There is a color-coded version of this guide, which is much easier to skim through, in the discord server linked on my Steam profile. Feel free to ask questions and leave feedback there. That guide, and my guides for Elden Ring the other Dark Souls games are also linked separately on my Steam profile.

The example build I use in this guide is my own take on the infamous “Giant Dad” build.

After new players become accustomed to the mechanics of Dark Souls Remastered, many are still at a massive disadvantage against seasoned players. Experienced players know how to become more powerful much earlier in the game than a novice would typically be. While half of being successful in Dark Souls Remastered is skill based, the other half is building a strong character. In this guide I will share with you my expert knowledge on how to do exactly that. Just a reminder: min-maxing everything to be as strong as possible is not the only way to play the game. The most important thing is to have fun.

This guide assumes you have basic knowledge of the mechanics of Dark Souls Remastered. Once you kill a boss, it is impossible to continue any NPC questlines in that area, so it’s important to complete every questline in an area before killing that area’s boss.

This guide emphasizes becoming as powerful as possible before taking on each boss, and generally recommends taking on weaker bosses first. I highly recommend soloing bosses. Multiplayer boss fights are harder unless the average power level of your team is higher than your own due to how boss health scales in multiplayer, +100% base health per phantom, and because bosses are less predictable when fighting multiple players.

Throughout the walkthrough I talk about “quitting out”. When I say “quit out” I mean immediately quitting the game, which takes you to the main menu, and then re-entering the game. This not only resets enemy placement, but progresses NPC questlines without having to rest at a bonfire.

The leveling strategy I detail in the walkthrough can be broken down into two key steps.

Step 1: use the master key to acquire powerful items from late-game areas much earlier than intended.

Step 2: reach the Giant Blacksmith and upgrade your weapon to a +5 lightning weapon. Having a lightning-infused weapon which has no strength or dexterity scaling frees you to invest your points in defensive and utility stats like vitality and endurance.

The leveling requirements I list in the walkthrough are the bare minimum level you should be at that stage of the game, so feel free to look ahead to see which stats I recommend leveling next. Some soul farming may be required. Be warned that there is no way to re-spec the points you spend leveling up in this game.

Here's the complete order I recommend you level up your stats while following this guide. The stat section below goes into more detail.

1. Level dexterity to level 10.
2. Level strength to level 16.
3. Level endurance to level 24.
4. Level vitality to level 16.
5. Level endurance to level 30.
6. Level vitality to level 30.
7. Level attunement to level 10.
8. Level endurance to level 41.
9. Level strength to level 24.
10. Level endurance to level 50.
11. Level vitality to level 50.
12. Level endurance to level 84.

Image credit for all screenshots: Dark Souls Fandom Wiki
Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 Deed.

1. Make a new character and choose the “bandit” class; while the bandit class starts with worse gear than the warrior class, it has a more ideal stat distribution, which is far more important in the long run. Pick the master key as your starting gift. The master key is incredibly useful as it lets you access key areas of the game much earlier than you normally would. Last, know that small, female characters are preferred by some people as they obstruct less of your field of view, though it’s not a big difference.

2. After leaving your cell, light the bonfire and go through the double doors. Run through the gate on your left to Avoid the Asylum Demon and light the other bonfire

3. Pick up the battle axe and spider shield. Swap your straight sword hilt for the battle axe and wield it in two hands. Don't equip your shield, as it's too heavy and will slow you down. At this level, the battle axe can one-shot hollows only when two-handed.

4. Avoid the boulder on the stairs; it will make a hole in the wall leading to Oscar of Astora. Get the estus flask and Undead Asylum F2 East key from Oscar.

5. Traverse the fog wall and perform a plunging attack on the Asylum Demon. I find it's easier to fight large demons if you refrain from locking on to them. Once you finish it off and exit the boss room, don’t miss the soul of a lost undead hidden right before the crow nest, as you're teleported away when you get close to the nest and can miss the soul.

6. At Firelink Shrine, after consuming the soul in your inventory, level up your dexterity to level 10 and your strength to level 16.

7. Talk to the Crestfallen Warrior nearby, then talk to Petrus of Thorolund to join the way of white covenant and learn a gesture. Make sure to loot everything around Firelink Shrine. Jump down the lift shaft behind Petrus to steal his secret stash inside four chests, containing among other things a spiked mace. Equip the homeward bones you found in the item slot after your estus flask in your equipment page.

8. Head into the graveyard behind Firelink Shrine and loot the zweihander and caduceus round shield. Equip the shield in your offhand (left). You’re too weak to fight the skeletons so just run past them. You can also find the binoculars here, which are useful when paired with a crossbow, which you will need to use later.

9. At the bottom of the stairs near the shrine bonfire, take the lift down to the New Londo Ruins. Talk to Rickert of Vinheim under the cliffside, then use the master key to open the locked door in the tower opposite of him and grab the soul right outside.

10. Cross the wooden bridge to the other side of the Valley of Drakes to find a cave leading to Blighttown. To the left of the cave is a rope bridge leading to an undead dragon. Loot the soul of a proud knight near the undead dragon’s left claw. Don’t go in between the dragon’s arms or it will wake up, keep your distance.

11. Now head into the cave leading to Blighttown. Run past the enemies here as they are way above your level. Down a series of ladders you’ll find a sort of lift. Ignore the lift and cross a narrow tree root to loot the crimson armor set from a chest. Equip the helm, chest armor, and gloves.

12. Return to the New Londo Ruins and head the other direction, past a group of hollows. Pick up the two transient curses on a corpse inside a pot and go across the wooden bridge spanning the flooded city. Be quick as ghosts will chase you. Don’t go up the stairs. Instead, take an immediate right and you'll see a row of windows. This structure contains a hidden walkway just beneath water level. Enter it through the doorway on your right, run across the walkway, and pick up the Fire Keeper soul. Use a homeward bone to escape the high-level ghosts that will ambush you.

13. Level up your endurance to level 20 at the bonfire after consuming all of the souls you’ve found and equip the crimson waistcloth. Go down the stairs and give the fire keeper soul to the fire keeper, Anastacia of Astora, who will upgrade your estus flask to +1. You are now noticeably stronger than you normally should be as you enter the first zone.

14. Up the cliffside from Firelink Shrine is the way to the Undead Burg. These enemies are at your level and should be killed. You can jump onto the stone bridge behind the hollow soldier to find a ring of sacrifice. Before the fog wall, break some barrels to reveal a secret path where you can pick up some rubbish, it has a use later. Continue on past the fog wall to find the Undead Burg bonfire.

15. Back down the stairs from the bonfire are two hollow soldiers with spears guarding a staircase blocked by breakable wooden boxes. Head down the stairs to meet the Undead Merchant.

16. Past the Undead Merchant is a ladder leading to a rooftop. Jump from the rooftop to the broken bridge opposite the ladder to loot a light crossbow and 16 standard bolts. Equip the standard bolts in the first slot of the bolt section of your equipment page.

17. Now, continue on past the bonfire and use the master key to open doors and loot everything in the Undead Burg. Towards the end of the area you’ll find a black knight in an alleyway. Use parries and backstabs to kill him and loot and equip the blue tearstone ring found behind him. Past the black knight is a tower containing the boss’ fog wall. Right before the fog wall, break some of the barrels to reveal a crystal lizard, then kill it.

18. Level up your endurance to level 24 and re-equip your original brigand's gauntlets.

19. After traversing the fog wall in the tower, head up the ladder to kill the 2 archers atop the tower. Run halfway across the bridge to start the Taurus Demon boss fight. Quickly head back up the ladder and perform a plunging attack on the taurus demon. After killing the demon don't forget to loot a large soul of a lost undead hidden in a breakable wooden box near the exit.

20. Press onward and talk to Solaire of Astora to receive the white sign soapstone.

21. Sprint across the bridge and into the alcove on the right at the halfway point to avoid the Hellkite Wyvern's fire. Go down the stairs and kick down the ladder leading to the Undead Burg bonfire.

22. Buy at least 30 standard bolts from the Undead Merchant for 30 souls each, any excess souls should be spent leveling up your vitality to 16 like the guide says to in a later step.

23. Back up the ladder, go underneath the bridge and equip your light crossbow in your right hand, two-hand it, and equip your standard bolts. Shoot the Hellkite Wyvern's tail until it breaks off and you receive the drake sword. This takes about 30 standard bolts, but it’s easy to miss. Bows are easy to aim, but you need more than 10 dexterity to use a bow. Equip the drake sword in place of your crossbow, and swap your leggings back to the brigand leggings, as the sword is heavy.

24. From the tower where you fought the Taurus Demon, use the master key to open the door inside it and head to the bottom of the tower. Here you’ll need to kill the Havel knight in order to receive Havel's ring. Parries and backstabs are very effective against this enemy. Equip Havel’s ring, re-equip the crimson waistcloth, and equip the spider shield in place of your caduceus round shield.

25. Use the master key to open the door behind the Havel knight and head out to Darkroot Basin. Use your shield to run up to the hydra and collect the knight armor set. Run back and equip the knight’s gauntlets. Stay to the left and go down the hill to kill a black knight and loot the grass crest shield it's guarding. Equip the grass crest shield in place of your spider shield. There’s a cave with a Darkroot Basin bonfire here, and a lift behind the bonfire leading to the Valley of Drakes. Know that you can rest at the bonfire before killing the black knight.

26. Level up your vitality to level 16.

27. After climbing halfway up the hill to kill a crystal lizard, climb the rest of the way to enter Darkroot Garden. Take a left turn at the fork and run past the titanite demon to find Blacksmith Andre of Astora. Talk to him to learn his gesture and then rest at the bonfire above him. Exit out the doorway next to the bonfire to find Sen’s Fortress. Talk to Siegmeyer of Catarina and then return.

28. Head out to Darkroot Garden, past the titanite demon again, and stop at the sealed stone door. Don’t miss the Darkroot Garden bonfire behind an illusory wall just left of the door.

29. Continue down past the bonfire to find a tree that can be killed. To its left is the elite knight armor set. Grab it then head past the tree you killed. Pick up another soul of a proud knight, and at the end of a tunnel, the wolf ring. Jump from the end of the tunnel to safety and equip the wolf ring in place of your blue tearstone ring and equip the elite knight gauntlets.

30. Make sure you kill some of the Ents, aka demonic foliage, until you have at least 1 of each kind of moss: red, purple, and blooming purple. You will need an additional 3 purple moss clumps later, but having even more purple and blooming purple moss clumps will come in handy later in Blighttown.

31. Return to the titanite demon and kill it, then buy the weapon smithbox, armor smithbox, and repairbox from blacksmith Andre of Astora for 6000 souls total. You can rest at the Undead Burg bonfire before taking on the titanite demon. Never stand in front of the demon; the safest place is behind its left leg.

32. The way past the bonfire leads to the Undead Parish. Head straight: into the church. Kill the mace-wielding Berenike knight, which can be parried, and loot the fire keeper soul it’s guarding. Head down the lift to Firelink Shrine and talk to Anastacia of Astora to upgrade your estus flask to +2. From this point you’re going to clear out the Undead Parish. The Undead Parish is heavily defended from the front so it’s best approached from behind like this. Wearing the wolf ring makes this process much easier as well.

33. Back up the lift, climb to the second floor of the church, take out the hollows one by one and kill the Channeler. Don’t let them surround you. Down a narrow halfway, break through the wooden barrier to find Lautrec of Carim locked in a cell and rescue him.

34. Head back down the stairs and exit the front of the church. After looting the nearby items, open the gate. The armored boar past the gate can be easily killed with a few backstabs.

35. Follow the road down until you come to a gate. Climb the stairs on the left and kill the black knight in the tower with backstabs and parries.

36. Descend the ladder leading under the tower and quickly kill the three rats there. Past two hollow soldiers is the bridge where you acquired the Drake sword. Go down the ladder and rest at the Undead Burg bonfire.

37. Return to the Undead Merchant and buy the orange guidance soapstone, residence key, bottomless box, dried finger, and chain chest armor from him for 4900 souls total, then head up the ladder to the bridge.

38. Wait at the stairs leading below the bridge for the Hellkite Wyvern to land on the bridge, then run past it to the other side. Use the lever to open the gate to the Undead Parish and be sure to rest at the bonfire. Opposite the gate is the sunlight altar. Optionally, in online mode, use the white sign soapstone to help three players kill a boss, this will let you join the covenant, as each player helped lowers the faith requirement to join by five. Bandit’s start with 10 points in faith and you need 25 faith to join.

39. Past the gate, keep heading back towards the Undead Parish. Enter the tunnel next to where the armored boar was to grab the last of the items in the area, then return to the Undead Parish bonfire next to blacksmith Andre of Astora.

40. Level up your endurance to level 26 and equip the elite knight helm. Use two humanity to become human at the bonfire and kindle it, this causes this particular bonfire to permanently give you additional estus flask charges.

41. Return to the church and climb up the ladder behind where the channeler was to the top floor. Summon Solaire of Astora to help you fight the Bell Gargoyles boss. The fact that summoning a phantom doubles the boss’ health is a good thing because you don’t want to kill the first gargoyle until you cut its tail, and you get a sunlight medal when Solaire helps you. Two-hand your sword to cut the gargoyle’s tail and get the gargoyle tail axe. Now one-hand your weapon for the rest of the fight. If you kill it before you cut its tail you will only have one more chance to get it later. It’s not a strong weapon, but it's kinda cool. After killing both gargoyles, ring the first bell of awakening and talk to Oswald of Carim. Speak to him to receive the “well, what is it?” gesture and buy the book of the guilty from him for 1000 souls.

42. Next, while still in human form, go back to the Darkroot Garden bonfire and expend one humanity to kindle it. Enter the tower near where you found the elite knight armor set. Summon the Witch Beatrice to help you fight the Moonlight Butterfly boss atop the tower. Beatrice will kill the boss in a couple hits. Once the boss is dead, loot the watchtower basement key, divine ember, and homeward bone.

43. Return to Andre of Astora and give him the divine ember. Buy the crest of Artorias from him for 20,000 souls, which you will quickly recoup, as the crest unlocks a great soul-farming spot.

44. Head back to the Darkroot Garden bonfire and open the sealed gate next to it. Run past the Forest Hunter NPCs and across a bridge. Loot the enchanted ember from a chest guarded by two Mushroom Parents, and a few souls of a proud knight nearby. Bait the Mushrooms away from the chest to loot it without fighting them. Go back across the bridge and kill Pharris, the Forest Hunter with a bow, as she does not respawn and is worth 5000 souls. Don’t talk to the cat Alvina sitting on the bridge yet; once you join the Forest Hunters covenant you will be unable to farm souls here.

45. Near where you found the elite knight armor set is a two-headed tree lizard. Farm the tree lizard until it drops an egg vermifuge. It has a 10% chance to drop one when it dies.

46. Time to get your money’s worth from the crest of Artorias. Farm the Forest Hunters until you have about 170,000 souls. This will involve killing the first 3 hunters about 29 times each. Though you should have a bunch of souls and titanite shards on you, so you likely will not need to farm quite this many souls. I recommend taking a half hour to get all your soul farming done at once, it’s great practice. Don’t hoard your souls, spend them regularly, as you will lose them all if you fail to recover your bloodstain after dying.

47. Buy titanite shards from Blacksmith Andre of Astora until you have 38 for 800 souls each. Upgrade both your zweihander and grass crest shield to +5, and upgrade your entire elite knight armor set and your chain chest armor to +3. 4000 souls and 9 titanite shards for the Zweihander, 1000 souls and 9 titanite shards for the grass crest shield, and 600 souls and 4 titanite shards for each armor piece.

48. Level up your endurance and vitality to level 30. This should cost around 130,000 souls, the bulk of what you farmed.

49. Descend to the New Londo Ruins and give the enchanted ember to Rickert of Vinheim.

50. Run to the Valley of Drakes and kill the Undead Dragon to get a dragon scale. Play cautiously and focus on its left hand, the toxic attack is weak but the claw swipes are very dangerous. Hug the cliffside to bait the toxic attack; it can be completely avoided by staying in-between the dragon’s claws. You should be able to get three attacks in before having to roll backwards to avoid the claw swipe.

51. Go to the lift that takes you from Firelink Shrine up to the Undead Parish and jump onto the platform just before the bottom. From there, jump onto the flying buttress and down onto the roof of the stone structure next to Petrus of Thorolund and loot the Undead Asylum F2 West key. Back to the buttress, head up the spiral staircase and curl up in the crow’s nest to return to the Undead Asylum.

52. From the crow’s nest, facing the Undead Asylum, Snuggly the Crow’s nest is on the left, before the torch-wielding hollows. Kill the torch-wielding hollows. It’s useful to block them with your shield; don’t underestimate the damage they can dish out. Stand in Snuggly’s nest and drop the rubbish you picked up earlier. Quit out to find a titanite chunk where you dropped the rubbish. Repeat this process separately with a single sunlight medal, cracked red eye orb, one of each kind of moss clump, and an egg vermifuge.

53. Heading into the Undead Asylum, avoid stepping on the center rectangle in the Asylum Demon’s boss room for now. Kill the two nearby black knights and loot the peculiar doll one guards. Use your Undead Asylum F2 West key to open a previously locked door, near where you plunge-attacked the Asylum Demon, to get the rusted iron ring.

54. Use two humanity to become human and kindle the bonfire in the courtyard. Having more than five estus flasks will be a big help in the coming bossfight. Kill the two hollows in the Asylum Demon boss room and equip the spiked mace you stole from Petrus of Thorolund in place of your drake sword. One-handing the mace will use less stamina. There is a diamond-shaped area in the middle of the boss room that will collapse when walked on. Walk on it to fall into the Stray Demon’s boss room, take a swig from your estus flask as the fall damage will cut your health in half. The Stray Demon is very strong, but is susceptible to being bled, hence the spiked mace, which deals bleeding damage. Three hits with the mace will bleed the demon for around 10% of its health. Its bleed meter drops quickly, so if you get two hits in and and have to dodge, it will take two more hits to proc bleed again. Keep an eye on the demon’s health bar to make sure you successfully bleed it.

55. Return up the lift and go to Blacksmith Andre of Astora, Upgrade your drake sword to +1 with one dragon scale and 10,000 souls.

56. Head to Darkroot Basin. Equip the rusty iron ring in place of your wolf ring and spider shield in place of your grass crest shield. The hydra’s ranged attacks must be dodged, but the melee attacks can be blocked. Lop off the hydra’s heads to kill it. Re-equip your grass crest shield, then quit out and kill the golden crystal golem at the far side of the Hydra’s lake. Take care not to hit Princess Dusk of Oolacile, who spawns immediately after killing the golem. Find her summon sign by the shore and summon her to learn her gesture. You can now loot her outfit where the golden crystal golem was. Re-equip your wolf ring once you’re out of the water.

57. Head up to the Darkroot Basin bonfire, in the cave where you fought a black knight and got the grass crest shield, and upgrade your drake sword to +2 with one dragon scale and 10,000 souls.

58. Up the ladder by the waterfall and across the bridge, head to the right and kill the three giant cats one-by-one. Use the trees to your advantage, they can’t get past them.

59. Past the giant cats is another sealed door. Open it with the crest of Artorias and fight the boss Great Grey Wolf Sif to get the covenant of Artorias ring. Don’t forget to loot the hornet ring hidden behind the grave of Artorias. If you’re having trouble, try to back Sif into a corner. Remember to roll into Sif’s sword attacks, not away from them, and get underneath Sif to attack its legs.

60. Level up your attunement to level 10.

61. Go to where you met Solaire in the Undead Burg. Use the watchtower basement key you got from killing the Moonlight Butterfly to open the locked door there and travel down to the Lower Undead Burg.

62. Up a set of stairs to your right is a door leading back to the Undead Burg. Open it, then go back down and use the residence key to rescue Griggs of Vinheim who’s locked in one of the houses. Break a barrel next to him to collect the sorcerer armor set. Ignore the fog gate and instead head down the staircase, and then up another to find the female undead merchant. Open the door past her that leads to Firelink Shrine and rest at the shrine bonfire.

63. Go back to the fog gate and defeat the Capra Demon boss. Use the key to the depths it drops to unlock the final locked door that leads to the depths.

64. In the depths, kill the two butchers, rescue Laurentius of the Great Swamp who’s trapped in a barrel, and loot the large ember from a chest another butcher guards.

65. Make your way to the bottom of the depths, talk to Domhnall of Zena, and open the shortcut up to the Depths bonfire. Use one humanity to become human and return to the rat-infested area just before Domhnall of Zena to be invaded by Knight Kirk, then kill him. Don’t miss the large titanite shard near a channeler, you will need it soon.

66. While human, summon Solaire of Astora to help you fight the Gaping Dragon boss. Solaire will distract the dragon, allowing you to easily cut off its tail and get the dragon greataxe. Finish off the dragon to get the Blighttown key, and loot the standard armor set nearby.

67. Return to Firelink Shrine. Talk to Griggs of Vinheim, talk to Petrus of Thorolund and his three companions who’ve just arrived, and talk to Laurentius of the Great Swamp to receive a pyromancy flame. Equip the flame in your second offhand slot, after your shield.

68. Visit blacksmith Andre of Astora and give him the large ember. Ascend your grass crest shield +5 to +6 with one large titanite shard and 200 souls.

69. At the Darkroot Garden bonfire, farm souls from the Forest Hunters until you have 53,500 souls. You should already have 25,000 from killing the Gaping Dragon. Talk to Alvina to join the Forest Hunters covenant and then talk to Shiva of the East. You can no longer farm souls from the Forest Hunters, as they are your allies and you don’t want to anger them. You’ll find a much better place to farm souls soon.

70. Return to Firelink Shrine and talk to Laurentius of the Great Swamp. Upgrade your pyromancy flame to +10. Buy the combustion pyromancy for 500 souls and attune it at the bonfire.

71. Back down to the depths, where Domhnall of Zena is, use the Blighttown key to open the gate leading to Blighttown and venture down into the hole. Make sure to pick up all the souls and items, as many are hidden. If you head straight from the ladder you can jump onto a platform to pick up a katana. A bonfire is right there. Descend the wooden structure towards Blighttown. When you come to the Parasitic Wall Hugger, climb the ladder behind it to attack its defenseless mouth, then you can loot the “power within” pyromancy it was guarding. Equip the rusted iron ring in place of your wolf ring. Climb the rest of the way down to Blighttown and rest at the bonfire there.

72. Loot a dragon scale in a chest behind the bonfire and upgrade your drake sword to +3 with 2 dragon scales and 10,000 souls.

73. Left from the bonfire is a giant tree root leading to a chest behind an illusory wall. There is a second illusory wall behind the chest leading to the great hollow. Save that area for later. Head back the other way, past the Blighttown bonfire until you reach a lift.

74. Talk to Shiva of the east who moved beneath the lift, to get a gesture and then talk to Quelana of Izalith sitting next to a pillar. You need your pyromancy flame to be at least +10 for her to appear. Buy the great combustion pyromancy from her for 5000 souls and attune it at the bonfire in place of your regular combustion.

75. Loot the two large titanite shards hidden around Blighttown, then reverse your hollowing at the bonfire to be invaded out in the swamp by Maneater Mildred and kill her.

76. Travel up the lift near Shiva of the East who just arrived, to return to the place where you found the crimson armor set. Up one ladder is an area guarded by blowdart snipers. They don’t respawn if you kill them so make that a priority. The spider shield is unique in that it successfully blocks their poison attacks. A soul of a proud knight and fire keeper soul can be found here.

77. Head back down, rest at the bonfire, and enter the giant cocoon to kill Chaos Witch Quelaag. Before facing her, use a purple moss clump to cure yourself of poison, and swap your rusted iron ring back to your wolf ring. You can avoid many of Quelaag’s attacks by getting in between her legs.

78. Ring the bell, and then down the stairs is an illusory wall. Past the illusory wall, tell Eingyi of the Great Swamp that you want to become a servant and he will let you pass. Rest at the bonfire, talk to the Daughter of Chaos and upgrade your estus flask to +3. Talk to Eingyi again to buy the servant roster for 500 souls.

79. Continue on to find another bonfire and more egg-burdened enemies. Let one of them perform a grab attack on you to become infected. The egg will hatch in about five minutes. You know you’ve been infected if you see your character scratching their head.

80. Go across the big bridge and through the fog wall to the Ceaseless Discharge boss fight. Run to the end of the area and pick up the gold-hemmed black armor set. He won’t attack you until you do. Avoid his attacks and run back to the fog wall. The Ceaseless Discharge will leap a chasm to try and attack you but will slip and hang on to the ledge by one hand. Six swings will cause him to let go and die instantly. Killing him solidifies the lava beneath allowing you to enter the Demon Ruins.

81. Down onto the solidified lava you’ll find Taurus Demons that will not respawn when killed. There is also a chaos ember in the lava, but you can get that later.

82. By now your egg-head should have hatched. Talk to Eingyi of the Great Swamp to receive an egg vermifuge. Use it to cure your infection, as being infected prevents you from wearing a helmet, and halves the amount of souls you absorb from enemies. For your dedication Eingyi will now sell you his pyromancy.

83. Level up your endurance to level 39. Equip the mask of the sealer in place of your elite knight helm, and swap your crimson chest armor for the elite knight chest armor.

84. Return to Blighttown and talk to Quelana again. Accept her quest to kill the Bed of Chaos. The quest reward she gives you, the fire tempest pyromancy, is the best spell for farming souls in the entire game.

85. Return up the lift to Firelink Shrine. Loot the black eye orb where the fire keeper was. Lautrec murdered her so you can no longer rest at the bonfire. You need the orb to find him later in order to relight the bonfire. Talk to Laurentius of the Great Swamp, tell him where you got Quelana’s pyromancies so he will go mad and attack you in Blighttown where you can loot his gear. Talk to the primordial serpent Kingseeker Frampt. You can sell any excess junk to him to get souls. This is the only way to sell items in the game.

86. Go to the Undead Parish and talk to blacksmith Andre of Astora. Ascend your zweihander +5 to +6 with one large titanite shard and 800 souls, then from the Undead Parish bonfire, enter Sen’s Fortress, which has opened after both bells were rung.

87. Head through the fortress until you come outside to a ramp frequented by large boulders. Talk to Siegmeyer of Catarina below, then loot the ring of steel protection in a chest at the top of the ramp. Equip the ring of steel protection in place of your wolf ring.

88. Continue climbing through Sen’s Fortress and you’ll come to a giant stone turntable you can use to alter the path of the boulders. Sending a boulder down one path will break through a wall, behind which you can use the master key to rescue Big Hat Logan, who’ll warp to Firelink Shrine. Sending several boulders down another path will fill up a hole then break through another wall, behind which you can grab the covetous gold serpent ring. Nearby, below a small lift, is a mimic, an enemy resembling a treasure chest. Kill it to loot a lightning spear.

89. Once you make it to the roof of Sen’s Fortress, look for a gap in the wall where you can jump down to the Sen’s Fortress bonfire.

90. Climb up to the giant that’s throwing boulders at you and kill it. Don’t go through the fog gate yet, climb back down and kill the Berenike knight blocking a path to the side. In the tower past the knight, kill Rickard and loot the two chests he was guarding.

91. Jump the gap in the bridge to the tower closest to the bonfire and talk to the Crestfallen Merchant. You must be fast-rolling to make this jump so unequip your armor and weapons to do so. You can buy titanite shards from the merchant. Though don’t be tempted to buy large titanite shards from him, as they are expensive and can be easily farmed from the Berenike knight nearby. Down the stairs from the merchant is a snake man who drops the cage key, this can be used to unlock the cage lift beneath the boulder-throwing giant, next to the fog wall, which provides a vital shortcut back to the bottom of the fortress.

92. Take the lift down, equip your rusty iron ring in place of your ring of steel protection, and jump off the bridge near the entrance to Sen’s Fortress. Perform a plunging attack on one of the titanite demons below. Kill all four of the titanite demons. They are weak to fire, so your great combustion pyromancy is very effective against them. Once the demons are dead, or you’re low on estus, as killing all of the demons will likely take multiple attempts, find the doorway leading out of the pit and climb the ladder. Through an illusory wall is another ladder. Re-equip your ring of steel protection and kill the giant at the top of the ladder to get a titanite chunk. When you’re done here, return up the cage lift to the Sen’s Fortress bonfire.

93. Level up your endurance to level 41.

94. Farm the Berenike knight for large titanite shards until you have a total of 32. You should already have about eight. The knight has a 25% chance to drop a shard each time you kill him.

95. At the bonfire, upgrade your elite knight armor set and chain chest armor to +6 and upgrade your zweihander and grass crest shield to +10. 3200 souls and 8 titanite shards for the Zweihander, 800 souls and 8 titanite shards for the grass crest shield, and 600 souls and 4 large titanite shards for each armor piece. Equip the chain chest armor, then equip your other 3 armor slots with elite knight armor.

96. Traverse the fog wall to face the Iron Golem. The rock on your left will protect you from his first ranged attack. Stay behind him and attack his legs. When you stagger him, he seems to stagger around 75% and 25% hp, he can fall off the bridge and die instantly, but only if he’s lined up right. He can knock you off the bridge as well. When you kill him, touch the glowing orb to travel to Anor Londo.

97. Once you land in Anor Londo, look behind you to see the bat-winged demon that can take you back to Sen’s Fortress if need be. Turn back around and descend the stairs to find a Giant Sentinel guarding a doorway. The Giant Sentinels in this first area have uniquely low aggro ranges. This allows you to squeeze by without causing the Sentinels to attack you. On your left you’ll find stairs leading down to the Anor Londo bonfire.

98. After resting at the bonfire, talk to the Darkmoon Knightess. Back up the stairs and to the left you’ll find more Sentinels that should be baited out one at a time and killed to loot the chests they guard. Be warned that the chest on the right is a mimic. Ignore the Sentinel guarding a path past the mimic, as it’s blocked off for now.

99. Head down the lift near the bonfire and kill the gargoyle, you can get a second gargoyle tail axe by cutting its tail. Turn around and jump down the left side of the lift tower to loot a chest. On the other side of the tower through an archway is a flying buttress you can climb up, letting you enter the chapel through a broken window. Fend off the Painting Guardians and climb a ladder up to the rafters. Cut the chandelier chain before jumping to safety next to a fog wall. Note that you can jump onto a platform below a statue of Gwynevere and through an opening between two columns to loot a chest.

100. Past the fog wall is a tower with a spiral staircase and a rotary lever. Push the lever twice to lower the tower two times and descend the staircase to light the Darkmoon Tomb bonfire. At the top of the staircase is the floor of the chapel. You can grab the black iron armor in a corner, but don’t enter the painting yet. Go back to the rotary lever and push it the other way to raise the tower once, kill the gargoyle that will attack you, and continue on to the main staircase of Anor Londo.

101. At the top of the stairs, turn left and run past the enemies. Up another flying buttress, kill the greatbow-wielding silver knights, and rest at the Cathedral bonfire through the first door on the left.

102. Talk to Solaire next to the bonfire. The fireplace in one room is an illusory wall. Behind it are a mimic and four chests you can loot. Up the stairs on the second floor are two mimics, and stairs leading to the roof behind a door. There’s a titanite demon behind another door that you can come back for later. At the top of the stairs, ignore the silver knight with a greatbow, head straight, down a spiral staircase, and talk to Siegmeyer of Catarina. Kill the three silver knights blocking his path and return to him to get the tiny being’s ring.

103. Past the greatbow-wielding silver knight on the roof is the way forward. When you come to the main hall, make a left turn up the stairs, past the broken window, and through a narrow passage that takes you to the Giant Blacksmith. You can squeeze behind the Giant Blacksmith to loot a chest. Talk to the Giant Blacksmith to ascend your zweihander +10 into a lightning zweihander and upgrade it to +5 with 8 titanite chunks, one titanite slab, and 4800 souls total. Buy the giant’s armor set from the giant for 26,000 souls, then upgrade each piece of the Giant’s armor set to +2 with 8 twinkling titanite and 1600 souls total. The armor is too heavy to wear for now. Equip the lightning zweihander +5 in two hands, you don’t have enough strength to one-hand it yet, and equip the mask of the sealer and crimson waistcloth to compensate for the sword’s weight. Congratulations, you have a max-level weapon halfway through the game.

104. Past the Giant Blacksmith you can open a door leading back to the main staircase of Anor Londo. Head back to the main hall, past the giant sentinels, and use the rotary lever there to open the giant front doors of the main hall.

105. In the main hall, use your black eye orb to invade Lautrec of Carim’s world and kill him. Equip the ring of favor and protection in place of your ring of steel protection. If you remove the ring of favor and protection now it will permanently break, so don’t take it off. Re-equip your old armor combo of the chain chest armor and elite knight helm, gauntlets, and leggings. Don’t go up the stairs to the boss room just yet.

106. Head back to the chapel and enter the painting. You need the peculiar doll from the Undead Asylum to enter it. Be warned that you cannot exit the painting the way you came, though it’s not hard to reach the exit of the Painted World.

107. Light the bonfire in the Painted World of Ariamis. When you get to the big bridge, run across to wake the undead dragon then run back to avoid its charge. Kill the dragon using the same strategy as in the Valley of Drakes. After killing the dragon you can run across the bridge to find that you only killed the top half of the dragon, while the bottom half obstructs your way. Perform a jumping attack on it to get it to stand up, letting you pass. It’s possible to exit the painting this route, though there’s much more to do.

108. Head into the large circular tower and loot the red sign soapstone at the top of the spiral stairs. At the bottom of the tower, go through the fog wall into the courtyard, past the phalanx enemies, and straight back to open the double doors, revealing a shortcut to the bonfire.

109. Use one humanity to reverse your hollowing at the bonfire. After going through the doors back into the courtyard, take a right towards a cliffside to be invaded by Xanthous King Jeremiah and kill him.

110. Descend the ladder to the bottom of the well in the courtyard. I advise spending all of your souls before entering here. This area is populated by infamously dangerous wheel skeletons. Kill or avoid them and grab the annex key behind an illusory wall. Behind a different illusory wall, turn a crank mechanism to unlock the intended path out of the painting.

111. Use the annex key to open a locked door in the courtyard and loot the dark ember.

112. If you have one, equip the symbol of avarice helm and the crimson waistcloth. Farm the phalanx and level up your strength to level 24 and endurance to level 50. It costs 385,000 souls to level up 17 times as described, that would require killing all 13 phalanx 42 times, though you should have a bunch of souls already. When you’re done, equip the complete elite knight armor set, all 4 pieces. With 24 strength you can now wield the zweihander in one hand, just remember it deals more damage when wielded in two hands, one-handing it is really only for ripostes.

113. Cross the bridge to leave the Painted World. Talk to the boss Crossbreed Priscila, you can kill her if you want, and receive a powerful unique dagger from cutting her tail, but know that you’re a bad person if you do. I recommend killing her later. Don’t forget to snag the xanthous armor set before you leave the painting, it only spawns if you’ve killed Xanthous King Jeremiah. Once out of the painting, rest at the Anor Londo bonfire.

114. It’s finally time to enter the big fog wall in the main hall and kill Ornstein and Smough. It is much easier to kill Ornstein first and Smough second, as when you kill one, the other gets much more powerful, and Super Ornstein is famous for killing players in one hit. Though if you’ve been following the guide so far, you should be tanky enough to survive Super Ornstein’s most powerful attack. You get the soul of whoever you killed last, so NG+ is required to get both. Super Ornstein also drops his ring when he dies, though it’s only useful when using thrusting weapons.

115. After the fight is over, take the lift up to the Chamber of the Princess bonfire. Lautrec’s armor set, the armor of favor, can be looted off a corpse there if you invaded and killed him previously. Open the doors to the bedchamber and talk to Gwynevere to get the lordvessel. You can now warp between select bonfires. Specifically, you can warp from nearly every bonfire, but only to some bonfires. The Painted World of Ariamis bonfire and the Duke’s Archives Cell bonfire are the only two you can’t warp from. Talk to Gwynevere again to join the Princess Guard covenant. If you kill Gwynevere you will be locked out of several covenants, so don’t attack her.

116. Warp to the Daughter of Chaos bonfire and head to the Blighttown swamp. Talk to Siegmeyer of Catarina and give him 3 purple moss clumps. From the Blighttown bonfire, warp to Firelink Shrine.

117. Talk to Siegmeyer of Catarina in Firelink Shrine. Don’t talk to Kingseeker Frampt. You will automatically give him the lordvessel if you do, and will be locked out of an important covenant, which will prevent you from getting a powerful weapon. Down the stairs you can use the firekeeper soul you got from killing Lautrec of Carim to resurrect Anastacia of Astora and restore the bonfire.

118. Take the lift down to the New Londo Ruins and kill the Crestfallen Warrior, who has gone hollow.

119. Continue down past the wooden bridge leading into the ruins. Equip your transient curses in an item slot. Consuming a transient curse will allow you to damage the ghosts that reside here for five minutes. Your curses will gray-out in your item slot when the effect is active. Keep your curses in your active item slot so you can see when they are no longer active, as you will then be vulnerable and will need to consume another if any ghosts remain.

120. Head up a ladder inside a large building onto the roof and talk to Ingward the Sealer to get the key to the seal. Use the key to drain the water from the flooded city and take the lift down.

121. Up the stairs in a large building loot the very large ember from a chest.

122. Enter the fog wall, equip the covenant of Artorias ring in place of Havel’s ring, and leap into the Abyss to kill the Four Kings. Keep swinging after you kill one of the Kings to further damage their health pool, it is possible to deal enough damage to kill the Kings after only fighting three of them. If you deal too little damage it’s possible for a fifth king to spawn, contradicting the lore. Once they are dead, re-equip Havel’s ring. Speak to the primordial serpent Darkstalker Kaathe who will appear and congratulate you on your victory. Have him take you to the Kiln of the First Flame and place the lordvessel there. Talk to him again to return to the Abyss, then join the Darkwraith covenant. You will receive the dark hand, an weapon mostly used to drain humanity from NPCs before heading to NG+.

123. Warp to the Undead Parish and give the very large ember and dark ember to Blacksmith Andre. Ascend your grass crest shield to +11 with one titanite chunk and 200 souls, then upgrade it as far as you can. Next, warp to Firelink Shrine.

124. Enter the catacombs through the entrance in the graveyard behind Firelink Shrine. You’ll come to a narrow passage on the left containing a bonfire and an Undead Mage. Kill the mage and rest at the bonfire. Use the mechanism next to the bonfire to open the way forward outside the bonfire room.

125. When you get to the first room with a spiral staircase, jump down the bottom most stair to land on a platform, then jump down to another before falling into a room with a bonfire. Talk to Blacksmith Vamos and light the bonfire, use the bonfire to warp back to Firelink Shrine and continue exploring the catacombs.

126. Kill every Undead Mage you find, as at least one of them will drop their skull lantern. Inside a crypt, just before the titanite demon is a coffin you can climb into. Wait for a bit inside the coffin to be taken to the Gravelord’s tomb. Here, join the Gravelord’s Servant covenant. Enter the coffin once more to leave.

127. At the bottom of the catacombs, past the bonewheel skeletons near Blacksmith Vamos, is a boss room. Here you’ll have to kill Pinwheel. Two heavy attacks with a lightning zweihander +5 will kill him outright. He’s a bizarrely weak boss. Now equip your skull lantern in place of your grass crest shield, and enter the Tomb of Giants.

128. One-hand your sword and use the lantern to light your way. Proceed slowly, look before you jump down ledges.

129. Let Patches the Hyena trick you into jumping down a hole, then save Rhea of Thorolund by killing her two companions, Vince and Nico. Return to Patches and don’t forgive him to get a free humanity.

130. Past the nearby fog wall is a large room, there is a corpse holding an item on the far side of the room next to a cliff. Stand on the corpse and jump off the cliff to reach the covetous silver serpent ring.

131. Reverse your hollowing at a bonfire to summon and kill Paladin Leeroy at the end of the Tomb of the Giants. Traversing the fog wall and killing Gravelord Nito will get you kicked out of the Gravelord Servant covenant, so I recommend saving him for later. Instead, warp to the Anor Londo bonfire.

132. Left from the bonfire, past the room with the Giant Sentinels and mimic, is the path to the Duke’s Archives. Kill the crystal golem to recover the broken pendant. Up the lift you will encounter Seath the Scaleless. Equip a ring of sacrifice in place of Havel’s ring and let him kill you.

133. Re-equip Havel’s ring and kill the snake man outside your cell to get the archive tower cell key and escape. Turn off the alarm and get the archive tower giant door key, then head up the ladder to the second half of the archives.

134. Use the rotating stairways to access a room with a ladder. Down the ladder is a lever that moves a bookcase revealing a shortcut to a bonfire. Near the room with the lever are several chests, one of which contains the archive tower giant cell key. Return to the previous area and use the key to rescue Big Hat Logan, and find a fire keeper soul.

135. Warp back to any of the three fire keepers to upgrade your estus flask to +4, then return to the Duke’s Archives.

136. A lever in the room with the chests reveals stairs down to a small forest. Kill the golden crystal golem to rescue and speak to Sieglind of Catarina, being careful not to hit her when she spawns from the golem. Now proceed into the Crystal Cave.

137. There are certain areas here where the ground is invisible, and only falling snowflakes reveal where you can and can’t walk. Prism Stones can be used to reveal these invisible walkways as well.

138. Kill Seath the Scaleless at the end of the cave. Cutting his tail will net you the famed moonlight greatsword. It’s much easier to cut his tail with a friend there to draw his attention.

139. Return to the room where you found the key to Big Hat Logan’s cell to find him sitting there. Purchase all of his sorceries from him for a total of 183,000 souls. Talk to him and quit-out a few times until he disappears. Warp to the Anor Londo bonfire and head into the Duke’s Archives. Enter the room where Seath the Scaleless killed you to find Logan there. Kill him and take the large magic ember, which you can give to Griggs of Vinheim. Warp to the Daughter of Chaos bonfire when you’re done.

140. Reverse your hollowing and head down past the Capra Demon to be invaded by Knight Kirk. Kill him and keep going. A path to the left leads to a large flame ember, which you can give to Blacksmith Vamos. Heading straight will take you to the boss’ fog wall.

141. Kill the Demon Firesage. Past the demon is a staircase, below is a bonfire and above is a lift back to the Daughter of Chaos bonfire.

142. If you want to complete Solaire of Astora’s questline, give 30 humanity to the Daughter of Chaos. Take a right just before the Demon Firesage’s boss room. Down some tree roots is a door that can only be opened by a member of the Chaos Servant covenant that has spent 30 humanity to attain the rank of +2 in the covenant. There are nine sunlight maggots here, you’ll need to kill every single one before entering the next zone and pick up the sunlight maggot helmet. Once that’s done, head down from the Demon Firesage’s boss room, past the bonfire, to find Solaire’s summon sign.

143. Summon Solaire of Astora and kill the Demon Centipede to get the orange charred ring. Cutting the Centipede’s tail will get you the ring mid-fight. Once the demon is dead, equip the orange charred ring instead of Havel’s ring and talk to Solaire of Astora, who’s sitting at the next bonfire, just before Lost Izalith.

144. Enter Lost Izalith. A bonfire can be found behind an illusory wall on the furthermost large, square pillar surrounded by Bounding Demons. These demons are dangerous, but luckily they can damage each other and don’t respawn.

145. Straight out from the bonfire is a partially-collapsed tunnel. Reverse your hollowing and enter the tunnel. Re-equip Havel’s ring instead of your orange charred ring. Climb the staircase and you’ll be invaded for the final time by Knight Kirk. Kill him and the Daughter of Chaos who guards the area.

146. Down a tree root and to the left is a dim alcove. Walk on the floor tiles there to fall below where you’ll find Siegmeyer of Catarina. Talk to him, then jump down with him and kill all of the Chaos Eaters. Make sure Siegmeyer survives. Talk to him again, then return up a tree root to the fog wall near where you fought Knight Kirk.

147. Enter the fog wall and slide down the ramp to kill the Bed of Chaos. Any progress you make fighting this boss will remain if you die. The two branches on either side of her can be destroyed with firebombs if you aim right, but the intended strategy is to run to each of them and use your sword. Destroying both branches will reveal a tunnel beneath the boss, killing the insect at the end of the tunnel will kill the boss and reveal a bonfire. Solaire of Astora can now be found where you killed the nine sunlight maggots. His questline is now complete, so you can kill him to acquire his gear.

148. Warp to Firelink Shrine and talk to Sieglinde of Catarina, then warp to the Daughter of Chaos. Enter Blighttown and talk to Quelana of Izalith to get the fire tempest pyromancy. Upgrade your pyromancy flame to +15, ascend it, then upgrade it to +5 for 287,000 souls in total. Attune fire tempest at the bonfire, then head up the giant tree root to the Great Hollow.

149. There are a lot of crystal lizards in this area that drop valuable twinkling titanite. You’ll have to drop down a series of branches to reach the bottom. Fun fact: in the Great Hollow a basilisk enemy spawns outside of the map and falls into the killbox when it’s loaded in, giving you a free 400 souls each time you enter the area. At the bottom of the Hollow you will find Ash Lake.

150. Talk to Sieglinde of Catarina to receive a titanite slab.

151. Kill the Black Hydra, a stronger version of the hydra you fought in Darkroot Garden.

152. Past the hydra, at the end of Ash Lake, speak to the Everlasting Dragon to join the Path of the Dragon covenant. You can cut off its tail to get the dragon greatsword. For some reason the dragon doesn’t mind if you do. Next, warp to the Princess’ Bedchamber bonfire.

153. Talk to the Giant Blacksmith and buy twinkling titanite until you have 40 total, for 8000 souls apiece, then upgrade each piece of your Giant’s armor set to +5.

154. Level up your vitality to level 50, and your endurance to level 84 and equip the entire Giant’s armor set. This will take some soul farming in the Painted World of Ariamis, but it will be worth it. Your fire tempest pyromancy will make soul farming a breeze. When you’re done, warp to the Undead Parish and return to the spot in Darkroot Garden where you defeated the golden crystal golem and rescued Princess Dusk of Olacille. With the broken pendant you got from the crystal golem in the Duke’s Archives, a portal will now appear and take you to the DLC area.

155. Kill the Sanctuary Guardian. Cutting its tail will get you a whip. Talk to Elizabeth the friendly mushroom, then cross the bridge leading to the rest of the Royal Wood.

156. There’s a lift at the far end of the woods that leads to a fog wall. The merchant Marvelous Chester can be found nearby.

157. Enter the fog wall and kill Knight Artorias. Many of his attacks can only be dodged by rolling sideways. When he does several backflips he is about to buff himself. Dealing enough damage to him while he’s buffing himself will disrupt him, a running attack followed immediately by a heavy attack with a zweihander will work.

158. Once he’s put to rest, quit-out to find the Lord’s Blade Ciran. She will give you her powerful weapons if you give her Artorias’ soul. However if you kill her, you get her weapons, her armor, and can keep the soul. You’ll find the Oolacile Township bonfire past her.

159. Just past an Oolacile Sorceress is a hidden path to your right. Equip a light-producing item like the sunlight maggot helm or skull lantern. Around the far side of the building with the wooden scaffold is an illusory wall that only light can open. Inside is a chest containing the silver pendant.

160. Down a long, narrow path and past a mimic is a large building. Head up the stairs and use your light source to reveal another illusory wall concealing a chest. Head back the other way and leap off the wooden scaffold into a room with a lit fireplace. Kill the mimic here to get the crest key. Down the ladder is a rope you can cut to drop the dark fog spell on the ground. Out the door and to your right is a lift. Stand on it to unlock a shortcut to the Oolacile Township bonfire, then continue on to find the Oolacile Township Dungeon bonfire.

161. Warp back to the Oolacile Township bonfire and head up the stairs in the building where you fought Knight Artorias. Use the crest key to open the locked door and talk to Hawkeye Gough. Head back out to the Royal Wood and head down the hill, past the waterfall. Aggro the Black Dragon Kalameet and then return to Gough. Tell him the Black Dragon is causing you duress and that you will persevere to the very end. Gough will shoot Kalameet from the sky allowing you to fight it fairly.

162. Kill the Black Dragon Kalameet. You can cut its tail to get the obsidian greatsword, this is much easier with a summoned companion. Don’t miss the titanite slab in a chest behind the nearby waterfall. When that’s done, return to Hawkeye Gough. You can kill him if you want his armor. Warp to the Oolacile Township Dungeon and enter the Chasm of the Abyss.

163. Head down until you see a fog-covered platform on your left and jump onto it. Follow Alva the cat, who will lead you to an illusory wall which reveals a cave. Kill the humanities in the cave to rescue a young Great Grey Wolf Sif and get Artorias’ cleansing greatshield. There is a lift near there that opens a shortcut to the Royal Wood.

164. Deeper in the Abyss you’ll find the black flame pyromancy. Make sure to attune it at a bonfire. At the end of this area, you’ll find a collapsed stone column that serves as a bridge that will take you to a large fog wall.

165. Enter the fog wall and kill Manus, Father of the Abyss. Great Grey Wolf Sif can be summoned to help you fight him. Summoning Sif won’t increase Manus’ health pool. Using the silver pendant in your item slot at the right time will protect you from Manus’ powerful magic attacks. After the battle, talk to Dusk of Oolacile who Manus had kidnapped. She doesn’t have much to say. Now warp to Oolacile Sanctuary and talk to Elizabeth.

This is the point in the game where you do all the PVPing you feel like on this playthrough. The path to finish the game locks you out of multiple covenants, barring you from certain PVP modes.

166. Kill The Daughter of Chaos to get a fire keeper soul. Warp to Firelink Shrine and talk to Anastacia of Astora to upgrade your estus flask to +5.

167. Travel to the Princesses Bedchamber and throw something at Gwynevere to expose Gwyndolin’s illusions.

168. Warp to the Anor Londo Bonfire and kill the hostile Darkmoon Knightess to get a fire keeper soul. In Firelink Shrine, talk to Anastacia of Astora to upgrade your estus flask to +6.

169. Warp to the Darkmoon Tomb bonfire and enter the fog wall. Kill Dark Sun Gwyndolin.

170. Warp to the Painted world of Aramis and kill Crossbreed Priscilla. Cutting her tail we get you a powerful dagger. When she turns invisible you can still see her footprints in the snow.

171. Warp to the Tomb of Giants and kill Gravelord Nito. This fight is basically a DPS check, as Nito will summon more skeletons to his aid the longer the fight drags on.

172. Warp back to Firelink Shrine and talk to Patches the Hyena who just moved there. Once you’ve bought everything you want from every merchant, go back through the game and kill every NPC to get their gear. This isn’t necessary if you’re already on NG+ and you’ve gotten their gear in a previous game.

173. Warp to the Abyss, talk to Darkstalker Kaathe, travel to the Kiln of the First flame, and place all 4 lord souls in the lordvessel. The Kiln is the only place where you can farm black knight gear, as only these black knights respawn. The final boss can be found past the fog wall at the end of the Kiln.

174. Kill Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. Many of his attacks are parryable. Fun fact: Gwyn means “white” in Welsh, and his theme song only uses the white keys on a piano. When the fight is over, leave the Kiln without linking the fire, fulfilling the prophecy and becoming the dark lord of man. Feel free to choose the other ending in subsequent playthroughs, as you will retain the dark hand item even if you’re not a darkwraith.

At several points during a playthrough you may need to farm souls in order level up further. Before farming for souls, equip all of the soul absorption-boosting gear you have. Equip the covetous silver serpent ring and the symbol of avarice helmet. Soul-boosting gear stacks multiplicatively! There’s a secret game mechanic called overkill: when you deal more than 150% of an enemy’s health in damage you earn 20% more souls from killing it. Try to overkill as many enemies as you can while soul farming. After killing an enemy worth a lot of souls such as a boss, you can quickly swap to soul-boosting gear and you will receive its bonus, as there is a short delay between when you kill an enemy and when you receive souls from it. Keep an eye on your health, as the symbol of avarice drains 5 HP/s. Don’t waste time casting healing spells, estus will do, and every second counts when grinding souls. The fact that the symbol of avarice obstructs your view is often a greater detriment than the damage it deals over time.

The symbol of avarice also increases your item discovery, so it is also useful for farming for items. It does not stack with the covetous gold serpent’s ring, however your item discovery scales with your soft humanity up to 10 humanity. Each soul farming spot I list gets progressively more difficult, and more rewarding. It’s important to note that in NG+ enemies drop around double the souls they do in NG, only the last two farming spots I mention are viable in NG+, as killing phalanx in NG will net you way more souls than killing hollows in NG+.


Best farming spot after killing the Taurus Demon:

Head up the ladder from the Undead Burg bonfire, aggro the Hellkite Wyvern and run back under the bridge. Let the Wyvern kill the hollow soldiers on the bridge, netting you 555 souls. Return to the bonfire to reset them and repeat.


After buying the crest of Artorias:

From the bonfire in the Darkroot Garden behind an illusory wall, enter the magically-sealed door and kill the first 3 Forest Hunter NPCs (mage, thief, and cleric) to get 2000 souls each. Backstabs, parries, and heavy weapons like the zweihander are the most effective means of killing the Forest Hunters, and any other humanoid enemies. The bandit drops half the souls the other 3 do, so it’s quicker to just farm those 3. This can only be done before joining the Forest Hunter covenant, as attacking one of your own covenant mates will get you permanently kicked out. After killing them, return to the bonfire to reset.


After entering the Painted World of Ariamis:

The best farming spot in the game by far can be found relatively early. The phalanx enemies in the Painted World of Ariamis are tightly packed, slow moving, weak to fire, and worth tons of souls. Starting at the Painted World bonfire, go through the double doors into the courtyard to engage the phalanx. You can kill them with your lightning zweihander +5, but if you have a +5 ascended pyromancy flame, the fire tempest pyromancy will overkill most of the phalanx with a single cast, enabling extremely efficient soul farming. After running right next to the closest phalanx and casting fire tempest, finish off the rest with your zweihander and return to the bonfire to reset.

Starting as the bandit class, I recommend leveling your stats in this order:

1. Level dexterity to level 10.
2. Level strength to level 16.
3. Level endurance to level 24.
4. Level vitality to level 16.
5. Level endurance to level 30.
6. Level vitality to level 30.
7. Level attunement to level 10.
8. Level endurance to level 41.
9. Level strength to level 24.
10. Level endurance to level 50.
11. Level vitality to level 50.
12. Level endurance to level 84.

Like luck in Dark Souls III, resistance is basically a useless stat, and should never be leveled up. The power of Giant Dad comes from using high-damage chaos and lightning weapons that don’t require much strength or dexterity. This enables you to spend all of your points on defensive stats, turning you into a tank that can fast-roll while wearing heavy armor. Conventional builds with high strength and dexterity cannot compete with the power of this kind of build outside of extremely high soul levels.

My personal twist on the original Giant Dad build is that I invest an additional 17 points into endurance in order to wear the giant’s helmet rather than the mask of the father. Because of that change, this is pretty much the tankiest build possible at soul level 125, while having the same damage and speed as most other builds. Note that leveling past level 125 will make it harder to match with people in multiplayer, as few people bother to level past 125.

You should be wearing Havel’s ring and the ring of favor and protection. Keep in mind that the ring of favor and protection will break if removed, so once you put it on, don’t take it off. In Dark Souls Remastered, Havel’s ring is incredibly potent and provides you with a 50% increase to your equipment load. (up from 15-19% in Dark Souls III) The ring of favor and protection increases your maximum health, stamina, and equip load by 20%. This stacks multiplicatively with Havel’s ring, netting you a staggering 80% increase to your maximum equip-load.

You should be wearing all 4 pieces of the Giant’s armor set. When fully upgraded to +5 with twinkling titanite, this armor set has the highest defense in the game. While it doesn’t provide quite as much poise as Havel’s armor set, wearing the giant’s armor gives you 91 poise, 10 more than you need to poise through the highest poise damage thing in the game that can be poised through, the great fireball pyromancy, though some attacks are guaranteed to stagger you regardless of poise. In Dark Souls Remastered, each heavy armor piece worn provides you with a small stamina regen penalty (-2 stamina regenerated per second on the chest armor and -1 stamina per second on each other armor piece. This is a small price to pay for superior protection, and the grass crest shield will more than compensate, as it provides 10 additional stamina regeneration per second.

With Havel’s ring, the ring of favor and protection, and at least 83 endurance, you will be able to wield the zweihander and grass crest shield, and wear the full giant’s armor set while being under 25% of your maximum equip-load. This will allow you to fast roll. Players who medium roll or slower stand no chance in pvp as your run speed is directly tied to your rolling speed, and a player that’s faster than you can easily zip around behind you and backstab you to death. Fast rolls give you 13 frames of invincibility while medium rolls only give you 11 i-frames. This is a very noticeable difference in-game.

You should have a grass crest shield +15 in your offhand to increase your stamina regeneration, which is important for a build that swings large weapons around. Unlike in Dark Souls III, in Dark Souls Remastered the grass crest shield +15 is an effective shield, and blocking and parrying with it when needed is encouraged. The reason I recommend having 24 strength is so you can occasionally wield the zweihander with one hand. Without high enough stats to wield the sword with one hand, riposts after parrying will deal almost no damage. It is not always possible to two-hand your weapon after parrying to perform a ripost. I find the convenience of being able to one-hand your weapon is easily worth the 8 extra levels of strength needed to do so.

In your second offhand slot should be the Ascended pyromancy flame +5. In Dark Souls Remastered, pyromancies don’t scale with intelligence or faith, so they are viable for everyone. The strongest pyromancy is probably black flame, and that should be attuned in your one attunement slot. Black flame deals physical damage, and it takes an enormous amount of stamina to block it with a shield. The Zweihander and black flame combo is very strong in pvp, as black flame can break people’s guard, opening them up for a counterattack with the zweihander.

The zweihander should be upgraded to a +5 lightning weapon. While the chaos zweihander (of Giant Dad fame) has an attack rating up to 27 points higher than the lightning zweihander, the damage of chaos weapons scales with your soft humanity, up to 10 humanity, and requires you to have 8 soft humanity to surpass the AR of the lightning infusion. Additionally, many enemies and players have high fire resistance, while next to nothing is resistant against lightning. (It’s pretty much just Ornstein). Unlike in Dark Souls III, weapons that deal a set amount of damage and don’t scale with your stats are overpowered, and can easily be used to beat the game and dominate in pvp.

Your pyromancy flame should be upgraded to +15, then ascended at Quelana and upgraded to +5 ascended. Remember that you can only see Quelana if you at least have a +10 pyromancy flame. Your grass crest shield should be upgraded to +15. Note that upgrading this shield from +14 to +15 only increases the damage it does when bashing with it and does not increase its blocking efficiency, so this can be left at +14 if you don’t want to spend a titanite slab on it, though you might as well.

Like the lothric knight sword in Dark Souls III, the zweihander is widely considered the strongest weapon in the game. The best weapons are always the longest weapon of the fastest weapon-type that is able to stagger people. In Dark Souls III, poise only activates during specific weapon animations, so a small straight sword will stagger people. In Dark Souls Remastered, where everyone has active poise, an ultra greatsword is required to reliably stagger players and enemies. 51 poise is required to resist a one-handed attack and 76 poise for a two-handed attack, few players have this much poise. Because of this mechanic, when you hit someone with a zweihander, it typically stun-locks them in place, enabling you to continue swinging until they die, or you run out of stamina, so avoid getting hit by one of these.

The ultra-greatsword confusingly named the “greatsword” is almost identical to the zweihander except it lacks the zweihander’s unique heavy attack that can knock enemies down, making the zweihander superior. The demon’s great machete is the only sword that deals higher damage than the zweihander, but its enormous weight and slow heavy attacks make it mostly irrelevant.

When using the Giant Dad build, this build being one variation, it is customary to perform the “well, what is it?” gesture after defeating someone in PVP. This gesture is acquired by talking to Oswald of Carim after the Bell Gargoyles boss fight. In the event that you’re playing on console and you’re sent hate-mail by someone you’ve recently defeated, in the spirit of good sportsmanship, you should reply to the hate-mail only with “The legend never dies!” as is traditional.