I originally wrote this guide in just a few hours with NG characters in mind, at that time it was longer and less to the point, I've since updated it and made it more concise, the soloing sections mainly contain small tips that'll assist you with beating the bosses presented to you.

You get a ring that makes your right hand weapon invisible.

Hell, it's fun too.

You can do this on NG or any of the NG+

If you're making a completely new character you'll lock yourself into any of the martial classes since you can only attune spells at a bonfire, if you're playing a NG+ caster you have to consider your spell choices in regards to the bosses before starting a new journey.

There'll be multiple points of no return when aquiring the Great souls in this run, the only path that doesn't have one is the one leading to freja, but it's unavailable in the beginning.

You can use homeward bones since they don't actually make you rest at the bonfire when you use them.

Since you've necessitated melee by choosing to start on a new character there's some things you should know about the early areas, especially if you're a member of the Company of Champions(CoC), which disables co-op.

Exhaust the spawns in the Forest, Copse and Heides, it'll give you enough levels to make a halfway decent character before you choose your first path. Make some judgement calls to lose as few souls as possible, kiting enemies towards a safer area is generally a good plan.

All of the Great soul paths except for the one leading to the rotten has atleast one merchant where you can spend your souls, consider spending them, you'll probably lose your souls at some point before aquiring a great soul.

If you're playing a CoC character, learn how to dodge the bosses' movesets instead of shielding up, you'll be their sole target and a lot of bosses can stagger you quite easily. An ADP-stat of atleast 20 is reccommended, you should generally use the boss souls when you're in Majula to bridge leveling gaps. You'll spend the most of your time as a hollow, only equip any of the life protection rings when you lose a huge amount of souls in a dangerous area/in the middle of a long trek, the old bloodstain will stay if you die a second time.

As long as you don't speak to the Emerald Herald or light either the Majula or Things Betwixt bonfire you will be able to use a homeward bone or the aged feather to return to the platform where you begin the game in Things Betwixt, this might be useful to you if you're making an SL1 or an NG+ run since you won't be able to level up or upgrade your estus, however, you will be able to stock up on consumables in addition to repairing or upgrading your equipment and skip the long treks.

This method still works as of Ver 1,02 Cal 1.05

Special thanks to Silver who shared this information.

Don't light the bonfire

Don't light the bonfire

Only light the second bonfire and keep the other ones as buffers, do not go to the bastille after beating the Pursuer, you're not supposed to go there yet

Soloing - Pursuer
Make a run for the ring of binding to give you some more hp and a bigger margin of error, roll to his shielded side when he attacks you, he can backhand you with the wide slashes.

There's also the option to use one of the ballistas


Light the first bonfire, beat the dragonrider and talk to Licia of Lindeldt so that you can access the hunters copse from the rotunda. You'll also gain a lot of souls from killing the old knights.

Huntsmans Copse

Light the first bonfire and kick down the tree to make a shortcut to the second area, you're free to light the third one should you want to do so.

Soloing - Skeleton lords
Each Lord spawns a different group of skeletons upon death, dispatch each group before killing the next lord until the one with the bone staff is the only remaining Lord.

He'll spawn Skeleton Wheels

• Things betwixt
  
• Majula
  
• 1st in Forest of Fallen Giants
  
• 3rd in Forest of Fallen Giants
  
• 2nd in Heide's Tower of Flame
  
• 2nd in Hunter's Copse
  
  Optional/Other bonfires
  
• Blue Cathedral bonfire (if you beat old dragonslayer)
  
• No mans wharf (Explicitly for the Lost Bastille path)
  
• Third hunters copse bonfire (if you didn't use it)

If you use one bonfire after each Great Soul you'll still have 3 out of the 6 initially listed bonfires if you enter the bastille through the wharf.

Sooner or later you'll have to choose a path, and as soon as you rest at the first bonfire in each of them you won't be able to return to majula. I'll suggest what in my view is the optimal path, make sure to stock up on arrows and upgrade your weapons between them

Pros: Dull ember, Stone trader Chloanne and Laddersmith Gilligan, Gold Serpent Ring+1, Large titanite shards, fragrant branch of yore in the first area.
Cons: No Gavlan unless you talked to him in the wharf.

Light all the Earthen Peak bonfires as you go, if you're soloing, jump down in front of Mytha's boss gate from the third bonfire and kite the Grave Wardens for a lap so that you can enter undisturbed. I'll leave it up to you wether to fight Iron Keep's Smelter Demon or not.
Kill the Old Iron king once you reach his room but don't use the primal bonfire yet, equip the Gold Serpent ring and any other similar item go back to the room with the 3 turtle Knights, they'll drop large titanite shards at a ~40% rate


Pros: McDuff the blacksmith unlocks if you have the dull ember
Cons: You might not have the stones you want to imbue with

Stock up again and head for the Wharf, this should be a piece of cake if you cleared Heide's earlier. Talk to Gavlan if you hadn't already done so. This is an excellent opportunity to sell your unwanted items. Killing the flexile sentry should also give you enough souls for a level or two.

Once you're in the Bastille, blast the wall, activate the bonfire and unlock McDuffs workshop, get the drangleic shield even if you're not playing a shield based build, Imbue your weapon with whatever feels right, personally I imbued my third Caestus with poison. Use a homeward bone after you beat the ruin sentinels and stock up on things like arrows or shards instead of losing them because of a dumb death later.

Just run for the boss room in the sinner's rise instead of fighting the mobs, use your torch to light the Sinner's room if you have the Bastille Key.

Soloing - Sentinels
Surprisingly, Poison works against animated pieces of armor


Pros: Gutter is incredibly short if you know the path, giants below the gulch drops a giants soul if you kill them (I suggest poisoning)
Cons: No vendor, Poison literally everywhere

Pay gilligan to set whichever ladder you want, even the most expensive one is cheaper than the Catfall ring. Just leg it to the second gulch bonfire as soon as you activate the first one, the enemies aren't worth your time.



Pros: You're free to go back to Majula
Cons: Acid

You should only light the first bonfire when entering shaded woods, the others are needed for some major treks later in the game. After defeating Najka however, you should light bonfires as you progress barring the last one in tseldora, the one beside the chapel is by all means a better one.

Soloing - Najka
When Najka dives, camp on either of the rocks, keep in mind that she might still land on you after bursting out of the ground

Soloing - Freja
You don't need to kill all the spiderlings, just do so until you have a manageable number, the laser attack also leaves her other head open for a combo or two

Set the third Shaded woods bonfire as your starting point, you'd rather get backstabbed at the start of a journey instead of the end of one, then head towards the Dragonrider boss.

It's the last bonfire of the run.

The only bonfire that you're supposed to light in the entire castle at this point is the hidden one immediately before the Dragonriders. You'll use the one right after them as a checkpoint when returning with the king's ring.
I'd recommend despawning the horse statues, if you're in the CoC they'll also drop awestones (rare), it'll be one less variable when backtracking

Soloing - Double Dragonrider fight
Position yourself in such a way that the red, melee based one destroys the archer's vantage point, it's much easier than fighting the camera


The enemies in this area are pretty fast and have a lot of reach, I usually despawn most of the area for any playthrough since the priests and priestesses also drop twinkling titanite and while you can kite them from the front, doing so on the way back will usually aggro the whole group. Leave the 3rd and 4th bonfire unlit

Light the bonfires and defeat Veldstadt

Buy some Dark arrows from Agdayne, they'll prove useful later.

Soloing - Veldstadt
Poison is a boon here, you should be able to poison him atleast 2 times, once in the beginning and once when he powers up, it'll remove about 1000 health each time

Light the rest of the amana bonfires and the one right before the Dragonrider's, then travel to Aldia's keep and light the one inside the shack, then the Second bonfire, it's a relatively short area.

Soloing - Guardian Dragon
Don't lock onto the boss when it's in the air, you'll need to move freely while avoiding the fire attacks

Leave the Aerie bonfire unlit, barring the 4 corrosive mummies and the 3 non-respawning dragons there are no enemies here.

The Dark arrows will prove useful here since they'll do about 100 damage each on the drakekeepers, though only about half as effective on the much smaller warriors. Just cheese everything if you want this done in the quickest possible manner, then light the aerie bonfire after obtaining the ashen mist heart.


You can now open the kings door near the second bonfire, there's one behind it for you to light just for this battle, kill the giant lord to get the Giant's Kinship

Soloing - Giant Lord
You're working with limited time in the memories of the giants, get a supply of poison arrows alternating with normal ones and start firing at him from the raised area within the arena the once you know his moveset.

Once you have the Giants Kinship, light the second shaded woods bonfire and set off for the very last one by the king's door in Castle Drangleic.

Soloing - Throne Watcher/Defender
Use a shield and a hard high-damage weapon for this one, both of them can ressurect each other if you take too long defeating the other one.
Strip down naked, your stamina recovery will be faster and you won't be able to tank that many hits anyway, consider using the effigies you've collected (I had 30 or so by this point) once you've found the right equipment for the fight, you'll free the ring of binding slot, use them sparingly.

I'd recommend either the fire, lightning or magic resin if you have them since they're the most effective ones.

Soloing - Nashandra
If you don't already have one, equip a light weapon with a vertical swing(ex. shortsword) and destroy just one of the orbs that she summons at the start, make her walk to you so that you don't get Damage over time and start dodging and punishing her attacks from that position

Provided that you've done everything correctly this screen will show after the credits have rolled.