Before you even begin farming, you'll need to make sure that you have four items.


The easiest thing to find if you've unlocked the gate of the tower behind the Firelink Shrine. You find this by dropping down to where Picklepum is and going around the outside until you find an opening onto the rafters above the Bonfire. Follow the rafters to the back of the area and hit the wall, which will cause it to dissipate. Drop down, and the chest you find on the right will have the Ring.

You can also get the CSSR +3 in Ringed City as soon as you have access to it. After the first Angel you encounter, you'll run into a chapel with two knights. Of course, you'd exit out of the right-hand door but instead of running down to the next area, you need to make an immediate right, and follow this path up into the building (You'll be attacked from all sides by the enemies that spawn here). Clear through it until the end, then hit the wall on the left to open up a staircase. Follow this all the way up until you arrive at a spot where you'll find a spell. To the left you'll see a wooden platform - get onto it, follow it until the end and then drop down onto the next balcony. The Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +3 will be on the corpse hanging off of the ledge.


This is a little bit more difficult to get and requires you to have made further progress into the game. You find this laying on the ground in Smouldering Lake. If you haven't already taken care of the Ballistae and the Sandworm than this will be pretty difficult to pick up unless you're really quick on your reflexes.

Upgrading the Shield of Want does not give you more Souls.


One of the rarer items in the game. You get this off of the Serpent Summoners in Archdragon's Peak. The easiest one to farm is right across from the Great Belfry's bonfire. Just run up, stab it in the back, and go back to the bonfire. Rinse and repeat until it drops the staff.

Upgrading the Mendicant's Staff does not give you more Souls.


Absolutely rare headpiece that makes you look like a mimic, which improves item discovery, the amount of souls you earn, but also damages you every second. The SoA only drops off of Mimics, but there's a trick that can help you avoid fighting those bastards. First, you need to make sure you buy and stock up on a large quantity of Lloyd's Talisman (Undead Hunter's Charm as it's called in DS3). Then you look for a spot where there's a mimic - the easiest one to actually get to, if you can handle the mobs surrounding them, are to the left from Yhorm's Bonfire (To the left as you're leaving the room). There's two of them sitting next to one another. Clear the mobs and drop a Talisman right in between them. It'll basically put them to sleep, and eventually they'll start dropping the items they had - very rarely will they drop the SoA. Just be patient.

First, if you have these items, then you are at least far enough through the game that you can make good use of them for this run, in particular. Don't worry about the stat requirements - you're able to equip anything in the game even if you don't meet the stat requirements, you just aren't able to use them. You'll need to clear through the Grand Archives up to where you have to cross the bridge to fight the area boss. This unlocks a shortcut back down to the Grand Archives Bonfire as soon as you step onto that elevator. When you leave the building in preparation to cross the bridge, make an immediate left and climb the stairs, instead. As soon as you reach the top, you'll see three Winged Knights huddled at the top of the spire.

Before you start, make sure that you have the above four items equipped. It's generally recommended to equip the Symbol of Avarice as soon as you get up to this point to conserve health and Estus Flasks. If you use other weapons, instead, that's okay - if you're not worried about your weight load, you can equip the Mendicant's Staff into one of your other Right Hand slots. You'll just have to immediately switch over to it as soon as one of the Knights dies.

Then you just run up to right underneath the spire, which triggers the Knights to drop down. If you back off a little bit, but stay within the archway at the top of the stairs, only one of the Knights will aggro. Generally, this would be the axe-wielding Knight. Just lure him down to the lower level. These Knights are powerful, but they're slow and are susceptible to backstabs. Do what you can to get behind them, and just spam the Right Bumper / Left Click until they're taken down. Rinse and repeat for each Knight.