Dark Souls III How to not miss out on items during a playthrough

This guide will prevent you from missing out on any great gear in a playthrough. This walkthrough will take you step by step through the game so that you do not miss out on any items that you could have missed.

Introduction

Hello, I decided to create this guide to help players get all of the items that it's possible to get per playthrough. This will help to avoid those annoying moments where you realise that you just messed up an npc questline and can’t get that sweet armour set you wanted. This guide will walk you through the key steps to not miss out certain pieces of gear. You should have most items by the end of your first playthrough and all of the items once you are on New Game++. Follow the steps in this guide to get the most out of each playthrough in Dark Souls 3; hope it helps.

Cemetary of Ash

Greetings Ashen One, you start off in the Cemetery of Ash as usual. There's not a whole lot of info for me to provide during this first area. I just recommend that you explore all of the different paths so that you may collect all of the loot in the first zone and get some souls from the enemies that reside there. As you begin to find items, just horde the lot of them and don’t make the mistake I did by deleting any items that you deem worthless. Hang on to them as you have unlimited inventory space. Most items that are found on corpses are unique, so you should keep them anyway so that you won’t have to get them again on NG+.
Continue through the area until you get to the first boss. You may find him difficult if this is your first time playing a Dark Souls game (I sure did) but if you have played Dark Souls before, or you're just good at the game, then he shouldn’t be that much of a challenge. Good timing is all it takes.
Once the boss is dead, light the bonfire and continue on your journey. In this next part of the area, head upwards and towards the left. Near a tower you should see a hostile npc called the Sword Master. He will always be here so you can get his items whenever you are ready. Carry on into Firelink Shrine which will be your main hub for the game. Get acquainted with the npcs in the shrine, specifically Hawkwood the Deserter and Blacksmith Andre. Exhaust the dialogue of both of these characters to get the “Hurrah” gesture from Andre and the “Collapse” gesture from Hawkwood. These are most of the things which you need to do at Firelink at the moment.

High Wall of Lothric

Once you are finished in Firelink Shrine, the next area you will travel to is the High Wall of Lothric. There are a few things that you can do here at the moment, although you'll need to return for a couple of other things later in the game.
From the bonfire, go down the stairs and deal with the first group of enemies, then go into the building ahead of you and deal with anyone else in there. Once your foes have been slain, descend the ladder in the middle of the room. Go through the small area with the cell and out into the open. For this area, I would recommend sprinting up the staircase to the left, avoid the enemies and rush into the tower ahead of you as there is a dragon about to attack you. When you are past the door into the tower, you should be safe from the dragon’s fire breath which will deal with the hollow soldiers from where you just came. Proceed down the staircase and you will see a chest in the corner; beware though as it is actually a mimic. If you think you can kill it, the risk may be worth it as its loot (a Deep Battleaxe) deals extra damage to the boss of this area. Climb up the ladder when you are finished and deal with the enemies here. There is also a tougher enemy, the Lothric Knight but you can avoid him if you try. Head into the tower opposite from where you just came and head up the staircase to you right and light the “Tower on the Wall” bonfire. Once you have reached this bonfire return to Firelink Shrine to meet a new npc. You will find Ringfinger Leonhard leaning against Holy King Lothric’s Throne. Talk to him and he will give you five cracked red eye orbs. Go back to the Tower on the Wall bonfire to continue. Go down the steps and jump down one floor where there will be two enemies waiting for you. Once you have dealt with them, head outside. An enemy will climb the wall to your right and one may climb up the ladder in front of you. If he doesn’t, you can drop attack him.
When you climb down the ladder on to the roof, there will be some hollows praying. One of them is a Pus of Man, and you can kill him before he transforms. However, a better tactic is to run away like a little girl, as I did.
Past the Pus of Man is yet another ladder leading down. Go down and into the room on the right where there is a spear knight. Once he's dead, go through where he came from, but beware, an enemy will ambush you from the left and attempt to knock you off the railing. Continue down stairs to the workshop where there is an estus shard on an anvil along with three tough enemies and two dogs. If they are too tough for you run towards the small staircase leading down near the back of the room on the left to grab a cell key. From here, make your way back to the bonfire you were last at when you are ready. Similar to last time, go down one floor to where the two enemies were, but this time take the ladder into that room down another floor. Just proceed through the rooms fighting the enemies and don’t worry about getting lost as the path is very simple.
At the end, you will find a cell where you can use the key from earlier. Unlock it, talk to Greirat and send him back to Firelink Shrine. Just before fighting the boss, go to the room opposite where the Vordt of the Boreal Valley is and speak to a woman sitting on a chair called Emma. She will give you the “Way of the Blue” covenant.
That is most of what needs doing in the High Wall of Lothric for this guide, but you will need to come back again later. However, for now feel free to explore how you want, and beat the boss to progress to the next area.

Undead Settlement

Note: For this section, I recommend bringing a Homeward Bone and a few Embers.
Continue to the “Foot of the High Wall” bonfire, go down the steps towards a large gate and you will see a group of hollows waiting to get in. The gate will open and a few dogs will be released which will attack you and the hollows. However, don’t worry about this for the moment, as you will want to do a U-turn from the bottom of the steps towards a group of dead Pilgrims of Londor. Among these corpses will be Yoel of Londor who is alive; talk to him and bring him to Firelink Shrine. Go back towards the gate, kill any enemies and light the “Undead Settlement” bonfire.
Go forwards into the next house where there's about two enemies guarding the door, then proceed down the first flight of stairs onto the balcony. Hit the body hanging from the balcony and pick up its loot off the floor. The item you will get is Loretta’s Bone which is needed for Greirats questline. Drop from the balcony and head right along a bridge, then go along the path to the right of the house. Beware as you will be ambushed by some Thralls here. Kill them and go behind the house with the ladder by going left when in front of the ladder, then immediately right. There will be a friendly cage monster. Talk to him and go up the ladder by the house and drop down.
There will be a large hollow with a cage on its back, but it should be friendly so don’t attack it. Just press A/X when next to the cage and sneak up on it just to be sure. You need to have not started the Curse-Rotted Greatwood fight for the Cage Hollow to be friendly. A cutscene will play and afterwards, talk to Holy Knight Hodrick and exhaust his dialogue. This should allow you to join the Mound-Makers covenant. If for some strange reason it is hostile, then don't worry, this is just one method of joining the Mound-Makers covenant, whilst the other is by doing Sirris’ questline. Once you are finished talking, use a homeward bone to leave the area as there is no other way except quitting the main menu and pressing continue.
When you are back at the “Undead Settlement” bonfire, go back to the point where you took the path to the right with the Thrall ambush, but this time go through the house. There will be a few enemies to dispatch which will be no trouble, then on the other side of the house, take the bridge on your left. Once you have crossed the bridge, be careful of the three hollows throwing firebombs at you from a tower.
You should drop down to a ledge on your right after the bridge which will take you under the tower to the “Cliff Underside” bonfire. Go up some stairs and kill the hollows who were throwing firebombs at you, then continue forwards and you will find a cage with Cornyx of the Great Swamp. Accept his services to bring him back to Firelink Shrine, where he will now teach you pyromancies. Rest at the bonfire and travel back to the “Undead Settlement” bonfire before making your way over to where you found Loretta’s Bone on the balcony. Drop down and go towards the left into a house. There will be some caged monsters in this house so be careful. Make your way to the bottom of the house and head outside. Use an ember at this point because you have to be embered for npc invasions to occur and there will be one ahead shortly. Go along this straight path defeating the enemies and watch out for a guy who breaks a wall to your left near the start.
At the end of the path, head through the house in front of you and prepare to be invaded by Holy Knight Hodrick. Once he has been defeated, the “Dilapidated Bridge” bonfire will be to your right. From this bonfire, you will see a large hollow with a plank on his back; deal with him and progress.
When you go forward, you will see lots of giant arrows. These are from the giant at the top of the Undead Settlement tower. Currently he is hostile to enemies and yourself alike, but later you can make peace with him. Go forwards dodging arrows and instead of going into the house in front of you, go up the hill to the left and stay to the left along the side until you come across the Morticans Ashes. Go into the house that you passed a second ago where there will be a couple of enemies, but you can just skip them by going up the stairs. Go straight along a corridor to the end and head right. Do not start the Curse-Rotted Greatwood fight yet, which was on the left. Head onwards to the bridge that leads to the left, but instead go to the right into the sewers. There are a few small rats but there's a large one at the end. Climb up the ladder just after the large rat to unlock a shortcut to the “Dilapidated Bridge” bonfire, which will be useful later.
Go back through the sewer and across the bridge from earlier, then fight or run past the three large hollow enemies. You will then meet Eygon of Carim; chat with him if you wish. Carry on to the tower ahead of you and wait for the elevator to come up. You will meet Siegward of Caterina who you should chat to. Activate the elevator but immediately roll off and another elevator will come down from above. Ride this elevator to the top and make peace with the Giant shooting the arrows at you. Now he will only shoot enemies and not you. When taking the elevator back down, you will hear Siegward deep in thought. Roll off the elevator half way down and exit the tower, where you will find yourself in a rooftop with Siegward staring down at a Fire Demon. Talk to Siegward and he will help you fight the Fire Demon. Make sure that he does not die as he will not respawn and you will fail his questline. Place the value of his life above your own and don’t be afraid of dying as you can keep coming back. Make sure you are well prepared for this fight. After the Demon is slain, Siegward will have a toast with you. Talking to him will gain you the “toast” gesture and talk to him when he goes to sleep to gain the “sleep” gesture. He will also give you a Siegbrau; do not drink this! It is needed later and there is only two more ways to possibly get this. In the area where you fought the Fire Demon, shoot down all of the hanging corpses with items until you find one with a pale tongue. Now that you are finished with Siegward, go back to the tower and ride the elevator down this time, where there will be a tough enemy, an Outrider Knight. He will drop an Irithyll straight sword if you kill him but alternatively, you can run past him.
You will now be at the “Road of Sacrifices” bonfire. However, we are not quite done with the Undead Settlement. First, we need to visit some people in Firelink Shrine.
In Firelink shrine, find Cornyx to the right of Blacksmith Andre and talk to him twice, where you will get the “Welcome” gesture. He will now function as a vendor and teach you pyromancies but we will cover that in more detail later. Go to Greirat and give him Loretta’s Bone and speak to him, but then just leave him for a while. Hand in Morticans Ashes to the Shrine Handmaiden and buy the grave key off her for 1,500 souls. Talk to Leonhard and give him the Pale Tongue. In return, you will get the Lift Chamber Key and will be asked to slay a Darkwraith.
Go to the “Tower on the Wall” bonfire, go down the stairs, drop down a floor, then down the ladder and go to lift on your right. Kill the Darkwraith to receive a Red Eye Orb and return to Firelink Shrine. Speak to Leonhard to gain the “Applause” gesture. Now his questline will be left for a while until we have completed Sirris’ questline.
Go back to Greirat and if he is curled up on the floor then talk to him to receive the “Curl Up” gesture. If he isn’t, then reload Firelink Shrine once and try again. When he is curled up, reload Firelink Shrine another two times and then you should be able to talk to him. He will offer to scavenge the Undead Settlement for loot. Say yes and he will be gone next time you return to Firelink Shrine.

Undead Settlement Continued

Go ahead and find Yoel of Londor in Firelink Shrine, approach Andre, go left and make a left down the far hallway. Talk to him to receive the “Beckon” gesture then select "draw out true strength". This will give you the first of your Dark Sigils and a free level up. This is starting the “Usurpation of Fire” ending.
You now have the Hollow curse, but don’t worry, this doesn’t affect anything except your appearance. You now need to get your hollowing stat to 16 which you can view from the stats menu. Do this by dying 16 times, just from a height in Firelink Shrine. Once your hollowing is at 16, do the last 4 free level ups and you will have five Darksigns. Yoel will die soon and will be replaced by Yuria of Londor to continue the questline, but she still sells the same goods as Yoel. Now that this is done head back over to the “Dilapidated Bridge” bonfire, go into the sewers and unlock a gate with the grave key. Follow the quick directions to get to the next npc. Once the gate is unlocked go; forward, left, left, forwards, four skeleton enemies, right, forward, more skeletons, right, forward, left, up the ladder, (just leave the rats) left and you have now reached Irna of Carim. Talk to her until she leaves for Firelink Shrine. Now go off to kill the Curse-Rotted Greatwood. You will get the Transposing Kiln which can be given to Ludleth in Firelink to transfer boss souls into weapons, spells and rings. Once this is done, Greirat should be back at Firelink Shrine with new goods to sell.
This is basically everything done at the Undead Settlement for now, so go ahead and get any items that you want before going on to the next area; the Road of Sacrifices.

Road of Sacrifices: Part 1

Now that you are at the Road of Sacrifices, you will have to make your way down a path towards the next bonfire with new enemies along the way, such as Corvians. These gargoyle creatures are not much trouble until they sprout wings. When that happens, they will attack you relentlessly. They can be a problem if you are not well prepared and make sure that you do not get swarmed by them. The path will be fairly short to the next bonfire but there will be a hostile npc half way through, which you could deal with while you are here.
When you get to the “Halfway Fortress” bonfire, you will meet Anri of Astora and Horace the Hushed. Talk to Anri to start off his/her quest and receive the Blue Sentinels covenant. You may also speak to Horace but judging by his name, you will not get much of a response.
Continue down the path ahead of you and deal with any enemies that oppose you and use an Ember, as you will have an npc invasion momentarily. Head towards the entrance to Farron Keep but go to the right towards a Giant Crab and a tree with a ray of sunlight shining down on it. The tree should also be in deep water; you can tell this if you are slow rolling next to it. If you are in the correct spot and embered, then you should be invaded by Yellowfinger Heysel. Deal with Heysel to get her weapon, the Heysel Pick and the Xanthous Crown. There will be another encounter with Heysel that you will deal with later. Go back to the entrance to Farron Keep and kill the two npcs guarding the Keep. When they are dead, go down the ladder to the Farron Keep bonfire.
Note: From this point onwards, we will be going back and forth between Road of Sacrifices and Farron Keep a bit, so I am sectioning them both into a part 1 and a part 2 to try and make it less confusing.

Farron Keep: Part 1

From this bonfire, we are going to get to the second encounter with Yellowfinger Heysel. To do this, go outside and head to the right, then keep on heading along the right wall until you reach a group of Basilisks. Take them down and continue along the wall to you right where there is a few large rocks that you have to go around, but there isn’t much else blocking the way. Keep going along the wall and eventually you will come across another group of Basilisks and a cave. Make sure you are embered and Heysel will invade for a second time. Defeat her to continue.
Keep following the wall along the right and stop when you see a large stone gate. If you are standing directly in front of it and facing it, turn 180 degrees and you should see a stone ramp. Go up it to get to the “Keep Ruins” bonfire, and when you have rested here, go back out where you came and look to your right. You will see a large tower, not the one with slugs in it, just a plain large tower about 90 degrees to your right. Go up to it and walk to each side and you will find a ladder; follow this up to the top. It will take a while. Light the “Old Wolf of Farron” bonfire then head back outside, go round the right side of the building near the back, and you will see a stone arch. This is an invisible wall, however it looks pretty obvious and it will probably have a message next to it if you are playing online. Break it and pick up Dreamchaser’s Ashes off a corpse on the other side. You may talk to the Old Wolf of Farron to recieve the Watchdogs of Farron covenant. Travel back to Firelink Shrine and you will see a new npc here, talk to Sirris of the Sunless Realms. Hand the Dreamchaser’s Ashes to the Shrine Handmaid and talk to Sirris again. You will be rewarded with the “Darkmoon Loyalty” gesture. Now go down to where Yoel is, however you will find him dead. Just behind him, Yuria of Londor will be standing ready to continue the questline that you started with Yoel. Also, she will still sell the same goods as Yoel used to. Talk to her to gain the “Dignified Bow” gesture.

Road of Sacrifices: Part 2

Note: For this next part you will need Intelligence 10 to recruit an npc, or if you have a Scholars Ring from a previous run, then you only need to equip this and have Intelligence 5.
Travel over to the “Halfway Fortress” bonfire, but this time instead of going into Farron Keep, head over to the left. There will be some enemies but the distance is very short to the next location. When you have gone to the left for a little while, you should see a stone archway. Head through it and up the hill to your right will be the “Crucifixion Woods” bonfire. Keep going until you see a break in a stone wall. From here, there will be some enemies, but I will just give directions to the next npc, Orbeck of Vinhiem. Go up the stairs, across the bridge, take the first left across the bridge onto an elevated path. Follow this path and take the exit to your right then immediately left to meet Orbeck. If you have Intelligence 10, then you will be able to send him back to Firelink Shrine. Once that is done, drop down the ledge and go to the left to fight the Crystal Sage. This should be quite an easy fight. When you have killed the Sage and lit the bonfire, go to the left and up a small path towards the next bonfire. Along the way there will be two large Hollows and an Evangelist; just cross the bridge to get to the Cathedral of the Deep bonfire. Before heading up the staricase infront of you, take a left down a small path and grab the paladins ashes.

Cathedral of the Deep

Go forwards and up some steps to fight an npc, but beware of a second npc that will attack you from behind shortly after the first npc. Continue going forwards and fight or kill the group of enemies ahead of you. After the first group, you will see a single hollow that will light himself on fire, run at you and explode. He can simply be avoided by a roll or killed. Go straight past him and walk into the building in front of you to light the “Cleansing Chapel” bonfire. Here, you will notice two large doors. These are shortcuts which you will unlock later.
Note: For this next area, you will need to go down the correct path so that you do not mess up the next encounter. Whatever you do, don’t enter the Cathedral Rafters of Rosaria’s Bed Chamber until it is safe to or you may miss out on the opportunity to get a gesture until the next playthrough.
Exit the Cleansing Chapel and go up the steps just after where the group of praying Hollows are, then follow the path to the bottom. There will be a lot of weak enemies, however they continuously respawn, so it is advised to run past them and only kill the ones blocking your path. At the end of the path, take the bridge to your right and make your way up all of the stairs and kill any enemies that are blocking your progress.
When you reach a large door at the top of the stairs, head to the right and drop down the ledge. Navigate your way across the rooftops and refrain from going into any buildings that sprout off from the main path in case they lead to the Cathedral Rafters, which will mess up the npc encounter. When you get to a second large door that looks the same as the first, open it to enter the cathedral. Go over to your left and pass a few enemies until you get to an elevator. Take it down and follow a short path to unlock the first shortcut in the Cleansing Chapel. Rest at the bonfire if you need to restock on your Estus or health. Go back up the elevator and into a large open room, where a Giant will stand up and start attacking you. Run round to the doorway on the other side of the room. Go to the bottom of the staircase and take a left as soon as you are at the bottom. Go down these steps and to the end of the room where there will be a Cathedral Knight; kill him or go through into the room on the left of him. Use an ember here, and as you go into the middle of the room, you will be invaded by Longfinger Kirk. When he is slain, he will drop the Barbed Straight Sword and the Spiked Shield. You will get his armour set later.
Go to the other side of the room where Kirk invaded from and go right and through a doorway. Follow the path to get to the second shortcut, but do not drop down a ledge near a couple of items and a Reanimated Corpse, as this will take you back outside and you will have to get back to this point again. When the shortcut is unlocked, rest at the bonfire. You will also need to reload the area for the npc to appear, so travel somewhere else and back to the Cleansing Chapel. You may also want to quit to the main menu and press continue again just to be sure.
Go back to the large open area where the two Giants are. Head over towards the Giant that has not yet attacked you and head up the stairs that are next to him. Once you are up the stairs and facing the next room which has a couple of Cathedral Knights and some Devout of the Deep, run across to the other side of the room and go up an elevator. Pass through the next room and open up the large door for an additional shortcut, then head to the left and you will see Siegward. Talk to him and he will tell you of some treasure on the other side of this precariously narrow bridge. Seems perfectly legitimate. As you go to cross the bridge, it will be lowered; you have just been pranked by Trusty Patches wearing Siegward’s armour. You will then have to battle the Giants(unless you've already killed them).
Go back outside the Cathedral and onto the roof, then make your way towards the rafters. It is now safe to go here since you have done the encounter with Patches. Find the spot on the rafters where you can drop down to a slightly elevated platform. If your health is low, take an estus before doing this and take another after the first drop if your health is low enough that you think you might die by the next drop. Drop down yet again and you should be on safe ground. Open a large door near you to unlock “Rosaria’s Bed Chamber”, light the bonfire and have a rest. There should be a corpse in Rosaria’s Bed Chamber which will have the Armour of Thorns from Kirk, who you vanquished on the ground floor.
Exit the Bed Chamber and turn to your right, where you will see Patches with his normal armour on. Speak to him and he will apologise for tricking you, and he will have some unique armour if you killed the giants before he lowered the bridge. Say "You know who I am" and you will earn the “Prostration” gesture plus a rusted coin. Now he will become a merchant in this spot until he moves to Firelink Shrine, which is exactly what we are about to do now.
Go to Firelink and buy the Tower Key for 20,000 souls from the Shrine Handmaid, go up a staircase on the right hand side of the shrine and head outside near a large tree. Unlock the tower to your left and head up the stairs, then go up the elevator to get a Soul of a Fire Keeper and take the lift back down. Patches will have locked you in and left you to die. To escape, you must scale your way to the bottom of the tower buy jumping on the platforms next to where you are standing and make your way to the bottom. Go back inside Firelink and go just ahead of where you left to go outside near the tree. You will find Patches squatting in front of you. He will apologise yet again, this time for pranking you, but this time you will forgive him so that he will become a merchant in this spot. You will also get the “Patches Squat” gesture. Buy Siegward’s armour back off him for a total cost of 15,000 souls. You do not need to buy the shield but you can and are allowed to keep it for yourself.
Head back over to Cleansing Chapel and head outside and take an immediate right. You will see a well. Examine the well and you will discover that Siegward is trapped down there. Throw down his armour and he will be able to escape. You are rewarded with the “Rejoice” gesture. You should also go back inside and kill the Deacons of the Deep, but this fight isn’t that much trouble. After the Deacons are dead, go back to Firelink Shrine. Speak to Anri and Horace here and they will head over to the Catacombs of Carthus.

Farron Keep: Part 2

Before returning to Farron Keep, we will have to do a couple of things with Yuria. First, talk to her until you get a piece of dialogue about Orbeck. She will ask you to assassinate him as he may challenge your position as the Lord of Hollows. To confirm his death, you will have to hand Yuria his ashes. Killing him is not required, though later in the game, we will acquire his ashes after finishing his questline. Secondly, go over to Yuria in Firelink and punch her three times to agro her; do not kill her though, just head over and rest at the bonfire. This will temporarily put you on unfriendly terms with Yuria and you will have to stop her quest for a short while. You will need to pay absolution at the statue of Velka later to be friendly with Yuria once more. We need to be on bad terms with Yuria to get an npc invasion to occur for some unique loot that we could not get if we were on good terms with her. When we pay for absolution, everything will be back to normal, she will be the same as before we made her hostile.
Go back to the Farron Keep bonfire and find the spot where Yellowfinger Heysel's second invasion happened, where you will then be invaded by the Londor Pale Shade. Kill him, and to get his loot, you will need to do his second invasion which is in Irythyl, so do not pay for absolution just yet. Also, at this point it is vital to find one of the scrolls (the Crystal Scroll or the Golden Scroll) and give it to Orbeck in Firelink Shrine or he will permanently leave the Shrine after you defeat the Abyss Watchers. If he leaves, then you will miss out on a gesture, a sword, two rings and a lot of Sorceries. Giving him just a single scroll before the Abyss Watches will prevent him from leaving.
After giving Orbeck a scroll and if you haven’t already, find all three of the small Ritual Fires in Farron Keep and extinguish them. This will unlock the large stone gate that is in front of the Keep Ruins Bonfire. Go through the gate that will lead up to the Abyss Watchers fight, the first Lords of Cinder that you will have encountered (excluding Ludleth of Courland). Stay to the right and you will not aggro the Corvians. Wait a safe distance behind the two Darkwraiths and they will engage in combat with the Ghrus. They should deal with most of the Ghrus, but if they get ganked, they may die. Each scenario is good; if the Ghrus win, then you only have a small group of weak enemies left, and if the Darkwraiths win, then there is only two or one low health enemies left. Once the enemies are gone, use an Ember and use the summon sign for Black Hand Gotthard at the top of the staircase leading to the boss. Summoning him will grant you the “By My Sword” gesture. Beat the Abyss Watches to unlock the Catacombs of Carthus.
Once the Abyss Watchers are dead, speak to Hawkwood in Firelink Shrine to get the Farron Ring. After that, he will eventually leave the Shrine and leave his shield which you can get from speaking to Andre.

Catacombs of Carthus and Smouldering Lake

Note: For the next couple of steps, do not kill High Lord Wolnir just yet.
In this area, there is not a great deal of things to do, but there are still a couple of things which you must do before progressing. You will need to find Anri of Astora twice within the Catacombs. Also note that you must find Anri in the first location before he/she will appear in the second location.
To find the first spot, go into the room just before the staircase with the first rolling skeleton ball. Kill the two knights with large curved swords, stand in front of the stairs and when facing where the skeleton ball comes from, head through the entrance to your right, forwards and down a staircase. You will find Anri standing in a corner, where he/she will comment about how Horace has become separated from him/her. You will be asked if you have seen Horace. Reply with no and continue through the Catacombs.
Further into the Catacombs, you will come across a room with bones littered all over the floor and a rope bridge in the next room. Instead of crossing the bridge, go up the path to the right to come across Anri for a second time. However, you will not want to speak with her yet, you should instead drop down onto a path and go to the other side of the bridge. Cut the rope so that the bridge falls, so it can now be used as a ladder. Climb down and make your way to Smouldering Lake. Hug the wall to your right and follow it along to the first cave on your right. Be careful of the ballista which will shoot three large arrows towards you at a time. In the cave, you will find Horace the Hushed. He will be hostile and attack on sight so you must kill him.
Before leaving the Smouldering Lake, from where you entered, head left this time towards another boss fight. A large Carthus Worm will erupt out of the ground and attack you, so run past this while avoiding fire from the ballista. However, the ballista arrows can be used to kill the Carthus Worm. Once you reach a stone staircase, use an Ember and activate a summon sign to summon the Great Swamp Cuculus at the bottom of the staircase. Fight the boss with this npc at your side, but make sure they survive the fight; if they die, I recommend that you die alongside them, so that you may respawn and summon the npc again to keep them alive throughout the fight. One way to help the Swamp Cuculus live is by equipping the Skull Ring that you get from killing Ludleth. This will draw the boss’s attention towards you.
Once the Great Demon King has been slain and if the npc has survived the fight, you will be able to get some more loot. When you have some spare time, make your way over to the cage where you saved Cornyx in the Undead Settlement, where his armour set and the Spotted Whip will be left for you. Remember, the Great Swamp Cuculus must have survived the fight for these items to appear.
Now that you are done in Smouldering Lake, return to where Anri was in the Catacombs and talk to him/her. Tell him/her about finding Horace in Smouldering Lake and he/she will go off to find him and give you the Ring of the Evil Eye. Anri will later be found in the next area. Beat High Lord Wolnir and light the bonfire. You are now able to proceed to the next area.

Irithyll of the Boreal Valley

After the High Lord Wolnir fight, you will be very close to the “Irithyll of the Boreal Valley” bonfire. Go along the path and head over the bridge. As you walk a certain distance over the bridge, a Sulyvahn’s Beast will spawn behind you and attack. Once it is dead, go near the middle of the bridge and you will see a summon sign from Sirris. If it does not appear, go back to Firelink and straight back to the bridge. If that didn't work, light the “Central Irithyll” bonfire on the other side of the bridge and try again. Once it is working, use the summon sign and join Sirris’ world as a phantom and help her defeat Creighton the Wanderer. You will be returned to your world to continue your journey.
Go through the area until you reach the “Church of Yorshka” bonfire. Anri will also be standing in the church, so speak to him/her twice to receive the “Quiet Resolve” gesture. There is also an assassin in the corner disguised as a statue. Do not kill it though, as it will fail Yuria’s questline.
Go outside of the church by heading left of the bonfire, then take a right and follow it round to a giant grave. Use an ember here and you will be invaded by Creighton; he will use an obscuring ring to try and sneak up on you. Kill him to get his Dragonslayer Axe, and his armour will be on the bridge where you killed him with Sirris.
Go back to where you came out of the church and this time head left and down some stairs. Take a right and into a dark area where there will be lots of invisible enemies. Head outside, down some more stairs and left across the lake. Go into the building at the end to light the “Distant Manor” bonfire. Do not go through here yet. Instead, you should head back out onto the lake and take the first right into a sewer. There will be some enemies in here which you may kill or bypass. Head up some stairs into the next room. Siegward of Caterina will be in this room brewing some Estus Soup. Exhaust his dialogue and continue, and you may also get another Siegbrau if you accidently used the one from last time. Do not use this one, as there is only one more chance to get another. When you are finished with Siegward, head up the stairs to the corner of the room.
There will be a room with a Silver Knight in it. If you intend on fighting him, go into the next part of the room as another Silver Knight will snipe you with a bow from behind. When you are past the Silver Knight room, go left and up some stairs. If you are embered, when you go towards two dogs, you will be invaded by the Londor Pale Shade for a second time. Kill him and he will drop his Manikin Claws, but we will get his armour very soon. Go forwards and kill some more enemies; there will be invisible casters and dogs. Be careful that the dogs do not swarm you.
Just before the staircase that leads up to your right, go left and up an elevator. This will allow you to unlock a shortcut just in case you die in the next small area before the main shortcut. If not, you would have to go through this area again, which would just be a waste of time. When the shortcut is unlocked, go back down the elevator and up the staircase into a room full of enemies. Be careful of a hollow which will drop from a balcony and deal some damage to you, but the rest of the enemies are not too much of a problem. Exit this room, go up some stairs and kill a Pontiff Knight who is wielding a scythe. The boss room will be on your right when you are at the top of the stairs; go past it for now and kill another Pontiff Knight then head down more stairs. Open the shortcut and go back to the Church of Yorshka bonfire.
Travel to the Dilapidated Bridge bonfire and head to your right into the sewers. Head through the gate, which you unlocked with the Grave Key and take a right. Talk to the Statue of Velka and ask for absolution, which will cost your Soul Level times 1,000 souls. You are now friendly with Yuria of Londor again. Head back over to Firelink Shrine.
In Firelink, talk to Sirris to receive a Blessed Mail Breaker and the Silvercat Ring. Now go over to Greirat to send him to plunder Irithyll. Finally, head over to Yuria who should now be friendly. Talk to her for a piece of dialogue that is related to her quest, which is entirely optional. Before you leave, the Pale Shade set should also be found near Yuria, so pick it up. Go back to the Church of Yorshka and head through the shortcut that you opened to the Pontiff Sulyvahn boss fight, then go to the spot just before his fight and you will see three summon signs. One is for the Black Hand Gotthard (you already have his gesture), one for Anri of Astora, and the last one should be the Londor Pale Shade. Summon the Pale Shade to get the “Duel Bow” gesture.
The boss fight can be pretty tough on your own, as he is very aggressive. Just having a second person can make a big difference, or just solo the fight if you can. Since you have killed a boss after sending Greirat out scavenging, he will be back at Firelink Shrine already. He would have normally have died on this trip but he has been saved by Siegward since he was in the area. Now we will be leaving Irithyll for a bit while we sort out a few things in the Irithyll Dungeon and Profaned Capital.
Go to the Distant Manor bonfire and take the staircase going down into a room, where you can just drop down the ledge and run out of the room to avoid most of the enemies if you do not wish to fight them. Use an ember and you will be invaded by Alva, Seeker of the Spurned by the entrance to the “Irithyll Dungeon” bonfire. He will most likely fall of the cliff and die but if he doesn’t for you, kill him to receive his sword, Murakumo. His armour will be found later in the Irithyll Dungeon.

Irithyll Dungeon and Profaned Capital

Before going to the Irithyll Dungeon, head back to Firelink and speak to Greirat. He will ask to go out scavenging in Lothric Castle, but sadly there is no way to save him. However, when he dies, you may take his ashes and give them to the Handmaid so she will sell some more goods. The new items that you will get from Greirat’s ashes are: 6 more Ember, 6 Alluring Skulls, unlimited Rime-Blue Moss Clumps, Lightning Urns, Splintering Bolts and Exploding bolts. If you are not interested in his new stock and wish to keep him alive, then you do not need to send him scavenging if you do not want to. If you do, then his ashes will be on his body which is on the roof of the Grand Archives.
In these next areas there will be three keys that you will need to progress. The first two will be found in the Irithyll Dungeon and are the only things that you need to worry about in this area. The last key will be found in The Profaned Capital. Run forward from the bonfire and take a right. You will come across a new enemy, the Jailer. These enemies will temporarily lower your health while you are in their line of sight after their lantern turns red. If their first attack lands, roll as they will follow up with a second attack straight after which will raise your equip load and lower you health to 1. The first attack will slow you so it's difficult to land an attack if you have been hit, and with your lowered health, the second attack will most likely kill you.
When you have killed the first Jailer, head right along the walkway and dodge a hollow which will run out of his cell on the right and attempt to push you off the walkway. He will usually get you if you stop to pick up the item. Carry on and kill the Jailer to your left and cross the bridge. To your left, there will be a gate that is locked from the other side. To unlock this shortcut, head into the cell next to it and head through the break in the wall where you will arrive on the other side of the gate. Unlock the gate, turn around and head to the end of the walkway. On your right there will be an open cell with the Jailbreaker’s Key inside of it. Now head back across the bridge and go left, and at the end of the walkway behind some barrels is another shortcut that you can unlock with your new key. This will save a lot of time so that you will not have to keep going through this area. Go through the shortcut that you just unlocked and jump down off the ledge and towards your right. Kill a few enemies and go into the first room. There will be a Mimic in here. Go into the next room and go to the right and drop through a hole.
You will fall right next to a sleeping Giant; he won’t wake unless you hit him. Walk past him and into a sewer tunnel with some rats, then head to the end and unlock the chest on your right which contains the Old Cell Key. Start heading back and a group of Basilisks will attack you. Once they are defeated, head through a tunnel on your left. Fight past two Giant Rats and proceed to a room full of Jailers. Kill all of the Jailers in this room and loot the corpses in here, where one of them will have the Alva armour set. This will only be here if you defeated Alva earlier. Proceed through this room and go across a bridge, where you will be attacked by a Gargoyle. Once you have crossed this bridge, climb up the ladder which has the “Profaned Capital” bonfire at the top.
Once you have lit the bonfire, head back down the ladder and drop down a spot where there is a break in the wall. Go left and across a wooden bridge. A Gargoyle will spawn but you may as well just run past him. Go down this hallway and jump over the gap in the floor. At the end of the hallway turn right. There will be a large toxic area with enemies in it and a church in front of you. Jump down and run towards the ladder at the side of the church, climb to the top and head round to the other side where there will be some steps. Climb these straight to the top and head left, then follow this short path to the end where you will find the Jailers Key. Go back the way you came, but two Jailers will appear behind you, so kill them. When you head down the stairs, go on to the roof of the church. Kill the sorcerer npc and get Logan’s Scroll off of him. When you are on the roof look to your right, where you will see a window arch that you can jump through. Jump across and head up the stairs. Unlock the cell with the Old Cell Key and you will see Siegward of Caterina inside. Exhaust his dialogue to continue his questline and be rewarded with a Titanite Slab. We will be seeing him later.
Head to the Profaned Capital bonfire and go back to the room where you found Alva’s armour and lots of Jailers. Head left and to the cell at the end on the left, and open it to find a friendly npc called Karla. Make sure that you kill all of the jailers before speaking to Karla because if you die whilst chatting to her, she will despawn. Once you have dealt with the Jailers, speak to Karla and bring her back to Firelink shrine, as she will be useful for Irna of Carim’s questline. Return to the Profaned Capital bonfire to fight the next Lord of Cinder.
Go down the ladder in front of the bonfire and head across the bridge. Watch out for a Gargoyle and fireballs that are being shot at you. Once across the bridge, go through the doorway and go right, then take the first left and use an ember. Before going through the fog door, use an Ember, and when you pass through the fog a cutscene will trigger.
Siegward will speak to Yhorm the Giant telling him that he is here to keep his promise. The fight with Yhorm is very easy with Siegward helping, but do not let him take all of the damage or he may die. Head to Yhorm’s throne and pick up his Storm Ruler sword or use your own if you have one from another playthrough. Two hand the sword and charge it up with L2/LT for about 4 seconds and then attack Yhorm with your charged attack. A few of these attacks alongside Siegward should end Yhorm swiftly. Have one last toast with Siegward. This is your final chance to get the gestures and Siegbrau.
Now head up the bonfire and reload the area. When you come back, he will have left his sword and shield along with his armour set by the door on the other side of the room. We are now done in this area so now we can finish off the last bit of Irithyll of the Boreal Valley and Anor Londo.

Irithyll of the Boreal Valley (last bit) and Anor Londo

From the Pontiff Sulyvahn bonfire, head outside and left up some stairs. Go along this pathway and keep moving as some Devout of the Deep will be shooting fireballs at you. They won’t be able to hit you if you keep moving. There will also be two Giants that will attack you if you get too close. Get to the end and kill the two Drang npcs to progress up the stairs. Go into the room ahead of you and up the stairs onto the rooftops, but watch out for Silver Knights which are armed with Dragonslayer Greatbows. These can knock you off the roof so be sure to dodge their arrows. Go through the rooftop area until you get to the first building which is just next to the revolving staircase that leads to Anor Londo; instead go right and hit the statue of Gwyn. It is an illusionary wall that leads into the Darkmoon Tomb.
Enter here and talk to the Pilgrim of Londor, and you will be given a sword to complete a ceremony with Anri. Then, go to the end of the Tomb and do the ceremony, which will end Anri’s questline. On the way out, you can kill the Pilgrim for the Chameleon miracle, which is the only npc that drops this item. Alternatively reload the area to find the Pilgrim dead and get Chameleon anyway. When you reload this area, you can also get Anri’s Straight Sword, but don’t worry about ending Anri’s questline as the Straight Sword was the only other item that you get from his/her quest.
Now head out of the Tomb and go to the revolving staircase that leads into Anor Londo. Head up the staircase, pull a lever and when you have reached the top, light the bonfire. Head to the top of the steps where you will have to fight two or three Silver Knights, then go left and open a door to where you will find the corpse of the Giant Blacksmith. Go up the stairs and head into the main area of the building. You can open the main door by using the revolving switch which is just next to the door. Watch out for the Deep Accursed that will drop down from the roof, killing it will earn you the ring “Aldrich's Ruby”.
Head to the other side of the building and go through the fog door to defeat Aldrich, Devourer of Gods, who will be your 3rd Lord of Cinder. After this fight, a cutscene will play and you will be teleported to the High Wall of Lothric in the room where you found Emma. She will die and you will get the Basin of Vows. Go to the Alter behind her to trigger the Dancer of the Boreal Valley boss fight. When you have beat this boss, light the bonfire and when you are ready, you may climb the ladder to reach Lothric Castle.

Lothric Castle, Untended Graves and Grand Archives

Before heading into the castle, you will want to do the next step in Sirris’ questline.
Head over to the Undead Settlement and go to the spot where you entered the Curse-Rotted Greatwood boss arena. You will find a summon sign where you can join Sirris’ world and help her defeat Holy Knight Hodrick. When he is dead, his armour can be looted in the Pit of Hollows. Sirris will thank you and if you speak to her in Firelink Shrine, she will swear fealty to you. Accept and she will be able to help you in a future fight.
You may now go up the ladder to Lothric Castle, but instead of going through this area, we will first deal with another boss. Go to the left, kill a Cathedral Knight and head down an elevator. Go through the Consumed Kings Garden and be careful of the Pus of Man which inhabits this area. Once you get to the other side of the garden and up some stone stairs, the Pus of Man should stop chasing you if you did not choose to kill them. This is also the location for Hawkwood the Deserters summon sign if you are in ember form. Go past the last couple of Cathedral Knights and fight Oceiros, the Consumed King. When he is dead, light a bonfire and go to the other side of his boss room. Head through the door and get the “Path of the Dragon” gesture off of a corpse. This will allow you to get to Archdragon Peak by using this gesture by the spot where you find the Dragon Torso Stone in Irithyll Dungeon. Archdragon Peak won’t be covered that much as there are no items that you can miss there. Carry on forward until you come across a chest. Open this and take the item inside but make sure to hit the invisible wall behind it to access the “Untended Graves”.
This area is a darker and tougher version of the Cemetery of Ash. Explore for some new items but beware of the more difficult enemies, and use an Ember and go to the point where you find the first bonfire. This time, there is no bonfire and instead you will be invaded by Daughter of Crystal, Kriemhild. You will get some souls and you will meet the human version of her later in Lothric Castle, but why not just defeat the phantom anyway?
Go to where you fought Ludex Gundyr and fight the harder version, Champion Gundyr. Once he is dead, go forwards and past some Black Knights into the Dark Firelink Shrine. Loot the Shrine to find the following items: Coiled Sword Fragment, Blacksmith Hammer, Hollow Ashes and the Eyes of a Firekeeper behind an illusionary wall. This last item is needed for one of the game endings. Also while in the Shrine, talk to the Handmaid and she will have a different stock. Buy the Priestess Ring and Wolf Knight Set off of her if you want. You can loot and explore the rest of the Untended Graves before returning to the Dancer of the Boreal Valley bonfire to progress through Lothric Castle. If you want the help of Eygon of Carim for your next boss fight, make sure you have exhausted his dialogue where you first found him and speak to him again in Firelink Shrine. He will be ready for the next boss fight.
Go through Lothric Castle however you like up until the Dragonslayer Armour boss fight. You may loot items and explore as much as you want before this fight. For the Dragonslayer Armour fight, you can summon Sirris, whose sign will be at the bottom of the steps and Eygon, whose sign will be in the Chappell to the right of the boss. After this boss, you will be able to access the Grand Archives. The first enemy that you will encounter in the Grand Archives will probably be the Crystal Sage mini-boss, but if he is not killed quickly enough, he will teleport to another two locations. Take him down as soon as you can as exploring this area will be a lot easier without the Sage sniping you with missiles. When it has been defeated, you can now go off to complete Orbeck of Vinhiem’s quest as well as Irna of Carim’s Questline.
These quests will involve finding Spell Tombs and Scrolls for these two people. You can also find the other Tombs that you can give to Karla and Cornyx, which have nothing to do with Irna or Orbeck’s questline, but it will allow you to get lots of spells that you could have missed out on if you didn’t get the Spell Tombs. I will leave a link to a helpful video showing where all of these items are.

You will want to give Cornyx the Great Swamp Pyromancy Tome, the Carthus Pyromancy Tome and the Izalith Pyromancy Tome. Karla will have the Quelana Pyromancy Tome and the Grave Warden Pyromancy Tome. She will also accept the Londor Braille Divine Tome and the Deep Braille Divine Tome if you ask her twice as she is reluctant since these are not pyromancies. However, they are Dark Miracles and she does teach dark magic, so ask twice to give her these spell tombs. Doing this will give Irna a good ending as she will be taken away be Eygon if you buy her Dark Miracles, so this is why we gave them to Karla. Now just give Irna the Braille Divine Tome of Lothric and the Braille Divine Tome of Carim and buy all of her miracles. She will now become a Firekeeper in the tower where you fought the Blade Master.
Now we just need to do Orbeck’s quest. Give him the Golden Scroll and the Sage’s Scroll; one of these you will have given him before the Abyss Watchers boss fight. Then hand him the Logan’s Scroll and the Crystal Scroll . Go into his inventory and purchase the following spells; Farron Flashsword, Pestilent Mercury, Aural Decoy and Spook. Talk to him to receive the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and the “Silent Ally” gesture. If he did not give you these items, try buying the spell Hidden Body. Then continue to buy all of the rest of his spells and talk to him again. He will acknowledge you as a friend and a well-trained sorcerer and will proceed to leave the shrine.
Finally, go back to the Grand Archives and head through the area. You may pick up any loot or kill any enemies along the way. When you reach an area where is a trio of npcs, I would recommend running past them while dodging attacks and as soon as you enter the next room, immediately go right down an elevator. This unlocks a shortcut right next to the Grand Archives bonfire. You may now fight the three without fear of dying and having to come all the way back. When they are dead, head up the large stone step to reach the boss fight. Alternatively, you can avoid the three npcs if you have just came up from the elevator, or just walk up the steps and leave them alone. You are able to summon Sirris to the fight as well as Orbeck. Sirris’ sign is slightly left next to the fog door and Orbeck’s sign is to the left, at the top of the stairs before the double doors to the fog door. Beat the boss to receive your last Cinders of a Lord. Proceed back to Firelink Shrine for the final part of the game.

Kiln of the First Flame

Note: After you have beaten the last boss, do not choose to go into New Game+ just yet.
Now you are ready to do the final part of the game. Place the Cinders of a Lord on their thrones and talk to the Firekeeper to trigger a cutscene. You will be transported to a place that looks like a darker version of Firelink Shrine. Take the path outside and activate the bonfire to proceed to the First Flame. Once you are here, light the bonfire and walk up the pathway towards the final boss. You are able to summon Yuria for this fight along with the Londor Pale Shade. If Yuria survives you will be able to get her armour set and blade where she stood in Firelink Shrine, but remember this is only if she survives, so you may miss out on getting it. It is probably best not to summon her, follow my advice in the next section for an easier way to get those items.
Now go on to fight the boss. Defeat the boss in his first stage. He will then cause an explosion of fire and switch into his second stage. The song will change to Gwyn’s theme song from Dark Souls 1 and his attacks will mirror that of Gwyn’s. Finish him and head over to the First Flame. Activate it and you will gain an achievement.
You have just completed the Lord of Hollows ending, which is the most complicated of the four. Sit back and enjoy the cutscene; your hard work has got you through to the end of the game...

New Game+ Checklist

Congratulations, you’ve finished the main story, but there are still things for you to do. First you will want to do a few things in Firelink Shrine.
Go over to Yuria and hand her Orbeck’s Ashes and she will give you the Morion Blade. Then go outside through the main entrance and go down the side path to your left, which is right on the edge of the cliff. You will find Holy Knight Hodrick’s grave here which contains his Sunset Shield. Also, Sirris’ body will be lying by this grave as she said she would be able to die in peace. Pick up her Sunless Talisman from her corpse.
Something else that you may wish to do is find all of the various Umbral Ashes and Coals to give to Andre and The Shrine Handmaid to maximise their services. Then go ahead and buy all of the unique items from the Shrine Handmaid and other npc vendors shops. There is also another questline that we can now finish; Ringfinger Leonhard’s quest. The next step in Leonhard’s quest is to offer one pale tongue to Rosaria, then speak to him by the entrance to Rosaria’s Chambers and exhaust his dialogue. If he is not here, reload the area. After speaking to him, reload the area (preferably by going to the Profaned Capital and back) and you will find Rosaria dead. Pick up the Black Eye Orb by her corpse. Go to Gwynevere's bed chamber, which is above the Aldrich, Devourer of Gods bonfire. Use the Black Eye Orb here to invade Leonard’s world. Kill him to get his Silver Mask, Crescent Moon Sword and the Soul of Rosaria. You can also buy his armour set from the Shrine Handmaid now. Don’t bother giving Rosaria’s Soul back to revive her, as she is exactly the same dead and her Soul can be used to get a good spell.
Try getting all of the covenant items, but sometimes it can be tedious getting these so don’t do them all in one big bulk, instead take your time. How far you are in a covenant also carries over into NG+, which means that you don’t have to get all of the items in one playthrough. However, it also means that you can only get one of the covenant items per character unless you are given one, so don’t delete those covenant items. Look for all of the Titanite Slabs, as they can fully upgrade items and there is only eight per playthrough. If you want all of the items like me, you can go out and collect every unique item from its place where it is found in the world and farm enemies for items. It is easier to do this at the end of a playthrough as you have access to all area and enemies.
If you haven’t already, you should probably get all of the Estus Shards and Undead Bone Shards to get a fully upgraded Estus Flask; this will help you greatly. Go and explore Archdragon Peak and Smouldering Lake. These are two optional areas that some people will miss out on, but there is lots of good stuff to find in these areas. In Archdragon peak, there is three good things that you might miss; if you kill the Drakeblood Knight that is summoned by the Dragonkin Mausoleum bonfire, his armour is found where you got the Path of the Dragon gesture. Also, if you kill the true Havel that is on a roof near a dead Dragon, his armour set will appear near the Stray Demon in Farron Keep. Another well hidden thing is if you go from the Great Belfry bonfire, head outside and keep going left towards the edge of the map and use Path of the Dragon by an alter. Also use this with the Alter by the Dragonkin Mausoleum bonfire and you will get the Twinkling Dragon Torso Stone, and by the second mentioned alter, you will get the calamity ring.
Now go back to Firelink and talk to Andre. He will tell you that Hawkwood has asked for a duel to get your Twinkling Dragon Torso Stone, so go to the Abyss Watchers bonfire for a fight for the Twinkling Dragon Head Stone. If you want an achievement, try and find all of the rings and then the ones in NG+ and NG++ for the Master of Rings achievement (don’t go into NG+ just yet).
Go to Ludleth of Courland and transpose all of those Boss Souls for some great gear of your choice, while in Firelink, go outside to the tower and find the Pickle Pee, Pump-a-Rum Crow who will trade items with you. Here, you can trade items for the Armour of the Sun set and the shield, all of the Wooden Carvings that speak words such as Hello, Thank you etc. You can also get the Lucatiel Mask, Porcine Shield and the last Titanite Slab. You should be able to get all of these except the Porcine Shield, which requires an Undead Bone Shard which you may have already used to upgrade your Estus Flask. Remember to hand in your Coiled Sword Fragment for that last Titanite Slab, as you will get it back next playthrough. I will leave a chart of the Trades that you can do with the Crow.
The last thing that you will want to do on a playthrough is kill certain npcs for unique items. The reason this is the last thing you should do before NG+ is because you won’t be able to use their services after you have killed them, but don’t worry as they will respawn on NG+. You don’t even need to pay for absolution as you sin is reset on NG+. The npcs that you should kill are: The Giant of the Undead Settlement for the Hawk Ring (although he will die naturally if you collect the 6 Young White Branches, 2 beside each white birch, as well as the Saint-Tree Bellvine and the Crown of Dusk), Yorshka for Yorshka’s Chime, pick up Ludleth’s Skull Ring when he dies, and Yuria of Londor, she will drop Darkdrift (her sword) and her Ashes. This allows her armour to be brought from the Shrine Handmaid. Killing any other npcs will yield no items and it is just pointless.

New Game+ and beyond

When you are happy that you have got every item that you want, you are ready to start journey two. Make sure you stock up on any items that you may need (Homeward Bones, Embers, Arrows etc.) and check through your items just to be sure you have what you need. On this second journey, you can get any items that you missed on your first playthrough if you made any mistakes. You may also try and do the other two endings for two more achievements. Also, in this run when you are following the steps in the Cathedral of the Deep, when I say that you can go to Rosaria’s Bed Chamber, go in and offer her a pale tongue. This will fail Sirris’ questline but you will be able to summon Yellowfinger Heysel for the Abyss Watchers boss fight, with the sign by the tower outside the Keep Ruins bonfire. This will get you the “Proper Bow” gesture. I think the only way to get this on your first run without failing Sirris’ questline is by rushing to the Cathedral after meeting Anri for the first time and not going to Firelink to meet Sirris until you have offered a Pale Tongue.
You can also get another Undead Bone Shard to trade for the Porcine Shield with the crow. Collect the upgraded versions of the rings on NG+ and NG++. After NG++, you should have all of the items and all three endings. So now, you can just play the game and enjoy it from this point onwards.

End Note

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my guide; I put lots of time and effort into this so I hope that it helps you out. This is my first guide that I have made so it may not be as professional or as well laid out as some of the other guides but I did my best and I hope that it is good enough. If any of the info is wrong let me know in the comments and I’ll work on correcting it. Praise the Sun!

[ruoho.]

very cool very nice

[基洛夫空艇空投哥斯拉]

nice

[Mango]

this is truly one of the greatest dark souls 3 help guides to ever exist on steam

[michal]

nice guide

[FruityNinja]

No worries man :)

[Dre]

im starting the game now, thanks for this guide!

[FruityNinja]

Alright, thanks for mentioning this. Glad the guide helped you

[Red Panda]

Thanks for making this it helped me a lot. Since I use your guide on NG+ there's a thing that I want to mention because of it ruined the entire quest and even some quest that linked to it. Don't ever buy tower key with handmaid before meeting Patches in the cathedral. I done it once, patches suspossed to appear in the cathedral but instead it skip and appear shrine where he locked you in the tower. This little thing ruined Siegward and Greirat quest. I hope you read this and sorry if my english is bad.

[Valentine's Ezelith]

As a soon starter and gear comp1337ionist, I appreciate this guide. Kudos!

[FruityNinja]

Thanks for letting me know, I'll get round to adding it if I can.