of you, you’ll see a stone tunnel in the distance. Head here and use the root to guide you up to the next area. There’s really only one way to go, so keep following it and it will lead you down into an area with the stone enemies that shoot fire at you. Keep heading straight and you’ll come to a dark tunnel with several more of the stone enemies. Keep going, to the end of the tunnel and just past it you’ll see a set of stairs on your right.

At the top of the stairs, you’ll see a grotesque creature that we should definitely kill. Unequip your Charred Ring and equip the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring. From here, give it a few whacks from behind and if you’re lucky, it might drop a useful Titanite item. I wasn’t so lucky, but that’s okay. Keep going, into the structure, and to the right, till you see some stairs.

Use a Homing Crystal Soulmass here and carefully head up the stairs. If your intelligence is high enough, it should kill the NPC instantly. Just to this NPCs left is a set of stairs leading down to the boss area. We will go here in just a moment. For now,, continue along the area ahead and you’ll see another one of those gross creatures in the distance. Use another Homing Crystal Soulmass and take it out. Again, hopefully it’ll drop something. If not, just grab the Pyromancy from the chest behind the creature and head back to the fog gate.

BED OF CHAOS

I HIGHLY recommend making a backup save before crossing the fog. This boss is arguably the worst in the whole game. Not in terms of raw difficulty, but because of its design. It’s awful. Bed of Chaos is a boss that you can technically kill in one hit, but most of the battle is just a stupid puzzle with annoying platforming. Yes, platforming in a game with no jump button.

Let’s go over a few things:

1. Magic is useless here.
2. Instead, equip a bow and as many arrows as you can
3. We will most definitely be cheesing as much as we can

When you’re ready, traverse the fog and slide down. As soon as you land, head to the right side and stay as close to the right as you can, while maneuvering around, counterclockwise. You’ll see a glowing orb to the right of the creature. Head here and roll through the roots and attack the center orb. As soon as you do so, a cutscene will play. After this, quit out and it will spawn you back at the gate.

The beauty of the quit out trick here is that it will save the fact that you destroyed this orb, but spawn you at the beginning so you don’t have to “jump” across platforms. When you spawn back in, slide down and this time go left. Just like before, stick to the left as much as possible. You’ll notice some of the ground start to crumble away, so keep left.

Your goal is to destroy the left orb now, but unlike the last one, you can’t just run up to it. You’ll want to make your way along the left side, dodging the beasts attacks and avoiding the crumbling floor. You should pass under a root and then get to a second area with another root ahead. When you get to the second gap in the floor just before the orb, put yourself in the corner of this little alcove and take out your bow. Your aim is to destroy the orb just like you did before, but with your bow instead. It may take a few shots, and keep in mind you should aim for the lower part of the orb.

Once it’s destroyed, you should quit out again and get ready for the hardest part. Make sure you have a shield handy. Slide down one last time and when you land, put up your shield to block any attacks. Head towards her and get ready for the ground ahead to crumble. Bed of Chaos will usually do two sweeping attacks – a left sweep and then a right. Once you block the second attack, you should be close enough for the ground to fall through. At this time, drop down, but make sure you stick to the right a little. Not all the way to the right, but maybe about ¾ of the way, so you’ll land on the root below.

When you land, follow it forward and roll through all roots till you get to a final glowing orb. Hit the orb once and she will go down. That’s it. Dumbest boss of the game. Rest at the bonfire and then warp back to Undead Parish. Keep in mind – I leveled up my intelligence to 40 and my overall level is 70 at this point.

UNDEAD PARISH

For me, my melee weapon was about to break so I went to Andre for him to fix all my gear. If you haven’t repaired your gear up until this point, you may want to do the same. You should also see about getting a Divine weapon at this point. I recommend modifying the Occult Club down to a +5 Divine Club. Andre can do this for you – You’ll have to scale the weapon down from Occult to Divine. After this, let’s go back to Firelink.

FIRELINK SHRINE

Now for my least favorite part of the whole game: The Catacombs. Head over to Frampt in the middle of Firelink and then take the left path, down to the graveyard. You should stick to the left side and continue forward till you reach some steps that will lead you into a tunnel. Whatever you do, don’t go to the right side of the graveyard. Continue down the path and you’ll eventually be met with darkness. One thing to note: You can’t actually kill the skeletons unless you use a Divine weapon. I just run past most of them because it’s not worth it to kill them in my opinion, but you can if you want. If you use a regular weapon, they will go down temporarily. Since you have the Divine Club, use that.

THE CATACOMBS

Stick to the right side of the path and you’ll come to another area with a spot where you can drop down. Not to fear, you won’t die. Drop down and then head to the left side, through a tunnel on the left. After this, you’ll see another tunnel on the left. Take this and it will lead you to a bonfire, but you can’t rest here till you kill the fire-wielding enemy ahead. Put up your shield and avoid the fire attack. Kill the enemy and then quickly rush to the lever on the right. During the animation of you pressing it in, quit the game. The reason for this is that you will probably have numerous skeletons on your tail.

Exit the room and head left, through a tunnel and outside to the left. You should put up your shield for this part, as a skeleton will be heading towards you. The method I like to use is great: I widdle the skeleton’s health down with my main weapon and then switch over to the Divine weapon to finish them off for good. As a result, I recommend to ditch the catalyst and keep your Divine weapon in your second right handed slot. Do this for all three enemies here.

This next part is weird, so stick with me. Just ahead, you’ll see a bridge that leads to the next area. However, since we’re doing this the easiest way, I have a shortcut. Position yourself to the right of the bridge and look down. You should see a platform just below you that can be dropped down onto. With the three skeletons dead, you should have no issues inching your way forward till you drop down. Don’t just run and jump – you should slowly move your character off the ledge and down to the platform below. When you land, head back to the doorway on the right and quit out.

When you spawn back in, exit the doorway and continue along the path to the right. You may be greeted by the floating heads and three more skeletons. Use your main weapon to stagger them and then finish them with the Divine Club. Make your way around the bend and head to the next area where you’ll come to another doorway. Quickly run in and then turn around and run back to where you fought the last three skeletons. Two more skeletons will come chasing after you and you can take them out in the open area without worrying about falling off the ledge.

When they’re dead, head into the room and look to your left. You’ll see a brick wall that can easily be broken down with a roll. Roll through and then roll ahead again. This will send you off a ledge and down to the next floor. When you land, head forward, up some steps and through a hallway. At the end will be a coffin, but not before a giant skeleton drops down. If you have your shield up, you’ll do fine. Grab the item from the coffin, a Darkmoon Seance Ring, and then warp back to the bonfire.

You unfortunately will have to do some of what you just did again, but the ring you just got is worth the hassle. Before heading back down, equip the Cast Light spell at the bonfire. We are going to need it. Head back out of the bonfire room, to the left, kill the three skeletons outside and drop down to the right of the bridge. This time, when you land, heal  and look down, just below where you landed. You should faintly see a platform with an item on it. Drop down and then heal when you land. If you look to the right, you should see a tunnel below.

You might notice some spinning wheels below you. These are my least favorite enemies in the game. At this point, quit out and when you come back in, get ready to drop down. Try to roll off the side and away from the spinning skeletons. You may even want to do a running jump if you can. The goal is to head to the right side of the room, into a tunnel. Don’t go left because that will just lead you back up into the Catacombs. When you land, quit out immediately. After you spawn back in, run towards the tunnel on and then quit out again. Come back in and move forward a bit more and quit out one last time. Once you’re comfortable, head through the tunnel and you’ll see a fog gate that leads to a boss. Cross it and you’ll come to a part where you must drop down. Before you drop down, equip your Tin Crystallization Catalyst and get ready to use a Homing Crystal Soulmass. When you drop down, the easiest boss of the game will begin.

PINWHEEL

I defeated the boss in two hits. Use a Homing Crystal Soulmass, run towards the back of the room and as you’re walking back, switch to a Soul Spear. When the Soulmass goes off, use the Soul Spear and he will go down. Now, there is a little bit more you may want to know, but by this point, we are so overpowered, you probably won’t need to do much more.

The thing about Pinwheel is that he spawns clones of himself to divert your attention. The first Pinwheel you see is the real one and our magic can take him out before he even spawns another clone. Even if he does manage to spawn another version of himself, just ignore it and focus your attention on the first Pinwheel. That’s basically it; just avoid it’s fire attack and use the two spells I mentioned.

Once you win, you’ll get the Rite of Kindling, an item used to kindle at bonfires for more Estus Flasks. If you’re facing the table with the skeleton on it, look right. You’ll see a ladder you can climb up, with a second ladder following. At the top, look right and you should see a glowing thing on the ground that looks like an item. It’s not, but it’s meant to steer you in the right direction. Walk to it and use your Cast Light. In the distance you should see another marker, but don’t just run towards it. Instead, head slightly left and towards the closer marker. From here, you’ll see a bridge to the right, so cross it.

TOMB OF THE GIANTS

Keep heading forward towards a set of eyes and another marker. The eyes belong to a giant skeleton, so go around it and then continue along the path behind him. You should see a marker ahead with a ramp you can slide down. Slide down and then slide down again, using a second ramp ahead. At the bottom, turn right and you’ll see another giant skeleton. Go around to his right and you’ll see ANOTHER skeleton. Keep going and you’ll come to another ramp. Take it down and when you land, head left. You’ll see a ladder that leads down. Take said ladder down, head to the right (if you’re facing the ladder) and you’ll see a bonfire. Take a deep breath and rest because that was one of the most annoying parts of the game.

ANOR LONDO

Now, we’re going to take a break from this area and go do one of the last bosses we need. Warp back to the Chamber of the Princess  bonfire. From here, head outside to the revolving bridge and use the lever to take it down. Take the steps down and you’ll come to a room with a bonfire in it. Rest here and then equip the Darkmoon Seance Ring. Doing so will reveal a hidden area ahead and you can climb down the steps to go through the fog gate.

DARK SUN GWYNDOLIN

This optional boss can be really annoying if you don’t know what to do. The main gimmick is that the boss keeps moving backwards, down a never ending hallway and you have to run up to him to get some attacks in. Part of what makes this boss so annoying is the randomness in his attacks. It’s tough to plan since all of his moves are random. I got SUPER lucky on my run and was able to kill him in one turn, not counting the first.

He has three main moves: a string of arrows, a giant Soul Arrow, and something similar to the Homing Soulmass spell. The thing is, he can basically one hit kill you with all of those moves, so you have to recognize the animation and hide behind a pillar to make sure it doesn’t kill you. The giant Soul Arrow will go through the pillars, too, so be careful of that. The normal strategy is to have a Homing Crystal Soulmass ready and when you reach him, shoot a Soul Arrow at him so the two spells will hit him simultaneously. The issue is that he disappears before you can do much. You may even want to switch to melee when you’re about to get close so you can hit him with that as the Homing Crystal Soulmass hits him.

Just keep trying and know that there is a lot of luck to this fight. Also, keep in mind, his attacks will sort of follow you, so if you start on the left side of the room when he initiates an attack, you should run all the way to the right side to avoid it. Also, the Homing Soulmass will go away if you run into walls, which is super inconvenient. It makes it tough to just roll behind the pillars. Again, you have to kind of get lucky. When he’s dead, head to the back of the room and open the chests. From here, we can go back to Tomb of Giants.  

TOMB OF GIANTS

Now that you’re back in the Tomb of Giants, you can continue along your journey. You should take advantage of your ability to have more Estus and kindle at the bonfire. You can do this several times. Just remember you must not be hollow in order to kindle.

This part is tough, but I’ll do my best to make it as painless as possible. First, use your Cast Light spell and head up the ladder to the left. Once you climb up, head straight and you’ll see an NPC on your left. You CAN engage him, but it’s not necessary. Go past him and along his right side, following the narrow walkway around to the right. You’ll run into a giant skeleton, but just go around his right side. Keep going till you reach a fog gate.

 Just after you cross the fog, if you position yourself to your 10 o’clock, you’ll see some arrows coming towards you. Head that way, but do so quickly, as enemies will be chasing you. You should see a skeleton archer with an item behind him. Grab the item and then drop off behind it. Don’t worry, you won’t die. Continue along and you’ll see another item. This is one of the best items in the game, the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring. It gives you more souls when you kill enemies. Upon grabbing this item, several enemies will come up from the ground. What you want to do is head forward a bit and then drop off the left side onto a platform.

When you land, go forward a bit and you should see another platform below. This one is at a weird angle and is a bit further down, but you’ll make it. Just make sure you aren’t heading back the way you came. Drop down and heal up. Also, equip the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring. Continue along and you’ll see a cave you can enter. You may also come across a enemy NPC if you’re not hollow. He’s slow, so just use magic to take him out. Watch out for his giant weapon. If you’re hollow, you won’t have to worry about this.

When you enter the cave, you’ll see a crystal lizard. Take it out if you can. Follow along the path and try to stick to the right side to avoid all the enemies. It shouldn’t be too tough to run past them. At the end of the tunnel will be a couple more skeletons. Past them is another cave-like section. This next area is right before the boss.

One thing to know is that there are several Pinwheel enemies in here that shoot devastating fire blows at you. As soon as you enter, roll off the leftmost side and you’ll land right next to a Soul of a Hero. From here, continue along the left side and either dodge or take out the Pinwheel ahead. Go left up the ramp ahead and take the path that leads up and to the right side of the room. You should see another fog gate with lots of sticks blocking the way. Roll through the sticks and cross the gate so you can prepare for the boss fight ahead.

Now, you’ll need to have a few items ready for this fight. Replace your halberd with the Divine Club so you can take out the pesky skeletons down here. Get your Homing Crystal Soulmass ready and then drop down. Finally, make a backup save if you want. I recommend it because the last bonfire is far away.

GRAVELORD NITO

I’m going to be honest. I hate this boss. There are a few things about it that just rub me the wrong way. For starters, you begin the fight with less health because you have to drop down. Nito also has a move that can hit you from anywhere – it’s a giant spike thing that comes up from the ground. Not only that, but it’s toxic, too. Great…beyond that, you must deal with the skeletons and Nito himself is no pushover.

But, like most of the boss battles, magic does wonders. The only issue is that sometimes you can get stuck because of his spike attack – he just keeps doing it. When you land, immediately heal and head to the left, towards Nito. You should use your club to take out the three skeletons here, but be cautious. If you hear a woman screaming, start dodging right away. This is the spike attack. It will likely still hit you, but it won’t one shot you. If it does hit you, roll away and heal quickly. After the three skeletons are dead, focus your attention on Nito, but stay back a tad.

Use your trusty Homing Crystal Soulmass to take him out. The issue is getting out of the way of his sword attacks, while still having enough time to use a spell. It can be annoying. If you stay right up next to him, you should finish him in a few spells. Also, don’t move around to the other side of the room because there are way too many skeletons there. Just focus on Nito, hit him a few times with magic and he should go down shortly. After he’s dead, head around to the back of the room and use the bonfire to warp back to Firelink. Oh and level up, too. I got my intelligence to 59.

FIRELINK SHRINE

We’re nearing the conclusion of the game here, which is wild. At the Firelink bonfire, kindle a couple times to get 20 Estus Flasks. You’ll need them. Equip the Pyromancy, Power Within in place of Cast Light. You should also equip the Gold-Hemmed Cloak, Gloves, and Skirt. Take the steps and elevator down to New Londo Ruins.

NEW LONDO RUINS

Head left like you’ve done before, except when you get to the first area with ghosts, don’t take the steps up to the next section. Instead, go to the right of the steps, and you’ll be able to drop down into an area with shallow waters. Once you land, head right and you’ll come across a tough enemy called a Darkwraith. Now, you shouldn’t have much trouble as long you backstab them. Watch out for their grab attack. It can be devastating. From here, head up the steps from where the enemy came from and you should see a structure ahead with some steps and an item. Grab the item and get ready to run inside the structure.

You can definitely kill all the enemies in this area, but since I didn’t have any Transient Curses, I decided to just run past. The way to do it is to run all the way to the end towards a giant, round monster, but stick to the left side if you can. When you reach the Darkwraith on the left, either go around him or block his attack. Either way, head out the doorway on the left and you’ll see a fog gate across a little bridge. Run there and as soon as you cross the fog, quit out.

At this point, you should most definitely make a backup save. It’s almost essential, since the closest bonfire is Firelink. You should also equip Humanity so you can use them to heal and you have to equip the Covenant of Artorias. This will allow you to walk in the abyss. You also may want to equip the Crest Shield to reduce magic damage. Take the spiral steps all the way down and then once they end, you can drop down. But before you do that, let me explain a bit about this boss.

The Four Kings are really tough. That’s why I saved them for the end, so I’d be a high enough level. The issue is that they deal so much freaking damage and they keep spawning. I don’t know why the boss is called Four Kings, because if you’re down there long enough, way more than four will spawn.

If you’re fast, you can kill one before the next one spawns. They deal high magic damage, but are weak to magic. Also, this area is weird because it’s all black. There is nothing in here but the boss. Drop down when you’re ready.

THE ABYSS

As soon as you drop down, use a Homing Crystal Soulmass and Power Within. Keep in mind, your health will deplete, but that’s okay. Then, you should spin the camera around and look for the first king to spawn.

FOUR KINGS

As soon as the Four Kings health-bar comes up, the first one will have spawned. Head towards him and lock on when you can. After the Soulmass hits, run along to the back of the king and whack him with your Halberd. If you see the king turn purple, back away. Three rolls back should do the trick. This move is a deadly AOE attack that will take away most of your health.

If he shoots a purple projectile at you, just block it and it’ll do minimal damage. Right when you kill the first one, use another Homing Crystal Soulmass and head towards the second one. After it connects, do the same as before: Get behind him and attack with melee. You can use magic, but I didn’t have many spells since I’m using the Tin Crystallization Catalyst. Either way is fine. You should also be rolling through his melee attacks to get closer to him. Make sure you stick right up next to him when you can and try to stay behind.

After this one dies, use a third Homing Crystal Soulmass and wait for the next one. Rinse and repeat for the next two and make sure you preserve your magic if you can. You should have equipped the Crystal Soul Spear so use that if you need to. Once they’re dead, you can rest at the bonfire and warp back to Firelink. Tip: You can quickly swap the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring for the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring just after you kill the boss to get extra souls. Just don’t unequip the Covenant of Artorias until after you’ve left the abyss.