Welcome to the complete guide and walkthrough for one of the hardest games you’re ever likely to encounter – Dark Souls.
From the bonfire, head across the narrow bridge to the fortress proper. Before you step foot inside, take notice of the little raised tile right in front of you, in the middle of the room. Step on this and three very painful arrows will shoot out of the wall in front of you.
Walk around it move forward. You will piss off two snake-men, who will promptly give chase. Now run back and make sure to pass over that plate from before. If you do it right, the arrows will kill one of the snake-men chasing you.
Anyway, about the snake-men. These are the only enemies that will show up in the parts of Sen’s Fortress that you should ever be in. They come in two varieties: standard and lightning. You just met the standard kind, and soon, you’ll run into the other kind. The lightning variety will shoot lightning bolts at you, and have an unblocable grab. Anyway, I digress.
So, move into the next room and behold the true horror of Sen’s Fortress. Thats right. Your eyes do not decieve you. Pendulum axes.
Do not get hit by these axes as you will probably survive the hit itself, but either perish from the fall or the slew of titanite demons that inhabit the bottom of the fortress.
So, make your way across the bridge while avoiding the axes. Pro tip: there are faint bloodstains on the floor where the axes swing. Use this to tell where you are in relation to them.
Whatever. Once across, take a left and continue up the stairs to the next bridge, with yet more (surprise!) axes. You’ll notice the snake-man on the far side is of the better variety, and is not hesitant to use his abilities on you.
Equip the shield with the best lightning resistance that you can, as this will help. As for the axes, the first and last two are too close together to stand between, but between the two sets there is a small space. Use this, but make sure to time it so that the snake man’s lightning doesn’t push you back into the ones behind you.
Get through the axes, and slay the snake. Be wary of yet another switch on the ground, which will fire three more arrows from the wall ahead. Once that’s taken care of, loot the chest for some goodies.
Now continue forward, across the next bridge. Don’t worry about the sleeping snake-man, we will take care of him in a more entertaining fashion later. Now walk to the next doorway, but don’t go through. Depending on the timing, you may have seen a snake-man just get flatened by a boulder. Kill him the normal way or just let the boulders do their job.
Either way, once dead, the way you want to go is to the left. Wait for a boulder to pass, then sprint to the left, looking for another doorway on the left wall. Once safe, you may wait for another boulder to pass and kill the snake-man farther up, or just continue. If you kill the snake-man farther up, the room he is gaurding has some great loot.
So, once you’ve done whats needed, head into the next room, but be aware that there is a switch in the short hallway between them that will release three arrows behind you. Once thats done, move into the next room and kill the snake-man there.
Now continue to the next doorway, and if you can’t tell by looking, this is another boulder hallway. Wait for one to pass, then follow the boulder that passed you, running as though there were another boulder coming behind you. The exit is on the left wall once you round the bend.
Do not proceed into this room quite yet. Instead wait, watching the boulders as they fall into a pit. Eventually this pit will fill, and the next boulder will break the wall. Go into this new area and collect the loot (very good loot) from the corpse overhanging the edge.
Now you may proceed into the other room. Also, as tempting as the chest may be do not open it. Unless you want to die. In fact, you probably should get into the habit of hitting all chests before opening them, and if that doesn’t say what kind of game Dark Souls is, then nothing will.
So, if you hit the chest, you’ll notice it decides to stand up and kill you. Deny it this pleasure and slaughter it instead. It will drop a handy weapon for this area (the snake-men are weak to lightning).
Alrighty. Head to the small elevator at the far end of this room. Notice the bloodstains on this. That’s because there are spikes on the top of the shaft, so get on and don’t linger when it reaches the next level.
Once safe again (are you ever safe in here?), head up the stairs and to the right. Then, notice the boulder path to the right of you. No boulders will come down this way, so go ahead and climb up this way. Notice that there is a giant lever attached to the boulder thing. Move this so that it points in the opposite direction of the way you just came, thus sending boulders in that direction.
If you hadn’t guessed, this will hit the poor snake-man who was sleeping down there. Let a few boulders go down that way (three or four), then turn the mechanism some other direction and head down that way.
The wall should be broken. You can now go down here and look in the cages for two things. A soul, and Big Hat Logan, whom you can free, and he will teach high level sorcery back at Firelink.
Now head back to the boulder room, noting that you have to completely retrace your steps. Also, the boulders will once again be in the hallway, so be wary.
Once back in the control room, head through the small doorway (to the right if you are looking in the direction of the archway that leads outside), and be wary of the switch here. The arrows will come from the left this time.
Continue to find, yet again, more axes. Yay. These ones are too close together to stand between. Time it right, then balls it through all of them. Now this next bit is fun. To the left and the right on this level, are snake-men. The left one is guarding loot.
Once you take them out, head up the nearby stairs and kill the snake-man at the top. Then notice a brand new set of axes, with a lightning snake-man off to the left. I highly recommend you kill him via arrows or magic before attempting to navigate the axes.
Once dead, head across this very narrow bridge to the axes. The first two and last two are too close together once again, but there is enough space in between the pairs if you’re careful.
Once across, there are two switches, one to the left and right. Both trigger three arrows from the left wall.
When ready, head up the stairs and outside.
Head to the right and follow the path for a nice ring. I recommend you put it on. Make your way back to the door.
Now head left, and as quick as you can run up the stairs, and up the next set of stairs. Then note the broken section of wall a bit to the right. Go over there and drop down (not too fast or you’ll miss it) to find the only bonfire in the fortress.
Now head back outside, and once again left. This time, run up the first set, up the second set, up the third set, and then up a fourth set and forward to the corner to finally be safe.
If you go left at this little junction of bridges, you can actually make the jump and find a merchant. Either way, right is the way you need to go. So go right, and then at the next intersection, take another right (left is a dead end). New room. Don’t fall down the middle. Take the stairs on the far side, and then notice the deadly small bridge with corners.
For this bit, you’ll want to just man up and run the whole thing, without stopping, until you’re at the top of the stairs. Once that’s done, kill the hollow up there, and head into the room.
Now go to the right side and up the staircase to reach the roof where the golem was throwing the bombs at you. As horrible as it may sound, you have got to kill him before taking on the boss, or it will be nigh impossible to win.
His attacks are slow, so stay behind him and watch out for his stomps. He will sometimes go berserk, which deals heavy damage, so avoid at all costs. When he does this, he will slump over for a few minutes, tired. Use that time to deal some damage to him.
Once he’s dead, you may head down to the area after the third stair set, where you can now go down the long path and kill the armored knight. If you do so, then continue down the ladder, and then up the staircase to meet a very tough npc. Be careful with him, and when he falls, you get a good weapon and can then enter the tower for some loot.
Whenever you’re ready, head back to the fog wall and pass through to fight the boss.
Boss Fight: Iron Golem
The golem only has a few attacks. The standard axe swings, and a grab. The grab is what to watch out for. It will likely kill you instantly.
Strategy 1 – Difficulty: Intermediate
Let the golem come into the middle area and avoid his attacks. Try not to block as this has a high chance of sending you off the edge. Instead, stay really close to the beast and attack his legs when you can, but avoid his grab at all costs.
If you do enough damage to one leg, he will wobble. Just keep piling on the hurt and he will tumble to the ground, letting you wail on him for a large ammount of free damage.
Repeat till dead.
Strategy 2 – Difficulty: Intermediate
Right. This time, avoid his attacks, but maintain distance. Whenever he does an attack, make sure you’re out of range, and then throw a fireball or soul arrow.
The only thing to watch for is the axe swing which sends a force projectile your way. Otherwise I think this is the easier of the two strategies.
Once he falls, examine the ring of light that’s left over to be transported to Anor Londo.
Tags: Dark Souls
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